2nd Kings 25

My wife and I ran into some familiar faces the other day at the Cheesecake Factory. It was a family that is faced with a serious problem, one of the members of the family was in an accident and is in the hospital. It was a very serious accident as he in comma right now. I told them we have been praying for his recovery and for the family and one of the guys told me that they have so much hope in God in this situation. I just listened and was blown away at his faith in God. He knew God was allowing this for a reason as thousands of people in the United States have been praying for his cousin, Mark and this has been a testimony to others to know who Jesus Christ is. I would like to encourage you to pray for Mark Lamberth as well and to know that there is hope in dark times. To see more go to: Pray for the Lamberths.

We come to the last chapter of 2nd Kings. With our reading of chapter 24 to now we just see a gloomy cloud over Judah. We know what is going to happen, we see the end of this land and everything that David established and what Solomon built. It almost seems like a sad movie, which leaves you depressed. The truth is that we need to not stop with this but God has a future and a plan (Jeremiah 29:11) for Israel. He does not let them just become exiled into Babylon forever. There is hope and we will see it unfold in front of us as we continue to read through the Bible.

It is all Over

After a few years of surrounding Jerusalem we see that the Babylonians made a breach in the wall. Once this happened the king and his men fled and they were captured. King Zedekiah watched as his sons were killed in front of him and then his eyes were plucked out so that would be the last thing he saw. Man, that is grouse.

The Babylonians was a group of people who were from Babylon, which is now modern day Iraq. They were the world’s superpower at that time. Nebuchadnezzar was probably the greatest leader of Babylon as well as the last great ruler as we will see in the future readings of the Bible, especially in Daniel. He not only was a great military leader who would conquer the nations around Babylon but would also build and develop Babylon into a historical nation. Babylon is known for its hanging gardens, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Herodotus, the Greek historian who visited the city in 460 B.C. said, “It surpasses in splendor any city of the known world (From: Holman Bible Dictionary pg. 143). 

Now this great nation has made siege against Jerusalem. The king has been taken captive as well as many of the leaders of Judah (this would include, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah). King Neb. would keep the poor of Judah to keep in the land and take care of it. Everyone else would be taken to Babylon where they would be forced to eat, sleep, and walk in a new culture, a new city, a place foreign with foreign gods. 

Hope for the line of David-

In the last 4 verses of chapter 25 we see that there is something changing for Judah. Jehoiachin was released from prison. Remember Jehoiachin was 18 when he became king, he did evil in the sight of the Lord and the Babylonians came against the city and Jehoiachin surrendered himself and his family to king Nebuchadnezzar. We see that there is a new king, Evil-merodach and he has favor on Jehoiachin and now Jehoiachin will live the rest of his life free from prison and able to sit at the king’s table. 

At first I was a little mad because here was a guy who did evil in the sight of the Lord when he was king over Judah. He was taken captive and then freed and that is it. I wanted to know why he got off easy when he lead the people in sin, but then I was reminded that God had something greater and God is gracious as he has been so gracious on me, a wretched sinner. God was going to keep the lineage of David still going. All hope was not lost, the Jews would not be eliminated in the Babylonian culture. There were strong leaders such as Daniel who would stand up for God and proclaim him to a foreign nation. We see that God will let his people go back through the leading of Ezra and Nehemiah. There is hope that is even bigger than having Israel be re-established as a nation, and that is Jesus Christ would come to save the world of their sin. Jesus was prophesied to come from the line of David and it could not be cut off. God was showing grace to the whole world as he had a bigger plan at this moment with Jehoiachin. Thank you God for you never ending love.

2nd Kings 23

Have you ever done something nice for your parents not because they asked and not because you wanted anything out of it, but just because. There is sometimes a spark in us that will motivate us to do something for our parents because it is just out of obedience. That is called being a good child. You are not doing it so you can go to your friends house, you are not doing it because they have been on your case for a few days now, trying to force you to get it done. You did, because you need to do it and that is it. 

In this chapter we will see a truly amazing reform or change for Jerusalem. King Josiah not only did what was good in the eyes of the Lord but he did it knowing that it would not change the outcome for Judah. He did it because it is what God demands.

Josiah- None were like him.

In order for us to understand everything that is going on we need to have read ch. 22 and it may help to read 2nd Chronicles 34 and 35. We see that Josiah became king at age 8 and by the time he was 16 he started reforming the nation. This is what he did: 1- Removed the idols out of the temple. 2- Got rid of the idol priests. 3- Grounded up the image of Asherah (Asherah was the mother of Baal, installed by Ahabs wife Jezebel). 4-God rid of the male prostitutes. 5- God rid of the high places of false worship. 6- God rid of the place of child sacrifice (Remember: Ahaz; 2nd Kings 16 and Manasseh; 2nd Kings 20, did this) 7- Got rid of the places that worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. 8- Smashed the royal altars. 9- Eliminated Solomon’s mistake. 10- Pulled down Jereboam’s Bethel worship center. 11- Cleaned up even the northern cities. 

