Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 2 Chronicles 32:1-8 - The Near Destruction of Judah

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2 Chronicles 32:1-8 - The Near Destruction of Judah · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Good morning, faithful listeners, Thank you for tuning
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  Speaker 1: into the Bible Explain Podcasts on this wonderful Wednesday morning. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we're in a brand new chapter of the Bible. We're
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  Speaker 1: gonna be talking a whole lot about history today and
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  Speaker 1: some of the archaeological discoveries that were found based upon
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  Speaker 1: today's passage. So I'm looking forward to discussing all that
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  Speaker 1: because history is kind of my I like to nerd
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  Speaker 1: out over history, so there's a lot to nerd out
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  Speaker 1: over today. So we're going to be in second Chronicles
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  Speaker 1: thirty two in just one second now. I hope you
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  Speaker 1: guys have been having a absolutely wonderful start to your
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  Speaker 1: week so far. It has been very cold. You know,
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  Speaker 1: started out nice and warm at the beginning of this week,
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  Speaker 1: and I was very excited. I had my windows open,
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  Speaker 1: I think, on Sunday, and now the ground is fully
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  Speaker 1: covered with snow and the little snowflakes are dropping. And
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  Speaker 1: that's just March, you know, that's just March in my
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  Speaker 1: great state of Ohio. You never quite know what you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna get. But the very good thing about this weather
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  Speaker 1: hopefully it will kill a lot of the bugs, so
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  Speaker 1: I won't find too many in my house this summer.
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  Speaker 1: But tell me about you, guys. I love hearing from
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  Speaker 1: all of you. If you have a prayer request, please
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  Speaker 1: reach out and tell me what that prayer quest is
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  Speaker 1: and I will write you down in my little prayer journal.
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  Speaker 1: So please don't hesitate to reach out to me if
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  Speaker 1: you have something you want me to pray for. All right,
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  Speaker 1: faith listeners, Before we begin today's episode, here's a quick
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  Speaker 1: sponsored ad. Let's read Second Chronicles thirty two one through
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  Speaker 1: eight today. This episode is going to be all about
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  Speaker 1: Hezekiah and the sin he commits, but how he corrects
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  Speaker 1: it very quickly. So once again, this is Second Chronicles
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  Speaker 1: thirty two to one through eight. I'll be reading from
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  Speaker 1: the web, but grab whatever version of the Bible that
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  Speaker 1: you prefer this morning, and let's read this together. After
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  Speaker 1: these things and this faithfulness, Sanakarib, king of Assyria, came
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  Speaker 1: entered into Judah and camped against the forti five cities
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  Speaker 1: and intended to win them for himself. When Hezekiah saw
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  Speaker 1: that Sanagrib had come and that he was planning to
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  Speaker 1: fight against Jerusalem, he took council with his princes and
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  Speaker 1: his mighty men to stop the waters of the springs
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  Speaker 1: which were outside the city, and they helped him. Then
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  Speaker 1: many people gathered together and stopped all the springs and
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  Speaker 1: the brook that flowed through the middle of the land, saying,
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  Speaker 1: why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?
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  Speaker 1: He took courage, built up all the wall that was
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  Speaker 1: broken down and raised it up to the towers with
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  Speaker 1: the other wall outside, and strengthened milo in David's city,
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  Speaker 1: and made weapons and shields in abundance. He set captains
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  Speaker 1: of war over the people, gathered them together to him
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  Speaker 1: in the wide place at the gate of the city,
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  Speaker 1: and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, be strong and courageous.
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  Speaker 1: Don't be afraid or dismayed because of the King of Assyria,
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  Speaker 1: nor for all the multitude who is with him. For
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  Speaker 1: there is a greater one with us than with him.
