Salt & Light Blog

2 Kings 25 Judah's Fall, and the Story of Two Kings

2/19/2016

2 Kings 25
In the final chapter of the Kings we read about the demise of Judah as God poured out His wrath on the Nation and two different endings for two different kings. Verses 1-7 read,
“And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siege works all around it. 2 So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 4 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king's garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. 6 Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. 7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.”
Jerusalem was taken and though Zedekiah tried to escape, he was chased down and caught. They made him watch as they slaughtered his sons then gouged out his eyes and took him to Babylon. What a horrific punishment. He didn’t get to die. He was forced to suffer, first by seeing his sons brutally killed simply for being his sons, then plunged into darkness and forced to walk to Babylon. That trip going the other way took Ezra four months to make with the hand of God on him (Ezra 7:9). I would imagine hundreds of prisoners wounded, starving, and in chains would take even longer. I would also guess that Zedekiah longed for death rather than have to continue his gruesome sentence. Babylon was not finished with Jerusalem. Verses 8-21 read,
“In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. 10 And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. 11 And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. 12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
13 And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon. 14 And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service, 15 the fire pans also and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. 16 As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits,[a] and on it was a capital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits. A latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with the latticework.
18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold; 19 and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and five men of the king's council who were found in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city. 20 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 21 And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.”
Jerusalem, the Temple, the walls, and even the homes were destroyed. The treasures and the vessels of worship were taken. The people tried to marshal a rebellion, they tried to fight but they couldn’t. Judah was taken and as far as Nebuchadnezzar was concerned, there was no more Judah. But The Lord saved a remnant. The people who Nebuchadnezzar and his captain Nebuzaradan disregarded because they were so poor were left behind to care for the land. Verses 22-26 read,
“And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor. 23 Now when all the captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite. 24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” 25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26 Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.”
Gedaliah didn’t represent the Jewish people, he was Babylon’s puppet. When men came to him to try and reach an understanding and show they were united on The Lord’s side. But Gedaliah let them down and told them to serve Babylon. So they returned and murdered him, the other traitors and whatever Chaldeans were with them. They were then afraid and fled to Egypt.
Years passed, Nebuchadnezzar died and his son Evil-merodach became king. Daniel, as one of the king’s top men probably had a good influence on him. Verses 27-30 read,
“And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 28 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king's table, 30 and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived.”
Jehoiachin and Zedekiah met very different ends. Zedekiah was the last Judean king, appointed by Babylon, served Nebuchadnezzar and handed Jerusalem over to the Babylonian king. He was given a horrific sentence and forced to live in never-ending darkness and pain.
Jehoiachin did nothing to get the mercy he received. It was up to the king to choose who he would show kindness to. Jehoiachin was shown honor among the all the kings who served Babylon. He no longer wore the clothes of a prisoner but received new garments. He ate at the king’s table and received provision for his entire life.
Jehoiachin was the last Judean king before Babylon took over and appointed kings. He was anointed by The Lord not because he deserved it but because David had been promised and Jehoiachin chosen. He was shown mercy and treated as the noble he was. His treatment presages our eternal life. We were given new clothes; we are no longer prisoners now kings. We will feast at the king’s table. Revelation 19:6-9 reads,
“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”--
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

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2 Kings 25 the Decline of Judah and the rise of Babylon and New Names

2/18/2016

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I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 56:5

2 Kings 24
Yesterday we read about the kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim who each played a big part in handing Jerusalem over to Egypt. But during that time, Nebuchadnezzar was coming up in the world. He made Babylon stronger than Egypt and stronger than Assyria and in doing so, he became king of Babylon. Verses 1-7 describe what happened,
“In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 And the Lord sent against him bands of theChaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. 3 Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4 and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon.5 Now the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 6 So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. 7 And the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.”
Jehoiakim submitted his kingship to Nebuchadnezzar for three years but then he rebelled against him. But the LORD did not swoop in and help him defend Judah, the Lord sent people to fight against Judah. The prophecy He had given Josiah was coming to pass because of the evil of Manasseh, the desecration of The Temple, and the bloody idolatry that defiled Jerusalem. Jehoiakim handed himself and Judah over to Babylon. His death was not a pleasant one. Nebuchadnezzar dragged him in chains from Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:6). He likely killed him on the way and left his body like a discarded animal on the side of the road (Jeremiah 22:19). Jehoiachin his son was left to reign in a country paying tribute and serving an evil empire. They no longer had to worry about Egypt, Babylon had risen to power. Verses 8-16 read,
“Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. 9 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.
10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. 11 And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it, 12 and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign 13 and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the Lord had foretold. 14 He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land.
15And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king's mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 16 And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war.”
Jehoiachin not only didn’t fight for Judah, he gave himself, his household and his government to Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar took them and more, the only people left were the people the king thought didn’t matter. He left them without the Temple treasures, without the palace treasures, and without the people who might make a difference. He didn’t leave them without a king. Nebuchadnezzar appointed a new king to be his puppet. Verse 17 says,
“And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place,and changed his name to Zedekiah.”
Changing names was something Nebuchadnezzar liked to do to tell his captives, they were no longer who they had once been, who they were born and that now they belonged to him. He did it with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He changed their names to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 1:6-7). They stayed faithful to their true identities. That faith played a great part in Israel’s eventual deliverance from Babylon. But Mattaniah willingly became Zedekiah, Judah’s last sitting king.
Mattaniah means gift of Yahweh. His birth name represented the grace God had given Judah for His glory and for David’s sake. God had persistently saved Judah from destruction; He had untiringly kept them from the wrath their sin would had to suffer. But the time came when He had to deliver that wrath. Mattaniah became Zedekiah. Zedekiah means righteousness of Yahweh, justice. The Lord had to let Judah experience His wrath. How could He claim to love if He did not require justice for the blood Judah had spilled? I think it is no coincidence that Zedekiah begins with Zed the last letter of the alphabet. He represented the omega of Judah.
The Righteousness of The LORD is Jesus Christ. He will return with the cup of God’s wrath and all those people who gave themselves over to Babylon and serve the prince of the world through his beasts will experience God’s Justice (Revelation 19:11-21). Verses 18-20 continue to tell us about Zedekiah.
“Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 20 For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence.
And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.”
Zedekiah did evil not only because he had learned it from his uncle and his king. He did evil because Judah was no longer in the presence of The Lord. He was not guiding them. He had withdrawn his presence from them.
Tomorrow we will read about what happened when Zedekiah rebelled. Today, Believer, be encouraged that The LORD is Righteousness. He gave you a new identity, not one to make you forget who you are, but one to make you who you are meant to be. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 says,
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

