You may recall the story of rebuilding of the Jerusalem walls in Nehemiah. This is a story that has fascinated me over and over again. Each time I read through this passage, I’m reminded of the power that was displayed when God’s people came together with a common purpose and mind to work. Nehemiah, who was serving as cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I, had received permission to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls that had lain in ruins for many years. There was great opposition to the task but because of Nehemiah’s unmatched skills in leadership and organization, and the people’s unrelenting resolve to do the work, the job of rebuilding the wall was successfully complete in just 52 days! And now…chapter 8, all the people are assembled at the Water Gate: First things first…Verse one says, “They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.” So Exra brought the Book of the Law before the assembly, he stood high on a wooden platform that had been constructed for the occasion, and he read aloud from it from daybreak till noon. The people listen attentively. As Ezra opened the Book, the Bible says, “the people stood up,” then Exra praises the Lord, and the people responded with hands lifted into the air and shouts of praise… “Amen! Amen!” Verse six days, “Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.” Now that’s a worship celebration to be remembered! And as the Law was being proclaimed, conviction over sin fell upon all the people and they began to weep with sorrow…But now it was time to celebrate the completion of the wall…It was time for rejoicing over all the Lord had done for them through them. So, Nehemiah, seeking to console the people said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (vs.10) In this passage, we experience along with God’s people a whole array of emotional responses in worship: Shouting “amen”, standing up, hands lifted in the air, and bowing down – it was all part of their celebration that day!

This past week I was reminded again of the joy of the Lord that is so evident in all of our worship and service for God. I am looking forward to proclaiming of the Word of God this week and I am looking forward to another wonderful week of worship and celebration in our church family! Thank you for giving your best to the Lord as you serve and as you celebrate.  

Meanwhile, another story was unfolding: Mordecai sat at the King’s gate and over-heard two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway plotting to kill the king. When he overheard the plan, he told Esther about the plot, who in turn reported it to the king. Mordecai foiled the assassination plot against king Xerxes and the report of his service was kept in the king’s diary (6:1-2). Both of these stories would come together when one of the King’s nobles, Haman was enraged by Mordecai’s refusal to bow down to him. Having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews, throughout the entire kingdom. (3:5-6). When Mordecai heard of Haman’s plan he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city wailing loudly and bitterly. When Queen Esther heard what Mordecai was doing, she was distressed and sent one of the Kings eunuchs to find out what was troubling Mordecai. Mordecai urged Esther to go into the King’s presence and beg for mercy. Knowing that entering the King’s presence without first being summoned could mean death to any man or woman, Esther did not give Mordecai any hope at first. However, Mordecai was convinced that somehow God would save the Jewish nation, whether through Esther or otherwise…so he put pressure on Esther, reminding her that she risked death whether she approached the king or not. (4:12-14) Then Mordecai said to Esther: “Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (4:14) Esther trusted God and went in to the king, and because the king remembered the good deed that Mordecai and done by foiling the earlier assassination attempt, he ordered the death of Haman.

Who would have known that Esther would be able to influence the King in order to save God’s people? God did! God used Mordecai and Esther in a marvelous way to; once again, protect his people and ultimately the line of Judah in which the Messiah would come! God has a plan for each of us. His desire is that we would pray and seek God daily. Our dependence must be upon God! Even when the way seems bleak, remember the words of Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Praise to the One who has brought us salvation!

Once the work of rebuilding the Temple was done, the people of Israel celebrated the dedication of the house with joy. (Ezra 6:16) Then on the fourteenth day of the first month, they celebrated the Passover together. The Bible says, “For seven days they celebrated with joy the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because the LORD has filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria, so thatheassistedthemintheworkonthehouseofGod,theGodofIsrael.”(Ezra6:22) Goddida marvelous thing for His people! With the rebuilding of the Temple, God had restored his rightful place of worship among the people once again.

Like the children of Israel, we too were exiles. Because of our sin we had become alienated from God. But because of His mercy and grace, God provided a way for us to return to Him through the blood of Christ. You see…God’s ultimate desire is that we would love him and worship him in his presence. That’s why Jesus came and died for us!.. Let’s respond by worshiping Him.

About Love Worth Fighting For

The Bible repeatedly uses “father,” “husband,” “bride” and “child” analogies to demonstrate God’s relationship with the church and his followers. There is no better example of the unconditional love God has for us than what we are instructed to have for our spouse and children. Building upon these themes, Love Worth Fighting For is a marriage event, featuring teaching by Kirk Cameron and music by Warren Barfield, designed to strengthen and encourage your marriage.

About Kirk Cameron

Following the success of his 1980s hit television show, Growing Pains, Kirk Cameron married actress Chelsea Noble and started a family. Today the father of six is an outspoken believer and has starred in the Left Behind movie series as well as the widely acclaimed movie Fireproof that was released in theaters nationwide this past year.

About Warren Barfield

North Carolina-born singer/songwriter Warren Barfield is on a mission to make the truly important things important again in his life. Things like faith, love, marriage, children, truth, and with his songs, he challenges us all to do the same. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” Warren has found those things in his faith, his wife, and his belief in love. “These are the things I would die for; things I will wake up every morning andspend my day fighting for.”