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  Speaker 1: An arm of flesh is with him. But yahweh, our
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  Speaker 1: God is with us to help us and to fight
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  Speaker 1: our battles. The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah,
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  Speaker 1: king of Judah. At this point in time, Hezekiah has
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  Speaker 1: been the king for fourteen years, and he was actually
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  Speaker 1: a very successful king. It said in the previous chapter
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  Speaker 1: that God helped him in pretty much everything that he
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  Speaker 1: did because of his faithfulness and the fact that he
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  Speaker 1: was trying to bring Israel and Judah back to God
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  Speaker 1: and back to the Old Testament laws. And God protected
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  Speaker 1: him and took care of Judah and there was no problems,
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  Speaker 1: like no foreign nations tried to come up against Judah
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  Speaker 1: for fourteen years of Hezekiah's reign. And this is kind
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  Speaker 1: of unusual in Judah's history, where basically all the nations
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  Speaker 1: were trying to take their peace of Judah, especially in
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  Speaker 1: the days of Hezekiah's dad a Has. You remember a
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  Speaker 1: Has was a really bad king and pretty much was
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  Speaker 1: being attacked from every single side. He was being attacked
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  Speaker 1: from south by the Edomites, he was being attacked on
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  Speaker 1: the east with the Philistines, he was being attacked on
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  Speaker 1: the west and the north with the Syrians and the Israelites.
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  Speaker 1: Even so, it has caused all sorts of problems in Judah.
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  Speaker 1: Many wars were happening just a few years before Hezekiah
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  Speaker 1: became the king. But basically once Hezekiah became the king
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  Speaker 1: and started implementing God's laws, once again, God protected Judah,
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  Speaker 1: and there was no wars, even though there was a
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  Speaker 1: ton only a short time before this. So Hezekiah fourteen
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  Speaker 1: years without any incident. But now the Assyrians come to
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  Speaker 1: make trouble, it says in verse one of our passage
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  Speaker 1: for today. After these things and this faithfulness, Sacrib King
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  Speaker 1: of Assyria, came entered into Judah and camped against the
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  Speaker 1: fortified cities and intended to win them for himself. And
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  Speaker 1: we find out from different passages of scripture, specifically Second
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  Speaker 1: Kings eighteen and Isaiah thirty six, that Snakrib was pretty
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  Speaker 1: successful in taking these fortified cities. Let's turn to Second
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  Speaker 1: Kings eighteen and reverse thirteen. It says, now in the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Senakritav, king of Assyria, came
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  Speaker 1: up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
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  Speaker 1: So yes, he was in fact successful at taking the
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  Speaker 1: fortified cities in Judah. And he might be like, well, Jen,
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  Speaker 1: how is this possible? Because you know God said that
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  Speaker 1: he would protect his people if they actually turned toward him.
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  Speaker 1: So how is it that the Assyrians are coming into
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  Speaker 1: Judah and actually successful in taking these fortified cities. Well,
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  Speaker 1: you have to read the prophets in order to understand
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  Speaker 1: how bad the people really were. Even if they had
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  Speaker 1: a good king and experienced a few years of revival,
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  Speaker 1: that's really all it was, was just a few years,
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  Speaker 1: and then people ended up turning back to their gods,
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  Speaker 1: turning back to their pride, and not really worshiping Yahweh
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  Speaker 1: at all. So the love of Yahweh was very short lived,
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  Speaker 1: and Assyria was able to come in and actually take
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  Speaker 1: these cities. However, God is very merciful and he uses
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  Speaker 1: these things to teach his people, and as we're going
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  Speaker 1: to find out, the Assyrians are not successful for very long,
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  Speaker 1: even though they initially had this success. But regardless, this
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  Speaker 1: is terrifying King Hezekiah obviously because Asyria, who had just
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  Speaker 1: taken Israel only ten years prior to this, now looks
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  Speaker 1: like they're going to be successful in taking all of
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  Speaker 1: Judah as well. So I'm sure that Hezekiah had a
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  Speaker 1: lot of thoughts going on in his head, maybe that
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  Speaker 1: Judah was too far gone, maybe that God was bringing
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  Speaker 1: punishment on Judah for all of the sins they had
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  Speaker 1: done during the days of Ahaz and the previous kings.
