Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, January the ninth, 2023. And no, I am not used to saying 2023 yet, but I'm working on it. I'm Mark. I've got a great cup of coffee and I'm ready to talk with you about yesterday's sermon and about daily Bible reading, especially since yesterday's sermon and today's Bible reading all go together. So let's just put it all together. Let's get started. Yes, or I preached from second Samuel the seventh chapter, one of the most significant and important text in all of the Old Testament. It shapes the Bible from that point forward and has so much application in the New Testament, as I talked about, and I do have a very cool extra thought for you podcast listeners. This is exactly what the podcast is all about. This is the kind of thing I love to give to you. I should tell you that in ancient times, what happens in Second Samuel seven just doesn't happen. Jehovah is a God unlike the God's worship by the nations around them. And David is gonna be a king unlike the kings in the surrounding nations. And that has particular emphasis here in Second Samuel seven because in the pagan nations, kings built a temple for their gods false gods. That's little G small, lowercase G. They built temples for their gods and housed them and fed them, and having done so, then they expected that the gods in gratitude would assist them. Notice it's entirely different in Second Samuel seven. David doesn't even get to build a house for God. And in fact, instead God is assisting and helping and blessing David without any such building being built. It's a huge contrast, or at least it would be to people in David's day when they were watching and seeing what was going on. Where's that temple? I mean, if you want your God to help you, you gotta build a beautiful box to stick the God in and then the God is gonna do your bidding. And of course, it's entirely different in the true religion, the Israelite religion serving the one true God. There's actually even a text where bail demands a bigger and better house than the other gods in the nations around them. So that's how Pagan theology operated. But that is not how true theology operates. One scholar said Jehovah's King does not place a claim on Jehovah's favor by building him a lavish temple. Instead, Jehovah, the giving God reviews past grace, lavishes more grace and puts the temple on the back burner. Wow, that's worth thinking about, isn't it? Just one more way true religion is different from false religion. Let's just keep thinking about Second Samuel seven. We'll think about that a little bit more in our daily Bible reading today. So for Monday, we are reading Second Samuel seven, and I don't have a ton of extra notes. I worked through that text pretty meticulously yesterday. If you did not listen to that sermon, I would urge you to listen to that sermon to get you ready for Bible reading today. I would underline for you the idea that David didn't build the temple or wasn't allowed to build the temple because he was a man of war, is certainly something that a number of passages allude to. There's a discussion of that in first Chronicles 22, first Chronicles 28. One Kings chapter five may say something about that as well, I don't want us, however, to think of that as a defect in David's character. Remember David waged those wars to bring stability to God's kingdom. He waged those wars at God's command, and that may just have more to do with the idea that it wasn't the time to build the temple, it was the time to bring stability so that his son could build the temple. You think about that, some more work on that, some more I, I don't want us to see somehow that David wasn't allowed to build it because he was a bad person. Actually, what our text says in Second Samuel seven is that David is an amazing person. So amazing that God built an everlasting house for him, a royal dynasty, that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of work through that. Think about that. I just urge you to underline these verses in Second Samuel seven. Make sure that you are watching for that kind of language throughout the rest of the year as we read, because plenty of prophets, we'll talk about the covenant with the House of David. See you tomorrow. We'll be over in one Kings and I'll tell you why we're in one Kings chapter 12 on Tuesday. Welcome to Tuesday. Today we're reading in one Kings chapter 12, the first 15 verses, and you may wonder what we're doing just parachuting into the middle of kings here, what's going on? And the answer to that will be seen on Thursday's reading when we read about Jibal and the sin that he introduces into Israel. I'll say more about that on Thursday. But trust me, this is an important chapter for us if we're going to spend the year in the prophets and if we're gonna draw closer to the Lord. I didn't have a ton of notes yesterday in the Bible reading, so I'll make up for it today by having probably too many. This is just a good place for us to grab a timeline. Let me give you some dates here. These are approximate sorts of dates, but as close maybe as as we need to get them, maybe you write