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2 Chronicles 28:16-27 - Why Idolatry Always Breeds Selfishness · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life audio. Hi, and good morning friends and faithful listeners,
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Speaker 1: and welcome to Second Chronicles chapter twenty eight. We're gonna
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Speaker 1: be finishing up this chapter today and talking about why
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Speaker 1: idolatry in every form breeds selfishness. That'll be our topic
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Speaker 1: for today, not to mention just the rest of King
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Speaker 1: a Has his very sad life where he just refused
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Speaker 1: to accept anything that God gave him, even a prophecy
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Speaker 1: at one point in time, a Has just completely rejected it,
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Speaker 1: and we ended up getting one of the most famous
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Speaker 1: verses in history because of a Has his rejection of
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Speaker 1: one of God's profits. So we'll talk about that today
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Speaker 1: as well. Okay, faithful listeners, I'm not gonna lie. My
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Speaker 1: throat is really killing me right now, so I'm going
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Speaker 1: to jump right into the episode right after a short
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Speaker 1: add break. Okay, let's jump right in. We're gonna be
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Speaker 1: reading Second Chronicles Chapter twenty eight, verses sixteen through twenty seven,
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Speaker 1: finishing up this chapter talking about the life and death
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Speaker 1: of King a Has. We'll also be switching around in
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Speaker 1: scripture quite a bit, actually, so we'll be discussing some
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Speaker 1: things from Second Kings and then also the prophets Isaiah
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Speaker 1: and Joel. So definitely grab your Bibles for this one
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Speaker 1: if you're able to, if you're not driving or at work.
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Speaker 1: I always recommend you guys grab a Bible for yourselves,
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Speaker 1: and don't just take my word for it, because I
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Speaker 1: am human and I make mistakes, so you should read
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Speaker 1: it for yourselves. But again, let's go ahead and start
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Speaker 1: in second chronicles twenty eight sixteen through twenty seven. I'll
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Speaker 1: be reading as usual from the web. At that time,
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Speaker 1: King A has sent to the kings of Assyria to
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Speaker 1: help him, for again the Edomites had come and struck
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Speaker 1: Judah and carried away captives. The Philistines had also invaded
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Speaker 1: the cities of the lowland and of the south of Judah,
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Speaker 1: and had taken Beth Schemesh, Ajalon, Jederoth, Soko with its villages,
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Speaker 1: Timnoh with its villages, and also Gimzo and its villages,
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Speaker 1: and they lived there. For Yahweh brought Judah low because
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Speaker 1: of Ahaz, king of Israel, because he acted without restraint
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Speaker 1: in Judah and trespassed severely against Yahweh. Tigleth Palazer, king
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Speaker 1: of Assyria, came to him and gave him trouble. But
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Speaker 1: didn't strengthen him. For AHAs took away a portion out
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Speaker 1: of Yaowai's house and out of the house of the
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Speaker 1: king and of the princes, and gave it to the
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Speaker 1: king of Assyria. But it didn't help him. In the
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Speaker 1: time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: this same king AHAs, for he sacrificed to the gods
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Speaker 1: of Damascus, which had defeated him. He said, because the
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Speaker 1: gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will
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Speaker 1: sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they
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Speaker 1: were the ruin of him and all Israel. Ah has
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Speaker 1: gathered together the vessels of God's house, cut the vessels
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Speaker 1: of God's house in pieces, and shut up the doors
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Speaker 1: of Yahwai's house. And he made himself altars in every
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Speaker 1: corner of Jerusalem, in every city of Judah. He made
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Speaker 1: high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: the God of his fathers, to anger. Now the rest
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Speaker 1: of his acts and all his ways first and last, behold,
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Speaker 1: they are written in the book of the Kings of Judah.
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Speaker 1: And israel A has slept with his fathers, and they
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Speaker 1: buried him in the city even in Jerusalem, because they
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Speaker 1: didn't bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel,
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Speaker 1: and Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his place. We've been
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Speaker 1: studying a Has for a few days now, and if
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Speaker 1: you guys remember what we talked about earlier, a Has
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Speaker 1: was a really bad king. I mean, it kind of
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Speaker 1: explains that right here in the portion we just read.
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Speaker 1: But a Has was a bad king because not only
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Speaker 1: did he sacrifice to all these other gods, but he
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Speaker 1: also introduced human sacrifice into Judah. And this was something
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Speaker 1: that was not really introduced before that we know of.
