The Gospel Coalition

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Which was a very good thing. Because it seemed that no matter how many times God saved his people they were never quite safe from themselves. See, after God delivered his people from Egypt he gave them a lot of commandments. This wasn’t a bad thing. They were good commandments. And if they obeyed the commandments, God’s people would be blessed. There would be food and children and long life and protection and a new home. It would be just like they were in paradise again. That’s where God was leading them all along.  But if they didn’t obey, there would be curses, sort of like the ones that fell on Adam and Eve and the serpent.

As you might have guessed, the people didn’t do so well obeying God’s commands. And once Moses and his helper Joshua  died, they disobeyed even more. When they did work hard at some rules–like the rules about sacrifices–they didn’t really obey those rules from the heart. They just checked them off their list and forgot about the more important rules.

Not that they deserved it, but God finally gave them their promised land. God did the work to get them in, but God’s people didn’t do the work to drive everyone else out. This meant a lot of trouble for the Israelites. They constantly had enemies to fight. And worse, they constantly had to fight the temptation to be just like their enemies.

Sometimes things would go well for Israel, when they had a good leader and when they obeyed. But most often things went poorly for Israel. God gave them rules. But they didn’t follow them. God made his dwelling among them. But they didn’t keep themselves clean.. God sent judges to lead them. But Israel didn’t listen. God provided priests to do God’s holy work. But the priests didn’t know how to be holy either.

Of course, God still had his promises to keep. But most days it was hard to imagine how any man could save this stubborn people. It was even harder to imagine how such a man could come from among this people.

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God’s people always had a hard time not copying everyone else around them. This was especially true when it came to having a king. Although God warned them how bad kings could be, they just had to have one. So eventually, God gave them a king.

The first king was Saul. Other than being tall, he was not much to write home about. Pretty disappointing all around. The second king, young David from Bethlehem, was definitely much better. In fact, in the stories that lead up to The Story, there’s no one more important than King David. When David wasn’t busy sinning, which he did in some really big ways, he was a good, wise, merciful king. A lot of good things happened to God’s people when David was in charge. They were victorious and prosperous and blessed.

But the best thing that happened was what God promised would happen. God told David that he would always have a son to sit on the throne. He promised David an everlasting kingdom. This was good news for David, and even better news for God’s people. It meant that God had not forgotten the guarantee he made in the Garden. A deliverer was on his way. And now everyone who had ears to hear knew he would be a son of David.

But the next son of David was not the one they were looking for. Solomon started off on the right foot, but he ended up tripping quite spectacularly. After Solomon, the kingdom split in two, with Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Neither kingdom was very good. God punished Israel first, then Judah. In the course of four hundred years God’s people went from top dog to dog food. They had been kicked out of their own land just liked Adam and Eve had been kicked out of their own paradise. And worst of all, David’s house and David’s throne were no more. What had happened to God’s promises?

to be continued…