Read 1 Kings:12-22; 2 Kings:1-17; 2 Chronicles 10- 28;
Amos & Hosea
After the death of King Solomon the northern tribes of Israel rebelled against his son Rehoboam. There were now two kingdoms of Hebrews, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. These kingdoms were frequently at war with one another. All the kings of Israel were evil and corrupt, leading their people in worship of other gods and governing poorly. God raised up many prophets to call the leaders and people of Israel back to Himself. These included Elijah (870-845BC) and Elisha (845-800 BC), but even the most promising responses to the prophets were only temporary. The people were not content to worship God alone and walk in His ways. They believed the lie that adding the poison of idolatry to the pure water of His presence would strengthen them. God offered them life, but they were enticed to choose death. Yet, through it all, there were a remnant of Israelites in the northern kingdom who remained faithful to God (1 Kings 19:18, Romans 11:2-4).
Be careful who you form an alliance with, do not be unequally yoked
When Judah formed an alliance with Israel to bring peace between them and jointly defeat their enemies, as Jehoshaphat did with Ahab (1 Kings 22 & 2 Chronicles 18), the results were not good. The unequally yoked marriage between Jehoshaphat’s son and Ahab’s daughter led the young man far away from his father’s righteousness. Instead of this unifying of the nation bringing wholeness, peace and prosperity, it opened the door for the sin of Israel to permeate throughout Judah and bring it down as well.
Israel’s destruction
God’s last pleas to Israel to forsake her spiritual adultery came through Amos (765-754 BC) and then the lived prophesy of Hosea and his adulterous wife (758-725 BC). Yet still they would not repent. So, in 722 BC God’s warnings through the prophets came to pass. The Assyrians conquered and decimated Israel (2 Kings 17:1-23). Their king, Sargon, in an inscription found at Nineveh, wrote that he carried away into captivity 27,290 of the survivors (2). Those who had fled and those taken into captivity integrated into the surrounding nations and the northern kingdom of Israel disappeared from history. But that was not the end of the story, God’s plans for Israel would not be thwarted (Ezekiel 37:15-25), those Israelites who remained faithful to God would continue to impact history and have descendants in the land at the time of Messiah.
Lions pave the way for evangelism…
After his conquest of Israel, the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath and Sepharvaim to repopulate the Israeli cities. The land was no longer called Israel, but re-named after its capital Samaria. These newcomers had no knowledge or fear of God. Yahweh sent lions among them, so they begged the king of Assyria to send them a priest from the land to teach them the rituals of the god of the land. One of the Israeli priests who had been taken captive was sent and dwelt at Bethel to teach all the people how they should fear the LORD (2 Kings 17:24-41). The people in Samaria were soon worshipping Yahweh as well as their own gods.
The First Two Names for God in Scripture
Ĕlōhîm is the first word used for God in the scriptures: “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. It is used 2,750 time in the Old Testament. Ĕlōhîm is the plural of Eloah, the word construction is understood to be a plural of majesty and so means “supreme one” or “mighty one”, emphasising God’s greatness, power and prestige. This plurality also hints at the triune nature of the One true God: “Then Ĕlōhîm said, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26).
Yahweh יְהוָ֥הis the personal Hebrew name for God, and most significant name in the Old Testament, written 6,828 times; 1,820 of those in the Torah. Because it consists of four Hebrew consonants (YHWH) it is called the Tetragrammaton. This name is built on the word for “I am” and closely connected to God’s covenant with Israel. Yahweh is the eternal self-existent One who enters covenant with His chosen, and as such His divine name should not be taken in vain (Exodus 20:7). After the destruction of the second Temple (AD 70) the doctrine developed in Judaism that God’s name Yahweh was too holy to be spoken. Yahweh is therefore translated LORD (all caps) in most English versions of the Bible. (3) (4)
Yahweh is first used as the name for God in Genesis 2:4 “…When the LORD God (Yahweh ’ĕlōhîm) made the earth and the heavens.”
