2 Chronicles - Chapters 29-32

well we're in second chronicles and we're gonna be focusing on chapters 29 and 32 and I want to just read just by way of quick summary first and second chronicles were probably written in the same time and probably by the same people as Ezra and Nehemiah it's generally ascribed to Ezra having pulled us all together it could be him directly or it could be a team working under his jurisdiction scholars or there's there's there's all kinds of non conclusive evidence to support those views but clearly persons in chronicles Ezra Nehemiah really are emerge out of the return from the exile and so the chronicler as I speak is the author or certainly the pennmen for the team that that pulled these arguments together the first Chronicles of course deals with the genealogies all the way from Adam to the return from exile and focuses that's the first nine chapters and then the rest of it focuses on the reign of David himself second Chronicles first nine chapters both focus on Solomon himself but then the rest of it that we into now of course is the Davidic dynasty focusing on the kings of the southern kingdom northern kingdom went from bad to worse were not spending much time on them we were focusing on the southern kingdom and specifically from a spiritual perspective the chronicler is editorializing the emphases some things and emphasizes others but that's what he's dealing with the monarchy of course divided into the southern and northern kingdom after Solomon when Solomon died variable takes the southern kingdom but the Jeroboam takes the northern kingdom into idolatry and those two are rivals until finally the northern kingdom which goes from bad to worse oh and in 21 Kings and gets wiped out persons first and second third and fourth Kings and some Bibles are as we probably have it as first second Samuel for second Kings is the political history from Samuel to the Babylonian exile the book of Chronicles the first book is parallel ii samuel pretty much the second chronicles really carries it comes to the same thing as first second kings from salomon right on to the babylonian captivity and so we're obviously getting right in the middle of that and so we had a has last time we had we've said in the past there are five outstanding kings a number of probably about ten good ones about half of them in the southern kingdom are good ones i don't think there's any in the northern kingdom you'd call good they just went from bad to worse but the southern kingdom we had some that were really bad some that weren't so bad i'll call them good ones but there are five that are really outstanding they said jehosophat joash Hezekiah and Josiah and I think pretty much most commentators would see Hezekiah the subject of tonight to be the best of the bunch the most outstanding King in the southern kingdom and so we'll just jump right in here with Hezekiah he began to rain when he was five and twenty years old and reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem his mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all the David his father had done that's that strong language now the northern kingdom has already fallen to the Syrians so they're no longer a major player here in that regard and now the and the people had been deported in long large numbers in the Assyrian captivity but there were still many residents still in that region and we'll see allusions to that that'll be very illuminating as we go now popping back from chronicles to second Kings there's something they mentioned that I want to make sure we include it it's very trivially mentioned as far as the chronicler is concerned but I think it's worth mentioning to us here so we're I'm gonna pop to second Kings eighteen which speaking of Hezekiah says he removed the high places and break the images and cut down the groves and break in pieces and that that's all good of course and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made now you may recall in numbers I will flop that pop back there take a look at that we're onto those days that you the children of Israel did burn incense to it and he called it the Houston in other words when you get to the days of Hezekiah this has become a problem because this brazen serpent that was prominent back in the days of the Torah back in numbers 21 was still around being worshipped and he's calling it a thing of brat no stun a thing of brass let's back up and let's get it and get a view of this thing here this is numbers 21 the people speak against God and against Moses wherefore you have you brought brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no bread neither is any water and our soul loathes this light but they didn't like the manna bad news stuff the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died and these snakes may have been a kind of adder that was very that's known in the sandy wastes of Sinai very poisonous therefore the people came to Moses and said we have sinned for we have been spoken and we have spoken against the Lord and against the prey unto the Lord they made me take away the Serpent's from us and Moses prayed for the people so they that's so they're really upset got Moses goes to the Lord the Lord said to Moses make a fiery serpent or actually a brass serpent agree and set it up on a pole and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live and Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man what he beheld the serpent of brass he lived now first of all if God chose to give them a remedy this is kind of a strange one that brass serpent on a pole assortment is a symbol of sin brass is as the met was the Medicus sustained fire so Levitical ii fire and brass are Sinemet synonymous but this is a very strange remedy for God to choose and you can read the entire Old Testament and find no explanation this makes