He did all this for the nation to bring them back on track and he even reinstated the remembrance of Passover. In verse 22 we see that Passover had not been kept from the days of judges until the time of Josiah. David did not even celebrate passover, but here we see Passover coming back on the scene. 

Because of all that Josiah did out of faithfulness, we read what the Bible has labeled him as, “Before  him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him (vs. 25).

Why Did Josiah Do it?

We read in verse 26 and 27 that God was still going to destroy Judah even though Josiah and the people all changed. We would think, “What is the point of trying because it won’t change the outcome?” Why play in a soccer game still when you are down 12 to 1? Why did he do this still? Josiah was not a fool, he knew that God was still going to judge the land. In 22:15-7, they were warned that God was still going to bring on disaster for Judah. Josiah did it because he knew he needed too. He knew that it was the way he could be obedient to God. That is why he was considered great and faithful before the eyes of God. He did not have the motivation of trying to persuade God from his decision, but that it is what God Demands from him. 

I was just thinking if I was in Josiah’s shoes and I knew I could not change the outcome would I try so hard. Would I just keep to myself or would I still strive to serve the Lord? Sometimes in this life we have the thought, “I will serve the Lord because I have eternal life through Jesus Christ.” This is not a bad thought but that should not be our motivation. We should serve the Lord because that means we are being obedient. We are saved by God’s grace not by our us being obedient. I need to stop and check my heart to make sure I do not have a hidden agenda. Just like David asked God, “Search me, O God, and know my heart!” I know my heart is not always pretty but I am thankful for the conviction of the Holy Spirit to get me right on track.

2nd Kings 20

I mentioned before that my wife and I like to watch movies. Have you ever seen a movie with a sad ending and then you watch it later. Part of you does not want to watch it because you know how the movie ends and you do not want to be sad. Sometimes that is like me when I read through 2nd Kings. I am reading and right now it may be somewhat good but you know how 2nd Kings ends and what will happen to Jerusalem. We need to look at it in a bigger picture, this is one detail to the over all theme, which is God’s plan in saving mankind. 

In this chapter we see King Hezekiah healed of his sickness and the beginning of the end for Jerusalem. Read 2nd Chronicles 32 to see more details to the life of Hezekiah. 

A sick king prays

This was a flashback to Hezekiah’s life, 15 years before he died. He became sick. Isaiah the prophet came to see him and brought some news. The news was not good. He told the king that he would die. Talk about bearing bad news. Isaiah only spoke what God wanted him to speak. As Hezekiah heard this, he wept and prayed to the Lord. He asked God to heal him and God heard his request. 

Isaiah was obedient as God spoke to him after he left and he turned around to tell the king that God heard his prayer and is going to heal him. He will give Hezekiah 15 more years of life. What would you do if you knew you only had 15 years to live? How would you live them? What would you do? The Bible tells us that we do not know what tomorrow will bring (James 4:14). We are told that we need to make the most of this life for the Kingdom of God (Ephesians 5:16). We know life is just a vapor (James 4:14 NKJV). We need to know that are days are held in the hands of God and while we have breath in our lungs, we need to share who God is with those around us. 

When you start thinking about your life and how much time you spent doing this or that it can be somewhat depressing. I know if I play a video game for more than 30 minutes I can be all bummed that I just spent this much time doing that when there is so much else that needs to be done. How much time do we spend watching t.v., movies, talking on the phone, surfing the internet, talking about Jesus Christ to someone? Think about it

The Beginning of the End (12-20)

We see that King Hezekiah is healed and he is welcomed by some visitors of the North East. They come from Babylon. If you know what is going to happen we see that this is just the beginning of the end. These men supposedly came on order from the king to see how king Hezekiah is doing since he was sick. The king decided to show off the kingdom. He showed all of the treasures that were in the storehouses and the greatness of Jerusalem. Hezekiah was being prideful with showing his greatness. Isaiah returns to the scene by asking what did you show these men and he said, “Everything.” He was wondering what was wrong with me showing off this wonderful city?

Then Isaiah bears bad news again. He said, “The days are coming when Babylon will come and take everything out of your house and even your sons will be taken captive to Babylon. We see how self-centered Hezekiah was when he responded with, “The word of the Lord is good.” The reason he said that was because it was will not happen during the days of his life. Instead of being saddened of what will happen to his country and to his people, all he cared about was his life and time. Even this king who was like David had a some issues of sin too.

2nd Kings 19

It is chapters like these that I love reading because they encourage me in areas I need encouraging. I am convicted on my lack of faith and how I can ask God for my needs because he will meet my needs.