Proving more faithful
Many of the poor Israelites who had remained faithful to God had also been left in the land. Within a couple of centuries, the peoples in Samaria (the land that had belonged to the northern kingdom of Israel) would be worshipping Yahweh exclusively – proving more faithful than Israel had been. These Samaritans, who had intermarried with the poor Israelites who had been left in the fields, adopted almost all the Hebrew Torah and cultic practices but kept no genealogies like the people of Judah (Jews) to prove their ancestry. The Samaritan Israelites called themselves “the sons of Israel”. They also referred to themselves as “Shomrim” (the keepers), considering themselves to be the keepers of the old ways, the ancient faith, the covenant promise. The Samaritans followed in the footsteps of the northern kingdom of Israel before them in opposing the worship of God in Jerusalem, convinced that the centre of Israel’s worship should be the mount of YHWH’s covenant blessing (Deuteronomy 27:12), Mount Gerizim, where they had built their own temple to Yahweh. They had a fourfold creed:
- One God – YHWH
- One Prophet – Moses
- One Book – Torah
- One Place – Mt Gerizim (8)
The Jews (Judean Israelites) and Samaritans each believed that they were the true worshippers of God and the others were heretics and imposters who had taken the wrong path when the two had separated after Solomon’s death. The Jews were angered that the Samaritans would dare to sacrifice to Yahweh outside of Jerusalem (5).
While the Samaritans of Yeshua’s day were looking for a Messiah, a prophet like Moses who would teach them all things (Deuteronomy 18:15-19), the Jews were looking for a Messiah, a king descended from David who would defeat all their enemies (Jeremiah 23:5-6).
The Torah
Torah refers to the first five books of the Bible. They are sometimes called the five books of Moses or the Pentateuch. In Hebrew, each of the five books is identified by its incipit (first words). In English the names for each book is derived from the Greek Septuagint (the first translation made into Greek) and reflect the theme of each book.
God’s judgments are for our redemption
During the time of Israel’s destruction God sent Isaiah (760-673 BC) and Micah (738-698 BC) to warn Judah that they would likewise be destroyed if they did not repent (Isaiah 1,3,5,13,22,29,30:1-17,31,57-59,65:1-12, Micah 1-3). Although Assyria and Egypt would give Judah a taste of God’s judgments as a warning, it would be the Babylonians who would destroy the nation if they failed to heed the admonitions to repent with their whole hearts. Yet God’s judgments would be for their redemption, His discipline would teach them to repent and honour Him so that His mercies could again be poured out on them.
These prophets told not only of the coming judgment for Judah’s sin but also of their later restoration and then, even more wonderful, the coming of Messiah and the kingdom of God, a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 2, 4, 7:14, 9:1-7, 11-12, 14, 24:21-23, 25, 32:1-8, 35, 40, 42, 45, 52:7-56:8, 60-62, 65:17-66:2, Micah 4 & 5). The Jews were failing to live as a kingdom of God on earth so God Himself would come and set up His kingdom to restore the earth to His intent and put His Spirit in them and give them new hearts to qualify them for citizenship. Not only Judah, but God would gather all nations and all tongues to come and see His glory and serve Him (Isaiah 66:18-21).
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References
1. Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Grand Rapids, Ml: : Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 1886.
2. Tidwell, Josiah Blake. The Captivity of Judah. Bible Hub. [Online] [Cited: 26th Aug. 2016.] http://biblehub.com/library/tidwell/the_bible_period_by_period/chapter_xv_the_captivity_of.htm.
3. Levine, Douglas Knight & Amy-Jill.The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us (1st ed). New York : HarperOne, 2011. 0062098594.
4. Gainotti, Charles R. The Meaning of the Divine Name YHWH. [book auth.] Roy B. Zuch. Vital Old Testament Issues: Examening Textual and Topical Questions. Oregon : Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2012.
5. Hooker, Richard. The Jewish Temples: The Babylonian Exile. Jewish Virtual Library. [Online] [Cited: 26th Aug 2016.] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Exile.html.
6. Santala, Risto. THE PROPHETS OF THE SOUTHERN KINGDOM, JUDAH . [Online] [Cited: 22nd Oct. 2016.] http://www.ristosantala.com/rsla/OT/OT17.html
7. The Bible Study Site. Kings of Israel and Judah. The Bible Study Site. [Online] [Cited: 26th Aug 2016.] http://www.biblestudy.org/prophecy/israel-kings.html.
8. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg. The Samaritan woman RECONSIDERED. ISBN: 9781713300366. 2019
In the comments below share your thoughts on some of these questions:
* What does it mean to be faithful to God?
* What paved the way for evangelism in your nation or community?
* What do God’s names Ĕlōhîm, and Yahweh tell us about Him?
* Do you have clashes between different tribes or groups of people in your area? How can peace be brought to that conflict?
