Handout 15
A. The Main Questions that Framed the Issues as We Read the Historical Books:
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Will Israel be faithful to God, and enjoy the blessing offered in the Sinai covenant? Or will they be unfaithful, and incur the warnings and the judgments of that covenant?
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If Israel is not faithful to God, and if God brings upon them the curses of the Sinai covenant, will that affect, or perhaps even cancel, the promises God made to Abraham? (= the Abrahamic covenant; Gen 12, 15, 17, & 22).
B. A General Observation:
We know that God judged Israel for being unfaithful to him. But when Israel was faithful to God (not perfectly, but meaningfully), God blessed them. Examples:
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Josh 2:24 tells us that God gave Israel rest on every side.
Compare that to the book of Judges, where we are repeatedly told that, "The Israelites did evil in God's sight … and so God handed them over to <some nation> who oppressed them". -
In Solomon’s time, we are told that Israel lived in peace, and that “every man had his own vine and his own fig tree.” (1 Kgs 4:25).
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In the time of King Asa of Judah (2 Chron 15), Judah took an oath to re-dedicate themselves to serving the Lord. We are told, “… they sought God eagerly, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.” (2 Chron 15:15).
So it is not accurate to say that the Law only brought judgment and death. When Israel obeyed the Law, it brought blessing.
C. An Important Clarification: Rahab and the Canaanites:
God gave Israel a general command to “drive out the Canaanites.” And if the Canaanites met Israel in battle, God commanded Israel “do not let any of them live.” Because of these commands, many readers of the Bible have concluded that God in effect commanded Israel to exterminate the Canaanites. But the example of Rahab in Joshua 2 & 6 shows that this is not correct. Rahab affirmed that the Lord, the God of Israel, was the one true God. Joshua spared Rahab, and the ongoing account (Joshua chs. 2 – 7) shows that God approved of this.
This establishes the principle that → a Canaanite who turns to Yahweh God as the one true God, and who serves him, can be spared with God’s approval.
Yes, the Israelites were to drive the Canaanites out of the land. Canaanites who left could live, but if they stayed and fought, Israel was to kill them all. But if individual Canaanites turned to God, believed in him and served him, they could be spared. The account of Rahab demonstrates this. Therefore, God did not order the total extermination of the Canaanites as a race.
D. An Important Development: The Promise of a Messiah = The Covenant with David:
In 2 Samuel 7, God promises David that He will raise up a son from David’s own body, who will reign on his throne forever. Of this son, God says, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son” (2 Sam 14).
This future king is referred to afterwards as “the anointed one” / “God’s anointed.” When the Hebrew word for “anointed one” is brought into English, it is the word “Messiah.” The equivalent NT term is “Christ.” So when the NT calls Jesus, “the Christ,” it is saying that Jesus is the promised future king = the son of David = the Messiah.
The prophets tell us that this king will be just and will be righteous, and will delight in revering the Lord (Isa 11:1-5). He will set up a glorious kingdom that will last forever.
Question: Has that happened by the end of the Old Testament?
E. What Happened to Israel Under the Sinai Covenant?
As we mentioned in section B above, there were times when God blessed Israel for being faithful to him. So there were times when Israel enjoyed the blessings of the Sinai covenant.
But too often, Israel was not faithful to God. At these times, they began to experience God’s judgment. The book of Judges is a clear example of this. And even though some of Judah’s kings were good, most of Judah’s kings were evil. And none of northern kingdom Israel’s kings were truly good.
Eventually, God pronounced judgment on them. Northern kingdom Israel was destroyed in 722 BC by the Assyrians. Assyria dragged many Israelites off into exile.
Judah had some good kings, and lasted longer, but it too was judged by God. Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed in 586 BC. And thousands of Jews were taken in exile to Babylon.
So rather than serving and obeying God and experiencing the blessings of the Sinai covenant, Israel and Judah were so unfaithful that God declared that they broke the covenant (Jer 31:32). And so God carried out the curses of the covenant: they were defeated, their cities were destroyed, the temple was destroyed, and they were kicked them out of the land.
F. Some Conclusions & Lessons Learned:
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God is always looking for people who will serve him freely, from the heart. True obedience always comes from within, always comes from the heart.
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Obedience is better than making a show of religion: “To obey is better than to sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22).
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Even Israel, God’s “chosen people,” must obey God. They cannot just sin all they want and get by with it. God will hold them accountable, and will eventually judge and punish them, if they do not repent.
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Yet the OT also teaches that, if people do repent and return to God, He is merciful to them, and He will forgive them. A striking example of this is the evil king Manasseh, whose repentance is recorded in 2 Chron 33:12-13. [See also Ps 32, Ps 51.]
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The fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC is not a mystery. We know exactly why it happened. It happened because Israel scorned the Lord, served other gods, and broke the Sinai covenant. See Lev 26; Deut 28; Josh 23:16; 2 Kings 17, Jer 31:32; and esp. Ps 106.
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But even though God carried out the curses of the Sinai covenant upon Israel, He did not destroy Israel completely (Nehemiah 9:31). He was faithful to his promise that even when He judges them, He would not destroy them completely (Lev 26:44).
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In like manner, the promises to Abraham = the covenant with Abraham, is still in effect. After the exile, this can be seen in Nehemiah 9, 1 Chron 16:16 and 2 Chron 20:7. God is faithful to what He has promised (Ps 105).