people of the promise - temkit

People of the Promise

Bible Stories for Grades 5, 6.

IX Light in the Darkness

80, 81: Messages and Messengers / Jonah, a Reluctant Missionary

As the stars light the midnight sky, so the prophets stood in the dark night of Israel's decay. Not only to the kingdoms of Judah and Israel but also to the surrounding nations did they lift their voices. Their messages and warnings echo down through the centuries even to our day. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets." Amos 3:7.

God had a plan for His chosen people, the Israelites. He planned to have them located near the center of world activity so that they could be a light to all the world.

They could show the joy of serving God, They could show their trust in Him. They could reveal His protecting power.

It was a good plan; and, if Israel had followed it, all nations of earth could have shared in God blessings. But Israel had failed.

Through the years, God had been the Leader and Guide of His people. Patiently He he taught them and worked out His plan so the they could let their light shine for Him.

He had brought them out of slavery. He had cared for them in the wilderness. He had led them into Canaan. He had helped them conquer the land. He had told them to witness for Him.

Messengers of the Promise

http://www.pathlightsjr.com -- http://www.temkit.com 2

But even with all this help, Israel failed. Instead of becoming a center of light and help, the children of Israel became selfish and thought they were better than other people. Little by little they accepted the heathen worship of those around them.

God was grieved as He looked down upon His erring children, but He did not forsake them. Again and again He sent His messengers, the prophets, to help them and to call them back to His plan for them. Sometimes the Israelites listened to the messengers; sometimes they did not.

Through messenger after messenger over many years, God revealed to His people the things of the future. He warned of the sad results of disobedience and sin. He gave His wayward people every opportunity to renew their part of the covenant their forefathers had made

The covenant that eventually would restore to them the good world God gave Adam; The covenant that made Israel God's special treasure; The covenant that said, "I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

81. Jonah, a Reluctant Missionary

Poor Jonah was in trouble. The voice of God had spoken to him, "Arise, go to Nineveh, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me." Nineveh was a great city, the capital of the Assyrian nation.

Jonah did not want to go there to preach. The people of Nineveh were heathen, and he had no desire to save or help them. He was one of the prophets of Israel. He loved his country and was glad to be God's messenger to the Jewish people. But Jonah did not realize that God also had a message for the heathen nations near by. Like many of the Jewish leaders of his time, he thought that only their own nation was loved by God.

Jonah had another worry. What would happen if he did go to Nineveh? If the people listened to his warning and repented, God would forgive



them and not destroy their city. Jonah was afraid that if this happened the people of Nineveh would laugh at him and call him a false prophet. He was not concerned about their salvation. He did not want to be a missionary. He ran away from the work God had given him to do and tried to hide; but he only got into trouble, for no one can ever hide from God. The story of his troubles is told in Jonah 1 and 2.

Again God said to Jonah, "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach." Finally Jonah learned that God's plan for him was best.

This time Jonah was willing to go. He went up and down the streets of Nineveh urging the people to repent. They listened, believed the prophet's warning, and prayed for forgiveness.

Through this experience Jonah learned that God speaks to all the people of the world when He says: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."




82, 83: A Prayer Meeting / Amos, the Farmer Prophet

The countries of Israel and Judah were suffering a terrible drouth. Crops were planted as usual, but the seeds did not come up. The corn that did sprout soon withered for lack of water. The wheat and barley in the fields turned brown before it was ripe. There was suffering among the animals as rivers and streams became dry.

No fruit appeared in the orchards on the fig and apple trees. The beautiful palm trees withered. Pomegranate trees, usually so full of fruit, produced nothing. Finally, locusts and caterpillars appeared and ate what little green there was in the fields and orchards. Barns were allowed to fall into ruins for there were no crops to store.

The usual offerings were not brought to the temple. There were no first fruits to make joyous the Passover. There was no harvest to celebrate in the Feast of Ingathering.

Old men gathered in little groups, talking about the terrible drouth. Even the oldest of them could remember no drouth as terrible as this one.

Joel, the prophet at this time, sent out a call for the people to come to a prayer meeting. "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the Lord your God, And cry unto the Lord."

The people came together as Joel told them to do. They prayed earnestly, and God heard and answered their prayers. His message to them was one of comfort and hope. "Turn ye even to Me with all your



heart," God said. "Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith."

Joel was glad to deliver this message to the praying people. He was happy for this comforting promise: "Fear not, 0 land; be glad and rejoice : for the Lord will do great things."

God did not want His people to be hungry. He told them He would send rain so they could have plenty of food.

"Be glad then, ye children of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God: For He hath given you the former rain moderately, And He will cause to come down for you the rain, The former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you The years that the locust hath eaten."

How happy the people were as they listened to these promises of help from their heavenly Father!

83. Amos, the Farmer Prophet

Amos was a farmer who lived in the little village of Tekoa, about five miles from Bethlehem. He cared for the sycamore fig trees in his neighborhood and for his flock of sheep. The sheep had to be led to water, taken to pasture, and brought home again at night. Once a year each sheep had to be shorn of its wool.

