Growing up, I had the blessing and the curse of a big brother. Russ saved me many troubles in life because he ventured into trouble - and I could watch his “progress” (or descent), and his punishment - before I needed to risk any adventure. He managed a long litany of injuries, stitches, etc. that I didn't ever personally have to endure. I stopped participating before I got hurt and learned the lesson by watching my older brother. One of the great benefits of a living example played out directly in front of us is the fact that we can gain by the power of example what we need not learn through the pain of experience. This is what can be termed, “the big brother effect”.
What was true of my family could have been true of another ancient family – the tribe of the sons of Judah. They watched their brothers to the north of them, the ten northern tribes of Israel, as they descended into the chaos that brought on both continued moral decay and political confusion. Judah had the opportunity to learn from a patient God and His careful dealings with a sin sick brother. Unfortunately, Judah replicated Israel’s behaviors, rather than recognizing her broken system for spiritual, moral and political bankruptcy. Judah borrowed her brother’s ideology – even when it led to moral bondage followed by economic and political collapse! That seems strange, but in my own experience counseling people, I often find alcoholics that are children of alcoholics, and parents who are abusive that grew up abused. Hurt people hurt people – and often become the very thing they have learned to hate!
Key Principle: There is a pattern of decadence that we can identify in defecting believers that leads to a lost testimony and finally the removal of God’s hand of blessing.
Seven Steps into Obscurity
1. The first step to wiping out a testimony and moving into obscurity is complication – confusing the central issue - a relationship of celebrated submission with God (17:1-7). It is easy to become confused between the symptoms and the actual problem. Israel was disintegrating politically. The successive overthrows of one dynasty after another led to frequent turnovers of government leadership: Jeroboam II passed his scepter to his son Zechariah, who lasted all of six months before he was killed and replaced by Shallum. He in turn was killed after a mere month on the throne by Menachem – a man who lived to reign ten years and pass the throne to his son Pekaiah. After two years, Pekaiah was killed by Pekah, who held the throne for twenty years and was eventually assassinated by his successor Hoshea. Hoshea ruled for nine turbulent years before the Assyrian empire came and shut down the palace of Samaria – carting off the people into captivity.
If CNN were covering those turbulent years, they would no doubt offer a host of analysts to examine the layers of problems in the kingdom. Why was there so much unrest? Could the tax base be reliably updated to care for a vassal relationship with Assyria that would satisfy the foreign power? Was the military producing the right kind of soldier, or was this a central cause of the frequent overthrows? All this and more would be the daily fodder of the twenty-four hour news cycle.
From God’s perspective the problem wasn’t (and still isn’t!) very complicated. The central problem was the break in the relationship with the Living God – and a deliberate walk in obedience to Him. Without honest submission to Him, obedience is impossible; it is little more than placing wallpaper over a termite infestation of the heart. One significant problem is that we cover up the real issue by focusing on the symptoms that come from the separation with God. The first six verses tell the story of the last chapter of the political life of the northern kingdom, but the REASON for the story is given in verse seven: 17:7 “Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods.”
The sin of Israel was that is simply wouldn’t submit to a complete and total service of the Lord God. They wanted to claim that God was their God, but offer no claim that they were His people – if it brought with it the necessity of following Him daily. God framed His relationship with them as “Setting them free” and the following after sin as “bringing you into bondage”. Ultimately, we are free when we become what we were created for – to submit lovingly and wholly to the Lord of the universe. Every attempt of man to “break free” from that submission enslaves the man. How many have thought they would be freed by a bottle or capsule that they ended up enslaved to?
2. The second step to moving from testimony to obscurity was amnesia – the loss of the memory of God’s commands for a distinctive identity of a people created to serve and follow Him (17:8). Believers constantly fight the struggle not to be “pressed into the mold” of the lost world (cp. Romans 12:1ff). Identity holds us in place, and informs our choices. God called believers to form their priorities from His revealed will and be distinct, not from their desire to be like the world.
