32 Divided Kingdom

 

"Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what [meaneth] the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and [whom] he had not given unto them: And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as [it is] this day." - Deuteronomy 29:24-28 KJV

The devil uses the flesh to undermine God’s theocratic administration.
"[This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." - Galatians 5:16 KJV
The office of Theocratic Administrator was first given to Adam until he committed treason against God and forfeited his position to the serpent. The title deed to the earth was always in God's possession but sealed until the office of Theocratic Administrator could be firmly restored in the Last Adam.

Under the Mosaic covenant, that office was conditionally restored through Moses as long as the conditions of the covenant were met.

Theocratic administrators began with Adam but was suspended until the exodus in 1446 b.c. when it was reinstated in Moses. Joshua showed the power of a people united in purpose under Jehovah. Their success was great, but incomplete. 

There is a pattern that we observe in every human endeavor: An enterprise starts with a man, it gathers momentum into a movement, then it metamorphoses into a monument. This is true with denominational church movements and it was true with Israel in the days of Joshua. After he leaves the scene the nation began to drift from its calling.

Judges were raised up to deliver the people from their enemies. Although it was a time characterized by the phrase: ’Every man did what was right in their own eyes’; It caused the people to look for a leader like the nations around them. Who were the leaders of the nations around them? Giants like Og, King of Bashan, Goliath and his brothers, etc. 

1. God recognized Israel’s reliance on the flesh requires discipline. When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they loathed the manna, ‘this light bread’. So God sent them flesh in the form of quails and “God gave them their request, but sent leanness unto their soul” Ps 106:15 

We often are tested when we become reliant on the flesh. We get impatient, we move ahead of God, we think that we can accomplish something apart from Him. We mistake the promptings of the flesh for promptings of the Spirit of God and then we blame God for the sad result.

1. Exodus 19:5-6 God declares that Israel was redeemed for the purpose of becoming a kingdom of priests. Israel was not given the law to redeem them. They were redeemed when they passed through the Red Sea. The law gave them their purpose. Yet their purpose could only be realized if they kept the conditions of God’s covenant made with them on Mt. Sinai. 

That is, they were to be mediators between God and the nations. The nations could recognize that God was with Israel and be blessed or they could resist Israel and be cursed. 

However, Israel’s experience of forgetting God reminds us that, like Israel and like Adam in the garden, the believer’s purpose and calling is thwarted when we listen to the serpent’s voice and move in the flesh, forgetting to listen for God’s voice. 

Yet in spite of human failure, we can trace God’s faithfulness through the beautiful story of Ruth, a gentile Moabitess outside of the covenants of Israel yet graciously received of Boaz. She would become the grandmother of David and carry the seed of the woman into the Messianic Royal line.

1. Praise God that He is never kept from fulfilling His purpose even when our flesh keeps us from fulfilling our intended purpose.
2. In Gen 49:10 God’s purpose concerning the Royal seed was given through Jacob’s prediction that the sceptre would not depart from Judah.
3. Judahs ascent to the throne from Saul to David. This word is fulfilled as Israel suffers under the legalistic pride of Saul and the kingdom is taken from him and given to Judah’s descendant, David. (a lot of churches suffer under leaders like Saul; It is well said that God often makes us to suffer under leaders like Saul in order to train leaders like David)
4. In Deut 17 the Spirit of God declared through Moses that the nation would one day desire a king like the other nations. This was realized in 1 sam 8. 
5. Deut 17:16;. God is not opposed to a king, He had given them conditions of a king and that he had to be one of God’s choosing. 1 sam 8:7God recognized this request was of the flesh, so He made them suffer with a tyrant, just like the other nations around them. 
6. 1 Sam 9:2 Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah. He was marked by his physical stature and satisfied their fleshly appetite for a king like the other nations.

The first king, Saul was given to Israel by God to answer their request for a leader head and shoulders above everyone else. God used Saul to send Leanness into the soul of the nation when they went to battle against their enemies. Saul’s pride made him believe that he had to do it all. He intruded into the office of prophet priest and king that only Messiah is qualified to hold.

As Saul became more consumed with pursuing David rather than with pursuing the enemies of God’s people, he left no room for those that God had gifted to serve His people. Satan could not have been more pleased.

1. 1 Sam 15:17: God intervened through the prophet Samuel who confronted Saul’s pride. As a result of Saul’s intrusion into the priests office, the kingdom was taken from him. God choose a young man to replace Saul who had a heart for God and God’s people.
2. David’s Path to the throne: Although David is anointed to be king as a very young man he did not come to the throne until 1011 B.C. after the death of Saul.
3. 1 Samuel 16:12-14: David’s anointing was before he confronted Goliath. The Spirit of the Lord that was upon Saul was replaced with an evil spirit from the Lord to trouble him.

There is a parallel pattern here to the period of time that we are in today. David was their anointed king but he was rejected by the Jewish leadership and hunted down like an animal. He could not take his place on the throne in Jerusalem as long as those that rejected him were alive. In the meantime, the people were left to choose their allegiance between the flesh’s choice, King Saul or the Spirit of God’s choice, King David. Do you see a similarity in the preaching of the gospel? Who are souls asked to choose between?

I Sam 20:30-31 This spirit of jealousy drove Saul to madness even trying to impale his son Jonathan to the wall with his spear. Saul tried to blame Jonathan for the loss of the kingdom 

David prospered Israel during his reign. Their enemies were subdued, they expanded and controlled much of the land of their enemies. Those that blessed them were blessed and those that cursed them were cursed. 

1. The Kingdom was established in David and it was decreed that the seed of the woman would ascend to the throne through the line of David. David’s throne is established forever.

2 Samuel 12:9-10; David’s sin with Bathsheba required God’s judgment on his house.
Then we come into the reign of Solomon whose reign foreshadows the peace and prosperity of God’s kingdom established in the land during the millennium. 
1 Kings 10:23,24,26: (the half hath not been told) exceeded above all of the kings of the earth.

1. Satan influenced Solomon to go against the conditions of the Mosaic covenant in multiplying wives, horses and riches for himself.

1 kings 11: As a result, his success as King was short-lived. He became more and more corrupt, even to the point of promoting the practice of child sacrifice.
These first three kings show us how leaders actions or inactions can lead to division and war among God’s people. (Applies to leaders in the church and to our homes)

1. Saul’s legalism was an attempt to put a veneer of religious activity over a heart of pride and jealousy. 
2. David’s license with Bathsheba and David’s led to David’s exile and civil war in his house.
3. Solomons lifestyle that was contrary to the revealed will of God led Solomon into horrible sin. So God Divided the Kingdom removing all of the tribes but Judah from David’s throne. 

Israel’s judgments began with the division of the kingdom