2 Kings Chapter 23:20 - 25

A Sad Ending

 

If the book of 2 Kings were a movie – it would be one of those movies that take you on an emotional roller coaster ride.

A) Up & down from Hope to despair and back again.

 

B) You are watching the movie – certain character you like – He ends up getting killed

1) Another Character – your hoping he is going to marry the girl – loses his mind marries someone else

 

C) That is Kings – one bad moment after another – then someone good comes on the seen

1) Things start to turn – but it doesn’t last

 

D) Week after week / Chapter after Chapter – we have heard these words – He did evil in the sight of the Lord

 

How many times – 33 times – 19 Kings in Israel

14 times in Judah {King did evil ……

A)But in the mist of that we hear 6 times of a King that did that which was good in the sight of the Lord

 

B) The nation would turn – reforms would happen

1) Even Revival

 

C) But then in 721 BC – Israel is carried away into captivity Assyria – half the kingdom in gone

 

But there in Judah – Hope Hezekiah leads a revival

A) There is reform that takes place

 

B) Hezekiah dies and all hope is destroyed as Manasseh takes the throne.

1) You recall – Joseph gave that name to one of his sons – God has made me to forget …..

 

C) Names means forgetting – Manasseh on purpose forgets everything his father Hezekiah stood for

1) Everything that was important – had meaning

 

D) And the people followed his lead and willingly forgot the Lord

 

Manasseh launches Judah into its worst ever sin and Idolatry – revealed the northern kingdom of Israel at its lowest point under Ahab

A) God responded by saying because of the sins of Manasseh – Judah will also be carried away

 

B) But then we saw Sunday – God raised up Josiah

1) We talked about the Revival that took place under Josiah on Sunday

 

C) He repaired the temple – He tore down the idols –

1) He burned them or crushed them to powder

 

D) We even read in v.20 of Ch 23 – Josiah took the pagan priest and Burned them on the altars of the High places {Interesting because in 1King 13:2

1 Kings 13:2

And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 2 Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, "O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you and men's bones shall be burned on you.'"

 

This was prophesied some 340 yrs before this event that a King by the name of Josiah would do this

 

Interesting that 340 yrs before: Josiah was on the mind of God –

A) God often works in that way: He always has a person in mind – One raised up to lead

 

B) Sunday Evan Roberts –

1) I wonder – this next Generation – who the Lord has singled out

 

C) Josiah reinstituted the Passover –

1) In fact in 2 Chronicles 35 – We read where Josiah personally donated – 30,000 lambs

 

D) Not a family without a lamb- No worshipper without a lamb – 41,500 offered up

1) A lamb for every man

 

E) Great picture of Jesus a lamb for every man!

And we read this word about Josiah 2 Kings 23:25

 Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.

 

What an amazing endorsement from the Lord

A) David man after God’s own heart

Abe – Friend of God

Josiah – One of a kind – none like this guy

 

B) Pay attention to statements like that!

1) Consider what those guys did

 

C) But notice the next verse: v.26 -27

 

Nevertheless the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 And the LORD said, "I will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said,’ My name shall be there.'"

 

Why still Judgment? – reap what sow – They planted a crop of wickedness – reap a harvest of corruption –

 

Sin has consequences – But not in Josiah’s day

The next verses give us the account of his death 

V.28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him. 30 Then his servants moved his body in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father's place.

 

Josiah was a zealous guy – Tear down altars / burn pagan priest – Zeal was a strength – also a weakness

A) Here is what happened Pharaoh Necho aligns himself with the King of Assyria – Super power at the time

 

B) Egypt had been an ally of Israel – Josiah in his zeal goes against them

 

C) No record that God led him to do this at all.

1) he ends up being killed

 

D) Lesson for us: Watch out what battles you get into

1) I personally don’t need to look for conflicts – it is all around me – a lot of drama

 

E) Careful – Lord help me – what do I need to be involved in – Pick your battles

1) I am learning – there is a lot more things I have said I wished I hadn’t said

Josiah in his Zeal ends up in a battle he had no business being in – and it cost him his life.

A) The rest of Ch.23 tells us about his sons

                RD V.34-37

 

Ch.24:1-16

 

The Israelites craved idols – so God takes them to the land of the idols – get their fill –

A) Interesting they never graved idols again.

 

B) Story about farmer – Dog kept eating his chickens

1) Tied a dead Chicken around the dogs neck for 2 weeks – never went after a Chicken again

 

C) Smoking – Made to smoke a Pack

 

But here is what is interesting: The people are being carried away – God has 3 strategically placed voices

A) One in Jerusalem – to speak to the remnant

His name Jeremiah – weeping prophet

 

B) He would call the people to accept their Chastening – refer to Neb as God’s servant

1) Call the remnant to turn to the Lord

 

C) God would call Jeremiah to buy a piece of property – worthless – unnecessary

1) Sign – My people shall return – Promise – there is hope in the midst of despair

 

Another voice in Babylon – Prophet Ezekiel –

A) He would prophesy to those in Captivity – you are going to return – God has not forsaken

 

B) You shall be restored

 

C) One prophet in Jerusalem {Jeremiah

1) One prophet in Babylon – Captives Ezekiel

 

D) One voice in the Palace Daniel – dreams

1) Prophesy of Coming Messiah – Hope for the nation – {hope for the world

 

E) Daniel would prophesy of world empires crumbling

 

God always has voices that are strategically placed

So does Satan – which are you?

A) Complainer – griper / gossiper – sorry to say tool of Satan

 

B) One speaks hope and calls people to follow – trust God – see beyond the mire – see the hope

 

RD V.17-20

 

RD Ch.25: 1-7

 

So here we see in 586BC Judah is no more

A) This would begin a time period that the Bible refers to as the times of the Gentiles

B) For 2,000 yrs Israel would be under the control of another.

1) First Babylon / Persia / Greece / Rome – leading up to the times of Christ

 

C) Although Cyrus of Persia allowed many of the Jews to go back to the Land/ always a remnant – 1) they were always under a sovereign

 Oppressed and Governed by another nation

 

D) During this time of the Gentiles Israel would adopt Aramaic as a language

1) During this time the Hebrew Scriptures would be translated into Greek

 

E) During this time the religious sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees would be born

1) Largely to help preserve the scriptures – which they ended up Polluting – man made additions

 

During this time the Romans in AD 70 – send the nation on the run – Dispersion –

A) The name of the area was called by Titus Palestine just to insult the Jews

 

Prophecy LK 21 Jerusalem trampled under foot of the gentiles until the time of the gentiles fulfilled

 

Happened – May 14th 1948 – Rebirth of Israel as a nation – Major miracle 

That period times of Gentiles began here – 586BC

RD V.8-9

8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 He burned the house of the LORD and the king's house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire.

 

Solomon’s temple destroyed –

A) Interesting in light of Solomon’s prayer when that temple was built 1 Kings 8

 

B) When they pray facing this temple – you hear them {Forgive

 

C) When they are taken captive – pray facing this temple – you return and restore

1) Solomon glimpse into the future

 

D) Because in the book of Daniel at this very moment –Daniel praying facing temple –

 

RD V. 10-12

Also interesting because one of the indictments of the prophets – that the nobles abused the poor

A) Nobles carted off – the poor are left to take care of the land

 

B) Little Divine justice there!    RD V13-30