So today I'll be teaching part two in our dispensational overview of the Bible. And last time in part one, we left off in Deuteronomy chapter six. Israel's 40 years of wandering around in the wilderness had come to an end. And all those faithless Israelites who had refused to go in and take possession of the promised land some 40 years earlier, they had all died off the scene. And a new generation is now being prepared by Moses to go in and take the land which was destined to be theirs according to the Abrahamic and Palestinian covenants.
And we have a couple of those great summary verses in Deuteronomy chapter six at the end of the chapter which describe this. So if you turn with me to Deuteronomy, chapter six, and we'll look at verse 22 and 23. And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from thence.
He brought us out of Egypt. Why? That he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. So go in and possess the land. That is God's objective for the nation. This is the land where God had chosen to live and to conduct the business of the heaven and the earth. But there is one very important and very controversial issue that needs to be addressed pertaining to the Lord's instructions for the taking of the land. And those instructions are seen as Moses continues addressing the nation in chapter seven.
Look at verses one and two. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them nor show mercy unto them.
So the verse says, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Israel is instructed to go in and completely wipe out every man, woman and child to utterly destroy them. Verse three. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
So under no circumstances are any of the Jews to intermarry with any of these people in these nations where they're going in to possess. Why? Verse four. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly.
So if those in the nation Israel allow themselves to have any interactions with any of these totally degenerate and pagan people, it will certainly result in their own corruption and demise. So they're supposed to utterly destroy the people. And what else are they supposed to do? Verse five. But thus shall ye deal with them. Ye shall destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire. So Israel is supposed to completely abolish anything and everything that has anything to do with the pagan idolatrous practices of these people in verse eight. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. So the point is that Israel must become a holy nation.
They must demonstrate that degree of spiritual fitness and righteousness which is necessary to be God's representative nation before all the other nations of the world. And what God is warning Israel would happen if they did not completely wipe out these people? Well, it did happen. And what people today overwhelmingly fail to understand is the degree of disgusting degeneration and paganism which the people in these lands had become. And what God is warning Israel would happen if they did not completely wipe out these people did happen.
And there is a great summary passage again in Psalm 106, which describes what happened with Israel because they did not heed these warnings. So we're going to look at that. Psalm 106.
Psalm 106, and we'll begin in verse 34. They did not destroy the nations concerning whom the lord commanded them, but were mingled among the heathen and learned their works, and they served their idols, which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood, and thus they were defiled with their own works and went a whoring with their own inventions. So just like the inhabitants of the land, the inhabitants who Israel was supposed to have utterly destroyed, Israel took up the very same practices, even the sacrificing of their own sons and daughters, to these false pagan gods.
But the objectors of our day are still going to say, notwithstanding, how
can you or God ever sanction the slaughtering of innocent children and babies,
even in such a culture as that? Well, my response to that objection would be
this. The wholesale slaughtering of children and babies in those cultures was
the most merciful thing that God could ever have done on their behalf. This
objection here is exactly the same objection that Bill Maher raised in his
Religulous DVD documentary, and which I addressed in great detail in part seven
of my response to that objection, which can be found on our website.
Now, it wouldn't be fitting, and we wouldn't have the time to address that
issue in this broad overview of the Bible, but it is certainly an important
issue that should be addressed. And if anyone would like to hear the full
explanation as to why the wholesale slaughter of children and babies was the
most merciful thing that God could have done in those cultures at that time,
then I would encourage you to download or listen to part seven of the Religulous
series on our website at
gbcrm.org.
www.gbcrm.org/MediaArchive.htm#JK-Relig
So then, after these final warnings and encouragements are given to the nation by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses dies. And Joshua, if you remember Joshua, he was one of those two faithful spies who went in to spy out the land some 40 years earlier. He replaces Moses as the leader of the nation.
So that then brings us to the book of Joshua and the things that we read about in the Bible, from this point on, through the books of first and second Kings and Chronicles, will be a chronological history of the nation up to the point of the Assyrian captivity of the northern tribe, and then the Babylonian captivity of these southern tribes. Joshua and the people begin taking the land section by section, and by the time you get to chapter 13 in the book of Joshua, enough of the land has been taken for the individual tribes to begin receiving their particular geographical inheritances. And it's interesting to note that the entire land which God had promised to Abraham was not taken. During the time of Joshua's leadership, the peripheral borders of the promised land were not taken.
