Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture 2 Kings 21-24, 2 Chr 33-35
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: It's good to see you today on this edition of our Journey Through Scripture. My name is Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin, and we're continuing to go through our chronological look through the Bible. We're going to be reading today 2 Kings 21 through 24 and 2 Chronicles 33 through 35. I know I had said Zephaniah. We're going to actually push that. So let's do 2 Kings 21 through 24. Second Chronicles 33 through 35. All right. So, well, when we left off ⁓ last time with the death of Hezekiah and kind of the ramifications of that. Hezekiah was a very good king. He did a whole lot to restore and to make up for all the things that King Ahaz had done and to restore the temple, to ⁓ reinstate the Passover, did lots of good things. ⁓ But yet there was still lots of challenges going on, but he had repelled Assyria. ⁓ And so now his son, Manasseh comes ⁓ into play and Manasseh is an evil king. So Judah is clearly now on this path of good king, bad king, good king, bad king. Manasseh is Hezekiah's son, but the apple has fallen very far from the tree. And we see Manasseh ⁓ immediately starts to reintroduce pagan religions and pagan practices. And again, we saw this all the way back during the time of Solomon, that he started allowing some of this stuff to come in and Hezekiah got rid of all of that. But Manasseh obviously ⁓ fell into that. And it does, it's a good reminder that it doesn't matter how much you do to eliminate something ⁓ bad. There's going to be the opportunity for people to still participate in it, right? Manasseh, he saw his dad try to get rid of all of this stuff, but it had already impacted him. And then he made the choice to follow those gods rather than the one true God, even though we'll see he did have a time and a moment of repentance towards the end of his life. But the damage that he did to the nation was overwhelming. says he was 12 years old when he became king. He reigned 55 years. And he did evil. This is 2 Kings 21. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He raised up altars for Baal. He made a wooden image as Ahab, king of Israel, had done, and he worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served them. He also built altars in the house of the Lord, ⁓ of which the Lord had said, in Jerusalem I'll put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. Also, he made his son pass through the fire, practice susane, used witchcraft, and consulted spirits and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. He even set a carved image of Asherah as he made in the house of the Lord, which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them. And according to all the law, my servant Moses commanded them, but they paid no attention. and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel." So Manasseh is just completely desecrating everything. And it's interesting how the writer of 2 Kings here reminds us of the promises that God had made. He had made these wonderful promises, but there were always conditions that people had to remain faithful. And Manasseh is clearly moving the people further and further away from God. continue on, says, ⁓ verse 12, there it is, Therefore, thus says the Lord the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab. I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the land of their enemies. And they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies because they have done evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day." So basically, God is saying this is it. Judah, you are now going to experience what the Northern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel, had experienced. Manasseh also ⁓ shed innocent blood, says, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. he led the people in sin. Just as Hezekiah had led the people to a rejuvenation, many of the people just followed Manasseh right back to the pagan worship. Then we have ⁓ in chapter 21, we ⁓ have ⁓ Amnon's ⁓ reign and his death. This is in verse 19. ⁓ Amnon was 22 years old whenever he became king. He only reigned a couple of years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord as his father Manasseh had done. And then ⁓ his servants actually ⁓ Conspired against him and killed the king in his own house, but the people of the land Executed all who had conspired against King Amnon the people of the land made his son Josiah King in his place Josiah was eight years old so it's interesting what happens here, so you We don't know for sure. don't you know, but but you had Hezekiah a good king So I'm sure there were lots of people who liked that liked where he was going, but there would have been some who didn't Then so then Manasseh comes and he starts the pagan practices over again. Again, remember these kings are there for years and years and years. Manasseh is there for 55 years. And so he's there leading the nation astray. His son takes over, is doing just as bad as he is, and he is killed. And then the people see that as an opportunity. Well, you know what? We need to get rid of the people who killed Amnon and let's maybe let's put in this kid. and see what he can do. So Josiah comes in. Josiah actually turns out to be one of the best kings that Judah ever has. So Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He reigned 31 years. Now this is chapter 22 of 2 Kings. He did right and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. He followed the Lord. He clearly started early on. ⁓ restoring the temple, cleaning the temple up. And in that process, this is 18 years ⁓ later, they're still working on the house of the Lord, repairing the damages. You read in chapter 3 there of 2 Kings, chapter 22, ⁓ starting in verse 3, 4, 5, it talks about they're taking money to give to the priest. They have complete... trusts that the priest are using the money to rebuild the temple. And it says, then Hilkiah, the high priest said to Shafon the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shafon and he read it. So the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word saying, your servants have gathered the money was found in the house and have delivered it to the hand of those who do the work who oversee the house of the Lord. Then the scribe showed the king, saying, "'Hilkiah the priest has given me a book,' and ⁓ Shafon read it before the king. Now it happened when the king heard the words of the book of the law that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, ⁓ Achim, son of Shafon, Achbor, and the son of Micaiah, Shafon the scribe, and Asheah, a servant of the king, saying, "'Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book.'" that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us." Most people think this is a book of Deuteronomy, the book of the law. And when King Josiah reads this, he realizes how far away from God the people have gone. And so he was trying to fix the kind of the buildings, the structure, the priestly structure, the temple, all of that. But whenever he read this, he realized it was so much more than just the priestly structures. So he is talking with the priest, Hukaiya the priest. They went to Huldah the prophetess. It's very interesting. You don't see a whole lot of prophetess in that time period, but here is Huldah. The prophetess speaks to the king and she