No. 6. >> It feels like we're ready to jump into Isaiah's writings. But before we begin, will you be so kind as to give me a general historical overview of this time in Israel's history? Up until the time of Moses' death, I feel I have a reasonable grip on biblical history. But after that event, everything becomes fuzzy for me. I'm sorry; I suspect this is a huge request. >> Not a bad request at all. Let's get our bearings in terms of what happens in Israel from the death of Moses to the death of Uzziah in Chapter 6 Verse 1 of Isaiah. So let's use our slides again. You may remember these from our time in the introduction to the Old Testament. But the first slide we're looking at is Moses. That's supposed to depict Moses there holding onto that covenant treaty tablet that we already discussed in class with this six parts to it. So this is looking at the book of Deuteronomy. And Deuteronomy's big question is: How long will Israel stay in the land? So that's why we have a question mark that is positioned right over the Promised Land on our slide. So Moses holds up this sinaitic covenant in his hands with the six parts. And just to the right of the question mark on the slide is a mountain with a cloud and thunderbolts and the letter 2 in the midst of it. That's simply because in the book of Deuteronomy God is simply reiterating, giving a second look, at everything that happened at Mt. Sinai. The themes in Deuteronomy there on the bottom part of the slide: The lands, the Lord alone, sanctuary, rewards and punishments, choose life today. So that's where Moses dies. You know, narrated for us in the book of Deuteronomy, specifically Chapter 34 of Deuteronomy. But the big issue here that I want to accent in terms of this slide is the red question mark. How long will Israel live in the land? Because that's a major burden of the prophet Isaiah as it relates again to the sixth part of this sinaitic covenant, the blessings and the curses. Remember, the blessing of listening to God's Gospel voice is staying in the land. The curse is to be exiled from the land. Well, the next slide then looks at the book of Joshua. Certainly after the death of Moses, Joshua Chapter 1 says that Moses, my servant, is dead. And with the death of Moses comes the ministry of Joshua. In a nutshell, we can see Joshua, perhaps, pictured on our slide blowing the shofar, which is the ram's horn. Which was used as a call to worship. But in the book of Joshua, it's called as a summons for battle against the enemies. So the little travel signs that you see on our slide, the journey, would be Israel on the plains of Moab, that's where Moses dies. They cross the Jordan River. That's narrated for us in Joshua Chapter 3. And then they go up against their first enemy, the people in Jericho. And you can see by means of our slide that God leads his people through the Ark of the Covenant. That would be the gold picture on our slide with the sword going right through the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant is God's real presence with Israel. In, with and under this ark would be Yahweh, the God of Israel himself. A great text to help people understand this would be at the end of Numbers Chapter 10 Verses 36 and following where Moses speaks to the Ark of the Covenant and says: Arise, O Lord and return, O Lord. So again, God isn't symbolized. He isn't represented by this ark. No, God is truly present with his people by means of this ark. And this ark then means not only real presence but real victory. Real victory at Jericho. Real victory at Hazor. Real victory at Ai and Eglon and Lachish and Debir, as you can see by means of the slide. So the book of Joshua might be understood then using three different words. The first word would be crossover. So they've crossed over the land. And they've taken the land. At the end of Joshua Chapter 13, all the land is in their possession. Crossover. Travel. Following the Ark of the Covenant. The second word that helps us understand the book of Joshua is take. So then the land is taken. And it is divided up between the tribes of Israel. The last word is serve. At the end of Joshua in Chapter 24 of this book, Joshua says: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Based upon his real presence, his real victories, by means of the Ark of the Covenant. Joshua summons the people to serve God by serving their neighbor. So we've moved from Deuteronomy, the death of Moses, to the life and ministry of Joshua, to the next part of Israel's history. And that would be the book of Judges. The slide narrated -- or before you there depicts the whole book of Judges. On the upper left of the slide, you see a figurine there. And that would be a depiction of the Canaanite goddess ***Starti or Asherah. And we need to understand a little bit about Canaanite fertility religion to help us embrace not only the book of Judges but much of the Old Testament. By way of review from your earlier courses, you may remember that Asherah was the female consort of the Canaanite god Baal or also called Hadad. Baal means owner, master, husband, ruler. But Hadad would be his personal name. Anyway, Baal and Asherah would have sex in heaven. And this would then promote fertility on earth. We'll look at that momentarily