Pod Prep : 4-6-18 The Less Godly A Nation the More Divided and Violent It Becomes
THE MORE PAGANIZED A NATION THE MORE DIVIDED IT BECOMES
Israel was secure and unified until pagan influences were allowed to flourish. A nation cannot remain moral and Godly and unified when paganism is embraced. Note God's warning to Israel's King at the point of it's greatest height and wealth as a nation. God warned Solomon King of a United Israel that because his heart had been comprised by paganism the nation would suffer. Solomon's heart had turned away from Jehovah the God of Israel and the Bible.
1Ki 11:5 And Solomon goeth after Ashtoreth goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites; 6 and Solomon doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, and hath not been fully after Jehovah, like David his father. (YLT)
This nation is moving clearly away from basically being a Judaeo Christian nation to one that is secular. People now worship nature the planet, animals and plants. This move further away from the Bible and God as somewhat known in the past the more divided this nation has become. Our problems such as crime, violence and suicides have increased enormously after we removed God from the public square. God explains to Solomon that he will rend the nation apart because of Solomon's infidelity toward God. Jehovah will not end his dynasty because of God's love for King David but would rip the nation apart. God said the northern ten tribes would be given to one of Solomon's servants. Note I King 11:9-30 for of all the trouble that this pagan turn by King Solomon would unleash upon the nation.
1Ki 11:31 and saith to Jeroboam, `Take to thee ten pieces, for thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, lo, I am rending the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and have given to thee the ten tribes, 32 and the one tribe he hath for My servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have fixed on, out of all the tribes of Israel. (YLT)
This action created two nations: the northern ten known as Israel or Samaria its eventual capital, and the southern kingdom known as Judah which eventually contained three tribes Benjamin, Levi and Judah. One cannot really understand much of the Bible if one does not realize this division. The lack of this understanding can lead to a lot of misunderstanding of the Bible and biblical history.
THE NORTHERN TEN TRIBES TAKE A TURN FOR THE WORSE
Jeroboam the leader of the northern ten tribes makes a turn for the worse kinds of paganized worship of the God of Israel. It was a decision that would have profound negative impacts on the northern ten. It led to a lot of violent revolutions, moral declines and the early captivity and extinction of the nation. Jeroboam did not have enough faith in God to stay faithful. God gave him the ten tribes but he trusted in a type of Machiavellian politics. Jeroboam and his advisers decided that they couldn't have the same religion as Judah. Jeroboam thought that the people would want to reunite when they attended the Holy Days in Jerusalem. They polluted the religion of the true God. Jeroboam destroyed the religious unity of the nation and therefore cut themselves off from God.
1Ki 12:28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. 31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. (KJV)
He even had the gall to alter the Feast of Tabernacles which is set for the 15th day of the seventh month to the 15th day of eighth month. Jeroboam thought, well, if it seems similar he could still claim they were worshiping the God that rescued Israel from Egypt under Moses leadership. It was a counterfeit religion that he made up. Using priest who were not Levites, untrained in the scriptures, he could bribe them to willingly teach anything he invented.
1Ki 12:33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense. {offered...: or, went up to the altar, etc} {and burnt...: Heb. to burn incense} (KJV)
He created a popular religion. Jeroboam created a convenient religion with two sites. The people had already, in the past, indicated a desire for a 'visible image of God' like the young bull of the pagans, the golden calf. The rebellious Israelites in the past turned immediately to the 'golden calf'. Note Exodus 32:4. Jeroboam gave them a religious system similar to the pagans, worshiping an animal. But it did not bring unity and security for his dynasty. This system of turning God's religion into a pagan compromise or worship of the true God using false methods is known in the Bible as the 'sins of Jeroboam'. His counterfeit system was one that turned the Israelites away from the worship of the one true God. Jeroboam therefore becomes the standard by which other evil kings are measured in Israels' history.
THE PATHWAY TO RETURN TO GOD AND UNITY WAS BLOCKED BY SINS OF JEROBOAM
The northern ten tribes had a number of bloody revolutions and continued moral decay as compared to their southern brethren. Judah maintained just one line of kings while Israel had a number of violent rebellions and dynastic changes. Judah experienced a number of revivals and returns to God. Judah had some good kings. The northern ten never had any revivals or any good kings. Their kings went from bad to worse. The further the northern ten drifted away from God the more disunity and trouble they had. From this point on, it was a downhill and very slippery slope that Israel walked. God’s dealings with Israel will serve as a warning to Judah. The moral slide became a warning for the southern kingdom. Things quickly deteriorated from bad to worse for the northern ten. The southern kingdom of Judah had problems also but because they kept closer to God's given religion, the pathway to repentance was not blocked. Therefore Judah had less unity problems and internal violence.
Strife follows a group or nation that moves away from God and worships animals or men or anything other than God. I think it is embarrassing that when we have a tragedy we need a MOMENT OF SILENCE INSTEAD OF A PRAYER. The people who wrote the constitution prayed all the time in public. Now that America has barred God from the public square we will continue to have more division and strife. Note the violence in northern Kingdom.
2Ki 10:6 Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezebel by to morrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up. {mine: Heb. for me} 7 And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel. (KJV)
This above bloody instance is one of a number of violent strife filled events in the northern kingdom. The further from the true God ( sins of Jeroboam) they moved the greater the strife and division.
1Ki 16:31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. {as if...: Heb. was it a light thing, etc} 32 And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
The northern ten went from bad to worse ever with Ahab and Jezebel. The Corinthian church was greatly influenced by paganism and false teachers also. Note II Cor. 11:13-15. That is why the congregation was divided and fighting.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? {divisions: or, factions} {as men: Gr. according to man?} 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? (KJV)
America will also be divided and full of more hostility the further from God's ways we wander.
A SELF GOVERNING REPUBLIC CANNOT FUNCTION WITHOUT GODLY MORALITY
America desperately needs Christian morality. However we have been erroneously taught that we must keep Godly based morality out of public life. Why? They say the constitutions says so or at least a major writer of the constitution supposedly said keep religion walled out. Thomas Jefferson actually said the exact opposite.
The First Amendment has created a wall of separation between the church and the State. But that wall is one directional. It is to keep the government from running the Church. But it is not to keep Christian principles out of the government. Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin mused that we have gotten out of the constitutional convention a free republic if we can keep it. He believed in self reliance and Christian morality among an informed public to maintain that freedom. Other revolutions had spun out into totalitarian governments and abuse.
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. Benjamin Franklin
The founding President of America sensed the need for America not to forget that our blessings come from the God of ancient Israel and the Bible.
May the same wonderworking Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors and planted them in the promised land, whose Providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.
George Washington
National unity will crumble without biblical morality. The further a nation gets away from God the more divided and violent it becomes.
