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2 Chronicles 13 - Abijah's Sermon Before the War · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Howdy and good morning, friends and faith listeners.
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  Speaker 1: My name is Jen I'm the host of the Bible
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  Speaker 1: Explain podcast, and I'm so excited that you're here to
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  Speaker 1: share a cup of coffee or a cup of tea
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  Speaker 1: with me this morning as we discuss Second Chronicles thirteen. So,
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  Speaker 1: as you guys know, because I put out a special
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  Speaker 1: podcast episode on Friday explaining the change in the podcast,
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  Speaker 1: today is my integration day with Life Audio. So that
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  Speaker 1: is an exciting development that is going to be taking
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  Speaker 1: place now. If you didn't catch the memo, go back
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  Speaker 1: and listen to the Friday episode that I did, and
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  Speaker 1: you'll be up to date with everything before today. Let's
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and read Second Chronicles thirteen the entire chapter.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm kind of excited to talk about this chapter
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  Speaker 1: because there's definitely a few things we can get into
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  Speaker 1: about King Abaijah. He's a lesser known king in Israel's history,
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  Speaker 1: but certainly a lot we can discuss. He was kind
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  Speaker 1: of a weird, as were most of the kings. So
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  Speaker 1: let's read the Second Chronicles thirteen the entire thing. As usual,
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  Speaker 1: I'll be reading from the w E B. Grab your
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  Speaker 1: cup of coffee or your cuppatit this morning. Let's go
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  Speaker 1: ahead and jump into scripture together. In the eighteenth year
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  Speaker 1: of King Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah. He
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  Speaker 1: reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Makaiah,
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  Speaker 1: the daughter of Yuriel of Gibeah. There was war between
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  Speaker 1: Abijah and Jereboam. Abijah joined battle with an army of
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  Speaker 1: valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men,
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  Speaker 1: and Jereboam set the battle in array against him with
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  Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand chosen men, who were mighty men of valor.
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  Speaker 1: Abijah stood up on Mount Zamaram, which is on the
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  Speaker 1: hill country of Ephriam, and he said, hear me, Jeroboam,
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  Speaker 1: and all Israel ought you not to know that Yahweh,
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  Speaker 1: the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to
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  Speaker 1: David forever, even to him and his sons by a
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  Speaker 1: covenant of salt. Yet Jereboam, the son of Nebat, the
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  Speaker 1: servant of Solomon, the son of David, rose up and
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  Speaker 1: belled against his lord. Worthless men were gathered to him,
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  Speaker 1: wicked fellows who strengthened themselves against Raeboam, the son of Solomon,
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  Speaker 1: when Rayaboam was young and tender hearted and could not
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  Speaker 1: withstand them. Now you intend to withstand the kingdom of
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh in the hand of the sons of David. You
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  Speaker 1: are a great multitude, and the golden calves which JEROBOAMH
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  Speaker 1: made you for gods are with you. Haven't you driven
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  Speaker 1: out the priests of Yahweh, the sons of Erin, and
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  Speaker 1: the Levites, and made priests for yourselves according to the
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  Speaker 1: ways of the people of other lands. Whoever comes to
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  Speaker 1: consecrate himself with a young bull in seven rams may
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  Speaker 1: be a priest of those who are no gods. But
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  Speaker 1: as for us, Yahweh is our God, and we have
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  Speaker 1: not forsaken him. We have priests serving Yahweh, the sons
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  Speaker 1: of Erin and the Levites. In their work they burn
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  Speaker 1: to Yahweh every morning and every evening, burnt offerings and
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  Speaker 1: sweet incense. They also set the show bread in order
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  Speaker 1: on the pure table, and care for the gold lamp
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  Speaker 1: stands with its lamps to burn every evening. For we
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  Speaker 1: keep the instruction of Yahweh, our God, but you have
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  Speaker 1: forsaken him. Behold, God is with us at our head,
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  Speaker 1: and as priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound,
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  Speaker 1: and alarm against you, children of Israel. Don't fight against Yahweh,
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  Speaker 1: the God of your fathers, for you will not prosper.
