-Baasha:
the third king of the now
separate kingdom of Israel; Son of a man named Ahijah of the house
of Issachar, not Ahijah
the Shilonite who was a prophet
during the years of Jeroboam
I and Rehoboam,
king of Judah. Ahijah the prophet predicted the Lord's message that the
house of Jeroboam I would be completely destroyed and this was fulfilled
by Baasha:.1Kings
14:10,11.
Before becoming king, Baasha
was commander of the armies of Nadab,
king of Israel, the son of Jeroboam
I.
He killed Nadab treacherously
at the siege of Gibbethon and usurped
the kingdom, B.C.E. 953:.1Kings
15:27.
Baasha reigned 24 years from
the beautiful capital city of Tirzah:.1Kings
16:23.
Baasha and Asa
king of Judah fought constantly:.1Kings
15:16.
What goes around, comes around.
As Baasha conspired against king Nadab, son of Jeroboam I, so Zimri
conspired against Baasha's son, Elah
and slew all Baasha's house.
So, this shows that God can
work out circumstances.whereby
one who is evil, as Baasha was, will however,
unknowingly
be carring out God's will.
The chief act of this cruel
king during his reign was he built Ramah,
for stopping anyone going out or coming to see Asa, king of Judah:.1Kings
15:17.
Baasha remembered what happened
during the days of Jeroboam I when many left his realm
to go to Judah after He and his sons had cast them off from executing
the priest's office unto the Lord. Following them out of all the tribes
resident in Israel were also those whose hearts it was to seek the Lord
God:.1Kings
12:27; 2Chronicles 11:13-17.
Israel's king Baasha was
naturally anxious to stop any continuous drain of the best out of his northern
kingdom again and into the southern kingdom of Judah, so he reared Ramah,
which commanded the road leading to Jerusalem into a fortress for the purpose.
Judah's king was equally
anxious to remove this obstacle put to the influx
from Israel of those God fearing men, who would so materially strengthen
his kingdom. They were leaving Israel and heading south to the kingdom
of Judah because Israel was becoming more corrupt day by day:.2Chronicles
11:17 "So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam
the son of Solomon strong, three years. For three years they walked in
the way of David and Solomon."
Baasha's evil time had now
come to a close:.1Kings
16:1-6 "Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu
the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, Forasmuch as I exalted thee out
of the dust and made thee prince over my people Israel and thou hast walked
in the way of Jeroboam
I and hast made my people Israel to sin, to provoke
me to anger with their sins; Behold,
I will take away the posterity
of Baasha and the posterity of his house and will make thy house like the
house of Jeroboam I the son of Nebat. Him that dieth of Baasha in the city
shall the dogs eat and him that dieth of his in the fields shall the fowls
of the air eat. Now the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did and
his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings
of Israel? So Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah.(1Kings
16:23).and
Elah
his son reigned in his stead."
-Barak:.The
son of Abinoam in the tribe of Naphtali.
God summoned him, by means of Deborah
the prophetess, to release Israel from the yoke of Jabin king of Canaan.
Having first secured the attendance of the prophetess, he gathered 10,000
men and stationed them on Mount Tabor, perhaps to avoid the enemies 900
chariots of iron:.Judges
4:3. God fought for Israel in the battle, which ensued and the song
of Deborah and Barak chronicles their victory:.Judges
5:1-31. The name of Barak is enrolled among those illustrious for faith:.Hebrews
11:32.
-Belshazzar:.Fausset's
Dictionary:."the
name contracted
from Belsharezar, which is from 'Bel', the Babylonian idol and 'shar',
a king; 'za'r is a common Babylonian termination, as in Nebuchadnez-zar."
Belshazzar
was, on the surface, a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar-II:.Daniel
5:1-19. However, Belshazzar's actual father was Nabonidus,
also spelt Nabonadius, who was a governor under Nebuchadnezzar-II. After
Nebuchadnezzar-II died in B.C.E.
562, Nabonidus became king, reigning 556-539 and then his son Belshazzar
reigned as coregent.
Nabonidus was king of Babylonia
when Babylon fell to Cyrus, king of Persia.
Nabonidus favored the Mesopotamian
moon God Sin, made his son Belshazzar coregent and spent much of his reign
in Arabia. Returning to Babylon in B.C.E. 539, he was captured by Cyrus'
general Gobryas and exiled.
Because of seeming.contradictions,
ancient historians avoided mention of his name.(and
that's about as much as you can count on a lot of the history you've heard
in your life). Babylonian cuneiform
inscriptions however,
gave the name 'Belsaruzar' as that of the last king of Babylon, the son
of Nabonidus. A later inscription suggested that Belshazzar was associated
with his father on the throne.
With Belshazzar's reign in
B.C.E. 550-539, coregent with his father and him being the last of the
Babylonian kings, the Babylonian
era
ended when Cyrus, king of Persia.diverted
the Euphrates
river into a channel and guided by Gobryas and Gadatas, deserters, marched
by the dry channel into Babylon, while the citizens were frolicking
at an annual feast to their
idols:.Jeremah
chapter 50.
The story of the mysterious
finger writing on the wall out of nowhere and the end of Babylon with the
slaying of Belshazzar is in.Daniel
5th chapter.