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2 Kings 23:31-37 Pharaoh Called Himself Sovereign but Yahweh is Sovereign LORD

2/17/2016

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In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.” Isaiah 54:14-17

2 Kings 23:31-37
When Josiah died, his son Jehoahaz became king in his place. Verses 31-32 read,
“Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.”
Why did he reign only three months? As soon as Pharaoh Neco knew Josiah was no longer king, he swept in to take Jerusalem for himself. Verses 33-34 tell us,
“And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.”
Jehoahaz was taken into captivity immediately. He died very quickly once in Egypt. But the pharaoh was not done with Jerusalem. He made Eliakim, Jehoahaz’s older brother the king in his stead and ordered Jerusalem to pay him a hefty tribute. Not only that but he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. Why would he do that?
He did it to show his power and authority over the kings and so over the people. He did it to say he was a god to be worshipped and that he was better and greater than The LORD. Eliakim means God raises up. It speaks of God’s sovereignty and honors The Lord as the one who causes us to stand and be who He ordains us to be. Neco changed his name to show his godhood over the king, to show it was him that raised him to be king. He changed his name to Jehoiakim, which means raised by Yahweh. He was exalting himself to The LORD’s place. He was saying he was Yahweh, the God of Israel.
But saying God is not The LORD doesn’t change the fact. Saying The Lord is not Sovereign doesn’t make it so. Saying he was a god, didn’t make him God. It is God who held Neco back until Josiah died per His promise to the king (2 Kings 22:19-20). The LORD is Yahweh. Daniel 2:20-22 puts it this way,
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
    to whom belong wisdom and might.
21 He changes times and seasons;
    he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
    and knowledge to those who have understanding;
22 he reveals deep and hidden things;
    he knows what is in the darkness,
    and the light dwells with him.”
Neco thought he was a god and he claimed to be God, but he was doing The Lord’s will in carrying out the prophecy of His wrath toward Judah recorded in 2 Kings 22:16-20. Jehoiakim may have thought he was raised up by Neco, but it was The Lord who set him up as king. He paid tribute to the pharaoh when he should have given praise and honor to The Lord. Verses 35-37 read,
“And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.”
Not only did Jehoiakim pay tribute to Neco and allow him to be his lord and god, but he put the burden for paying the tax on the people. Jehoiakim made the people give offerings to his false god.
Men may conspire against God and His people. They brashly claim there is no God and brazenly worship themselves as gods but in doing so, they only prove that there is One God and He is The LORD. Acts 4:23-31 puts it like this,
“When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servants said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
    and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers were gathered together,
    against the Lord and against his Anointed’--
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
The People of Israel, other nations, Herod, and Pilate all planned to bring Jesus down but in doing so fulfilled God’s plan and let Jesus lay His life down for us. There scheme made the crucifixion and Resurrection possible. Their plan was God’s plan. Because God is Sovereign, we can be bold. We can have the courage to do His work because we know that nothing can stand against God’s purposes. The Lord comforts us with this truth in Isaiah 54:16-17.
“Behold, I have created the smith
    who blows the fire of coals
    and produces a weapon for its purpose.
I have also created the ravager to destroy;
17     no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
    and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
    and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”
We can face anything in Jesus because we know He is The LORD. He is Yahweh. We can persevere through any trial, tribulation, and disaster because though God does not send the trouble (Isaiah 54:15), He will use for His great purpose and our good. Romans 8:28-30 reads,
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Believer, be encouraged The LORD, your God is Sovereign. He is Almighty, All-Sufficient, and All-Powerful. He was and is and is to come.

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2 Kings 22-23:30 Repentance is More than Saying Sorry

2/16/2016

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Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Matthew 3:8