* What has God been saying to your nation?
* What has God been saying to the church in your nation?
* Is there something happening in your nation that you see as God’s judgment?
1. To be faithful to God is to keep the old way, the ancient faith and the covenant promise. Faithfulness to God means to fully keep the original footsteps of God and walk with God as He commands us. God’s faithfulness to His people is not the same as our faithfulness to God.
When God is faithful to us, He cares for us, He leads us, and He loves us. When we are faithful to God it means that we trust that He will care for us, we follow where He leads and obey His commandments. Being faithful to God also means that there will be some evidence of our faith in God. A faithful believer will often produce fruit. Without faithfulness to God there can be no Christian life. Our faithfulness is a commitment to adhere to the One God who is true and supreme and to keep His commandments. We should obey what we know God is telling us to do.
2. The arrival of the missionaries in 15th century into the then Gold Coast brought Christianity to the land. There were many different cultural groups across the Ghana region who were practicing different forms of spirituality. As missionaries traveled in Ghana and took control of parts of the country Ghana in the time of colonial days, so did the gospel. Christianity is the religion with the largest following in Ghana. Institutions like schools, training centers, and etc were established to spread the Gospel in Ghana. In 2015, study estimated some 51,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background.
3. God has no shortage of names…He is called by almost 1000 different ones in the Bible.
Elohim is one of the most frequently used names for God in the Scriptures. Elohim is the first word used for God in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” Elohim means supreme One or mighty One.
One of these names stands alone, and that name is Yahweh. According to Exodus 3:13-15, Yahweh is the name by which God has chosen to be remembered throughout all generations.
The English language does not have an exact translation of the word Yahweh, so in the Old Testament we see it written as LORD in all capital letters.
In Jewish tradition, Yahweh is too sacred a name to utter out loud.
Yahweh is only used in the Bible when the author is talking about God’s personal relationship with His people. The example of this is Psalm 19. The author talks in the first 6 verses about Elohim and His relationship with the material world. Then, in verse 7, he starts to write about Yahweh and His relationship with those who know Him and who are in covenant with Him. Yahweh is the covenant keeping name.
4. In many times clashes between different tribes and groups of people has happened in Ghana. Even, its happens to Christian denominations. When its comes to solution, we sometimes use cultural methods. At times it doesn’t work. I always says, the Word of God is the master of life and the key to every problem. The most effective way to solve conflict is when good traditional leaders and God fearing men of God are selected to handle the problem. Political leaders worsen problem most of the times. We normally go through to bring peace when we wisely apply Paul address the Ephesians about the disunity that had existed among them, he began by telling them to have good attitudes toward one another. We resolve to remain faithful to each other and maintain and constantly exhibit good attitudes toward one another. Our culture system tell us that we are one people as the Word of God teaches us that we are one body.
5&6. In many ways, God speaks to Ghana. He sometimes warn both the nation and the Church through messages we receive from His ministers and incidents that happens. In Ghana, one occasion, God allowed a wicked leader to rule us because both religious leaders and traditional leaders were not talking against bad the corruption and bad practices going on.
7. I see God’s judgement in Ghana because some strange deaths happens to some political and religious leaders. Upon all the numerous blessings of natural resources God has blessed Ghana, most of the citizens are suffering and living in their own nation as slaves.
Israel Replaced with Samaritans & and the Kingdom of God Prophesied (931– 627BC.)
To be faithful to God is to give your whole life and everything within your reach to God accept His commands,Laws and status and do accordingly as he has directed.
To walk with God in His will but not in one’s own will.
Evangelism is the medium of calling people to denounce their gods and come to accept the one true God and do His will.People have gods but not God, they worship creatures but not the creator.
So knowing God as the most high, there is the need to evangelize this God for people to come and accept this God of all time.
Elohim on the one side of the scriptures, portray God as Trinity–three person in one God, the father, the son and the holy spirit. Elohim is the creator of the universe and all there in.
On the other hand,Yahweh has reference with God as all in all.
He is the one powerful God who has no one before Him and after Him.
In my area of the country, there is no clashes. Interpretation differences is what is posing problems in my area.
God is telling all people in my country and all tribes to accept Christ as our saviour and stop sinning and come back to Him because He is ready to accept us if we will only listen to His voice and walk in His ways.
“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near”.Revelation 1:3 NIV.
God is telling the church to learn,preach,teach,hear and keep His word for there is not much time to be crowded ourselves with the burden of this world.
