Two Kingdoms

Day 65:  1 Kings 11–14; Ezekiel 7–12; 1 Thessalonians 1–3

I am warned about reading "too much" into the literal meaning (face value) of biblical texts by some of my Baptist friends.  It is wise counsel.  If you go looking for something other than what is plain to see, then you may be missing the plain message in front of you. 

But then again, Jesus used parables to teach when He could have spoken plainly.  The wise and learned sometimes missed His message, but people who simply love God and desire to please Him end up discovering Jesus' implied message through His metaphors rather quickly because they are near to the Lord and He gives them the interpretation.

In this Spirit, I hope I am interpreting correctly a story that I think speaks volumes without saying it so plainly.  It's a story about man of God is sent from Judah to Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes to the north.  He is sent to give a message to King Jeroboam at Bethel at the shrine He built with a golden calf, saying "this is your God who brought you out of Egypt."  Jeroboam didn't want his people worshipping in Jerusalem, for he feared they may honor the authority or the son of David, Rehoboam, Solomon's successor. 

Rehoboam was foolish and didn't listen to the people crying out for lower taxation and forced labor to build all of Solomon's magnificent works: the House of the Forest of Lebanon (his palace) and the temple and others. Rehobaom was arrogant and threatened to be an even greater burden on the people. So they rejected him as their king, saying, " What portion do we have in David (1 Kg. 12:16)?"

During Solomon's reign God called on a prophet Ahijah the Shilonite to anoint Jeroboam King of Israel with 10 tribes to the north. Only Judah (Simeon implied, since their tribe was absorbed into Judah's inherited region) would serve Rehoboam (Josh 19:1; Gen. 49:5-7).  You may remember that Eli and his priests served at Shiloh where the ark of the covenant was kept in the days before Samuel the prophet became judge over Israel.  Solomon lead Judah into idolatry and so Jeroboam was chosen to tear away from Solomon the kingdom.  His unfaithfulness brought about the divided kingdom. 

Sadly both Rehoboam and Jeroboam also lead the people into idolatry.  Rehoboam followed in his father's sin and worshipped other gods.  Jeroboam, out of ignorance, jealousy and fear, built two shrines one in Dan to the extreme north and one in Bethel in Benjamin to the south not too far from Jerusalem.  In them he placed idols, golden calves, representing Yahweh.  He even used men of every class, not Levites, to serve as his priests.

The man of God sent from Judah came to Bethel and spoke against the sin of Jeroboam while the king worshipped at the altar.  The king was enraged and stretched out his hand against the prophet, but his hand withered.  He begged the prophet to "pray to the Lord, your God, for me."   The man of God prayed for him and Jeroboam's hand was restored. Do you hear any of Moses' story here?  You are supposed to.

I see the man of God from Judah as representing Moses and the covenant.  Moses' hand turned white with leprosy when he met the Lord at the burning bush and then was restored as a sign Ex 4:6-8).  When God stuck Egypt with plague and disaster, Pharaoh pleaded similar words for the prophet to "pray to the Lord you God for me (Ex. 9:28; 10:17)." 

The man of God headed back to Judah, scorning Jeroboam's attempt at hospitality because the Lord commanded him not to eat or drink in Bethel.  An old prophet in Bethel heard what had occurred to the king in the shrine and all the man of God had prophesied.  His sons had informed him.  So he went after the Judean and convinced him to come and have a meal with him, for he too was a prophet (1 Kg. 13:18). This lead to his death because he failed to keep the command of the Lord.

The man of God was killed by a lion on the way back to Judah. When the old prophet of Bethel heard about his death he went and saw the body on the road with his donkey on one side and the lion on the other.  The lion had not eaten the body, nor mauled the donkey.  It simply killed him.

It's this image that I think is trying to communicate something deeper.  The tribe of Judah is called a young lion by the patriarch Jacob (Gen. 49:9).  Later the Messiah will be referred to as the "lion of Judah (Rev. 5:5)."  And The donkey can mean humility, but it can also represent stubbornness like when Jacob says of Issachar, " Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the saddlebags."  The brute won't go where you want it to go it it doesn't want to.  Israel is like the donkey. This image of the stubborn, straying donkey is in the anointing of King Saul.  He meets Samuel the prophet who anoints him king while Saul is searching for his father's lost donkeys.  That is Saul's future...to govern a stubborn and straying people from Benjamin and Ephraim.  But in Judah God called a shepherd from the flock to shepherd His people.

