Prophets & Kings (Part 1)

So this evening we're going to be doing a study on the kings and the prophets or the prophets and the kings

So basically this is about When the prophets lived and how they lined up with the kings of Israel and Judah So some people yeah, they know about Elijah and Isaiah But what about King Ahab and King Uzziah?

When did this prophet live in relation to this king? Were there any connections?

So this is a an interesting study. I think you remember Israel's first king.

Who is that? Saul so Saul was number one David came after him and then

Solomon. Those were really like the glory days of Israel but because Solomon's foreign wives the

Bible says led his heart away from the Lord into idolatry God when

Solomon died after he died his son Rehoboam took the throne Because of his idolatry

God judged the kingdom and Israel was split into two so there was the northern kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah from that point on once the kingdom was divided things just went downhill

So the glory days were David and Solomon once the kingdom was divided things went bad

Judah had a few bright spots. There were some good kings in Judah overall though the people and most of the kings were not really faithful to God Israel's kings were just flat -out

Wicked so as soon as things continued to get worse That's when the era of the prophets began

So there's always been prophets before this and after this but we're talking about this era of the prophets

Where things were getting so bad and Israel and Judah God sent prophets to warn the people

Into warn the kings that either you you better repent or else

Repent or else judgment would come so before we get into this Let's first look at the role of a prophet if you had to define what a prophet is.

What would you say? How would you define that? Okay a messenger from God a prophet is someone yeah that they speak for God They receive the prophets certainly the biblical prophets

They received a direct message from God and they were to communicate that to whoever

God told them to tell So let's turn to Matthew chapter 23 And again, we'll be looking at the

Old Testament. I just want to establish a few things So what kind of things would the prophets say if a prophet had to speak to a king

What kind of things would he tell him? What was it a positive message usually usually?

No, no, it was pretty Pretty negative. So usually the prophets would

Would have a warning to the Kings Jesus said that the greatest prophet was

John the Baptist, of course he came later and John did preach against a king didn't he?

Or he preached against Herod and Herod Why did John preach against Herod because Herod was guilty of adultery taking his brother's wife to be his own

So I was thinking about this John the Baptist preached against Herod The prophets preached against the

Kings but in our day and age Famous preachers usually play golf with the president not preach against them.

So things have changed Not so with God's prophets. They were not interested in winning any popularity contests

Matter of fact, they were some of the most unpopular people in the nation So the the prophets were despised generally speaking

Jesus Though about the false saying about the false prophets the false prophets were loved

Luke 6 26 Jesus said woe unto you when all men speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets

So the false prophets were loved because they told people what they wanted to hear the true prophets though were despised

Persecuted and killed look at what Jesus says in Matthew 23 starting in verse 29

Speaking to the religious leaders of Israel. He says woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because you build the tombs of the prophets and Adorn the monuments of the righteous and say that if we had lived in the days of our fathers

We would have not been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets

Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets so we see here according to Jesus the prophets were many of them at least were were killed and the

Pharisees said well, you know if we live back then we would have loved the prophets We we wouldn't have been one of those people that through Jeremiah in the well

We wouldn't have been happy about that we would have stood with the prophets, but is that true?

Jesus saying no you would have been right there along with everyone else hating them wanting to kill them Of course, what did they do with the greatest prophet of all that was standing right in front of them

Jesus Christ. They killed him, too So while the prophets

While the prophets were alive They preached against the sins of the nation. They were hated

But you know how that goes after some time has passed maybe a couple hundred years

The new generation would laud the prophets as just these great men of God But back in the day people did not love them at all.

