BASIC BIBLE STUDIES

# 010

 

Humanity's History Of Persistent Disobedience To God

(Part 3)

 

In this Study we continue our Biblical survey of mankind's ongoing history of disobedience to God, continuing with the numbering sequence from the previous Study.

 

Following the kingdom of Judah's 70 year captivity in Babylon (the length and place of place of which had been predicted by Jeremiah--25:11-12), God in His mercy permitted the Jews (people of Judah) to return to Jerusalem.  Beginning in 536 B. C., under the leadership of such courageous men as Zerrubabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, many Jews returned to Palestine from Babylon, which had been  conquered by the Persians.  One would think that following their captivity the people of Judah would have learned the importance of obedience and faithfulness to God, but, alas, such was not the case.

 

14. Though at first very committed to rebuilding the temple, the Jews allowed the foreigners around them to discourage them in their efforts.  "Thus the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased..." (Ezra 4:24).  For 16 years the work of rebuilding lay idle as the people busied themselves with their own selfish concerns.  The prophet Haggai appeared on the scene and chastised them, urging them to "consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5).  He indicted them by saying: "You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes" (Haggai 1:6).  (Sounds an awful lot like many today, doesn't it?  We get on a treadmill of activity, but accomplish nothing worthwhile because God is not really first in our lives).

   

15. Soon after their return, the people of Judah were again compromising their allegiance to the Lord by intermarrying with the heathen people of the land and engaging in their abominable acts.  "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.  For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed (the people of Judah, hf) is intermingled with the peoples of those lands.  Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass" (Ezra 9:1-2). 

 

16. During Nehemiah's absence from Jerusalem, the people of Judah again compromised their loyalty to the Lord by allowing Tobiah, a known enemy of God's people, to have his own room in the temple of God (Nehemiah 13:4-7).  Further, they ceased their support of the Levites, in disobedience to God's orders (Nehemiah 13:10).  They violated the Sabbath by using it as a day for "business as usual" (Nehemiah 13:15).  They continued to intermarry with the heathen around them, to the point that their children could not speak the pure language of Judah (Nehemiah 13:23-24).  Learning of these sinful deeds, Nehemiah dealt severely with the people.  "So I contended with them and cursed them (put a curse on them, hf), struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God saying, 'You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves.  Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things?  Yet among many nations there was no king like him... Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin.  Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women?'" (Nehemiah 13:25-27). 

 

Important Chronological Note: The Old Testament comes to its chronological end with the close of Nehemiah's career.  The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (who preached to Nineveh in Assyria), Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, had all lived and prophesied before either the Assyrian captivity of Israel or the Babylonian captivity of Judah.  Ezekiel and Daniel had lived and prophesied during the Babylonian captivity.  It is extremely important to keep in mind the time-frame in which all of the above named prophets lived, as well as the context of their prophecies.  When  they predicted a "return of the Jews to Palestine," they were speaking of the return of the Jews from their foreign captivity, not of an alleged return yet to occur at (or shortly before) the second coming of Christ!  Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi lived and prophesied after the Jews return from Babylon and were contemporaries with Ezra and Nehemiah.  Chronology and context must be respected in studying the Old Testament.

 

17. As the Old Testament ends, the people of Judah are still trying to "pull the wool" over God's eyes by offering blind, lame, and sick animals--animals no longer profitable to them--as sacrifices to the Lord (Malachi 1:6-8).  Their worship has degenerated into a mere formality.  They put on a good act "with weeping and crying," but it is all an abomination to God (Malachi 2:13-17a).  Their values have again been turned upside down as they say: "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord" (Malachi 3:17b,) reminiscent of the sense of values by which they had lived before they experienced the captivity (Isaiah 5:20-21).  They are guilty of robbing God in their tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:8).  In general, the people have degenerated morally, spiritually, and religiously.  What can be done to redeem them and the rest of humanity, the vast Gentile world?  With the opening of the New Testament, we will see God's ultimate answer to humanity's need for redemption, but even there we will see mankind's stubborn insistence on ignoring the will of God and doing his "own thing."

 

(To be continued).

 

If this essay has blessed you, feel free to forward it to others who may benefit from it.

 

Hugh Fulford