Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 2 Chronicles 36:11-23 - Goodbye, Judah
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hi, and good morning, faithful listeneris welcome to
- 0:06Speaker 1: the last episode of Second Chronicles. Today. We are finishing
- 0:16Speaker 1: up the Book of Second Chronicles. Tomorrow we'll finish out
- 0:19Speaker 1: season eleven in the Book of Hebrews. Now, you guys
- 0:22Speaker 1: know that my seasons go with the Old Testament, not
- 0:24Speaker 1: with the New Testament, so we're going to remain in
- 0:26Speaker 1: the Book of Hebrews for quite some time on the
- 0:28Speaker 1: New Testament side of stuff. But since we are finishing
- 0:31Speaker 1: up Second Chronicles today, that means we are going to
- 0:33Speaker 1: move into season eleven next week with the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah,
- 0:38Speaker 1: and Esther. So let's go ahead and finish up Second
- 0:41Speaker 1: Chronicles thirty six today. Which I learned something really gross
- 0:45Speaker 1: in today's episode that I'm excited to share with you guys,
- 0:48Speaker 1: because if I have to suffer through it, you also
- 0:49Speaker 1: have to suffer through it with me. We'll get into
- 0:53Speaker 1: that in just a one second, right after a quick
- 0:55Speaker 1: word from a sponsor. Okay, so I have a little
- 1:00Speaker 1: friend visiting the podcast today. It's a little mouse that
- 1:03Speaker 1: I saw in the corner of my eye while I
- 1:06Speaker 1: was researching this episode for you guys today, and I
- 1:09Speaker 1: definitely did see a mouse because I looked directly at
- 1:12Speaker 1: him and he was just chilling in the corner of
- 1:14Speaker 1: my office. And I saw him last night as well,
- 1:17Speaker 1: running around in my home. And I am not one
- 1:20Speaker 1: that likes to keep mice in my home. I am
- 1:23Speaker 1: one that wants to get rid of mice. So I
- 1:25Speaker 1: called the exterminator and he's coming out on Friday to
- 1:28Speaker 1: try to fish the mouse out. Because even though I
- 1:30Speaker 1: don't like mice and I think they're filthy little animals,
- 1:33Speaker 1: I also think they're kind of cute and don't want
- 1:36Speaker 1: to kill them myself, so I'd rather pay somebody else
- 1:38Speaker 1: to do it for me. But for now, I'm just
- 1:42Speaker 1: hoping he remains in the corner of my office and
- 1:44Speaker 1: doesn't come anywhere near me or touch me, because if
- 1:48Speaker 1: he does touch me at any point in time, I
- 1:49Speaker 1: will die. That'll be it for me, because that will
- 1:52Speaker 1: be a trauma I will never be able to get
- 1:54Speaker 1: over if a mouse touches me. All right, let's read
- 1:58Speaker 1: Second Chronicles thirty six eleven through twenty three today as
- 2:02Speaker 1: I usually do. I'll be reading from the we B
- 2:04Speaker 1: version or the World English Bible. But of course, you
- 2:07Speaker 1: guys can feel free to read out of whatever version
- 2:09Speaker 1: that you prefer to read out of. Once you grab
- 2:11Speaker 1: your delicious hot beverage to share with me, let's go
- 2:14Speaker 1: ahead and read it. Second Chronicles thirty six eleven through
- 2:16Speaker 1: twenty three together. Zedekiah was twenty one years old when
- 2:21Speaker 1: he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
- 2:24Speaker 1: He did that which was evil in Yahweh, his God's sight.