And I think that's true today to a large degree There's there's not a Christian that I know who would say we hate

Ezekiel. We can't stand Jeremiah We'd see no Christian would ever say that but there are a lot of Christians today who really don't like the preachers

Who are alive right now? You know the preachers that are negative the preachers that maybe

Seem a little harsh. Have you ever read the prophets? Okay, some of the things they said were pretty rough

But so there's a lot of Christians today who are all down on the the preachers that are preaching hellfire and brimstone

Their message is negative. They can't stand those men, but we love the prophets

Yeah Chances are if that's your attitude Towards a lot of preachers today that are preaching like that you would have felt the same way about the biblical prophets

Why because there's nothing new under the Sun so All of that kind of sets up who the prophets were and the situation that they faced

They were men who spoke for God and their message Generally speaking was negative a message of judgment either you need to repent the nation needs to repent or Else but at the same time

We don't want to leave this out. They did have a positive message through through it all there was sort of that silver lining

Of the gospel because the prophets also preached about who? Yeah Christ they they they spoke of Christ and and the restoration of Israel So there was a little

Positive message there as well, but overall it was more or less negative. Okay, any questions or comments up until this point?

Is do you think that's a fair assessment of of the prophets? All right.

So who are the men that we're talking about? So in this era of the prophets we think of the law right there's

Moses in the law That was early on in Israel's history the prophets This was later in their history and then in the middle was

David and Solomon that sort of the pinnacle Okay, so the prophets were talking about in relation to the kings of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah The men were talking about number one.

We'll start with the oldest Men like who Elijah Elijah is kind of like the picture of the

Old Testament Prophet interesting about Elijah. He never wrote a book

Most of the men we're gonna look at Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel Jonah Jose like all these men we remember them because they have books in the

Bible Elijah never wrote a book and neither did the man who? Took over after him and who is that?

So you could argue that the two greatest prophets of Old Testament Israel Elijah and Elisha I think they probably were the greatest they never wrote a book so we're gonna start with them and then go to the ones who wrote so most of you probably are aware that the

Prophets are broken down into two categories. There are the what?

Major Prophets and the minor prophets and you know what that means, right that the major prophets were really important godly men in the minor

Prophets like we don't care, but they're just minor who cares what they said. Is that is that the definition of major versus minor?

No, the major prophets they're called that Of course, that's a designation created by theologians.

The Bible doesn't say that But we call them major or minor Because of the length in the scope of their prophecy.

So Jonah is a minor prophet. He has a very short book very specific short ministry

Ezekiel Isaiah they had a lot to say and ministered for a long time. So that's the difference

So the major prophets are Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and Daniel Someone says what about lamentations isn't he one of the major prophets

That's a joke, okay, no lamentations was wrote by Jeremiah The minor prophets are

Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi and Elijah and Elisha are not

Included in the major prophets, but we're calling them major. I mean if Elijah isn't major then

I don't know who is Okay, so you have the handout that I gave you right? This is

Basically an explanation of when the prophets lived in relation to the

Kings So you saw the Kings that? Reigned while those prophets were alive.

You can just kind of go back and reference that chart on your own But the point of this study is not to talk about every

King because if you know all the Kings Which most people don't some of them are really not all that significant

There's a lot of Kings that are not mentioned on that list on your chart so the point is not to talk about every

King or even every person in the Bible that Scripture calls a prophet the point of this study is how the

Kings or the the prophets of Israel how they Lined up with the case. So it's more about the prophets than the

Kings is the point Okay That happened to me don't worry

Happened to me while I was preaching one time The Google assistant see if I even say

Google. I'm afraid my phone's gonna turn on. I was just talking then like How can

I help you? All Right, so so the prophets are on whose side

God's side The Kings what side are the Kings on? Yeah.

Yeah. Hey, I like that. The Kings are on the King side. That's true There were a few godly

Kings, but for the most part you had the Kings So the prophets spoke for God and sometimes the prophets had to remind the

Kings that no, you're not God You need to listen to God and obviously no

King literally thought he was God But you know how rulers are they often let power go to their head

So even if they trusted in the God of Israel just like and I'm not gonna get political here but you know how every

US president has claimed to be a Christian and at least given lip service to Jesus and God the

Father I don't think anyone really believes that every single single one of them was born again or anything, but With the

Kings of Israel, even if they said they believed the God of Israel, they would still disregard his word

They did what they wanted for the most part. They didn't do what God wanted But because they had the force and the backing of the government and they had an army behind them

Yeah, this this didn't usually end well, so Again, Saul was the first king then

David then Solomon Solomon dies The kingdom is split into two Israel to the north Judah to the south

Solomon's son Rehoboam rules and Judah where the line of David continues.