2 Kings 22-23:30
After King Manasseh died, his son Amon was king for two years and did what was evil in The Lord’s sight. He was murdered by his servants. The people of Judah struck down the servants and made Josiah his son their king in his place (2 Kings 21:19-26). Josiah’s reign was unlike any king before or since. He began obediently following what he knew of The Lord. Chapter 22 verses 1-2 read,
“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.”
Josiah loved The Lord and because of that he set out to repair the Temple. Verses 3-7 describe it,
“In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. 5 And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house 6 (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. 7 But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.”
This was not a new ordinance, but it was one that had been forgotten or ignored. Jehoash had made the decree during his reign that all the money brought to the temple as offerings for sin and thanksgiving would be set aside for Temple repairs and maintenance (2 Kings 12:4-16). Josiah’s zeal for the Lord naturally extended to a zeal for how the Lord expressed His presence to The People and how the people worshipped Him, His Temple.
Josiah wanted to do what was right in the eyes of God. When he discovered that the money brought to the Temple was for its upkeep, he immediately changed the way things were done and did them the right way. Jesus had the same zeal for His Father’s house and cleaned it out when He saw the sin going on in it (John 2:13-17). Zeal for the Temple ensures it is properly maintained and extends to keeping it pure, practicing the commands of The Lord in Spirit and in truth, and keeping it holy. The Temple building does not stand today. It was destroyed in 70 A.D. Today, believers are the Temple of God; He indwells us and His presence is always with us. Love for the Lord and zeal for His Temple becomes about keeping ourselves healthy, pure, worshipping in Spirit and in truth, and being holy as God is holy. 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 reminds us,
“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
    then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you,
    and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”
Josiah’s desire to please God yielded results he did not expect. While accounting the monies for the Temple repairs Hilkiah the high priest found something. Verses 8-10 read,
“And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.”
The book of the Law, had not been opened for generations. Up to now, the priests and the king had been basing the worship, offerings, and sacrifices on the oral teachings passed down from priest to priest. But when Josiah heard the way The Lord had commanded, it was obvious to him that Judah was not obeying The Lord.
Cleaning out the Temple brings things up from the past. It gives us a chance to get rid of the garbage and it gives us a chance to return to the way God intended us to be. Cleaning out and repairing the Temple brings us back into alignment with the will of God. It did the same for Josiah and Judah. Verses 11-13 record Josiah’s response.
“When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, 13 “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
The Law showed Josiah who walked in the way of David and did not veer from following The Lord. That he fell short of God’s glory and covenant. That is what the law is intended to do, show us our sin and reveal to us our need of The Lord. Romans 3:19-26 reads,
“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
When Josiah realized his sin and that of Judah he immediately inquired of The Lord. He understood that Judah would have to pay for their sin and he wanted to know what The Lord would have them do. He was telling God how remorseful he was. Verses 14-20 read,
“So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. 15 And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, 16 Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. 17 Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. 18 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, 19 because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. 20 Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.”
God honored Josiah’s repentance by keeping him from the wrath that would come on Judah. He would be gathered to peaceful eternity before the wrath of The Lord was carried out. Peace with God and is the reward for repentance. Repentance is not solely an attitude of the heart. It is borne in action. Repentance does not mean to escape wrath it means to act in congruence with The Lord’s will. John the Baptist said it this way in Matthew 3:7-10,
“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
And Josiah definitely bore fruit in accordance with repentance. His heart wholly belonged to God and that ardor showed itself in action. First he shared this newfound knowledge with the people and together they committed themselves to God. Chapter 23 verses 1-3 read,
“Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. 2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. 3 And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.”
Then he purged the Temple, Jerusalem, Judah and Israel of idolatry. He passionately destroyed every idolatrous thing there was because he loved God with all his heart, soul, and strength. Loving God like that means we love Him with our emotions, our spirit, and our muscles. It is comprehensive, active, and tangible. Verses 4-20 describe what Josiah did.
“And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens. 6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron,and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. 7 And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one's left at the gate of the city. 9 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech. 11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13 And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 14 And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.
15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. 16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. 17 Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” 18 And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. 19 And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. 20 And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.”
Josiah didn’t do all this in order to fulfill prophecy, he wasn’t even aware of the prophecy. It was his love of God that moved him to act. It was his passion for God that inspired the people of Judah to follow his commitment. Josiah not only restored, the Temple and all of Israel, he restored the practices that The Lord had put into place. Verses 21-23 reads,
“And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” 22 For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.”
Josiah was twenty five years old when he restored the celebration of Passover to Jerusalem. He did great things for the Lord and in turn for God’s people at a young age. Passover is a celebration of God’s salvation. Passover, like the Law is messianic. Passover is blatantly about Jesus. Josiah’s actions brought the testimony of Jesus, the Salvation of the world back to Judah and glorified The Lord. He didn’t know he was acting prophetically. He didn’t know about Jesus, his descendent who would be born in fourteen generations after him (Matthew 1:11-16). He still acted in faith and testified about salvation to all the nations by his acts.
Josiah made Israel holy again; he would not allow anything or anyone unholy to sully the God’s people or land. Verses 24-25 read,
“Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 25 Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.”
God’s wrath still had to happen. But God kept his promise to Josiah and gathered him home to peace without tasting God’s wrath. Verses 26-30 read,
“Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 29 In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him. 30 And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place.”
Josiah was only 38 years old at his death, but no king had been as zealous for the Lord as he was before him and none would ever come after him with such passion.
Salvation begins with recognizing sin. No matter how good we are, we are sinful. Josiah was good; he kept the law as well as he knew how. Yet, when confronted with the Law that God had given to Moses, he realized how sinful he was. Salvation continues with repentance. Remorse for his sins moved Josiah to go to The Lord and then to act on his remorse by cleansing all sin and idolatry from the land. Josiah didn’t repent in order not to experience God’s wrath. He repented because he loved God and wanted to do what was right in his eyes.
Repentance as ‘fire insurance’ is not repentance. Real repentance comes from love of God and sorrow for sin and results in actions and becoming like Jesus.

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2 Kings 21 Manasseh’s Evil Leads to Dire Consequences

