A Study in God’s Plan for Mankind: Study 7

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The Jewish Age part 3: “Judges, Kings and Prophecies”

In the last post on the study of God’s plan for mankind, we saw how the Bible teaches us that due to disobedience to a direct instruction by Adam and Eve (the first man and woman), mankind was subsequently out of harmony with God. This disharmony led to mankind falling from a perfect state to a degraded state, and the end result of this degraded state was death. We saw that many centuries later, God began dealing with a certain grouping of mankind; specifically, the descendants of Jacob, who would later be renamed Israel. We further saw how God worked to separate the Israelites, as these descendants of Israel came to be known, from the other nations of the earth, and began to deal with them on a more direct basis. Because of this interaction, we titled this phase of God’s plan “the Jewish Age”. We then focused the last study on the Jewish Age with a consideration of the topic of justification. In this study, we reviewed, at a high level, the law that God gave to the Israelites, and the concept that a perfect keeping of this law, in deed and spirit, would be sufficient to grant that person “justification”, or righteousness, in God’s eyes, and thus granting that person a right to life. We concluded the study with the observation that being able to perfectly keep the law would prove to be impossible for members of the degraded human race, as shown by the scriptures of the Old Testament.

After relaying the law given by God to the descendants of Israel, Moses again acting as proxy for God, conveys the acceptance of the law by the people back to God:

Exodus 19:7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which Jehovah commanded him.

Exodus 19:8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that Jehovah hath spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people unto Jehovah.

By accepting the law, the people were accepting both the benefits of being God’s chosen people, as well as the consequence for disobedience. As the people began to settle in with the law, the newly forming nation of Israel needed a human representative to help with disputes. That started out being Moses, whom the scriptures refer to as “judging” the people:

Exodus 18:13 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood about Moses from the morning unto the evening.

Moses, however, soon found the responsibility too demanding, and appointed a series of judges to help the people handle their disputes:

Exodus 18:25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

Exodus 18:26 And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

The concept of a judge, one who understood God’s laws and was thus able to settle disputes among the Israelites, was one that the Israelites adhered to for many centuries. The Old Testament does not explicitly tell us the names of all those who served as judges, or even how long a time period the Israelites instituted the system of judges. This would be a problem for students of the Bible today, who were attempting to use the otherwise well-documented time periods of the Old Testament to establish timelines or chronologies, which can be critical elements when studying Biblical events or prophecies. Some times these periods were measured in the recording of particular heads of families and how long those people lived, and who their descendants were. Additionally, as can be seen in the scriptures chronicling the period of time after the judges, the lengths of rules of kings is also well documented. The Old Testament scriptures, however, do not seem to specify the period of time in between, when the judges served the nation of Israel, leaving a potential hole in the student’s ability to correspond events in prophecy with timelines. However, although this length of time is not available in the Old Testament, it is available in the New Testament, where Paul, who under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (the power and direction of God, as described in Acts 13:9) clears up the length of time of the judges very succinctly:

Acts 13:20 And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.

As you remember from the earlier books of the Old Testament, God originally gave Abram (later renamed to Abraham) a command, that he was to leave the area where he was dwelling, and travel to a different area, where God would make Abram’s descendants a great nation. Remember also that, during a time of extreme famine, Abram’s descendants, led at the time by the patriarch Jacob (who would later be renamed Israel) took refuge in Egypt, where they remained for many years. Further remember that at the beginning of the Jewish Age, many years later, God commanded the descendants of Israel to leave Egypt and travel to the land which he had promised to their ancestor, and appointed Moses as his spokesperson to the people, to lead and guide them through this journey. The Old Testament books of Joshua and Judges outline this period of the Jewish Age, when the Israelites moved forward, conquered and settled this land.

As the Old Testament moves into the book of 1 Samuel, we see the Israelites approaching Samuel, who was the last of the true judges, and demanding a king:

1 Samuel 8:4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah;

1 Samuel 8:5 and they said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

As noted in verse four, one of the reasons cited by the Israelites for replacing the judges with a king was due to Samuel’s sons. Samuel had two sons, who he had named as judges, but as noted in verse 3, the two sons were corrupt, and thus were not representatives of God’s law. Another reason for the request for a king was given in verse 5. Although the people of Israel had the special favor of God Himself, yet at least part of the nation felt a desire to follow the example of other nations. In this, although they had the law from God, and to an extent, were keeping the words of the law, they were missing an important element of the spirit of the law. As we will see later in the Jewish Age, this pattern would repeat itself, with grave and far-reaching consequences to the majority of the Israelites.

The first king was Saul, who was followed by David. Both kings maintained the national devotion to God. David was followed by his son, Solomon. Solomon started out as king at a young age. Although he was granted wisdom by God, and started out by keeping the nation of Israel devoted to God, he let himself be overwhelmed by desires and pursuits that would lead him, and the nation he ruled, away from God.

After Solomon’s death, a civil war occurred for the throne. The nation of Israel, which had grown large in population, wealth and power, was split into two separate parts; each with their own king. The tribes (descendants) of Judah and Benjamin formed one nation, with their capitol remaining in Jerusalem. The other ten tribes split away and made their own nation, and appointed their own king. Although, in general, the nation formed out of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained more faithful to God than the nation formed from the other tribes, the following decades saw, time and again, both halves of Israel, led by their kings, fall away from the worship of God, and take on the worship taught to them by the surrounding peoples.

