We continued to explore the greatness of God’s work as Paul exults in it. We are in the middle of this massively long sentence which is lavishly filled with the vastness of the glory of God. The part we explored last time started with redemption and ended with how in the fullness of time all things will be united in Jesus. In the middle Paul talks about how God poured out his redemption on us and forgave our trespasses with all wisdom and understanding. The wisdom and understanding here speaks of God’s wisdom and understanding and ties back to the redemption which is poured out on us. This means God did this not ignoring our sin but in full understanding of what He was doing in Jesus. This really brings out the greatness of His grace because it was not blind to our sin but rather God wisely took care of the penalty for our sin and brought us forgiveness. Again emphasizing the majesty of the redemption which God has brought to bear on us. God’s will is described as being the uniting of all things in Jesus. All things in heaven and on earth.

We began our verse by verse study of Ephesians. We began by looking at how the church in Ephesus is addressed by the Lord in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. What we see in Revelation gives us a little window into the church in Ephesus. Honestly, the church in Ephesus sounds like a pretty solid church theologically. As a matter of fact based solely on how the church here is described most churches today would love to be described like they are. Yet the truly shocking thing about Ephesus is how in spite of their refuting of false teachers and their zeal for God’s word they are reprimanded for losing their first love. If this is the core problem in the church in Ephesus then we might have a really good clue about what God is doing through Paul here as he pens this letter to the Ephesian Christians and really all Christians throughout all time. This letter opens with a magnificent heart stirring exultation of God. If the church is struggling with a heart felt love for God then this is certainly a call to enflame the heart with passion for God.

We worked through an overview of the book of Ephesians. We laid out the people and context of the area it was written to. We explored the ideas of the book in a broad overview. And we looked at the unique aspects of the letter. How Paul wrote in a general sense and this makes the letter very relevant for Christians of all times and ages. It was probably written this way with the idea it would be circulated among the churches.

We are going to consider Mary and how her role as the one chosen to bear Jesus points us to His greatness. In the Biblical picture we are betrothed to Jesus. That means the commitment to marriage has been made and we are for all intents and purposes married but not yet united. This is part of the reason scripture speaks with anticipation of the great marriage supper of the Lamb. Jesus has committed Himself to His bride and has paid the price for her with His own shed blood. This is a serious commitment of God to His people. In addition this is why a relationship with God is a serious matter and not a light and casual thing. This is the type of relationship Mary had entered into with Joseph. Mary is not chosen because she was a remarkable person. Mary is a remarkable person because she is chosen. God made Mary to be the person He needed her to be. Mary was chosen because she was the right woman betrothed to the right man at the moment in time in which God planned to bring Jesus into the world. This is not to say Mary was not a God honoring woman. Her life and actions demonstrate a profound trust in God. But we must remember Mary was a sinner in need of a Savior just like you and I.

In particular the highlighted person was Bathsheba. But in this instance she is not mentioned by name. She is referred to as the wife of Uriah. She is the mother of Solomon by David. What this does for us as readers is it highlights David as a sinful man. David is and was almost always thought of as the greatest king of Israel. As we looked at last time in Jeremiah 30 the people are prophesied to one day serve the Lord their God and David their king. This points out how highly the people thought of David. Because this verse is clearly the referencing the future king who is descended from David. What Matthew is doing is drawing our attention to the fact that while David was a great king he was also a sinner and could not be the greater and better king we all needed. That king is the one Matthew is writing about. The other thing we saw as we looked into the situation with David and Bathsheba is the prophecy Nathan made of how the child Bathsheba carried would die because of David’s sin. It is easy to read past that quickly but the truth of the matter is this child’s death was due to sin and one day David’s greater and better Son Jesus would have to die because of David’s sin and all of our sin. This child Matthew is writing about was born to die. Jesus came to take away the sin which separates us from God.

The story of Ruth continues to show the idea that the women talked about in this passage were pagans and mainly gentiles. Yet God chooses these women to be the women in the line of Christ. Ruth was a Moabite woman who ends up coming to Israel because she had married an Israelite man. Boaz shows favor to Ruth because of what he's heard Ruth has done for her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth proposes that Boaz should redeem the inheritance of Elimelech. Boaz figures this out and ends up being the redeemer of Ruth and takes Ruth as his wife. Ruth, a Moabite, is brought into Israel and made part of the line of Christ.

