while we're studying the book of second chronicles and this session is going to address chapters 24 through 28 and first and second chronicles of course first chronicles have the genealogies all the way from Adam to the end of the Exile and first Chronicles first nine chapters then the rest of first chronicles is all about the reign of David in second chronicles we had the first nine chapters about the reign of Solomon and then we had the Civil War and the Davidic dynasty the books of first and second Kings Samuel and kings focus on the history the political history second first second chronicles will focus on the religious history of the southern kingdom that is primary focus because the real subject here is the Davidic dynasty and if you remember our timeline from learning the Bible in 24 hours we obviously had from Samuel through that Saul David Solomon and then the split then the civil war between the southern kingdom Judah Northern Kingdom Israel and first and second Kings of course focuses on that political history but chronicles first and second first chronicles is roughly comparable to second Samuel focusing on David second chronicles taking it from Solomon on and of course we are well into the period of second chronicles I know this would be hard to read we don't have to read all the detailed names but a lot of confusion may have occurred with some of the names because as we look at judah the southern kingdom and israel israel went their kings went from bad to worse in judah they went they had a few good ones about five really outstanding ones but the from 931 to about 721 that the northern kingdom will cease to exist and the southern kingdom will go into captivity but with the commitment by god that after seven years they'd return not because they deserve it but because of his commitment to david but one reason i wanted to portray all of this is not to confuse we have a Johar um in both Judah and Israel that is the both the southern and northern kingdom and we also have an Azariah in both places and they're almost contemporaneous many people get confused because many of these names sound similar and are held by many different people we try to keep that straight as we go now we're going to encounter before this evening is over the a daughter of one of the really bad guys in the Northern Kingdom guy by the name of Ahab married Jezebel and they have a daughter by name of Ethel ayah and that she's going to be a piece of work believe me so we'll talk about her later tonight but getting going through the Davidic dynasty itself that we've been focusing on they had five good guys many of them were bad some of them were okay but there are five that you do want to note we're out see our outstanding ASA Jehoshaphat joash --and then Hezekiah and Josiah Hezekiah being the probably the Prince of the bunch but last time we reviewed Jehoshaphat through as I Alya and the family of offal aya is quite a the the line of Judah of course goes David Solomon Abijah ASA Joseph a Orem but over in the Northern Kingdom under armory he had a son by the name of a hab who married a Phoenician gal by the name of Jezebel who is that's the gal that opposed Elijah Mount Carmel all of that they had a daughter that was very much an echo of Jezebel by the name of F Alya when she marries your harem of Judah and that creates all kinds of problems Joseph added joram had six other brothers but anyway she ends up causing all kinds of trouble daughter Ahab and Jezebel she when your arm was 32 he succeeded to the throne I fell I became then the queen of Judah in a sense and she will take the throne many people are shocked to discover that there was a gal for son the throne of David for six years and did a lot of trouble and the first record active charms rain was that a murder of his six younger brothers but she this gal after eight years of royal life she became a widow and her son ahaziah who was then 22 ascended to his Father's throne she ends up murdering her grandchildren among other things within one year the young king was slain by Jay who along with the brother of Isaiah and their sons she then destroyed or tried destroy I should say all the royal seat of the house of Judah fortunately one of them was hidden by her sister strangely enough and joash and then just a baby escaped by the intervention of his aunt in the fact and that was was kept secreted until they were able to establish him on the throne and so but the meantime I feel I her self proclaimed herself sovereign held it for six years many people saying the Bible are shocked to discover that there was a gal a very nasty gal that sat on the throne of David for that length of time and the portion of the temple was pulled down and the materials used to structure a temple to bail aziz are dark times but jahida had married the daughter of ethological that's the one that that hid the kid and he gets promoted to high priest and he is secretly faithful to the eve of a the Java or however you want to say it and for six years joash is concealed in their apartments from the queen who didn't know of his existence would have been she would have been would not turn a who would not have withheld anything to make sure that that was wiped out but the seventh year of this kid's life a counter-revolution is effected now falaya is killed by avenging guards suffering a very similar doom to her mother did Jezebel did previously so we have this family bath Alya and as we put it on here course joram kills his six brothers and meanwhile joram gets killed and so to who it gets to be quite a field day we're even joash will end up killing the well he'll take the he'll take the throne but even the son of jehoiada the his main benefactor will get murdered before it's all over so it's a messy time well tonight we'll go from all of that to take a look at joash to begin with and we'll go for you go through a few others chapter 24 chronicles that oh that was all by way of review and so in chapter 24 