Love Worth Fighting For
Friday, Feb. 24 at 7:00 pm
Grace Church, Des Moines

Purchase Tickets

There  can  be  no  natural  explanation  for  such  a  complete  deliverance  for  these  young  men.    Their   faith  brought  deliverance,  protection,  reward,  and  ultimately,  glory  to  God!    The  message  for  us  is   that  we  would  trust  God  in  all  of  our  circumstances,  rise  above  the  noise  and  temptation  of  our   secular  culture,  and  take  our  stand  for  Christ.    Let  God  put  this  song  is  our  hearts  this  week␣␣In   Christ  alone  my  hope  is  found,  He  is  my  light,  my  strength,  my  song.  This  cornerstone,  this  solid   ground;  firm  through  the  fiercest  drought  and  storm.    What  heights  of  love,  what  depths  of  peace   when  fears  are  stilled  when  striving  cease.  My  Comforter,  my  all  in  all,  here  in  the  love  of  Christ  I   stand.␣        Looking  forward  to  worship  this  weekend  with  the  family!                                                              ~Marty 

Consider this an “Extra Point” email that encourages you to either check out the following blog about God’s chastening nature, or listen to my message from Isaiah that gives even more understanding about this aspect of God’s character. Or both! Oddly, I actually “stumbled” across this blog I wrote in 2008 when it came up as my most-read blog of 2011…and then to see that the topic was about the very thing I taught about yesterday. Quite timely, I thought. So maybe God will use it for his glory among the body here as we continue to process God’s discipline of the northern kingdom through captivity (historical), as well as God’s discipline of us through chastening (universal).

“Wow, God’s a Great Farmer!“

“The Restorative Nature of God” (Isaiah 28)

For the fame of Jesus,

Pastor Todd

A 31-Week Journey Through the Bible

The Beginning of the End

2 Kings 17

First Family Church
317 S.E. Magazine Rd.
Ankeny, IA 50021

www.firstfamilyministries.com

Transcript of Message by Todd Stiles

January 22, 2012

Take your Bibles and locate 2 Kings 17 and we are going to see what that price was for the northern kingdom today, all right? So take your Bibles and locate that chapter as we look into somewhat of a somber chapter and a somewhat of a somber story today.  
If you are new and a guest or been here for maybe a week or two, my name is Todd. I am one of the pastors here. I do a good bit of the preaching and teaching. So welcome to First Family Church.

We are in a 31 week series though the entire Bible. It is called The Story and we are in week 16 today which brings us to 2 Kings 17.  And let me just say as we approach this text and it he idea of remember there is various things that we do here in this local body to help you remember not only God’s work among us at his communion, but also just our roles and responsibilities as children of the Lord.

Now two weeks, I think, from Friday or last Friday we have a showing of courageous here, a great opportunity for many of you to come with your families, your spouse and just kind of rejuvenate some of those memories, to remember what we are called to as a husband and a wife, as a father. One of the best ways we help folks remember is through our weekly lighthouses. If you are new here or have been visiting for a couple of weeks and you are curious that that is, those are small groups and we would love to connect you in a deeper way at First Family. So feel free to stay around afterwards or let me know through a feedback card.  I would love to help you get connected to one of our small groups. It is just one of the ways that we help you remember.

Because, remember, remember. Not remembering carries a steep price. If you don’t be-lieve that, just forget your wife’s anniversary or her birthday.

We are going to see in this text the price that the northern kingdom paid for forgetting God. Now if you are not sure what I mean by northern kingdom and all that goes with that, let me kind of bring you up to speed and show you where we are. We will use the handy dandy map again.

Notice Assyria just a little bit northeast central. Do you see that nation of Assyria.  Well, God is going to use it in this week’s study to come against the northern kingdom which is actually the part of the Promised Land above Jerusalem. So if you draw an imaginary line kind of horizontal right above Jerusalem, then there were 10 tribes stationed in the area of Jericho and Samaria and, in fact, Samaria was their capital city. That is the northern kingdom. Remember, they divided a couple of weeks ago. And so Jeroboam was their king. Rehoboam was the king in the southern kingdom. That would be the area just Jeru-salem and south and there were two tribes in that area.

So there is two kingdoms. They are still one nation, but they are divided. And we are go-ing to see how God is going to bring the Assyrian nation against the northern kingdom and actually not just capture them, but keep them pretty much extinct. We are going to see how this is a very dominating and humiliating experience. This is happening in the time frame of about 722, 725 BC.  It is about 1300 years after the call of Abraham and so we have come about 13 centuries since our beginning last September in the story. We find ourselves in 2 Kings in this quite intriguing military conquest.

And what you are going to find in this text is that there is a sense in which the Assyrian army travels 600 miles and they dominate the northern kingdom and those 10 tribes. They humiliate them and in that domination and humiliation they see their true situation. 
Just think of those three words, ok?  Because often that is true for us.  It takes some dom-ination and humiliation for us to see our true situation.  Let me explain what I mean.