The story of Rahab continues to show the idea that the women talked about in this passage were mainly pagans and gentiles. Yet God chooses these women to be the women in the line of Christ. Which is particularly striking since Matthew was written to Jews. This is very important because grace to gentiles is poured forth in even the line of Christ. Rahab was a prostitute who probably also had a house for prostitution. Why did the spies go to Jericho? Because God had a Canaanite women in Jericho that He was going to save from the destruction that He was bringing upon Jericho. It's almost like Rahab was participating in the passover that the Israelites were just starting to share in, for the first time, in the promised land.

The story of Tamar continues to show the idea that the women talked about in this passage were pagans and mainly gentiles. Yet God chooses these women to be the women in the line of Christ. Tamar loses her first two husbands because of their wickedness before the Lord. Tamar appears to be 'tainted goods' and Judah doesn't want to give his youngest son over to Tamar even though he's come of age. The picture of Jesus and Adam are also seen in this passage in the bearing of the twins by Tamar.

Today we looked at how Babylon came and conquered Jerusalem. How Zedekiah was made ruler and how he rebelled against the King of Babylon. Destruction followed this rebellion as Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed Jerusalem and carried into exile a great many of the people. The remaining people left in Judah, flee to Egypt after Gedaliah the governor is murdered. The promises of God are seen to be fulfilled in bringing judgement upon Judah for there sin and rebellion against God.

We worked through the section of Kings which describes how Judah came to be under the authority and rulership of Pharaoh Neco the king of Egypt. The people of Judah had made Jehoahaz king when his father died even though he was not the oldest son of Josiah. We don’t know why this was and there is no good explanation given. He only reigned 3 months and the immediately returned to the evil which had marked the reign of the kings which came before his father Josiah. After 3 months Pharaoh Neco came and captured him and carried him off to Egypt where he lived out his days and died. He made his older brother Eliakim king and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He also placed a tribute on Judah of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. Jehoiakim complied with this and extracted even more from the people. He used the extra to build himself a royal palace and he too did evil in the eyes of the Lord. For 3 years he became servant to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He rebelled against Babylon after 3 years at the same time Babylon was going against Egypt. During this time God sent all the surrounding nations against Judah to destroy it for the evil which they had done. After Jehoiakim’s death Jehoiachin his son came to reign in his place and we are now entering into a new era as Babylon has come to dominate the world of this time.

We worked our way through the reforms brought about under the reign of Josiah. He was a righteous king which had been prophesied about at the beginning of the separation of the Judah and Israel. He brought reforms with real passion for turning the people back to God. No other king before him or after him had been as passionate for the exultation of God before the people. He sought to wipe out all idolatry including the worship of household gods. He wiped out the shrines which had even been built by Solomon on what is now known as the mount of olives. He even went into the territory which had formerly been occupied by Israel and tore down all their idols and altars to false gods. He did all of this knowing that after his death Judah was going to be taken captive for her consistent idolatry for hundreds of years. This reveals how Josiah was not being driven by a hope of God relenting or with the hope of establishing a legacy but simply by a passionate love for God.

We worked our way through the beginning of the story of Josiah. He is a remarkably good God honoring king over Judah from a very young age. He begins to reign at 8 years old. He fulfills a prophecy given to Jeroboam at the very beginning of his reign over the newly separated 10 tribes of Israel. A prophet told Jeroboam that a king named Josiah would cast down false places of worship and call people to return to Yahweh. Josiah began with having work done on the temple to repair it. During the repair work they found the book of the law. This book was taken to the king and read. The response of the king was to tear his clothes because he knew based simply on the book how the people had done evil in the sight of God. Josiah sent a delegation of his advisors to Huldah the prophetess to inquire about the things which had been read. She pronounced the coming wrath of God against Judah because of the way she had turned her back on Him. God promised however this would not happen in Josiah’s lifetime because he had torn his clothes and wept in repentance before God. God promised Josiah he would die in peace and not see the disaster God would bring on Judah.