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  Speaker 1: Hezekiah was probably having a lot of different thoughts about
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  Speaker 1: what was going on here. So again, in Second Kings eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: starting in verse fourteen, it says Hezekiah, king of Judah,
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  Speaker 1: sent to the King of Assyria at Lakish, saying, I
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  Speaker 1: have offended you, withdraw from me that which you put
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  Speaker 1: on me, I will bear. So the King of Assyria
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  Speaker 1: appointed Hezekiah, King of Judah, three hundred talents of silver
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  Speaker 1: and thirty talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the
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  Speaker 1: silver that was found in Yawai's house and in the
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  Speaker 1: treasuries of the king's house at that time. Hezekiah cut
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  Speaker 1: off the gold from the doors of Yahway's temple and
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  Speaker 1: from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid,
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  Speaker 1: and gave it to the King of Assyria. Now we've
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  Speaker 1: talked about this before about how God is never pleased
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  Speaker 1: when people take things out of the temple to give
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  Speaker 1: them to these evil kings. God is never happy with that,
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  Speaker 1: and unfortunately Hezekiah should have learned from the previous mistakes
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  Speaker 1: of the kings that he should not do that. God
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  Speaker 1: actually said that that was stealing from him when the
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  Speaker 1: people went in and took the gold from the temple
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  Speaker 1: and the silver from the temple. For whatever reason, that
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  Speaker 1: was stealing from God. Those things belonged to him and
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  Speaker 1: also belonged to the priests and the levites as well,
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  Speaker 1: and to the people as a whole, in order to
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  Speaker 1: worship God in a beautiful setting. God didn't want his
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  Speaker 1: temple to be ransacked like that, and Hezekiah, unfortunate in
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  Speaker 1: his fear, ended up agreeing to the terms of the
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  Speaker 1: King of Assyria, who said, you need to send me
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  Speaker 1: all this gold and silver, and then I will go away.
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  Speaker 1: But unfortunately we find out that the King of Assyria
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  Speaker 1: did not go away, even though Hezekiah did send him
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  Speaker 1: all this gold and all of this silver. The prophet
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah wrote about this event in some detail. So let's
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  Speaker 1: see what Isaiah writes about this. In Isaiah thirty six
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  Speaker 1: one through nine, it says, in the fourteenth year of
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  Speaker 1: King Hezekiah, Senakra of the King of Assyria attacked all
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  Speaker 1: the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. The King
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  Speaker 1: of Assyria sent Rabshika from Lakeish to Jerusalem to King
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  Speaker 1: Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct
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  Speaker 1: from the upper pool in the Fuller's Field Highway. Then
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  Speaker 1: Elia come the son of Hilkia, who was over the household,
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  Speaker 1: and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph
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  Speaker 1: the recorder, came out to him. So yes, senakre of
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  Speaker 1: the king of Assyria, did not go away even after
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  Speaker 1: he was paid. He probably actually saw the payment from
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  Speaker 1: King Hezekiah as a form of weakness and probably thought
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  Speaker 1: that was a good opportunity to go and actually take
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  Speaker 1: Jerusalem for himself. He was probably thinking, oh, well, I
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  Speaker 1: took all these other fortified cities in Judah, how much
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  Speaker 1: stronger could Jerusalem be. So he sends his rab Shaika,
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  Speaker 1: which was a term for a general from Lakeish, which
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  Speaker 1: was a city that Senakra was currently taking in Judah,
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  Speaker 1: over to Jerusalem to meet Hezekiah with this huge army.
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  Speaker 1: And it says that the Rabshika stood by the aqueduct
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  Speaker 1: from the upper pool in the Fuller's Field Highway. Now
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  Speaker 1: that was a sign of aggression. I mean, the whole
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  Speaker 1: thing was a sign of aggression. But the fact that
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  Speaker 1: the rab Shaika goes and stands in the aqueduct from
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  Speaker 1: the upper pool, that was to signal to the city
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  Speaker 1: that he was about to cut off their water supply, saying,
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  Speaker 1: I have control of all the water in your city,
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  Speaker 1: and if I cut this off, your people are not
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  Speaker 1: going to have any water, and we will be able
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  Speaker 1: to easily come in and take your city. So the
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  Speaker 1: Rabshika thought he was doing something very smart right here.
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  Speaker 1: But it turns out that Hezekiah was prepared for this,
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  Speaker 1: because if he turned to our passage for today in
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  Speaker 1: Second Chronicles thirty two, it says in verse two that
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  Speaker 1: when Hezekiah saw that Sanagreb had come into Judah and
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  Speaker 1: that he was planning to fight against Jerusalem, he took
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  Speaker 1: council with his princes and with his mighty men to
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  Speaker 1: stop the waters of the springs which were outside of
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  Speaker 1: the city, and they helped him. Then many people gathered
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  Speaker 1: together and they stopped all the springs and the brook
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  Speaker 1: that flowed through the middle of the land, saying why
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  Speaker 1: should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water.