God’s word should be the food of the church all day as we wait for the second coming.
The covid 19 pandemic is all over the world, my country is no exemption, this horrific virus which is driving many to their graves can be attributed to God’s judgement on my country.
God is using the pandemic to tell my country as well as other nations in the world that we have forgotten Him.He needs our come back so, in my view this could be Gods judgement on my country.
UGANDA: The story of spiritual transformation and evangelism!
Not many years ago, the world had written off Uganda as a hopeless nation. The results of former presidents Idi Amin’s dictatorship and plundering; his successor president Milton Obote’s reign of terror; and the brutal National Resistance Army (NRA) civil war of 1980-85 brought the nation on its knees at the edge of economic collapse. Uganda “the Pearl of Africa,” as it is proudly known was a country bleeding from a thousand wounds. The nation was in chaos, western diplomats fled the country and embassies withdrew one after the other. Then there manifested the HIV/AIDS scourge.
While HIV/AIDS ravaged household after household, World Health Organization experts predicted that Uganda would collapse in 1997, with one third of the population dead, another third suffering, and the remaining third too weak to maintain the economy. The government had no answers and control over the prevailing situation in the country at that time. In the process of trying to find a solution, the government invited church leaders together, admitting their predicament and asked the church to get involved in the battle that had taken the country by storm. The role of the church was primarily to seek divine intervention to counterattack the scourge and also get involved in the design and implementation of various strategies together with government.
Earlier on when the gospel arrived in Uganda in 1877, there was both a radical breakthrough and a spiritual battle. The first 36 Ugandan Christian martyrs died at the hand of King Mwanga of Buganda kingdom in 1886, but that did not hinder what is now seen as the roots of the East African revival, which started in the mid-1930s.
The East African Revival was a Christian conversion movement that began in northern Rwanda and south western Uganda in the mid-1930s and spread throughout eastern Africa during the 1940s and 1950s. The Ugandan converts of the East African revival movement (called the Balokole….literally meaning the “saved ones”) proclaimed a bold message of salvation and hope in different parts of Uganda. Frustrated by what they believed to be the lukewarm spiritual state of missionary Christianity which had existed earlier in Uganda, the radical balokole revivalists preached that in order to be saved, converts had to confess publicly the specific sins they had committed, putting them “in the light without fear.” Some other Christians thought of them as a menace to the whole social order. But it was a time when people abandoned their all to receive Christ and took up their cross to follow Him.
In 1971, a Moslem army General Idi Amin took over the government through a military coup, starting an unprecedented and brutal persecution of all opponents, particularly Christians. He declared Uganda to be an Islamic state in 1975, despite the fact that only some 3% of the population were Moslems. Idi Amin invited Gaddafi and Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal to a 4-day ceremony, in which thousands of sheep and goats were ritually sacrificed. Some fearful Christians reacted by fleeing the country. But majority stayed in Uganda and established violent prayer altars and formed jungle churches with a 24-hour prayer chain. During that turbulent time for Christians, all differences between the confessions and sects disappeared. Someone’s exact creed was not important, as long as they upheld Christ and could pray. In 1979 the enemy of the gospel, President Idi Amin was overthrown from power. Throughout his regime and the 8 years that followed, there was too much bloodshed in the country.
After the change of government in 1986, an increasing number of Christians joined a nation-wide prayer and fasting movement with three aims: to offer repentance to God for their own sins and Uganda; to unite themselves under God’s aims for the nation; and to engage in spiritual warfare to disarm the demonic powers that had held the nation of Uganda hostage. This radical Christian movement began holding gospel healing crusades at the famous “Queens-way clock tower” in the heart of Kampala city. Multitudes came to Christ on a daily basis, and numerous miracles of healing from all kinds of diseases, including HIV were verified by medical personnel from government facilities. This period of supernatural happenings brought hope and victory for our nation as Ugandans in their thousands began responding to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the process, the Government made a bold stand and accepted Christian activities and also approved the freedom of worship in Uganda.
In October 2012 during a Christian prayer rally at Mandela National stadium in Kampala, President Museveni annulled Amin’s Islamic covenant, and gave the national flag to a group of interdenominational intercessors as a prophetic symbol of re-dedicating the nation to the God of the Bible. Also, God used the government and churches united in a dual strategy to bring about moral change and a return to biblical values with phenomenal success in the fight against AIDS. For several years Uganda has witnessed a complete decline in HIV/AIDS and has become a case study for many countries in Africa. God turned upside-down the dark and false predictions and until recent years WHO has been investigating what they called “the Ugandan phenomenon.”