- 2:28Speaker 1: He didn't humble himself before Jeremiah, the prophet speaking from
- 2:31Speaker 1: Yahwei's mouth. He also rebelled against King Nebeknezer, who had
- 2:35Speaker 1: made him swear by God. But he stiffened his neck
- 2:38Speaker 1: and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God
- 2:40Speaker 1: of Israel. Moreover All, the chiefs of the priests and
- 2:43Speaker 1: the people trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of
- 2:46Speaker 1: the nations, and they polluted Yahwai's house, which he had
- 2:49Speaker 1: made holy in Jerusalem. Yahweh, the God of their fathers,
- 2:53Speaker 1: sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and
- 2:56Speaker 1: sending because he had compassion on his people and on
- 2:59Speaker 1: his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God,
- 3:02Speaker 1: despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until Yahwais
- 3:06Speaker 1: Wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
- 3:10Speaker 1: Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans,
- 3:13Speaker 1: who killed their young men with the sword in the
- 3:15Speaker 1: house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young
- 3:18Speaker 1: man or virgin, old man or infirm. He gave them
- 3:21Speaker 1: all into his hand, all the vessels of God's House,
- 3:24Speaker 1: great and small, and the treasuries of Yahwai's house, and
- 3:26Speaker 1: the treasuries of the king and the princes. All these
- 3:29Speaker 1: he brought to Babylon. They burned God's House, broke down
- 3:32Speaker 1: the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire,
- 3:35Speaker 1: and destroyed all of its valuable vessels. He carried those
- 3:38Speaker 1: who had escaped from the sword away to Babylon, and
- 3:41Speaker 1: they were servants to him and his sons until the
- 3:43Speaker 1: reign of the Kingdom of Persia. To fulfill Yahway's word
- 3:46Speaker 1: by Jeremiah's mouth, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths.
- 3:50Speaker 1: As long as it lay desolate, it kept sabbath to
- 3:53Speaker 1: fulfill Seventy years now, in the first year, Cyrus, King
- 3:57Speaker 1: of Persia, that Yahway's word by the mouth of Jeremiah
- 3:59Speaker 1: might be accomplished. Yahwais stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,
- 4:02Speaker 1: King of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout
- 4:05Speaker 1: all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying,
- 4:08Speaker 1: Cyrus King of Persia, says, Yahweh, the God of Heaven,
- 4:11Speaker 1: has given all the kingdoms of the earth to me,
- 4:13Speaker 1: and he has commanded me to build him a house
- 4:15Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you,
- 4:18Speaker 1: of all of his people, Yahweh his God, be with him,
- 4:21Speaker 1: and let him go up. On Monday, we discussed the
- 4:25Speaker 1: last four kings in Judah's history before the Babylonians came
- 4:30Speaker 1: in and completely destroyed the land pretty much. The first
- 4:33Speaker 1: of the four kings was named jehoah Has, and he
- 4:35Speaker 1: was the youngest son of Josiah. Jehoaha Has was only
- 4:39Speaker 1: king for about three months before Pharaoh Neko came in
- 4:42Speaker 1: and removed him from the throne and placed another king
- 4:46Speaker 1: on the throne, who happened to be jehoaha Has his
- 4:49Speaker 1: brother named Jehoia Kim Okay. The names get very confusing here.
- 4:55Speaker 1: Jehoia Kim reigned for about eleven years, and he was
- 4:57Speaker 1: a terrible king for many different ris reasons. He taxed
- 5:00Speaker 1: the people to oblivion because you know, Israel at that
- 5:03Speaker 1: time was just a vassal state of Egypt and so
- 5:06Speaker 1: very high taxes. Not to mention that Jehoiakim had a
- 5:09Speaker 1: lot of slave labor. He was building beautiful palaces for himself,
- 5:13Speaker 1: killing prophets, destroying people's lives, just really nasty stuff. But
- 5:18Speaker 1: he ended up dying eleven years into his reign because
- 5:21Speaker 1: King nebecon Ezzar of Babylon came into Israel and took
- 5:24Speaker 1: it away from Egypt, and so now Israel is the
- 5:27Speaker 1: vassal state of the Babylonians instead of the Egyptians. So
- 5:31Speaker 1: King Nebekin Neezer killed Jehoiakim, we think, and Jehoya Keen,
- 5:36Speaker 1: who was Jehoyakim's son, ended up reigning for about three
- 5:39Speaker 1: months after that. So King Nebukinezer came in and removed
- 5:43Speaker 1: King Jehoia Keen from the throne and replaced him with
- 5:47Speaker 1: his uncle Zedekiah. And Zedekiah was another son of Josiah.