So all of the kings of Judah are relatives of who David So Rehoboam the line of David in the south who's the first king in the north who knows his name?

Jeroboam, okay, there's Jeroboam number one and then later Jeroboam Number two, so Judah it's kind of a mixed bag of good and bad

Israel to the north. It's it's all bad So I'm not going to go through all the kings just to kind of give you a summary

The first king of the north was Jeroboam. He ruled from 931

To 910 BC and because it's BC it's going the opposite direction the most well -known king in the north

Who do you think the most well -known king in the north was of all of the kings of Israel?

Who's the most well -known? I guess it's a matter of an opinion, but Rehoboam Rehoboam is the south.

I thought Ahab was probably the most well -known of the northern kings

He ruled with his wife Jezebel and everybody knows Jezebel and you could argue

Jezebel was really the one in charge but Ahab ruled from 874 to 853

BC and then the last king of Israel was Hosea and he ruled from 732 to 722

BC now what happened in 722 BC? This is a good date

To know so this is the last king of Israel that kind of gives you a little hint of what might have happened

Everything comes to an end in 722. Why? Because the northern kingdom of Israel is conquered by the

Assyrian Empire from that point on we kind of consider them the ten lost tribes to the north they're taken into captivity and some of the

Israelites start to intermarry with the Assyrians and that leads to a Group known as the

Samaritans. So the Samaritans are sort of a half breed of Israelites and and Assyrians The first king of Judah going to the south now the first king of Judah.

We've already said is who? Rehoboam Rehoboam was foolish

He was a foolish man, but took bad advice and because he took that bad advice. The kingdom was split he ruled from 931 to 913

BC as I said, there's several good kings in the south

Who are the best kings probably? Hezekiah and Josiah are probably the two most godly kings in the south

And then the last king of Judah is a man named Zedekiah and you can remember that la his name begins with a

Z. So he's last that's how I remember his reign was from Well, it ended in 586

BC. So what does that tell you about the south? Here's the last king of Judah his reign ends 586 something happens in 586

The Babylonians come in they destroy The city of Jerusalem destroyed the temple take the

Jews captive to Babylon and how long were they in Babylon? 70 years after that they return and They're under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel was not a king

Descendant of David. Yes, but he's not a king. He's considered more of a governor Okay, so let's go through the prophets who they were get into their story

Let's start with the oldest first So this new era of Israel's history the time period of the prophets the first in order

As far as the oldest and then the first in rank is who? Who's the who's the number one prophet in Israel?

Elijah Many Jews today still regard Elijah as Israel's greatest prophet and if you remember

Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and Matthew 17 who appeared with Christ on the mountain

Moses who represents the law and Elijah and Elijah Represents all of the prophets.

So I think it is a safe thing to say that As far as the Old Testament prophets Elijah was the greatest

Elijah was a prophet to who the north or the south The north and The king he's most well -known as far as interacting with Was King Ahab and of course

Queen Jezebel You might remember that Elijah he proclaimed that there would be a drought

So at his word, there was no rain in Israel for three years

And because of that King Ahab he labeled Elijah as the troubler of Israel So the nation is being judged.

Everything is terrible. The conditions are horrible Everyone's starving and it's it's all Elijah's fault.

It's all the preachers fault. Well, that's You know, that's something that people like to do. That's it's the preachers fault right now.

Was it really Elijah's fault? No, whose fault was it? It was the exact opposite.