2/15/2016

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2 Kings 21
When Hezekiah died, his son Manasseh became king in his place. As good as Hezekiah was, his son was evil. All the good Hezekiah did for Judah, Manasseh undid and did worse. Verses 1-3 read,
“Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.”
How did he become so evil, how could he disregard the Lord and The Law so completely? It does not say, but there are some clues. Hezekiah may have been a faithful king but at some point pride had filled him. When he was told what would happen to his sons because of his arrogance, he did not care (2 Kings 16-19). Hezekiah cared more about himself than his own children. Manasseh was not even born yet when Hezekiah found out that some of his sons would be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace. He was already prideful and perhaps he didn’t give his sons enough attention to ensure they knew the way of The Lord. Another clue is Manasseh’s young age when he became king. He was twelve, just shy of manhood and it doesn’t say that he had an agent or guardian to help him with his kingship until he reached adulthood. When one gives a child an adult’s responsibilities especially is he has not been taught, he cannot expect him to do the job as an adult.
Manasseh did even worse things than rebuilding the high places and building new altars for Baal and Asherah. He worshipped angels. Baal and Asherah are imaginary gods but angels are real and they are not meant to be worshipped, they are ministers to The Lord. But Manasseh worshipped them and he had Judah worship them. And he went even further in leading Judah into unimaginable evil. Verses 4-8 reads,
“And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 7 And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. 8 And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.”
He did what no king before him had done and desecrated the Temple with altars to false gods. That act is so vile that it is one of the evil acts the antichrist will commit before Jesus returns (Daniel 9:27). Manasseh’s acts led to God’s anger against Judah, their idolatry (and that of Israel) led to their eventual captivity in Babylon (2 Kings 24:3). The Babylonian captivity reflects the tribulation in many ways as well as indicating our sin state to us. They turned to false gods and away from The Lord and so they had to face the consequence of being without the way to worship The Lord. Hosea 3:4 reads,
“For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods”
God gave them the Law, He made a covenant with the wonderful promise that they would not have to be without a home or without Him. He sent them prophets to warn them. He sent them disciplines to teach them. Did they listen? Do we? Verse 9 reads,
“But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.”
So The Lord could not let things stay as they were. He warned them again and He condemned Manasseh’s evil. Verses 10-15 read,
“And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, 12 therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”
The punishment that came on Samaria (the capitol of Israel during that time) and the desolation that fell on Ahab’s descendants would also happen to Judah. They would be wiped out, all the sin completely eradicated so that they could be made new again. They would be handed over to the enemy so that eventually they could be saved. That punishment is not because The Lord does not love His people, but because He loves them so much. He wants them to be saved. He wants them to experience life without Him and so realize their need for Him. He wants to limit their destruction and the effects they will have on others.
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth regarding a man who was committing vile acts of sexual immorality and told them to do the same to him. 1 Corinthians 5:4-5 reads,
“When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
It is not easy to let the ones we love face the consequences of their actions. It is not easy to see them suffer, but real love wants them to be saved. God had to punish Judah in order to save her. The people would eventually return to The Lord and to Jerusalem, Judah and Israel. Hosea 3:5 says,
“Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.”
Did Manasseh listen to the Lord? Verses 16-18 reads,
“Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son reigned in his place.”
He kept right on sinning in the vilest ways. He sacrificed people, he killed the people of Judah and he led the people to sin with him. But God loved Manasseh! So He allowed him to be taken in captivity. 2 Chronicles 33:10-13 tells us what happened.
“The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.11 Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. 12 And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.”
And he really did know that The Lord was God, he showed the fruit of repentance. 2 Chronicles 33:14-17 reads,
“Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. 15 And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. 16 He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. 17 Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.”
He was handed over to the enemy and repented. He took down all the altars, he restored The Temple and led Judah to repent. Manasseh’s captivity and repentance was a forecasting, a prophesying of Judah’s eventual captivity, the lessons they would learn and the repentance required to end it. If we will just listen to The Lord, obey Him, and pay attention to His warnings and discipline, we could save ourselves a great deal of suffering.

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2 Kings 20:12-21 Pride Usurps Faith

2/14/2016

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How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? John 5:44

2 Kings 20:12-21
Hezekiah was a faithful king. Because of his faith, the Lord had given him fifteen extra years of life. And for His glory, the Lord had delivered Jerusalem from the hands of Assyria during Hezekiah’s reign. Isaiah gave Hezekiah God’s word, “and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.” (2 Kings 20:6). Like many of us who have had spiritual triumphs, Hezekiah took credit for his faith and blessings himself. He didn’t turn from the Lord, he didn’t declare it to the world, he probably didn’t even say it to himself, but he did take pride in his good works. Pride doesn’t come in and announce itself; it is sly. Pride sneaks in and often we do not know it has taken a place in our hearts until it has placed us on the throne for a while.
Hezekiah had recovered but news of his illness had spread to a far off country, Babylon. Babylon was not a threat, they had barely heard of the country before. The king wanted his representatives to pay Hezekiah and Jerusalem, this city that had somehow not been conquered by Assyria when every nation around them had. They wanted to visit the king and ally themselves with him. Babylon worshipped the sun and the sun had taken 10 steps back for Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:11-12). They wanted Jerusalem on their side when they decided to usurp Assyria. Verses 12-13 read,
“At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. 13 And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.”
Hezekiah proudly showed off all that Jerusalem had, all their wealth, treasures, and weapons. He was pleased with himself for how he had rebuilt Jerusalem’s stocks and resources after Assyria had depleted them. But had pride not usurped the throne in Hezekiah’s heart, he would not have made his stores worthless by letting this nation see them. He didn’t know Babylon would be the worst enemy Israel and Judah had ever faced. But he should have known that Babylon was a servant to Assyria (2 Kings 17:24). He certainly should have known he did not need to make an alliance with idolaters (2 Corinthians 6:14). He should have known he did not need to impress Babylon or anyone else, He needed to only please The Lord. Jesus spoke about the danger of seeking praise from men instead of The Lord. John 5:44 reads,
“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”
But self-satisfaction clouded the king’s judgement. The Lord sent Isaiah to Hezekiah immediately. Verses 14-18 read,
“Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” 15 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 18 And some of your own sons, who shall be born to you, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
Imagine hearing that everything you have worked for will be gone in the next generation. Consider how you would feel to hear your own children would be mutilated and forced to serve a foreign king. Hezekiah had been reproofed by The Lord through Isaiah and he gave him the answer he thought Isaiah and the Lord wanted to hear. Verse 19 reads,
“Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”
Out loud he thanked Isaiah for the chastisement; he said what looked right. But in his heart, he didn’t care about his son’s reign or his other sons’ enslavement. He was just happy his reign would be okay. What happened to the man who had been told he would die but asked the Lord to let him live? What happened to the man who knew The Lord could and would do the impossible for him? What happened to Hezekiah’s deep faith? Pride had snuck in and knocked his faith out. Hezekiah had taken the lordship of his life away from The Lord.
Jerusalem no longer worshipped idols because of Hezekiah’s good works but now Hezekiah worshipped himself instead of God. He may not have realized this was the case. We usually don’t know it when we have taken the throne away from God. But God knows. He knows our hearts better than we do. (Jeremiah 17:10). That is why it is so important to ask Him to search our hearts for us and lead us back into alignment with His image. Psalm 139:23-24 reads,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!”
It is too easy to let pride sneak in and take over. It is not so easy to kick pride out so we can get off the throne and put The Lord to take reign of our lives again.