I was in 10th grade. I lived in Tennessee and I wrestled for our school. Now when you are in 10th grade and you are living in Tennessee that sounds good, but I didn’t know that places like Iowa existed with wrestlers like they have here. And so we thought we were good. We had a pretty good coach, a pretty good program.  He wrestled Eastern Carolina, won some tournaments on a division I scale and so we thought, man, for a Christian school that is kind of small, it has got a really good coach, good program. And we were doing pretty good my sophomore and junior year.

Well, my coach had heard about the camp of champs which was in Wisconsin. The camp of champs was a camp run for wrestler across the nation and it was organized by Ben and John Peterson. Now if you are my age or in that range, Ben and John Peterson were Olympic medalists in the 70s and they were studs. They were big dudes, you know, and they were good wrestlers. And so our coach said, “Guys, we are going to the camp of champs.”

We said, “Great, coach, anything to make us a better wrestler we are in.”

So we go up in the van. We drive to Wisconsin. I had never really been north of Ken-tucky, probably. So we are driving what seems forever. We get to these states like Illinois and Wisconsin. I am like, man, this a foreign land, kind of like maybe Assyria was to, you know, Syria. I don’t know.  But we are in this whole new area.  We go to this camp. We pull in. We take our stuff out and put it in the bunkhouse or whatever and go to our first session and it was only a matter of minutes before I knew we were among creatures that I didn’t really know existed prior to this time.  I mean, guys were just big and strong and mean and quick. And I remember after the first session we are back at the cabin and we are all like speechless.

This is going to be a long week. Well, it was. By Wednesday we were known… there were maybe a handful of us, six to eight. We were known as the girls from Tennessee.  We were dominated and we were humiliated and when we left we rightly knew our situa-tion, that we really weren’t that good. We had a long way to go and we had a lot of work ahead of us.

Ben and John would, about on Wednesday they would pick on us. They would want to show us a move, especially the throws. And so they would say, “How about you, Sean, from Tennessee? Come on.”

And he was one of the guys that wrestled lowered weight class. Let me show you… and we would just kind of, you know, limply get up there and he would throw us around like a mop. And then he would say to some guy, let’s say, for Pennsylvania or from Wiscon-sin,

“Why don’t you come show this move?”

And, man, we were just like the runt of the litter.

On the last night we kind of got our heads together and said, “You know, we are getting out of here early Saturday. So we are skipping breakfast, we are getting on the van and we are getting out of Dodge. We are not going to make a big scene.”

But it didn’t happen. We got our stuff loaded. We got the van cranked.  And they some-how knew and so as we are driving off the property with this big white van that says Tennessee Temple Academy, all of them are pointing, waving, “Bye, girls from Tennes-see.  See you later.”

And it was humiliating. But I will tell you this much. When we got back, we knew we had a lot of work to do. We kind of knew the real situation that we really weren’t who we thought we were. We had a lot of work to do.

Now I say that in jest because in a sense that is what happens in this chapter. There is a military domination that occurs.  There is an extreme amount of humiliation God brings upon this northern kingdom, but it is for the purpose of showing them their real dire sit-uation, that they had forgotten their real father.

I want to take this approach from two angels today. I want to show you the historical meaning on the lower level and then I want to show you the universal principle on the upper level.

So for the first part of this message I am going to kind of be very historical with you, somewhat factual.  I will move to more of an application as we close things out, but just hang with me because it all ties together and we will see how it overlaps very well.

Now, by the way, this same approach fits well with what the prophets are doing in this timeframe. Remember, the prophets take center stage. They are preaching purity from the upper level.  God is using the prophets to purify his people, to purge away the dross so to speak.  That is what he is doing. He is getting things down to where the Lion of the tribe of Judah which is the southern kingdom will come forth.  But on the lower level it looks like it is all about punishment.  
So we are going to see that for a few minutes as we understand the historical meaning, then the universal principle.

Let’s begin 2 Kings 17. Here is the historical meaning. It is laid out in the first 23 verses of this chapter. Let me give you an overview of the verses, ok? I am going to read the first six and then I will kind of teach you what seven through 23 talk about.  But in verses one through six we have the what of this situation and, really, the what is captivity. It is a military conquest of those 10 tribes and that is kind of what happens. Why it happened, though, is idolatry. That is the reasoning behind the captivity and that is laid out in seven though about verse 23. We will get to that in a little bit and it is really showcased in three main phrases that are mentioned toward the end of this section.  So let’s begin reading verse one of chapter 17.

Here is the captivity of the northern kingdom from a historical perspective.

In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria.

Notice something there, would you? Even the time line of the northern kingdom is kind of always referenced based on Judah’s timeline which kind of shows you God’s heart.  His heart is right now for the southern kingdom, these two tribes. And he is using that as a kind of a reference point even for things around it so that the kingdom of Hoshea is set in the 12th year of Ahaz who is actually king of Judah at that time. So Hoshea is reigning in Samaria. His reign was nine years. He was the best of the worst the Bible said, do you see that?  He  did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as bad as the ones who were before him. So he is kind of a like a lucky break in one sense, but he is still a wick-ed king.

Well, Shalmaneser who is king of Assyria came up against him and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. In other words, the King of Assyria said, “You know what? If you don’t pay us money, we are going to take you out.”