It was Ahab's fault. God was judging the nation because of Ahab Elijah said to Ahab so Ahab says is that you

Elijah, you know, Oh troubler of Israel first Kings 18 verse 18

Elijah says to Ahab I have not troubled Israel But you and your father's house have and that you have forsaken the commandments of the

Lord and have followed the Baals Now therefore send and gather all

Israel to me on Mount Carmel Along with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's Table and this is probably the one of the most well -known stories in the

Old Testament Elijah on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal you remember the story and how they each make an altar and the prophets of Baal cry out to Baal from Morning until noon day and they're cutting themselves and they're babbling and doing all this stuff and does

Baal respond no, there's just silence and Elijah he Totally drenches the altar of the

Lord with water I mean, it's so wet you couldn't get it going, you know on fire if you wanted to but then

Elijah cries out to God and God the fire from heaven comes down and consumes the sacrifice so what did that do it proved that Elijah is a true prophet of God and the

Lord he is God in Israel and What happens right after that? Elijah kills the four hundred and fifty not single -handedly.

He obviously had people Backing him up and that was in line with what the law of Moses said so it wasn't some vigilante act

But Elijah got rid of the prophets and of course that made who upset Jezebel these are her people, right?

So after that Elijah the great man that he is just fearless, right? That's how it seemed but after that when he heard

Jezebel was after him he ran and he hid and he hid in a cave and That's when he heard the voice of God remember the still small

Voice and one of the questions God asked Elijah's. What are you doing here?

What is that? Why are you running from Jezebel? So he was a man with all the

Flaws, maybe not all the flaws, but he had some flaws. He shouldn't have been running from Jezebel But you remember what

Elijah thought? He said Lord. I'm the last one remaining. I'm the I'm the last person in Israel who's faithful and was that true

You know the Lord says no, I've reserved 7 ,000 that have not bowed the knee To Baal so don't ever get an

Elijah syndrome right where you think I'm the last godly person left on earth

No, you're not So Elijah, what did he do? He rebuked the king

Ahab and the reason why things were so bad according to Elijah Which means it's according to God.

It's the king's fault It's the king's fault now anytime where I'm preaching through a passage or a

Wednesday night teaching through whatever subject We're looking at we always want to try to make application. Okay, we see what's written.

But what does that mean for us? In the New Testament again, John the Baptist did this same type of thing he saw that the leader the king was utterly corrupt and John as a mouthpiece for God he had something to say about it now does that mean and Maybe this is a matter of opinion

Maybe not Should preachers today and you can just raise your hand and give your view on this

Because of what Elijah did and John and the prophets preaching against the Kings does that mean preachers today?

Should be number one speaking about the issues that face the nation Should preachers today speak to the issues facing the nation

Okay Okay, so you look at something in the Bible and if you see a connection

Something that happened in Scripture to what's happening today Yeah, and I think most people would say this absolutely

Preachers should be addressing the issues facing the nation because if it faces the nation

It's going to face the church to some extent. So I think most Christians would Agree with that Here's the thing that not every

Christian would agree with and I'm not saying for or against but the second question because Some of these men

John the Baptist called out Herod by name Jesus called out Herod by name should preachers call out political leaders by name

When they are clearly doing evil in the sight of God not some little thing here or there

Should they do that? All right, okay Well, let's back it up a little can they do that.

Is it permissible to do that? I think I think you'd have to say yeah, you can do that Should you do it now and again,

I know there's a lot of people say well You know that you don't have a direct message from God like they did

So, you know, you're kind of getting out of your lane a little bit and I think there is a danger

When you're in your ministry is just led about by everything that's on the news and you start following along with everything on the world so that is a danger, but Can a preacher do that should a preacher do that?

Maybe there'll be some disagreement Just remember if you do it, you better but you better know what you're talking about It better clearly be evil and wrong according to the

Word of God and just expect there's gonna be some blowback and I think that's why most Preachers don't do it because once you name the names and it gets into that whole realm that it, you know kind of creates a mess, but I think there were legitimate times when

Bill Clinton had his adulterous affair there were preachers who dealt with that publicly and I don't think they were wrong to do that, but You know again, you'll find some people who will see that a little different.

Okay Moving on we'll go to the next Prophet because again,

I think it's important to make some sort of application one last thing on that John the

Baptist what happened to John the Baptist he was beheaded I remember somebody said well, you know, it's cuz

John got into politics. That's what you know, he cut his ministry short I don't know about that.