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Speaker 1: There were I'm sure some niche groups that performed human
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Speaker 1: sacrifice in Judah, but it was not the commonplace, not
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Speaker 1: until a Has brings all of this garbage in to Judah.
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Speaker 1: So God is angry, obviously with a Has and with
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Speaker 1: all of this idolatry that's taking place in Judah. And
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Speaker 1: these wars start happening in Judah because God is beginning
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Speaker 1: to take his hand of blessing off of Judah. And
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Speaker 1: we talked about all that the other day. One of
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Speaker 1: the first things that happens is the Syrians come in
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Speaker 1: and they actually take a city in the northern part
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Speaker 1: of Judah, and they took a whole bunch of hostages
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Speaker 1: away from Judah and enslaved them. And then also the
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Speaker 1: Israelite king, like the King of Israel up north, was
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Speaker 1: also attacking Judah and slaughtered like one hundred and twenty
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Speaker 1: thousand of their warriors overnight. That's what it says in
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Speaker 1: verse six of this chapter. And this is a very
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Speaker 1: important verse because of what it says at the end.
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Speaker 1: Here it says, for Peka, the son of Ramalia, killed
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Speaker 1: in Judah one hundred and twenty thousand in one day,
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Speaker 1: all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: the God of their fathers. So it wasn't just a
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Speaker 1: has that God was punishing. He was punishing Judah because
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Speaker 1: all the people had forsaken God. They all followed in
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Speaker 1: the footsteps of AHAs and were performing these idolatrous rituals,
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Speaker 1: whether it was human sacrifice, vice, or religious prostitution or
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Speaker 1: fesis worship, whatever it might be, that the Judaites were
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Speaker 1: doing it. This time God was not happy with and
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Speaker 1: so God was beginning to take his hand of blessing
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Speaker 1: off of Judah. But yet we talked about how we
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Speaker 1: can still see God working in Judah in spite of
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Speaker 1: all of these problems that were taking place. God was
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Speaker 1: protecting certain people. He was helping his people and showing
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Speaker 1: mercy to them in spite of these wars that they
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Speaker 1: were experiencing. So now let's jump to verse sixteen, which
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Speaker 1: is where we started reading today, and get into how
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Speaker 1: Ah has responds to all of these problems he's experiencing
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Speaker 1: in Judah. It says in verse sixteen that at that
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Speaker 1: time King A has sent to the kings of Assyria
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Speaker 1: to help him, for again the Edomites had come and
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Speaker 1: struck Judah and carried away captives. The Philistines had also
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Speaker 1: invaded the cities of the lowland and of the south
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Speaker 1: of Judah and had taken Beth schamesh Ajalon, Jederath, and
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Speaker 1: Soko with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and also
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Speaker 1: Gimzo and its villages, and they lived there. So there
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Speaker 1: is problems happening on every single side of Judah at
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Speaker 1: this point in time, like God is trying to get
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Speaker 1: through to Judah that they need a savior. Problems are
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Speaker 1: coming from all around them, coming from up north in Israel,
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Speaker 1: coming from the west, which would have been Assyria and
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Speaker 1: Syria coming from the south with Edom coming in and attacking,
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Speaker 1: and not to mention the Philistines near where the Gaza
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Speaker 1: Strip is to the east, even the Philistines were attacking
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Speaker 1: the Judites at this point in time, So everybody, literally
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Speaker 1: the Judites are surrounded by enemies and they had no
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Speaker 1: one to help them. And it says right here in
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Speaker 1: verse nineteen that this happened because a Has, king of Israel,
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Speaker 1: acted without restraint in Judah and trespassed severely against Yahweh.
