This week, by finishing 2 Chronicles, we discussed the up and down reigns of kings which led to the Babylonian captivity. Most people are glad to be done with the kings, but we're not really done. We'll see them all again as we go through the books of the prophets.
Reading about those times can be wearisome. Has very much changed in 2500 years? Is God still desiring more than we give Him?
Here are some action verbs from this weeks reading: setting, seeking, ordering, restraining, cleaning, returning, worshiping, encouraging. How are we doing?
2 Chron.21
Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, kills all his brothers.
Why? [He was focused on maintaining his personal position]
21:6 He married Ahab’s daughter, and did evil.
21:11 He made high places. He led Judah astray.
What did Elijah tell Jehoram was going to happen to him?
21:14-15 “...behold, the Lord is going to strike your people, your sons, your wives and all your possessions with a great calamity; and you will suffer severe sickness, a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the sickness, day by day.'... "
What happened?
21:18-20 “...the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable sickness. Now it came about in the course of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his sickness and he died in great pain. And his people made no fire for him like the fire for his fathers. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years; and he departed with no one's regret, and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings...”
Does God smite people with disease?
Isn’t this the same God that said in Ex.15:26 that “...I will put none of the diseases on you...” There was an IF - “...give earnest heed ...do what is right ...give ear...”
1 Pet.2:24 “...and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed...”
Isaiah 53:4,5 “...Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed...”
Does the scourging of Christ insure our health? What is our part? What is God’s part?
2 Chron.22
The one year reign of Ahaziah.
What was his downfall? 22:3-4 “...He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly. He did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab, for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction...”
Bad counsel leads to destruction. Good counsel can establish a person.
22:10 Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, destroys all the royal offspring and establishes herself as queen.
22:11-12 Jehoshabeath, Jehoram’s daughter (he killed all his brothers) and wife of Jehoida (he was a great counselor), hides Joash, keeping one heir alive. Jehoidada will get the credit for being the good counselor, but he had a wife who was brave enough to save the king.
2 Chron.23
1-11 Jehoida arranges for the crowning of Joash as king - at the ripe old age of ... 7.
12-15 Athaliah cries “treason” and is put to death.
23:16 ”...Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they would be the Lord's people...”
2 Chron.24
Why was Joash a good king? 24:2 He had good counsel.
24:4-7 The priests are lax in collecting to repair the house of the Lord
24:8-11 A donation chest is set outside the gate, and they “...collected much money...”
Things went well for Joash until...? [the death of Jehoida]
24:19-21 God sent prophets to bring them back, including Jehoida’s son, whom Joash has stoned.
24:25 His own servants kill him.
He didn’t finish well!
2 Chron.25
25:1,2 “...Amaziah ...did right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart...”
What does this mean?
25:6 Amaziah hires 100,000 warriors from Israel.
25:7-8 the Man of God says not a good idea.
25:9-10 Amaziah dismisses them with pay, believing that “...The Lord has much more to give you than this..."
This is unwise in the world’s eyes, but wise in God’s.
25:11-13 While Amaziah’s out fighting the sons of Seir, the angry troops who had been dismissed plunder Judah.
So was he wrong to dismiss them? [No, he was wrong in not serving God with his whole heart]
25:14 Sets up foreign gods.
25:15-16 Refuses to listen to the prophet God sends.
25:27 Amaziah is killed.
2 Chron.26
Uzziah reigns for 52 years.
26:5 “...He continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding through the vision of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him...”
What do we do with a phrase like this? We twist it around and focus on the prosperity. We seek prosperity, instead of seeking God.
26:15,16 2 “...In Jerusalem he made engines of war invented by skillful men to be on the towers and on the corners for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones. Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong. But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense...”
When he became proud, he decided to do things his way, not God’s. Result?
26:19 “... leprosy broke out on his forehead ...”
26:20 “...the Lord had smitten him...”
26:21 “...was a leper to the day of his death...”
2 Chron.27
27:6 “... So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God...”
2 Chron.28
Ahaz became king of Judah, but followed in the ways of Israel.
28:5 the Lord delivered him into the hand of the king of Aram and into the hand of the king of Israel.
28:8 Israel brings 200,000 of them back to Samaria, but a prophet calls them out and the captives are released.
28:17,18 He’s attacked by the Edomites and Philistines.
Why all the trouble? 28:19 “...the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah and was very unfaithful to the Lord...”
Since the 60s, America has moved increasingly in this direction.
We had better change our ways.
2 Chron.29
Hezekiah’s reforms began with 29:5 “....Then he said to them, "Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place...”
Our hearts need a good cleaning.
29:11 He makes a call to people to be who God intended them to be.
29:28-30 “...While the whole assembly worshiped, the singers also sang and the trumpets sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. Now at the completion of the burnt offerings, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped. Moreover, King Hezekiah and the officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with joy, and bowed down and worshiped...”
2 Chron.30
He invites the people to:
30:6 “... return to the Lord God...”
30:8 “... Now do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to the Lord and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you...”
The people give a mixed response:
30:10 “...So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them...”
30:11 “... Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem...”
30:12 “...The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord...”
30:13-27 The Passover is celebrated.
2 Chron.31
Following the Passover celebration, those that were involved - 31:1 “...Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession...”
Healthy worship leads to better living.
2 Chron.32
Sennacherib is determined to take Judah.
Hezekiah encourages his people
32:7 “... Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him...”
Flesh is no match for the Almighty.
The taunting starts, suggesting that God won’t save them.
We read the rest of the story in 2 Kings 19:35. God sends ONE ANGEL, and 185,000 are killed.
Sennacherib limps home in defeat and is killed by his own children (32:21)
Interesting additions to the story of Hezekiah’s mortal illness, and God’s Grace. (remember the sun going backward).
32:25 “... But Hezekiah gave no return (NIV did not respond) for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem...”
32:31 “...Even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart...”
Does God sit back and let us reveal our hearts?
2 Chron.33
12 yr old Manasseh takes the throne, rules 55 years.
His list of sins:
33:6 “... He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger...”
Do these activities still provoke the Lord to anger?
Do God’s people involve themselves in any of these?
33:9 “...Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel...”
33:10 God warns them.
33:11 God brings Assyria against them
33:12 Manasseh humbled himself greatly
33:13 God delivered, Manasseh “...knew that the Lord was God...”
Did he finish well?
2 Chron.34
Josiah cleaned up the land
Repaired the temple.
The priest Hilkiah finds the book of the Law.
34:30 “...The king went up to the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites and all the people, from the greatest to the least; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord...”
The Word is needed - big time.
2 Chron.35
Passover celebrated.
Josiah dies in battle.
2 Chron.36
A few more evil kings, and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon starts taking over.
36:15,16 “... The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy...”
God’s love, man’s rebellion, God’s wrath.
36:20,21 “... Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete...”
Leviticus 26:34 ”...Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths...”
It will be done God’s way!!
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