And there are at least two reasons for this. Number one, there would simply have been too much land for the nation to occupy at that time. And as God had explained to Moses back in Exodus, chapter 23, verses 27 through 33, He explained why they weren't going to take all the land at that time. He explained to Moses that at the time in which they would go into the land, the population of the nation, Israel, would not be great enough to displace all the wild beasts that would be multiplying in the uninhabited parts of the promised land. But as the population grew, then the nation, the successive generations in Israel, were supposed to go out, expand their territories, through additional conquests.
But the greater reason for not taking the promised land all at once was that this gradual taking of land by successive generations would force the nation to demonstrate whether those successive generations would remain faithful to the Lord, faithful to the law covenant, and faithful in following God's instructions to wipe out the remaining inhabitants of the promised land. And of course, they were not. And that is exactly what we read when we come to the book of Judges in Judges chapter two. And we will go there, Judges chapter two, to see some verses that are important.
Judges chapter two, beginning in verse eight. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old, and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnatharis, in the mount of Ephraim on the north side of the hill, Gaesh. And also all that generation were gathered under their fathers. And there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam.
And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods of the gods of the people that were round about them and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to anger. So Joshua and his generation did their job. But the next generation fails. This next generation begins to follow after the pagan gods of the nations which they were supposed to have destroyed. And in chapter three, verse six, we learn how that they began intermarrying with the people in those lands, people which they were supposed to have utterly destroyed, something that the Lord had strictly prohibited them from doing.
And as a result of that, the first course of punishment which we referenced in Leviticus, chapter 26, in part one, that first course of chastisement or punishment begins. Those nations along the borders of the territory which the twelve tribes had taken and occupied. They start coming back into Israel's territory. They overcome the people of Israel, and Israel actually becomes subservient to the very nations that they were supposed to have wiped out. Now you got to understand that it's the Lord who is allowing this to happen. All according to the first course of chastisement in Leviticus 26.
And what you find then throughout the book of judges are repeated episodes where the nation sinks deeper and deeper into apostasy and unfaithfulness to the Lord until things get so bad for the people that they cry out to the Lord for deliverance. And when they do that, the Lord responds positively by raising up judges, faithful men. And in one instance, even a woman. And these judges direct the nation back onto the right spiritual path. Now, some of these judges are familiar names to most people, like Samson and Gideon.
And throughout the Book of judges, there are twelve judges whom God raises up. And these judges successfully deliver the nation out of bondage as the Lord once again fights for Israel. And for a time, things go well, but it never lasts. And there are two key verses in the Book of judges which sort of summarize the whole state of affairs throughout the entire period of the judges. And one of those is in chapter two, verse 19, which says that it came to pass when the judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them.
They cease not from their doings, nor from their stubborn way. So as soon as the judge who had delivered them dies off, the nation once again sinks back into apostasy and unfaithfulness. And each time they do this, they regress back even further into a worse level of sinfulness than they had been previously. And the book of judges ends with up these discouraging words at the end of the chapter, chapter 21. We'll take a look at that.
Chapter 21 and verse 25. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. A certain prescription for disaster. They completely abandoned all those instructions and commandments which the Lord had given them, complete spiritual failure, a certain prescription for the demise of the nation. Now, the Book of Judges covers a period of about 450 years. And that then brings us to the Book of Ruth.
The Book of Ruth actually takes a little break from the dismal chronological history of the nation Israel. And at first, the Book of Ruth seems almost, almost out of place, considering the deplorable state of the nation and everything you read about up to this point. But the Book of Ruth gives to Israel the account of the life of Ruth and her marriage to Boaz, which actually took place during the period of the judges. So in that sense, it fits right in with the chronology of the nation. And the Book of Ruth can sort of be considered a bit of good news from the Lord, good news for the nation in the midst of their state of dismal spiritual decline.