verse 1 joash who was seven years old when he began to reign and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem his mother's name also was Zibby ABARE Sheva and joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jahoda the priest now Jahi does read a guy that supervised him and took care of him and as long as jahida is alive joins us pretty well he gets up you know he gets some positives on his report cards when Joe hided eyes then things turned pretty sour so Josh doesn't come up with a clean slate in any case George did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jahi to the priest that's important qualification and jahida took for him to wives and he begat sons and daughters kind of surprising in a sense because Jay Ida was really pretty much by the book pretty solid but he does get too wise for the king which was technically against the Torah but nevertheless this was a common practice and came to pass after this that joash was minded to repair the house the Lord that's pretty impressive for this young guy this is very positive he gathered together the priests and the Levites and said to them go out into the Seas of Judah and gather all that it was all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year and see that he hastened the matter come here at the Levites hastened it not very lenient they're victims of the past which has been very lenient the king called for Jahi to the chief said to him why is found not required of the Levites to bring in out of and out of Jerusalem the collection according to the commandment of Moses the servant of the Lord and of the congregation of Israel for the tabernacle of witness were the sons of Ethel ayah that wicked woman had broken up the house of God and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow on Balaam bailant Balaam being plural of Bale's obviously now the Kings commandment they made a chest and set it without at the cait of the house of the Lord you'll find many churches now they did this that gets to to make sure there was no graphic and so on many churches will set out what they call the chest of joash it's after this passage there's a way of having a special drive for offerings or whatever you may hear that term anyway they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem to bring in to the Lord the collection that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness and all the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought in and cast into the chest until they had made an end and so now it came to pass that at what time the chest was brought into the Kings office by the hand of Levites and when they saw that there was much money the Kings scribe the high priests officer came and emptied the chest and took it and carried it to its place again thus they did day by day and gathered money and abundance so this was a working project worked well apparently and the king and Jahi too gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the Lord and hired Mason's and carpenters to repair the house of the Lord and also such as brought iron and brass to mend the house of the Lord so the workmen wrought and the work was perfected by them and they set the house of God in his state and strengthened it so during obviously during the previous rains they had the place is pretty much destroyed neglected the practices abandoned so he's instituting a revival and getting these repairs made raising the funds this is very positive again the chronicler is focusing on the spiritual or religious history of the southern kingdom and so the chronicler will emphasize the faithfulness and not necessarily get into all the politics and a lot of the other background that's why you generally want to study this in parallel with first second Kings which will have a lot of other detail that the chronic leaders don't really focus on and when they had finished it they brought the rest of the money before the king anja Haida where of were made vessels for the house of the Lord even vessels to minister and offer with all and spoons and vessels and gold and silver and they offered burnt-offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of joy Haida that's the priest not the king the priest because he's going to die it's concerned out to turn sour vagina waxed old and was full of days when he died a hundred and thirty years old was was he when he died and they buried him in the City of David among the kings because he had done good in Israel both toward God and toward his house that will not be the case with us with the king however now after the death of drydek came the princes of Judah and made obeisance to the king and the King hearkened unto them and they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers and served groves and idols bad news that's but in other words they turned to idolatry and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass yet he sent prophets to them that his God sent prophets them to bring them again to the unto the Lord and they testified against them but they would not give ear so we got dark time coming here and the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jahi to the priest I get the picture Zechariah is the son of the benefactor of the king your height is the guy that took care of him as a kid was his primary counsellor during the good days he has a son by the name is Zechariah which stood above all the people and said to them thus saith God why transgressed ye the commandments of the Lord that she cannot prosper because she had forsaken the Lord he have also forsaken you familiar words very again this is almost sounds like the book of Judges again and they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at commandment of the King in the court of the house of the Lord in that brief sentence is a very death a very disturbing thing but the King didn't spare Zechariah the son of his mate primary benefactor he let this mob if you will that his encouragement kill the son