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2 Kings 20:1-11 Nothing is too big for God; Ask Him Anything!

2/13/2016

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For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

2 Kings 20:1-11
Are you afraid to ask too much of God? Some people are. We think of the possibilities in terms of our capabilities, our bank accounts, and the physical. We can tend to think of The Lord in terms of how we understand people, our earthly fathers, our pastors, authority figures, and peers. But those people are humans and they have limits. God does not have limits and understanding that as well as His deep love for us is key to being able to respond to circumstances in faith. Maybe we need to change our perspective from the visible world to the spiritual one (2 Corinthians 4:18). Hezekiah knew that nothing is impossible for God. Verse 1 reads,
“In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’”
Imagine hearing from All-knowing God that you will die. What would your reaction be? Would you do as He said and get your affairs in order? Hezekiah didn’t do that. Verses 2-3 record his response.
“Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 “Now, O Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.”
He did not want to die. He didn’t accept that he had to die, even though it was The Lord who told him he would. He prayed. He talked to the Lord and told Him he didn’t want to die. He appealed to The Lord and asked Him to remember his faith. He did not assume God would let him live. He came before his Lord in humility and simply told Him that he didn’t want to die.
How did God respond? Did he send lightning down on the king and kill him? Did He roar and send an earthquake to destroy his house? No, He responded with mercy and love. Verses 4-7 read,
“And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, 6 and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.” 7 And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”
God responded immediately. Isaiah had not even left the palace yet before The Lord sent him back to answer Hezekiah. Not only would He give the king fifteen more years, He would deliver Jerusalem from Assyria. He wouldn’t do it to glorify Hezekiah, He would do it for His own glory. He would do it because He had promised David.
Hezekiah was ready to obey and he asked Isaiah for s sign. He tested the prophecy. He did not automatically assume that every word Isaiah said was The Lord’s. Verses 8-11 say,
“And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?” 9 And Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” 10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” 11 And Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.”
Once again Hezekiah wasn’t afraid to ask for more. Moving the sun at all is huge! But Hezekiah asked for the harder sign, one that couldn’t be attributed to miscounted time or weather, to make the sun go in reverse! He knew that God can do anything, nothing is too hard for Him, nothing. And God did it.
Are you afraid to ask too much of God? God’s resources are limitless. His mercy is never-ending. His love is infinite. Romans 11:32-36 reads,
“For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
He is not disappointed in you, He loves to show you mercy. He loves to give you good gifts and nothing is too big (James 1:17-18). He created the universe. He made you. Psalm 136:4-9 says,
“to him who alone does great wonders,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
5 to him who by understanding made the heavens,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
7 to him who made the great lights,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;”
Believer, nothing is too big to ask for. If your motivation is to glorify The Lord, He will give it to you. If it is good for you, He will give it to you. In John 14:11-14 Jesus said,
“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
Did He say ‘you will do some of the things I did and if you ask me for something manageable I might do it?’ No! You will do the works He does and more! You can ask anything and He will do it! Go ahead, believe God is The LORD your maker. Go ahead and believe He is who He says He is. Nothing is impossible for Him. Trust Him and let Him show you and the world how much He loves you and them.

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2 Kings 19 Hezekiah’s Faith and Assyria Part Two