And the Lord sees fit to educate Israel some more at this time through more prophetic typology. Prophetic typology on some things which will be extremely wonderful for the nation at some point down the road, because the Book of Ruth gives to Israel the doctrine pertaining to the kinsman redeemer, the exact role which the Lord Jesus Christ will take up for the nation at some point in the future. Boaz is a prophetic picture of that kinsman Redeemer, a prophetic picture of Christ, as Boaz turns out to be the only one who can get Ruth out of her predicament. Boaz qualifies to be able to do this because he is a kinsman to Ruth's former husband. And Boaz is actually a descendant from that seed line of the woman from way back in Genesis 3:15, that seed line which has already progressed through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Noah, looking forward to King David, to, and eventually to Jesus of Nazareth.
And Boaz is part of that seed line. And Boaz has the means through which he is able to pay the price to get the job done, and he is willing to do it, that is, to take Ruth in marriage because he really does love her. And Boaz then has all of the qualifications and is willing to redeem Ruth. So here we have another one of those marvelous prophetic pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he will eventually be doing for the nation Israel. And Ruth, by the way, is a prophetic picture of the gentiles who will be blessed through the instrumentality of the nation Israel.
As Israel knows they will be all in accordance with the Abrahamic covenant, because Ruth, she is actually a gentile woman, even though she was married to a Jewish man and is now the widow of that Jewish man. So here is this wonderful little interlude of good news and education for the nation Israel with the book of Ruth. That then brings us to the books of I and II Samuel. Samuel is actually the last of Israel's judges, but Samuel also becomes the first in a long line of prophets who will be speaking to the nation Israel on behalf of the Lord throughout the rest of Israel's Old Testament history. So in the book of I Samuel, we see this beginning of a long succession of the kings within the nation.
Now, it's important to understand that at this particular time in Israel's history, it was not God's intention that the nation should be led by a literal king, but the nation would have it no other way. So this insistence by the people that the nation be given a king like all the other nations of the earth had at that time. This was actually an act of rebellion against the Lord. Israel's mistake was in not waiting for God to initiate the process of establishing a king for the nation. Turn with me to first Samuel, chapter eight.
First Samuel, chapter eight. And look at verse 19. So Samuel had explained to the nation that it was not God's will that they should have a king. But in verse 19, nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, nay, but we will have a king over us, that we may be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. You see, at this point in Israel's history, it was the lord who was supposed to be responsible for the nation's success in battle, not any earthly king.
So the lord allows the nation to have its way. And Saul is anointed by the prophet Samuel as Israel's first king. So Saul starts off well, but he then proves to be a huge disappointment because of his failures to follow the Lord's instructions given to him by the prophet Samuel. And because of Saul's failures, the Lord takes the kingdom reign from Saul and gives it over to a man of his own choosing, God's own choosing. And that man, of course, is going to be David, someone who the scripture and God come to refer to as a man after God's own heart.
And David eventually becomes king. And David's manner of life and faithfulness to the Lord can appropriately be summarized in a verse like we see in I Samuel 18, and verse 14, which says, and David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. And by the time we get to the book of II Samuel in chapter seven, God's reverence for the character of David's heart and faithfulness prompt God to establish what is referred to as the Davidic covenant, Israel's fourth great covenant. So we'll take a look at that in II Samuel, chapter seven.
Let's begin in verse ten. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more. Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as before time drop down to verse twelve. And when thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy kingdom after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels. And I will establish his kingdom. I will build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne shall be established forever. According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Okay. The great Davidic covenant, the seed line of the woman, starting way back in Genesis 3:15, has now extended on down through King David, and it will extend from David on down through many more generations of kings until it finally gets to the one who will be the king of kings, Jesus of Nazareth, Israel's messiah. But there is one more thing that should be mentioned pertaining to Gods reverence for David, looking back at Israels rebellion in demanding a king, and then Sauls disobedience and complete failure, as that king was fully deserving of the second course of punishment of Leviticus 26. And that judgment had already been destined to come to the nation. But for David's sake, the lord chose to withhold that second course of chastisement until both King David and even his son, his successor, King Solomon, had both died and passed off the scene.