some of this in your Bible just to kind of remind you where things are. So the exodus from Egypt would be 1440 BC about 1,440 years before Jesus was born. Then King Saul becomes king in 10 50. David becomes king in 10, 10 BC a thousand years before Jesus, and then Solomon becomes king in nine 70 bc. That takes us to first Kings 12, where there's division in the kingdom because of Raya bomb that comes in nine 30 BC and in Kings. The first 11 chapters of Kings deal with kind of a golden age. Things are just amazing under David and under Solomon. And then the kingdom is torn apart. And that's where we are reading today. This gives us a great place to understand how to read Kings and how to read Chronicles. We wanna watch for more than just the story in the text. What we wanna look for is what God is doing and what does it say about God and particularly what is God's verdict on what's going on here? There will be kings that were enormously successful militarily, economically, financially. They were great leaders from that standpoint, but their spiritual zeros, they lead the people into idolatry. They do lots of bad things and the text of the scripture won't even talk about, oh, hey, they let a world summit or GDP went way up or economic increase for everybody in a chicken and every pot. It won't be any of that kind of stuff. Instead, there'll be four or five verses that say, this guy was a bitter miserable failure because he led the people into idolatry. And that's what we want to get here. We want to get God's side of things. If we're gonna draw closer to Gods, very easy to evaluate things in worldly terms, Kings and Chronicles help us not to do that, and we will be interacting with both kings and Chronicles. But those books are very, very different by and large, generally speaking. Chronicles only mentions Israel's kings as they interact with Judah's kings. And generally speaking, Chronicles is much more positive about Jude and Kings than the Book of Kings is. So for example, the Book of Chronicles does not mention David's adultery at all. So there's, there's none about that. In the Book of Chronicles Kings, the books of Kings seems to explain and emphasize how the people ended up in captivity. The Book of Chronicles emphasizes the path to restoration. We did wrong. We've been punished. How can we get back home? How can we be right with God over again? So let's think about one Kings chapter 12 and our first, our reading today, our first in First Kings is gonna be these 15 verses. And maybe you're a little confused. What do you mean kings of Judah? Kings of Israel? Well, that's where, that's where First Kings 12 comes into the story. Because of Reha bomb, there is going to be a division in the kingdom and we'll end up with two kingdoms from this point forward. And in fact, if we have been paying attention in kings, and even in Samuel, there are plenty of times that there's a division in the nation. You can tell there's kind of two nations under one roof. As I've been preaching through Samuel, you've seen some of that already with King Saul's house following after whoever was running the house of Saul at the current time. And then Judah, they went ahead and made David King and said, Hey, you're, you're gonna be our king. It was quite some time, seven years before all of Israel recognized David as king. And let's get the highlights here outta First Kings 12. In our reading today, verse four says that we're not the only people to be unhappy with high taxes. Solomon had raised high taxes to pay for amazing building projects, and by now the people are just fed up with it. And so Ray Bo gets some council about this, and the older men say, this is the time to be a servant. Verse seven, to the people, note that word servant. We talked about that with David on Sunday. David sees himself as a servant, see yourself as a servant to the people. But then he abandons that counsel and says, verse nine, to the younger counselors, what do you advise that we answer? These people who have said to me, he doesn't even ask them for counsel. He says, what do we tell'em? What? What did we tell them? His mind is already made up and these young counselors say, tax'em more. We wanna live high on the hog. We want to have more, more, more. Just put it to'em. Just put it to these people. And unfortunately, Ray Bone foolishly follows their advice, which is part of the word of the Lord. Look at verse 15. That's the key verse Today, the king did not listen to the people. For it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord spoke by a hyah, the shul knight to jbe, son of Neba. So hey, a prophet has already showed up in our Bible reading. It's a prophet who doesn't have a book named after him. He's not a writing prophet, but this prophet told j Baum, not Rebo, J Baum, that he was going to receive part of the kingdom. And as a result of Raya B's foolishness, Jer Baum is going to get a whole big hunk of the kingdom. He'll get the lion share, in fact. And so notice this is not just history, but it is an account of how God deals with his people. And the author is appraising each king not on his political acumen, but