As Amos took the wool and the fruit to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, he listened to the talk of the other men going to and from market. He met men from distant lands and became acquainted with their customs.

Sometimes Amos took his wool to Samaria, the capital of Israel, which was a better market than Jerusalem. He traveled over wide highways, built by slave labor. He saw people who had grown rich from the taxes



collected from conquered Syria and from Judah. He passed summer mansions built in the country by wealthy people. He watched the rich being waited on by the poor. Amos also saw poverty and misery. He saw traders put people on the auction platform to be sold as slaves.

When Amos returned home, he often thought about what he had seen and heard. On the lonely hillsides of Judah, where he watched his sheep, he talked with God. He remembered the stories of God's help for His people in times past. Perhaps he thought of Elijah who, only a hundred years before, had stood before King Ahab and demanded that the worship of Baal be stopped.

One day as Amos followed his flock, the Lord said to him, "Go, prophesy unto My people Israel."

Amos obeyed. He left his little home on the hillside in Tekoa and went up to the northern kingdom to the city of Bethel. Here were a heathen temple and the palace of the king. He arrived at the time of a great festival when the city streets were thronged with people.

His clothes were different from those of the well-dressed people of Bethel. They looked at him and were both surprised and amused. Then he began to preach. Some people laughed; others became angry at his message. Ridicule and laughter could not stop Amos, however! He knew God had sent him with a message for the people. His voice was clear and loud as he spoke. It could be heard above the noise of the market place.

"Hear ye," he said to the people. "Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you." Amos reminded them that they had been greedy, unjust, dishonest.

"Hate the evil, and love the good," he continued.

Amaziah, the priest of the golden calf at Bethel, did not like to hear the message given by the prophet. He persuaded the king to command Amos to leave the country. Dressed in his priestly robes, Amaziah went



to Amos, the humble shepherd-farmer, to deliver the order. But Amos was not worried.

"I was no prophet," he said, "neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel."

The people of Israel were so busy making money and enjoying their riches that they had entirely forgotten God. If they continued to refuse the messages which God sent by His true prophet, before long they would be carried away by a heathen nation.

Amos said that some day they would want to hear God speak to them and they could not. This would be like a famine, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." His warning to the people was both a command and a hopeful promise

"Seek the Lord, and ye shall live."

This message of Amos is for us today as much as it was for the people of Israel. Amos was speaking to God's people of all times when he said, "Prepare to meet thy God, 0 Israel."




84-87: Children Whose Names Warned a Nation

While Hosea, the father of a new baby boy, was wondering what to name his little son, God spoke to him. The command was clear. "Call his name Jezreel."

It was a custom in Israel to give a child a name with a special meaning. The name God selected for the baby boy meant ‘Trouble’. God was taking this method of showing to the people of Israel that trouble was coming to them because of their sins. Because they had refused to listen to the prophet Amos, this new messenger was sent.

Hosea was the prophet. Now as he delivered his messages of trouble, and as the people saw his little son Jezreel (Trouble), Israel would have no excuse for forgetting God's warning.

Later, another child, a baby girl, came to the prophet's home. God named this baby, too. "Call her name Lo-ruhamah," He said to Hosea. God selected this name for the baby because He wanted Israel to think of His message for them, for this name meant ‘Not pitied’. God could no longer show pity and mercy for Israel because of the sins they kept committing. "For I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel," God said; "but I will utterly take them away.

Little Jezreel's name should have been warning enough, but the people did not heed the warning. Now, through the prophet's baby daughter, the Lord was giving a stronger warning.

When the third and last child in the family was born, God had a name for him, too; Lo-ammi. Lo-ammi's name had a sad, sad meaning, ‘Not My people’. "Call his name Lo-ammi," God said, "for ye are not My people, and I will not be your God."



Israel knew why God had turned from them. Prophet after prophet had been sent to them, but their messages were not heeded.

Hosea knew that God could not save His people from exile. "Because they did not hearken unto Him," he said, "they shall be wanderers among the nations."

In spite of all God's warnings, however, Hosea never forgot that He is a God of love.

85. A Special Promise

From the foothills of Judah came another prophet, a humble peasant named Micah. Because he lived near to God amid the beauties of nature, the wickedness of the people in his time seemed hateful to him. He was so troubled over the evils he saw that he called all the people to a great meeting.

"Hear, all ye people," he began his sermon. He described the selfishness, dishonesty and even cruelty that he saw everywhere. He warned his listeners of the troubles that were to come to those who continued to do evil.

"Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them."

Micah's sermon was not all dark and gloomy. He knew that some day Jesus would come as the Saviour of those who repented of their sins.

Now, as he preached of this promised Redeemer, he told a wonderful secret. For the first time God's people heard the name of the town which would be the birthplace of the baby Jesus.