We continue with our story of Hezekiah, king of Judah and the Assyrian threat that arises.

Hezekiah Reacts to the Threat of the Assyrians

When Hezekiah heard the report of Assyria and how they defied who he was and who God was, he tore his clothes and put ash on his head as it was custom for mourning, repentance, and remorse. The good thing is that Hezekiah knew where to go in this time of distress. He went to Isaiah, the prophet, for help. Isaiah tells Hezekiah not to worry but that God will have the Assyrians leave the same way they came. I am sure this brought some comfort to Hezekiah but when comfort comes the enemy is ready to disrupt that comfort.

Another Threat from the Enemy (8-13)

Again the messenger of the Assyrians came to bring news that they better listen and be obedient to them. He mocked them by saying they were foolish to trust that their God would deliver them. He said, “Look at these other nations, their god did not deliver them, what makes you so special?” The one thing that is different is that Israel’s God, the TRUE God is the real deal, not a statue or idol. He is active and we will see how he deals with threats.

Hezekiah Goes to the Lord (14-19)

Instead of Hezekiah going to Isaiah we see him going straight to the Lord in the Temple. He brings the letter of the threat and lays it out before the Lord. He humbly asks God to act so that the Assyrians would know that he is God. 

We need to know that Hezekiah was more concerned about the name of God being dragged through the mud than his own life. This reminds me of David and Goliath (1st Samuel 17). Goliath was making fun of Israel and of God; David would not stand for the name calling of God. He was ready to kill the giant because of his lack of respect to the TRUE God.

God Answers (20-37)

This time Isaiah comes to the king and he brings the word of the Lord. God will not stand for this and Hezekiah and Israel will see God’s hand in the removal of Assyria from their land. We do see that God sent an angel to deal with the Assyrians and 185,000 were killed. The king woke up to the site of thousands dead and he probably was a little freaked out by this so he fled the scene and wanted to go home. The sad thing is, this king who thought he was bigger and better than god, was killed by his own sons. 

He received his end and we see that a man who thought he was better than God really was more a tool for God to show his power and glory to the nations.

Lessons from Hezekiah

While reading I could not help but reread Hezekiah’s prayer to God a couple of times. There are some things we need to follow by his example.

First, He went to God with his problem. 

Literally he took the letter and laid it before God and said, “Here is the problem.” So many times people do not even do this. Are you quick to go to your friends and family with your problems before going to God the creator of the universe with them? I like that he literally took the threats and said, “Here they are, take care of it” God knows everything and yet he wants us to go to him with our problems. Philippians 4:6 tells us to let loose our problems before God. When need to start going to the Great solver of our problems first before going to someone who may make them worse.

Second, He was humble

In reading the prayer you can just sense the humility that this man had when approaching God. We know we are able to have confidence in asking our requests but that does not mean we need to distort humility before God. I was convicted of this just by reading. Am I humble before God? Or, do I act like God owes me something when I pray? Do I think just because I am Jon, God needs to make my life better? Be humble before our Awesome God. Humility is something that Paul challenges us to put on everyday (Colossians 3:12)

Third, He Prayed for God’s Name to Be Known

Most of our prayers probably are more self-centered. It is not wrong to pray for your own needs. If you are sick or some problem, God wants us to ask him for help. But, have you ever prayed just for God to be known? Hezekiah’s life as well as the whole nation was at risk, but he just prayed for God’s Name and glory to be seen. I know this is something where I need to direct my prayers more; that God would just be known as the TRUE God, the God that is shown in the Bible and not what man makes up.

2nd Kings 18

Have you ever seen someone who was just doing great things. Not only were they doing good to people and life was going good but this person was just an awesome Christian leader. They followed after the Lord, they were not afraid of saying that and then all of sudden dark times come around. Hope seems to fade. People are not so sure of this good leader anymore.

In this chapter we see this new king of Judah rising up as another type of David but yet the big giants of the North were about to make his life miserable. 

Hezekiah- Another David

We read that Hezekiah began to reign when he was 25 and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. This is something we see most of the kings of Judah doing but there is something different about this one. In verse 4 we read that he did remove all the high places. I had to re-read that, he was the one that not only did what was right as a person but made true reform happen for the nation. No more idol worship was his saying and he even crushed the bronze serpent that Moses used to heal the people (Numbers 21:4-9) because the people were worshiping that too. “Enough is enough!” he said. 

This king also did not need to worry about the big giant army of the Assyrians. He broke his ties with them. He trusted in the Lord as his deliverer and not any human. We see that the previous kings would make alliances with other surrounding nations like the Assyrians or Syrians because they needed help from the big guy. 

Assyria and goodbye Israel (The Northern Kingdom)

We get another look at what happened to the Northern kingdom, Israel. The Assyrians besieged Samaria for 3 years and then destroyed it. They took the captive Israelites back to Assyria. This was going to happen because of the life that Israel was living. OUt of all their kings and over 150 years, they never followed after God. It would seem that the split was not against the Judaen king but against God himself because the kings never turned to follow him. Even when God sent two might prophets, Elijah and Elisha, the kings never realized their pride and turned to God. 

We see though in verse 13 something that does not seem right. The Assyrians now are turning to take of Judah. They already have been attacking some fortified cities and all that is left is Jerusalem. When reading you can think, “How can this happen, Hezekiah is a good man who loves God?” How come God is allowing this to happen?  All of a sudden we read that the Assyrian messenger starts to mock the king and God about being delivered. He then shouts for all the people of Jerusalem to hear how the Assyrians will make their lives miserable but if they make peace, life will be good.

God Shows Himself in His Timing  

We do not know yet what is going to happen but we will see in the future what God is going to do. We see though that God wants his children to have faith in him. Sometimes we think of faith as a magical force that will protect us from harm but we know that this is not true when we read the Bible. Joseph had faith in God but he was still sold into slavery and went to prison for being falsely accused. We read in the New Testament about the disciple all being persecuted as the preached Jesus Christ. They were beaten and then killed but they had faith through it all. 

God allows tribulation so our faith can be tested (James 1:2). Jesus even said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).” It is would seem that God should have just kept the Assyrians from ever coming into Judah’s territory but he wanted to show the people who He is. He wanted to show them that he is capable of taking care of a giant army. He is going to show Jerusalem that you can put your trust in him and not in man. God will show himself in time but there will be a little suffering for growth to take place. Next time those trials come trust the Lord. He will show himself in his timing.

2nd Kings 16

My wife and I recently went to the movies. We love going to the movies, it is a fun thing for us to do. There are certain movies in which you may already know the plot and you figure out how it is going to end. My wife is really good at it, almost too good. She will lean over and whisper, “Jon, this is how it will end.” I sometimes laugh and sometimes say, “Don’t ruin it for me.” She is good about reading the plots and knowing how the movie is going to end.

In last few chapters of 2nd Kings we have somewhat of a knowledge of what the future holds for both kingdoms. Israel so far has not had a king that did right in the eyes of the Lord. The closest one was, Jehu (2nd Kings 10) and that was because he got rid of Ahab’s descendants. Judah on the other hand has had some kings that have done good in the eyes of the Lord except, Jehoram (2nd Kings 8:16-24), and now King Ahaz. Because of the evil the kings are leading the people in we see that God will bring upon the enemies of Israel (Deuteronomy 5:33). We know the plot and it does not look good for Israel or Judah.

Ahaz-Why?

It starts the same like all the other kings, either they walked in the ways of the Lord or did evil. Ahaz did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The only thing is he was a king of Judah, these guys always walked in the ways of the Lord, right? No, and he followed after the ways of the northern kingdom, Israel. We read in verse 3 how bad he was. He burned his own son at the altar as a sacrifice to some false god. Yikes! He was off his wagon. 

A result of his false worship and leading the nation down a wrong road, God sent the Syrian army as well as the Israeli army against him. Instead of him going to God for help; like Isaiah the prophet told him to do (Isaiah 7:7-11), he went to the Assyrians for help. He told the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser, he would be his servant and gave him a nice bribe in the process. 

Yeah, the Assyrians releaved the war against Judah and saved them for a time but what a price that was paid and I am not talking about the gold, silver, and bronze given.

Want to Copy the World (10–20)?

We read that Ahaz went to meet the Assyrian king at Damascus and when he was there he saw an altar and he liked the way it looked. The Assyrians worshiped an idol, Assur. Assur to the Assyrians was god over the universe. Ahaz liked what he saw and brought it back to Judah and not just Judah but in the temple area. He got rid of the bronze altar that Solomon had built and placed this new altar in its place. He was showing that this new altar and worship was more important than the worship of the TRUE GOD. 

How sad is this, but we see the same thing today but instead of worshiping an idol people worship themselves or other things not knowing that they are worshiping it. I have seen people that have gone to church a while and know who Jesus is and the truth that he brings but still see things in the world and follow after that thing and deny who Jesus is. They bring the world back with them and influence the church. Instead of helping the church grow in the kingdom of God they cause it to fade away and blend in with the world. Romans 12:1-2 says it best, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” We need to conformed to God and not to the things of the world. Do you find yourself compromising? Do you find yourself wishing that you could do this or that? I have been there before and that is why everyday I need to go and seek after Jesus as the one who set me free from the things of this world. Sin is pleasing for a time but the heartache soon follows. Just like eating a lot of junk food before you go to bed, it is fun until that stomach ache comes.