of the son of Judah thus joash the King remembered not the kindness which a Haida his father had done to him but slew his son and when he died he said the Lord look upon it and required it that's what the priest said as he died and it came to pass at the end of the year that the host of Syria came up against him and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus it's disturbing to realize how often God uses a enemies as his instruments of judgment that's what he did here that's what he's going to do into the northern kingdom completely and as you read this it gets very disturbing because many wonder when I travel one of the most common questions I get asked by audience when we have a question and answer period we usually do is why hasn't God judged America Billy Graham quipped so many years ago God doesn't judge America I'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah that's the same sentiment that Thomas Jefferson said back in 1781 I tremble for my country when I recall that God is just and that his justice will not sleep forever so one of the things that some of us worry about is as god is the american right for judgment the only positive we can come to is Genesis 12 verses 2 & 3 because of our commitment clumsy sometimes deceitful many times but nevertheless a commitment to the of Israel's right to exist and as that as we waffle on that if we should turn from that I think it's it could be very very again we would fit the same situation we have here moving on verse 24 for the army of the Syrians came with a small company of the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers so the executed judgment against joy the Syrians came up with a minority group and were able to subdue a very great host why because that was God's will to judge these people and when they were departed from him for the left him with great diseases his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jahi to the priest and slew him on his bed and he died and they buried him in the City of David but they buried him not in the saker's of the Kings so the preacher high to the priest was given honor honorable burial not so for joash not a winner not a winner and these are they that conspired against him they bad the son of shamea they an ammonite us and jahausa bad the son of Shem Ruth a Moabite us the names of these two assassins which by the way are also listed in second Kings and that they were an ammonite Moabite this is probably his way of blaming foreigners for the deed against the anointed son of David you see that would have been it would have been unthinkable for no matter how much they hate him to kill an anointed son of David but the way it worked out foreigners did it so they don't fall under those kind of traditions obviously anyway now concerning his sons and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him and the repairing of the house of God behold they are written in the story of the book of the Kings and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead and so with that we now go to the next king go to chapter 25 got roughly a chapter per king here we got 21 Kings we're gonna have more chapters in that because we've got a lot to talk about Hezekiah when we get there anyway a messiah is in chapter 25 and now Messiah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem his mother's name was - had a ton of Jerusalem and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not were they perfect right with a complete heart not completely we did pretty well but not full not wholeheartedly can I see it that way maybe back one of his first official acts will be avenging his father's murder verse three not came to pass when the kingdom was established to him that he slew his servants that had killed the King his father but he slew not their children but did as is written the law of the Book of Moses where the LORD commanded saying the father shall not die for the children neither shall the children die for the fathers but every man shall die for his own sin and that's in Deuteronomy 24:16 it was a basic principle and so in that sense he's honoring the the constraints that are imposed by the Torah so this implies he's going to turn out to be a moderately good King here moreover a messiah gathered Judah together and made them captains over the thousands of captains over the hundreds and according to all the houses of their fathers throughout all Judah and Benjamin and he numbered them from twenty years old and above and found them three hundred thousand choice men able to go forth to war that could handle spear and shield so he's strengthening the military you're getting it organized he hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valor out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver now Israel is that the term here of course is referring to the northern kingdom many people get confused because there were nations that word Israel can be used for the whole nation here it's being used for that northern kingdom Judah that's why I try to use terms northern kingdom southern kingdom to avoid confusion the southern kingdom known as Judah the northern came known as as Israel but he hires a hundred thousand mercenaries in effect from the northern kingdom which in many respects is a rival or a competitor for sure verse 7 but there came a man of God to him saying O king let not the army of Israel go with thee for the Lord is not with Israel to wit with all the children of Ephraim Ephraim is the dominant factor in the Northern Kingdom and the prophets are see my Messiah has got a strong interest the military of Affairs because he's raised on 300,000 men hire an additional hundred thousand mercenaries and but this is virtually equivalent to an ungodly alliance because the northern kingdom was a night open idolatry and so from time to time there's peace between the two but just never be partnership the northern kingdom was idolatrous they did not hold to the to the temple