in more detail. But here on our slide, we have an Israelite farmer there. You see he's threshing his wheat, separating it from the chaff. And he has success because of his worship of Asherah and Baal or Baal. So that's the major temptation for Israel in the book of Judges. So there you have it on the slide, the divisions of the land to the 12 tribes of Israel. Of course, Levi didn't get land. Their possession was the Lord. The other tribes, though, have their own tribal territories. And throughout the book of Judges, God sends in foreign armies to humble and discipline and punish his people. Now, as that relates to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah doesn't have a lot to say about Canaanite fertility religion. But he does say, as we've already seen, that God uses foreign armies to discipline, punish and mold and shape his people, Israel and Judah. So as Isaiah relates to Joshua, the role of foreign armies is very much connected in both books. Well, let's look then at this next slide to get a little bit better picture of Baal and Asherah. There you see in the upper left-hand part of our slide an archeological figurine of Baal, this Canaanite fertility god. And there on the right would be an archeological figurine of Asherah. So how would you be a successful farmer in Israel? First you would find a sacred prostitute. And you would have sex with her. Perhaps the most famous sacred prostitute in the Old Testament is Hosea's wife Gomer. Not Gumer but Gomer. Gomer is a female woman in the book of Isaiah, a sacred prostitute. You would find one of these people on a high place. You would have sex with her. And this would then prompt, as you can see the arrows going up on our slide, Baal to have sex with Asherah. As the arrows then continue on our slide, this would cause it to rain, the crops would grow. There's the check mark on the crops. It had nothing to do -- the X over the two tablets on the bottom right of our slide. Because Canaanite fertility worship had nothing to do with God's will for his people in terms of loving him and loving their neighbors. So this then is much of the temptation and the ongoing history in this part of the Old Testament. Not only in the book of Judges. But really through Samuel, Kings, and many of the prophets themselves. Israel's temptation and allurement by means of this Canaanite religion. Well, so, we've looked at Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges. Let's then look at I and II Samuel. By means of the slide that you're now looking at, we're looking at the king called David. And there's our symbol for God. And God has reached out to David. This the youngest son of Jesse. And made an everlasting covenant with him. This is narrated for us in II Samuel 7 and I Chronicles Chapter 17. God says to David that: Your descendants will always be on the throne of Israel. That's a major promise for the book of Isaiah, as we've already indicated. And as we will see further when we look at specific messianic prophesies. They are all related to this promise God makes to David in II Samuel Chapter 7. Well, what else is going on in the books of Samuel and Kings? Well, you can see by means of our slide that there are these great military victories. That David conquers armies. He becomes king in Hebron for seven years. And then king in Jerusalem for 33 years. And you can see, if you look very closely, there in Jerusalem is that Ark of the Covenant. God instructed David to make his capital in Jerusalem. To take the Ark of the Covenant. And to place it, God's real presence, in Jerusalem. So that brings us into the world of I and II Samuel, especially in terms of King David. Now, the next slide helps us understand a little bit more of I and II Samuel, I and II Kings. And it just does so by means of seven questions. The first question before you: Are kings needed? The answer is yes, they are needed. Kings are part of God's original plan. In Genesis Chapter 17, God promises Abraham that: Kings will come forth from you. Kings are not Plan B. They are Plan A. As we already said in Deuteronomy Chapter 17, there's a job description for the king. So kings are needed. We have a four-fold refrain in the book of Judges. There was no king in Israel. And everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Are kings needed? Absolutely yes. So we have Saul and David and Solomon. Rehoboam, Jeroboam and many others. The next question that we have in terms of Samuel and Kings is: Whose dynasty is it going to be? And the dynasty will be David's, not Saul's. The third question: What is the extent of this Davidic kingdom? And in II Samuel we have several chapters, 2, 5, 8 and 10, that speak about David's victories. And the extent of the geographical limits of the kingdom. The next question: Who will be David's successor? Well, within II Samuel Chapter 11 to I Kings 2, there is this so-called court narrative. Will the next king be Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah or Solomon? And there we would put the X in the box next to Solomon. Solomon is going to be the next king. Is the king good or bad? That's the next question on our slide. And the criteria used to indicate if the king is good or bad is: Is he of David's line? And does he