God used the above series of events, including bad ones as an opportunity to break into the hearts of Ugandans with salvation. However, through the decades, it is important to note that prayer has been the primary factor and pillar to the rapid evangelization of our nation.
Faithfulness to God means to grow in His Grace daily,to be transformed in His Character and Nature,to bear fruit of the Holy spirit,to live by His commands and also to continually renewing our spirit daily.
In our Nation peace among the people among the communities allowed the gospel to be preached within and outside the communities.The Government of Uganda gave liberty to Christianity that evangelism is done without hiderences.
Elohim and Yahweh ,going by the meaning,Creater a d Lord means absolute authority over the created being .Power and authority over us comes from Elohim Yahweh,God – Lord.
Fortunately in our Nation as I have mentioned earlier that Christianity is at liberty ,there are no visible clashes among the communities. If at all do occur,God forbid,the church takes churge of that.
In that case,God is encouraging the Church to go forward and beyond ,with the gospel.
However,in line of the above ,our Nation is failing to alleviate the standard of living for it’s citizens .This may be God’s judgement since the Church is failing to preach Sound doctrine
Ma y e angelists and Preachers and teachers fail to teach truth because the majority of them have no theological training.
Faithfulness to God means walking with God how He wants it. Being led at all times and in all actions by Holy Spirit since that is the only condition that makes us sons of God. Being faithful to God is allowing Holy Spirit to live the life of Jesus through us and as for us Minister’s, to do ministry according to God’s terms. Jesus is the Model. We preach and live the Kingdom.
In Cameroon, missionaries came with the Gospel but now millions of Churches exist in the nation. Most of them people building their personal empires and not the Kingdom of God. This is evident in the seeker friendly messages, preaching to please and keep the people, money and earthly gains are the main messages, the Gospel has been made into a come and get issue. Despite that, God is having His way and souls are being won though with the diluted messages, true Christianity and true Christians are scared.
ELOHIM and YHWH bringing to light God’s triune nature and His Supremacy over everyone else is a motion that must be acknowledged and applied in the Church which is His. Everything about Ministry should be about Him, around Him and for Him. He is to be Almighty in the ministry, the life of the minister and the life of the congregation or assembly.
Cameroon is one of the countries in which the French policy of divide are rule is deeply rooted. That has put everyone at edge with everyone. The reason there is presently a war for secession in the Country. The country is at a brink of fullscale war if God who has been holding things back does not continue. The conflict has moved even into the Church with fightings that can be seen and heard from the pulpits. As for solutions, the nation needs only God for the socio-political environment. Concerning the Church, the minister’s need to be brought to the place where they know and accept that ministry is God’s and if God’s then all who are with God should be considered as partners and not enemies.
Through many prophecies, God has been warning both the nation and the church, calling on both to come to genuine repentance or face God’s wrath. We are already seeing a part of God’s wrath in the secession war that has been on for 3years now. More than 4000 dead already, 80,000 as refugees in Nigeria and more than 90,000 internally displaced. The Lord’s mercy is still on the Church but He personally showed me the destruction if the false Church in Cameroon. One thing I am happy with God is that He will always preserve His remnant.
If the Minister’s can give God His place and preach His Word faithfully, Cameroon will experience a wonderful time in the hands of God. Cameroon is a special country to God for world evangelism and global revival. Cameroon is blessed with mineral resources that are not yet named in the World but because rebellion against God, chaos is in the nation. True repentance will bring a lot to Cameroon.
To be faithful to God means to fully obey all His commends.
By faithfully accepting and believing Jesus Christ by our forefathers through the missionaries paved the way for evangelism in my nation as well as the community.
God’s name Elohim and Yahweh tell about His Majesty, Supreme One, Mighty One, His greatness, power and prestige. This plurality also hints at the triune of One true God.
In Africa culture if there is clashes or conflict between two tribes, we usually used the elders and the chief to settle the conflict, like the Church we used this African way of life to settle disagreement among it members
I believe God is saying to my nation to turn away from sin of idolatry.
God has been saying to the church in my nation to reach all tribes and preach the gospel.
The death of many youths in my nation have made me to believe that God’s judgements is upon the nation.