worship and the and and the torah now the southern kingdom who theoretically did that did it very poorly because many kings just let it abandon as you've just seen so we don't know the name of the man of god here but he's just reminding him that god is not with the northern kingdom so why align yourself with him but if thou wilt go do it and be strong for the battle god shall make thee fall before the enemy for god hath power to help and to cast down them as I said to the man of God but what shall we do for the hundred talents which I've given the army of Israel and then of God answered the Lord is able to give thee much more than this in other words he's already paid these guys the the hundred talents of silver and so they're he's going to tell them to go home they've been paid he'll tell them to go home and they'll be bitter why would they be bitter they've been paid they don't have to fight because they're also after the plunder a messiah separated them to it the army that was come to him out of Ephraim to go home again you think they'd say great they got paid they don't have to work no where for their anger was greatly kindled against Judah and they returned home in great anger because they've been gypped out of their plunder in effect because it wasn't just to pay it was the opportunity in battle to to participate in the spoil a messiah strengthened himself and led forth his people and went to the valley of salt and smoke of the children's here ten thousand and so this is probably in the Dead Sea area as you can probably gather and then other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive and brought them to the top of the rock cast them down from the top of the rock that they were all broken in pieces so they took an additional ten thousand prisoners but killed them but the soldiers of the army which a messiah back that they should not go with him to the battle fell upon the cities of Judah from Samaria even to beth horon and smote 3000 of them and took much spoil so the frustrated Israeli troops that had been not allowed to participate they in the in central Israel they they killed 3,000 people and took a lot of spoil and now it came to pass after that a messiah was come from the slaughter of the that he brought the gods of the children of Seir and set them up to be his gods and bow down himself before them and burned incense to them this is astonishing it shows our fickle human artist here God gives him the victory he doesn't hate you didn't need this extra army that he purchased God gave him the victory anyway and he comes back and honors the gods of the it's a bewildering bewildering where for the anger of the Lord was kindled against a messiah can you imagine and he said unto him a prophet which said of him why hast thou sought after the gods of the people which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand in other words why are you honoring these so-called gods of when those so-called gods were ineffectual at protecting their own people you know the logic is is is people insists upon worshipping the gods that aren't and the demons who are keen to pass as he talked with him that the King said to him art thou made of the King's Council forbear why should a stout be smitten when the Prophet for mayor and said I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou has done this and has not hearkened unto my counsel the King was quick to threaten the man of God and the last words of that prophet is that a messiah would come to know God's punishment because of his rejection of this council then a messiah the king of Judah took advice sent to joash the son of jaha's the son of Jehu the king of Israel saying come let see one another face-to-face so he's in effect ready to wage war eyeball-to-eyeball is really what's going on here and Joe ass is going to reply to Amaziah with a little parable of his own now this is the joash the king of Israel not there's different Joyce than we talked about a little there's two again you got these similar names this is Joyce the king of Israel the Northern Kingdom sent to a messiah the king of Judah saying the Thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon saying give thy daughter to my son to wife and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and throwed down the Fissel now the little fissile is our Messiah who demanded of the cedar Jehoash that he might give a daughter his wife thistle son and the thistles rewarded but for its presumptuousness by being overrun by a wild beast which in effect is Israel's army is what they're suggesting here now say it slow thou has smitten the and thine heart have lifted the up to the boast by now at home why should sow meddle into thine hurt that thou should has fall even thou and Judah whiffy and so he's he's saying you know if you stay home you won't get hurt mind your own business in effect but a messiah would not listen and so God's going to judge him and was I we're not here for it came of God that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies because they sought after the gods of Edom so George the king of Israel went up and they saw one another face to face both he and a messiah the king of Judah at Beth Shemesh which belonged to Judah and Judah was put to the worst before Israel and they fled every man to his ten so they got clobbered in effect and that's when I said about 15 miles from Jerusalem and Joe as the king of Israel took amaziah king of Judah and the son of joash the son of your highness to at Beth Beth Shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem break down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate four hundred cubits so they humiliated the king in his own turf in in Jerusalem self broke down about six hundred feet of the walls and right near thee from gate and he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with obut eat'em and the treasures of the king's house the hostages also and returned to Samaria these Temple