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[0:00] We are grateful, Father, for this occasion that you've provided for each of us. We believe that no one is here by accident, and we ask that as we engage the truths that we'll be considering this morning, that you will use it to the edification of our inner person.

[0:15] Thank you so much for having not only provided the record, but for having preserved it, so that ages thereafter can benefit from it, as we expect to even today. We give it to you again with thanksgiving in Christ's name. Amen.

[0:28] Would you turn to Hosea, please, because I just want to read the first few verses, and the hot topic of conversation that has always existed from the time Hosea was written in manuscript form, I suspect, even to the present.

[0:44] It's a subject over which scholars soundly disagree, and that is, Did God actually require this man to marry a prostitute and to take her as his wife?

[0:59] Scholars have been divided over this for centuries. Some say it is unthinkable that God would do that. Others say that's precisely what God did do. And that will be the principal topic of conversation, probably, in our next session.

[1:14] And I want to simply quote the verses or read the verses along with you this morning, so as to just germinate some thinking in your own mind. And between now and a month from now, when we have our next session, I expect you all to have a good, solid, firm answer that you can share with us.

[1:30] All right? And we will just trump the scholars of the many ages. So, in Hosea, and I'm reading from the New American Standard, and we will just read the first three verses.

[1:42] The word of the Lord which came to Hosea, the son of Berai, during the days of... Now, I want you to note these names. They'll be very significant a little later, and even in connection with this morning's session.

[1:55] During the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

[2:06] And during the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. Well, now, aren't they one and the same?

[2:19] No, they are not. They represent the two factions of the divided kingdom. All of these people are Jews. But as we will see this morning, there is going to be a division of the kingdom, and eventually there will be a civil war between them.

[2:39] And the time will come when they will once again be reunited, but that's for another time. So, let us read on. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry.

[3:02] For the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord. So, he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

[3:18] Well, we'll just leave off for there, because that simply establishes the fact as to what we were talking about just a moment ago. Now, what I want to do is, in addition to what we considered in our last session, is provide some background material that I think will give us a greater appreciation for Hosea and his ministry, when once we get into it.

[3:42] You will note that Hosea prophesied during the time of many kings in their reign. In other words, he outlived several kings, both of the southern and of the northern tribes.

[3:57] And I want to explain to you and give you the background, although some of you already know it, how this divided kingdom came about, because it is very critical and germane to what is going to happen in the history of Israel.

[4:10] And by the way, just looking even further ahead, in connection with the division of the kingdom, that monumental prophecy that refers to the new covenant that is found in Jeremiah, I think it's 3131, where the Lord says, Behold, the days are coming when I will establish a new covenant with the children of Judah and the children of Israel.

[4:39] Israel. And again, that's just another way of saying that he is going to make a new covenant, which we know was enacted at the death of Christ and predicted the night before he was betrayed, when he said this cup is a new covenant, New Testament of my blood, that all of that is inferring the reunification of those two kingdoms.

[4:59] And actually, in a very real sense, they never have actually been reunited. And today, of course, we know modern Israel is radically different from what we're going to be reading here in the prophecy.

[5:15] So, the first place I would like you to turn to is 1 Kings chapter 11. We are going to take for granted that you are aware of the transition that had taken place from the judges to the monarchy.

[5:32] Remember, as the nation of Israel started out, it was under the leadership of one man. That was Moses. And then when Moses died, passed off the scene, the mantle was handed to Joshua.

[5:47] And Joshua, in effect, became the new Moses. But when Joshua passed off the scene, it wasn't continued on like that. They went to a period of judges.

[5:58] And this lasted for several hundred years. Different judges were raised up. And when the text talks about judging Israel, it literally means that this individual, whoever it might have been, whether it was Samson or Othniel or Deborah or whoever it may have been, they were the ruling party or the ruling individual.

[6:17] And whenever there was a real issue of concern that arose, they brought it to the judge, whoever that judge was at the time. And the most significant, probably the most dramatic and most well-known judge was Samson because of his strength and his shenanigans with Delilah and all the rest of it.

[6:37] So, just about everybody knows Samson and they even made a movie about it. But by far and away, the most important and the most effective and the most godly of all the judges was Samuel, without a doubt.

[6:52] And Samuel was the one whom the Lord called to anoint Saul, the son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin to be the first king.

[7:04] And remember, as people started demanding of Samuel, we want a king, we want a king. And Samuel says, I don't think that would be a good thing. And he went to the Lord and he said, what am I going to do with these people?

[7:19] They're demanding a king. And you know, the reason that they were demanding a king is so common, not only to individuals, but to nations as well. We want a king because everybody else has a king.

[7:32] All the nations around us have a king. We're the only kid on the block that doesn't have a king. Why can't we have a king? This is called national peer pressure. And it works for individuals and it works for nations.

[7:44] There are some today who are so in love with European socialism and the way it's operating. Why can't we have that?

[7:55] Why can't we be like Europe is? You know, after all, they've been here a lot longer and so on and so on. So anyway, Samuel told the Lord, he said, I don't know what to do with these people.

[8:06] What am I going to do? And the Lord said something very, very significant to Samuel. He said, Samuel, first of all, you've been a judge and you've been faithful. I don't want you to take their demand for a king personal because the problem isn't with you.

