2 Kings 12
12:1 Jehoash king of Judah, 40yrs, good.
12:3 “...Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places....”
12:5 Asks the priests to use donations for repairs.
12:6 Repairs weren’t getting done.
12:9-15 Sets up a separate donation box with contents used to hire the work done.
Then something happens and the good king takes a bad turn.
12:17-18 He buys off an enemy king by giving him all the sacred things.
12:20 His servants strike him down.
What happened? [2 Chr.24:17 gives the rest of the story. Jehoida, the priest, the advisor that had been with him from the beginning, dies. His counsel after that wasn’t good].
2 Kings 13
13:1 Jehoahaz king of Israel, 17 yrs, evil.
13:3 Given into the hands of Hazael and Ben-hadad [Spiritual reasons for real time events].
13:4,5 Jehoahaz turns toward the Lord and escapes disaster.
13:10,11 Jehoash king of Israel, 16 yrs, evil.
NOTE: Jehoash and Joash are two forms of the same name. Both Judah and Israel had a king with this name. Their reigns overlapped by about 3 years. Also duplicate Jehorams and Ahaziahs.
13:14 “...Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die...”
A great prophet who had:
- Parted the Jordan.
- Purified a spring at Jericho.
- Multiplied the widow’s oil.
- Raised a dead boy.
- Removed the poison from the stew pot.
- Multiplied the prophet’s food.
- Healed Namaan of leprosy.
- Floated an ax head.
- Blinded the Aramean army.
Falls to disease?
- Point 1 - He didn’t do the miracles, God did!
- Point 2 - It’s extremely rare that a human doesn’t die from something (Enoch, Elijah).
Was this the last of the miracles of Elisha? [13:21 man revived when thrown into the grave of Elisha]
2 Kings 14
14:1-3 Amaziah king of Judah, 29 yrs, good.
14:4 “...Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places...”
More civil war results in Israel defeating Judah and looting the house of the Lord.
14:23,24 Jeroboam II king of Israel, 41 yrs, evil.
14:27 Jeroboam was evil, yet God saved Israel by his hand [God rules in the affairs of men].
2 Kings 15
15:1-3 Azariah (Uzziah) king of Judah, 52 yrs, good.
15:4 “...Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places...”
15:5 The Lord struck the king, so that he was a leper. Why? [2 Chr 26:16-21 reveals his pride and corruption]
Never be content with less than the full story!
15:8,9 Zechariah king of Israel, 6 mos, evil.
15:13 Shallum king of Israel, 1 mo, evil?
15:17-18 Menahem king of Israel, 10 yrs, evil.
15:23-24 Pekahiah king of Israel, 2 yrs, evil.
Notice that they’re always compared to the first Jeroboam, the first king of Israel in the divided kingdom. What did he do that was so bad? [idolatry - golden calfs].
15:27-28 Pekah king of Israel, 20 yrs, evil.
15:32-34 Jotham king of Judah, 16 yrs, good.
15:35 “...Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. ...”
2 Kings 16
16:1-3 Ahaz king of Judah, 16 yrs, evil.
16:7-9 Paid the king of Assyria to defeat the king of Aram (with the gold and silver from the house of the Lord).
16:10-15 Built a pagan altar to match the one he saw in Damascus. Bowed to the system that seemed to be in control.
2 Kings 17
17:1,2 Hoshea king of Israel, 9 yrs, evil.
17:6 Israel carried in exile to Assyria. WHY?
17:7-9 “...Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city...”
17:13-15 “...Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets." However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them...”
17:21-23 Tells us again that the course was set by Jeroboam “... Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin...”
It took a little over 200 years, but the trajectory was set, and the end result was exile.
17:24-28 Interesting paragraph about the strangers who were sent to populate “God’s” land. The Lord sent lions, which killed some. Priest are then sent to teach them how they should “fear God”. [It’s still God’s land]
17:33 They feared the Lord and served their own gods. Sound familiar?
17:41 They feared the Lord, served their idols.
2 Kings 18
18:1-3 Hezekiah king of Judah, 29 yrs, good.
Hurray!!
18:4 “...He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan...”
18:5-6 “...He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses...”
He trusted, he clung, but he lived in a fallen world.
18:13 “...Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them...” Israel had already fallen to Assyria. Now Sennacherib comes after Judah.