artifacts were under the care of the family of obut Edom that was the one member that took care of the Ark of the Covenant way back and these were apparently because of all the disrepair in the temple put under their custodianship and so they turn to Sumerian a messiah a messiah the son of joash the king of Judah lived after the death of joash and son of jehoahaz king of Israel about 15 years now the rest of the acts of a messiah first and last behold they are not are they are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel and now after that after the time that Amazigh had did turn away from following the Lord they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem and he fled to la Hache and they said to a fish after him and slew him there so he became very unpopular with his people and forced to finally go into exile but they even found him there and slaughtered him there and brought his body back for burial and his foot his father joash had been assassinated too so it's pretty dismal history here they brought him up on horses buried him with his father's in the city of Judah but not in an honorable burial ok we move on to use aiyah and he does a little better that all the people of Judah took Isaiah who was 16 years old and made him King in the room of his father a messiah and he built a law through started to Judah after the king slept with his father's 16 years old was his eye when he began to reign he reigned fifty and two years that's quite a while in Jerusalem his mother his name was also Jack Alya of Jerusalem and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father a messiah did and he sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding the visions of God as long as he sought the Lord God made him prosper he went forth and Ward against the Philistines broke down the wall of GAF the wall of jaffna and the wall of Ashdod and built cities about Ashdod and among the States God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians that dwelt in gur ball and muninn NIMS and the ammonites gave gifts to desire and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt and he strengthened himself exceedingly moreover his eye about towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate of the valley gate of the turning of the wall and for Devon so he strengthened himself he's doing well he's doing well and he built towers in the desert dig many wells had much cattle both in the low country and the plains husband and also in vine dressers in the mountains and in Carmel for a loved husband so Poisson was really a rancher or farmer at heart but he's doing well as a king he's honoring God and because he's honoring God God is prospering him and he's strengthening the land moreover who Ziya had a host of fighting men that went out to war by bands according to the number of their account by the hand of Jael the scribe and Messi had a ruler under the hand of Hananiah one of the Kings cabinets the whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valor were 2600 those are the leaders I'd under their hand was an army three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred that made war with mighty power to help the King against the army so this is well-trained divisions very substantial and as I have prepared for them throughout all the hosts shields and Spears and helmets and harbours jeans and bows and slings to cast stones our bed gins is a apparently a term for most people to understand it the body armor there's a couple other possibilities but that's the seams the the most consistent consensus cheery omen is the Hebrew and then in the most common translations for body armor and he made in Jerusalem engines of speaking of war engines here invented by cunning men to be the on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows visualize those as a giant crossbow and great stones catapults with all his name spread far abroad for his Marvis Lee helped till he was strong so this guy's doing pretty well got the place strong he's fortified the place he's got agricultural prosperity and he also apparently is very innovative help he's got some advances in military hardware what do you think's gonna happen to him what's likely to be his the in his armor anyone want to guess I heard it right on who said it right good for you exactly boy we all need to realize that there's two times were vulnerable and we're really weak and also when we're really strong and but when he was strong guess what his heart was lifted up to his destruction and one of the things he did and an evidence of his pride is carried there in verse 16 for he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense hey what's wrong with that that's just a religious practice no no no no no no from the beginning of the Torah it separates the Royal line which is the line of Judah from the Levitical line and they're not to cross the priests were not to be Kings the Kings were not to be priests there's there are some exceptions to that one of them the guy by the name of Melchizedek in Genesis 14 and he would disappear in obscurity if it wasn't for some 110 Hebrews chapters 5 and 6 where it's emphasized that Jesus Christ is a priest and a king after the order of Melchizedek in the sense that he combines both together a king and a priest in one he's unique in that regard there are only 3 people like that in the scripture Jesus Christ Melchizedek and who else us kings and priests remember the bridge on points that out in Revelation one Peter pointed out in his letters also he points out that it's emphasized in chapters four and five revelation makes a big thing I mentioned in passing so you're just sensitive to it in any case though here whose ayah as part of his ego trip chose to ignore that prescription and went and offered burnt incense upon the altar incense and that is not a good idea Azariah the priest went in after him and with him four score that's 80 priests of the Lord that were valiant men is there