2/12/2016

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2 Kings 19
Today, we continue the story we began yesterday from 2 Kings 18, this exciting tale is also recounted in Isaiah 36-37. Remember that Judah’s king Hezekiah was a very faithful king who had a moment of doubt and agreed to pay tribute to Assyria to try and save Judah from the annihilation that Assyria had brought to Israel and countless other nations surrounding them after Assyria had invaded Judah. The Assyrian king sent his representatives led by Rabshakeh to get Hezekiah to surrender Jerusalem. But Hezekiah would not listen to the boldfaced lies of Rabshakeh who scorned and belittled The Lord saying The Lord could not and would not save Jerusalem from desolation.
Assyria had besieged and conquered nation after nation surrounding them, they had captured several Judahites cities. The situation was dire and faith was not easy. God does not expect us to stoically sit through our suffering. Even Jesus cried out to His Father and begged Him to let Him skip the torture of the cross (Matthew 26:36-42). But like Jesus, He wants us to learn obedience and faith through that suffering. Hebrews 5:7-10 reads,
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priestafter the order of Melchizedek.”
When Hezekiah heard the report of what had happened he was more than a little distressed. Where would he turn? Verses 1-4 read,
“As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”
Look at the phrase Hezekiah used, “children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.” That describes so well how I have felt sometimes under the oppression of the enemy. I have thought to myself, “I just don’t have the strength to keep going. I can’t do this.” But the wonderful news is, it is not my strength that saves me. It is not our effort that rescues us. It is The Almighty LORD. He lets us be strong in Him. He is with us even to the end of our rope and when we let go of the rope, when we give up trying to save ourselves, He takes us in His hands and He delivers us. Isaiah 40:28-31 reads,
“Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.”
Believer, it is a lie that ‘God will not give you more than you can handle.’ God does not give you the bad things in your life, He does allow some bad things to happen for various reasons. They will almost certainly be ‘more than you can handle.’ If you could handle your sin, trials, and suffering yourself, why would you turn to Him? He saves the wicked, not the righteous (Mark 2:17,Matthew 9:13) He binds up the brokenhearted not the satisfied. Read through the Psalms. David was very often so anguished and distraught that felt his heart was melting in his chest. He turned to The Lord and The Lord bought him through. Psalm 13 is an example.
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
    lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
    because he has dealt bountifully with me.”
It was Hezekiah’s attempt to use his own resources to save Jerusalem that put Jerusalem in danger (2 Kings 18:13-18).
Isaiah, God’s prophet to Judah during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1) gave the men God’s answer. Verses 5-7 read,
“When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”
God is not unaware of the evil in men’s hearts. He knew Rabshakeh’s heart and He heard the vile things that came out of his mouth. The Lord would not let him defame Him nor threaten His children. He would teach Rabshakeh just who He is. Verses 8-13 continue the story.
“The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that the king had left Lachish. 9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan,Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”
Rabshakeh kept the smack talk coming, he was shameless and audacious as he taunted The LORD and Jerusalem. Hezekiah had faith in God but that didn’t mean he was not distraught over the situation. When he received Rabshakeh’s abhorrent message he went straight to The Lord. It is our response to fear, dreadful circumstances and the enemy that define our faith or doubt. We can turn to ourselves, money, government, or our other idols or we can turn to The Lord and know He will fight for us, He will never forsake us. Verses 14-19 describe Hezekiah’s response.
“Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19 So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”
I think there is an abundance to learn from Hezekiah’s prayer. One of the most important is that Hezekiah spent time studying scripture, this king followed the teaching of a priest or a prophet or read the word himself. He knew that the Lord is enthroned above the cherubim. That means he had read the prophets or listened to the readings of the prophets and taken it to heart. He also addressed God with a description of His greatness, power, and concern. While he spoke his heart to God, God fortified him. And he asked the Lord to save Israel, prove Rabshakeh wrong, and show Himself as LORD to Assyria.
This was before the Lord had sent His Spirit to the believers. He was only on Prophets and a very few others at this time. So He spoke to Hezekiah through Isaiah. Verses 20-24 read,
“Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
“She despises you, she scorns you--
    the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you--
    the daughter of Jerusalem.
22 “Whom have you mocked and reviled?
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
    Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
    and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
    to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
    its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
    its most fruitful forest.
24 I dug wells
    and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
    all the streams of Egypt.’
Although the Lord is speaking to Hezekiah, His prophecy is for Sennacherib the king of Assyria. First He told Sennacherib what his crimes were. Sennacherib had gone against The Lord, he had mocked Him, and he had acted as if he were a god taking everything and anything he wanted. He took credit for the Lord’s work. But God had more to tell him. Verses 25-29 read,
“Have you not heard
    that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
    what now I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
    into heaps of ruins,
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
    are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
    and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
    blighted before it is grown.
27 “But I know your sitting down
    and your going out and coming in,
    and your raging against me.
28 Because you have raged against me
    and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
    by which you came.”
It was the Lord who allowed Sennacherib to be king, to conquer, and do all he had done. And the Lord would also be the one who made him return home and meet the violent death he had forced on so many others. God knows what evil men do, just like He knows what good men do. He knows every heart, He is the One who created each one. You don’t have to worry that God doesn’t know how people have hurt you. He does. The wages of sin is death (Ezekiel 18:20, Romans 6:23). They will pay with their lives or Jesus will pay with His, either way it is not your concern. Vengeance is the Lord’s and He loves you. He is Jealous over you! People will not get away with hurting you, His beloved child. Nahum 1:2-3 reads,
“The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
    the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
    and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
    and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
    and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”
Then The Lord had a promise for Hezekiah and the remnant of Jerusalem. Verses 29-34 read,
“And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord will do this.
32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
The Lord gave Jerusalem a command and a promise for two years they would not have to plant food, just eat what grew. On the third year they would again be able to sow, reap, and plant and they would know that once again Jerusalem would be firmly theirs. God would do the defending and the saving. God kept His word as He always does. Verses 35-37 read,
“And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. 37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.”
Believer, I know that you suffer and sometimes it seems like you cannot last one more day. Sometimes it feels like you cannot muster the strength to reach the end of the tunnel. But you do not have to. Let the Lord be your strength and your shield. Faith is not the absence of doubt, it is the courageous act of responding to it by turning to The Lord instead of giving in to fear. Remember trust in the Lord and He will give you joy, even in your suffering.

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2 Kings 18 King Hezekiah’s Faith Verses Assyria Part One

2/11/2016

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2 Kings 18
After David, Hezekiah was perhaps the greatest king that Judah ever had. He was a good king and a steadfast follower of The Lord. He did what none of his predecessors had done, he removed the idols and the high places. He made Jerusalem as it should have been. He eliminated anything that could make the people depend on anything other than The One True Living God. (This story is also related in Isaiah chapters 36 and 37) Verses 1-8 read,
“In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). 5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.”
He did not tolerate idolatry. He did not tolerate other kings oppressing or threatening Judah. Even something that had been apparently good and for The Lord, the bronze serpent had become an object of idolatry. People worshipped it for saving Israel in the wilderness. It was not the Nehushtan that had saved Israel, but The LORD.
During his reign, Israel’s king Hoshea was handing Israel to Assyria. Israel was besieged, captured, and scattered. Judah was all that was left. Verses 9-12 describe it.
“In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, 10 and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.”
Hoshea and Israel refused to obey The Lord, they depended on a myriad of handmade gods and rituals, they sacrificed their own children and cowered before the Assyrian king. But Hezekiah depended only on The Lord. He refused to bow before Assyria. Hezekiah steadfastly followed the Lord. The siege of Israel meant that food was scarce. There was war and oppression surrounding Judah but Hezekiah still depended on The Lord. Verses 13-16 in The Message read,
“In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the outlying fortress cities of Judah and captured them. King Hezekiah sent a message to the king of Assyria at his headquarters in Lachish: “I’ve done wrong; I admit it. Pull back your army; I’ll pay whatever tribute you set.”
The king of Assyria demanded tribute from Hezekiah king of Judah—eleven tons of silver and a ton of gold. Hezekiah turned over all the silver he could find in The Temple of God and in the palace treasuries. Hezekiah even took down the doors of The Temple of God and the doorposts that he had overlaid with gold and gave them to the king of Assyria.”
Hezekiah, steadfast and faithful as he was had a moment of doubt, Assyria had attacked Judah, he gave in and paid tribute to Assyria. He turned to the money of the Temple instead of the riches of The Lord. In doing so, he weakened and impoverished Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s reliance on himself and the gold of the Temple did not appease Assyria, it made the king bolder and more brazen. Verses 17-25 in The Message continue the narrative.
“So the king of Assyria sent his top three military chiefs (the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh) from Lachish with a strong military force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool on the road to the laundry commons.
18 They called loudly for the king. Eliakim son of Hilkiah who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the royal secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the court historian went out to meet them.
19-22 The third officer, the Rabshakeh, was spokesman. He said, “Tell Hezekiah: A message from The Great King, the king of Assyria: You’re living in a world of make-believe, of pious fantasy. Do you think that mere words are any substitute for military strategy and troops? Now that you’ve revolted against me, who can you expect to help you? You thought Egypt would, but Egypt’s nothing but a paper tiger—one puff of wind and she collapses; Pharaoh king of Egypt is nothing but bluff and bluster. Or are you going to tell me, ‘We rely on God’? But Hezekiah has just eliminated most of the people’s access to God by getting rid of all the local God-shrines, ordering everyone in Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at the Jerusalem altar only.’
23-24 “So be reasonable. Make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you think you can provide riders for them. You can’t do it? Well, then, how do you think you’re going to turn back even one raw buck private from my master’s troops? How long are you going to hold on to that figment of your imagination, these hoped-for Egyptian chariots and horses?
25 “Do you think I’ve come up here to destroy this country without the express approval of God? The fact is that God expressly ordered me, ‘Attack and destroy this country!’”