But obviously there is some risk because Kings and World rule and depending on the country if you're living in a dictatorship

Obviously if you preach against the dictator Yeah, your life is probably in danger

Okay So next you have the Prophet Elisha After Elijah Elijah was taken up into heaven in the whirlwind

Elisha took up his mantle or cloak Signifying that he now stood in the same office of prophet to the

Northern nation of Israel, so Elisha he ministered during the reigns of Joram Jehu and Jehoahaz That's a king that doesn't get a lot of attention

Jehoahaz This would be from 845 to 800

BC Elisha performed twice as many miracles as Elijah on one occasion

The Prophet Elisha offered counsel to the king of Israel, this is one of those great stories

He was giving him kind of feeding him secret information. You know, God was telling him things

He was telling the king of Israel things Regarding another king the king of Syria. So this inside information gave

Israel the upper hand In warfare and when the king of Syria heard that Elisha had this

Inside information from God, what did the king of Syria want to do? Well, we need to get rid of Elisha, I mean

He's acting like a spy even but his information is coming straight from God. So it's even better So he sent out troops to capture

Elisha his servant Elisha's servant Gehazi when he saw the army that had come against them

He was afraid but you remember what Elisha told him He said don't be afraid those who are with us are more than those who are against us

Of course, he's looking around and he sees this big army surrounding that what are you talking about?

It's me and you against hundreds or thousands of people and Then Elisha prayed

Lord open the eyes of my servant and that's when he looked around And he saw that the hills were full of chariots horses and chariots of fire

So if the king had Physical armies that fought for him the prophets at least at times had a an angelic army fighting for them so after Elisha died someone remember his tomb after he had passed somebody

Died and they said okay. We need to get rid of the body throw him in the tomb of Elisha So they threw this corpse in Elisha's tomb and the body touched the bones of Elisha and what happened

He came back to life So it seems that God chose to demonstrate his power through Elisha even after his death

Okay, so those were the two great prophets of Israel Elijah and Elisha Next let's look at the prophet

Jonah, so he had a life Elijah Preaching against Ahab you had

Elisha at least working hand -in -hand with One of the kings and all of the prophets one thing you can say they loved their country

They didn't necessarily like the ruler. They didn't like what the country was doing, but they loved

God's people, right? And just like a preacher today if a preacher ever does preach against a ruler or preach

It sounds like he's preaching against the nation if you're preaching against a nation If your heart's in the right place that means you what you love the name you want to see things get right so that God can bless so the prophets loved the nation, but the next prophet we're going to look at is

Jonah and Jonah did not love the nation that he was called to minister to So Jonah was not a prophet to Israel as much as he was a prophet to who?

Yeah, the city of Nineveh and Nineveh was I think the capital of the

Assyrian Empire or what would become the Syrian Empire so Jonah ministered from about 760 to 753

BC It was during the reign of King Jeroboam the second, but we don't remember

Jonah preaching against Jeroboam. He's preaching against the men and the king of the city of Nineveh Most people when they think of Jonah, what do they think of?

Yeah, he's the guy that got swallowed by the whale Yeah, well, I mean, that's that's part of the story.

That's maybe the most memorable part But really there's a more significant lesson in the book of Jonah more than that Yes, he got into the boat and he headed in the opposite direction.

Why did Jonah get swallowed by the whale? Yeah, because God told him to go preach to the city of Nineveh and he said

I hate those people I don't want to preach to them. So he went in the opposite direction and Then God sent the storm and yeah, he got thrown overboard and all the rest

But Jonah, yeah, he hated the people. He didn't want them to repent So the prophets are preaching this consistent message repent or else and they want people to repent so that God will relent

In doing harm, but here's a prophet who didn't want the people to repent. So this is unique Why didn't he want them to repent because they weren't

Jews. They weren't Israelites So Jonah had the wrong attitude So Jonah he hated them, but God taught him a lesson a lesson of love and compassion

Jonah finally said about God and Jonah 4 verse 2 that God is slow to anger and Abundant in loving -kindness one who relents from doing harm and I want us to all remember this that the prophets

Yeah, they were pretty rough and the some of the things that they said. Yes, it is Judgment and more judgment it seems but the

Lord sent the prophets because Why God hates the people? No, he's the

Lord sent the prophets because he loves the people Turn from your wicked ways and Live and it should be and I think it is for the most part.