- 5:52Speaker 1: He was also the last king of Judah or Israel's
- 5:55Speaker 1: history before Babylon came in and completely destroyed the nation.
- 6:00Speaker 1: It says in verse eleven that Zedekiah was twenty one
- 6:03Speaker 1: years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
- 6:05Speaker 1: eleven years in Jerusalem. And interestingly enough, his age poses
- 6:10Speaker 1: a problem for us. It says that Zedekiah was twenty
- 6:13Speaker 1: one years old when he began to reign. Now, if
- 6:15Speaker 1: you guys, remember Zedekiah was one of the sons of Josiah,
- 6:20Speaker 1: and he was also supposed to be the third born.
- 6:22Speaker 1: If we go back to First Chronicles, chapter three and
- 6:26Speaker 1: read verse fifteen, it lists out the sons of Josiah.
- 6:30Speaker 1: It says the first born was Johannon, the second was
- 6:33Speaker 1: Jehoia Kim, the third Zedekiah, and the fourth Shaloom or Jehohas.
- 6:39Speaker 1: And don't forget Jehoahaz was supposed to be the last
- 6:43Speaker 1: born son of King Josiah, but he was the first
- 6:47Speaker 1: of these last four kings to reign. Going back to
- 6:50Speaker 1: Second Chronicles thirty one, verse one, it says, the people
- 6:53Speaker 1: of the land took jehoah Has, the youngest son of Josiah,
- 6:57Speaker 1: and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem.
- 7:00Speaker 1: He was twenty three years old when he began to reign,
- 7:03Speaker 1: and he reigned three months in Jerusalem, and that was
- 7:06Speaker 1: right around the time that the king of Egypt came
- 7:09Speaker 1: in and made Judah vassal state right and removed Jehohas
- 7:13Speaker 1: from the office of the king. Jehoas was twenty three
- 7:16Speaker 1: years old when he began to reign. He was supposed
- 7:19Speaker 1: to be the youngest son, and yet his brother Zedekiah
- 7:23Speaker 1: in verse eleven, twelve years later, it says, was only
- 7:27Speaker 1: twenty one years old when he began to reign. And
- 7:30Speaker 1: so this actually makes a lot of people think that
- 7:31Speaker 1: there's an inconsistency in scripture here, because how is it
- 7:35Speaker 1: possible for Zedekiah to only be twenty one years old
- 7:38Speaker 1: when he is supposed to be the third born son,
- 7:41Speaker 1: not the fourth born. How is it possible that Jehoas
- 7:44Speaker 1: also known as Shaloom is older than Zedekiah. Well, because
- 7:51Speaker 1: this is real disgusting, Okay, it turns out that Zedekiah
- 7:57Speaker 1: was both the son and grandson of Josiah, and you're
- 8:03Speaker 1: probably like, how is that possible. Going back to first
- 8:08Speaker 1: Chronicles three when it talks about the genealogy of Josiah,
- 8:12Speaker 1: here's what it says. The sons of Josiah are the firstborn, Johannon,
- 8:17Speaker 1: the second Jehoiakim the third Zedekiah the fourth Shaloom, and
- 8:23Speaker 1: the sons of Jehoiakim are Jaconia his son and Zedekiah
- 8:28Speaker 1: his son. So Zedekiah is listed as a son of
- 8:33Speaker 1: both Josiah and also of Jehoiakim, which means, if you
- 8:40Speaker 1: think about it, logically, Jehoiakim, who was one of the
- 8:43Speaker 1: sons of Josiah, slept with Josiah's wife. Don't forget the
- 8:49Speaker 1: kings all had a million wives at this point. There
- 8:52Speaker 1: is tons of adultree going on, tons of problems throughout
- 8:55Speaker 1: all of the kingly lines, so it is certainly not
- 8:58Speaker 1: outside the realm of possibility for many of these kings
- 9:01Speaker 1: to be the products of affairs. So this means that
- 9:05Speaker 1: Zedekiah was both Jehoya Kim's son and brother. But then
- 9:10Speaker 1: you might ask, well, why is Zedekiah listed as the
- 9:13Speaker 1: son of Josiah if he's actually just the son of
- 9:15Speaker 1: Jehoya Kim. Because culturally, if somebody had a wife, any
- 9:19Speaker 1: son that that wife produced would be considered the son
- 9:23Speaker 1: of the husband. Even if that son was the product
- 9:26Speaker 1: of an affair, he would still be listed as the
- 9:29Speaker 1: son of the husband, which is why in our reading
- 9:32Speaker 1: for today, Zedekiah is listed as the son of Josiah.