no sense and it is not explained anywhere in fact it is this piece of brass that becomes a fetish something being worshiped so when you get to the days of Hezekiah he's perceptive enough to realize that's dangerous and he destroys it to thing a brass boy we need to understand that what's the significance of this now first Corinthians 10 Paul tells us in a lot verse 11 all these things happened unto them for examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come the world for examples in the Greek as tuples which is from which we get type like a prototype or an archetype something like that it's a figure an image a pattern a prefiguring if you will that's why we call a prototype a type in advance and so forth okay so this is a pattern see to the to the well I'll come back to that it's the patterning when you get to John chapter 3 Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and among other things Jesus explains it for the first time in the Bible you understand why in verse 14 says and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life so suddenly standing back you realize God in numbers 21 was deliberately anticipating Jesus Christ can use that idiom to take care of that problem but in such a way that it would be the pattern that God would use now why is sin well why why a brass serpent because it's sin being judged sin being a serpent but it's brass sustaining it's judged what's interesting this event gives rise to the best-known verse in the Bible verse 16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish never ever lasting life so that's that's so getting back to to Hezekiah who destroyed the brass serpent because it had become a finish we need to be remember that how dangerous things can be destroyed of Turin many people take that very very seriously it's most dangerous if it is authentic I don't think something's have disproved about it but the points such that aside that's not the issue to the extent it's a clinic to that extent it's dangerous if somebody really had a piece of the cross of Christ that's dangerous to the extent one would tend to take it seriously because it's nahusha thing of wrath anyway getting back to Hezekiah he destroyed the thing of brass he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor any that were before him that's quite a statement in the Bible that's said of Hezekiah for he claimed to the Lord and departed not from following him but kept his commandments which the LORD commanded most don't you wish that our report card would read that way when her through boy they make some mistakes doesn't say didn't make some mistakes he made something he makes a couple of mistakes but still he was faithful content going back to 2nd chronicles 29 and in the first year of his reign in the first month he opened the doors of the house the Lord and repaired the member they'd been nailed shut by his predecessor so he goes to Temple and he takes terra's and open so they can get into it he brought in the priests and the Levites and gather them together into the East Street and he said them hear me the rites Levites sanctify now yourselves and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your father's and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place for our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God then if we're se caen him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs so he's he's there's the king telling him how it's gonna be also they have shut up the doors of the porch and put out the lamps and have not burned incense nor offered burnt off in the holy place unto the God of Israel wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem and he hath delivered them to trouble to astonishment and to hissing as you see with your eyes that's the State of the Union speech but Hezekiah well o our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn it away from us my sons be not now negligent for the lord hath chosen you to stand before him and to serve him and that ye should minister unto him and burn incense and that's in the positive sense then the Levites arose and maja the son of MSI and Joel the son of Azariah and sons of the co Knights and the sons of Marah Kish in the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jalal eel and of the gershonites enjoy the son of Zima and even the son of Jove in the sons of Elisha fan and shimmery and Zeo in the sons of ACF and Zechariah and methania may they forgive me for mispronouncing your names and of the sons of Haman and Jesse oh and Jimmy I and of the sons of Jennifer and schemey I and Lucille and they gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves and came according to the commandment of the king by the words the Lord declares the house the Lord the priests went into the inner part of the house the Lord to cleanse it and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord and the Levites took it and carried it out abroad into the brook Kedron so they with all their comrades they took everything he could find it was impure and so that Hezekiah is following exactly the thing that's in Deuteronomy 12 it cleansed the temple and get it back into shape now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the Lord so they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days then the 16th day of the first month they made an end we're gonna have a calendar problem here coming up so for eight days they did everything inside the temple another eight days everything on the first eight days everything on the outside the next eight days everything on the inside then they went into Hezekiah the king and said we have cleansed all the house the Lord and the altar of the burnt offering with all the vessels thereof and the showbread table and all the vessels thereof moreover all the vessels which the King Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression have we prepared and sanctified behold they are before the altar of the Lord so all set but they've missed Passover by two days right 16th day of the first month okay then as Akaya the King rose early gathered the rulers of the city and went up to the house of the Lord and they brought seven Bullock's and seven Rams and seven lambs and seven he goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah and he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord so they killed the Bullock's the priests received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar likewise when they had killed the Rams sprinkled the blood upon the altar they killed also the Lambs they sprinkled blood upon the order they brought forth the he-goats for the sin offering before the king and the con Gatien and they laid hands upon them and the priest killed him and made the reconciliation with their blood upon the altar to make an atonement for all Israel well for all Israel the term here is referring to the entire nation there in the southern kingdom the northern kingdom is a major portion of his has been deported this for all Israel where the king commanded the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel I think that's interesting we don't have ten tribes lost we've been through that in previous times ago I want to be sensitive about whole issue as we go forward here and he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols and the psalteries and with harps according to the commandment of David and of GAD the King seer and Nathan the prophet for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets so they got the magician musicians and all their places and so they're all set to go here and the Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests by the trumpets or with the trumpets and Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar and when the burnt offering began the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments ordained by the king of Israel so this is very similar to when Solomon brought the ark to the temple if you may recall back there and second chronicles five and all the congregation worshiped and the singer sang the trumpet is sounded and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished and when they had made an end of the offering the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped so they in the face bowed themselves they actually prostrated themselves and moreover Hezekiah the king and the princess commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of ASF the seer and they sang praises with gladness they bowed their heads and worshiped then Hezekiah answered and said now you have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings in the house the Lord she had done the compulsory part now they're doing the voluntary part so to speak and the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings as many as were free heart burnt offerings see if some of that was following the prescription now it's it's the analogy might draw you have your tithes but you haven't been offering until you've made your tithe your offerings what comes beyond what you're required is the idea okay and the number of the burnt offerings which the congressmen brought was threescore and ten bullocks a hundred rams and two hundred lambs and all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord and and the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep but the priests were too few so they could not play all the burnt offerings wherefore their brethren the Levites now they weren't priests they were Levites she understand the difference a priest was a Levite that was a direct son of Aaron the rest were called leave what he saw in Levites and priests the priests were Levites - but they're a special class they're under Senator anyway at this point they're brethren the Levites did help them till the work was ended until the other priests did sanctify themselves where the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves in the priests and also the burnt offerings were in abundance for the fat of the peace offerings that drink offerings for every burnt offering so the service of the house of Lord was set in order so all this sees all is has occurred in the first month caused lots of rejoicing as a guy rejoiced and all them people that God had prepared the people for the thing was done suddenly or quickly now we come to the Great Passover chapter 30 Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah let's stop for a second who is he sending to the northern what's left of the Northern Kingdom they Assyrians had taken a large number then deported them they no longer exist as a kingdom there's still people living there these are the tribes that people think somehow got lost as God sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to ephraim and manasseh these are the largest segments of the northern kingdom that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel the very fact that they're living up north implies that they were in many generations of idolatry but they're nevertheless come on join us get your act together here for the King had taken counsel and his princes and all the congregation Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month it may surprise you to know that Passover does not have to be in the first month there are conditions where it can be observed in the second month and that's in numbers 9 verses 10 and 11 among other places so they they weren't ready to do it in the first month so they're going to celebrate the Passover appropriately according to the Torah in the second month where they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not sanctify themselves sufficiently neither had the people gather themselves together in Jerusalem and the thing pleased