The year of the fall of Samaria was approaching. Hoshea, son of Elah, was ruling over Israel. As most of the kings before him, Hoshea “did evil in the eyes of the Lord”. Therefore, God put curses on Samaria with the invasion of Assyria. All Israelites had to leave their land and move to Assyria. The king of Assyria took the complete power over the land of Israelites and “brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites” (2 Kings 17:24).

God did this because of Israel’s numerous sins. Israelites did not follow the book of Law written by Moses, but instead acted in opposite way. They worshipped other kings, had a lot of high places, where they burned incense, and even sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. God removed all Israel from his presence, but left only one tribe Judah, as he still was holding to the Covenant he made with David.More…This happened to be a warning to the tribe of Judah. Nevertheless, it was not enough for people to stop act against God. Although, Hezekiah, king of Judah, ruled “right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done” (2 Kings 18:3), removed all high places and even broke Moses’ Bronze Snake, to which people burned incense, Hezekiah’s follower Manasseh made the most evil thing by rebuilding high places erecting altar to Baal and making an Asherah pole, and even sacrificing his own son in the fire. Continue Reading »

The role of the pastor of a local church is unique in some ways from other believers’ and yet has many things also in common with them. It is helpful here to draw a distinction between the church member and the Senior Pastor of the local church; that is, the one who is called to be the overseer of the body of believers.

In Ephesians 4:11ff a distinction of giftedness is made by Paul between those who have leadership gifts and those who are gifted in other ways. According to this passage of Scripture, the purpose of the gifts to be pastors, evangelists, apostles, etc are for the equipping of the saints for service; to build up the Body of Christ. I have heard it said by a mentor of mine that the pastor’s job is to work himself out of a job. By this he meant that the role of the pastor is such that he is working to attune himself to the word of God and understand it so thoroughly that he may communicate it to the congregation in order that they may in turn be moved to service. Continue Reading »