THE OLD TESTAMENT CYCLE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”

“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

“You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous.

“You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.

“You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.

“But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.

“Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.

“You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.

“But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.

“But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.

“You warned them in order to turn them back to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, of which you said, ‘The person who obeys them will live by them.’ Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you warned them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

“Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly. Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.

“But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.

Nehemiah 9:1-37

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we look at the Old Testament, we see a glimpse of why God had to come to earth and walk among us in the person of Jesus. It was obvious that the Israelites weren’t willing or able to break what I often refer to as the Old Testament cycle.

What is the cycle? We see it perfectly highlighted in the ninth chapter of Nehemiah. Let me explain.

Let’s set the scene first. The Israelites had just finished observing the Festival of Tabernacles (also known as the Festival of Booths) during the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar (Tishri). As Chapter 9 opens, we read where it was the “twenty-fourth day of the same month” when the “Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads”, the symbolic gesture of repentance in Old Testament times. “They stood in their places”, and “confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors” as they “read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.”

Also with the Israelites were the Levites who were “standing on the stairs.” They included “Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani”. As the Israelites were crying out with “loud voices to the Lord their God”, the Levites were urging them to “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.” The Levites then began to deliver a prayer of confession and praise. It’s within this prayer that we see the Old Testament cycle first hand.

Note how the people of Israel were in God’s favor as the prayer begins. After praising God for His power and provision, the people recall how God looked over Abraham after He “found (Abraham’s) heart faithful”, making a “covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites” and keeping His promise because of His righteousness.

God continued to watch over His chosen people as He “saw the suffering” of the Israelites being held captive in Egypt, hearing “their cry at the Red Sea” and sending “signs and wonders against Pharaoh and against all his officials and all the people of his land.” Ultimately, God flashed His mighty power to save by dividing the sea before the Israelites “so that they passed through it on dry ground” and then drowned “their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters.” Indeed God was with His people, leading them by day via a “pillar of cloud” and by night through a “pillar of fire” lighting the path He wished His people to take.

That path took the Israelites to Mount Sinai where God “came down” and “spoke to them from heaven”, giving them “regulations and laws that (were) just and right, and decrees and commands that (were) good.” The Lord also “made known to them” about the “holy Sabbath” and “gave them commands, decrees and laws through…Moses.” He additionally “gave them bread from heaven” to satisfy their hunger and “brought them water from (a) rock to quench their thirst. Indeed, God was with them, leading them toward the land He told them to “go…and take possession of.”

Yes, all was going so well for the people of Israel and their relationship with God. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay that way.

For scripture tells us the people of Israel who God had treated so well, chose to become “arrogant and stiff-necked”, freely violating the Lord’s commands. The people “refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles” God had “performed among them.” The people deserved serious judgment for their rebellious behavior but God is a God of grace and mercy. The Levites reminded the Israelites that God was “forgiving…gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”

Because of this, the Lord didn’t “desert (the Israelites) even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.” No, God didn’t “abandon them in the wilderness” but rather guided them along their way…”by day” through a “pillar of cloud”…”by night” through a “pillar of fire…to shine on the way they were to take.” God also ensured the Israelites had provision in the wilderness, giving manna to eat and “water for their thirst.” Even when the disobedient Israelites, disobeyed God and refused to cross over to Canaan the first time, the Lord still showed mercy, passing judgment which involved 40 years in the wilderness during which He “sustained them” ensuring “they lacked nothing.”

God blessed His chosen people further as the following words from our scriptures relay:

“You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their parents to enter and possess. Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.”

Despite all the wrongs that the Israelites had committed against God, He took care of them. How did they reward His faithful care?

By being unfaithful to Him.

We read where the people of Israel chose to be “disobedient and rebelled against” God, turning “their backs on (His) law” and killing His prophets who He had sent to warn the people and exhort them to turn back to God. Additionally, they “committed awful blasphemies.”

The consequence for the Israelites was God delivering them “into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them.”

So what did Israel do? Once oppressed, “they cried out to” God and He again showed them compassion and sent deliverers to them who “rescued them from the hand of their enemies.”

Would the people finally learn to be obedient and not rebel against God’s will and commands?

No, because “as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in (God’s) sight.”

Again, judgment came and God “abandoned (the Israelites) to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them.”

Are you seeing the cycle yet? Because once in trouble, the Israelites “cried out…again” and once again, God “heard from heaven” and, with compassion, delivered them again. Scripture is spot on when it states that this happened “time after time.” That’s the essence of a cycle. It happens over and over and over again.

After another restoration, we read where God warned the Israelites to turn back to His law only for the Israelites to respond with arrogance and disobedience, sinning against God’s ordinances and refusing to listen to Him.

How many times more times would the people of Israel disrespect their Lord and get away with it?

You would think God would have gotten fed up but instead He remained patient for many years and continued to warn His people through the prophets.

And the people repaid His patience with a continued obstinance and refusal to follow His word and way. Again, there was judgment as God “gave them into the hands of (their) neighboring peoples” but that was also coupled with continued mercy and graciousness as the Lord “did not put an end to them or abandon them.”

Indeed, as the Levites would go onto confess:

“In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly. Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.”

God gave Israel everything and they chose to disrespect Him in return. And they did it over and over and over again.

Do you see the Old Testament Cycle now?

It went like this in four steps:

1. The people of Israel would choose to disobey God’s commands and enter into sin.
2. God would warn His people through chosen messengers (i.e. prophets).
3. The people would ignore the warning and so God would pass judgment on them.
4. The people would cry out to God in the midst of their punishment and God would restore them.

And then they would return to number 1 and it would start all over again.

From the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt on, the people of Israel followed this pattern. It’s little wonder that God had to finally come to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to try and teach us first hand as to how to live a godly life. The people weren’t getting it when He simply tried to speak through chosen leaders.

So how do we measure up today? How much are we like those Old Testament Israelites?

Maybe more like them than we would like to confess.

For how many times have we chosen to disobey God’s commands and consciously enter into sin? And how many times have we felt convicted through a written or spoken word of God or urged by the Holy Spirit to change direction, only to choose to not abandon our sin? And how many times did we end up finding ourselves in trouble as a result of our poor choice to select sin over obedience to God, getting to a point where we found ourselves crying out to Him for help? And how many times has He answered our cries by delivering us from our problem, only to be repaid by us returning later to a stubborn disobedience and sin toward His will and way?

Friends, we can learn a lot from this passage and through the study of the Israelites. As an old saying goes, if we don’t learn from the mistakes of the past, we’re doomed to repeat them. As we proceed into a new year, let’s do so with a renewed commitment to obedience, following the first hand example of God who walked with us as Jesus Christ. We’re blessed with the Gospels so we can recount how He lived so we can do likewise.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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