the King in all the congregation's so they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel from Bear Sheva way down south to Dan that's way up north that they should come to keep the Passover into the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem for they had not done of a long time in such sort as it was written so this is a big deal this is the great Passover so the posts went with the letters from the King and his Prince's throughout all Israel and Judah no confusion here right and according to the commandment of the kings you children israel turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel isn't that interesting the lord god of abram eats all can israel you always think of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the word Jacob in Israel are interchangeable when it's Jacob he's in the flesh when he's got his act together he's called Israel the name is applied in its it's not used interchangeably it's used subtly but here we're talking about things are getting together right the God of Abram Itzhak on Israel and he will return to the remnant of you who are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria and be not like your fathers and like your brethren which trespassed against the Lord God of your father's who therefore gave them up to desolation as you see now be not stiff-necked as your father's work but yield yourselves unto the Lord and enter into a sanctuary which he hath sanctified for ever and serve the Lord your God that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you it sounds like a good proposition for all of us but if you turn again unto the Lord your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive so that they shall come again into this land so that your Lord God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if you return unto Him so the posts are passed from city to city through the country ephraim and manasseh even a Zebulon but they laughed them to scorn and mock them no surprise had been an idolatry for many generations nevertheless divers various ones of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem so there were some among them that turned faithful also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the Lord and their assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month a very great congregation so we have the people coming together to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread and the seven day festival followers immediately after then the Passover and they arose that took away the altars that were in Jerusalem and all the altars for incense they took away and cast them into the brook Kedron and they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month and the priests and the Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves and brought in the burnt offerings into the house of the Lord and they stood in their place after their manner according to the law of Moses the man of God but priests sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites so there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the Passover's for every one that was not cleaned to sanctify them unto the Lord see normally the lady miss surprised you a Passover is not a Levitical feast Passover was given by the head of the family the lady slaughtered there they had to go things the temple don't have them blessed but it was a it was a one for every household kind of thing and so they but here the lady wasn't cleansed enough to do that so the Levites stepped in to they recognized that he stepped into that for them because the the apostasy that they came out of here so they were ceremonially unclean and so they couldn't slaughter their own Passover lambs because they weren't ceremony clean but that's so that's why the Levites had to take charge of killing the Passover's for everyone that's not clean they're trying to accommodate the the laws for the situation and for a multitude of the people even many of Ephraim and Manasseh and Issachar Zebulun had not cleansed themselves yet they did eat the Passover otherwise that it was written but Hezekiah prayed for them saying the good Lord pardon everyone boys guys he went soon as Hezekiah realized this he he prayed on God that he might be pleased he might be more impressed with the sincerity of their hearts than the mere the the matters of ceremonialism here so the heads guy pray for them saying the good Lord pardoned everyone they prepare with his heart to seek God the Lord God his fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary and the Lord hearkened as Akaya and healed the people so that's all this is just a great refreshing change from whoever has gone before the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with with great gladness and the Levites the priests praise the Lord day by day singing with loud instruments before the Lord and so we know that the essence of God's grace is is is as evident in the fact that he have a favorable response to the prayer and so they're all praising God with joy and Hezekiah spoke a spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord they did eat throughout the feast seven days offering peace offerings and making confession to the Lord God of their fathers and the whole assembly took counsel to keep the other seven days and they kept other seven days with the guidance so they extended the whole party another week okay it's pretty cool for Hezekiah the king of Judah did give to the congregation a thousand bucks that's out of his own pocket by the way his own expense the gift to the congregation a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep and the princess gave to the congregation a thousand Bullock's and ten thousand sheeps and the great number of priests sanctified themselves Wow and all the congregation of Judah with the priests and Levites and all