[8:23] The problem is they don't want me to be king over them. And you know why this is? Because people want a king.

[8:36] They can see. They can hear. They can converse with you. This is the whole basis for idolatry and the making of graven images.

[8:49] There is nothing to it and there is nothing behind it, but it's physical. It's physical. And people want something they can bow down to and look at and worship and so on.

[9:02] And God doesn't fit that bill because he's spirit. And he told them, you are not to make any graven image or any likeness. Because once that is done of the deity, then, of course, you are severely limiting him.

[9:15] And you are saying, this is what he is. But that isn't what he is. He is so much more that you cannot confine him and put him into any kind of a physical object. And that is the principal reason why God rebuked that and condemned it.

[9:28] But that doesn't keep man, who is a physical being, from wanting to make contact with that which is material. God made fun of these idols a number of times saying, they have eyes.

[9:40] But they can't see. They have ears, but they can't hear. And so on. And how foolish it was for people to do that. But nonetheless, they did. And all through the period that we're going to be talking about, and all through the ministry of Hosea, the principal besetting sin of those to whom these prophets will be speaking is idolatry.

[10:03] These were the people who were raised up of God to be a monotheistic people. They were the only ones throughout the Mediterranean world who believed in and worshipped one God.

[10:16] Doctrinally, officially, theoretically, but practically? No. Not much of the time. In fact, the Assyrians are going to come against the northern ten tribes in the year 722 B.C.

[10:34] under Sargon, the Assyrian, and sack the city of Samaria and put it under siege and lead them away into captivity. Those ten tribes, they never will effectively return.

[10:48] They've since been referred to as the lost ten tribes, but we believe they had a different destination. They're not actually lost. And then in 586 B.C., about 200 years later, same thing is going to happen to the southern two tribes.

[11:04] And the problem with both of them was idolatry. And they will be led into the 70-year Babylonian captivity period because of their idolatry.

[11:14] So I want to give you some background material. And we will go from Samuel to Saul. Saul was a Benjamite. And Saul reigned over Israel for 40 years.

[11:26] And when he dies, his son Ish-bosheth will come to the throne and be installed as a throne. But he will only be there for two years. And then David will be the king only over Judah.

[11:40] When David comes to the throne, and by the way, I'd completely forgotten about Ish-bosheth. I was thinking that David took over immediately after Saul, but he didn't. Saul's son, Ish-bosheth, reigned for two and a half years.

[11:55] And then he was off the scene. Then David came to power. But for the first seven and a half years, David reigned only over Judah.

[12:07] And, of course, Benjamin, because Benjamin is the geography and the tribal area where the city of Jerusalem and the temple is located.

[12:20] So he will reign over just those two tribes, just Jerusalem and Judah, for seven and a half years. And then eventually he will be embraced by all of the other tribes.

[12:32] And he will reign for 40 years. And, by the way, there is something really significant that I don't fully understand about these 40 years. Because Saul reigned for 40 years.

[12:44] David's going to reign for a total of 40 years. Reigned 40 days and 40 nights on the earth. Moses was 40 years in the courts of Pharaoh, 40 years on the backside of the desert, and 40 years leading the children of Israel.

[12:59] And Christ was on earth for 40 days after his resurrection. And there are a whole lot of 40s involved there. And I don't understand for sure exactly what God is communicating.

[13:10] But that number 40 is really quite significant. And it's found in a number of places. So David will be king then for a total of 40 years. And during the time that Ish-bosheth comes to the throne, there is a civil war that exists during his time.

[13:31] Because he just really tore everything up. So I want you to look at chapter 11. And let us begin with verse 26.

[13:42] And this is the first time that we'll be mentioning this guy. But he will appear many times later on in the Old Testament.

[13:53] Then Jeroboam. Who is he? Well, he's the son of Nebat. That answers that question, doesn't it? Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.

[14:04] And Ephraimite, that is, he was from the tribe of Ephraim, of Zeradah, Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zeruah. She was a widow.

[14:15] Also rebelled against the king. Now, who's the king at this point in time? It's Solomon. Solomon is still on the throne. He, of course, is taking over after David.

[14:29] And this was the reason why he rebelled against the king. Solomon built the millow and closed up the breach of the city of his father David.

[14:41] Well, now that explains a lot, doesn't it? Yeah, it explains about that much to me, too. Now, the man Jeroboam, but obviously it was a hot potato item back then, a very controversial thing. Now, the man Jeroboam was a valiant warrior.

[14:55] This guy had distinguished himself in battle. And when Solomon saw that the young man, that is, Jeroboam, was industrious, that is, ambitious, had drive, possibility, potential, etc., he appointed him over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.

[15:14] And it came about, I don't know exactly what this forced labor was of the house of Joseph, but I think we can take it pretty much at face value. These were people who were assigned certain laborious responsibilities, and this guy was in charge of them.

[15:29] And we read in verse 29, it came about that at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite, found him on the road.

[15:41] Now, Ahijah had clothed himself with a new cloak, and both of them were alone in the field.

[15:52] That is, Jeroboam and Ahijah. I don't know anything else about this prophet Ahijah, except he seems to be appointed for this specific task. And then, verse 30, Ahijah took hold of the new cloak, which was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces.