Belshazzar was not a good
king:.Jeremiah
25:12.
Daniel's
name was changed to the Chaldean
name of Belteshazzar by king Nebuchadnezzar-II.(Daniel
1:7).when
he and three others, with their names changed to Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego also worked in king Nebuchadnezzar-II's
court..Note
the name being similar to Belshazzar.who
was king after Nebuchadnezzar-II.
Easton's
Dictionary:."Quite
recently, the side of a ravine undermined by heavy rains fell at Hillah,
a suburb of Babylon. A number of huge, coarse Earthenware vases were laid
bare. These were filled with tablets, the receipts and contracts of a firm
of Babylonian bankers, which showed that Belshazzar had a household,
with secretaries and stewards. One was dated in the third year of the king
Marduk-sar-uzur. As Marduk-sar-uzar was another name for Baal, this Marduk-sar-uzur
was found to be the Belshazzar of Scripture."
Fausset's
Dictionary:."Xenophon
calls the last king of Babylon "impious"
and illustrates his cruelty by the fact that he killed a courtier.(an
attendant at a sovereign's
court).for
having struck down the game in hunting before him and unmanned Gadates
a courtier at a banquet, because one of the king’s courtiers praised him
as handsome. His reckless infatuation is marked by his making a feast when
the enemy was thundering at his gates. He set at nought eastern propriety
by introducing women and even concubines
at the feast. His crowning guilt, which made the cup overflow in vengeance,
was his profaning the vessels of God's temple to be the instrument of revelry
to himself, his princes, wives and concubines, drinking out of them in
honor of his idols. Security, sensuality and profanity are the sure forerunners
of the sinner's doom. The same hour that witnessed his impious insult to
God, witnessed the mysterious hand of the unseen One writing his doom in
full view of his fellow transgressors on the same palace wall which had
been covered with cuneiform
inscriptions glorifying those Babylonian kings:.Proverbs
16:18."
Book:.Easton's
Dictionary:."The
word 'book' has a comprehensive
meaning in Scripture.
In the Old
Testament it is the rendering
of the Hebrew word 'sepher',
which properly means a 'writing' and then a 'volume'.(Exodus
17:14; Deuteronomy 28:58;
Job
19:23).or
'roll of a book':.Jeremiah
36:2-4. Books were originally written on skins, on linen or cotton
cloth and on Egyptian papyrus, whence our word 'paper'. The.leaves.of
the book were generally written in columns, designated by a Hebrew word
properly meaning 'doors' and 'valves' or 'columns' as the.Revised
Translation.has
it:.Jeremiah
36:23. Among the Hebrews books were generally rolled up like our maps
or if very long they were rolled from both ends, forming two rolls:.Luke
4:17. Thus they were arranged when the writing was on flexible materials,
but if the writing was on tablets of wood or brass or lead, then the several
tablets were bound together by rings through which a rod was passed."
-Branch/Vine:.Jeremiah
23:5
Disciples.(means
a learner, us, if we are learning).of
Christ are branches of the tree or true vine:.John
15:1-17 "I am the true vine.(the
vine is connected to the source, the Great Consciousness of the universe,
which is everything and intelligent. . . God!).and
my Father is the husbandman.(one
who cares for the vines; a farmer).
Every branch in me that bears
not fruit he takes away.(does
not at all mean that you are gotten rid of).and
every branch that bears fruit, he purges
it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you
are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me
and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine, no more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you
are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same brings
forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If a man abide not
in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them
and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and
my words abide in you, you shall ask what ye will and
it
shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear
much fruit; so shall you be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so
have I loved you; continue you in my love. If you keep my commandments.(not
the
Mosaic Law ones),
you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy
might remain in you and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment,
That you love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life.(one's
life is his time and
possessions).for
his friends. You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth
I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.
But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father
I have made known unto you. You
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that you should
go and bring forth fruit
and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever you shall ask of the
Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you,
that you love one another."
Talking of the coming Christ:.Isaiah
11:1-5 "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and
a Branch shall grow out of his roots.(John
15:1,4,5).and
the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear
of the Lord and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the
Lord. He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after
the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor
and reprove with equity for the meek of the Earth and he shall smite the
Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he
slay the wicked.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the
girdle of his reins."
Easton's
Bible Dictionary: Re: Jesse:
means 'firm' or a 'gift', a son of Obed, the son of Boaz and Ruth:.Ruth
4:17,22;
Matthew 1:5,6; Luke
3:32. He was the father of eight sons, the youngest of whom was David:.1Samuel
17:12.
The phrase."stem
of Jesse".is
used for the family of David.(Isaiah
11:1).and."root
of Jesse".for
the Messiah:.Isaiah
11:10;
Revelation 5:5.
Jesse was a man apparently
of wealth and position at Bethlehem.(map):.1Samuel
17:17,18,20. The last reference to him is of David's procuring for
him an asylum
with the king of Moab:.1Samuel
22:3.
-Bride
of Christ:.The
spotless bride of Christ, the Lamb of God.(1John
1:29).is
us: Revelation 19:7;.1Corinthians
12:27;
Ephesians 4:12; Romans
7:4; 21:9; 21:27;
22:17;
John
3:28-31.