the congregation came out of Israel and strangers that came out of the Land of Israel and they that dwelt in Judah rejoiced there was everybody rejoiced and there was great joy in Jerusalem for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not like in Jerusalem so this is the big return then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people and their voice was heard and the prayer came up to his holy dwelling place even unto heaven so God heard from heaven there it is in record so now we're gonna this is this the first step now they're going to reestablish the temple worship the reforms continue when all this was finished in all Israel and all Israel get that that were present went out to the cities of Judah and break the images and pieces and cut down the groves and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin in Ephraim also in Manasseh until they had utterly destroyed them all then all the children is returned every man to his possession to their own cities so they cleaned the land of the apostasy of the pollution of titles and hezekiah pointed the courses of the priests those are the 24 course remember the 24 divisions that that David really set up that's very important understand those 24 courses of the priests Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses every man according to his service the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and peace offerings to administer and to give thanks and do praise in the gates of the tents of the Lord deploying also the king's portion of the substance for the burnt offerings to it the morning and evening burnt offerings the burnt offerings for the Sabbath's the new moons and for the set feasts as it is written in the law of the Lord I find that very interesting the Sabbath the New Moon's is that Millennial temple that will be established when Christ returns is going to only be open on Shabbat and the New Moon's which is kindness and won't be open on Sunday that's kind of interesting moons and for set feasts as is written in the law of the Lord moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord as soon as the commandment came abroad the children visitor brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn and wine and oil and honey and of all the increase of the field and the tithes of all things brought they in London Lee it's kind of important to know seasons by the way I was with a rabbi recently and he pointed out to me that Jesus when he went at the night of his betrayal didn't finish Passover remember he the last cup he says the fruit of wine will heal not until he drinks the new wine with us in the kingdom right well for him to drink new wine with us in the kingdom that has to be in the fall has to be in the fall just thought I'd throw that out what's worth ok and concerning the children israel and the judah that dwelt in the cities judah they also brought in the tithes of oxen and sheep and the tithes of holy things that were consecrated to the Lord their God and laid them by heaps and the 3rd month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps and finished them in the seventh month and when Hezekiah the princess came and saw the heaps and he blessed the Lord and as people is room and then Hezekiah questioned with the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps and Azariah the chief priests of the house of Zedeck answered him said since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of Lord we have had enough to eat and have left plenty well the LORD hath blessed his people and that which is left is this great store that Hezekiah commanded to prepare the chambers in the house the Lord and they prepared them and he brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully over which cornea the Levite was ruler and schemey I his brother was next and so they were put in charge of all this xs-extra stuff and jheel and Azariah and a half in nashville and jeremiah thens and josue bad and lel and mish-mosh are it smoky eye and mojave and Minaya were overseers under the hand of Kanaya and shimmied his brother at the commandment is a kind of the king and Azariah the ruler of the house of god and cory the son of em nah the Levite the porter toward the east was over the freewill offerings of God to distribute the oblations of the Lord and the most holy things the next time was Eden and then I a name and Joshua and Jamie I and a Mariah and check an ayah and a city's of priests in there said office to give to their brethren my courses as well as well to the great as to the small you know as we read through Chronicles we sometimes get tedious because they list all the names that who did what to whom and what the responsibilities were unless you're a very serious student mapping those things that are under you why why is all that here and I think one of the lessons is that whatever you're doing for the Lord gets recorded my name these happen to be here but I suspect that's true of all of us we need to recognize that God pays attention and it is a matter of record and and as noted not missed not missed besides the genealogy of males from 3 years old upward even today everyone that enters into the house of the Lord his daily portion for the service in the charges according to their courses but to the genealogy of the priest by the house of their fathers of the Levites from twenty years old numbered Zin their charges by their courses and to the genealogy of all the little ones their wives or sons and the daughters through all the congregation for in there office they sanctified themselves at Hollis obviously is a lot more Levites than priests and but the both the families of both are supported similarly and the law of Moses forbade the clergy from engaging in secular work to provide for themselves interestingly enough and also the sons of Aaron the priest which