not just these are not pet namby family guys these are these are serious guys and they withstood who's aya the king and it was appropriate that they do of course they withstood the king and said I am it appertain if not unto the Uzziah to burn incense under the Lord but to the priests of the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burnt increased go out of the sanctuary for thou has trespassed neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God okay now how do you think God is going to keep him out of the temple from now on he immediately becomes a leper Messiah was wrought it had a sensor in his hand to burn incense and while he was Roth with a priest leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house the Lord from versa from beside the incense daughter well that's one way to keep him out of the temple because if you're a leper you cannot enter the temple so that was that's Leviticus 13 and Azariah the chief priests and all the priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence the a himself hastin also to go Alan because the Lord had smitten him and his I the king was a leper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a several house separate house of the words being a leper for his cut off from the house of the Lord and Jotham his son was over the Kings house judging the people of the land now many people who fool around they try to reconcile the Kings fail to recognize the Jotham call reigned with him for quite a few years as we'll see here in a minute so Jotham his son was over the Kings house judging the people of the land so he's sort of stepping in like a co-regent here now the rest of the acts of Uzziah first and last did Isaiah the prophet the son of amos right and so as aya slept with his fathers and they buried him with his father's in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings where they said he is a leper and Jotham the son reigned in the stead so here's the guy that was doing pretty well all in all you you late you would label him a good king but he he let his pride get in the way and tarnish if you will his his record let's take a look at his son there's a chapter on him but it's a short one Jonathan was twenty and five years old when he began to reign and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem because there's a co-regency involved his mother's name also was Jerusha the daughter of Xebec and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father whose ayah did howbeit he entered not into the top of the Lord and the people did yet corruptly so he did pretty well but the people still are under too much leniency here they don't they're not doing what they should be doing he built the high gate of the house of the Lord and on the wall of ofall he built much moreover he built the cities in the mountains of Judah and the forest he built castles and towers he fought also with a king of the ammonites and prevailed against them and children Ammon gave him the same year a hundred talents of silver and ten thousand measures of wheat and ten thousand barley so much did the children Amman pray to him both the second year and the third so they they had fallen behind their payment so he he conquers them and brings them up to snuff here and so apparently they did they then responded for about three years after which their burden apparently was less than a little bit so Johnathan became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord is God now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways aren't low are they not written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah his he was five and twenty five years old when he began to reign and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem and Jotham slept with his father's and they buried him the City of David and a has his son reigned in his stead now it has is another story altogether so we're gonna now look at Jay has it has in chapter 28 now when you look at all the kings of Israel and that you realize that or the or the king went from bad to worse and the other other lasted a couple centuries longer I just want to call your attention we're talking about a has in the southern kingdom don't confuse him with a hab a very very bad king in the north they're not contemporaries many people get could he have am a hab husband of Jezebel burly the Northern Kingdom the their nemesis was Elijah we're now in the southern kingdom much sense some generations later a has different guy not a cool dude but a different guy a has was twenty years old when he began to reign and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem but he did not that which was right in the side of the Lord like David his father David his great-great grandfather but anyway and he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and made now that's bad news Israel was idolatrous before he walked in the ways the kings of Israel and made also molten images for Balaam and so it's now there's if you can starting to reconcile these things he reigned for Colerain about four years with Jonathan and then alone for sixteen years and so he was an evil king ahaz is in the south an evil king following the pattern of the northern kingdom which were wicked and were about now the northern king was on the verge of falling to Assyria they're almost over the northern kingdom is about to cease to exist they're moving on Mauri burn incense in the Valley of Hinnom and so boy where to start on this one anyway the valley of him and burnt his children in the fire he burnt his own children offered them to these tomalak and all of this after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children Israel he sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills and under every Green Tree it's hard to grasp the insanity of paganism it's hard for us to imagine people making those kinds of commitments we can visualise people not taking the Living God seriously and indulging inside nonsense of