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Speaker 1: It says specifically that Yahweh brought Judah low because of this. So, yeah,
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Speaker 1: earlier in verse six of this chapter, we saw that
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Speaker 1: God brought Judah low because the people themselves were trespassing
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Speaker 1: against Yahweh. But now we see that God is bringing
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Speaker 1: Judah low because a Has, the king of Judah, is
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Speaker 1: also trespassing severely against Yahweh and encouraging this idolatry that's
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Speaker 1: going on in Judah. At this point, we got to
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Speaker 1: turn over to Second Kings, chapter sixteen to read a
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Speaker 1: little bit more about what a Has does in order
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Speaker 1: to supposedly protect himself. It says in verse seven a
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Speaker 1: Has sent messengers to tig with Palazer, the King of Syria, saying,
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Speaker 1: I am your servant and your son. Come up and
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Speaker 1: save me out of the hand of the King of Syria,
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Speaker 1: and out of the hand of the King of Israel,
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Speaker 1: who rise up against me. So A has took the
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Speaker 1: silver and the gold that was found in Yahwa's house
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Speaker 1: and in the treasures of the King's house, and sent
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Speaker 1: it to a present to the King of Assyria. We
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Speaker 1: covered this exact topic last year when we were in
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Speaker 1: the Book of Second Kings, but when I was rereading
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Speaker 1: it for today's passage, the one thing that really struck
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Speaker 1: me is that A has seems to be worshiping the
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Speaker 1: King of Assyria right here. And here's what I mean
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Speaker 1: by this. He sends word to take with Pelaizer, the
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Speaker 1: King of Assyria, and he says to him, I am
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Speaker 1: your servant and your son. In the New Testament, when
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Speaker 1: the apostles prayed to God, what did they often say
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Speaker 1: to God, God, I am your servant. That's how Paul,
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Speaker 1: you know, would start all of his letters. He'd be
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Speaker 1: like Paul, a prisoner for Christ, a servant of Christ,
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Speaker 1: a slave of Christ. And the reason the apostles called
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Speaker 1: themselves slaves of Christ. Was because they worshiped Christ. They
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Speaker 1: dedicated their lives completely to God. So whatever God's will was,
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Speaker 1: they were going to submit to that will. They would
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Speaker 1: rather become a servant of God and submit to God's will,
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Speaker 1: which is perfect and all knowing, rather than submit to
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Speaker 1: their own will, which is fleeting and potentially harmful and
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Speaker 1: certainly not all knowing. And that's why the apostles called
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Speaker 1: themselves the servants of God. And that is what a
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Speaker 1: Has says to Tig with Polazer, the king of Assyria,
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Speaker 1: which by the way, a terrible person to reach out to,
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Speaker 1: especially if you know what was happening in the Middle
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Speaker 1: East at this point in time. Assyria is conquering everybody
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Speaker 1: like they were just going like scorched earth on the world.
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Speaker 1: They actually went into Israel and pretty much completely destroyed
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Speaker 1: it right around this time, and they also destroyed Syria
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Speaker 1: as well. The Assyrians were not somebody that you wanted
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Speaker 1: to mess with or really to give any amount of
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Speaker 1: control over your nation whatsoever, because if you did, they
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Speaker 1: just come in and take it from you. And that
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Speaker 1: is essentially what a Has is doing. He's like giving
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Speaker 1: himself over to these Assyrians. Not only does he call
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Speaker 1: himself the servant of the Assyrians, he also calls himself
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Speaker 1: their son. He says, I am your servant and your son.
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Speaker 1: That also reminds me of when we worship God, when
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Speaker 1: we pray to God. How many times in the New
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Speaker 1: Testament scriptures did the authors say that we are the
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Speaker 1: adopted sons and daughters of Jesus. So a Has right
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Speaker 1: here is using language to this human Assyrian evil king
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Speaker 1: that somebody would use when praying to God. A Has says,
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Speaker 1: I am your servant and your son. And he says,
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Speaker 1: come up and save me out of the hand of
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Speaker 1: the king of Syria and out of the hand of
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Speaker 1: the King of Israel, who rise up against me. Does
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Speaker 1: that not sound like a prayer? Like when you sit
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Speaker 1: down to talk to God because you're really distressed about something,
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Speaker 1: Do you not say to God, God, God, come and
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Speaker 1: help me with this problem, please, like be my savior.