We worked our way through the story of Manasseh. In typical fashion the writer of Kings is most concerned with the broader brush strokes of the story. We don’t hear in Kings about Manasseh becoming repentant when he is taken captive or the fact of his attempt to make things right after his return from captivity. While these were important personally they didn’t make a huge difference for the people of Judah because his son which became king after him continued to carry out the evil which Manasseh had initially begun. The writer of kings though does record how God continued to send prophets to Manasseh and Judah during this really long time of spiritual apostasy. One of the questions which naturally comes up when we look at a passage which essentially covers for the most part 57 years of hardened refusal to repent is, “Why did God allow this to continue?” Certainly, God was patient with bringing Manasseh to repentance. But the bigger point and the one which most likely comforted the people in exile is how God was there and active in spite of the wickedness which multiplied during this dark period. Even though evil may appear to be growing God is still in control and He is still calling His people to repent and return to Him.

We walked through the near death of Hezekiah. It is a really serious illness and he is really incapacitated by it. Isaiah comes to him and tells him to prepare to die. Hezekiah believes him and it grieves him because he is very sick. Hezekiah cries out to God from his deathbed asking for healing and restoration. Isaiah soon returns with the message Hezekiah will recover and will go up to the temple in 3 days. Because he is so sick Hezekiah finds this declaration unbelievable and he asks Isaiah for a sign. The sign he is given is the shadow moves back 10 steps on a time keeping device Ahaz had built. Hezekiah recovers and worships at the temple in 3 days just like Isaiah had prophesied. His sickness and recovery were talked about even in the halls of Babylon which was over 670 miles away. The king of Babylon sent an envoy with gifts to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery. There may have been alliances made at this time. But Hezekiah is clearly caught up in the celebrity of the moment and proceeds to show the envoy all the wealth and splendor of his kingdom and the temple. Isaiah shortly comes to Him and declares how this indiscreet display of wealth will lead to the conquest of Judah by Babylon. Isaiah prophesies the captivity and service of Hezekiah’s sons to the kings of Babylon. At this revelation Hezekiah is relieved this will not happen in his lifetime. We see in Hezekiah a king who is a good king but even a good king can be seduced by pride. And yet even in this we see God foreshadowing the better king the promised Son of David who will reign forever. Hezekiah was sick unto death and in 3 days he recovered and went to worship at the temple. Jesus the greater and better king entered into death and in 3 days he rose again in the new and better temple of His body. If even a prideful king can be used by God to point us to Jesus, then there is hope that God can use me to point people to Jesus.

We worked through the last part of Hezekiah’s conflict with the king of Assyria. In chapter 18 we ended with a very dark scene, Hezekiah and his leaders are in sackcloth before the Lord facing a grim and dismal threat from the king of Assyria. In chapter 19 we witnessed the Lord’s deliverance. It is a supernatural intervention as the Lord sends an angel who kills 185,000 men of the Assyrian army in one night. Sennacherib returns home in defeat and shortly after this is killed by his own sons. It is a good reminder that God loves His people and delights to rescue them. In this story we also see how Sennacherib declared his greatness above the god’s of all the other kings he had conquered and he boasted of how he would conquer Jerusalem as well. God will not be mocked by men, and God demonstrates His power by sending His angel to strike the army of the Assyrians.

We followed the opening story of Hezekiah and his reign as the king of Judah. He is one of the most God honoring kings of the kings of Judah. He is one of the only kings to remove the high places where people worshipped. He destroyed the idols people worshipped including the bronze serpent Moses had made, since people had come to worship it as well. The record of Hezekiah’s reign includes the statement that there were none like him either before or after him in the way he trusted God. He not only trusted God but was recognized for seeking to be obedient to the commandments of God. The Lord was with Hezekiah and blessed him. We see Hezekiah breaking the reliance on Assyria his father had established. He also has success in going against the Philistines. This is all seen as a result of God being with him. In his fourth year as king of Judah the king of Assyria came against Samaria and besieged it for 3 years. After 3 years Samaria fell and the nation of Israel was conquered and carried off as captives. 7 years after Israel was conquered the king of Assyria moved his attention to Judah who had stopped paying tribute to him toward the start of Hezekiah’s reign which is now in its 14th year. Sennacherib began to conquer the cities of Judah. After most of his fortified cities were conquered Hezekiah sent word to the king of Assyria that he had done wrong and would pay whatever Sennacherib imposed on him. The king demanded 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the silver from his treasury and from the house of the Lord and he stripped the gold from the doors of the temple. All of this was to satisfy the king of Assyria. But he was not satisfied and he sent his military leaders to Jerusalem to demand they surrender of face what they believed was an unstoppable conquest by Assyria. We ended last time with Hezekiah’s leaders coming to him with the dismal message of impending disaster. We considered why the writer of kings would spend so much time painting such a dismal picture? To people in exile facing a dire situation this passage would have been an encouragement. Because in the background to this story God is there. No matter how bleak things may become God is there.