some kinds but somehow the commitment to this kind of stuff is astonishing and we're having trouble in our own culture today trying to understand Islam most people have no grasp of how virulent that commitment to insanity is and it's just it's just it's something beyond our imagining but here here he is sacrificing not other people's children his own children and to Moloch this that heat this bronze Idol - it was red glowing him and put the children in the arms of it Valley of Hinnom this was associated with the ammonite god Molech and vehemently condemned in the law in Leviticus 18 and 20 and Deuteronomy 12 and elsewhere it was practiced primarily in the valley that south of Jerusalem Jerusalem was on a ridge in those days it's not gone more than that but there's a the kietryn valley was to the east and the Terr opium valley was to the west there was a valley along the south called the hinnom valley and just south and west and didn't get that word gay is means valley the valley of hinnom is Jahannam and because there was this continual burning for two reasons this is where they did all the a burning sacrifice of the children it was also the city dump and was constantly burning with trash so the gay Hinnom the Valley of Hinnom becomes idiomatically a label of hell in fact I shouldn't say hell because you might think I'm talking about Hades no no the the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone make a distinction between shell which is the Hebrew and Hades which is the Greek which represents the abode of the Dead both good and bad get him Gehenna as Jesus would say it was the ultimate repository of the unsaved okay of course with because of the fires there this gives rise to the term Gehenna as a term for Hell as we think of it that is hell the word hell in the sense of the lake that burns with fire and brimstone not hell are the terms we sometimes use that term for Hades which is something a little different anyway wherefore the Lord God is God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria he was getting judged by again God using their enemies deliver tempted in the hands of the king of Syria and they smote him and carried away great multitude of them captives and brought them to Damascus and he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel that's the northern rival who smote him with great slaughter so he has his sins were great against God and so there this is the third time the arameans or the Syrians fought Judah for Pekka the son of Rome alia slew in Judah a hundred and twenty thousand and one day which were all valiant men because they had forsaken the God of their fathers Pecha the son of Ramallah because Syria Ephraim and the son of Rome alia have taken evil care let me let me back up I'm just shifted I'm reading from Isaiah I want to show you something about Ramallah that's in the Book of Isaiah this same illusion is in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 5 and 6 where Isaiah says because Syria Ephraim in son of Myr mallya have taken evil counsel against thee saying let us go up against Judah and vex it and let's make a breach therein for us and set a king in the midst of it even the son of Tibia you say Oh cats pretty assume you're very jealous jealous student who is to deal fine to be on the Bible you won't because it's encrypted okay it turns out I'm quoting from Isaiah hear the word to Beale is encrypted this is an encryption in Isaiah 7 that's well known to students of cryptography we encounter the scheming of resin the king of Syria and Pekka the son of Ramallah the king of Israel their Confederate against a has the king of Judah and get the picture Northern Kingdom and Syria they're conspiring against a has and Judah in verse 6 of Isaiah it says the plan is to establish the son of tibial is Kang who is he the Midrash the Hebrew commentary notes that tibial is the name Ramallah encrypted using the method of album what on earth is album if you take the Hebrew alphabet and you lay it out and take the second half of it and put it under the first half you now have letter pairs that you can match up and if I take the first letter I substitute the the lambda I take the Beth the second letter I take the mem and so forth if I by pronouncing a lbm album is the name given to this form of encryption how does it work well if I take Isaiah seven six the word is to Beal so I take them I I substitute the matching one in each case I substitute the matching letter and take the matching one again this time it works the other way and the word to Beal by Albom transpositions is the word ramonja no big deal to someone that's a student of cryptography it's provocative if there's an encryption in the Bible and this is taught if you take a course of the CIA in cryptography this will be mentioned as one of the historical uses of simple transpositions there's another form as there's this is one form there's another form called akbash that's where you take the Hebrew alphabet you take the second half and put it under the other and backwards okay and so and you by pronouncing this it's a TBS Bosch is attempt to pronounce the first four letters in Jeremiah 25 and 26 we have Shishak which actually turns out to be the encryption of the word Babel or Babylon and Jeremiah 50 51 the same method is also used where part of my enemy where he turns out to be the king of the Chaldeans no big deal no profound insights here to someone that's a student of cryptography it's just a curiosity of ancient historical use of encryption to someone who recognizes that the book we're dealing with has supernatural origins these take on another thing what a rabbi would call a rebus a hint of something deeper and this leads into a whole study of secret writing tucked within the biblical text which is beyond our scope here but I just wanted to mention that this this pekka Rimowa thing beware let's get back to 2nd chronicles 28 and Zachary the mighty man of Ephraim slew Messiah the king's