- 9:37Speaker 1: And this is also why it makes a lot of
- 9:39Speaker 1: sense that Zedekiah is so much younger than the youngest
- 9:43Speaker 1: son of Josiah because he was not really Josiah's son,
- 9:49Speaker 1: even though he would have been considered one of Josiah's sons.
- 9:52Speaker 1: So it's a gross little thing right here, gross little
- 9:57Speaker 1: story that I just want to share with you guys.
- 9:59Speaker 1: I learned about all of that today, so that was
- 10:01Speaker 1: kind of fun, okay. But moving past the checkered birth
- 10:04Speaker 1: of King Zedekiah, he ends up becoming the king because
- 10:09Speaker 1: King Nebekinezer of Babylon wanted to assert dominance over the
- 10:13Speaker 1: Judaite people. The judait people weren't allowed to choose their
- 10:17Speaker 1: own king, so when they do, King Nebekinezer comes right in.
- 10:21Speaker 1: He's like, nope, I am going to institute a king
- 10:24Speaker 1: for you guys, and so he chooses Zedekiah to be
- 10:27Speaker 1: the king. So it says Zedekiah was twenty one years
- 10:30Speaker 1: old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven
- 10:32Speaker 1: years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in
- 10:35Speaker 1: Yahweh's sight. He didn't humble himself before Jeremiah, the prophet
- 10:39Speaker 1: speaking from Yahweh's mouth. Now, I just finished reading the
- 10:42Speaker 1: Book of Jeremiah in my personal time, and it's a
- 10:45Speaker 1: really interesting and eye opening book for a lot of reasons.
- 10:49Speaker 1: It's not just prophecy. There is a lot of prophecy
- 10:52Speaker 1: in it, but Jeremiah also talks a lot about his
- 10:54Speaker 1: interaction with the kings and some of the things that
- 10:57Speaker 1: Israel was going through during this time, you know, Ali
- 11:00Speaker 1: with Egypt and the Egyptians not helping and the Babylonians
- 11:04Speaker 1: coming in. You know, Jeremiah writes about all of these
- 11:07Speaker 1: historical facts that happened to Israel. So it's a great
- 11:10Speaker 1: book to read if you want to get a little
- 11:13Speaker 1: bit more information about what Israel was going through during
- 11:17Speaker 1: this time period. But out of all of the kings
- 11:19Speaker 1: that Jeremiah had contact with, Zedekiah was probably the most.
- 11:24Speaker 1: Jeremiah was always going to Zedekiah and telling him like,
- 11:27Speaker 1: you got to stop. The Babylonians are going to come
- 11:30Speaker 1: in if you don't stop. This is prophecy, these are
- 11:33Speaker 1: God's words. And unfortunately Zedekiah was a very weak king.