said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man who sent you to me, that would have been King Josiah, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and to its inhabitants all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched. But as for the King of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord in this manner, you shall speak to him. Thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become desolation and a curse. And you tore your clothes and wept before me. I also have heard you, says the Lord. Surely therefore I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place." So they brought back this word to the king. So the hold of the prophetess gives us ⁓ both a very negative but a positive prophecy to King Josiah. She says, the damage is done. The people have gone way too far, what Manasseh did was over the top, the people have rebelled, they are going to pay the price. But God recognizes King Josiah and his desire to try to restore the nation. so the promise is that King Josiah will not experience the defeat that is coming to the kingdom of Judah. I think of that and if I'm king in that situation, how do I respond to that? Because that's still pretty frustrating, right? ⁓ But King Josiah, he just even goes harder after getting rid of the pagan ⁓ temples and pagan worship. He knows it's not that he doesn't believe the prophecy of what will happen. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the nation is... ⁓ going to experience God's wrath because of what they have done. Josiah is concerned about what they're doing now, and it was important that they start worshiping God now to prepare them for when that time comes. Maybe that's kind of the place that we're in right now. Maybe we're going to experience some of the ramifications of a society that has turned its back on God, but we can start preparing right now for whatever may come. so that we will be a strong remnant and that we will be able to continue to worship and to praise God even as society struggles around us. So then, 2 Kings chapter 23, ⁓ Josiah restores ⁓ true worship. So he really starts ⁓ getting the priest involved, the Levites involved. going out tearing down all the idols, those who burned incense to Baal. It goes through, I encourage you to read through 2 Kings 23 and what he is doing. It says, verse 5, then he removed the idolatrous priest whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places and those who burned incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the hosts of heaven. He brought out the wooden images from the house of the Lord and burned them. ⁓ All of these different things. In verse 10, this is a very dark ⁓ aspect, it says, he defiled Tofeth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnon, that no man might make his son or daughter pass through the fire of Molech. What is that probably talking about? That is talking about child sacrifice. Remember Manasseh made one of his sons pass through the fire. more than likely, he sacrificed his son to Molech. It's a good chance ⁓ of that. It's important to know that every society has had, you know, throughout history, there have been elements that will sacrifice children, that it is kind of a symbol of who is in control, of doing things to appease the gods, of convenience, to appease the gods so that you can get what you want. I believe in a way that's what abortion is for our society today. ⁓ It kind of is a way for us to choose ⁓ how to make our lives easier and to appease and to practice an ancient ritual in what we would consider, our society would consider a civilized way. I think it's important to think about that, unfortunately every civilization somewhere in their history ⁓ has had a time where they sacrificed children. ⁓ Obviously, this goes against the desires of God. So King Josiah is recognizing that. is getting rid of all of these things and continues to get rid of them throughout his reign. ⁓ Kind of an interesting, he's going, even the, he's digging up false prophets and priests and even burning their ⁓ bones, but he comes across ⁓ one gravestone. This is in verse 17. Says, then he said, what gravestone is this that I see? So the man of the city told him, it's the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed that these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel. So was the prophet who came down and said, This is wrong and this is what's going to happen. And he said, let him alone, let no one move his bones. So they left him alone with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. So Josiah continued to do that. In verse 25 it says, Now before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor after him did any arise like him." So Josiah was clearly above the rest. He was passionate, even though he knew that the nation was going to experience judgment. He was more faithful than any other king. Now, second Chronicles, I encourage you to read 33 through 35. You're gonna see a lot of the same stuff. There's a lot of repetition in this. Chapter 33 of second Chronicles talks about ⁓ Manasseh, the bad that he did. But then there's verse 10, says, "'And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze, and carried him off to Babylon. Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord ⁓ his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to him, and he received his entreaty." heard his supplication and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God." So it's interesting that Manasseh actually had a change of heart late in his reign. It says, verse 16, he also repaired the altar of the Lord, sacrificed peace-offering and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the Lord, their God. So there was some change during his time, but the seed was already set. The majority of the people had already turned away from him. ⁓ Manasseh then ⁓ passes away. It mentions Amnon and his son and how the servants killed him. And then Josiah chapter 34 talks about Josiah finding the book of law, just as we just talked about in 2 Kings. Then ⁓ chapter 35 is different. It talks a lot about Josiah and keeping the Passover, because the chroniclers always talk more about some of the temple worship rituals and things like that, so they spend a lot of time talking about how he restored the Passover. But other than that, they're very similar as they talk about King Josiah. All right, so that will... We'll get to the end of King Josiah. ⁓ We're moving rapidly to the destruction of the Southern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Judah. ⁓ But next week, we're going to kind of get a little preview of that, but as well as the celebration. So we're going to read Zephaniah 1 through 3. That's a look at what is to come from whenever all the stuff with Manasseh happened. And then we're also going to read Psalm 33, 66 and 67, and Psalm 100, which these are Psalms of reflection and of praise in response to what King Josiah did. So it's kind of these, something that is important for us to be able to recognize, two things can be true at once. The people are going to be experiencing judgment because of what they have done. That's in Zephaniah, we're going to see that. but they also can be thankful for the turnaround that they saw under King Josiah and that they see that as God is working, even as a society, they are continually to this slow trend away from God. All right, so Zephaniah 1-3 and then Psalm 33, 66 and 67 and Psalm 100.