[16:13] Just ripped it up, made twelve pieces out of this cloak. And then he said to Jeroboam, Take for yourself ten pieces.

[16:26] For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and give you, Jeroboam, ten tribes.

[16:44] But he will have one tribe for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel.

[16:57] Now, I need to just insert an item of explanation here. He is going to be given one tribe. Well, actually, that's only eleven tribes. But the other that is not really referred to as a tribe actually is comprising a city.

[17:11] And that's the city of Jerusalem, and it belongs to the tribe of Benjamin. And everybody knew that. And even though the name of Benjamin is not used, the city of Jerusalem is used, and Benjamin and Jerusalem are virtually synonymous.

[17:25] It was a very small piece of real estate. And you've got to remember that Benjamin was also the smallest of all of the twelve tribes.

[17:35] So, essentially, it just comprised Jerusalem and the area around it. So, in effect, he was actually being given two tribes, because Jerusalem is considered the tribe of Benjamin.

[17:49] And then he goes on and says in verse 33, Because they have forsaken me and have worshipped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Chemosh was originally the god of Ruth, who's going to be the daughter-in-law of Naomi.

[18:14] She was a worshipper of Chemosh in the land of Moab. And remember when she said to Naomi, Whither thou goest, I will go, and your god will be my god, and your people will be my people.

[18:30] That was essentially a statement of conversion on the part of Ruth, saying that she was forsaking Moab and Chemosh and the gods behind her, and was embracing the god of Naomi, which, of course, was the one true god in the land of Israel.

[18:49] And Milcom, all of these false deities, and Milcom, the god of the sons of Ammon, these are the people today in present northern Jordan.

[19:03] The capital of modern Jordan is Ammon, A-M-M-A-N. This is the same place. It's just a different spelling. They use an O instead of an A, but it's the same.

[19:13] And they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight, and observing my statutes and my ordinances, as his father David did. Let me just insert something here that I think just keeps cropping up time and time again, and that has to do with physicality versus spirituality.

[19:33] We've already talked about the problem that people have with that which is spiritual as opposed to physical. The problem with the spiritual is you can't see it. You can't touch it.

[19:44] You can't touch it. You can't make any contact with something which is spiritual. And as a result, this makes us more and more vulnerable and open to that which is physical.

[19:58] And this becomes the whole basis for the worship of deities, false deities, making gods, making statues, bowing down to them, praying to them, offering to them and everything.

[20:09] We have this insatiable appetite to make connection with the deity, and we want to do it through something that is material. But you can't do that.

[20:20] You can't do that. When God said, when the scriptures say that, John said, John's gospel, Christ was saying, God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

[20:39] How do you worship in spirit? You do it with your mind, your intellect, your thinking processes. You make a connection between the spirit that is in you and the spirit of God.

[20:55] That's our connection there. It is God's spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. In other words, it is our immaterial self, our non-physical self, that makes contact with the non-physical God.

[21:16] And yet, we are ever given to creating something physical, something material, and we say, well, it's just a symbol of.

[21:26] But you see, the danger is people get lost in that. And they get confused by that. I have often said, biblical Christianity is a thinking faith.

[21:41] God gave us minds. God gave us brains. He wants us to use our intellect. Our intellect is part of our spirit being.

[21:51] Nobody has ever seen spirit. Have you ever seen an intellect? Have you ever seen creativity? Have you ever seen imagination?

[22:03] Have you ever seen feelings? No. But they're all real. And they're all part of our immaterial self. And this is the level in which we connect with God.

[22:15] The problem that they had back in the Old Testament is the same problem people have today. We want something physical, something tangible, something you can touch. And this is precisely going to be their downfall.

[22:29] And in verse 34, he says, Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose, who observed my commandments and my statutes.

[22:47] But I will take the kingdom from his son's hand. Who's that? That's Solomon's hand. And give it to you, that is, Jeroboam, even ten tribes.

[23:03] But to his son, and that will be Rehoboam. Now, it's easy to get Rehoboam and Jeroboam mixed up. They're both bohams, but they're entirely different. One is the king of the north, the other is the king of the south.

[23:16] You know, I remember, I can see this just like it was yesterday. I can see Dr. Arthur F. Williams standing in his Old Testament survey class. I was a freshman at Cedarville, 22 years old, absolutely in over my head.

[23:28] Couldn't begin to understand any of this stuff. The Old Testament, I didn't have a Sunday school background or anything. I mean, this was all Greek to me or Hebrew to me. And I can remember Dr. Williams saying, now, I don't require you to memorize all of these things, these names and prophets and so on.

[23:48] You don't have to memorize them. I just want you to get them firmly fixed in mind. Which being translated meant, you better memorize these because they're going to be on the test.

[24:02] And boy, I'm telling you, I was a puddle of frustration when it came to trying to figure out and sort out all this stuff. And I didn't even have a clue for a long time that this thing called the division of the kingdom even took place.

[24:20] You know, I read it. There was the assigned text. And like a dutiful student, I read it. But have you ever read anything that didn't connect with you and you didn't understand and you didn't stop and ask questions but you just kept on reading?

[24:37] Well, that's what I did. And it didn't register. But once I found out about this division of the kingdom and the northern kingdom had its prophets and its kings and the southern kingdom had its prophets and its kings and there were even a couple of kings that had the same name for both kingdoms and some of the prophets ministered to the northern kingdom some ministered to the southern kingdom and some actually ministered to both.