3. The third step to obscurity was hypocrisy – the creation of the image of a mythical loving believer from an obstinate and self-willed criminal (17:9a). When we fail to be distinct, we become imposters – imitating surrendered lives before other believers and imitating the world when we are with them. The father of lies births a corps of hypocrites. The people were living lies and hiding sin – ashamed and compounding guilt upon guilt. The enemy kept them feeling defeated and demoralized – the result of defection and deception.
4. The fourth step to obscurity was compromise (17:9b). High places were open defiance at first. Generations later, it was the acceptable thing to do. Necessary evils often seem to become more necessary and look less evil to us over time. The people compromised a critical hallmark of their testimony before the nations – their unique worship. When it became another manmade institution, faith moved into becoming religion.
5. The fifth step to obscurity was the death of discernment (17:10-11). Without their identity and attachment to a vital relationship with God, the people found it easy to begin to look for answers in places that clearly were not meant for them. They set up sacred pillars, and developed places for determining important direction of life issues, as well as found themselves sliding into the sexually permissive practices of the Asherim. They became the “horoscope reading” believer – the compass-less ship searching for a star on a cloudy night.
6. The sixth step to obscurity was the abandonment of revelation (17:12-16). As their conformity to the world became complete, they surrendered the Word of God fully, openly deciding that God’s commands and counsels were flawed and unnecessary. They cast off the restraints of the revealed truths of God and fully swallowed the lies of their age.
7. The final step that tossed them from God’s presence and into a captivity from which they wailed, was the denial – the overturning of all things once held sacred (17:17-18). The people were transformed from a people of God to a totally depraved and brashly immoral bunch. They didn’t have the normal ties of the believer. Family wasn’t a sacred issue; life was not an un-compromised value. Everything was on the table for change.
There is a pattern of decadence that we can identify in defecting believers that leads to a lost testimony and finally the removal of God’s hand of blessing. Sadly, Israel misinterpreted the PATIENCE of God in judgment with IMPOTENCE of His mighty hand. As God withheld judgment and they continued in sin, Judah became cynical and eventually learned to join and imitate them (17:19), one of the lasting effects of a hypocritical generation.
Judah did not need to go through the pain of captivity. They could have watched their older brother make the mistakes and learn by example… but we seldom ever do!
What was true of my family could have been true of another ancient family – the tribe of the sons of Judah. They watched their brothers to the north of them, the ten northern tribes of Israel, as they descended into the chaos that brought on both continued moral decay and political confusion. Judah had the opportunity to learn from a patient God and His careful dealings with a sin sick brother. Unfortunately, Judah replicated Israel’s behaviors, rather than recognizing her broken system for spiritual, moral and political bankruptcy. Judah borrowed her brother’s ideology – even when it led to moral bondage followed by economic and political collapse! That seems strange, but in my own experience counseling people, I often find alcoholics that are children of alcoholics, and parents who are abusive that grew up abused. Hurt people hurt people – and often become the very thing they have learned to hate!
Key Principle: There is a pattern of decadence that we can identify in defecting believers that leads to a lost testimony and finally the removal of God’s hand of blessing.
Seven Steps into Obscurity
1. The first step to wiping out a testimony and moving into obscurity is complication – confusing the central issue - a relationship of celebrated submission with God (17:1-7). It is easy to become confused between the symptoms and the actual problem. Israel was disintegrating politically. The successive overthrows of one dynasty after another led to frequent turnovers of government leadership: Jeroboam II passed his scepter to his son Zechariah, who lasted all of six months before he was killed and replaced by Shallum. He in turn was killed after a mere month on the throne by Menachem – a man who lived to reign ten years and pass the throne to his son Pekaiah. After two years, Pekaiah was killed by Pekah, who held the throne for twenty years and was eventually assassinated by his successor Hoshea. Hoshea ruled for nine turbulent years before the Assyrian empire came and shut down the palace of Samaria – carting off the people into captivity.