Rabshakeh audaciously lied to the king’s representative, Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah. He ridiculed them and scorned The Lord. He must have thought them stupid to believe that a god could save them. No gods had saved any of the other places Assyria had conquered, including Israel, who purported to worship the same god that Judah professed. But Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah would not let Rabshakeh shake their faith and they did not want the people surrounding them to be frightened or fall for the lies he was telling them. Verses 26-35 read,
“Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 27 But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”
28 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” 33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
Rabshakeh stopped pretending that he was only addressing the king’s men, he addressed the people directly in their own language. He delivered a political speech meant to turn their devotion from Hezekiah and The Lord to the king of Assyria. He wanted to scare them. He reminded them of their poverty and painted a picture of a bleak future. If they refused to follow Assyria, they would become so poor and desperate they would eat their own feces and drink their own urine. That future appeared very possible for anyone without faith that The Lord is The Lord God Almighty. Rabshakeh promised a fig tree in every garden and a cistern for every house. He promised the land they would be taken to would be a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey.
The enemy’s lies can sound so similar to the truth that a person might give in to her doubt and believe them. The enemy will tell you how bleak your future will be if you do not do something to save your own skin or how great your future will be if you would just follow his advice instead of holding tight to The Lord. The Lord’s promises are better, because they are sure. The enemy’s promises are empty. Rabshakeh promised ‘a chicken in every pot’ but what he would deliver was slavery. He promised a land of grain and wine but he would deliver captivity. He had no intention of keeping his word, he was lying for the king of Assyria. But God’s Word is certain; His promises are already kept.
How did Hezekiah ensure that Judah would not give in to the fear of the enemy and remain faithful to The Lord? He had commanded them not to engage with the enemy, not to answer at all. Verses 36-37 read,
“But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” 37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.”
There is more to the story. What will Hezekiah do? Will Jerusalem be saved? Will the LORD remain with His people? We will read it about it in chapter 19. But I leave you with these thoughts: Hezekiah was steadfastly faithful. He made it so there was no one but The Lord to depend on. But it was when he acted on his fear that he gave the enemy a foot hold to conquer Jerusalem. The enemy tried to shake Hezekiah’s faith, Eliakim’s, Shebna’s, and Joah’s faith, and the faith of the people. But he couldn’t because they would not engage with him.
Be encouraged, act on your faith and not on your fear or doubt. Don’t listen to the enemy and definitely don’t talk back. Come back tomorrow to find out what happens!

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2 Kings 17 Hoshea and Israel Rejected the LORD so He Made a Covenant with Other Nations

2/10/2016

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Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