[25:07] And boy, by the time I got all that sorted out it finally began to make a little sense. And I don't want you to be under that kind of a handicap. That's one of the reasons that we're looking at what we are. So let's continue on here.

[25:18] He says, I will take the kingdom from his sons and give it to you even ten tribes. Then, in verse 38, And it will be that if you will listen to all that I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my sight by observing my statutes and my commandments as my servant David did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house as I built for David and I will give Israel to you.

[25:49] Thus, I will afflict the descendants of David for this, but not always. Now, he's talking, of course, to Jeroboam and verse 40 says, Solomon sought, therefore, to put Jeroboam to death.

[26:04] This guy's a troublemaker, rabble rouser. Get rid of him. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt to Shishak, king of Egypt. There he took refuge.

[26:15] And he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. I see a parallel here that is just striking. And I'm sure that it's just coincidental.

[26:26] I don't think there's any real significance to it. But this is nothing more in an analogy of a replay of Ayatollah Khomeini when the Shah of Iran was in power.

[26:41] And Ayatollah Khomeini was making a real fuss and making a pest of himself by writing editorials in the newspaper of Tehran.

[26:54] And he was excoriating and going on about the Shah of Iran westernizing Europe. And he was. Because if you can imagine, the women in Tehran were wearing Levi jeans and no burkas.

[27:15] And all of this, of course, greatly displeased the religious establishment in Tehran. And finally, the Shah of Iran had all he could take.

[27:27] And he exiled Ayatollah Khomeini. Drove him out of the country. And he took refuge in France. And he was there for several years. And then, when the Shah became ill and came to the United States for treatment for cancer, this was 1979.

[27:43] Remember the big hubbub? And the American embassy was taken over by the radicals. And Reagan was running for office. And when he came in power, they released the prisoners there.

[27:54] All of this was in keeping with that. And when the Shah died, they were left leaderless. And lo and behold, you look in the sky and here comes a helicopter.

[28:06] And on board the helicopter, directly from France, was Ayatollah Khomeini. And there were over a million Iranians gathered in the public square to welcome the regime change under the Ayatollah Khomeini.

[28:26] And immediately, he clamped down on everything and started bringing a more full-fledged Muslim religion, Islam, into play.

[28:37] And they started demanding that the women wear the traditional garb and put on the burqas. They had clothing police going through the city of Tehran with long canes about four feet long, beating Muslim women physically if they didn't have on the garb and the burqa.

[29:00] And he was bringing all of that back. Now, we've got a similar kind of situation here. I don't know what the rub was, but anyway, it is clear that Jeroboam is bad news to Solomon and Solomon drove him out of the country.

[29:16] And then when Solomon dies, guess who comes back? Jeroboam. And all throughout the rest of the Old Testament, you're going to be reading this thing, this phrase, it's going to be repeated over and over and over again.

[29:29] Nevertheless, he did thus and so and he did thus and so, but he also did evil in the sight of God according to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin.

[29:41] And that phrase is going to be used over and over again. So, this guy, Jeroboam, is going to get off on the wrong foot and he's going to end up, well, like everybody else who gets off on the wrong foot.

[29:55] So, anyway, let's continue on now and let's get into the next chapter. We've got chapter 12, then Rehoboam, I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself here.

[30:10] Verse 42 of the preceding chapter, Thus the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. Solomon slept with his fathers, was buried in the city of his father David and his son, Rehoboam, reigned in his place.

[30:24] Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, or Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

[30:35] The Shechem is today the modern city of Nablus, N-A-B-L-U-S, Nablus and it's in Palestinian hands and has been for quite some time.

[30:48] Now it came about when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard of it, for he was yet in Egypt where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon while he was living in Egypt.

[31:00] See, Solomon put out a contract on him and he fled to Egypt and they sent and called him that Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam saying, now remember, we've got a situation here that is a real firecracker because Solomon has died and it's kind of like the kingdom is up for grabs.

[31:27] And the prophet has already told Jeroboam as to what's going to happen. He's going to be given ten tribes and the other two tribes are going to go to the south.

[31:38] And he says in verse 4, your father, and who would that be? That's Solomon. Your father Solomon made our yoke hard. How did he do that?

[31:50] Taxes. He taxed them to the hilt. And as a result, he was able to bring the kingdom of Israel to a pinnacle that had never existed before and never would exist later.

[32:10] It was the glory days. But the people paid a heavy price because the yoke he put on them was very, very burdensome. And if you're going to have a government that is a be everything and do everything, you've got to have a lot of revenue.

[32:28] You've got to have a lot of money coming in. And he did. Solomon brought the nation of Israel to a level that was just eye-popping.

[32:39] So much so that this is what brought the queen of Sheba all the way from Africa up through Gaza to see for herself because she had heard things about the kingdom of Solomon that she just found absolutely unbelievable.

[32:53] And when she came up and saw him for herself, what did she say? She said, I have seen everything that was spoken of you and behold, the half had not been told. It was really something.

[33:05] But he did it on the backs of the people. And we read on in verse 2, when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard of it where he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon while he was living in Egypt.

[33:21] They sent and called him Jeroboam and all the assembly came and spoke to Rehoboam. Now I want you to get who's in the audience here. They sent and called him, that is, Jeroboam, and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam.

[33:40] And Jeroboam is there. He's taking all of this in. And the people said, your father, that means Solomon, made our yoke hard. Therefore, lighten the hard service of your father Solomon and his heavy yoke, which he put on us, and we will serve you.

[34:05] You can count on us. We will be cooperative. We will be team players. would you please lighten our tax burden?

[34:17] It's all we're asking. And we'll support you. And he said to them, depart from me for three days, then return to me.

[34:29] So the people departed. Now that was a wise decision. He's saying, I hear what you're saying. Let me think about this. Give me three days, and then get back to me.

[34:41] And I'll give you an answer. Well, that's always wiser than trying to arrive at a snap decision or judgment on the moment. That was a very reasonable thing to do.

[34:53] So we read that King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, how do you counsel me to answer this people?

[35:14] Now, get the setting, if you will. For all practical purposes, we can call these men, whom Rehoboam is consulting with, for all practical purposes, we can call them his father Solomon's cabinet.

[35:31] They are his advisors. Age-wise, they were probably of the same generation, and they probably took a lot of heat from the people because of the taxes that had been imposed upon them.

[35:44] Being representatives of the people, they had heard a lot of feedback from the people about the tax burden, and is there anything you can do? And I wouldn't doubt it, but some of these guys didn't go to Solomon and say, sire, is there any way we can cut these things, cut people's taxes?

[36:02] The people are really chafing under all of this burden, and it appears that Solomon would just overrule them. You know, this is a tickly situation. A person who is in leadership needs to have advisors, but if he's going to do nothing more than what the advisors say, then they become the authority.

[36:24] But at the same time, if he's going to ignore everything they say, then they're unnecessary. He might as well just be a dictator. So it is a fine line between having advisors and heeding their advice.

[36:37] That's a problem we have today. We have people who have devoted their entire lives and careers to things military and have gained a lot of experience.

[36:50] And because we have power vested in civilians, not in the military, that is, it resides in the president as the commander-in-chief, military.

[37:03] He is under some obligation to consult with his military. But that doesn't mean he's supposed to do everything they say.

[37:14] But neither does it mean that he's supposed to ignore everything they say. So it becomes a difficult situation because there are in the military those who are ready to go to war at the drop of a hat.

[37:27] We call them hawks. And there are those in the military who are unwilling to go to war when they should be willing to go to war. And we call them doves.

[37:37] And a lot of people are somewhere in between. So the situation is an age-old one. And now they're saying we will serve and grant them their petition and speak good words to them and they will be your service.

[37:54] this is the advice that they give to Rehoboam. So if you will be a servant to this people and by the way isn't that what a leader is supposed to be?

[38:06] He's supposed to be a servant of the people. Very often the people end up just serving him. We don't have a throne. We don't have royalty.

[38:17] We have a presidency. And for that very reason. So if you will be a servant tells Rehoboam to these people will serve them, grant them their petition, speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.

[38:31] They'll follow you anywhere. But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him.

[38:47] These are Rehoboam's contemporaries. Now we've got a generational difference here and do we not understand the reality that with every generation there is something called a generation gap.

[39:05] And it is real. Younger people tend to have a different way of thinking than the older generation. And they tend to think of the older generation as fuddy-duddies.

[39:17] The older generation tends to think of the younger as upstarts and know-it-alls and the truth is probably somewhere in between. But this is a problem that has gone on as far back as the book of Kings.

[39:32] So he goes to the young men and thus you shall say to the people, your father Solomon made our yoke heavy.

[39:43] Now you make it lighter for us. that's what they want. But Rehoboam, here's what you ought to do. You ought to say, my little finger is thicker than my father's loins.

[39:58] In other words, you think my father imposed a heavy burden on you, you haven't seen anything yet. That's what he's saying.

[40:10] Now, no doubt, I think, and I'm reading into white spaces here, but I know something about human nature. And everybody was just overwhelmed with the splendor and the glory and the beauty of everything that Solomon had done.

[40:33] And you know what his son wants to do? He wants to outdo his daddy. He wants to make it bigger yet, more glorious yet, more splendid yet, and if they thought my dad's work was eye-popping, wait until they catch a load of what I'm going to do.

[40:52] However, it's going to take more money than we've got now. So, here's what happens. verse, my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke, my father disciplined you with whips, I will discipline you with scorpions.

[41:13] This is somewhat hyperbole and figurative, but he's saying I'm going to be a lot more severe than he was. Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day.

[41:25] Remember who Jeroboam is, keep your bones straight, as the king had directed, saying return to me on the third day, and the king answered the people harshly, not kindly, but harshly, for he forsook the advice of the elders which they had given him, and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, my father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke, my father disciplined you with whips, I will discipline you with sword, corpians, so the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of events from the Lord, that he might establish his word, which the Lord spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebah, that was in the earlier chapter, and when all Israel, that is, all twelve tribes or representatives of them are gathered together for this verdict from the king as to what he's going to do, representatives of all twelve tribes are there, and the people answered the king and said, what portion do we have in David?

[42:39] In other words, what is there here for us? What's left for us? When they refer to David, David is dead and gone, he's off the scene, seed.