- 11:38Speaker 1: He was very influenceable, so all of these people were
- 11:42Speaker 1: constantly coming up to him being like, oh, King, you're
- 11:44Speaker 1: such a great king, and we want you to do
- 11:46Speaker 1: this for us. And Zeddekia would be like, yes, I
- 11:48Speaker 1: am a great king and I will do this for you,
- 11:51Speaker 1: to his own destruction and to the destruction of his
- 11:54Speaker 1: people as well. So he didn't listen to anything that
- 11:58Speaker 1: Jeremiah told him to do. He also says in verse
- 12:01Speaker 1: thirteen of our Passage for Today that he rebelled against
- 12:04Speaker 1: King Nebekenezer, who had made him swear by God, and
- 12:07Speaker 1: he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning
- 12:10Speaker 1: to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Now, Zedekiah was an
- 12:14Speaker 1: interesting king because it kind of seemed like here and
- 12:17Speaker 1: there he would turn to what God was telling him
- 12:20Speaker 1: to do. But then he was once again. He was
- 12:22Speaker 1: so influenceable by these people that he would change his
- 12:26Speaker 1: mind with every passing of the wind. Essentially, so Zedekiah
- 12:32Speaker 1: never truly turned to Yahweh, even if he would listen
- 12:35Speaker 1: to Jeremiah on occasion, he never did the things that
- 12:37Speaker 1: would save him and his people. Instead, he was constantly
- 12:42Speaker 1: going against God and constantly just not reading the room
- 12:46Speaker 1: and seeing how bad his situation was. On a national scale.
- 12:51Speaker 1: So it says that he stiffened his neck and hardened
- 12:53Speaker 1: his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
- 12:56Speaker 1: And you know, God was giving the king advice. It
- 12:58Speaker 1: wasn't just turned toward me. So that was a big
- 13:00Speaker 1: part of it, because God wants our hearts. He wants
- 13:03Speaker 1: the people who promised to worship him to actually worship him.
- 13:08Speaker 1: But He was also giving Zedekiah like sound advice. You know,
- 13:12Speaker 1: listen to the Babylonian king. Don't rebel against him, don't
- 13:15Speaker 1: you know, go this way or that way. Do what
- 13:17Speaker 1: I'm telling you to do, and things will go better
- 13:20Speaker 1: for you. And Zedekiah had just such a hard heart
- 13:23Speaker 1: against God and didn't want to listen to anything that
- 13:25Speaker 1: he had to say. It says in verse fourteen of
- 13:28Speaker 1: our passage. Moreover, the chiefs of the priests and of
- 13:31Speaker 1: the people trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of
- 13:34Speaker 1: the nations, and they polluted Yaway's house, which he had
- 13:38Speaker 1: made holy in Jerusalem. So remember how I talked about
- 13:41Speaker 1: King Manassa a few weeks ago. He was the worst
- 13:44Speaker 1: king in Israel's history. For the most part. He brought
- 13:47Speaker 1: in so much trash into Judah, you know, child sacrifice,
- 13:51Speaker 1: infant sacrifice, human sacrifice, and all of these other sex cults.