support the Jerusalem temple? This is how kings are critiqued during Israel's history when they had a monarchy. The next question: What's the fate of the Davidic dynasty after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC? Will it end? Or will it continue? II Kings Chapter 25 says it will continue. And it this is a major theme then in Isaiah. There is life beyond Babylon. There's life beyond 587. And that's really Isaiah Chapters 40 through 66. And what is the nature of the messianic king and kingdom? It's the nature of being a servant. We will look at that in more detail in Isaiah. But suffice it to say, specifically in I Kings Chapter 12, Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, is counselled to be a servant to the people. That's the nature of the messianic kingdom and king. He is to be a servant of and for the people. Let's continue by looking at this next slide. And we're trying to get an overview, again, of the events between the death of Moses and the death of Uzziah at the beginning of Isaiah's ministry. This particular slide, though, on the upper right talks about several events in terms of the Solomonic temple. Solomon's temple is dedicated in I Kings Chapter 8. And you can see by means of this slide that it had several different holy places. But the holiest place or the Holy of Holies is symbolized on our slide by means of these two winged creatures and the Ark of the Covenant. So certainly a major event in this time period that we're discussing, the building of Solomon's temple. Which would have been in and around 930 BC. The reason why we point out the temple is because Isaiah's ministry is in Jerusalem. And the temple located on Mt. Zion, where God dwells, is certainly a key theological idea. For Isaiah everything significant happens, see, at this temple. And on this mountain on which the temple is built. Mt. Zion. So this is part of our slide. We certainly have the sword, which is separating Judah from Israel, the north from the south. And this is narrated for us, this split, in I Kings Chapter 12. Why did Jeroboam in the north split from Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, in the south? Specifically on our slide, the bottom part, the bottom left hand part, shows this picture of a person carrying a heavy weight, a heavy burden. And how Solomon built his temple was by ***corvai, which is the technical term for enslaving your own people. So Jeroboam told Rehoboam: Don't enslave the people like your father Solomon did. And Rehoboam says: If my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions. Not a way to win and influence a political group of voters. Anyway, so we have the split between the north and the south. Also on the bottom right of this slide would be these figurines we've already become familiar with, Asherah and Baal. Beginning with Solomon in I Kings Chapter 11, there was this propensity for kings to worship foreign deities. Foreign gods and goddesses. And this would be a prominent part of the history we're considering. Let's look at the last slide that we will use to understand this part of Israel's history. This is the all-encompassing slide. At the top we would have the tribal league that would take us back to the time of Joshua and Judges. Then we have the first king Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. He's rejected by God. God finds a man after his own heart named David. And then David's son is Solomon. And then by means of the slide you can see the division between the north and the south. At the bottom right of this slide you have the yellow check mark that indicates that these are good kings. They are not perfect kings. But they were of the line of David. And they supported the Solomonic temple. Also as a key to this slide on the bottom right, you have a dagger dipped in blood. And that indicates assassination was the means whereby new kings came to reign. Well, having looked at this in a general way, let's look at it specifically. All of the kings on the left are southern kings. They are Judah kings. And they are all of the same color. They are all in yellow. Because they are of the lineage of David. And several of these kings get check marks, which means they obviously were Davidic. But they supported the temple. As this slide relates to our study of Isaiah, I want you to notice that Uzziah has a check mark. He is a good king. As does Hezekiah receive a check mark. And you can see the times of their reign by means of our slide. The one king during the time of Isaiah who is prominent who doesn't get the check mark that he did a good job was Ahaz. And we'll develop Ahaz by means of Isaiah Chapter 7. On the right part of the slide would be the kings of Israel. Again, none of those are Davidic. None of those, therefore, get a check mark. None of them supported the Solomonic temple. So they don't get a check mark for that reason, as well. And you can see the instability of the northern kingdom. There would be seven kings who began their reign by means of assassination. So hopefully this particular slide helps you understand from Moses to Isaiah. And where Israel has been. And where they are right now with the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh during the lifetime of Isaiah.