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  Speaker 1: But Jeroboam caused an ambush to come about behind them.
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  Speaker 1: So they were before Judah, and the ambush was behind them.
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  Speaker 1: When Judah looked back, behold the battle was before and
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  Speaker 1: behind them. And they cried to Yahweh, and the priests
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  Speaker 1: sounded with trumpets. Then the men of Judah gave a shout.
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  Speaker 1: As the men of Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam in
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  Speaker 1: all Israel before a Bijah and Judah. The children of
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  Speaker 1: Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand.
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  Speaker 1: Abijah and his people killed them with a great slaughter.
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  Speaker 1: So five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell down slain.
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  Speaker 1: Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time,
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  Speaker 1: and the children of Judah prevailed because they relied on Yahweh,
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  Speaker 1: the God of their fathers. Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took
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  Speaker 1: cities from him. Bethel with its villages, Jashana with its villages,
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  Speaker 1: and Ephron with its villages didn't recover strength again. In
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  Speaker 1: the days of Abaijah, jahways struck him and he died.
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  Speaker 1: But Abijah grew mighty and took for himself fourteen wives
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  Speaker 1: and became the father of twenty two sons and sixteen daughters.
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  Speaker 1: The rest of the acts of Abaijah, his ways, and
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  Speaker 1: his sayings are written in the commentary of the Prophet Ido.
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  Speaker 1: So it's been a little bit since we've done an
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  Speaker 1: episode on the Old Testament side of stuff. But if
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  Speaker 1: you remember last time, we talked about King Jeroboam and
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  Speaker 1: King Rayaboam, kind of confusing because their names are very similar.
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  Speaker 1: But King Jeroboam became the king of the northern tribes
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  Speaker 1: of Israel, and then King Rayaboam, who kind of started
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  Speaker 1: this big civil war, ended up only with two tribes,
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  Speaker 1: Judah and Benjamin. So Israel has become split. They have
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  Speaker 1: two separate kings, and they're now essentially two separate nations. Rayaboam,
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  Speaker 1: the king of Judah, was actually going to go to
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  Speaker 1: war against Jeroboam of the Northern Kingdom, but God told Rayaboam,
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  Speaker 1: you cannot do that. This thing is from me. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: let's go ahead and read that real quick second. Chronicles
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  Speaker 1: eleven verses one through four says this, when Rayaboam had
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  Speaker 1: come to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and
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  Speaker 1: Benjamin one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who are
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  Speaker 1: warriors to fight against Israel, to bring the kingdom again
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  Speaker 1: to Raya Boam. But Yahwai's word came to Shemeah, the
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  Speaker 1: man of God, saying speak to Raaboam, the son of Solomon,
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  Speaker 1: king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and
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  Speaker 1: Benjamin saying, yahwe says, you shall not go up nor
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  Speaker 1: fight against your brothers. Every man returned to his house,
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  Speaker 1: for this thing is of me. So they listened to
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  Speaker 1: Yahwai's words and returned from going against Jereboam. So that
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  Speaker 1: makes it pretty clear that God was behind the splitting
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  Speaker 1: of Israel because of the sin of David's family. You know,
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  Speaker 1: David was a pretty righteous man. He had his sins,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but Solomon was the one who really caused
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  Speaker 1: Israel to sin. And because of Solomon's sin of introducing
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  Speaker 1: all of this idle worship into Israel, that was when
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  Speaker 1: God ended up punishing the line of David and splitting
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom from them essentially, So he gave the northern
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  Speaker 1: parts to Jeroboam, and then Raye Boam, Solomon's son ended
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  Speaker 1: up having Judah or the southern part of Israel. So
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  Speaker 1: Rae Boam, you know, he wasn't a very good king
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  Speaker 1: in his lifetime, and he ended up dying last time
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  Speaker 1: we talked. And so his son is a Bijah, and
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  Speaker 1: this guy is who we're talking about today. So if
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  Speaker 1: he turned to Second Chronicles thirteen, it says in the
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  Speaker 1: eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, you know, the guy in