So Hoshea, with all his great courage and strong spine paid him money. So, however, there is another king around called So and he is the King of Egypt. It appears that at a certain point Hoshea felt more threatened by King So of Egypt than he did King Shal-maneser of Assyria, so he just began to give money instead to Egypt. But when Shal-maneser heard of that, the Bible says here, it was called treachery.

He said, “Well, I will just go down there and I will just take over the land.”

So the Bible says in verse five, I believe it is, the King of Assyria then invaded all the lands, speaking of the northern kingdom and he came to Samaria and for three years he besieged it.

Let me lay this out for you a timeline so it is not real confusing.  In the first five years of Hoshea things were probably going ok. There was a king in Assyria called Tiglathpileser III and he probably only wanted money so it wasn’t that big of a deal. He died at about the fifth year of Hoshea and that is when Shalmaneser came to the throne of Assyria. Now follow me here.  He wanted more money from Hoshea at which point the King of Egypt is offered a little more inviting to Hoshea, so he kind of traded allegiances and that is when

Shalmaneser began to move in and he in years seven, eight and nine occupied Samaria and pretty much put the king Hoshea in house arrest.

Now understand something. Prior to Shalmaneser, Assyria pretty much just extracted money from its enemies. They would threaten someone. This person would get afraid or this nation would get afraid and they would get money that way. This is the very first time that a king actually came and occupied a territory and threatened to deport some of its inhabitants.  So Shalmaneser kind of escalates issues. He moves in and he takes Sa-maria. And then the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign he actually then takes some of them captive. This is mentioned in verse six. Let’s read it together.

It says: In the ninth year of Hoshea, the King of Assyria captured Samaria and he carried the Israelites away. There it is right there. Plain and simple historical fact.  He carried the Israelites away to Assyria. And he placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

This is the historical understanding of what happened, how God allowed his people, he brought them to a place of captivity as a punishment for their sins.
You say, “How can you say that, Todd?”

It is in verse seven.  Now we begin to see the why of verses one through six. Are you with me? It is still historical.  We just see a little deeper than the surface. Look what it says in verse seven.

This occurred, speaking of verses one through six, because the people of Israel sinned against the Lord their God.

Now in a nutshell what they had done is they had forgotten their covenant relationship with God. They didn’t remember all that he asked of them and they went chasing after idols. Idolatry was the reason. Captivity was the result.

In fact, if you read verses seven through about 17 you will find there are about 17 actual charges God brings against them in this courtroom so to speak, things such as following the customs of other nations, offering sacrifices in the wrong places, serving idols, doing wicked things. Verse 18 again says that God warned Israel and Judah by every prophet. Do you see that? This is the time frame we are in.

God sent messengers saying, “Repent. Turn around,” but they continued in their stub-bornness, verse 14 says. They would not listen.  Again it says they despised his statutes. It escalates and says here they actually began to offer their children. They made images of two calves.  They burned their sons and daughters. They sought things through divina-tion and omens. They sold themselves.

Verse 18 culminates this by saying that the Lord was very angry with Israel and he re-moved them out of his sight.

Historically that is exactly what he did, didn’t he? He removed them from the northern area and moved them 600 miles away to Assyria through this king named Shalmaneser and his military conquest of them.

Now that phrase in verse 18, he removed them out of his sight, is also mentioned in verse 20. Look what it says in verse 20.

The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers until he had cast them out of his sight. Underline both times that is mentioned, ok? Because it is mentioned a third time as well in verse 23. Are you there? Follow with me.

It says the Lord removed Israel out of his sight and the last part of 23 culminates this sec-tion well by saying this.  Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria and then this phrase “Until this day.” Do you see that?

Now that doesn’t mean until this day in 2012. That means until this day when this author was writing it. So the question is: When was this author writing it? While it was going on? Is this like a week after the fact? No.  This author of 2 Kings is probably writing from Babylon. He was probably one of the ones in the southern kingdom who got deported 130 some odd years after this captivity. He got deported to Babylon. We will see that next week. He lived there a number of years. He is probably writing about this captivity, may-be 130 to 150 years after it happened. And he says this.  Watch. He says, you know what?

When God allowed them to be captured, when they were brought to another whole nation and punished and carried away it says that that is when God removed them out of his sight and is still that way to this day, a hundred or so years later. This was no small like punishment or correction. This was a big deal. In fact, let me explain to you how big this deal was.

We have no record even to this day, January 22, 2012, of the 10 tribes that were officially congregated as the northern kingdom. We have no record to this day, those 10 tribes have ever relocated and congregated officially, none.

Now if you were to Google the 10 lost tribes of Israel you would find a host of crazy the-ories and myths, ok?  But that isn’t actual thought and name out there. There are 10, quote, unquote, lost tribes of Israel. This is when it started.

Now, let me correct that phrase, because they are not really lost.  God knows exactly where they are. Do you know that?  And, in fact, I believe scripturally, based on 2 Chron-icles, I believe it is chapter 11 that beginning in this whole divided kingdom time, God chose certain ones of each of the 10 northern tribes to kind of filter back down to Judah, knowing that this captivity would happen. And I believe even though the 10 tribes are officially kind of lost or they are kind of dismantled until a later time, there are remnants of every tribe still within at least in this point in the southern kingdom.  This is why I think Luke mentions Anna in his writing.