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  Speaker 1: Hezekiah was totally prepared for Jerusalem to have their water
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  Speaker 1: supply cut off, because don't forget back. In these days,
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  Speaker 1: that was a death sentence. You know, people didn't have
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  Speaker 1: running water. They had to physically go to a well
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  Speaker 1: with a bucket every single day and get their water
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  Speaker 1: for the day. You know, it was very different back
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  Speaker 1: in these days. So somebody standing in the water being like,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to shut off your water supply, that would
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  Speaker 1: be very scary if the city was not prepared for that.
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  Speaker 1: But it turned out that Hezekiah was because he saw
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  Speaker 1: that Sanakrib was coming against Jerusalem very soon. So even
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  Speaker 1: though Hezekiah made some very serious mistakes by going into
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  Speaker 1: the temple and trying to pay off Sanakrib, he was
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  Speaker 1: also preparing behind the scenes in the meantime. And one
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  Speaker 1: of the things he did is says that he redirected
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  Speaker 1: the water from one of the water sources outside the
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  Speaker 1: city so that the water would flow into Jerusalem and
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  Speaker 1: all the people would have enough water. In fact, my
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  Speaker 1: handy dandy Archaeological Study Bible talks about this at some
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  Speaker 1: length because they actually found the tunnel that Hezekiah dug,
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  Speaker 1: and there's an interesting little inscription on it, which I
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  Speaker 1: will read for you in a second. So here's what
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  Speaker 1: my Archaeological Study Bible says about this quote. The Gihan
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  Speaker 1: spring in the Kidrin Valley was Jerusalem's crucial water resource
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  Speaker 1: and a large quarter mile long conduit brought the water
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  Speaker 1: from there to a reservoir at the southern end of
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  Speaker 1: the city of David. Since this water supply lay outside
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  Speaker 1: the city's walls and was vulnerable in a time of siege,
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  Speaker 1: a subsidiary tunnel leading from the Saloam conduit allowed the
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  Speaker 1: residents to access the water from inside the city walls.
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  Speaker 1: In preparation for the Assyrian attack, Hezekiah cut an additional
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  Speaker 1: tunnel to divert the water from the Gihan Spring directly
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  Speaker 1: underground to the pool of Saloam, which now lay within
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  Speaker 1: the city walls, whereupon the old water system was apparently abandoned.
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  Speaker 1: Two cruise of men worked from opposite ends, digging through
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  Speaker 1: the bedrock. At the point where the two teams met,
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  Speaker 1: they carved the following inscription on the tunnel wall, known
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  Speaker 1: as the Saloam Inscription quote the day of the breach.
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  Speaker 1: This is the record of how the tunnel was breached.
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  Speaker 1: While the excavators were wheeled their pick axes, each man
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  Speaker 1: toward his coworker, and while there were yet three cubits
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  Speaker 1: of breach, a voice was heard, each man calling his
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  Speaker 1: coworker because there was a cavity in the rock extending
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  Speaker 1: from the south to the north. So on the day
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  Speaker 1: of the breach, the excavator struck each man to meet
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  Speaker 1: his coworker pickaxe against pick axe. Then the water flowed
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  Speaker 1: from the spring to the pool a distance of one
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  Speaker 1: thousand and two hundred cubits. One hundred cubits was the
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  Speaker 1: height of the rock above the heads of the excavators unquote.