- 13:55Speaker 1: He brought them into Juda's history and actually made God
- 14:00Speaker 1: Godd's temple into a brothel at one point in time. Now, unfortunately,
- 14:04Speaker 1: all of this is happening again during the days of
- 14:07Speaker 1: King Zedekiah. And I don't know if Zedekiah worshiped these gods,
- 14:11Speaker 1: which I would imagine that he did, but he didn't
- 14:13Speaker 1: have enough of a backbone to go against what the
- 14:16Speaker 1: people wanted, so he just accepted and agreed with every
- 14:20Speaker 1: single thing that they did. Actually, at one point in time,
- 14:22Speaker 1: there's a story about this. Apparently some of the princes
- 14:26Speaker 1: wanted to kill Jeremiah the prophet, and Zedekiah knew that
- 14:29Speaker 1: this was wrong to do, obviously, but because he didn't
- 14:33Speaker 1: want to rock the boat with the princes, he just
- 14:36Speaker 1: let them do whatever they wanted, and they lowered Jeremiah
- 14:39Speaker 1: into this disgusting Marie pit so that he would suffocate,
- 14:44Speaker 1: you know, because you'd probably have to wade through this
- 14:46Speaker 1: mayer and eventually you'd get tired out and you'd sink
- 14:48Speaker 1: and you'd die. And that was what Jeremiah was dealing
- 14:51Speaker 1: with For a solid day. He was in this pit
- 14:54Speaker 1: like waiting, and a gentile man, an Ethiopian, actually went
- 14:59Speaker 1: to King Zedi and was like, you're doing something very
- 15:02Speaker 1: wrong by torturing this prophet of God. You need to
- 15:06Speaker 1: get him out of that mayor pit. And Zedekiah did
- 15:09Speaker 1: end up doing that. Actually he brought Jeremiah out and
- 15:11Speaker 1: listened to what he had to say. But yeah, it
- 15:13Speaker 1: was a bad situation. So it really shows where Zedekiah's
- 15:16Speaker 1: heart was. He didn't really have any particular stance. He
- 15:19Speaker 1: kind of just went with whatever. So all of these
- 15:22Speaker 1: terrible things are coming back into Judah, all of this
- 15:25Speaker 1: idolatry and demon worship and sex cults and baby sacrifice
- 15:30Speaker 1: and all sorts of crazy stuff. And it says Yahweh,
- 15:33Speaker 1: the God of their fathers verse fourteen, sent to them
- 15:36Speaker 1: his messengers, rising up early and sending because he had
- 15:40Speaker 1: compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But
- 15:44Speaker 1: they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words and
- 15:48Speaker 1: scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh's wrath arose against his
- 15:51Speaker 1: people until there was no remedy. And that's very important
- 15:56Speaker 1: right there. It says until there was no remedy meaning
- 16:00Speaker 1: and there was nothing else that could fix these people's hearts.
- 16:04Speaker 1: They were just going to keep killing the prophets that
- 16:06Speaker 1: God sent to them. They were just going to keep
- 16:09Speaker 1: committing adult tree and killing their neighbors and doing sex
- 16:14Speaker 1: cults and killing their own children. Unless God stepped in
- 16:19Speaker 1: and fixed it. There was no remedy other than bringing
- 16:22Speaker 1: the Babylonians in at this point in time. That's what
- 16:24Speaker 1: it says right here Therefore, verse seventeen. He brought on
- 16:28Speaker 1: them the king of the Chaldeans, or the Babylonian king,
- 16:31Speaker 1: King Nebekinezar, who killed their young men with the sword
- 16:34Speaker 1: in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion
- 16:37Speaker 1: on young man, or on virgin old man, or on
- 16:39Speaker 1: infirm He gave them all into his hand, all the
- 16:43Speaker 1: vessels of God's house, great and small, all the treasuries
- 16:46Speaker 1: of Yahweh's house, and the treasuries of the kings and
- 16:48Speaker 1: of the princes. All these he brought to Babylon. They
- 16:52Speaker 1: burned God's House, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned
- 16:55Speaker 1: all of its palaces with fire, and destroyed all of
- 16:57Speaker 1: its valuable vessels. He carried those who had escaped from
- 17:00Speaker 1: the sword away to Babylon, and they were servants to
- 17:03Speaker 1: him and his sons until the reign of the Kingdom
- 17:05Speaker 1: of Persia. So this happened for seventy years. And it
- 17:09Speaker 1: says that during this time verse twenty one, this was
- 17:12Speaker 1: to fulfill Yahwe's words by Jeremiah's mouth, until the land
- 17:15Speaker 1: had enjoyed its sabbaths. As long as it lay desolate,
- 17:19Speaker 1: it kept sabbath to fulfill seventy years. So God was
- 17:23Speaker 1: actually giving the land rest. And this show's right here
- 17:26Speaker 1: that God cares about the land, and he cares about
- 17:29Speaker 1: the animals that live in that land as well. He
- 17:31Speaker 1: wanted the land of Israel to enjoy a Sabbath rest.