Now this is in a very obscure reference, but in the book of Luke when Anna is in the temple as a prophetess, Luke throws in this little clause that says… he talks about Anna being a prophetess and then it is says from the tribe of Asher.

Now what does that matter, right?  But if you are a Jew and you are thinking, those 10 are gone, it would matter a lot if you knew, oh, here is somebody from those 10 tribes who was lost. We thought, no, she is actually around.  She is in the temple. She is here. God hasn’t forgotten us.

Are you with me?

So I think there are remnants of every tribe that begin to filter back into the southern kingdom. This is seen in 2 Chronicles 11.

Now the question is, on a historical level, when will these tribes reconvene? Some be-lieved it happened in 1948 when Israel as granted their nationhood. I read one author this past week who believed it is 1967 in the six day war. The problem is there is just not bib-lical reference to those dates or times. There is not. It might make good preaching and it might make good story telling, but it is difficult to say from the Bible that those are actu-ally when it happened. What we have in the Bible, Ezekiel 37 is that God seems to say this is more of an opinion, maybe a theological opinion, God seems to say that he is go-ing to draw the full house of Israel back together at the millennium which is after the coming of Christ. He takes the throne of his father David.

At that point I tend to think that is when he will gather all the tribes officially from all over the place and he will reestablish the full house of Israel. There will be no more di-vided kingdom. There will be a unified kingdom with the real king, amen? I think that is when it is going to happen. I wouldn’t die over that or fight you over it. We are welcome to disagree. But I tend to think the holy Scripture seems to teach and take 1 Chronicles 11, Ezekiel 37, 2 Kings 17 and then also Revelation and some parts of Daniel, which, by the way, Chris is teaching through Daniel on Wednesday mornings with our young at heart Bible study. I believe he is recording those and placing those messages on the inter-net.  I believe, so another good prophetic way, a prophetic message that we can learn about, not a prophetic message, a message about prophecy that we can learn from.

So as we are in this section, feel free to access those on line.  I think the best understand-ing is that in the millennium God gathers the full house of Israel back and he becomes their king, again, and fulfills all the prophecies of Isaiah 10 and so forth like that.
Now that is a lot of information.  But watch this, guys. It is history, too.  And for those of you who are here who are kind of skeptical of Christianity, who may be thinking, well, it is just all a bunch of emotion and hype and you don’t really have any substance, well, you  are just wrong about that.  There is great substance in the history of the Bible that clearly gives us solid ground to stand on. And here is an historical event that occurred in which God allowed the Assyrian nation under a known king named Shalmaneser to come in and take his 10 tribes into captivity. They are scattered, but they are not forgotten.

That does not raise Israel up to a prominent level. That raises God up to a prominent lev-el.  And like we sang this morning, there is no God like our God.  Amen? He will reunite his people. He is and he will be a faithful God.  
So here is the historical meaning that God corrected his children through captivity.

Now when you see that and you hear all that and you kind of process that, we are prone to do this in church.  We are prone to kind of gather an historical meaning, kind of figure out what it means and understand the facts. And then we say, “What does it mean to me today?”

That is kind of what we do in church. That is ok.

So maybe your mind is going a direction that you are not comfortable with, because you are thinking, well, is God going to put me in captivity today? I mean, it is not a good log-ical end for this text, right? It is like, well, Todd, what is going on here. Do we just take this information and go home?  What does this tell us about God?

Well, let me say this to you. I don’t know that God is going to capture you and take you 600 miles away.  I am not going to say he won’t. I wouldn’t tell God what he would nev-er do. Ok, amen? But the cultural, historical meaning is that God did this then. How does he correct his children today?  Because the truth is, he does still correct his children. Amen?  But how?

So I don’t want to leave you in this place like, man, am I actually going to be uprooted and taken over to the west… to the east side of Michigan? Is that going to be my Assyria? Or am I going south or west or what is happening here?

Let me explain to you how God corrects his children today. I think the best way to under-stand it is by looking at a corollary passage in Hebrews 12 which brings a New Testa-ment understanding of what happened in 2 Kings 17.

Can you turn there briefly?  Hebrews chapter 12 shows us in a very succinct way how God corrects his children today, or I should say at least one of the ways that God corrects his children today.

And while you are finding Hebrews 12, it is towards the back of the New Testament, let me say to you that Hebrews was written to Jewish people, the kind of people that were talked about in 2 King 17.  In fact, it was written to Hebrews, Jewish people who were going through very difficult times just like the folks in 2 Kings 17.  So it has got a real similar setting and background.

And here is what the author of Hebrews says.  He says in chapter 12 verse five that we should consider Jesus. He is speaking of Jesus here … who endured great hostility, be-cause when we think about all that he went through, it will help us not be weary or faint hearted. That is what he is saying there.

And then he says in verse five.  Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?  It is this rhetorical question. It is almost like they are wondering. Hey, things shouldn’t be hard. I shouldn’t be doing through difficult times. And the writer here says, “Hey, have you forgotten what God actually says to his children?”  And he quotes here a verse from Solomon.  Isn’t that kind of scripturally ironic?