18:15 Hezekiah tries to pay him off. NOTE: You can’t make peace with non-peaceful nations. You’ll give and give and then lose it all.
18:17-25 They come to Jersulaem and taunt.
18:26 They try to get them to speak in a language the people don’t understand.
18:29-31 The voice of the enemy cries even louder: “... 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from my hand; nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, "The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." 'Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, "Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern,..”
2 Kings 19
19:1 Hezekiah’s response? [humility and prayer].
19:6 God’s response through Isaiah “... '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 blasphemed Me...”
Makes me think of David’s response to Goliath. The world is raging around us, spewing words of blasphemy. Fear not, the Lord will protect His name.
19:8-13 Rabshakeh spews more threats [notice that the situation didn’t immediately improve].
19:14-19 Hezekiah again took the situation to the Lord. “...Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God..."
Remember that the northern kingdom has already fallen to Assyria. Now God gives His verdict.
19:28 “...Because of your raging against Me, And because your arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came...”
19:31 “...The zeal of the Lord will perform this...”
19:34 “... For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake... "
19:35 “... that night ... the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead...”
19:37 Sennacherib, the king of Assyria is killed.
2 Kings 20
20:1 Hezekiah becomes ill, told he will die.
20:2-3 “...Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, "Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly...”
20:5 “... 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...”
Notice the difference from Asa and Ahaziah, who looked for help in the wrong places: physicians/cultures god.
Notice, too, that there was both a supernatural and a natural component - 20:7 “...Then Isaiah said, "Take a cake of figs." And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered...”
20:8-11 Speaking of the supernatural, Hezekiah asks that the shadow retreat ten steps, as a sign, and it does [earth’s revolution reverses temporarily?]
Then Hezekiah does a dumb thing [prayer smart, pride dumb}
20:13 Shows the son of the king of Babylon all his riches.
20:16-18 Isaiah tells of the pending downfall of the kingdom.
2 Kings 21
21:1,2 Manasseh king of Judah, 55 yrs, evil
21:3 Rebuilt the high places which his father, Hezekiah, had destroyed. [again, only one generation to undo progress].
21:6 “...He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger...”
21:9 “...and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel...” [any seduction going on now?]
Result? 21:12 “...therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle...” [double ear tingle].
We’ll actually read about Manasseh’s humble response in Chrn.
21:19-20 Amon king of Judah, 2 yrs, evil.
2 Kings 22
22:1-2 Josiah king of Judah, 31 yrs, good.
Sets out to repair the temple.
Finds the good book, and reads it.
Josiah’s response: 22:11 “... When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes...”
God’s response: 22:19 “... because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what 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 truly have heard you," declares the Lord...”
What pleases God? [repentance, respect for His word].
2 Kings 23
23:1-3 Josiah refuses to separate Church and State.
Massive reforms were made:
23:4,5 cleared the temple of foreign gods and idolatrous priests.
23:7 removed the male cult prostitutes.
23:8 broke down the high places.
23:12 smashed the pagan altars.
23:13 cleaned out some remnants of Solomon’s foreign god worship.
23:15-16 even broke down altars and high places in Bethel that Jeroboam, of Israel, had made, fulfilling the 1 Kings 13:2 prophecy.
23:19,20 removed the high places from Samaria and slaughtered the priests.
23:21,22 Passover reinstituted, which “..had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah...”
23:24 removed the mediums and spiritists.
23:25 no king like him, before or after.
HOWEVER
23:26 this didn’t spare Judah from judgement (justice). “...However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him...”
23:31,32 Jehoahaz king of Judah,, 3 mos, evil.
23:36 Jehoikim (Eliakim) Judah, 11yr, evil.
2 Kings 24
24:8,9 Jehoichin king of Judah, 3mos, evil.
24:14-16 7,000 men of valor, 10,000 captives, plus craftsmen and smiths are hauled off to Babylon. Only the poorest people were left.
24:17-19 Mattaniah (Zedekiah) Judah, 11 yrs, evil.
2 Kings 25
25:9 Jersalem is burned.
25:12 Again, the poor inherit the land.
So.. we’ve come full circle.
2000 BC - Abram is called from Ur of the Chaldeans because God intends to populate the land with His descendants.
~586 BC - 1500 years later, the Chaldeans capture the whole land, a judgement on the people who failed to fulfill their part of the covenant.
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