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  Speaker 1: And then at the bottom it shows a little picture
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  Speaker 1: of the inscription that was found on the Saloam tunnel.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's what Hezekiah did in order to prepare
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  Speaker 1: for the attack from the Assyrians. Was he dug another
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  Speaker 1: tunnel to make sure that the water was flowing into
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  Speaker 1: Jerusalem and all the people could drink. So it's really
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  Speaker 1: funny that the Rabshaika thought he was being threatening by
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  Speaker 1: standing in that pool, not knowing that Jerusalem had plenty
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  Speaker 1: of water due to Hezekiah's foresight. And also whiz that
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure God helped him with, so kind of a
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  Speaker 1: cool little story. There. Now another thing that Hezekiah did
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  Speaker 1: to prepare for the Assyrian attack. It says in verse
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  Speaker 1: five of our passage for today, he took courage, built
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  Speaker 1: up all the wall that was broken down and raised
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  Speaker 1: it up to the towers with the other wall outside,
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  Speaker 1: and strengthened milo in David's city and made weapons and
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  Speaker 1: shields in abundance. So instead of going and attacking the
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  Speaker 1: Assyrians directly, Hezekiah chose defense instead of offense. He might
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  Speaker 1: have already known that the other cities at this time
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  Speaker 1: were pretty much going to be taken and there was
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  Speaker 1: nothing he could do at this point to fight against
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  Speaker 1: the Assyrians or protect them. But if Jerusalem fell, that
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  Speaker 1: meant that all of Judah fell, which was why Hezekiah
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  Speaker 1: chose to build Jerusalem up at this point and chose
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  Speaker 1: defense rather than offense. So he starts building the wall
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  Speaker 1: while all of the Assyrians are focused on these small
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  Speaker 1: fortified cities. Hezekiah says, built up all the wall that
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  Speaker 1: was broken down around Jerusalem and raised it up to
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  Speaker 1: the towers. Now, in another archaeological dig, part of this
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  Speaker 1: wall that Hezekiah built was found, and based upon what
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  Speaker 1: people found of this wall, what Hezekiah did to build
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  Speaker 1: it up was he moved people's homes that were near
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  Speaker 1: or inside the wall and took those people and re
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  Speaker 1: homed them further into the city and built those walls
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  Speaker 1: even thicker where the homes had once been. So that
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  Speaker 1: was something he did to make sure that the walls
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  Speaker 1: were really, really fortified, super thick walls. And he also
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  Speaker 1: built up the watch towers and strengthened Milo in David's city,
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  Speaker 1: which people think that Milo was like a base essentially
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  Speaker 1: for the king's army. It also says that he made
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  Speaker 1: weapons and shields in abundance. He set captains of war
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  Speaker 1: over the people, gathered them together to him in the
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  Speaker 1: wide place the gate of the city, and spoke encouragingly
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  Speaker 1: to them. So he's building things protecting the people that
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  Speaker 1: lived inside the walls by bringing them further into the city.
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  Speaker 1: He's making more swords and shields for his people. And
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  Speaker 1: he's also organizing his army even better by setting the
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  Speaker 1: captains of war over the people. And then he gathers
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  Speaker 1: all of the captains, all of the leaders of his army,
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  Speaker 1: and gives them a pep talk. And here's what he
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  Speaker 1: says in verse seven. Be strong and courageous, don't be
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  Speaker 1: afraid or dismayed because of the King of Assyria, nor
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  Speaker 1: for all the multitude who is with him, For there
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  Speaker 1: is a greater one with us than with him, and
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  Speaker 1: arm of flesh is with him. But yahweh our God
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  Speaker 1: is with us to help us and to fight our battles.
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  Speaker 1: And the people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah,
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  Speaker 1: King of Judah. So the people in Jerusalem really trusted
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  Speaker 1: Hezekiah because after this pep talk they feel relieved. He's like,
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  Speaker 1: don't be afraid of the Assyrians because God is not
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  Speaker 1: with them. God is with us. The only thing helping
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  Speaker 1: them is an arm of flesh. But God is with us.
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  Speaker 1: We have an all powerful, almighty God on our side,
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  Speaker 1: so we will be okay even if the Assyrians try
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  Speaker 1: to attack us. So Hezekiah, it looks like has finally
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  Speaker 1: got his heart back in the right place. He may
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  Speaker 1: have started out very fearful by taking all of the
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  Speaker 1: beautiful things from God's temple and giving it to the
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  Speaker 1: Assyrian king. There's also some evidence that during that time
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  Speaker 1: of fear, Hezekiah also tried to make a peace treaty
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  Speaker 1: with the Egyptians and have the Egyptians come and help
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  Speaker 1: him as well. And the reason I say that is
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  Speaker 1: because of Isaiah thirty six, where the rab Sheaika, the
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  Speaker 1: guy that's standing in the aqueduct. Here's what he says.
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  Speaker 1: He says, behold, you trust in the staff of this
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  Speaker 1: bruised read even in Egypt, which if a man leans
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  Speaker 1: on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it.