Who was the last king of the unified kingdom? Solomon. And it was when they did not listen to his advice that the kingdom divided and went through very difficult times. The write of Hebrews is going to back to that moment and saying, “Don’t forget What Solo-mon said.”

Look what it says here.

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and he chastises every son whom he re-ceives.

This passage seems to say to us that God now corrects his children through chastening.  Now that is an odd word, isn’t it? You don’t use that word much. You may not use it at all except if you are in church. It is a word that we use, the Bible uses to talk about how God corrects us. It is called chastening. It says here he chastises every son he receives. This is how God corrects us, how he keeps us in line and leads us towards holiness. In fact, the root of this—and I will show it you in a minute—the root of this is the fact that we are his sons, not just that we sin.  In fact, make a mental note of this, church.  We are disciplined by God because of sonship, not just because of sinship. I know sinship is not a word. I know that.  But it sticks in your memory better.
A lot of us think, well, if I don’t mess up, God won’t get on me. This Scriptures says, “You know what? The truth is you get trained, you get disciplined, you get corrected, you get led the right way because you belong to God.” That is exactly what happened in 2 Kings 17.

They were punished, yes, because they did wrong, but they were punished pri-marily because they belonged, because, listen … watch this.

Why would God even punish folks that weren’t even his? But the fact is that northern kingdom were … that was his people. And so he said, “Because you belong to me, I will let these Assyrians come in and capture you and bring you back to a place where in dom-ination and humiliation you will see your real situation.”

Here in the New Testament God says chastening is his way that he corrects us.

Now, it is important that I first of all give you a couple of insights about chastening, be-cause it is not a word we use much.  And I doubt if any of you here said to your kids this week, “I am going to chasten you now.” You don’t say that, ok?

So does that word mean? Well, let me tell you what it doesn’t mean, first and foremost. It does not mean that God is chasing you. Ok? We hear chastening and we think, oh, I guess God is running after me.  He woke up from his nap and he saw my sin and he is running after me to try to get me back.

God isn’t chasing you, ok?  First of all, he leads us towards righteousness.  He develops us. He sanctifies us. He is out in front of us, amen? Well, God is not chasing you. It really just means God is correcting you. That is the heartbeat of the word chastening.
It does, however, contain a spectrum. There is are range of things that happens here. I think the text uses four words here in Hebrews. It says that we should not regard lightly the discipline. We should not grow weary when reproved, like a negative positive.  Then it repeats itself. The Lord disciplines the one he loves and he chastises every son.

So there seems to be a punitive type of chastening. But we use the word reprove or chas-tise. And then there seems to be a preparatory type of chastening where God disciplines or trains us.

Now this should not be strange to you. You use this in your own home. For instance, when your kids, quote, unquote, mess up and they sin, you reprove them.  You chastise them. You correct them from a punitive point of view, don’t you?  You say, “Don’t do this.  Do this.”

But you also give preparatory correction.  For instance, these are things that aren’t about sin and they are often you give them in advance. For instance, say your son or daughter is about to drive.  Jody and Doug, you walk up to Brenna and say, “Brenna, you are 15, 16 now. Here is the keys. See you later.”

Doug is over there, no way. Because if you don’t give preparatory correction, preparatory kind of instruction and chastening and I use that old word there, then she will definitely mess up because she doesn’t know really what to do to begin with. So you give corrective instruction ahead of time. You prepare her for what is ahead, right?

We do this with all kinds of things with children. We do this with puberty, at least you should. Prep them for what is coming.  We take all of our kids on a trip each when they get to this level and this age and they go off for about two or three days and we just talk about all that is going to come up in the next few years of their life.  It is very good prep-aration. It helps them think correctly. It helps them kind of manage the emotions that are going to start going crazy as they turn into this weird creature called a teenager. All these things are going to happen, right?  It kind of helps prepare them for what is coming down the pike.

We do this. So don’t think that it is odd that God would act in this way.  God corrects us at times for punitive reasons and then at times for preparatory reasons. It is all part of his chastening nature, not his chasing nature, his chastening nature, his correcting nature, be-cause guess what, guys?  Watch me here. That is what God does to his children.

Let me be starkly frank with you.  God is not out of line to call you out.  That is what good fathers do.  And God wasn’t out of line to discipline and punish the northern king-dom.  They were his kids. That is what good fathers do.  Are you with me?

In fact, I will show you in this text in a few minutes, discipline, corrective training, chas-tening is actually an identifying mark of a child of God. Why do we run from the very thing that identifies us as belonging to God?  We shouldn’t. It signifies, wow, you belong to God.

That is a complement, amen? But typically we run from things that are correc-tive in nature.  We run from things that might dominate us and humiliate us because of our pride.  We don’t want to ever think we are wrong about anything, even if it is not pu-nitive.  We think, well, I am thinking wrong about this, but I don’t want to listen to God. I want to hold my opinions.  How shameful. How wicked, when God in every step of the way wants to correct us and train us and discipline us so that we are more in the image of his Son. Does that make sense, guys?  It is a sign that we belong to God.