If CNN were covering those turbulent years, they would no doubt offer a host of analysts to examine the layers of problems in the kingdom. Why was there so much unrest? Could the tax base be reliably updated to care for a vassal relationship with Assyria that would satisfy the foreign power? Was the military producing the right kind of soldier, or was this a central cause of the frequent overthrows? All this and more would be the daily fodder of the twenty-four hour news cycle.
From God’s perspective the problem wasn’t (and still isn’t!) very complicated. The central problem was the break in the relationship with the Living God – and a deliberate walk in obedience to Him. Without honest submission to Him, obedience is impossible; it is little more than placing wallpaper over a termite infestation of the heart. One significant problem is that we cover up the real issue by focusing on the symptoms that come from the separation with God. The first six verses tell the story of the last chapter of the political life of the northern kingdom, but the REASON for the story is given in verse seven: 17:7 “Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods.”
The sin of Israel was that is simply wouldn’t submit to a complete and total service of the Lord God. They wanted to claim that God was their God, but offer no claim that they were His people – if it brought with it the necessity of following Him daily. God framed His relationship with them as “Setting them free” and the following after sin as “bringing you into bondage”. Ultimately, we are free when we become what we were created for – to submit lovingly and wholly to the Lord of the universe. Every attempt of man to “break free” from that submission enslaves the man. How many have thought they would be freed by a bottle or capsule that they ended up enslaved to?
2. The second step to moving from testimony to obscurity was amnesia – the loss of the memory of God’s commands for a distinctive identity of a people created to serve and follow Him (17:8). Believers constantly fight the struggle not to be “pressed into the mold” of the lost world (cp. Romans 12:1ff). Identity holds us in place, and informs our choices. God called believers to form their priorities from His revealed will and be distinct, not from their desire to be like the world.
3. The third step to obscurity was hypocrisy – the creation of the image of a mythical loving believer from an obstinate and self-willed criminal (17:9a). When we fail to be distinct, we become imposters – imitating surrendered lives before other believers and imitating the world when we are with them. The father of lies births a corps of hypocrites. The people were living lies and hiding sin – ashamed and compounding guilt upon guilt. The enemy kept them feeling defeated and demoralized – the result of defection and deception.
4. The fourth step to obscurity was compromise (17:9b). High places were open defiance at first. Generations later, it was the acceptable thing to do. Necessary evils often seem to become more necessary and look less evil to us over time. The people compromised a critical hallmark of their testimony before the nations – their unique worship. When it became another manmade institution, faith moved into becoming religion.
5. The fifth step to obscurity was the death of discernment (17:10-11). Without their identity and attachment to a vital relationship with God, the people found it easy to begin to look for answers in places that clearly were not meant for them. They set up sacred pillars, and developed places for determining important direction of life issues, as well as found themselves sliding into the sexually permissive practices of the Asherim. They became the “horoscope reading” believer – the compass-less ship searching for a star on a cloudy night.
6. The sixth step to obscurity was the abandonment of revelation (17:12-16). As their conformity to the world became complete, they surrendered the Word of God fully, openly deciding that God’s commands and counsels were flawed and unnecessary. They cast off the restraints of the revealed truths of God and fully swallowed the lies of their age.
7. The final step that tossed them from God’s presence and into a captivity from which they wailed, was the denial – the overturning of all things once held sacred (17:17-18). The people were transformed from a people of God to a totally depraved and brashly immoral bunch. They didn’t have the normal ties of the believer. Family wasn’t a sacred issue; life was not an un-compromised value. Everything was on the table for change.
There is a pattern of decadence that we can identify in defecting believers that leads to a lost testimony and finally the removal of God’s hand of blessing. Sadly, Israel misinterpreted the PATIENCE of God in judgment with IMPOTENCE of His mighty hand. As God withheld judgment and they continued in sin, Judah became cynical and eventually learned to join and imitate them (17:19), one of the lasting effects of a hypocritical generation.
Judah did not need to go through the pain of captivity. They could have watched their older brother make the mistakes and learn by example… but we seldom ever do!
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