All right, let's turn to Psalm 96. Jerry and I had a discussion this week about who was going to preach whom, and I asked him to preach Jehu. It's the next king on the list because I wanted to jump over into and talk about the prophets for just a little bit. So Jehu is not all bad. So he had a little bit of good in him. So I'm going to let Jerry talk about him and then we'll get back to our normal run down through the kings. And the reason I wanted to talk about the prophets a little bit is because, you know, you were bumping into these prophets during the reading. And I got to thinking, you know, If you're reading through the Bible in a year and you come across these prophets, it's kind of important to know who they are, to whom they are speaking, what's going on in the nation at the time of their prophecy. And so we're going to talk about that. So we've been studying this story. We've been studying this last bit, we've been studying about the kings, but if you remember it, it began based upon Stephen's sermon. We went all the way back to the beginning with Abraham, and we've been thinking about this beautiful story of God calling his people as his own. And we've seen how he has displayed his love for them as he called them, and he conformed them, and he carried them through the wilderness. They have been collected together as a community and God has blessed them. They have been so blessed that during the days of the kings, Queen Sheba came and she was amazed at the wealth and the splendor of the nation. Just think about this temple overlaid with gold. It was a beautiful sight. God has truly blessed His people. And we know He blessed them for a reason. So let's read Psalm 96. It says, O sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name. Show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen and His wonder among all people. That word heathen there means to all nations. And so we recognize that one of the reasons that God called the nation of Israel is that he wanted the nation of Israel to declare his glory to the nations. They were to be the vehicle through which the glory of God was spread throughout the world. What do we know about them? Did they do that? I think that's important for us as we are studying this, the Kings, that it's important for us to remember that this story is about God calling out a people for Himself. He's revealing Himself to the world through the nation of Israel. And the nation of Israel is to make His glory known among the nations. That's their purpose. And as we look at the of the nation of Israel during the kings, what do we know? They're not living up to their purpose. You see, even in their early days, I mean, at Mount Sinai, right? Really, even before that, while they're in the wilderness. What, God bring us out here to die? Their faithfulness to God wavered. They were not able to fulfill their purpose. And now, as we've looked at the history of the kings, what about the faithfulness of Israel? They have allowed idolatry to creep into their country. They have every king, it seems, allowed sin to seep into every aspect of their life. The idolatry grows. Yes, there are some times when an individual king will bring a time of revival, but we know It seems, as we have been studying, that the trajectory of the nation of Israel is that they're in for a total fall. So the story of the prophets. What's the story of the prophets? The story of the prophets is that God called these men to warn Israel. He warned them about turning away from Him. that the prophets would call out the sin of the people and he would urge them to turn back to God. Last week we gave you that chart of the, they gave an overview of the ministry of the minor prophets, but today I gave you a more detailed chart which gives you a more in-depth picture of the ministry of the prophets and it also includes the major prophets. Now, if you compare the two charts, the timelines may not be exactly right. All of the timelines of ancient world history are approximate, so you can't look at one chart and say, well, this says it happened during 870 BC, and that one says it happens during a different time. It's all an approximate date. But we do learn what was the major ministry of the prophets, who they spoke to, who the king was when that prophet spoke, and the timing. And so there's also, I don't know if it's actually on the top of your chart, but there is a legend there that tells you what each color means. And so the color green, you know, that is the prophets that are speaking to Israel. Light blue is the prophets that speak to Judah. The pinkish red color are the prophets that spoke during the exile. And the lighter blue on the bottom are the ones that prophesied to the nation of Israel, to those that came to rebuild Jerusalem, and the walls of Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple. And the ones that are tan, those are prophets that spoke to nations in general. We'll look at that a little more in depth in just a minute. But we want to remember that the only difference between a major prophet and a minor prophet is the amount of prophecy, right? If you take Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel, you know, those are major prophets because their writings are extensive. People like Obadiah and Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi, they write less and so they're minor prophets. So there's nothing, it doesn't mean that their prophecy is any less. It doesn't mean that it's less God's Word or less impactful or