- 17:36Speaker 1: This has talked about actually a handful of times in
- 17:38Speaker 1: the Old Testament law where God commanded his people actually
- 17:42Speaker 1: to give the land a sabbath rest. He told them,
- 17:45Speaker 1: He's like, don't plant anything. Every seven years, plant nothing.
- 17:49Speaker 1: Let the land have its Sabbath rest, and things will
- 17:52Speaker 1: go so much better for you. The food and the
- 17:55Speaker 1: crops will be so much better in the eighth year
- 17:58Speaker 1: if that land is able to rest. And God said,
- 18:01Speaker 1: if they obey that command, that that seventh year when
- 18:04Speaker 1: they're not planting anything, He's actually going to give them
- 18:08Speaker 1: even a better harvest in the sixth year, so that
- 18:10Speaker 1: they won't need anything in the seventh year. But unfortunately,
- 18:13Speaker 1: the people didn't have that kind of faith in God
- 18:15Speaker 1: that he could protect them through an entire year of
- 18:19Speaker 1: no crops, and so they never gave the land that
- 18:22Speaker 1: Sabbath rest And so the land, says, ended up resting
- 18:25Speaker 1: for seventy years, and all the other plants and animals
- 18:29Speaker 1: that lived in that land were no longer being destroyed
- 18:33Speaker 1: by the people. This was God conserving the land. And
- 18:37Speaker 1: there were some people left in Judah, by the way,
- 18:39Speaker 1: even though God allowed the Babylonians to come in and
- 18:42Speaker 1: take people away to Babylon, some people, in fact, the
- 18:46Speaker 1: poorest of the land were left in Israel to take
- 18:50Speaker 1: care of it for the Babylonian king. And Jeremiah was
- 18:53Speaker 1: actually one of those people that never ended up going
- 18:57Speaker 1: as a prisoner to Babon. He remained in Israel. So
- 19:02Speaker 1: some people did remain in the land, but it was
- 19:04Speaker 1: very very few, very few people. And all of this happened,
- 19:09Speaker 1: it says, until the King of Persia came in. Now
- 19:12Speaker 1: the King of Persia was named Cyrus, and he pretty
- 19:15Speaker 1: much destroyed the Babylonians. He took over the Babylonian kingdom
- 19:19Speaker 1: and it became the Kingdom of Persia at this time.
- 19:23Speaker 1: And Cyrus was a different kind of king because once
- 19:27Speaker 1: he gained the throne, it says in his first year,
- 19:30Speaker 1: he actually let the Israelites go back into their land.
- 19:33Speaker 1: And not just the Israelites, but I believe he also
- 19:35Speaker 1: let other peoples that the Babylonians had dispossessed. He let
- 19:40Speaker 1: pretty much everybody go back home. So here's what it
- 19:43Speaker 1: says in verse twenty two. Now, in the first year
- 19:45Speaker 1: Cyrus King of Persia, that yahways word by the mouth
- 19:48Speaker 1: of Jeremiah might be accomplished. Y always stirred up the
- 19:51Speaker 1: spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, so that he made
- 19:54Speaker 1: a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also
- 19:57Speaker 1: in writing, saying, Cyrus King of Persia says, Yahweh, the
- 20:01Speaker 1: God of Heaven, has given all kingdoms of the earth
- 20:04Speaker 1: to me, and he has commanded me to build him
- 20:06Speaker 1: a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there
- 20:09Speaker 1: is among you, of all of his people, Yahweh, has
- 20:12Speaker 1: God be with him and let him go up. And
- 20:15Speaker 1: that is where Second Chronicles thirty six ends. And the
- 20:19Speaker 1: one theme that I really noticed in the books of
- 20:21Speaker 1: First and Second Chronicles is not the lives of the kings.
