The Is Not The Only Accusation Made By God Against Israel And Judah

Even in the days of Jeroboam I, the man who founded the Kingdom of Israel, God already knew that Israel would be troublesome. It was forewarned that, “…the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked the LORD to anger by making Asherah poles.” The Israelites’ reason of doubt for God was that they were unsure that they could take over their promised land. God told them that they could remove the current inhabitants, but they were convinced that they could not. Not believing in the word of the Lord led to their exile for forty years of “wilderness wandering.” They had forgotten all of the great things that He had done for them, such as delivering them from Egyptian enslavement. Hope was given up on Him

God abundantly showed mercy, patience, and forgiveness with His chosen people, the Israelites, under this covenant; but when His were laws were broken repeatedly and without regard God declared that surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord are on the sinful kingdom and it will be destroyed from the face of the earth” (Amos 9:8). God made clear He would take away good things He provided, pass judgement, and the sinful nation would be destroyed. God’s judgement was fierce and final for those nations that turned away, rebelled, or were wicked and evil (Deuteronomy 29:24-26).

God is depicted in the Old Testament with a very bad reputation. David Lamb is an old testament professor and he addresses some of the reasons for this bad reputation. In Lamb’s book, God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? In his book, there are seven specific citations addressed that provide proof and evidence for those who would believe “God behaves badly.” The examples that Professor Lamb chose are: angry or loving, sexist or affirming, racist or hospitable, violent or peaceful, legalistic or gracious, rigid or flexible, and distant or near. With each chapter that Lamb writes, it provides multiple biblical narrative accounts and establishes a basis for the particular argument aimed against God.

Those who when against God were severely punish, going against God was going consider an act against society. Those who committed a sin were highly penalized. The benefit of clergy was a doctrine only priests and monks could use. A priest had the ability to claim the privilege of his status and was able to be ecclesiastical trial courts.

God’s guidance often comes in violent forms, punishing humanity for going astray of his wishes or attempting to raise themselves up to god-like status. First, in the beginning of Genesis he attempted to control Adam and Eve by withholding knowledge, telling them that

New Jerusalem be defiled and corrupted by wrong and deceitful ideas." What is the irony in

of his nation being scattered among the heathen. Nehemiah knew God’s promises to Moses that

　　　　Raising up his voice to God, Nehemiah, explained their displeasure with this ridicule to God. He asked the Lord to turn this back around on them, to lay plunder upon them, and to not allow their sins to be forgiven due to their mockery rousing God’s anger against them.

sought out to become a priest to gain power and wealth, not the actually be a priest and all that it

During the time of the Middle Ages, the prime unifier of all people in western Europe was the Catholic Church, headed by the pope. Also at that time, the only people who could read and interpret the Bible were the clergy officials, because they were the ones who could read and write Latin. These two things combined gave the Church a significant amount of power over all people. As usual, the power corrupted the Church and they began to take advantage of the unknowing common people. An example of their corruption was the selling of indulgences, or the pardon of all the sins committed by the buyer and his family for a price (“The Spanish Massacre…”).

The times that we live in are changing everyday and the people except wrong as right and I know that God and the prophets are not pleased. We must understand that God is the same and his word says in “ Malachi 3: 6 For I am the lord, I change not not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. That lets us know that God will deal with these things the same way he did back then. Just because times have changed God has not and the prophets would advise us to choose life and not death and turn from these things such as idolatry, social injustice, and religious ritualism. The prophets of old would remind us of God’s word when they tell us in his word what “ Jeremiah said in 2:4 hear ye the word of the Lord, o house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. So let us listen for God is speaking in the signs of the times because we our a wicked people who have forgotten about God and the message his prophets came bringing to get us on the right course for a better life. So

According to the reading of Job, ancient Hebrews believed that God only punished those who have acted unjustly. In the year 2000 B.C. , the stories in the Bible were told and passed on orally through generations before finally being written down around 1000 years later in 1000 B.C. This time period was crucial because this was the time where ancient Hebrews started evolving and becoming a greater community in which only one God was present rather than multiple gods, as believed by the Mesopotamians and Egyptians. Having one God rather than many who specified in a particular area meant that this one God guides everything and everyone. There is no such thing as an unjust God, hence God is just and therefore only punishes those who are unjust.

New Jerusalem be defiled and corrupted by wrong and deceitful ideas." What is the irony in

This summer I was reading through books in the Old Testament. When I got to 1 and 2 Kings, I saw a pattern of sin amongst the kings who ruled. Nearly every king worshipped idols or refused to tear down pagan shrines. They knew it was wrong and were punished for their sin, and yet they continued in their sinful ways. It seemed that one king would rule, allowed the people in the nation to worship idols, his rule would end, and then another king would come and do the same thing. There was a repeated pattern of sin.

Old Testament, a believer could only draw so close to God, then he or she had to be represented by a priest or the High Priest the rest of the way. God knew that his chosen people were superstitious, barbaric, and easily influenced by their idol worshiping neighbors, so he gave them the Law, judges, prophets, and kings to prepare them for a Savior” (Zavada 4).