anything like that. It just means there's less of it. So we want to keep that in mind. And so we also want to remember that their major ministry was that they were warning the people of the evil that had infiltrated their lives. Also, we know that the prophets were to warn about false prophets. If you were following along in our Old Testament reading for the year, the chronological reading study that we're doing, you'll know that this week Jeremiah called out the false prophet Hananiah. And when the false prophets told the citizens of Jerusalem, oh, the Chaldeans are not going to come against you. They're going to turn away in less than two years. They're going to turn away and you're not going to be taken captive. And when the Babylonians approached, Jeremiah's like, okay, where's your false prophets now? And so you kind of know, and he called Hananiah out by name and said, Hananiah, because you said that the armies are going to leave in less than two years, in a year you're going to die. And so Jeremiah, he didn't have a great job to do as far as, hey, there's lots of people that are going to be encouraged by the message of Jeremiah. I know Jeremiah's called a weeping prophet for a reason, and they threw him down in the dungeon to die on purpose. I mean, Jeremiah wasn't pleasant, the words that he called them out over. So, often, the words of the prophets were words of gloom and doom. It's like, you've sinned against God, God's going to send someone to take you captive. And even though that's the case, Sometimes the message of the prophets were to be an encouragement to the people. Especially, you know, Ezekiel and Daniel. They were to encourage the people who were taken captive. And we'll look at that in just a little bit. And as you look at some of the others, Hosea even. Notice, and it says, the comments on the content of their books. The first line says, though his message is a message of love and forgiveness. What's the message of Hosea? He's telling Israel, look, you've turned away from God. You've played the harlot. But he said, just as God has sent me to go and purchase back my harlot wife from slavery, God has reached out His arm to draw you back into Himself. He loves you and He wants to forgive you. So even though the prophets speak gloom and doom, they're also preaching words of encouragement and words of love, words of the forgiveness of God. And the word again was, look, you've turned away from God as a harlot, but God is still reaching out to you in mercy. That was the message of Hosea. And so as we want to think about that and keep all of those things in mind, and again, it's important for you to think about who are these prophets talking to and what's going on during that time. Again, Israel is the first list there, the first five prophets. Four of them are mainly speaking to Israel. And you see those four prophets, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea. And so when you're reading through the Bible and you come across Amos, and you start reading through the book of Amos, you might wonder, This seems odd. But if you go back and you think about, okay, where are we at in the history of Israel when you read the book of Amos? What's going on? And so when Amos begins to and preach to them and give his prophecy and it says the content is Israel is powerful and complacent. They are worshiping pagan gods. They are neglecting the call to the poor and for justice. In other words, one of the things he says to Amos about the people is you should be taking up the cause of the poor and the weak and you should be standing up for that which is right. And because you're refusing to stand up for justice, You know, that's why the prophecy is coming as it does. But notice at the end of that, restoration after judgment is promised. That's one of the things the prophets always said. They always said, yes, you're going to go to captivity. Yes, you're going to be defeated, but the kingdom is going to be restored. Israel will come back to be my people in Jerusalem. And so, so again, What do we read in Psalm 96? They are to declare the glory of God among the heathen, to all the nations of the world. When we look at the history of the nation of Israel, did they do that? Did they turn away from God? Did they allow idol worship to come in? Remember from their beginning with Jeroboam, they allowed this pagan worship to come in, the pagan worship of Baal. And what's the result of that? In 722, they fall. They fall to the Assyrians. And so, they are taken captive, and they are taken to, this is the northern kingdom of Israel is taken captive, and they're taken captive by the Assyrians. So what do we know then that happened to the Assyrians? The Assyrians were the major, dominant power of the world at the time. What do we know? If you study ancient world history, who defeated the Assyrians? The Babylonians defeated the Assyrians. And so what happens next? So again, it's 722 BC when Israel fell. Judah, the southern kingdom, continues on to be the followers of God. But then we know that the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, came down against them. And Judah falls in 607 BC. And so you'll notice there as you look at that chart, the prophets that spoke to Judah. Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah. Those are all the prophets that are warning the nation of Judah about their sin and how they need to turn back to God. Now, one of the things that's important to remember, that when Judah fell, The people were taken out of Judah to Babylon, but that happened in three different deportations. They just didn't come and take the entire country at once. Actually, the king of Babylon set up his own king in Judah for a while. But anyway, there were three dispersions. There was the first dispersion when probably Daniel was one of the first to go. He was one of the first captives. And so when you read the book of Daniel, you'll know that's when the Babylonians came down and first began to defeat Judah. And they took all of the favored and all the college age and all the wealthy and all that. They took them in the first dispersion. And then there's two more dispersions after that. But all the people of Jerusalem and Judah weren't taken at once. They were taken in three different dispersions or three different deportations. Jeremiah, though, was among the last. Jeremiah experienced the worst of the famine that happened in Judah and Jerusalem. And so when you're reading the book of Jeremiah, you're recognizing. Daniel, when you read the book of Daniel, you recognize that he was taken out and he was not living in Jerusalem when Jerusalem ultimately fell. He was actually in Babylon. But Jeremiah, he was there to the bitter end. And so some of the things that's happening in Jeremiah, you recognize why it's happening and why it's being written the way that it was is because Jeremiah experienced the worst of what happened to the nation. Just some words as you're reading through the prophets that should be important to you, words like dispersed, words like exile, famine, and the city being besieged. Those should be things that you think about. Also, I want you to notice the length of Isaiah's prophecy. So let's find Isaiah there. Isaiah prophesied from approximately 760 B.C. to 673 B.C. So what do we know about him? Look at that length of time. 760 to 673. He had a lot of years of prophecy under his belt, right? He prophesied for a long time. So, Walt, not only do you want to understand, like, the length of time that they prophesied, but also who the kings were. And again, that gives you some insight into what is the king, who is the king when this prophet is prophesying. Look at, for example, Habakkuk. Who are the kings? Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. Where do those kings fall in the list of the kings of Judah at the very end? for Jeremiah, Manasseh, Ammon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Again, those are the last kings of Judah when he is prophesying. And so Isaiah prophesied during Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh, some of the better kings. He had some prophecy during some of the better kings. And so again, that makes a difference in the way you read the prophets. Again, so there are prophets that were to the northern kingdom to Israel. There were prophets to the southern kingdom. But then you get to Ezekiel and Daniel and you understand that those guys wrote to the exiles. To those who were taken captives as prisoners of war and they were removed from their homeland and they were taken to the land of Babylon and they were dispersed throughout the land of Babylon, Ezekiel and Daniel are writing to those guys. They're not writing to those that are in Jerusalem and Judea. They're writing to those who are taken captive. And so, when you're reading through those books, it helps you understand why they're writing and what they're writing about. And if you get to Ezekiel, you'll also notice that Ezekiel's not only writing about the restoration of the nation of Judah, but then he's also even looking out beyond that into future events, events that we have not yet experienced. So you understand those things about Ezekiel and Daniel. And then finally, you get to the prophets during the rebuild of the walls of Jerusalem and Judea. But let me just discuss something for just a minute, going back to Ezekiel and Daniel. I want you to notice that one of the things that it says about them, look under Ezekiel. It says, under captivity, God continues speaking to his people. So even though they're dispersed, God is still speaking to them, and obedience is still required. Even though they're in captivity, even though they're living as strangers in a strange land, Ezekiel is still saying, you still are required to be obedient to the Word of God, even though you're living as a stranger in a strange land. Think about how difficult it must be for Ezekiel to preach that message. Think how difficult it must be for Daniel to preach that same message. And think of how difficult it must have been for them to remain faithful to God even though everybody else is turning away. Everybody else is saying, hey, listen, we're in Babylon. We might as well live like Babylonians. Thinking about Jeremiah who's preaching, when the hearts of the people are turned so far away from God, how difficult it must have been for them to remain faithful to God and the Word of God when so many were being persuaded to turn away from the ways of God. It was culturally acceptable to turn away from the things of God. It was culturally acceptable to practice things that were culturally contrary to the law of God. But everybody was doing it. It's the way everybody's living. So think about how difficult it must have been to remain true and faithful to God, even though culture is turning away from God. Many were persuaded that their actions were okay, because everybody's doing it, so it must be okay. Kind of an important message for us today, too, isn't it? The message that Ezekiel and Daniel