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  Speaker 1: the northern part, Abijah began to reign over Judah. He
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  Speaker 1: reigned three years in Jerusalem. So that right there actually
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  Speaker 1: shows that Abijah was a terrible king. But what's funny
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  Speaker 1: is Second Chronicles, if you read this, does not say
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  Speaker 1: anything about that. It does doesn't say anything about Abijah
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  Speaker 1: being a bad king. We find that out in First
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  Speaker 1: King's chapter fifteen, where Abijah is briefly mentioned. But even
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  Speaker 1: though Second Chronicles thirteen doesn't mention how bad of a
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  Speaker 1: king Abijah is, we can kind of figure it out
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  Speaker 1: just based upon verse two, which says he reigned for
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  Speaker 1: three years in Jerusalem, meaning that God did not bless
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  Speaker 1: his reign. You know, he reigned for only three years
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  Speaker 1: and then he died. And a lot of times when
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  Speaker 1: kings died very early into their reign, it was because
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  Speaker 1: God was not blessing their rule. His mother's name was Makaiah,
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  Speaker 1: the daughter of Uriel of Gibea. Now I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to get into it right now, but actually Makiah the
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  Speaker 1: daughter of Uriel of Gibea. It's real gross what ends
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  Speaker 1: up happening there. We will talk about that once we
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  Speaker 1: discuss King Asa. But just remember that Abijah's mother was
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  Speaker 1: named Makaiah, also known as maka Okay. Just remember that.
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  Speaker 1: It says there was war between Abijah and Jereboam, So
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  Speaker 1: the two kingdoms of Israel were constantly at war. Even
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  Speaker 1: in the days of raye Boam, Northern Israel and Southern
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  Speaker 1: Israel or Judah were fighting with each other all the time,
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  Speaker 1: and this continued with King Abijah. It says Abijah and
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  Speaker 1: Jereboam were at war. Abijah joined battle with an army
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  Speaker 1: of valiant men of war, four hundred thousand chosen men,
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  Speaker 1: and Jereboam set the battle in a ray against him
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  Speaker 1: with eight hundred thousand chosen men who are mighty men
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  Speaker 1: of valor. So Abaijah had half the amount of men
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  Speaker 1: that Jereboam had, and you can imagine that's kind of scary.
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  Speaker 1: But what's interesting is Abaijah does not seem super scared
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  Speaker 1: of Jereboam. In fact, he preaches a sermon to him.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of times. We see that. You know, even
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  Speaker 1: though kings end up falling away from God later on
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  Speaker 1: in their rule, when they first start out, they actually
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  Speaker 1: do have some faith. They do try to follow Yahweh
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  Speaker 1: in some way, even if it's superficial, and then later on,
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  Speaker 1: once things get comfy for them, they end up worshiping
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  Speaker 1: some other God or falling away from Yahweh something along
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  Speaker 1: those lines. So Abijah was very similar to these other
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  Speaker 1: kings where he kind of did start out, okay, where
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  Speaker 1: he preaches this sermon to Jereboam and to all of
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  Speaker 1: northern Israel. It says, Bijah stood up on Mount Zamarim,
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  Speaker 1: which I have no clue if I'm pronouncing that right,
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  Speaker 1: So forgive me for that which is in the hill
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  Speaker 1: country of Ephriem. And he said, hear me, Jereboam and
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  Speaker 1: all Israel ought you not to know that Yahweh, the
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  Speaker 1: God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever,
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  Speaker 1: even to him and to his sons by a covenant
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  Speaker 1: of salt. So he's going back to the very beginning,
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  Speaker 1: you know, when God first gave the kingdom to David,
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  Speaker 1: which would have been a Bijah's great grandm father. He's saying,
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  Speaker 1: God gave this kingdom to the line of David, and
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  Speaker 1: so this kingdom belongs rightfully to me. It says, David
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  Speaker 1: and God made this covenant together, and it was a
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  Speaker 1: covenant of salt, is what he says. So the covenant
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  Speaker 1: of salt that is talked about in Leviticus two, verse thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: it says, every offering of your meal offering you shall
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  Speaker 1: season with salt. You shall not allow the salt of
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  Speaker 1: the Covenant of your God to be lacking from your
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  Speaker 1: meal offering. With all your offerings, you shall offer salt.
