Tip: It is advised to open your Bibles and follow along with the readings for each section in order to understand better the remarks that are made concerning them.
1. Introduction – Deuteronomy 12
2. The Number Three – Deuteronomy 15-17
Three things which are connected with the place where the Lord has placed His name:
- Deuteronomy 16:16 – Worship
- Deuteronomy 17:8 – Binding decisions rendered in the name of the Lord
- 1 Kings 8:29 – Prayer
3. The Sin of Jeroboam – 1 Kings 12:25-13:2
“And he (Jeroboam) made a house of high places…” (12:31).
Man made centers of worship stand against the one God Himself establishes.
“And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel … And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord” (13:1-2).
4. Jehu, Ezra – 2 Kings 10:29, Ezra 3:1,
- Jehu ~100 years after Jeroboam – continuing in the sin of Jeroboam
- Ezra ~300 years after Jeroboam – foundations laid in Jerusalem and a feeble company of 2 tribes
5. Ezra (continued – Ezra 7:8, 8:31), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:11), and Luke 2:21
- Ezra, knowing God’s mind, abides by His word and goes up to Jerusalem to worship
- Nehemiah – “And I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days!”
- In Luke’s gospel (500 years later), the place where they went up was still Jerusalem. “…They brought Him (Jesus) to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (vs. 22).
Check out the 3rd part in this series. Click here.