And I you are never being convicted or corrected, if your life is void and absent of any of God’s corrective, chastening nature, don’t smile. Don’t walk out thinking, man, I am in a good place. You are probably lost.  You are without God.  And you need to repent and ask the Lord to save you by his grace, because it is in the nature of God to correct his children.

In fact, can I show that to you in this text, so I am not just… you don’t think I am just kind of barking up a tree that I made up.  Look what it says in verse seven.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. Yes, in other words, these hard times, it is how God trains us. Often it is punitive. Often it is corrective, but it is still this category of chastening and discipline. He says when this occurs, verse seven, God is treating you as sons. Do you see that? What a clear succinct statement.  It means you belong to God. And then he asks the rhetorical question. What son is there whom his father does not disci-pline? If you were left without discipline, if there is no spiritual godly training in your life, whether through conversations or circumstances or challenges or situations, if there is never any type of breaking down of your pride and then rebuilding you back up in the right biblical sense, if that is never happening it says there then you are illegitimate chil-dren and not sons. The King James says bastards.

Man, the writer here is really in our face, isn’t he?  If God is never pruning you, if you never feel the tension of the spirit in pointing out sin and convicting you, do not rejoice in that.

He is making the case here that really God’s corrective measures, his chastening is done because of our relationship to him. That is the root of chastening.

Let’s keep reading here. It says when God disciplines us and we are subject to him, then we will live, verse nine says.  This is the point, guys, that relationship is what mandates chastening.

Now, again, I say this to you. You experience this.  So don’t think this is odd.  Let me explain what I mean. If I ask, let’s say, the Parsons and let’s say our kids are little. This is years ago. Let’s say you had little kids and I say, “Scott and Jess, can you watch our kids for a day? And by the way, if they mess up, you treat them like your own.”

Now he is going to do this to me. He is going to say, “No problem.” He is going to nod. But is he really going to do that?  No.  Be honest.  He is not. Do you know why? Because they are not his own.  It is not a complicated situation here. 
Let’s say the Halsteads come to me and Julie and say, “Todd and Julie, watch our kids of a day and, by the way, Todd and Julie, when they act up, you treat them like your own.”

Do you know what I will do? I will nod to Doug. But will I treat them like my own? No. I wouldn’t wear their bottoms out, no way. That is their job.  I might kind of intimidate and threaten, you know, when your dad gets a hold of you. I might pull rank in that sense. We know Doug and Jody. And I might save them for their parents, but would I really disci-pline them like they are my own? I am not going to do it because they are not my own.

So even though we as friends and as, you know, spiritual family members, we say that. The truth is we never do that.  And the truth is we shouldn’t.  There are some parents that do that.  That is the parent’s role to discipline.

Your kids receive discipline from you because they belong to you.  There is a unique lev-el of training they get because they wear and bear your last name.  And it won’t happen anywhere else, but in your home. Does that make sense?  It is almost like a right, a right of passage or a privilege.  And this level of trainage, we got it because we wear the name Stiles.  If they were to go to the Smith household or the Kelly household, it would just be different. WE don’t do it that way.  We don’t do it that way. You are right, because it is a different house and you belong to us so this is the way we do it.

Does that make sense, guy?

And I want you to understand something here. It is not … we don’t need to look at God kind of cross eyed when he calls us out, when he disciplines and corrects us. It is what he does as a faithful Father. We should be thankful.  It is proof positive we belong to God and we should rejoice in that.

So the real root for chastening, for corrective measures is sonship. But the result is al-ways righteousness.

In closing, let me read these last two verses for you. Look what he says here, verses 10 and 11. He says:

For the moment all this kind of stuff, this discipline, it seems painful rather than pleasant. And the church says what? Amen, right? Sure you know that. I mean, right now all of you are thinking of a situation that is very painful. You don’t enjoy it, but you know God is probably using it. It may be punitive. It may be preparatory, but God is using it to dis-cipline you, to train you. He is using it. It seems painful, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Isn’t that awesome? I mean, this is the nutshell of Christianity.  It is short term pain for long term gain.  That is what God is up to. That is what he is doing. It happens over a pe-riod of time. It is called sanctification. And when God saves us he begins to work with us and chasten us and correct us and train us and discipline us over a period of a lifetime so that when the eternal state comes, when his kingdom appears, we will be glorified with him.  What a great day that will be. That will happen as sanctification does its full work in us. 
Is that easy? Not at all. In fact, the word train in verse 11 is our American way gymnasi-um.  It is like going to the gym with God every day and, no, not for open gym, shoot some baskets, ok?  No offence to our open gym guys here. We are talking about going to the gym and hitting it hard.  That is what God does. It is painful. It is difficult. It hurts. But in the end it leads the peaceful, notice that, peaceful fruit of righteousness. That is a glorious phrase, because it speaks about a person who is inwardly good to go and out-wardly good to go. And it is just kind of a… and I will use this phrase. It is almost a dumbing down of the text, so forgive me. Like someone who is just really easy to be around. I mean, they are peaceful inside. They know where their real security comes from. They know where their approval is and then they have these righteous acts around them. They are just not hard to be with.