on his spiritual acumen. How wise is he to lead the people to serve God? Raya bom, of course, not very much of that, just not very spiritually sharp, not doing what's right. There's no mention in one Kings 12 in our reading today that Raya Baum said, let's petition God and ask God what we should do about this. Oh no. Ray Abo runs out, says, I'm taxing the people even more. And we'll see in our reading tomorrow, that's going to lead to a division in the kingdom one Kings 12. So important in our Bible reading this year. And tomorrow we'll explore further why it matters so much. See you on Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday. And this is a very brief reading. Today we're reading one Kings chapter 12, verses 16 to 24, which is the account of the actual schism in the kingdom. You get immediately in verse 16, that idea of we don't need Judah anyway. That's not part of us, we're not part of them, we are out of here. What portion do we have in David? You hear that echo from back when there was the house assault and the house of David. And so Ray reigns over the people who live in the cities of Judah, but he's unhappy about this division. So he sent aam, verse 18, the taskmaster to try to heal the division. Aam is the taskmaster. Maybe we'd see him kind of like an IRS agent as the taskmaster. He's the one over forced labor in all of Solomon's giant building projects. So this guy can't be very positive and can't be somebody that's gonna be really looked on in a kind sort of fashion. And he ends up being stoned to death. Verse 18. So verse 19 summarizes it. That was it. There's no healing this division. And in fact, when Raya ba then assembles his army and decides, you know what, we'll just make them be part of the Union. Hmm, shades of American history there a little bit. God comes via Shamaya verse 22, another prophet, here's another prophet. And the prophet says, we're not doing this, we're not doing this. This is from God. And as a result, reja B and the army of Judah, they go home. And from here on in, we'll have two kingdoms, maybe I should say a word or two here about Raya Bom listening to Shamiah the prophet that kind of jumps off the page. There's a little, whoa, I didn't expect that. But second Chronicles 1117 says that Raya bom was spiritually sensitive and walked in God's ways for the first three years of his reign. And it may have just had to do with some practical kinds of things. His army numbered only 180,000, but second Chronicles 13, three says Gerome could put 800,000 in the field. So when you're looking at maybe four to one odds or one versus four odds in the fight, and then a prophet shows up and says, you need to go home, that probably was a little easier to listen to first. Uh, first King's 1430 tells us that there was war between Raba and Jibal. But that seems to have been largely little border disputes. Not an all out full fledged civil war, but the northern tribes have succeeded and there is no more United Kingdom from here on. There will be a king in the north and a king in the south. The divided kingdom has happened. What kind of, what kind of godliness and worship's gonna be going on in that divided kingdom, particularly in the north where they are divided away from Jerusalem, the center of God's worship. Tomorrow's reading will tell us what's going on in the north spiritually. It is Thursday. And today we read one Kings chapter 12 beginning in verse 25 through verse 33. And this is really the heart of one Kings 12, at least as far as why we're reading it with our prophets reading schedule over and over again. The prophets will refer to, and the history of this period will refer to the sin of Gerald Boham, the son of Nebat. We had to read the sin of j Baum, the son of Nebat, so that we would know what was being talked about. And that sin is introduced here in One Kings Chapter 12, jib Baum builds some, uh, builds some cities. Verse 25, but verse 26, jib Baum said in his heart, now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, the heart of the people will turn again to their Lord Toray B, they'll kill me. So jib is concerned about them going to Jerusalem to worship God. As a result, he makes two calves of gold. Verse 28 sets those up in Bethel. Verse 29 and the other in Dan. That's it. That's the sin of Jalal. He sets up idols. It's important to realize here, this is not the worship of bail. It's not the worship of Moak or Kim Osh or some Babylonian God. This is the worship of Jehovah God. But it is the worship of Jehovah God in the wrong way by using an image specifically and explicitly forbidden to the people in the 10 Commandments. Don't do this. This is a repeat of the dreadful sin Mount Sinai in Exodus the 32nd chapter. But j Bom doesn't trust God. Look at the emphasis about his heart. Verse 26 said in his heart, there's so much in the Old Testament about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, serving God in your heart, the gladness of your heart. We talked about that last week out of Deuteronomy. And here he does not trust God in one king's 11, in in verse 37, the prophet comes to j Bowman says, you're gonna get the