[42:52] But who is it that has come to David's throne? Solomon, and then Solomon's son. You see, it is the Davidic dynasty that has been established, and it is going to remain intact, clear up, until the very last king, Zedekiah, is led off into Babylonian captivity, and that will be the end of the Jewish monarch.

[43:16] it will end with Zedekiah. So, what we've got here is something very historic that is happening. By the way, the statement has been made, if you follow the genealogical tables of the royal line of who is in line for the throne, and you ask if Israel were to reestablish a monarchy today, which they do not have, they have a Knesset and a representative democratic government, that's one reason the United States is so much in league with them, but if they were to reestablish the monarchy, how would they go about determining who the king should be?

[44:02] And the answer is, they have to follow the blood line of the royal line, which is Judah, the fourth born son of Jacob, and the royal line is the Davidic line.

[44:15] there is only one person in all of the universe who is legally and morally entitled to the right to sit on the throne of David, and that is Jesus Christ.

[44:30] That sends a chill up my spine. That is incredible. But that's the truth of the matter. And any Jewish genealogy would have to admit that. of course they consider Christ as having been crucified, dead, buried, and stayed buried.

[44:48] They have no agreement or concept of the resurrection like we do. So, this is just fascinating stuff to me. So, we are in chapter 12, and they say, what portion do we have in David?

[45:03] That is, in David's line, David's royal line, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Well, who is Jesse? Jesse is David's father.

[45:14] So, this is all in that royal line, and this is what they are talking about. And then they say, to your tents, O Israel, which being translated into modern language means, let's get out of here and go home.

[45:27] Isn't doing any good here. They are not going to listen to us. Let's just pull out of this thing. We are having nothing to do with it. We have got no inheritance, no interest king doesn't care about us, we don't care about them.

[45:38] And what this resulted in, they are seceding from the union. These ten tribes are saying, we don't want to be part of Israel anymore.

[45:49] We're going to pull off and start our own country. And it's going to be called Israel. And the two tribes remaining, of which Rehoboam is the king, is Judah.

[46:05] Judah and the city of Jerusalem, which is virtually synonymous with Benjamin. So it's going to be two tribes to the north, which will be far greater and far more populous and far more powerful than the two tribes in the south.

[46:22] But, there's an equalizer. What does the south have that the north doesn't have? Jerusalem. The temple. The throne.

[46:33] Jerusalem. They've got all of the trappings of ancient Israel. And the north is going to go off and establish their own kingdom. They're going to call it Israel.

[46:44] They're going to have their own king. And guess who it'll be? Jeroboam. And they're going to establish their own priesthood. They have to do that because the religiously minded people in the north are going to run off to Jerusalem in the south.

[47:02] And they're going to take their money with them in the south. And they're going to keep pilgrimages in Jerusalem. And they're going to be there. We've got to find a way to keep them home in the north. So they establish their own religion.

[47:15] They establish their own priest. It has nothing to do with anything authentic. It's not of the tribe of Levi.

[47:27] Remember Aaron was the first high priest. So the whole thing is going to be thoroughly corrupt. And they're going to install a monarchy. It will begin with Jeroboam. And then there will be another Jeroboam the second.

[47:37] And they're going to have a whole list of kings. I think it's 19 kings over the next couple of 200 years or something like that. And not one of them, not one of them in the northern kingdom will be a godly king.

[47:51] Every one of them will be into idolatry. And they are going to fall first. And the south is going to continue on, with the priesthood, and with the throne intact.

[48:04] And they will have four or five really godly kings who will provide for a revival at the time. And then there will be some real rotten eggs as well thrown in. So this is the division of the kingdom.

[48:16] And when you read in Hosea about Israel, you're talking about the northern ten tribes. And when you read about Judah, you're talking about these southern two tribes. prophets. Some statistics that might be helpful to you by way of identifying prophets and kings, because we're almost out of time.

[48:38] In Israel, the major prophets will be Elijah and Elisha. And they are referred to as non-writing prophets, because we don't have anything that either of these men ever wrote.

[48:50] But they played a very significant role. And yet, their ministry was limited to the ten tribes in the north. That is Elijah and Elisha. And one of the people that they will have to deal with is Jezebel.

[49:04] And she will be the wife of one of the kings of the north. And then the prophets will be to the north, will be Jonah and Amos and Hosea.

[49:16] So we'll be connecting Hosea with the north. In Judah, by the way, this division of the kingdom took place in 931.

[49:27] For those of you who are taking notes, in 931, David was king approximately 1000 B.C., about 1000 years before Christ.

[49:39] David came to the throne. He was on the throne for 40 years. Solomon came to the throne. He was on the throne for 40 years after David died. And then Rehoboam is going to come after Solomon.

[49:50] And it is at the beginning of Rehoboam's reign, in the year 931 B.C. that the kingdom is divided into north and south.

[50:01] And then 209 years later, in the year 722, the Assyrians are going to invade Israel in the north, and they will besiege the city of Samaria.

[50:19] and you read the account in the kings, and that's where we have experiences of cannibalism. And the city is put under siege so nobody could get in and nobody could get out.

[50:30] And it's a very, very disturbing passage to read. And they will last for 209 years in several kings. And then, in the year 586 B.C., which will be about 136 years later, the same thing is going to befall Judah.