Micah thrilled at the thought that the Saviour of the world would be born in humble surroundings. He told his listeners that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, a town which was "little among the thousands of Judah."

Of the Saviour's work Micah had a promise: "He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us."



86. Nahum, a Messenger of Comfort

After Jonah's sermon to Nineveh, the city grew until it was the largest in the world at that time. It was so large that it took a person three days to walk around it. There was land enough within its walls to provide food for its people for many months. Its walls were a hundred feet high and so thick that three chariots could be driven side by side on top of them.

As the city grew larger and more prosperous, the people again forgot God. They forgot Jonah's warnings to them. The worship of idols and the giving of heathen sacrifices became common again. The people of Nineveh boasted of the power of their gods, and praised them for helping the armies of Assyria in their wars with other nations. These armies robbed their enemies, stole their crops, and took many captives.

The Israelites were among those carried away. A few of the poor were left behind to care for the crops, but most of the people were sent into strange lands. There they were scattered far from their own homes. The rich cities of Israel were deserted. The shops were closed. The gardens and vineyards were overgrown with weeds.

To encourage God's people Nahum gave a word picture of the greatness and power of the true God, the God who cannot let the wicked go unpunished but always loves and cares for those who trust Him.

"The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked: The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the dust of His feet....

"The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, And the earth is burned at His presence, His fury is poured out like fire, And the rocks are thrown down by Him.



"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knoweth them that trust in Him."

87. Zephaniah, a Royal Prophet

Many of the messengers to the people of God were humble shepherds or farmers. But not the young Zephaniah. He lived in the luxury of Jerusalem. Wealth in abundance, friends with influence, and pleasures on every side, all were his. But Zephaniah was not happy; he was troubled. His people, the Jews, were not following God. They were becoming more and more like the nations around them.

When Zephaniah prayed for his people, God gave him a message for them and also for other nations near by.

"The day of the Lord is at hand," prophesied Zephaniah. "Seek ye the Lord."

One by one Zephaniah mentioned the nations that would be destroyed because they chose to do evil: Moab, Philistia, Ammon, Ethiopia, and Assyria. From time to time God had sent messages to these heathen countries, but they would not listen.

If God's chosen people, the Jews, did not repent, they would be destroyed also. Zephaniah reminded them that if they were to be saved they must seek God's help and protection. Of those who would repent he wrote:

"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy."




88, 89: Habakkuk, the Prophet of Faith / Obadiah, the Prophet of Doom

All around Habakkuk there were sin and trouble. God's people were being annoyed by their enemies, and the prophet saw visions of more distress to come. He prayed that God would help him understand why these calamities must come.

God always answers the sincere prayers of His people, and He did not fail Habakkuk. As Habakkuk prayed, his faith grew, and he knew that God would send an answer. Soon He came to talk with the worried prophet.

After God had finished talking, Habakkuk understood why punishment must come to the unfaithful. He knew also that God will protect those who are faithful to Him. The prophet realized that God was watching over His people, but they must trust Him to work out His plan. "The just shall live by his faith," God had said.

Once more the prophet knelt to pray. Now he offered a prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God. Then he cried out,

"The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls

"Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

"The Lord God is my strength."



89. Obadiah, the Prophet of Doom

Many centuries before the time of the prophets, Esau, the son of Isaac, left his father's home and went into a far country to live. He took his sons and his daughters, his flocks and herds. For his new home, Esau chose a rough mountain country, which came to be known as the land of Edom.

Here his descendants were living when the Israelites were brought out of Egypt by Moses. As the large company of God's people marched away from Egypt, they came to the land of their relatives, the Edomites. The Israelites asked if they might pass through the land on their way to Canaan. "Thou shalt not pass by me ; lest I come out against thee with the sword," was the answer to their request. Tired as they were, the Israelites were forced to go around the land of Edom.

Since both family groups were descendants of Isaac, there should have been a friendly feeling between them. Instead, the two nations hated each other. Trouble continued between them through the years.

Finally Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, captured Jerusalem. The Edomites, instead of helping their relatives, rejoiced to see them carried away captive. It was bad enough for the Jews that a strange nation had taken their beloved Jerusalem, but it made them sadder still to have their own relatives rejoice at their trouble.

As the people of Judah were led away, the Edomites rushed into the city of Jerusalem and stole everything of value that they could find. Other Edomites stood at the crossroads; and as the people of Judah tried to escape, they caught them and sold them as slaves, or turned them back to the Babylonians.

Obadiah, a prophet of the Lord, was called to give a prophecy to the cruel, selfish nation of Edom. "As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee," he cried; "thy reward shall return upon thine own head."



The pride and selfishness of the Edomites choked out any kindness and love they might have felt in their hearts for others. They were to learn that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The message of the Lord for them was

"The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high;

That saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

"Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle,

And though thou set thy nest among the stars, Thence will I bring thee down, Saith the Lord."

people of the promise - temkit

Documents