kingdom and you're gonna be the king. And jib bom now looks around after the dust has settled from this schism and he says, oh, I think they're gonna kill me. He doesn't trust God. He ought to say we, let's do right. Let's continue to serve God. We'll continue to go to Jerusalem and do what? No, no, he doesn't say any of that cuz he doesn't trust the word of the Lord. And as you're watching, first King says you're reading First King, chapter 12. Notice that of the seven verses here that discuss the beginning of his reign and so forth. One verse is devoted to him building some cities and six verses follow after that, discussing his religious innovations. That shows you what kings is all about. It's not about is j Balman amazing leader? Did he win the Nobel Prize? Did he build the military up or, uh, none of that matters. What matters in kings is what did he lead the people to do spiritually? And what he led the people to do spiritually is apostacy. And in fact, I love that. I can give you this note. This is what's so great about the podcast. I appreciate you listening so much. And I want to give you good information like this. If you look at verse 31, he made temples on the high places. The word made is the word that runs through the rest of this account. He appointed, that's the same word made in Jer Jerome. Verse 32 appointed, same word family made. Um, he uh, he made a feast on the 15th day. So he made in Bethel sacrificing to the calves that he made, he placed in Bethel, the priest of the high places, uh, the high places that he had made. And then verse 33, he instituted, no, he made, it's the same word, family. And they went up to the altar to make offerings over and over again. The author emphasizes this is man made religion. It is not God given religion. It's manmade religion. It is a sheer innovation. It is utter apostacy. That's the sin of jib. Om the sin. The son of Neba. He introduces golden calf worship, non Levitical priests and unauthorized feast. All of this because he does not trust the word of the Lord. So right away, the northern kingdom is being led by a bad unfaithful king. And as you're seeing them depart from the will, the will of the Lord, they're just doing religion how they want to do it. They're making it up any way they want to make it up. You can see they're ripe for more and more sin. They are away from the temple. They have a spirit of let's do it our way to suit ourselves. And tomorrow we're gonna see they don't have priests who will teach them the way of the Lord and help them repent. Why not what happened to the priest? See you tomorrow. We'll read in Second Chronicles. Welcome to Friday. You made it. You made it through the week. And we're concluding our week's reading in Second Chronicles chapter 11. Maybe you're wondering, how could all of those people in the north wander off into terrible apostacy like that when there's priests living all through the land? Remember the cities of refuge priests are living there. They're scattered throughout the land to teach people the law of God. Why weren't the priest helping these people? Hey, this is wrong. We can't be doing that. You need to do what's right. Teaching them the law of God. Our reading it today in second Chronicles 11 tells us exactly what happened. The priest and the levies moved verses 13 and 14. They left their lands in holdings and they moved to Judah and Jerusalem. They evacuated the north and came south because they weren't gonna be part of this wickedness and idolatry. They saw that the people of the North were not serving God. They were not doing what was right. There was no place for these levies. They got out of there. They got out of there. There's a tremendous application of that. I am so impressed at the sacrifice of these priests and levies. They give up so much their homes, their lands so that they can go south, but they want to serve the Lord. And verse 17 tells us, they strengthened the kingdom of Judah. For three years. They made rebel and the Son of Solomon secure. They walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon. They make a spiritual difference. But again, I'm looking at the north now and I'm seeing a complete spiritual vacuum. I'm seeing sin of every kind. I'm seeing people who are departing into wickedness. What's going to happen up there. What's going to happen up there is they need a prophet to come and call them back to the Lord. They need a prophet to call them to repentance. And next week we'll read about that prophet, his name. His name is Amos. We start the book of Amos on Monday and I can't wait. Well, thanks for listening to the podcast this week. Thanks for reading the Bible with me this week. Hope to see you on Sunday at the West Side Church of Christ. And I hope that your Friday today is a wonderful day and the Lord blesses you today all day. So until Monday when we'll be reading the Prophet Amos, I hope you have a marvelous, marvelous weekend. I hope you start the first day of the week worshiping the Lord. I hope that'll be at Westside. And I'll see you on Monday. On Monday with a cup of coffee.

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