[50:50] Only the enemy will be the Babylonians. They will come from the west. And this will be during the prophetic period of Daniel, who will only be about 12 years old when he's carried into Babylonian captivity.

[51:02] And he will be there as a very old man, probably in his late 80s by the time they return. And that will be 80 years later.

[51:14] And the prophets during that time for the south will be Zechariah and Isaiah and Hosea. Hosea is going to preach to both of these, Micah, Nahum, and Jeremiah, Daniel, Habakkuk, and Ezekiel.

[51:34] And they will receive more prophetic instruction and more prophetic denunciation than the north will, primarily because theirs is the seat there in Jerusalem.

[51:47] Okay, that is background material and I think we can consider that sufficient. It is certainly not complete, but perhaps it's all that we will need. And we've got a few minutes for Q&A.

[51:58] Anybody? Marvis. Today, my understanding is that Israel actually does have in place and ready to go what's needed for a temple if they are able to build it.

[52:14] Is there anything about wanting a king versus what they have today? Is there anything about what? About them wanting a king versus the government that they have now.

[52:28] I have not heard anything about that. It seems, and I just from a superficial look, it seems as though Israel is fairly content with the kind of government they have now, but I don't know that for sure.

[52:47] It is true, there is a group in Israel, and we were able to visit with them when we were over there. They are called the Third Temple Mount Faithful, and they are given that name because Solomon built the first temple, and it must have been absolutely gorgeous, but it was leveled to the ground by the Babylonians in 586, and then you remember 70 years later when Nehemiah was sent back to rebuild the wall, and Ezra, this is during their time, and they rebuilt the temple, and the old men who saw the temple that had been rebuilt, we are told that they wept, and the reason they wept was because they remembered the glory of the first temple, and this was a pretty miserable specimen compared to the first one.

[53:42] The difference was so staggering, they stood there and cried because they remembered the old one. And then later, Herod, when he became king, Herod was, despite the fact that he was a tyrant, and a horrible individual, he was obviously a brilliant architect and engineer, and he designed the second temple and enlarged it and everything, and then of course in 70 AD, that was completely torn down and ruined by the Romans.

[54:14] So the third temple mount, faithful, refers to themselves as the ones who were going to build the next temple, that will be the third temple. And by the way, it's interesting to note that the name of the guy who is heading up the third temple mount, faithful group, his name is Gershom Solomon.

[54:37] Isn't that interesting? He started a big riot in Israel, and actually it was a blood bath, there were lives lost over it, because he was marching to the temple mount, and it's an involved thing, but the temple mount area is actually under the jurisdiction of the Arabs, even though Israel took control of it.

[54:59] Remember when Moshe died and his generals walked into the temple, remember the guy with the black patch on his eye and walking in, and they had defeated the Jordanians, the Arab Jordanian army, and had recaptured Jerusalem, and that was the first time they'd been there forever, you know, and that was, that's, even though they took control of the temple and the temple mount area, not the temple, but the dome of the mosque, and had defeated the Jordanians, they later conceded and handed over the control of the temple mount to the Arabs that they had just defeated, from whom they had taken the temple mount, and they just gave them authority and control over it in an effort to try and make things more governable and maintain the peace more.

[55:52] In other words, it was a compromising thing, they handed it over to them, and Gershon Solomon had a group of people behind him, they were following him, and the rumor got around, all he was doing was going to the temple mount, but the rumor got around among the Arab population there in Jerusalem, that Gershon Solomon and his followers were going to the temple mount, and the mount is a huge area, encompasses 12 football fields, that's how big it is, and the original temple that sat on it was just 45 feet long, 15 feet wide, and it's very small compared to that, and that, by the way, is where many believe that the dome of Iraq presently sits right now.

[56:36] That's debatable, but that's another thing. Anyway, the word got around that Gershon Solomon was going to the temple mount to lay the foundation stone for the third Jewish temple, and it was nothing but a rumor, but it was a vicious rumor, and word got around, and the Arabs rioted, and there were something like 30 or 40 people killed as a result of that.

[56:56] So when we were there, we got to visit this third temple mount faithful group, and they showed us, it's quite fascinating, they showed us items of furniture that are described in the Old Testament that were placed in the original tabernacle.

[57:13] Now this even predates the temple, because the tabernacle was that portable thing, but it had the same items of furniture in it, and they showed us the garments that they had made according to the Old Testament specifications, the robe of the high priest, and what it was made of, how it was decorated, the colors that were in it, the urim and thumim, that was the yes and no answer that the high priest had on his breast plate, all of this stuff, they had all of that in place, and they believe that the Messiah is coming soon, and he will authorize the rebuilding of the temple, and they want to have all of these items of furniture made to their specifications, ready to put into the temple when he comes, and it was quite thrilling to see all of those things there, and of course, the vast majority of the people in Israel debunked the whole thing, they said, oh, it's a bunch of baloney, because most of the people in Israel are not into Judaism, they are secular, they are Jews by birth, and by tradition, but not by religion, and most of them do not keep the

[58:22] Sabbath, they do not keep kosher, they are Jewish primarily in name only, only about 10% are serious about their religion, it's about like here in the United States, only about 10% Christians are really serious about their faith, any other thoughts or comments?