And during the reign of King Solomon, the lord is going to be teaching Israel once again, and in fact, teaching all the world and generations to come some very important things about Israel's future. During the reign of King Solomon, the Lord is going to establish Solomon's kingdom reign as something unlike anything the world had ever seen or will see again, until Israel's ultimate kingdom will be established on the earth with the Lord Jesus Christ throne. Now, first and second Samuel cover the lives of King Saul and King David 80 years in total. And the reign of King Solomon picks up in the book of one Kings, Solomon and his kingdom then become another, one of those tremendous prophetic pictures of what is going to take place with the nation Israel when all prophecy comes to fulfillment. Solomon's early reign and his glorious kingdom are a tremendous prophetic picture of the reign of Christ in his kingdom, with all its glory and peace.
And Solomon is a prophetic picture of Christ's knowledge, his wealth, his fame, his glory and honor, which will cover the earth during Israel's prophetic kingdom here on the earth. So let's read a little bit about that in one Kings, chapter ten. One Kings, chapter ten, beginning in verse one. And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions. There was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers, and his ascent, by which he went up unto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in mine own land, of thy acts and of thy wisdom, howbeit I believe not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard drop down to verse 23. So King Solomon exceeded all the Kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. And all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. So we have this tremendous prophetic picture of Christ sitting on his throne with all of his knowledge, wealth, fame, glory and honor, which will cover the earth in the future, when Israel's never ending prophetic kingdom will one day be established here on the earth.
Now, Solomon reigned for 40 years, just as his father David and king Saul had before him, a 120 year period of time total, during which God had withheld that second course of punishment from Leviticus 26 for Davids sake. But with the death of Solomon, the second course of punishment arrives. And that second course of punishment starts off with the division of Solomon's kingdom into two separate factions, with only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remaining down in the south at Jerusalem and the other ten tribes breaking away and establishing their own independence up north in Samaria. Now, throughout the rest of Israel's Old Testament history, these divided tribes will come to be referred to as the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. The northern kingdom of Israel will sometimes be referred to as Samaria and sometimes as Ephraim.
Now, the divided kingdom will remain divided until the second coming of Christ. Now, Christ actually began to reunite the divided kingdoms at his first coming, but because of his rejection, that could never come to fruition, and it will not happen now until his second coming. The second coming of Christ will be associated with the regathering back to Israel of all the faithful, believing Jews, wherever they may be scattered in accordance with that prophetic feast of trumpets which we looked into when I referenced Leviticus 23 in part one of this overview. That feast of trumpets will be the first of three remaining feasts yet to be fulfilled. And that will be when the divided kingdom will once again be united.
Now, from the Book of first Kings, chapter eleven, through the Book of second Kings, we have a chronological history of the Kings of both the northern and southern kingdoms. And that history proves to be quite dismal as we see both the northern and southern kingdoms progressing further and further away from the Lord God of Israel and sinking deeper and deeper into apostasy and idolatry. And as a result, the third, fourth, and fifth courses of judgment from according to Leviticus 26, they come upon the nation relatively quickly now compared to the first and second courses. The northern kingdom of Israel goes through a succession of 19 Kings, none of whom are any good at all, culminating in the assyrian captivity of the northern kingdom in 720 BC. The southern kingdom of Judah goes through a succession of 20 Kings, eight of whom prove to be good Kings, some of them very excellent Kings, and who are responsible for periodic periods of revival in the southern kingdom of Judah.
Consequently, the southern kingdom of Judah lasts longer than the northern kingdom before it goes into captivity. The southern kingdom of Judah does not reach that point of irreversible apostasy and idolatry until 606 BC, at which time Judah is taken captive by Babylon and king Nebuchadnezzar and Judah will remain dispossessed out of their land as Babylonian captives for 70 years. At this point, God's Israel will never be a factor in the world political scene again until they follow that prescription for getting out from under the fifth course of punishment which God had given them back in Leviticus, chapter 26, verse 40, and following, which we looked at in part one. And that then takes us into the books of first and second Chronicles, where we have an interesting situation in these books of one and two Chronicles, in that they are actually a repeat of the historical information from the time of Israel's first king, Saul, up until the babylonian captivity of the southern kingdom of Judah in 606 BC. But what is the purpose of this second historical account?
