They wanted an earthly king “like all the nations.”

That tragic desire and decision, was the beginning of the end. Soon, they would be living like those nations: worshiping idols, following practices that were opposed to Scriptural commandments, etc. Ultimately, it would bring destruction of the temple, Jerusalem, and the people for good! How tragic!

But it began early.

God’s people don’t outwardly cry out for a king other than Jesus Christ Who is the King over His church. But they often live like the world around them—which, in the end, is precisely the same thing.

Believer, do you find yourself wishing to be more like the nations (world) around you? Have you become no different from the unsaved people who live on your street?

Israel had no more than become a theocracy—i.e., a nation governed by God—than they went astray. Think about this thoroughly. If you need help, read the rest of the book of 1 Samuel and you’ll understand the results of doing so!
 
 
 

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God was incensed that these things happened, ”roared from Zion,” and sent a southern, country boy to the North to warn them that He was going to destroy the land by the invasion of a people from far beyond Damascus. Because they refused to heed the last warning that He issued through Amos, the disaster soon came. The Assyrians swept down from the North, devastated the land, and utterly destroyed the countryside, the temple, the palace, and the city, rolling the massive stones of the latter down the hill. Women who had lived in drunken revelry, were literally (as archeological reliefs show) led captive by fishhooks implanted in their lips, and the few men who survived were sold into slavery in far away lands. But they constituted a slim remnant. Unlike the later deportation of the Southern kingdom where there were three sizeable returns to their land after their later exile, the remnant of the ten tribes (which were never “lost’) dribbled back in small groups, especially during the 270-year period following the reconstruction of the city of Jerusalem, when the 70 year period of Babylonian captivity was over. They became incorporated into the tribe of Judah (as the presence of Anna, of the tribe of Asher in New Testament times shows; Luke 2: 36). And from the time of their incorporation into the tribe of Judah, they—as all Israel from then on—were called “Jews,” a name derived from the word Judah.

The book of Amos is a book of doom! It is worth reading in a time like our own, when our country is quickly slipping into many of the same sinful practices found in ancient Samaria. The wealth of the period was immense—ivory inlay in beds and other furniture has been found, with sheets of ivory stored to be used for such purposes in the future—just as the Book of Amos describes. The totally illegitimate priesthood, of course, was incensed by the preaching of this country bumpkin, and ordered Amos to return to Tekoa, his own land. But Amos preached on, predicting the destruction of those who opposed—as happened (members of the faux high priest’s family were killed along with him, and his wife became a harlot). God devastated the land, which was never satisfactorily rebuilt. Today, a little village remains, along with a nearly-defunct religious group called Samaritans, all that is left of the “Samaritans” of Jesus’ day who were of foreign extraction deported from other lands.

Why am I writing such things? As a simple warning to those few who will read this blog, urging them to repent on behalf of the nation, implore God for help, and serve Him as never before. There may yet be time before God pours out His wrath upon an ungrateful nation that possesses so much and yet cares so little—about others and about God! Amos commented on the false perception of the Israelites who expected God to intervene, and destroy all of their enemies in a great “Day of the Lord.” Instead, said Amos, I’ll teach you what the Day of the Lord really will be—a day of gloom and destruction all right, but not for your enemies–for you! God is coming in judgment for sure, so “Prepare to meet your God!”

But they would not listen. No one stood in the gap and, thereby, stayed the hand of God through repentance and prayer. In today’s growingly grim situation, will you?

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Lord, is it at this time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?

O. Palmer Robertson, in his interesting book, The Israel of God, suggests that the answer to that three-fold question is found in vv. 7, 8:

It isn’t for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by His own authority; instead, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, in the rest of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

To the first part of their question—when will the “restoration” occur—Jesus told them that God wasn’t about to tell them. To the second part of the question he replied that the restoration would be of such a nature that it would involve the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them in power (in other words, it would be a fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise that would institute a wholly new phase of Israel’s existence), and in answer to the third part—Israel, from henceforth, would include Gentiles from all over the earth where they would be sent to preach the Good News.

This is, of course, a different thought than many have in reading the verses in view, but it seems consistent contextually with what actually was said in response to the inquiry of the curious disciples.

Doubtless, the new “nation” (called the “Israel of God” in Galatians 6:16) predicted by Jesus in Matthew 21:43, that would replace the political Israel of old, would be (as Jesus said in John 19:36) not “from this world.” If it were, He said, then, there would be physical action taken to prevent His capture. His Kingdom was a kingdom of truth as He told Pilate. Rather than a continuation of the old order, this New Spiritual Israel was to be what Peter referred to as “a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people who belong to Someone . . . a people who at one time were not a people” (I Peter 1:9, 10). So, the new Israel—now carrying many of the older titles—would be Israel “restored” as a reconstituted body that exemplified individually in the lives of its members, those things that were always signified by the external’ sacrificial system with its types and shadows. The “reality” had come at last. This “restoration” was a restoration in terms consonant with the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise that his Seed would become a blessing to all the nations of the world. Consequently, the church of Jesus Christ has been carrying on that task ever since Pentecost.

He is a Jew who is one inwardly; he is not a Jew who is one only outwardly.  Do you belong to the new Israel, restored as a kingdom of prophets and priests, as the body of Christ, as His bride, and the building housing the Holy Spirit? If this is all confusing, read Robertson’s book, but of even greater importance, be sure to read and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ by which, alone, you may be saved. He died in the place of guilty sinners like you, and (on what we call Easter) rose from the dead. He ascended to the throne of God where, today, as co-regent with the Father, He rules this new, restored, Israel of God. The important thing is whether or not you swear allegiance to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If you do, blessings and shalom upon you, fellow Israelite.

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