Neither Judah the lion, nor Israel (the ten northern tribes) are innocent.  They both have abandoned the covenant of God given through Moses.  The man of God from Judah is symbolic of Moses and his prophetic ministry, the law, and the promises.  He lies dead, but not abandoned, by the donkey and the lion.  The meaning is that two kingdoms, jealous of one another, are both children of Abraham and beneficents of Moses.  The stiff necked people have killed the covenant by their stubborn (donkey) and rebellious (lion) actions.  King Jeroboam will not listen and will not repent like a stubborn donkey.  Rehoboam has violated the covenant. He has violated Moses by worshipped other gods, like the ion violated the man of God and killed him in a fierce attack.

 The old prophet from Bethel had lead the man of God from Judah astray just as the people of Israel and Judah had been lead astray by the pagan religions around them.  But neither the donkey nor the lion leave the man (Moses) nor do they attack one another.  The old prophet from Bethel (who reminds me of Eli) and his sons realizes that God has spoken through the man of God from Judah.  He was indeed a prophet and all he had prophesied would come to pass.  The old prophet laid the man of God's body in his own tomb and ordered his sons to bury him next to his bones when he died.  For he too saw that the man of God, though punished for his disobedience, was not abandoned.  He was honorable. He spoke for God and they were brothers after all.

In the midst of this division within God's chosen nation is a prophecy of healing.  Both Israel and Judah have sinned and broken the covenant.  They will suffer the consequences of their stubbornness and rebellion, but in the end they will come back together again. 
Ezekiel is given a sad and terrible vision of God's glorious presence leaving Jerusalem.  God abandons the land and His temple just as His people called by His name have abandoned Him.  But God promises to restore them after their just punishment through destruction and exile.

"This is what the Lord GOD says: Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.  "Therefore say: This is what the Lord GOD says: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
 "When they arrive there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies  and give them a heart of flesh, so they may follow My statutes,  keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God (Ezek 11:16-20)."

The apostle Paul writes the church in Thessalonica. This letter is his first recorded in the bible and and is considered the oldest document in the New Testament, being only 30 or so years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Paul writes to former pagans who "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead —Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (1 Thes. 1:9b-10)."

The lion of Judah, Messiah Jesus, fulfilling the covenant brought it to its end and established a new covenant in His blood. So the man of God's death in 1 Kings 13 also points to the end of the former covenant under Moses through the appearance of Messiah (the lion).  Like the man of God from Judah, Paul is "approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel" and speaks, "not to please men, but rather God,who examines our hearts (1 Thes. 2:4)."  

The occasion of Paul's writing is in response to the joy he was experiencing knowing that the church he had planted was standing firm in faith under persecution. Paul had stayed in Athens and sent Timothy to check on the church in Thessalonica.  They were facing resistance and hardship from the pagans around them as Paul was facing similar hardships from Jews and Gentiles alike. 

You see there are tow kingdoms in conflict with one another, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness (1 Thes. 5:5).  The old enemy, the forces of chaos and disorder, wickedness and death dealing evil, is still actively encroaching on God's good creation.  Satan still attacks the church and wreaks havoc tyring to turn our eyes from Jesus the Messiah to other gods, other lesser things that shine, but are not truly light only darkness.

And God will not abandon His work of salvation.  Just as the dead man's body was not abandoned, but placed in a tomb by a mourning brother, the church will continue to break down the gates of Hades, until Death itself is finally and completed defeated (Rev. 20:13-14).

May we each take to heart that we belong to the kingdom of light and of Christ. We must stand firm against idolatry, not trusting in or laboring for things of this world.  Instead let us grow in faith and love as Paul prays,

Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another  and for everyone, just as we also do for you.  May He make your hearts blameless  in holiness  before our God and Father at the coming  of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen. (1 Thes. 3:11-13)