[58:36] Mike? The Orthodox Jew today, how do they view these minor prophets? Is that part of their history, and they accept this?

[58:48] Yeah, well, the Orthodox Jew embraces the Old Testament as the Bible, that's the whole Bible, as far as they are concerned, they do not accept our New Testament at all, and even then, they place a lot more emphasis on the writings of Moses, the Pentateuch, or the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, they consider more authoritative than the rest of it, I think.

[59:21] The rest of it, they, yeah, they believe it, but, you know, it's not like the Torah, five books of Moses, Moses, so they're inconsistent in that regard.

[59:32] When we were in Israel, it was with the Temple Mount group that we had opportunity to talk to, and they opened it for Q&A, and I was tempted to ask this question, but somebody else came up with it before I did, and I didn't have to ask it, and the question was, well, the temple, the Jewish temple was so key, so critical, that anyone who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to present themselves before the Lord, they had to provide the animal for sacrifice, it had to be inspected by the priest to make sure that it was a suitable animal without spot, without blemish, etc., and then the priest would conduct the killing and spread the blood, and that was to atone for the sins of the person who was offering it, and since you don't have a temple, and you don't have a place for sacrifice, and you don't have animal sacrifices anymore, what do you do about that?

[60:22] How can you practice Judaism when the very heartbeat of Judaism, which is sacrifice, can't be carried out? And he said, well, we pray.

[60:34] We have replaced the sacrificial system with prayer. And I was really tempted to say, I just didn't, I just didn't have the guts to say it, but I wanted to.

[60:47] Chapter and verse, please. But there is no chapter and verse, of course, to authenticate that. But that's where they are today. The Jews today, religiously, spiritually, are simply adrift.

[61:02] They are just, they are just in never, never land when it comes to the reality of Judaism and their religion. And it's, they are set aside in judicial unbelief until the fullness of the Gentiles become it.

[61:20] In other words, what Paul is saying is, you know what? the Gentiles are the cock of the walk right now. Everything is about the Gentiles, what they do. There's non-Jews. And Israel is marginalized, but the time is coming when Israel, and this is the expression that is used, and it's interesting, because Israel, God says, during the time of the Gentiles, I'm going to make the Gentiles the head, and you, Israel, are the tail.

[61:48] But in the time of the Messiah, when the millennium is established, Israel will be the head. The nations, plural, will be the tail.

[62:02] That time is coming. Certainly not here now. We've already passed our time, but we'll take one more question if there is. Ed? The people that you see on TV and in the pictures and stuff are at the wailing wall, and there's guys with their little black hats or the thing that goes on top of that.

[62:19] Are they the hardcore Jews that you're talking about, or are these just all of them? Yeah, it's the Orthodox that wear the alamica, the little skullcap, the Orthodox Jew.

[62:32] The typical Jew doesn't do that. And it's the Orthodox Jew primarily that goes to the wailing wall. Jews who are not Orthodox who go to the wailing wall do so primarily as just a historical relic type thing.

[62:47] You know, they're a little bit interested in history. They're just not all that serious about it. But when you see the Jew with the yarmulke, and by the way, there's a barrier between the women are all over here and men are all over here and they go to this wall.

[63:00] It's the Western wall. They don't like it to be called the wailing wall because it doesn't sound very complimentary, but it is a wailing wall. They go to the wailing wall and they wail.

[63:12] They moan and they groan. And the Orthodox cry out for what? The Messiah.

[63:23] For the Messiah to come. And as you look all over this Western wall, it's great big, huge, huge, weighs several tons, ashlar's they're called, huge building blocks.

[63:36] and you look between them, between the cracks of these building blocks, and there are tens of thousands of notes, little paper notes, scribbled and stuck in between those blocks.

[63:54] Thousands of them all down through the wall. And some of them have been there for decades. They are written out prayers that these Jews who visited the wall, rode out, and stuck in one of those cracks.

[64:12] And that contains their petition to God. To the Jew, to the Orthodox Jew today, by far and away, the most sacred place in all of the world for Israel is the Western wall.

[64:30] It's the only thing that remains from the time the Romans destroyed and leveled it 2,000 years ago. The only structure that is left from that destruction is that Western wall.

[64:47] And that's why they regard it as so sacred. Well, next month will be, can you believe we're talking November? November? But this time we really are, and I really mean it this time, we're going to actually engage Hosea.

[65:03] And I want you to be giving some serious thought to, did God require Hosea to marry a real bona fide lady of the evening? And if so, what was his rationale for doing that?

[65:19] And if he didn't actually require that of Hosea, what does that mean? What does the text mean? So, we'll delve into that next time we are together.

[65:30] So, thank you for being here today. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we realize that we're talking about ancient history and yet, in many respects, it is just as modern as anything we see today because people in their essential nature have not changed from the time which we've been reading to the time today.

[65:48] We are all prone to the same faults and failures. We are all prone to the same successes and accomplishments. And we recognize that this is the way it is with mankind in our fallenness.

[66:01] We are grateful for whatever you are pleased to reveal that will help us better connect the dots and appreciate what you have done and will be doing in those whom you've redeemed down through the centuries.

[66:13]  We bless you for it all in Christ's name. Amen.