were in the fields of the suburbs of the cities in every several City the men that were expressed by name to give portions to all the males among the priests and to all that were reckoned by genealogies to the Levites and thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah brought and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the Lord is God and every in every work he began in the service of the house of God and in the law and in the commandments to seek his God he did it with all his heart and prospered he did it wholeheartedly boy I wish we could make that same claim there's a common we talk about faith there is no merit in faith didn't that a shocker you see it's not a matter of believing enough you could believe in the wrong thing well you must just have faith here people say no no no no no no no faith at what that's important just having faith you could believe in the wrong thing there are many people who died as martyrs for their fanatic beliefs they're sincere the Muslims falling Allah are sincere they don't lack sincerity they don't they don't lack commitment they can have ever so much faith but is the wrong thing or the wrong person this summary something I figured as I was going through gleaning as I do I go through dozens of commentaries to try to get some of the insights this is something that Jamie and McGee hammered home I thought you know I'm going to do the same pick that up because we talked about faith here here is Hezekiah he's faithful yes but he's faithful in the right things and Spurgeon said another way it is not your hold on Christ that saves it is Christ it is not your joy in Christ that saves this Christ is not even my faith will that be his instrument it is Christ's blood of merit didn't remember that I see so many entertainments of worth well if you just have faith and they have no graphs of what they're talking about and that can be that could be kind of productive anyway let's move on we're now the fourth of the chapters on Hezekiah and some problems are starting to surface here after these things and the establishment there of Sennacherib the king of Assyria came and it entered into Judah and encamped against the fence cities and thought to win them for himself Sennacherib is a powerful powerful king and he's now entering the land with it with an eye towards conquest and when Hezekiah saw that now back up a little bit Hezekiah when he began his independent reign broke the treaty that a has had dealt with the Assyrians and he rebelled against the syria's that's why so neck ribs coming out to get things back under control and he couldn't do it earlier because the Syria was preoccupied with Babylon which is starting to get hard to manage it was a little troublesome city-state within a Syria that's starting to get powerful and it's going to get so powerful then it won't be very long a couple generate a generation or two where it's going to knock off Syria a Syria but the meantime Syrians got their hands full so they couldn't deal with this because of the rebellions within the Babylonian provinces but so sargans successor Sennacherib now is going to try to straighten things out so when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was coming that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city and they did help me see one of the things that he wants to do is conceal the real source of their water for the city if they have a siege and now the stream of these primary talking about is the cajon spring we'll talk a little bit before this chapter is over about the interesting Hezekiah tunnel that you can actually visit if you go with us to Jerusalem and prepared to you know Wade Li deep in water you can go through his tunnel anyway but that was God as much people together who stopped all the fountains in the brook that ran through the midst the lamb saying wheesh why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water and he strength himself and build up all the wall that was broken raised it up to the towers and other wall without repaired me low in the City of David and made darts and shields and abundance so he's strengthening himself in terms of the weaponry and he said captains of war over the people and gather them together to him in the street of the gate of the city and spake comfortably to them saying be strong and courageous be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria nor for all the multitude that is with him or there be more with us than with him with him as an armored flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles and the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah the king of Judah this is called leadership the right kind boy now after this did selector of the king of Syria send his servants to Jerusalem but he himself laid the siege against lock issue which and all his power with him but it Hezekiah the king of Judah and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem saying thus says Sennacherib the king of Assyria we're on to you trust he that abide in the siege of Jerusalem and so he's asking for its surrender here death not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves to die my famine and by thirst saying the Lord our God shall deliver us from out of the hand of the king of Assyria hath not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem saying he shall worship before one altar and burn incense upon it see the neck rub is assuming that by destroying all these other altars that they've you know denuded themselves of their support he doesn't understand that was he doesn't understand the Living God know ye not that I and might this is snek of tucky I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands were the gods of the nations of those lands in anyways able to deliver their lands out of mine hand you might got stronger near God kind