Examples of times when peopled prayed to God. We look at the contexts of when peopled prayed and what they prayed about. Continuing this study of prayer is the focus of this Sunday. Ezra's confessionary prayer and Nehemiah's silent prayer of heart are two examples we looked at. Nehemiah also prays for protection and we see Job praying on behalf of other men. Daniel prays to God in the midst of danger and later for the Israelites in exile. Jonah and other examples are also looked at today.

We worked through the last half of chapter 17. We see the pagan people the Assyrians moved into the land of Israel dealing with attacks by lions. The response is, “We don’t know how to appease the God of this land!” and so they send word to the king of Assyria for help. He orders a priest to be sent back to the land to teach the people about God. The amazing thing about this is how God is using the establishment of the people of Israel in the land to be the basis for bringing the truth about the true and living God to the nations even if Israel is not really occupying the land. God is at work glorifying His name through them. While the vast majority of pagan people in the land of Israel certainly do not repent and turn to Yahweh there were no doubt some who did. God promises His word will not return void so there must have been some among those moved into the land who came to follow Yahweh.

We worked through the first half of 2 Kings 17. Here we see the judgement of God being poured out on the 10 northern tribes for their unfaithfulness. Again and again the point is made how this is happening because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people. They had adopted the customs of the people who were driven out before them. They rejected the one true God who had delivered them from Egypt and slavery and had given them the land. They embraced idolatry with zeal. We spent a good deal of time looking at the idea of customs and how God had given them many things which would have made them a peculiar people. They had the sabbath observance, the feasts of the Lord, the freeing of slaves and resting of land every 7 years and the forgiveness of debts and return of property every 49 years. They clearly had God ordained customs which should have set them apart and been a constant reminder of God and His grace. But they turned their back on these things and did not practice them but instead adopted the customs of the nations around them and the ones which had been driven out of the land. We reflected on how easy it is to cast judgement on the people we are looking at but we should be careful to consider what we are ignoring which God has asked us to do. We reflected on tithing and how the national average for tithing is less than 1%. Are we actively seeking to keep a sabbath to the Lord? Or have the pressures of life and the burdens of bills driven us to ignore these things or push them off to a later time. How are we dealing with the issues we face because the customs God calls us to are no less important before God than the ones Israel faced.

We worked our way through chapter 16 dealing with the rulership of king Ahaz of Judah. There is a lot of detail about his life especially when we consider how he is described as a king who did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. This is the first time this kind of description is applied to a king of Judah. It is a sad commentary an a life spent turning away from God at every point. He was even said to have sacrificed his son to an idol. Yet we see in the book of Isaiah how God reached out to Ahaz in his time of need as Jerusalem was being attacked by both Israel and Syria. But Ahaz refused to trust God and accept His help. Instead he sent money to Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria and asked him for help. The Assyrian king came down and conquered the Syrians killing their king. This of course aided the kingdom of Judah but the Assyrian king demanded Ahaz submit to him and even came down and executed his own attack against Jerusalem. Ahaz also lost soldiers and cities to the Philistines and the Edomites. Overall his time as king was one of continual decline. The one thing which stands out is God’s patience with him and the kingdom of Judah. Ahaz led the people into idolatry of all kinds and yet God did not destroy them. This ongoing patience of God had to be an encouragement to the people in exile who were reading this account. They were living among a people who were idol worshippers. They were probably under the kind of pressure Christians face today to just be quiet and not say anything about their faith. In the meantime the false faith of the pagan is declared loudly and without consequence in the public square. The fact God was there constantly showing mercy in the midst of an unfaithful kings rule had to be a comfort to those who were afraid and felt like they were failing in their pursuit of God. This same kind of comfort is available to us today. God is faithful in the midst of our unfaithfulness. This does not give us license to just ignore God’s call for us to be faithful. On the contrary it should call us to abandon hope in man and put our hope in God alone. To live lives of uncompromising faith in the midst of a pagan and fallen world.