During these decades, many prophets arose, and through these prophets, many prophecies were also given by God to the Israelites. It is doubtful that the prophets who served as the vehicles for these prophecies understood, at least fully, the meaning of the words that flowed through them. Peter refers to this concept in his letter to the Hebrews:

1 Peter 1:10 Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that [should come] unto you:

The prophecies delivered by these prophets throughout this period can, in general, be viewed from at least two perspectives. Some of these prophecies revolved around a series of punishments to the nations of Israel, for their disobedience and unfaithfulness to the God they had promised to serve. These prophecies were also coupled with prophecies of restoration, after the periods of punishment had been completed. Other prophecies had a greater, more expansive meaning, and pictured events not just including the nation of Israel, but events applicable to all mankind. These broader applications, being farther reaching and considerably more future than the Israelites would have expected, were largely lost on the people at the time. Certainly, however, at least some of the Israelites, in both nations of the split, understood at least the aspects of the prophecies that dealt with the oncoming punishment for their disobedience to the God they had promised to serve, and follow exclusively. The scriptures do chronicle the fulfillment of these punishments against Israel, for their continued disobedience. We see this disobedience, and the continual ignoring of the prophets sent to warn both nations (remember, by this time, Israel had been split by civil war into two nations) summarized in the book of 2 Kings.

First, the nation of Israel, composed of the tribes that had broken away from the tribe of Judah and David’s line, was destroyed, as chronicled in 1 Kings 17:

2 Kings 17:13 Yet Jehovah testified unto Israel, and unto Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.

2 Kings 17:14 Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their neck, like to the neck of their fathers, who believed not in Jehovah their God.

2 Kings 17:15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and [went] after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them that they should not do like them.

2 Kings 17:16 And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.

Note in particular the words of verse 14, which describes the people of Israel as “having hardened their neck”. The people of Israel had become, in general, disobedient to God, to the point of not responding to the punishments given by Him, or by listening to the words of the prophets that God sent to them. Make a note of this description and these verses; they will have an even greater meaning during the events of the closing of the Jewish Age, as we will see in not-too-future studies.

The scriptures show that of the two nations that once formed the combined Israel, the nation formed out of the ten tribes that split away from Judah, and David’s line of rulers, had a greater tendency toward disobedience towards God’s commandment to remain faithful to him, and a greater tendency to follow other God’s. 2 Kings 17 subsequently shows the destruction of this nation:

2 Kings 17:22 And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;

2 Kings 17:23 until Jehovah removed Israel out of his sight, as he spake by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

The nation formed from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin continued for some while longer, but also continued to displease God by periodically worshiping other gods. God declares his intention that because of this continued disobedience, the nation of Judah would now also be destroyed:

2 Kings 23:27 And Jehovah said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.

The conclusion of 2 Kings 24 chronicles the final king of this nation, and that he led the nation again away from sole worship of God. Thus, in chapter 25, we see the corresponding destruction of Judah at the hands of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, culminating in the following verse:

2 Kings 25:21 And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.

Although 2 Kings 25 outlines the final overthrow of Judah, due to their continual disobedience, at the hands of Babylon, the destruction of Judah did not immediately happen. The beginning of 2 Kings 24 outlines an earlier attack upon Judah, by Babylon, during the reign of Judah’s king Jehoiakim. The attack culminated with Judah’s defeat, although not destruction, and Jehoiakim being taken captive by Babylon. Following this attack Babylon’s king, Nebuchadnezzar (who would later also be Babylon’s king overseeing Judah’s eventual destruction) ordered that youths who met a certain standard would be taken from Judah to live in Nebuchadnezzar’s household, and be groomed “to stand before the king”. Among these young people, chosen to be taken from Judah, was a youth named Daniel. The account of his transfer from Judah to Nebuchadnezzar’s household takes place in the first chapter of the book of Daniel.

Throughout his life, Daniel was blessed by God with both the ability to interpret the dreams of others, as well as to experience prophetic dreams and visions of his own. Through God, he was also given incite into the words of a different prophet, Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s prophecy, recorded in Jeremiah 29:10, concerning the length of time that the Israelites would serve in captivity due to their disobedience to God’s laws; primarily, the worshiping of other gods. Citing this prophecy, Daniel made reference to a (at the time) future event, namely the coming of a prophesied messiah:

Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times.

Some translations use the term “messiah” in the place of “the anointed one”. However, the thought is the same. Through Daniel, God was again reaching out to the Israelites (and indirectly, centuries later to us, as students of the scriptures) to put a timeline to the coming of a savior, or messiah, for the captive people of Israel. This timeline, although not understood by all, was nevertheless understood, to some extent, by at least some, paving the way for those who, years later, studied Daniel’s prophecy (as well as other prophecies of the other prophets). Thus it was that some time later, as the Old Testament transitions into the New Testament, there were both Jewish and non-Jewish people who understood that the time was due for the prophecy to be fulfilled, and were in expectation of this coming messiah.

In our next study, we visit, more in-depth, the time period referred to in the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy, in which certain of the people of the time were in expectation. We will see the beginnings of events that were (and continue to be) so monumental, that these events will cause the Jewish Age to draw to a close. We will re-visit the importance of the law given to the Israelites, and see the law’s ultimate fulfillment. These events will add several new elements to our table of God’s plan, and we will begin to see how all of the events we have so far reviewed have direct applicability and impact to all mankind, throughout all the ages, including the present time, who are not descended from Israel. Lastly, we will see how all the elements we have thus far discussed, although not known at the time periods in which they happened, all had their distinct places in God’s plan for mankind, and how all these different pieces are tied together for mankind’s ultimate blessing and benefit.

A profoundly wonderful episode in God’s plan was about to unfold.

Posts in the “God’s Plan for Mankind” Study

Further Readings and References

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