Well, as you progress on through first and second Chronicles, you see that we are being given a look at God's perspective pertaining to the things that were going on with that long succession of Kings, first and second Kings. Those books were more of a pure chronological record of this historical events, as man would tend to record them. But in one and two Chronicles, we are given more of a look at God's perspective on those events. So in Chronicles, we see how that God was trying to preserve the nation on the basis of the Davidic covenant, if there were any possible way to do so in Chronicles. There is much more of an emphasis on those good Kings in the southern kingdom of Judah, since they were the ones who were capable of leading Judah back onto the right path, which many of them did, at least for a while, until they died.
On the other hand, many of the Kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, they're not even mentioned in Chronicles, since none of them were any good at all. Now, when we get into the prophets, we see that the prophets are continually reminding the Kings and the nation about these courses of punishment. In Leviticus 26, the prophets are continually pointing out to the Kings and the nation that they are experiencing exactly what God said would happen to Israel back in Leviticus 26. As these progressive courses of punishment are playing out, and these prophets are continually warning the Kings and the nation to turn back to God before God has no choice but to bring on that fifth and final course of judgment. But Israel's Kings and the nation failed to heed the warning.
So the whole situation can be succinctly summed up at the end of two Chronicles, chapter 36, which we'll take a look at. Two Chronicles, chapter 36, verse 14. And following, moreover, all the chief of the priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen and polluted the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem, and the Lord God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sinning, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. They mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, misused the prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against the people.
At this point, there was no saving of the nation. There was no remedy. Well, that brings us to the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. The book of Ezra. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther will describe Israel coming back into their land following the 70 years of babylonian captivity.
They are back in the land, at least some of them are. But politically, they are no more than simply vassals who will be ruled over by other people. And in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, we have three more prophetic pictures representing the future restoration of Israel. Ezra is a book of the regathering of the nation. Historically, there were several waves of Jews returning to the land at that time, but the overwhelming remainder of the Jews were still scattered throughout the gentile nations.
So Ezra is a prophetic picture of that regathering of Israel which will accompany the second coming of Christ, that feast of trumpets in Leviticus 23, which is yet to be fulfilled. Now, in the book of Nehemiah, the city of Jerusalem is rebuilt. Jerusalem is the city of the great king who is yet to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jerusalem will be where the king will be living. So we see the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the book of Nehemiah Then in the Book of Esther, this deals with those Jews who did not return to the land, but who remained in Babylon after the captivity came to an end. And in the book of Esther, what you see is a prophetic picture of the providential preservation of the Jews living among the gentile nations, despite whatever persecution may come their way. So these three books are just another prophetic demonstration of how the Lord is not finished with the nation Israel. And try as they might, there is no political power on earth which will ever undermine God's plans and purpose for his nation Israel on the earth.
Now, I just can't help but to interject a little editorial commentary at that time, and this would be this. At this point in Israel's history, as a result of that fifth course of punishment, there is no nation Israel anymore. And there will be no nation Israel. For over 2500 years, the Jews have been scattered throughout all the nations of the world, just as the Lord said he would do to them as part of the fifth course of punishment. And all common sense and logic would conclude that there would never again be a nation Israel.
Yet Bible believing and understanding teachers and preachers have had absolutely no reservations down through the ages to stand before men and confidently preach that God will one day restore the nation of Israel. That defies common sense and logic. But that could be done by these teachers and preachers because of the truth and the confidence that you can have in this book. So then we come to the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. These five books are often referred to as the wisdom literature.
Or sometimes they're simply considered to be examples of interesting poetry in the Bible. And for the most part, what calls itself as Christianity has no idea what these five books are all about or why they're there. These five books are designed to teach the nation Israel things which will be of the utmost importance to them in the future as they undergo tribulations and persecutions unlike anything any group of people has ever undergone. Or what the Bible also refers to as the tribulation period or Daniel's 70th week, when the nation will be under the persecution of the Antichrist and the Antichrist's policy of evil, which will be attempting to eliminate all the believing members of the nation Israel off the face of the earth. That persecution is seen in typology in the Book of Job as a prophetic picture of the satanic conflict between God and Satan over God's chosen nation of Israel on the earth.