preached about remaining faithful to God, even though so many people were turning away from God, is a message that we all need to heed today. Just because culture accepts something doesn't mean that it's right. Just because it's legal doesn't mean that it's right. Just because that's what everyone else is doing doesn't mean that we as Christians ought to do it. As a matter of fact, let's think about the difficulties that Jeremiah faced and that Daniel faced because they were remaining true to the Word of God. Listen, it may be difficult for us to stand up for what is right. It may be difficult for us to think differently than the world does and to view things differently than the culture does. And it may even cause us to suffer. But the fact of the matter is, we must remain true to the ways and the word of God. We can't allow culture to frame our thinking. We listen to the news and we listen to the way that the news and culture spins things in our world today. It manipulates the way that we think about things. And we might begin to think that things are okay. And we need to guard against that. We need to always take what the Word of God says. And we may live contrary to culture, but we must. Because remember, it's our job to make the glory of God known to the nations. We must stand for the glory of God. If we don't stand for the glory of God, who will? And so it's up to us as Christians to stand up for justice, to stand up for what is right, to defend those that are weak. It's our job as Christians to not allow ourselves to be manipulated in our thinking by the thinking of the world. We must maintain a biblical worldview. That's why that Answers TV would be a good thing for you to get on, because it's going to help you think about things from a biblical perspective. Fourthly, again, I've already kind of mentioned those kings that, or those prophets that were, look, Joel, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Notice, it's not who was the king during their life, but who was the ruler. There was no king at this point. It is the one that has been put in place as the governor. What is their message? Those are the prophets that prophesied about the regathering. When those who have been dispersed throughout Babylon are going to be regathered to Jerusalem and Judah, that is who those prophets are prophesying to. And they're always prophesying to them, trying to encourage them about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. Their message is that restoration is promised. And also, it's not on your chart here, but there's a couple of other books of the Bible that we want to mention. Ezra and Nehemiah. When did Ezra and Nehemiah happen? Ezra and Nehemiah would fall into this time frame when Joel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. They were, they wrote to those who were coming back to be regathering, rebuild the walls. They were regathered in Jerusalem. It's also probably the time when the book of Esther was written, was during that time frame. So there you have it, the story of the prophets and just thinking about who the prophets are and why they prophesied and what we can learn from them. The story of the prophets is that God always has a plan for His people. When they sin by turning away from Him, they are going to face chastening. But the plan of God is never going to be thwarted. So how do we respond to that today? How can we be encouraged with that today? The prophets must speak truth, even though it may be hard times. They must speak truth, even though the people don't want to hear it. Remember, the truth is not determined by what is popular. The truth is eternal, even though it may be unpopular. We must learn from the nation of Israel. We must understand the danger of desiring to make a name for ourselves. We must remember that doing what is right in your own eyes always leads to destruction. We must be aware of the failure of leadership when the leaders stray, the people follow. We got to be careful about the leadership. We also must understand that it's obvious that you cannot mix the ways of the world with the ways of God. God will not share his glory with another. But we must remember that we are the church and the church is still called to make his glory known among the nations. We are still called to make his glory known among the heathen. As a church, we are responsible to remain faithful to the ways of God. We are the faithful remnant who must remain faithful. The church is to be the voice of truth in the midst of a crooked and perverse world. So what will we do as a church today? Will we hear, heed the message of the prophets? Or will we follow by what is popular in society? What is approved by our culture? We must be protective of our thoughts to make sure they are not persuaded by the voice of the world. But also we must remember the King is coming. The King that they're looking for in the Old Testament. He's come the first time, but he's coming again. The king who conquered death when he rose from the grave will come and he will put down all rebellion. 1 Corinthians 15, 24, Then cometh the end when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The king is coming. Praise God, He's coming for me. So today, let's learn from the story of the prophets, and let's remain true, no matter what is happening in the world. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word, and I pray that we'll be encouraged to stand true, just like the prophets of old. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen.