Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - 2 Chronicles 10-16
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: Hey, welcome to our journey through Scripture. So glad that you've joined us today. My name is Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin, and we are continuing our walk through all of Scripture in a chronological order. We began to look at the divided kingdoms. So we have the North and the South and multiple kings, ⁓ you know, throughout the years and both of those places that it, unfortunately, it's leading to a bad conclusion. for both the North and the South. The Northern tribes, 10 of them basically made up the Northern Kingdom that's considered Israel. Judah is the Southern Kingdom. It's the one that still follows the Davidic line, following the King David. It is where Jerusalem is. It's the one that lasts longer. So we have these two, this divided kingdom now. And we're going to look today, one of the things, as we're doing this in chronological order, we're going to be reading from like first Kings and then we'll read the account in Chronicles. Okay. So we'll be kind of jumping back and forth. So, so there's some repetitiveness, but there are some distinct differences. So I encourage you to go ahead and read through. So today we're going to read second Chronicles 10 through 16. Second Chronicles 10 through 16. Chronicles, as we've talked about before, kind of has a little bit different perspective. ⁓ It's usually a little bit more positive perspective, especially in first Chronicles. But in second Chronicles, as we start looking at the divided kingdom, Chronicles follows much more closely the southern kingdom than the northern kingdom. It will mention the kings of the northern kingdom, but its focus is on the kings of the southern kingdom. Because that is, that's ultimately whenever you think of Israel today, whenever you think it's kind of where that southern kingdom was. ⁓ And so it was the more powerful kingdom and both kingdoms had their problems for sure. The southern kingdom would have at least a few kings who tried to turn the people back to God. ⁓ so Chronicles focuses much more on the Southern Kingdom. So today as we read through 2 Chronicles 10 through 16. Alright, so chapter 10 starts off, ⁓ know, Solomon has just died. Remember we have Rehoboam who is Solomon's son and he is being challenged by Jeroboam who Jeroboam had fled to Egypt and Egypt gave him kind of safe harbor because it had been predicted that he would become the king of the north and Solomon didn't like that. And so Jeroboam left and now he has come back because obviously there's a little bit of a change going on. so Jeroboam and the ⁓ Northern tribes, they are wanting to be treated well. ⁓ And they asked Rehoboam, hey, are you going to start treating us well? remember, Rehoboam asked for wisdom. from some of the older leaders and they said, why don't you be nice and let's reconcile? But he chose to listen to some of his friends who were like, no, you have power. It's time for you to use it. So he basically tells them that he's going to make it harder on them. Shockingly, Jeroboam and the 10 Northern tribes didn't like hearing that. And so they decided, you know what, we're going to split. thought it was interesting, verse 16, it says, when Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, what share have we in David? We have no inheritance in this son of Jesse. Every man to your tent, O Israel, now see to your own house, O David. So basically they are just saying, you know what, we're no longer part of this group. We know that David, the Davidic line is... ⁓ a very important line, but you obviously don't want us to be part of it, so we're separating out. So we see chapter 11, again, there's a much heavier focus on Rehoboam and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. He fortifies the cities, he tries to make them strong. So now he really only has Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, but they are a strong tribe. Just like a lot of things in life, most people aren't totally bad or totally good. They're a little bit of mixture of both. Both Jeroboam, king in the north, was not a very good king. He was not a godly king. Remember he set up ⁓ tents and the high places, shrines with golden calves. So he obviously was not a godly king. Rehoboam was not a godly king either. There's really not a good... side here, both sides are going against overall what God desires. But yet even in that, there's some things that Rehoboam does that are decent. And I think he probably does them for political reasons, not because he's faithful to God. It talks about in verse 13 of chapter 11, if you remember, Jeroboam in the north didn't want to have anything to do with the priest. priest from the tribe of Levi. Well, the priests were supposed to come from the tribe of Levi. They were the Levites. so, Rehoboam invites them all down in verse 14, for the Levites left their common lands and their possessions, and they came to Judah and Jerusalem. For Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests to the Lord. Then he appointed for himself priests in the high places for the demons. and the calf idols which he had made. And after the Levites left, those from all the tribes of Israel, such as who set their heart to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers." So, Rehoboam, I think this was a political move. You know, he kind of uses the understanding of faith and the importance of the temple, importance of Jerusalem, importance of the tradition of of the Levites and the priests to basically make it to where anyone who wanted to truly worship God would desire to go to Jerusalem. But this also would deepen the divide between the North and the South. ⁓ And sadly, Rehoboam seems to have only done this just to maybe get a few more people to be coming and traveling to Jerusalem and maybe bring some of their tax revenue in. ⁓ Rehoboam, you can read more about his family there. ⁓ Just like many of the kings, he had many wives and that was definitely a problem. So in Second Chronicles chapter 12, we see Judah being attacked by Egypt. ⁓ This is kind of interesting. If you think about how Jeroboam went down to Egypt and they gave him safe harbor. You can tell that Egypt has probably been looking for opportunities ⁓ to weaken ⁓ the kingdom, which they did by dividing, by making sure Jeroboam was safe. It ensured that there would be a division. So that happened. And now they see an opportunity to actually attack. So in verse five, chapter 12, then ⁓ Shemaiah, the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who were gathered together in Jerusalem. And thus says the Lord, you have forsaken me and therefore I have also left you in the hands of Shishak." He's the ⁓ king of Egypt. So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and they said, the Lord is righteous, kind of out of a moment of desperation, but at least they did acknowledge. It says, now when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the prophet, and said, they have humbled themselves, therefore I will not destroy them. but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they will be a servant that they may distinguish my service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations." So what happened is basically, Rehoboam just paid off Egypt. Remember, we talked about how he traded the gold shield, so now they have bronze shield. So they did that. There's also archeological evidence of many cities being destroyed at this time by Egypt. So this was a pretty severe invasion by Egypt, but they did not fully overtake. They went back to Egypt. They got their money. They made their point and went back. So then we get to the end of Rehoboam's reign and verse 14 of chapter 12 just really jumped out. says, and he did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. So here's Rehoboam, I think kind of what that's getting at. Rehoboam was the son of Solomon. At some point he had to have known that he was going to be the king. ⁓ Well, that's always, it's a difficult position and you better prepare yourself. You better prepare yourself with the Lord before you enter into the fire. Right? That's something that is so important. You know, we talk about how God is God in the midst of the storms and in the midst of the chaos of life, and He is. But if you haven't prepared yourself at all, it's going to be hard to put your trust in God in the midst of the storm if you haven't prepared beforehand. And I think Ray Oboham just kind of took things for granted. You know, hey, Solomon set this up. I'll just keep on going. And he didn't really care to... share the same faith or to have a heart for God, and it cost him and it cost the nation. So then you transition into his son Abijah, who is there for only about three years. And he's an interesting guy too. He's not a good king. He doesn't really care about returning to ⁓ worship God, but yet he does ⁓ push back on a rebellion. and is able to stop a rebellion from the north attacking the south. And I feel like he's doing a little bit of some of the political stuff as well, saying, hey, we're the ones who worship the true God, and He's going to be on our side. I thought it's very interesting there in chapter 13, verse 10. This is Abajad speaking to Jeroboam and kind of the northern tribes ⁓ of Israel says, but as for us, the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him. And the priests who minister to the Lord are the sons of Aaron and the Levites attend their duties and they burn to the Lord every morning, every evening, burnt sacrifices of sweet incense. They also set the shower bed in order, show bread in order on the pure gold table in the lampstand of gold. ⁓ You're kind of just going about how how pious they are. says, now look, God himself is with us. ⁓ This is funny. Now look, God himself is with us as our head and his priest was surrounding trumpets to surround the alarm against you, children of Israel. Do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers for you shall not prosper. So he has this big speech. And while he's doing that, Jeroboam has sent half of his force around and now... Israel actually surrounds Judah and they've lured them into this ambush. It says, when Judah looked around to their surprise, the battle lines was at both front and rear. And they cried out to the Lord and the priest sounded the trumpets. Then the men of Judah gave a shout and God struck Jeroboam and all of Israel before Abijah and Judah. And the children of Israel fled before Judah and God delivered them into their hands. All right, so God did deliver the people of Judah. I don't feel like this is because Abigai is being a good king, but Judah is more godly than the Northern Kingdom, right? And so you kind of see that little interaction there that I kind of find humorous. And so Abijah, he finally, he passes away. He's actually not in power for very long, but he did subdue the Northern tribe. So now there's not a constant battle ⁓ going on at this time. Then King Asa comes into power. Asa is actually a good king in verse two of chapter 14. Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord. his God, for he removed all the altars of the foreign gods in the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images." And then he commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, to observe the law and the commandments. So he's actually really trying to get the people to go back to God. And we have evidence ⁓ of that. It goes right into, there was a guy named Zerah from Ethiopia. that brought an overwhelming force to attack Judah, but Judah was able to overcome that force and they relied on God for that. ⁓ And it says, ⁓ and Asa cried out to the Lord his God and said, Lord, it is nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on you. And in your name, we go against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God, do not let man prevail against you." So God helped Asa overcome. I want to kind of lay this out. Remember, so it seems like Asa is this really good king, and he is, but that doesn't mean he's perfect. He also does many reforms. Chapter 15 talks about the different things that... that Asa did, says, hear me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, the Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. ⁓ Kind of recognizing that, hey, if you're on God's side, he's always on your side. But you know what? If you start to be on the other side, ⁓ guess what? You've switched sides, not God. ⁓ And so yeah. God may be against you because He wants you with Him, following Him, living for Him. This was a prophecy from Oded the prophet. And Asa says, He took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which He had taken in the mountains of Ephraim and restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord. So he got rid of all of these false idols. Verse 16 of chapter 15 says, also he removed Maka, the mother of Asa the king, he removed his own mom from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. If you remember, we did talk a little bit about that in the first king's account. But that was actually his mom. So he showed courage to do what was right. ⁓ And that is something that is vital for us to understand. Many times it is going to take courage to push back against the idols of society. ⁓ That's not an easy thing to do, but Asa was doing that even to the point of relieving his mom because she had turned to idolatry. And then I love verse 17. It says, nevertheless, the heart of Asa was loyal all his days. So he was loyal to God. That doesn't mean he was perfect. And in fact, we're going to see here in chapter 16 that as he got older, he started to rely on some of the earthly ⁓ ways of ⁓ managing a kingdom. rather than relying on God. that doesn't mean he wasn't loyal to God, right? It's just that he wasn't as close to God as he should have been, and he started to rely on his own strength more than he relied on God's. And so we see that he makes a treaty with Syria. So there's another threat. ⁓ Israel has a new king, ⁓ Bashar, and they are threatening Judah. And so rather than handling it himself or the way that God would want him to handle it, Asa decides just to make a treaty with Syria. so then Syria comes in and brings their armies and ⁓ kind of stops Israel's approach on Judah. So the goal was accomplished, but the manner in which it ⁓ happened was not something that God desired. So Asa relied on normal political. ways. Hey, you know what? Let's not get our hands dirty. Let's pay someone else to do it." That's basically what he did. And that was not a good thing. ⁓ verse 9 of chapter 16, this is prophet speaking to Asa, says, "'For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. In this you have done foolishly. Therefore, from now on, you shall have wars.'" Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time. So Asa's, he doesn't like hearing this. He doesn't, and so he gets upset and he doesn't take criticism rather than recognizing that he had made a mistake. He kind of doubles down on his foolishness. And then you have the death of Asa. I just want to quickly read here. says in verse 12, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet and his malady was severe. Yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. That's interesting. Something just to think about. I don't think that's saying that you shouldn't seek the physicians, but you need to be seeking the Lord, right? Recognizing that the Lord is the great physician and that we put our trust in Him. And you know what? He uses all kinds of different things to bring healing and wellbeing and yes, doctors and physicians. ⁓ are ⁓ wonderful blessings that we have, but they pale in comparison to the great physician. And it's important that we really do be careful with that. And this doesn't mean that you don't go see doctors, none of that. Where do you put your trust? You're to put your trust in a human doctor, or are you going to put your trust in the great physician? And I think there's something for us to wrestle with about that. And it's interesting to see here how Asa is called someone who was loyal to God, but yet he started to fade at the end, and there were ramifications for that. There was lots of war at the end of Asa's reign in Judah. All right, so that's going to bring us to a close today. We're going to be looking at 1 Kings 16 through 22. All right, hope to see you there.