It is a picture of God's suffering chosen nation through Job that the nation will go through on the earth as. As those conflicts in the Middle east well continue to escalate to unbelievable levels. And the message is for the nation of Israel to just hang on. Just hang in there, hold fast to what they know God has said is true, and in the end it will be more than worth it, as we see Job being blessed in the end with far more than he started off with. The Book of Psalms speaks of the sufferings which the true and faithful people in Israel will experience, but it also teaches about the hope for those same people.
The Book of Psalms also explains how the tribulations which Israel will find themselves in will be dealt with by the Lord. Now, there are 150 chapters or individual psalms within the book of Psalms. It's the longest book in the Bible, and the psalms are filled with prophecy. And you will notice also that the Book of Psalms is divided into five sections. Five books within the book.
Those five sections are written in a way to focus the heart of the believing Jew on what their messiah, what the Lord Jesus Christ will be doing for them as Israel's redeemer, as Israel's deliverer, as Israel's avenger, as Israel's king and as Israel's blesser. Now the Lord Jesus Christ will fulfill the role of Israel's redeemer on the cross. He's already done that. We saw a prophetic picture of Christ as Israel's king and blesser in the lives of King David and King Solomon through that glorious kingdom which God had established during the reign of King Solomon. Then the Lord Jesus Christ will fulfill Israel's Avenger and deliverer roles at his second coming, during which time Israel's time of great tribulation, during that tribulation, when God resumes his program with Israel once again in the future.
Now, each one of the five books within the psalms focuses in on one of those five functions as Israel's messiah, as either in the role of the Redeemer, Deliverer, Avenger, King or Blesser. And they are presented in that order in the five books, now, let's just take a look at one of these functions as Israel's messiah. As an example, the Messiah's first function will be that of Israel's redeemer. So we're going to see that function emphasized in the first section in the first book within the book of psalms. And we see that in Psalm 22.
And this is a psalm that was written by David. And it reads, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring well, any student of the Bible will recognize immediately that these are the exact words which the Lord Jesus Christ cried out during his crucifixion on the cross more than 900 years after these prophetic words were written. And they are recorded in both the Gospel accounts of Matthew, chapter 27, in verse 46, and in Mark, chapter 15, verse 34. Then the passage here in Psalm 22 goes on to give us these incredible insights into what was actually going through the mind of Christ as he was suffering on that cross.
This whole psalm is profound for a number of reasons. It's another example of prophecy given out and then fulfilled exactly as prophesied. It accurately describes the method of death by crucifixion, which was not even known at the time when David wrote this psalm. It demonstrates that a righteous, just, and holy God has no choice but to deal with sin. The penalty for sin has to be paid for.
And it demonstrates the seriousness of sin in the eyes of God. And that God's own son is the one who needed to pay that penalty because he was the only one who qualified to do it. A kinsman redeemer to the nation Israel. And on that cross, the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price for the sins of the nation, and in doing so, provided the means by which God is now going to be able to accomplish everything that neither Adam, Noah or the nation Israel was able to accomplish. And we'll see how that evolves in part three when we get into the prophets.
Now, the Book of Proverbs will be giving Israel the wisdom they need in order to deal with all manner of details in their lives during the tribulation. Similar to the Book of Ecclesiastes, where Israel will be receiving an understanding of all human viewpoint, all the different human viewpoint that they will be subjected to as part of the satanic policy of evil's attempt to draw them away from the Lord during that time of great tribulation. And then in the Song of Solomon, we have a picture of the future vain apostate religious system in Israel and of the satanic policy of evil, attempting to lure away the believing Jew from his fidelity and faithfulness to his beloved Messiah. And it is a picture of how keeping that focus, keeping their focus on the beloved Messiah and on all of the promises he made to them, that that will be the only way that they will be able to make it through that tremendous time of tribulation, keep their focus on their beloved Messiah in the song of Solomon.
Well, then we come to the Prophets, and they run from the book of Isaiah through to the end of the Old Testament book of Malachi. The last three prophetic books were written after the 70 year Babylonian captivity. All of the preceding prophets were contemporary with the various Kings of both the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. Now, I've already said a few things about the prophets in that they were God's messengers to the nation, and they were constantly warning the Kings and the nation about the reality of the five courses of punishment which were always looming on the horizon as the Kings and the people were falling further and further away from the Lord. As those courses of punishment were unfolding, you continually see the prophets referring back to Leviticus 26 to point out how that God was fulfilling exactly what he said he was going to do if Israel remained in rebellion and refused to be reformed. But as we saw in two Chronicles, chapter 14, the warnings of the prophets fell on deaf ears as we read that they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
So God raises up all these prophets, these writing prophets, Isaiah through Malachi, who will describe the fifth course of punishment and describe what life is going to be like for the nation while they're under that fifth course of punishment. They are going to talk about how long that fifth course of punishment is going to last and what the nation is going to need to do to get out from under it. The first five prophetic books are the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah, along with Jeremiah's book of Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. And these four prophets are generally collectively referred to as the fourth major prophets. They provide sweeping overviews of the major events which will be taking place under the fifth course of judgment.
They provide literally hundreds of prophecies pertaining to the coming messiah, the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They provide information about Israel's last days, when they will be experiencing such tribulation preceding the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they provide a remarkable time schedule regarding how long it's going to take for all of this to play out. And that, of course, is in the book of Daniel. And they provide encouraging details about the glorious kingdom which Israel will once again establish and experience after the Lord Jesus Christ's second coming, at which time he will establish that long awaited for kingdom.
Now, some things should be said about the hundreds of prophecies pertaining to the coming of Israel's messiah. All those prophecies were given out so that when the Messiah did show up, there could be no question but that he had arrived. Mathematicians down through the ages have considered these hundreds of prophecies which pertain to Israel's messiah and have taken just eight of those prophecies, eight prophecies which are very specific in their nature and detail, and have calculated that the odds of just those eight prophecies pertaining to any one person other than Jesus of Nazareth are beyond reasonable consideration. That's taking into account only eight of the hundreds of prophecies which are found. They all match up and come to pass pertaining to the genealogy, or maybe the birth, or the life, or the ministry, or the death of Jesus of Nazareth.
And another thing that is very important to note regarding the writing of the prophets is that as they were writing these things down, they did not understand the concept of the first and second coming of Israel's messiah. The concept of the second coming of Christ was not revealed to the nation until hundreds of years after the prophets wrote. Now, the apostle Peter explained this phenomenon quite well in one of his new Testament letters, long after the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's go to one Peter first, chapter one.
Now, these words of the apostle Peter, which we are about to read, were important information for the Jews in the nation, at which time Peter wrote these things because they didn't know when the Lord was returning. But they will be even more important for the Jews in the nation Israel, when God begins dealing with the nation once again in the future. So one Peter, chapter one, and verse six, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. So Peter is referring to Israel's last days here, that time in which they will be going through their tremendous trials and tribulation.
Verse seven. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So the appearing of Jesus Christ, and this is the second appearing of Jesus Christ, that Peter is referring to here, the second coming of Christ. Verse eight, whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. So Peter is addressing people who have never seen Christ at his first coming. They just know about him, and they know about what he has promised in the scriptures that he is going to do for them at his second coming.
And verse nine, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Now, the salvation that Peter is referring to here is a physical deliverance right out of the tribulation into Christ's never ending kingdom when he returns. And finally, verse ten, and following, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us. They did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. So those prophets who were writing entirely by the inspiration of God were writing things that they did not literally understand.
They did not understand why they were inspired to write all these passages about the sufferings of Christ, the sufferings of the Messiah, whole chapters of prophecy like Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22 that we took a short look at, and then all those passages about the glory which would follow, they could not reconcile those two concepts because they did not know anything about the second coming of Christ. They did not understand that his first coming would consist of the rejection and all the sufferings, and that the glory would not follow until his second coming. When they wrote these prophecies, very often within the very same passage, they spoke or wrote of things which were pertinent to the time in which they were writing, and about things which would not take place about his second coming, and about things that would be true of his first coming, all in the same passage, sometimes even all in the same sentence. And we need to take a look at one of those as an example. But we're out of time for today.