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Speaker 1: Instead of a Has going to the Almighty God to
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Speaker 1: ask for help, he begs and prays to a human
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Speaker 1: evil king and then also says in the next verse,
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Speaker 1: second King sixteen verse eight, A has took the silver
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Speaker 1: and the gold that was found in yaway's house and
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Speaker 1: in the treasuries of the king's house, and send it
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Speaker 1: for a present to the king of Assyria. So basically
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Speaker 1: a has took the things that belonged to God, you know,
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Speaker 1: the treasuries out of God's house, and sent it to
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Speaker 1: a human king. A has was worshiping this King of
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Speaker 1: Assyria by praying to him, by begging for help, by
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Speaker 1: using language that somebody would use to God, and also
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Speaker 1: by stealing from God's house, stealing from the things that
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Speaker 1: belonged to God. In fact, God himself says that the
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Speaker 1: things in the temple belonged to him. In Joel chapter three,
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Speaker 1: verses four through six, God says to tire inside on.
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Speaker 1: He says, yes, and what are you to me? Tire
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Speaker 1: inside on and all the regions of Philistia, will you
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Speaker 1: repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly
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Speaker 1: and speedily return your repayment on your own head. Because
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Speaker 1: you have taken my silver and my gold, and have
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Speaker 1: carried my finest treasures into your temples, and have sold
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Speaker 1: the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to
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Speaker 1: the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them
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Speaker 1: far from their border. So God right there makes it
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Speaker 1: very clear that's silver in that gold that's found in
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Speaker 1: my house, that belongs to me. That is my silver
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Speaker 1: and my gold, and you have no right to take
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Speaker 1: it from me. And yet that is what a Has
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Speaker 1: does in Second King sixteen right here. Instead of begging
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Speaker 1: God for help and giving God a present, a Has
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Speaker 1: steals from God and begs a different king, a human king,
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Speaker 1: for help. And that really shows where ah has heart
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Speaker 1: truly was. He never followed Yahweh in his entire life,
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Speaker 1: not once. He was a terrible, terrible king. There's an
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Speaker 1: interesting little story about a Has in Isaiah chapter seven
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Speaker 1: right now, in this moment in Judah's history, there is
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Speaker 1: a very famous prophet that was writing prophecy. His name
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Speaker 1: was Isaiah. You might know him because of the Book
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Speaker 1: of Isaiah. Isaiah actually went to a Has and told
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Speaker 1: him to seek Yahweh. Here's what it says. I'm going
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Speaker 1: to read the whole thing, verses one through fourteen. And
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Speaker 1: you might recognize actually some of these verses, even if
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Speaker 1: you're not super well versed in the Bible, because these
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Speaker 1: are some very famous verses that we read at Christmas
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Speaker 1: time in the days of a Has the son of Jotham,
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Speaker 1: the son of Uziah, king of Judah, raised in the
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Speaker 1: king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Ramalia, King
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Speaker 1: of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it,
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Speaker 1: but could not prevail against it. His heart trembled, and
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Speaker 1: the heart of his people, as the true trees of
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Speaker 1: the forest tremble with the wind. Then Yahwehs said Isaiah,
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Speaker 1: go out now to meet ahaz you and Sheer Daeshub,
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Speaker 1: your son at the end of the conduit of the
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Speaker 1: upper pool, on the highway of the Fuller's field. Tell
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Speaker 1: him be careful and keep calm. Don't be afraid, neither
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Speaker 1: let your heart be faint because of these two tales
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Speaker 1: of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Raisin and
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Speaker 1: Syria and the son of Vermolia. Because Syria, Ephriam and
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Speaker 1: the son of Vermalia have plotted evil against you, saying,
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Speaker 1: let's go up against Judah and tear it apart, and
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Speaker 1: let's divide it among ourselves and set up a king
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Speaker 1: within it. Even the son of Tabil. This is what
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Speaker 1: the Lord Yahways says. It shall not stand, neither shall
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Speaker 1: it happen. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and
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Speaker 1: the head of Damascus is Raisin. Within sixty five years,
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Speaker 1: Eprium shall be broken in pieces so that it shall
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Speaker 1: not be a people. The head of Ephrium is Samaria,
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Speaker 1: and the head of Samaria is Ramalia's son. If you
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Speaker 1: will not believe, surely you have not been established again
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Speaker 1: to a Has saying, ask a sign of Yahweh or God,
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Speaker 1: ask it either in the depth or in the height above.
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Speaker 1: But a Has said, I won't ask. I won't tempt Yahweh.
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Speaker 1: He said, listen, now, house of David. Is it not
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Speaker 1: enough for you to try the patience of men, that
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Speaker 1: you will try the patience of my God. Also, therefore
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Speaker 1: the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the
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Speaker 1: Virgin will conceive and bear a son, and shall call
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Speaker 1: his name Emmanuel. That's where we get the famous Christmas prophecy.