It's the same for pastors today Even if you have a pastor who is known for preaching, you know

The hellfire and damnation obviously a lot of churches would never even use those words never mind preach that kind of thing but if a pastor is preaching that why he's doing it so that People will wake up and realize that they need to be saved

See, it's the false prophet who's speaking all the positive words saying.

Oh, yeah. God loves you unconditionally Everything's gonna work out.

Everything's fine. You're blessed. Everything's see that's the false prophet who just tells people what they want to hear

Why he doesn't care about them. They're on the road to hell. He doesn't care. He wants to be popular. He wants people's money

But God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. That is why God sent the prophets so that people would repent

All right. Next is the prophet Amos. What do we know about the prophet

Amos? We see a prophet to the north or to the south Yeah, I mean we're looking at all the prophets to the north really at this point so Amos was a prophet to Israel under Jeroboam the second, so this is from 765 to 754

BC The purpose of the book of Amos was to announce God's holy judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel To call them to repentance and to turn from their self righteousness and their idolatry

So God raised up the prophet Amos and as an act of his great mercy to a people who repeatedly shunned and Disobeyed him he gave them another chance.

So that's how we have to look at the prophets. It's God giving people a chance Giving them another chance

In the book of 1st Samuel, I'm studying this and going through it on the radio on Wednesday morning and you remember

Eli the priest right Eli was also a judge of Israel and Eli, I think

I don't think he was such a bad guy, but he had two sons that were just reprobates and He didn't restrain them.

So they were running wild and Eli didn't really do anything about it And on one occasion

God sent a prophet To visit Eli and the prophet basically told him what was what did

Eli change? No, and then in the next chapter God gave that same message to the young boy

Samuel and then Samuel told Eli that God's gonna judge you and he still didn't change so That's on Eli.

He had warnings and that's what the prophets did. They would come and they would warn the people So look at it this way.

It's God doing you a favor. It's God doing the nation a favor giving them another chance chapters 1 through 3

Amos Came as the days of the wicked nation of the northern kingdom were winding down the people were religious

But it was very superficial So even by the end of the northern kingdom

Everybody still would have said we believe in Jehovah. We worship the Lord They would still gather and assemble and I forget what verse it is or if it's even in Amos But at one point

God said, you know, I despise I loathe your sacrifices your offerings your feast days

And you're like wait, didn't God tell them to do all the sacrifices didn't the Lord Institute the feast days?

Yeah, but why did God come to hate those things? Because he saw their heart wasn't in it.

They're just going through the motions So Israel was very religious still but it was superficial

Amos announces that the neighboring nations would also be punished in chapters 4 through 8

Amos warns that Israel will be destroyed and he gives examples of this judgment

Amos comes Announces God's judgment to the northern kingdom and he uses the phrase which you see and especially the minor

Prophets he uses the phrase the day of the Lord So when you hear the term day of the

Lord, what do you think of? Yeah, it's a day of darkness a day of Judgment the day of the

Lord has been defined this way of God intervening in the affairs of men and he's intervening in judgment in Chapter 9

Amos tells of the restoration and hope of Israel in that day He says

I will raise up the fallen booth of David and wall up its breaches

I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old

So here's another message you see throughout the prophets. Yeah, God's gonna judge Israel.

He's gonna destroy the nation He's gonna take the Jews into captivity, but there's another

Message for Israel and what is that? There's the judgment, but then there's the restoration

And one thing you see through the prophets God is not going to forget them

He's not going to turn his back on them There is still a future for Israel, but a key verse would be

Amos 3 3 can to walk together Unless they are agreed We think of that usually in a personal sense can you know to get a married couple can two friends can two?

People in ministry, can you walk together and be in unity unless you agree, of course, what's the answer you did?