- 20:25Speaker 1: That's definitely part of it. It's a secondary theme. But
- 20:28Speaker 1: the main theme that the author was constantly writing about
- 20:32Speaker 1: was the temple to God. He was always talking about, Yes,
- 20:35Speaker 1: this king fixed the temple, this king destroyed the temple,
- 20:39Speaker 1: this king fixed the temple once again, this king made
- 20:42Speaker 1: the temple into a brothel. Then the Babylonians came and
- 20:45Speaker 1: destroyed the temple. So constantly the author is talking about
- 20:49Speaker 1: God's temple. The author is really focused on the spiritual
- 20:53Speaker 1: health of the people during all of these different kings,
- 20:57Speaker 1: which is why a lot of people credit Ezra the
- 21:00Speaker 1: High Priest, as being the author of First and Second Chronicles,
- 21:04Speaker 1: and it very well could be. And Ezra is the
- 21:06Speaker 1: next book we are going to get into. We're going
- 21:09Speaker 1: to talk about what happens after the Israelite people come
- 21:12Speaker 1: back into the land. Faith listeners, here is one last
- 21:17Speaker 1: word from a sponsor before I say goodbye to all
- 21:19Speaker 1: of you guys. I hope you all enjoyed talking about
- 21:24Speaker 1: First and Second Chronicles with me. I know that it's
- 21:26Speaker 1: a lot of history. A lot of you may not
- 21:28Speaker 1: understand what the point of all of this is why
- 21:31Speaker 1: we Christians today need to read this and understand it.
- 21:34Speaker 1: But it is important to read and understand because it's history,
- 21:37Speaker 1: and we don't want history to repeat itself over and
- 21:40Speaker 1: over and over again. And unfortunately it always seems to
- 21:43Speaker 1: do that, doesn't it. So there's always something we can
- 21:46Speaker 1: glean from these passages of scripture, not to mention. Stories
- 21:50Speaker 1: like this really talk about the depravity of man and
- 21:53Speaker 1: why we need a savior. It paves the way for
- 21:57Speaker 1: the sacrifice of Jesus and the gospel message in the
- 22:00Speaker 1: New Testament. So I love talking about the Old Testament
- 22:03Speaker 1: and I love researching the history of all of these
- 22:06Speaker 1: different stories. So I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter
- 22:10Speaker 1: of the podcast with me, and we're going to be
- 22:12Speaker 1: moving out of this chapter. We're not going to be
- 22:13Speaker 1: talking so much about the kings anymore, but moving into
- 22:17Speaker 1: the prophets and what happens to Israel once they finally
- 22:21Speaker 1: come back into the land after the Babylonian exile. So
- 22:25Speaker 1: it's a brand new chapter on the Bible Explain podcast,
- 22:28Speaker 1: and I hope you guys are ready to jump on
- 22:30Speaker 1: board with me. I will see all of you tomorrow,
- 22:33Speaker 1: hopefully as we discuss the Book of Hebrews, because don't
- 22:36Speaker 1: forget on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I talk about the New Testament,
- 22:39Speaker 1: and right now we're in the Book of Hebrews. And
- 22:41Speaker 1: then on Mondays and Wednesdays, I talk about the Old Testament,
- 22:44Speaker 1: which we just finished the Book of Second Chronicles today,
- 22:47Speaker 1: so on Monday we'll be moving into the Book of
- 22:50Speaker 1: Ezra and also season eleven on the podcast. So I
- 22:54Speaker 1: hope to see all of you guys then, faithful listeners,
- 22:57Speaker 1: have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day, happy listening,
- 23:02Speaker 1: and God bless. I just want to take a second
- 23:10Speaker 1: to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership
- 23:12Speaker 1: with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if
- 23:14Speaker 1: you go to lifeudio dot com, you will find dozens
- 23:17Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
- 23:20Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.