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Speaker 1: It's actually tied to King a Has. And what Isaiah
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Speaker 1: seven is talking about here is this entire trial that
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Speaker 1: a Has is going through, where he's experiencing all these
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Speaker 1: different wars. He doesn't seek Yahweh. It says that he
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Speaker 1: was trembling like a leaf because of all this stuff
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Speaker 1: that's going on in Judah. He doesn't seek yahweh. So
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Speaker 1: God actually seeks after him by sending Isaiah to a
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Speaker 1: Has and being like, hey, a Has, don't be afraid.
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Speaker 1: God is with you. He's going to protect you even
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Speaker 1: though all of these bad things are happening. They're not
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Speaker 1: going to come to fruition against you. And God tells Isaiah,
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Speaker 1: have a Has ask for a sign anything he wants.
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Speaker 1: It could be as high as the sky is above,
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Speaker 1: or it could be as low as the depths are
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Speaker 1: beneath your feet. Whatever a Has asks, I will perform
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Speaker 1: it for him. And a Has rejects God's offer for
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Speaker 1: a sign. Like a Has could have been like, yeah, okay,
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Speaker 1: I will ask for a sign like help me against
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Speaker 1: my enemies, and God would have done it, but he didn't. Instead,
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Speaker 1: he acts in complete unbelief, and not even unbelief, but
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Speaker 1: indifference to God. He's just like, yeah, whatever, I don't
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Speaker 1: believe any of this. I'm not gonna ask for a sign.
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Speaker 1: That's what he says. I'm not asking for a sign.
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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna tempt yahweh. That is nothing but indifference
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Speaker 1: to what God just told him and a complete excuse
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Speaker 1: as well, well, I'm not going to tempt God, But
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Speaker 1: I will sacrifice my child that God gave me by
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Speaker 1: burning him to death, and that apparently won't test God.
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Speaker 1: But if I ask for a sign when he asked
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Speaker 1: me to ask, that, I guess will just complete ridiculous response.
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Speaker 1: And God gets angry obviously, and so does Isaiah. Right
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Speaker 1: here he says, is it not enough for you to
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Speaker 1: try the patience of men? That you will try the
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Speaker 1: patience of my God? He says, Therefore, the Lord himself
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Speaker 1: will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and
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Speaker 1: bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. A
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Speaker 1: has refused to ask for a sign, So God gives
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Speaker 1: Judah and the entire world this beautiful sign that the
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Speaker 1: Virgin Mary would conceive and bear the Messiah. That shows
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Speaker 1: the level of I don't know, hatred or indifference or
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Speaker 1: just absolute uncaring that A has was towards Yahweh. But
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Speaker 1: yet he was so caring to all these other gods
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Speaker 1: and all these other people. It's just a really really
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Speaker 1: sad fact. So if you turn again to sewod King's sixteen,
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Speaker 1: it says in verse ten through sixteen, and I'll just
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Speaker 1: summarize all of this that King A has, You know,
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Speaker 1: after he sends that letter to tig with Pulazer, the
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Speaker 1: king of Assyria. The Assyrian king actually did respond to
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Speaker 1: it and went and pretty much destroyed Syria. Like that
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Speaker 1: was the end of Syria. Tigleth Polaizer went in and
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Speaker 1: Syria was no more. So now Tigleth Blazer is in
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Speaker 1: Damascus because he just conquered it. You know, Damascus was
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Speaker 1: the capital city of former Syria. And so a Has
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Speaker 1: decides he's going to go up to Damascus and meet
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Speaker 1: tig with Polazer. So he goes, and he's in Damascus
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Speaker 1: and he's looking around and he sees all of these
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Speaker 1: pretty statues and idols and altars and all this stuff,
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Speaker 1: and he sees an altar that he especially liked. So
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Speaker 1: he sends plans for this altar down to Judah to
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Speaker 1: the temple, to the high priest at the time, whose
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Speaker 1: name was Eurija, and he orders Euriija to make this
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Speaker 1: same altar in the courtyard of Yahweis temple. And Euraija
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Speaker 1: does it. He makes this horrible altar and sets it
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Speaker 1: in the courtyard of God's temple. So then when AHAs
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Speaker 1: gets home, he immediately sacrifices on this altar and after
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Speaker 1: that Ah has starts moving all of the temple furniture,
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Speaker 1: and just like getting rid of it. He removes the
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Speaker 1: big bronze altar to like the north part of the
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Speaker 1: temple so that his little damaskan altar to the foreign
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Speaker 1: gods can really shine. And then he moves the big
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Speaker 1: basin called the sea off of its base and he
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Speaker 1: just puts it on like a concrete pad, and then
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Speaker 1: he starts It's just like getting rid of stuff in
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Speaker 1: God's house. So let's turn to Second Chronicles and read
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Speaker 1: about that. It says in verse twenty three, he sacrificed
20:10
Speaker 1: to the gods of Damascus, which had defeated him. He said,
20:13
Speaker 1: because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them,
20:15
Speaker 1: I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.
