2K18

Finally, a good king that removed the high places.

2K18:1-3 Hezekiah king of Judah, 29 yrs, good.

2K18:4 “...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 ...”

2K18:5-6 “...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.

Israel had already fallen to Assyria. Now Sennacherib comes after Judah.

2K18:13 In the 14th year “...of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them...”

2K18:15,16 “... Hezekiah gave him all the silver ...cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord ...and gave it to the king of Assyria...”

You can’t make peace with non-peaceful nations. You’ll only give.

2K18:17-25 Rabshakeh comes to Jerusalem to taunt Judah. “...come, make a bargain with ...the king of Assyria ...Have I now come ...against this place to destroy it...”

2K18:26 Attempts fail to keep people from understanding the taunts.

2K18:29-31 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,..”

2K19

Hezekiah’s humble, prayerful response.

2K19:1 “... And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord...”

God’s response through Isaiah

2K19:6,7 “... 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 ...I will put a spirit in him ...he will hear a rumor ...I will make him fall by the sword in his own hand...”

The world rages, spewing words of blasphemy, but fear not. The Lord will protect His name.

The situation didn’t immediately improve.

2K19:10 “...Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria...”

Hezekiah again took the situation to the Lord

2K19:19. “...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..."

Isaiah delivers God’s response.

2K19:20,21 “...Because you have prayed to Me ...I have heard you ...This is the word ...spoken against [Sennacherib] ...”

2K19:23,27,28 “...you have reproached the Lord ...I know your sitting down ...going out ...coming in ...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...”

And hope for a future.

2K19:30,31 “... The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant ...The zeal of the Lord will perform this....”

2K19:34 “... For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake... "

The battle belongs to the Lord.

2K19:35,36 “... 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 ...So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh...”

2K19:37 “... as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god ...Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword ...”.

2K20

Hezekiah continues to turn to the Lord.

2K20:1-3,”... Hezekiah became mortally ill ...Isaiah ...said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die ...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...”

Unlike Asa and Ahaziah, who looked for help from physicians/cultures god.

God continues to hear and answer.

2K20:5,6 “... I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. ...I will add fifteen years to your life...”

There were both supernatural and natural components.

2K20:7 “...Take a cake of figs ...laid it on the boil, and he recovered...”

2K20:8-11 The shadow retreats ten steps. Earth’s revolution reverses?

Prayer smart, Pride foolish.

2K20:13 Shows the son of the king of Babylon all his riches.

2K20:16-18 Isaiah tells of the pending downfall of the kingdom.

2K21

The next generation rebuilds the high places.

2K21:1,2 Manasseh becomes king of Judah at age 12, rules 55 yrs, evil

2K21:3 Rebuilt the high places which his father, Hezekiah, had destroyed.

2K21:6 “...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...”

2K21:9 “...and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel...”

Rebellion brings double ear tingling calamity.

2K21:12 “...therefore ...Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle...” .

2K21:14,15 “...I will abandon the remnant ...and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in My sight and ...provoked Me ...”

Manasseh will eventually humble himself (2 Chron.33:13).

Manasseh’s son makes the same mistakes.

2K21:19-20 Amon king of Judah, 2 yrs, evil.

2K21:22 “... he forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord...”

2K22

Goodness returns. The book is found.

2K22:1,2 Josiah king of Judah at age 8, 31 yrs, good.

2K22:3-6 The house of the Lord needs repair.

2K22:8,10 The forgotten Book of the Law is found.

Deut.31:10-13 Generational health from reading it every 7 years.

Josiah responds.

2K22:11,13 “... When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes ....Go and inquire of the LORD for me, the people, and all Judah about the instruction in this book ...For great is the LORD’s wrath that is kindled against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book in order to do everything written about us...”

God’s response via the prophetess Huldah.

2K22:19 “... 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...”

2K22:20 “...therefore, I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place...”

What pleases God?

Tenderness, humility, repentance, respect for His Word.

2K23

Josiah doesn’t try to separate Church and State.

2K23:3 “...the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commands, His decrees, and His statutes with all his mind and with all his heart, and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book; all the people agreed to the covenant...”

Massive reforms were made:

2K23:4,5 Cleared the temple of foreign gods and idolatrous priests.

2K23:7,8 Removed male cult prostitutes. broke down the high places.

2K23:10 No more children passing through the fire of Molech.

2K23:12,13 Smashed the pagan altars. cleaned out some remnants of Solomon’s foreign god worship.

2K23:15-16 Broke down Jeroboam’s altars and high places in Bethel, fulfilling the 1K13:2 prophecy.

2K23:19,20 Removed the high places from Samaria, burned the priests.

2K23:21,22 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...”

2K23:24 removed the mediums, spiritists, and all abominations.