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  Speaker 1: So is the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all who
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: trust in him. And then jumping down to verse nine,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: he says, how then can you turn away the face
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  Speaker 1: of the captain of the least of my master servants
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  Speaker 1: and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: So apparently word had gotten out that Hezekiah had tried
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: to go to Pharaoh for help against the Assyrians. Now
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: this was not a good thing to do either, because
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: God had specifically told his people not to go back
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: to Egypt for help, because the Egyptians had once enslaved
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: his people. So he did not want the people trying
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to return to Egypt for any particular reason. He just
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: wanted the people to trust in him that he could
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: take care of everything that was going on in Israel
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: at this time. But unfortunately, the Israelites never really listened
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to this, and we're always trying to return to Egypt
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: for whatever reason. I do not know why. But Isaiah
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: prophesies against the Israelites for doing this time and time again.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: In Isaiah thirty Versus one and five, here's what God says,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Woe to the rebellious children. It says, Yahweh, who take
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: counsel not from Me, but who make an alliance not
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: with My spirit, that they may add sin to sin.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: They set out to go down into Egypt without asking
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: for My advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Pharaoh and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For their
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: princes are a zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Haines.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: They shall be ashamed because of the people that can't
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: profit them. They are not a help or a prophet,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: but a shame and also a reproach. That's what God
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: says about his people constantly returning to Egypt for help,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: and Scripture lightly alludes to the fact that Hezekiah had
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: tried in his fear to get Pharaoh to help him.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: But I think the difference between Hezekiah and many of
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the other kings was that Hezekiah learned learned from his mistakes,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: at least usually he did. When he did something wrong,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: he learned from it. And I think our passage for
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: today second Chronicles thirty two really proves that Hezekiah was
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: learning from his previous mistakes of being too fearful, and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: he knows now that God is on his side, that
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: he doesn't have to go into God's temple and destroy
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: it and take all of the beautiful things out of it.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: He now realizes he doesn't have to go to the
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Pharaoh and ask for help because he's got the God
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: of the universe on his side. And that's a lesson
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: for you and I as well. How many times do
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: we try to go to people when we have a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: problem or we need help in some way, instead of
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: going to God, who created everything, who knows us inside
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and out, and who actively wants to help us in
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: all of our problems. But the reason we don't go
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: to God first, I think, is because we want to
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: control the situation. We don't want God to take control
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: of it because we don't think God is going to
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: act fast enough. We might not like the way he works,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: we might not want what God wants, but all God
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: is asking is for us to trust in him and
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: to trust in the way that he does things, even
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: if it's not necessarily on our terms. He knows exactly
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: how to work a situation out, whereas human beings, even
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: if they do try to help you, they certainly can't
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: help you to the same extent that God can help you.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Or more likely, they'll say they want to help you,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: but then they'll do nothing to actually help you. But
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the God of the universe, he actually wants to help you,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and he wants your trust that he is going to
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: work things out for your good and for his glory.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: So just trust in him the way Hezekiah did. Even
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: though he initially sinned, he turned toward God in the end,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: And we're going to find out next week how God
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: ends up helping his people through this when they finally
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: learn to trust in him. I think today's episode was
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: a good lesson for all of us, you know, because
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I think that these Old Testament stories sometimes we don't
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: quite understand how they can apply to us. But all
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: of this is history, and history definitely applies to us
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: because we can learn from these things and not make
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the same mistakes that other people make. And we can
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: also see how God works things out perfectly for both Hezekiah,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Judah and for his own glory. So all of this
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: is just great story, awesome history of God's love for
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: his people, and not to mention, the Bible is historically
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: accurate as well. I mentioned two things that archaeologists actually
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: found regarding this short little passage that we just talked about.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Two things that Hezekiah built to prepare for the Assyrian attack.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: So I always love how the Bible and history and
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: archaeology always line up with each other, because the Bible
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: is the truth. But faithful listeners, before I say goodbye
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: to all of you, here's a quick ad break. On Monday,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the speech that this awful
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: rab Shaika gives to the people in Jerusalem and how
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: blasphemous this speech actually was. We're also going to talk
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: about God's response to this blasphemous speech because this guy
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: actually says he's coming in Yahweh's name. Interestingly enough, he's like, yeah,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: you know, God told me to destroy this entire land,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: so that's why I'm here. But thankfully, Hezekiah does not
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: allow this speech to terrify him, and he turns to
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: God instead. So We're going to talk about God's response
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: to all of this blasphemy against his name and also
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: the protection he gives his people. So I hope to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: see you guys on Monday for a really great episode
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: from Second Chronicles thirty two. But, faithful listeners, I hope
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: you all have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I hope you've been enjoying the Bible Explain podcast and
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: if you have been shared on your social media platforms
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and tell people that this podcast exists. Faithful listeners, happy listening,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and God bless. I just want to take a second
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: you go to lifeaudio dot com you'll find dozens of
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.