20:18
Speaker 1: But they were the ruin of him in all Israel.
20:21
Speaker 1: And I think what's funny about that line. I think
20:23
Speaker 1: even scripture understands the irony of this, because even though
20:28
Speaker 1: Syria defeated Judah, Syria was defeated by the Assyrians not
20:36
Speaker 1: too long after that, So how could the Syrian gods
20:42
Speaker 1: be any help when Syria is no more at this
20:46
Speaker 1: point in time? Like Syria was nonexistent. And yet this
20:50
Speaker 1: is how AHAs thinking. He's like, oh, the Syrian gods
20:53
Speaker 1: really helped them in their battle against me. So I'm
20:57
Speaker 1: going to start worshiping these Syrian gods. I'm gonna start
21:00
Speaker 1: worshiping the gods of Damascus. And so he incorporated all
21:05
Speaker 1: of that stuff. In Yahway's temple. It says, A has
21:08
Speaker 1: gathered together the vessels of God's house, cut the vessels
21:11
Speaker 1: of God's house in pieces, and shut up the doors
21:14
Speaker 1: to Yahway's house. And he made himself alters in every
21:17
Speaker 1: corner of Jerusalem. It says, in every city of Judah,
21:20
Speaker 1: he made high places to burn incense to other gods
21:22
Speaker 1: and provoked Yahweh, the god of his fathers, to anger.
21:26
Speaker 1: And this shows right here that everything that the good
21:29
Speaker 1: kings of Judah had done to remove idolatry out of
21:33
Speaker 1: Judah is now gone. It's done. So it's over, because
21:37
Speaker 1: A goes in and just reinstates all of this trash
21:42
Speaker 1: in Judah. All of these high places are back, all
21:46
Speaker 1: of these altars are back, the Asherah cult is back,
21:50
Speaker 1: the worship of Molik and Bail that's all back. Everything
21:55
Speaker 1: is back, all of this hard work that these good
21:58
Speaker 1: kings put in to reform Judah so that they worship
22:01
Speaker 1: Yahweh once again, it's just over. And not only that,
22:05
Speaker 1: it says that a Has actually eventually shut the doors
22:08
Speaker 1: to Yawai's house, So essentially Yahism was dead in Judah
22:12
Speaker 1: at this point in time. Like, there's always going to
22:13
Speaker 1: be people that worship Yahweh obviously, no matter what kind
22:16
Speaker 1: of persecution takes place, because God is powerful, there's always
22:20
Speaker 1: going to be Yahweh worshippers to the end of the age.
22:23
Speaker 1: But worshiping Yahweh was no longer friendly in Judah. Even
22:28
Speaker 1: though Yahweh was supposed to be the God of Judah,
22:33
Speaker 1: they completely rejected him. And the people had a lot
22:36
Speaker 1: to do with this. I mean, think about that high
22:38
Speaker 1: priest who just makes that disgusting little altar in place
22:42
Speaker 1: of God's alter with no problems, no qualms about that whatsoever,
22:47
Speaker 1: no qualms about a Has shutting everything down and cutting
22:51
Speaker 1: up God's stuff into pieces, as if it's just scrap
22:54
Speaker 1: metal that can be reused. I mean, it wasn't just
22:57
Speaker 1: a Has doing all this stuff. It was the people
22:59
Speaker 1: going along with it. It was these yes men that
23:02
Speaker 1: surrounded a Has just agreeing to everything a has did,
23:07
Speaker 1: and the people also were agreeing with it. We see
23:10
Speaker 1: that in the Major and Minor Prophets. The prophets are
23:13
Speaker 1: constantly calling Judah out for their corruption and their violence
23:17
Speaker 1: and the evil that was going on there all the time,
23:21
Speaker 1: not just the worship of all of these other idols,
23:24
Speaker 1: but so much violence came in the city as well.
23:27
Speaker 1: Because when somebody worships a false idol, it essentially breeds selfishness.
23:32
Speaker 1: And I think about that, because what did I say
23:35
Speaker 1: at the beginning of this episode. The apostles in the
23:37
Speaker 1: New Testament, they humbled themselves before Yahweh and called themselves
23:41
Speaker 1: servants of God. That is not selfish. It is not
23:46
Speaker 1: selfish to serve somebody, right, that is selfless. The worship
23:51
Speaker 1: of Yahweh produces selflessness, which means that people try to
23:56
Speaker 1: help others more, because that is what God wants his
24:00
Speaker 1: followers to do. There's a famous chapter in the New
24:04
Speaker 1: Testament onse Corinthians thirteen. It's called the Love Chapter. It
24:08
Speaker 1: talks about how God's people must love other people that
24:14
Speaker 1: is not selfish, that is selfless. But when you worship
24:18
Speaker 1: a false idol, it breeds selfishness because you are just
24:24
Speaker 1: having this transactional deal between you and this little god.
24:29
Speaker 1: You're saying, okay, little God, I will give you my
24:32
Speaker 1: firstborn son and kill him so that you give me
24:37
Speaker 1: either more children or good crops this year, or wealth
24:42
Speaker 1: or whatever else I want. That's a transactional deal. I
24:46
Speaker 1: give you something, you shell out stuff for me. All
24:49
Speaker 1: forms of idolatry breed, selfishness, and I would even say
24:54
Speaker 1: narcissism because you're only thinking about yourself. What can I
25:00
Speaker 1: get from worshiping this god? Yahweh does not want that
25:05
Speaker 1: kind of relationship with us, which is why a lot
25:07
Speaker 1: of times he does not give us the things we
25:11
Speaker 1: ask for, because first and foremost, he's not a genie,
25:15
Speaker 1: and secondly, he wants a real relationship with us, like
25:19
Speaker 1: a father and son or daughter type of relationship where
25:24
Speaker 1: a son and a daughter can go up to their
25:25
Speaker 1: dad and be like, hey, Dad, I really want this thing,
25:28
Speaker 1: and the dad, in his kindness, can say, yes, you
25:32
Speaker 1: know what, I'll give you that thing because I love you,
25:35
Speaker 1: or the dad can be like, no, I'm not going
25:37
Speaker 1: to give you that thing because I don't think that's good,
25:40
Speaker 1: and the kid might be all angry and be like, well,
25:42
Speaker 1: why not, I think I deserve it, And the Dad's like, well,
25:45
Speaker 1: you don't deserve it, you don't need that, it's bad
25:48
Speaker 1: for you. For whatever reason, God does not want a
25:52
Speaker 1: transactional relationship with his people. He wants a heartfelt, deep
25:58
Speaker 1: father daughter father son relationship. And when we become the
26:03
Speaker 1: sons and daughters of God, he tells us how to
26:06
Speaker 1: live to benefit other people. And ironically, this all comes
26:10
Speaker 1: back around to us being fulfilled spiritually. So we do
26:15
Speaker 1: gain something from worshiping Yahweh. We gain spiritual fulfillment. Jesus says,
26:21
Speaker 1: He's the living water and the bread of life, that
26:23
Speaker 1: when we drink from the living water and we eat
26:27
Speaker 1: the bread of life, we're not going to be hungry
26:29
Speaker 1: or thirsty. Again, he fulfills us. So we do gain
26:33
Speaker 1: something from worshiping God, but it's not this transactional type
26:36
Speaker 1: of gain. So, going back to my original point, the
26:40
Speaker 1: reason Judah as a whole became so violent and corrupt
26:45
Speaker 1: was because of this idolatry that was absolutely festering in
26:51
Speaker 1: Jerusalem and Judah at this time. This idolatry was making
26:55
Speaker 1: people more and more selfish, so that they just wanted
27:00
Speaker 1: whatever they wanted, and they would do anything they could
27:03
Speaker 1: to get it. That's what idolatry does, and that's why
27:07
Speaker 1: God was so highly against it. But to finish off
27:11
Speaker 1: right here, in verses twenty six and twenty seven, it
27:14
Speaker 1: says that a Has dies, a has slept with his fathers.