2 Kings 17
Verses 1-5 read,
“In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.”
Hoshea’s evil against The Lord was not the same as his predecessors. Their evil had been to lead Israel to sin in Jeroboam’s twisted copy of worship. But Hoshea’s wickedness went further. He went against God and His people in a new way. When the king of Assyria came against him, instead of fighting for the Lord, the freedom of his people, or the protection of Israel, Hoshea made Shalmaneser his lord and paid him tribute, much like Ahaz had done for Shalmaneser’s father Tiglath-Pileser. But Hoshea didn’t keep his end of the contract. He sent to Egypt for help and did not pay his tribute to Assyria. He assumed that So would take care of him and fight Assyria. But that isn’t what happened. Assyria invaded Israel, threw Hoshea in prison and besieged Samaria for three years.
Israel had worshipped the Lord wrongly. They had idols, made with their own hands and worshipped them. But Hoshea gave his life and soul to a man, Shalmaneser instead of The Lord. He called a man lord and gave him offerings as if he were a god. He couldn’t even do that with any honesty. He treacherously lied to his lord and hoped So would come to his rescue. He looked to man after man instead of The Lord God Almighty.
How often do we do that? We look to the government to save us, to a lawyer to fight for us, to a pastor to lead us, or a colleague to battle for us. We give our honor and our allegiance to an earthly nation, king, celebrity, or religious leader. And how often is that allegiance false? How often is that loyalty only so that we can save ourselves? Are we ready to give our shaky fidelity to the next guy, who is more charming, stronger, or better? People’s loyalty to others seems to move with every wave of the storm.
But The Lord never waivers. He is steadfast. He is faithful to us regardless of our lack of faithfulness to Him. He fights for us. Why is our faith to Him so mobile? Why is our faith so tottering? He is The LORD! He is Able. He is Almighty. He is The Creator. The more we exercise our faith in Him, the more He will strengthen our faith until it is as unfaltering and persistent as Christ’s. 2 Thessalonians 3:2-5 puts it this way,
“and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 4 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
Hoshea’s sin led to Israel’s fall. Verse 6 reads,
“In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”
Shalmaneser didn’t leave any Israelites. Every last one of them was taken into captivity in foreign places, scattered far and wide. Their promised land was no longer their home. They rejected The Covenant God had made with them. God’s purpose was not hidden. His reasons were not unknown. Israel had ignored the Covenant. Verses 7-23 in The Message explain it.
“The exile came about because of sin: The children of Israel sinned against God, their God, who had delivered them from Egypt and the brutal oppression of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They took up with other gods, fell in with the ways of life of the pagan nations God had chased off, and went along with whatever their kings did. They did all kinds of things on the sly, things offensive to their God, then openly and shamelessly built local sex-and-religion shrines at every available site. They set up their sex-and-religion symbols at practically every crossroads. Everywhere you looked there was smoke from their pagan offerings to the deities—the identical offerings that had gotten the pagan nations off into exile. They had accumulated a long list of evil actions and God was fed up, fed up with their persistent worship of gods carved out of deadwood or shaped out of clay, even though God had plainly said, “Don’t do this—ever!”
13 God had taken a stand against Israel and Judah, speaking clearly through countless holy prophets and seers time and time again, “Turn away from your evil way of life. Do what I tell you and have been telling you in The Revelation I gave your ancestors and of which I’ve kept reminding you ever since through my servants the prophets.”
14-15 But they wouldn’t listen. If anything, they were even more bullheaded than their stubborn ancestors, if that’s possible. They were contemptuous of his instructions, the solemn and holy covenant he had made with their ancestors, and of his repeated reminders and warnings. They lived a “nothing” life and became “nothings”—just like the pagan peoples all around them. They were well-warned: God said, “Don’t!” but they did it anyway.
16-17 They threw out everything God, their God, had told them, and replaced him with two statue-gods shaped like bull-calves and then a phallic pole for the whore goddess Asherah. They worshiped cosmic forces—sky gods and goddesses—and frequented the sex-and-religion shrines of Baal. They even sank so low as to offer their own sons and daughters as sacrificial burnt offerings! They indulged in all the black arts of magic and sorcery. In short, they prostituted themselves to every kind of evil available to them. And God had had enough.
18-20 God was so thoroughly angry that he got rid of them, got them out of the country for good until only one tribe was left—Judah. (Judah, actually, wasn’t much better, for Judah also failed to keep God’s commands, falling into the same way of life that Israel had adopted.) God rejected everyone connected with Israel, made life hard for them, and permitted anyone with a mind to exploit them to do so. And then this final No as he threw them out of his sight.
21-23 Back at the time that God ripped Israel out of their place in the family of David, they had made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Jeroboam debauched Israel—turned them away from serving God and led them into a life of total sin. The children of Israel went along with all the sins that Jeroboam did, never murmured so much as a word of protest. In the end, God spoke a final No to Israel and turned his back on them. He had given them fair warning, and plenty of time, through the preaching of all his servants the prophets. Then he exiled Israel from her land to Assyria. And that’s where they are now.”
Verse 9 says, “And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right.” Who were they kidding that they thought The Lord didn’t know? Who are we kidding when we commit our secret sins and think because no one knows that somehow God doesn’t know? God sees what is done in secret, in the dark, and in the light. What we do in secret should honor God, what we do in public should show us as humble as Jesus (Matthew 6). Hebrews 4:10-14 puts it this way,
“for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
They scorned The Lord’s Covenant and so The Lord foreshadowed what would happen with the Gospel when they refused Christ and He did something extraordinary. Verses 24-33 read,
“And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear theLord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put themin the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvitesburned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 So they feared the Lordbut also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.”
The Lord spoke to the people in Samaria and the rest of what used to belong to Israel in a way they understood. He proclaimed himself to them and gave them a priest to teach them how to worship Him. Did they do any better than Israel? They included God among their gods. But The Lord remained faithful anyway. He did not only taught them how to fear Him, he made a covenant with them. They were not Israel, yet He chose them and offered them His covenant of salvation. Verses 34-41 read,
“To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lordcommanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.35 The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. 37 And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, 39 but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” 40 However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.”
Israel abandoned The Lord and so The Lord gave Himself to other nations. They were not holy (separate and called out from other nations) but they were given God’s word. They didn’t listen, they took The Lord and put him with their gods and idols. They worshipped Him alongside the plethora of gods they already had. God did it so that Israel and Judah would become jealous and realize they were not special. It was not them who chose God but God who chose them.
Believer, God chose you. He didn’t have to. He didn’t have to offer Himself to you but He did. You do not need to turn to anyone or anything else to save you or fight for you. “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14:14). When you are in trouble, turn to The Lord not men. When you are in need to The Lord. When you are happy turn to The Lord. Whether you are celebrating or suffering the LORD is your Faithful God. He is always with you. He will never forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6). Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you. Do what is right and stop dividing your loyalty between God and whichever man looks like he might rescue you this week. James 4:8 reads,
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

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2 Kings 25 Judah's Fall, and the Story of Two Kings

2 Kings 25 the Decline of Judah and the rise of Babylon and New Names

2 Kings 23:31-37 Pharaoh Called Himself Sovereign but Yahweh is Sovereign LORD

2 Kings 22-23:30 Repentance is More than Saying Sorry

2 Kings 21 Manasseh’s Evil Leads to Dire Consequences

2 Kings 20:12-21 Pride Usurps Faith

2 Kings 20:1-11 Nothing is too big for God; Ask Him Anything!

2 Kings 19 Hezekiah’s Faith and Assyria Part Two

2 Kings 18 King Hezekiah’s Faith Verses Assyria Part One

2 Kings 17 Hoshea and Israel Rejected the LORD so He Made a Covenant with Other Nations

Donna Campbell

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