Josiah was a special king of Judah.

2K23:25 “...Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his mind and with all his heart and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him...” Better than David??

But he couldn’t prevent the coming judgment (justice).

2K23:26 “...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...”

Because other kings were again evil?

2K23:29 Josiah killed by Pharaoh Neco.

2K23:31,32 Jehoahaz king of Judah,, 3 mos, evil.

2K23:36 Jehoikim (Eliakim) Judah, 11yrs, evil.

2K24

First Babylonian deportation.

2K24:8,9 Jehoichin king of Judah, 3mos, evil.

2K24:14-16 7,000 men of valor, 10,000 captives, plus craftsmen and smiths are hauled off to Babylon. Only the poorest people were left.

2K24:17-19 Mattaniah (Zedekiah) Judah, 11 yrs, evil.

2K24:20 “... For through the anger of the Lord this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence…”

2K25

Second Babylonian Deportation.

2K25:1-7 Jerusalem under siege. City broken into. Zedekiah loses his sons and his eyes.

2K25:9,10 Jerusalem’s walls are torn down, the temple and all the houses are burned..

2K25:18-21 The chief priest, second priest, officers of the temple, overseer and advisers, the scribe, and sixty men of the people put to death.

Some are left.

2K25:12 Again, the poor inherit the land.

2K25:22,24 Gedaliah is appointed governor, and tells those remaining “... Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.”

2K25:25 A rebellion leads to his death, along with Jews and Chaldeans.

So.. it’s come full circle.

2000 BC - Abram is called from Ur of the Chaldeans because God intends to populate the land of Canaan with His descendants.

Almost 1500 years later, the Chaldeans capture the whole land, a judgment on the people who failed to fulfill their part of the covenant.

1 CHRONICLES

Chronicles is not merely a repeat of Samuel/Kings. Like Deuteronomy, it was written to a different generation. Samuel and Kings, written around 550-560 BC, were to the hardhearted Israelites experiencing exile and captivity. Chronicles, written after the exile around 450-440 BC, would hopefully turn the Israelites back to worshiping the one true God.

1C1, IC2, IC3

Whose who in the family tree,

1C1:1-27 Adam to Abraham.

1C1:28-54 Abraham’s descendants, including kings who reigned before any kings of the sons of Israel (descendants of Esau).

1C2:1-12 Jacob to Jesse

1C2:13- 55 David and many, many others.

1C3:1-9 David’s offspring by many different wives.

1C3:10-24 Rehoboam to Zedekiah and more.

1C4

1C4:1-23 Descendants of Judah.

The Prayer of Jabez.

1C4:9-10 Jabez ...more honorable ...called on the God of Israel, saying, ...bless me ...enlarge my border ...keep me from harm ...God granted him what he requested...”

1C4:24-43 Descendants of Simeon .

IC5

Those that opted for land before crossing the Jordan.

1C5:1,2 “... Reuben ...was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed (G35:22), his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph ...Though Judah prevailed ...and from him came the leader ...”

1C5:3-10 Descendants of Reuben .

1C5:11-17 Descendants of Gad.

1C5:18-20 “... The sons of Reuben and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, consisting of valiant men ...they cried out to God in the battle, and He answered their prayers because they trusted in Him ...”

1C5:23-24 Descendants of Manasseh.

1C5:25,26 “...they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land ...So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away into exile, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh...”

IC6

The Priestly Line.

1C6:1-48 Descendants of Levi.

1C6:31,32 “... appointed over the service of song in the house of the Lord, after the ark rested there. They ministered with song before the taberna- cle of the tent of meeting, until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem; and they served in their office according to their order...”

1C6:49-81 Descendants of Aaron and lands given.

IC7

1C7:1-5 Descendants of Issachar.

1C7:9-12 Descendants of Benjamin.

1C7:13 Descendants of Naphtali.

1C7:14-19 Descendants of Manasseh.

1C7:20-29 Descendants of Ephraim.

1C7:30-40 Descendants of Asher.

Two tribes are missing in the Chronicles lists.

N26:26 “... The sons of Zebulun ...were 60,500...”

N26:42 “... the sons of Dan were 64,400...”

Twelve tribe references.

Usually LEVI is not included as one of the 12 tribes, and Joseph is split into the ½ tribe of MANASSEH and the ½ tribe of EPHRAIM

Fast forward to Rev.7:4-8 and there are 12,000 sealed from each of the 12 tribes. Which tribes? No DAN, no EPHRAIM, but LEVI and JOSEPH included in list.

Jeroboam had placed his golden calves in Bethel (EPHRAIM) and DAN.

1C8

1C8:1-32 More extensive list of descendants of Benjamin leading to Saul.

1C8:33-40 Descendants of Saul.