son and Zekrom the governor of the house and elkanah that was next to the king and the children's will carried away captive of their brethren 200-thousand women Wow 200,000 women sons and daughters and took also way much spoil from them and brought the spoil of Samaria so this included a lot of casualties for a has in his own court and so Northern Kingdom took 200,000 from Judah up to their capital Samaria being the capital of the northern kingdom but a prophet of Lord was there whose name was Obed this is really interesting and he went out before the hosts that came to Samaria and said of them behold because the Lord God of your father's was wroth with Judah he hath delivered them in your hand and he have slain them in a rage that reaches up into heaven and now he purposed to keep under the children of Judah in Jerusalem for bond men and bond women unto you but are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God now hear me therefore and deliver the captives again which you have taken captive of your brethren for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim and Saraiva the son of jahannum berra kaya the son of michelle off and Jesu kaya the son of Shalom and amasau the son of how the head lie stood up against them that came from the war there's there's there say they're trying to stay don't take prisoners from Samaria said unto them ye shall not bring in the captives hither for as we have offended against the Lord already ye intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass for our trespasses great and there is fierce wrath against Israel so the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation you know and the men which were expressed by name rose up and took the captives and with the spoil clothes all that were naked among them and arrayed them and shod them and gave them to eat and to drink and anointed them and carried all the feeble of them upon their asses and brought them to Jericho the city of palm trees to their brethren and then they returned to Samaria so the leaders gave the prisoners food and clothing led them to Jericho where they could be repatriated back to their own country what's bizarre about this what's ironic about this is Israel the Northern Kingdom listened to the Lord whereas the southern kingdom didn't is this see the inversion it's very strange but one of course that God honors at that time did King Ahaz send to the kings of Assyria to help him he he won't quit now he's trying to make an alliance with the kings of Assyria for again the had come and smitten Judah and carried away captives so he wasn't satisfied with the kind overtures from the Northern Kingdom his his his competitor arrival whatever so he's negotiating with Assyria at tig left police there was the king at that time and so Isaiah the prophet had tried to keep a has from returning to doing any of this but he would listen Felicity ins also had invaded the cities of the low country and of the south of Judah and taken beth shemish and agile on and get her off and choco and the villages thereof and kim nafta and villages thereof and gizmo and also in the villages thereof and they dwelt there well the Lord had brought Judah Loew because of a has the king of Israel where he'd made Jude and naked and transgressor against the Lord and until cloth till grass blazer the king of Assyria I came unto Him and distressed him but strengthen him or not so in other words he made a deal with him gave him his bribes but he didn't do anything for him he wouldn't help him Boreas took away a portion out of the house of the Lord and out of the house of the king and the princess and gave it unto the king of Assyria but he helped him not he accept his bribes but why should he help me measly disease he's weaker than he is so he doesn't he doesn't sweat it Bible tells it's not to put trust in man doesn't it in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz you'd feel a chronical or just everything for he sacrificed one of the gods of Damascus which smote him and he said because of the gods of the kings of Syria helped him therefore what I sacrifice to them that they may help me but they were all the ruin of him and of all Israel and he has gathered together the vessels of the house of God cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God shut up the doors of the house of the Lord made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem and every and every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to unto other gods and provoked to anger the Lord God of his father's you know it's astonishing to compare the behavior of news na has an example with a commitment of Solomon when you dedicate a temple because as all as long as you do what I tell you you're gonna win I'll be with you you don't do that you're gonna get clobbered and the whole histories that repeats anything now the rest of his accent of all of his ways first and last behold they are written in the book of the kings of Judah this room and they have slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city even in Jerusalem but they brought him not into the separate cures of the kings of Israel and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead and Lord that's that's the good news here so we're going to go from a has Hezekiah and we rockin have one chapter will spend 29 30 31 32 for chapters on Hezekiah in the next session he will turn out to be not only a good King he'll be one of Judah's greatest kings so the assignments for next time would be to read 2nd chronicles 29 through 32 Isaiah 36 through 39 Isaiah has these interesting four chapters as the first portion of Isaiah deals with the judgments and things the last part of Isaiah's messianic there's a little fourth chapter historical insert and Isaiah 36 through 39 covers all this which is also covered in 2nd Kings 18 through 20 all that covers Hezekiah a lot of colorful interesting things occur in Hezekiah and we'll take that up in our next session
