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Bible Study		December 29, 2013
Three Great Fails

Introduction

The Bible is a story of the failure of man but the success of God. This is especially vivid in the stories of the Old Testament period. But prophesy tells us the New Testament period will end as one of the greatest failures of man and one of the greatest successes of God. The millennial period after that will end in the complete failure of man and the complete success of God.

The overarching theme in all of this is a message to man, "without me you are nothing."

From the successes of God we learn of his greatness, his patience, love, power and so on. We are to draw from this that God is the mighty one and we can have faith in him. But we also learn from the failures of man - probably more so. In these failures we see people in the same situations that trouble all mankind and we see how they went wrong. From these failures we can pull lessons to use in our own lives.

In this lesson we will look at some of the greatest failures of mankind recorded in the Bible. These people were given signs they could have used to correct their ways but instead they managed to pull disaster from the jaws of victory.

Lesson

Pharaoh of the Exodus

The Pharaoh saw many signs to show him the power of God and to give him a chance to recognize God and let the Israelites go. He saw Moses staff turn into a snake first and later he saw the ten plagues.

But God was using these events to bring judgment on the Egyptian people. They did not worship God; instead they worshiped many false gods. They had also enslaved the Israelites whom they originally welcomed as guests. And they were killing the male children of the Israelites to control the Israelite population.

God is also judging the many false gods of the Egyptians. Each plague that was sent struck at one or more of their Gods. From the Egyptian perspective the plagues would be seen as a failure of their gods to protect them. The plagues are listed below and the Gods who were in charge of the affected areas are shown.

¹

Failing to See the Signs

How was it that Pharaoh missed all these signs? He was aware that Moses was the cause and that Moses said it was the work of his God. Any person should have been able to recognize how out of the ordinary this sequence of events was. It was not until the 10^th plague that Pharaoh decided to let the Israelites go. Even then he soon regretted the decision and sent his army after them.

God's plan here was to judge the people of Egypt and their Pharaoh. To do this God "hardened Pharaoh's heart". If God had started on the 9^th plague - darkness - Pharaoh probably would have been convinced. It would have been such a sudden step out of what was normal it couldn't be missed as a sign. But God escalates the plagues just enough each time that Pharaoh is able to choose to refuse to let the Israelites go each time.

Pharaoh can be excused for missing the signs of Moses staff becoming a snake and the first two plagues. They would not have been that far out of the ordinary experience of Egyptians. Also his magicians are able to duplicate the signs. This has to lead Pharaoh to believe that Moses is no more than a magician. Even when the plagues become more than Pharaoh's magicians can duplicate, he may still believe that they are tricks and if his magicians had enough time they could duplicate them. So as more and greater signs are given he misses them because he has become hardened by each previous plague.

Jezebel

Jezebel was a Phoenician princess. She married Ahab who was king of Northern Israel. She worshiped Baal and Asherah and had a strong influence on Ahab. 1 Kings 16:30-33 says

³⁰ Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. ³¹ He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the [Phoenicians], and began to serve Baal and worship him. ³² He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. ³³ Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.

Jezebel was evil as well. She set about killing off the prophets of God² while at the same time feeding the prophets of Baal from the royal table³. The remaining prophets of God were sent into hiding.

God sent Elijah to tell Ahab that there would be no rain for a few years⁴. The drought became very severe. After more than two years without rain God sent Elijah to Ahab. He told Ahab to bring all the prophets of Baal and Asherah to Mount Carmel.

While there, in front of the people of Israel, God sends down fire to consume the sacrifice that Elijah has setup. At Elijah's command the people grab the prophets of Baal and slaughter them. Elijah then prays to God and the drought ends with a heavy rainfall. The power of the Lord comes on Elijah and he is able to run as fast as Ahab's horse drawn chariot all the way back to the city, about 20 miles away.

The story continues in 1 Kings 19:1

¹ Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ² So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them."

Failing to See the Signs

Three major signs have been given

• God sent fire to consume Elijah's sacrifice, the wood, the stones of the altar, and the water around it and scorched the earth
• Elijah prays and the drought is ended
• Elijah is empowered to run at the speed of a chariot for 20 miles

King Ahab seems to have been affected by what he has seen. But how does Jezebel respond? She is livid. She is so angry that she pronounces a threat on Elijah and a curse on herself if she does not carry out that threat within 24 hours.

How is it that Jezebel has failed to see that these signs were not the signs of a man but a true God? Instead she blames it all on Elijah as though he alone had caused it.

Judas Iscariot

Judas spent more than 2 years as a disciple of Jesus. In that time he would have seen so many healings, demons cast out, and other wonders that it is hard to imagine that he would sell out Jesus. When you think back on all he would have experienced it is amazing. He would have seen

• Jesus and Peter walking on water,
• The feedings of 4000 and 5000 from a few fish and loaves,
• Jesus calming a storm,
• The wisdom of Jesus in his teaching,
• Peter and others referring to Jesus as the Messiah,
• Jesus speaks openly with his disciples about the Kingdom of Heaven what he only spoke in parables to others,
• The resurrection of the dead and especially Lazarus, and
• Much more

He also would have been one of the ones that Jesus authorized over demons and sickness as they were sent out in teams to evangelize. So it is likely that he himself healed people or cast out demons. Also, and very importantly, at the last supper Jesus says to him "What you are about to do, do quickly⁵." Judas knows that Jesus knows what he has agreed with the priests to do.

We do see that Judas was stealing from the disciple's money box in John 12:4-8.

⁴ And [Judas Iscariot], one of the disciples, who was about to betray him, said: ⁵ "Why was not this oil sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?" ⁶ He said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief and he had the money box and anything which fell into it he carried. ⁷ But [Jesus] said, "Let her alone, for she has kept it for the day of my burial. ⁸ For you have the poor with you always, but you do not have me with you always."

But at this point Judas is only a petty thief. To go from there to being a betrayer is a large step. It can certainly be said that Judas loved money. And it's possible that he never really accepted the gospel message that Jesus was teaching. But it's hard to imagine how the disappointment of not being able to steal more money would have driven him to sell out Jesus. Also, in just a short time Peter will deny knowing Jesus. So that weakness was a common characteristic But something about this event seems to be the trigger because it is immediately after this event that Judas goes to sell out Jesus⁶. It may have been something about Mary anointing Jesus with such an expensive gift and Jesus not turning her away.

Failing to See the Signs

The list of the signs that Judas saw was presented above. But Judas was not alone in failing to see the signs. The priests and religious elite also missed them and thus crucified their own Messiah. So the question comes, how did he and they miss all of this?

Summary

With all three of these people we saw that they were given many signs to show them what was right but they managed to miss them.

God also gives us signs. What can we do to make sure that we see these signs?

¹ http://biblecharts.org/oldtestament/thetenplagues.pdf

² 1 Kings 18:4

³ 1 Kings 18:19

⁴ 1 Kings 17:1

⁵ John 13:27

⁶ Matthew 26:15