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  Speaker 1: So essentially the covenant that David and God made, David
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  Speaker 1: sealed it with a sacrifice of some sort that included salt.
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  Speaker 1: And notice in Leviticus too, it specifically says, you shall
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  Speaker 1: not allow the salt of the Covenant of your God
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  Speaker 1: be lacking from your meal offering. So there was something
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  Speaker 1: special about the salt and covenants specifically, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: covenant is just a fancy word for a promise. So
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  Speaker 1: David made a promise with God God. This was a
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  Speaker 1: covenant of salt, is what Abijah says. And going back
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  Speaker 1: to our passage for today, verse six. Yet Jereboam, the
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  Speaker 1: son of Nabat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David,
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  Speaker 1: rose up and rebelled against his lord. Worthless men were
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  Speaker 1: gathered to him, wicked fellows who strengthened themselves against Raeboam,
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  Speaker 1: the son of Solomon. When Raaboam was young and tender
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  Speaker 1: hearted and could not withstand them. So raa Boham completely
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  Speaker 1: started that civil war. If you guys, remember that Raabaham
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  Speaker 1: was a unwise individual and refused to listen to good advice,
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  Speaker 1: and so he caused a civil war to take place
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  Speaker 1: in Israel three days after he became the king. And
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  Speaker 1: so what's funny is Abijah here is putting all of
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  Speaker 1: the blame on Jereboam. He's like Jereboam, this servant ended
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  Speaker 1: up rebelling against my father and taking the kingdom away
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  Speaker 1: from him. But it rightfully belongs to David. Interesting about that,
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  Speaker 1: remember when we read second Chronicles eleven. At the very
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  Speaker 1: beginning of this episode, God himself said that he caused
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  Speaker 1: this thing to happen because he was punishing the line
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  Speaker 1: of David, and so Abaijah is not realizing or caring.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose that God was the one who actually took
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom away from his family. Abijah doesn't want to
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  Speaker 1: realize that because of the sin of his fathers, God
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  Speaker 1: gave half of the kingdom, more than half of the
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  Speaker 1: kingdom over to Jereboam. So Abijah is not seeing the
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  Speaker 1: full picture here. He is not recognizing the sin of
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  Speaker 1: his fathers. But the next part of his sermon is
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  Speaker 1: actually much better. The first part is not so good
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  Speaker 1: because he doesn't recognize his own sin, but the second
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  Speaker 1: part is actually quite good. It is starting in verse eight.
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  Speaker 1: Now you intend to withstand the kingdom of Yahweh in
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  Speaker 1: the hand of the sons of David. You are a
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  Speaker 1: great multitude in the golden calves which Jereboah made you,
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  Speaker 1: for Gods are with you. So this was a very
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  Speaker 1: common thing to do. Actually, back in these days was
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  Speaker 1: the nations. When they went out to war or battles,
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  Speaker 1: they would carry their gods with them for protection. And remember,
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  Speaker 1: you know, jereboem pretty bad king of the northern tribes
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  Speaker 1: of Israel. He ended up making a state run religion
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  Speaker 1: where he fashioned these golden calves and put them in
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  Speaker 1: different areas around Israel to make it more convenient for
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  Speaker 1: the Israelite people to not have to go down to
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  Speaker 1: Judah and worship God at the temple. He thought that
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  Speaker 1: if his people were going down to Judah that eventually
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  Speaker 1: he'd lose control of Israel, so he made a state
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  Speaker 1: run religion. So these golden calves became a snare for Israel.
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  Speaker 1: Is what it says. They started worshiping these golden calves,
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  Speaker 1: and so the golden calves are now with them in battle.
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  Speaker 1: Then in verse nine, Abijah continues, haven't you driven out
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  Speaker 1: the priests of Yahweh, the sons of Aaron, and the
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  Speaker 1: Levites and made priests for yourselves according to the ways
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  Speaker 1: of the peoples of other lands. Whoever comes to consecrate
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  Speaker 1: himself with a young bull and seven rams may be
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  Speaker 1: a priest of those who are no gods. Actually really
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  Speaker 1: like that verse. Like Abijah, even though he can't see
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  Speaker 1: his own sin, he sees the sin that Israel is doing,
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  Speaker 1: and He's like, you guys aren't worshiping Yahweh the way
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  Speaker 1: you're supposed to. You're carrying these other gods with you.
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  Speaker 1: You've abandoned Yahweh, your god. You abandon the levitical priest.
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  Speaker 1: They're all down here in Judah with me. Which is
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  Speaker 1: actually true because after Jereboham like instituted this state run religion,
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  Speaker 1: the levitical priests got pretty angry and a lot of
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  Speaker 1: them left, like a huge majority ended up leaving and
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  Speaker 1: going down to Judah to practice Yahwism the way it
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  Speaker 1: was supposed to be practiced. So the levitical priests were
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  Speaker 1: no longer in northern Israel. And Abijah is reminding the
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  Speaker 1: Israelites of this. He's like, you, now, just let anybody
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  Speaker 1: become a priest. Anybody who sacrifices a young bull and
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  Speaker 1: seven rams can become a priest to things that are
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  Speaker 1: no gods. But as for us, continuing in verse ten,
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  Speaker 1: Yahweh is our god. We have priests serving Yahweh, the
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  Speaker 1: sons of Aaron and the Levites in their work, they
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  Speaker 1: burn to Yahweh every morning and every evening, burnt offerings
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  Speaker 1: and sweet incense. They also set the show bread in
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  Speaker 1: order on the pure table, and they care for the
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  Speaker 1: gold lamp stands with its lamps to burn every evening,
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  Speaker 1: for we keep the instruction of Yahweh, our God, but
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  Speaker 1: you are forsaken him. Behold, God is with us at
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  Speaker 1: our head, and his priest with his trumpets of alarm
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  Speaker 1: to sound and alarm against you, children of Israel. Don't
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  Speaker 1: fight against Yahweh, the God of your father's, for you
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  Speaker 1: will not prosper. And that, honestly is a really good
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  Speaker 1: speech that Abaijah gave. You know, the first part was
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  Speaker 1: a little iffy, but he gets better as it goes on.
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  Speaker 1: He was getting his footing, I suppose. So he tells Israel,
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  Speaker 1: you know, stop abandoning Yahweh or God. God is being
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  Speaker 1: worshiped down here in Judah. We worship God, and God
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  Speaker 1: is going to protect us through this battle, even though
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  Speaker 1: you have twice the army size that we have. But
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  Speaker 1: in verse thirteen, here's what happens. Jeroboam caused an ambush
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  Speaker 1: to come out behind them, so they were before Judah
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  Speaker 1: and the ambush was behind him. So Jerobom actually played
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  Speaker 1: really dirty here. He was a dirty fighter because it
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  Speaker 1: was pretty common for kings to try to talk with
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  Speaker 1: each other before these battles took place. And you can
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  Speaker 1: see here that you know, Abijah is trying to get
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  Speaker 1: his point across, is trying to talk things through, maybe
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  Speaker 1: even come to some sort of agreement with Jerobom, who
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  Speaker 1: knows what was going on. But Jeroboam doesn't allow a
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  Speaker 1: Bijah to finish his speech. He ambushes Judah so that
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  Speaker 1: they were in front of them and behind them. Four
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand people in front of you and four hundred
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  Speaker 1: thousand people behind you fighting against you. Man, that would
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  Speaker 1: be really scary, it says. When Judah looked back, behold
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  Speaker 1: the battle was before and behind them, and they cried
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  Speaker 1: to Yahweh, and the priests sounded the trumpets. Then the
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  Speaker 1: men of Judah gave a shout. As the men of
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  Speaker 1: Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam in all Israel before a
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  Speaker 1: Bijah and Judah. You know that shouts That reminds me
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  Speaker 1: of Joshua fighting the battle at Jericho. You know where
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  Speaker 1: God told the people, He's like, you don't even have
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  Speaker 1: to lift a finger against the walls of Jericho. All
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  Speaker 1: you have to do is shout. And when I hear
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  Speaker 1: your shout, and the trumpets sounding, I am going to
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  Speaker 1: strike Jericho with everything that I have. And God ended
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  Speaker 1: up helping Israel at that time, and he's helping Israel
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  Speaker 1: the same way here as well. And it's because they
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  Speaker 1: relied on Yahweh, the God of their fathers. They relied
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  Speaker 1: on God. So I don't think this shout that the
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  Speaker 1: men of Judah were making was a shout of I
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  Speaker 1: think they were bolstering their trust in God when they
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  Speaker 1: heard the trumpets being sounded by the priests. Even though
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: there was a huge army in front of them and
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: a huge army behind them, they trusted in God and
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: because of that, God saved them. And I would also
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: say that God saved them because you know, Israel had
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: gone so astray from Yahweh. They were carrying false idols
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: into battle with them, not even remembering Yahweh their god.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: So Israel gets slaughtered by Judah. Essentially, it says that
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Abijah and his people killed them with a great slaughter.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: So five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell down slain.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: That is a huge number of people, because don't forget
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: how many they started out with eight hundred thousand, and
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: now five hundred thousand of them have been killed, leaving
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Jereboam with an army of only three hundred thousand men.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: That is a very small army. Thus, the children of
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Israel were brought under at that time, and the children
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: of Judah prevailed because they relied on Yahweh, the god
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: of their fathers. Abijah pursued Jereboam and took cities from
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: him Bethel with its villages, Joshana with its villages, in
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Ephron with its villages. So Judah gained some land back,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: is what it says. And Jereboam, who was fully defeated
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: in battle, he never regains the strength that he once had.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: You know, Israel was pretty strong, but now after this,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: it says, Jeroboam didn't recover strength again in the days
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of Abijah. So he didn't die in that battle, you know,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: he fled, but his reign was extremely weakened. After that,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the king of Judah, it says, grew mighty. It mentions
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: in verse twenty one that he took for himself fourteen
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: wives and became the father of twenty two sons and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: sixteen daughters. Now we know that the amount of wives
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: a man had back in these days was a show
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: of prosperity because that more mouths to feed, obviously, and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: not to mention the amount of children you're going to
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: have with these wives. The bigger your family, the wealthier
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: you were. So the fact that he had fourteen wives
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: in just three years of his reign shows that he
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: was very rich and very powerful. But also his heart
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: was let astray very early on because, as we know,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: because I hound you guys with this, the rules for
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: kings in the Old Testament laws was that a king
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: should not have multiple wives. So the fact that he
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: had fourteen wives is unfortunate, but he also had many
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: sons and daughters. It says. The rest of the acts
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: of Baija, his ways and his sayings are written in
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the commentary of the prophet Ido, and we don't have
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: that commentary any longer. That has been lost to history.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: But we do have First Kings fifteen that I'd like
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to go over real quick. First Kings fifteen talks about
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the evils that Abijah did as king, and like I said,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: you know Second Chronicles, even though it's telling the same story,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: it focuses on different aspects than First and Second Kings.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Did you know first and Second Kings was really focused
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: on the kings of Israel specifically, not of Judah as much,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: though they did mention the Kings of Judah every once
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: in a while, as we read here in First Kings fifteen,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: but generally it talked about the evils that the kings
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of Israel did. That was what the Kings are focusing on.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: But the chronicles are focusing far more on the worship
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: of Yahweh and also the mercy of Yahweh as well.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: So let's read First Kings fifteen one through eight to
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: conclude about how bad of a king of Baijah was.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboah, the son
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of Nabat, a Baijam or a Baija, began to reign
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: name was Maka, the daughter of Abishalam. He walked in
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: all the ways of his father, which he had done
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: before him, and his heart was not perfect with Yeahweh
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: his goad God as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: for David's sake, Yahweh his God gave him a lamp
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem to set up his son after him and
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: to establish Jerusalem. Because David did that which was right
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: in Yahweh's eyes, and didn't turn away from anything that
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: he commanded him all the days of his life, except
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. So that's
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: why God blessed Abijah and gave him power in the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: three years he was king. Was because of his mercy.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: It wasn't because a Bijah was a great king, but
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: because God had promised to David something two generations before
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: a Bijah, and God was going to fulfill his promise
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to David. So that's why God allowed a Bijah to
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: become such a strong king in his three years of
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: rain Verse six. Now, there was war between Reyaboam and
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Jereboam all the days of his life. The rest of
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: the acts of a Baijam and all that he did,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the Kings of Judah. There was war between a Bijam
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: and Jereboam. Abijah slept with his father's and they buried
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: him in David's city, and Asa, his son, reigned in
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: his place. Now, if you keep on reading about a
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Bijah's son Asa, You're gonna notice something real disgusting. Okay.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: In verse ten, it says Asa reigned forty one years
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maka, the daughter of
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: a bi Shalam. Remember at the beginning of this episode
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: that I told you guys to remember who a Bijah's
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: mother was. Abijah's mother was Maka, the daughter of a Bieshlam,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and Asa the son of a Baijah. His mother's name
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: was also Maka, the daughter of a bi Shalam. Who's
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: that's nasty. I don't know if you guys caught that,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: but man, that is disgusting. There was very likely some
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: inbreeding going on here. Or some people do say that
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Maka gained so much power as the queen that she
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: claimed to be the mother of Asa so that she
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: could remain on the throne as the queen mother. Because
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the queen mother was actually a very important role, you'll
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: often see scriptures talk about the queen mother. They don't
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: often talk about like one of the wives as being queen,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: but they do talk about the queen mother. So it
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: is the possibility there is no incest happening here and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Maka just forced herself into the role as queen mother.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: But scripture says Maka was ASA's mother, and scripture also
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: says that Maka was Abijah's mother as well, So something
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: fishy is happening there. Not to mention the fact that
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: if you keep on reading about ASA's story, Asa is
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: one of the few good kings of Israel. And if
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: you read First Kings fifteen thirteen, it says Asa removed
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Maka his mother from being queen because she had made
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: an abominable image for an Asherah. Asa cut down her
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: image and burnt at the brook Kidrin. So twice scripture
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: calls Maka ASA's mother, and she was also his grandmother.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: So that's just really disgusting. I don't know, something seriously
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: fishy was happening in that household during this time, and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: that could have been one of the reasons why a
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Baijah was such a bad king in the eyes of God.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Really strange stuff. The reason I wanted to mention this today,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: even though we're not going to talk about Asa today.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: We'll get into that on Wednesday, it's because Second Chronicles
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: doesn't actually mention that. Only First Kings mentions who ASA's
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: mother is, And I do wonder if the author of
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Chronicles just left that part out, because like I said,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: his focus was not so much on the sin that
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Judah was committing, but on God's mercy and love to
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the nation and the good things that happened in Judah
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: before the Babylonian takeover. It does seem to me that
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: the author of Chronicles was far more focused on the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: positives rather than the negatives, especially since, you know, think
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: about when this was written, the Israelites were finally coming
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: back home after being in Babylonian captivity for seventy years,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: you know, their entire lifetimes. They needed hope, They needed
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: to remind themselves of God's mercy and grace. And I
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: wonder if that's what the author of Chronicles was really
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: focusing on the grace and mercy of God to a
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: fallen nation. So you may not have noticed it at
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the beginning, but you probably notice it now. I have
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: new music for the podcast, and I wrote this song. Well,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: actually my husband wrote it for me, but I redid it.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: I kind of freshened it a little bit for you guys.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: And that's not because Life Audio wanted to change my
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: music or anything. I wanted to do it. In fact,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I was working on this new rendition of my podcast
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: song like two months ago, before I really knew that
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: I was being integrated into Life Audio. I've wanted to
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: update the song for a while, and so I figured
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: now is the perfect time to up to my music.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: So I hope you guys like it all right, faithful listeners,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: will see all of you guys tomorrow for an episode
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: from one Timothy. Until then, happy listening and God bless.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I just want to take a second to thank the
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: team at Life Audio for their partnership with me on
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: lifeaudio dot com you will find dozens of other faith
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Bible study, parenting, and more.