27:17
Speaker 1: They buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem, because
27:19
Speaker 1: they didn't bring him into the tombs of the kings
27:21
Speaker 1: of Israel and Hezekiah, his son reigned in his place. Now,
27:25
Speaker 1: whenever it says right here that a king slept with
27:28
Speaker 1: their fathers, that does not necessarily mean that the king
27:31
Speaker 1: was saved. It's just old fashioned language to say that
27:34
Speaker 1: the king died. We know that a Has most likely
27:38
Speaker 1: was not a saved individual because he was an evil
27:41
Speaker 1: and corrupt man who caused a lot of evil and
27:45
Speaker 1: corrupt things to happen in Judah and Jerusalem. So though
27:48
Speaker 1: he slept with his fathers, I don't think that necessarily
27:50
Speaker 1: means he went to heaven. But they didn't even bury
27:53
Speaker 1: him in the tombs of the kings. And I don't
27:55
Speaker 1: exactly know why it doesn't say that right here, but
27:58
Speaker 1: they just buried him in the city. And it could
28:00
Speaker 1: be because however, he died, they thought that his body
28:04
Speaker 1: might corrupt some of the other bodies. We see that
28:08
Speaker 1: with kings that would get really sick a lot of times,
28:10
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be buried in the tombs of the other
28:12
Speaker 1: kings because of the cleanliness laws that were happening in
28:15
Speaker 1: Judah at this time, where it could be that the
28:18
Speaker 1: people just didn't like a Has all that much at
28:20
Speaker 1: the end of his life and just chose not to
28:22
Speaker 1: give him the burial of the kings. So we don't
28:27
Speaker 1: really know what happened there. But we're going to talk
28:28
Speaker 1: about King Hezekiah on Thursday, and I'm really looking forward
28:33
Speaker 1: to getting into Hezekiah's life because he was a great king.
28:37
Speaker 1: Even though a Has was a terrible, terrible king, Hezekiah
28:41
Speaker 1: was one of the best in Judah's history. So we're
28:43
Speaker 1: going to get into King Hezekiah on Wednesday. I'm sorry,
28:47
Speaker 1: said I think I said Thursday earlier. I'm sorry Wednesday.
28:50
Speaker 1: We're going to get into Hezekiah's life on Wednesday, So
28:52
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to talking to you guys about that.
28:55
Speaker 1: But faithful listeners, before you go, here is an ad
28:57
Speaker 1: from one of our sponsors. And after that, I will
29:01
Speaker 1: say happy listening and God Bless. I'm just gonna warn
29:05
Speaker 1: all of you guys real quick before I go that
29:08
Speaker 1: my throat is getting progressively worse through this episode, and
29:12
Speaker 1: I'm not shocked if I'm coming down with something. I
29:14
Speaker 1: have been around a lot of sick people this past week.
29:17
Speaker 1: My husband has been sick, and then yesterday I was
29:21
Speaker 1: at church and two of our ministry leaders were also
29:24
Speaker 1: sick coming down with something. So if that's the case,
29:27
Speaker 1: I'm hoping tomorrow I can still do an episode because
29:29
Speaker 1: I'm really really excited to get into the Book of
29:30
Speaker 1: Hebrews with you guys, like genuinely looking forward to the
29:33
Speaker 1: Book of Hebrews because it's my favorite New Testament book
29:36
Speaker 1: and we're supposed to start it tomorrow, but if we
29:38
Speaker 1: don't start it tomorrow, we will start it on Thursday,
29:41
Speaker 1: but hopefully it's tomorrow. And also on Wednesday, we will
29:45
Speaker 1: be discussing the life of Hezekiah. So some really exciting
29:48
Speaker 1: stuff coming up on the podcast. But faithful listeners, I
29:51
Speaker 1: hope you have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day.
29:55
Speaker 1: As always, happy listening, and God Bless. I just want
30:03
Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
30:05
Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast.
30:08
Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio dot com you'll
30:10
Speaker 1: find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
30:13
Speaker 1: They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.