No, if you disagree, you really can't be in unity But you can look at it this way.

Can a nation really walk with God or expect God's blessings when they're living in disobedience and the answers

No, so going through all this, you know, you start to think about Our country and where it was and I don't

I'm not gonna kind of go down that road Completely, but when our nation was founded the first settlers came here and they made a covenant with God.

This is a land Why do people come here so they could worship God? freely right and even from our nation's founding it's all the founding fathers gave again at least lip service to God and and we say we're one nation under God and God has blessed.

I think this country but when we turn our backs on the Lord, I mean, what do you expect is gonna happen?

It's just it's just that application that we we should always be praying for the nation

And is God gonna send a prophet like he did with Israel. It's not the same. It's not the same thing But what do we have?

We have a prophetic word, right? so we have the scripture so a pastor can preach about all this stuff because it's all in the

Bible and Many of those things in scripture apply to the modern day All right.

Let's look at at least one more. Next is the prophet Hosea Hosea also is a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel again under Jeroboam the second and this would be from 758 to 725

BC the book's purpose was to illustrate the spiritual adultery of Israel and God's boundless love for His people so during the time of Hosea under Jeroboam Israel was actively oppressing the poor they were enslaving people.

They were worshiping idols But because of God's grace He sent yet another opportunity for them to get right and that opportunity came in the person of who?

Hosea So look at it this way every prophet because you know when we were going through Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers

We're always saying that Moses, you know Moses is a type of Christ, right?

You know Joshua Joshua is a type of Christ and there's all these people in the Old Testament that are types and foreshadows of Christ I would say that each and every prophet is a type of Christ at least in this way

God sends them into the world and if the people believe their message They'll live but if they do not believe their message just like if a person doesn't believe the gospel they will

Not live so in that sense you could say the prophets were a type of Christ the prophets sometimes were told

Unlike Christ, I guess the prophets sometimes were told to to do bizarre things

Can anyone name one or two things that? The prophets were told to do which one was told to walk around naked for is that Ezekiel?

Ezekiel he was told to lay on his side for like 300 I should have this information in front of me is 300 and something days or 400 days and yeah all this weird stuff, right?

But these were oftentimes object lessons So the people would see this man of God doing this straight and that you can't apply that today

So no preacher can walk around naked as well. He did it Yeah Hey somebody right now is thinking about maybe not here, but there's some cult leader somewhere thinking about doing that But this was like an object lesson

They would see the man of God doing this strange thing and it would get everybody's attention. They would talk about it

This is how God would communicate. Well, actually Hosea was told to do something kind of strange this actually

There's a little conflict because this is not something a Jewish man should do or an Israelite man should do

What was Hosea told to do? Yeah, he was told to marry basically a prostitute

Why well God is trying to teach? Something to the people so he's told to marry a harlot so that when she is unfaithful which

Was gonna happen this pictures Israel's spiritual adultery, you know,

God was like their husband Israel was Jehovah's Wife and Israel played the harlot by following after false gods

So Hosea marries the harlot. She is unfaithful She leaves him but what does he do?

He he goes out he finds her He redeems her and he brings her back home.

This all demonstrates God's future for Israel even though Israel has been unfaithful

God is going to go out and get Israel back and We even today in 2023.

We believe there is still a future for God's People Israel So his message was one of love and forgiveness

Hosea's Israel did not repent at least not then they continued in spiritual decline though materially prosperous and religiously active

Israel goes into captivity in 722 Conquered by the

Assyrians and that's kind of the end of the northern kingdom of Israel. And I think that's a good place to end so just to finish with some sort of application a

Prophet in the Bible had a message from God. They were to deliver that message to the people to the nation to the king the problem with the

Kings is that they were doing the wrong thing and By doing the wrong thing the people followed them because the king is he's a leader too and the people followed along with whatever

The king or the government was Doing so when we see that if we ever see that which we do see that What's our response?

Are we are we gonna side with the Prophet? So well, we don't have a prophet today. We have all the prophets

We have we have all of the prophets in their books are we gonna side with them and do what the