And, by the way, this is the end goal of parenting physically, to do the hard work in the early years so that your kids are somewhat enjoyable to be around when they are adults.

This is why you don’t give your kid everything they want when they cry. Do they like it? No. Are they mad? Yes. They are a kid. They are a child.  They crave sugar and sleep and games, ok?  But that is not what life is when they get 18 and 20. They will have to be an employee somewhere and show up on time. They have got to do their jobs. Those things require training. So for years we develop environments where kids are on time.  And they do what they are told. And when they don’t there is a corrective measure for that. There is punitive chastening, so to speak. We give increased responsibility.  We start with chores in the house. All those things happen. And they won’t like it. But later on they will be glad and a lot of friends and they have a pretty good marriage and they like to be with people and they are invited to parties. That is a good thing.

Every kid who is 30 ought to thank his parents for having friends, because when they were little their parents probably did things that were heard and difficult that the kid didn’t like. This is the point of saying spiritually. God does things. He allows things. He brings things that cause our character to grow so that, guess what? There is the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Things are good in here.  Things are good out here. Do you know what? Nathan, it is easy to be with you. I am glad God is working on you.

He says to me, “Todd, it is easy to be with you.  I am glad God is working on you.”

That is what is going on here. That is the chastening work of God.  It is rooted in our rela-tionship and always results in righteousness.

Now to test this, to see if this New Testament passage really describes who God is and teaches us about God, let’s take this text and as we close, lay it over 2 Kings 17.

Did God do this to the northern kingdom? You bet he did. He allowed them to be cap-tured. He brought in the Assyrian army because they belonged to him.  We know that. They were in a relationship.  And did it bring the peaceful fruit of righteousness?  100%. Watch this. This is the upper level view.

As God scattered the 10 tribes all the focus then became the two tribes in the south of which one of those was Judah.  And guess who came through the tribe of Judah? The righteousness of God. Who is that? Jesus Christ.
And all of God’s, quote, unquote, difficult work with these 12 tribes, captivity in 722 for 10 of them, 136 years later, captivity to these two, all of that was still to bring a purging effect so that we would have the righteousness of God personified. Jesus Christ would show up. And he did, didn’t he? And guess what he is called. He is called our peace.  And the whole result of all of God’s work with these 10, these 12 tribes is the appearance and coming of Jesus, our peace, God’s righteousness.

If you can trust 12 tribes, an entire nation to God and through all of their dysfunction and captivity bring forth the Messiah, guess what?  You can trust him with your life and he will bring forth the peaceful fruit of righteousness, yes, with all of the difficult things that are in you life that God is using, challenges, conversations, consequences, all those things. You add them up. God will use them to chasten, correct and train you. He will be in the gym with you and they will all be used to make sure that your life at the end is ex-actly what it needs to be for his glory.

Is that not a God we can trust? Is that not a God we can worship? It is, isn’t it?  

______________________________________________________________________
This resource is provided as a learning tool produced by First Family Church in Ankeny, Iowa.  The Church’s mission is to develop devoted followers of Jesus Christ in people groups around the world who celebrate, grow and serve. For more information on First Family, visit our website at www.FirstFamilyMinistries.com.

This recording may be duplicated free of charge with attribution to First Family Church, Ankeny, Iowa.

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like on from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Like the nation of Israel, we all have turned away from God at times. But God, in His sovereign grace has worked out His rescue plan for us! And that plan is found in none other than Jesus Christ our Lord. Why? God wants us to be near Him and worship Him. He calls for our highest and most passionate devotion. That’s why worship is so important to us! Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” Let’s come back to Him this week, and let’s worship Him with all of our hearts with gratitude for his great salvation! God bless you…see you Sunday!

The people of the land apparently knew the same.  “In a 1774 report to King George, the Governor of Boston noted: ‘If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.’ The pre-war ColonialCommittees of Correspondence soon made this the American motto: "No King but King Jesus."[1]

The story of God’s chosen people might have gone very differently had they chanted the same motto.  Instead, they wanted a king.  Over the period of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah there were thirty-eight kings.  Only five of them were good. Of the others a refrain heard throughout the Old Testament goes like this: “They did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

Prophets appeared exhorting the people to turn back to God. God spoke through one prophet—Isaiah—to tell the people of Judah that they would be captured and deported to Babylon but afterward he would bring them back home.  The purpose? “Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” (Isaiah 49:23).

Our nation would have gone a much different route had Washington agreed to be king.  But he seemed to know what many others didn’t, namely, that when we displace God on the throne of our lives, the outcome is inevitably something horribly wrong.  But when God is on the throne in our lives, we are in the best possible position for biblical, godly success (Psalm 1).

Maybe our American ancestors knew the best way to start a revolution was with the motto “No King but King Jesus,” especially a personal one in your own life.  See what changes that ignites in your life, and how it begins pointing you true north.

There’s no better place to find weekly motivation for your new journey than the body of Christ, and so I encourage you to make a commitment to one of our weekend services, and to your weekly small group. It’s there that others who have adopted the same motto will encourage you to stay true to your real King, living as a servant in his now-and-still-yet-to-come Kingdom.

For the fame of Jesus,