of thing here huh who was there among all the gods of those nations that my father's idly destroyed that could deliver his people out of my end that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand you understand it's logic and by the way he's not saying this in Assyrian he's saying this in Hebrew so the common people can hear all this now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you in this manner neither yet believe him for no God of any nation or Kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand and out of the hand of my father's how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand and the servants fate yet more against the Lord God and against the server Hezekiah he wrote also letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel to speak against him saying as the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of my end so shall not the god of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine hand what do you think Hezekiah did with those letters no he didn't insert it with a sudden there were signs no no no what did he what did he do with those letters did a very interesting thing he took them with him and laid them out on the altar before the Lord let the Lord see what being presented here I like then they cried out with a loud voice in the Jews speech there it is unto the people of Jerusalem that were on the wall to affright them and to trouble them that they might take the city and they spake against the god of Jerusalem as against the gods of the people of the earth which were the work of the hands of man and for this cause Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos prayed and cried to heaven man where you got a guy like Isaiah at your elbow that helps to you know Isaiah is quite a guy he's probably the most articulate guy in the Old Testament he had the most elaborate vocabulary he was a royal prophet may the prophets were you know in the fringe of areas of society no no I say it was that court with Hezekiah was brainstein guy very interesting book you need to say that and the Lord sent an angel now this doesn't detail like Kings does swords but he actually takes it and lays it before the Lord and see what they're saying yeah and the Lord gave him comfort and he did more than just give him comfort this little verse is kind of fun the Lord sent means let's cut off all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and the captains of the Kent in the camp of the king of this area so he turned with shame to face his own land and when he was coming into the house of his God that they came forth of his own bowels and slew him there with a sword that angel that God sent one night after dinner slaughtered a hundred and eighty-five thousand Syrians you don't mess with angels angels indulge in direct combat angels can lead people like by the hand angels can and have dinner with people unknowingly looking like people they want to they're not like demon the demons and fallen angels are very different there's an angel sent by God that slaughtered 185,000 again Canada I wonder how many Syrians were there I wonder if they got every other one that always Lee that always leaves a very special impression now he then returned he returns in shame back to his capital he never again tries to attack Jerusalem here they summarize that when he was coming to the house of his God that they came forth of his own bowels and slew him there with the sword his own sons kill him that's 20 years later by the way just it just summarized here for like by the by the you know the so God gave me a reassuring answer to the prophet Isaiah that's the Saint Kings 19 the angel that destroyed the Syrian host killed 185 thousand Syrians and sometimes later the the chronicler overlooked you know it doesn't make this point but sometimes later he's murdered by two of his own sons in the temple of his God this short and according to the Assyrian analyst circa mentals this apparently occurred in 681 BC about 20 years after the aborted campaign against Jerusalem so it's a point made but the duration there is provocative any moving on thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all other and guided them on every side and many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem to pray and presents to Hezekiah the king of Judah saw that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thence forth what's the one you watch out for pride and Hezekiah does a bad thing in those day well there's another thing I've come to in those days Hezekiah was sick unto the death and he prayed unto the Lord and he spake unto him and he gave him a sign let's pick this up in Isaiah Isaiah records this thing a little more detail in Isaiah chapter 38 those in those days was Hezekiah sick unto the death Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos came unto Him said to him thus saith the Lord set thine house in order for thou shalt not die thou shalt die and not live we have a prophet walk into your study and tell you that you're not too excited about it it's in Isaiah 38 then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed him to the Lord said remember now Lord I beseech thee how I've walked before the in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and Hezekiah wept a sore then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah saying go and say to Hezekiah thus saith the Lord God let's say at the Lord the God of David thy father I have heard thy prayer I've seen thy tears behold I will add unto thy days 15 years and I will deliver thee and the city out of the hand of the king of Assyria and I will defend the city and this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord that the Lord will do this thing that he has spoken behold I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which has gone down in the sundial of Ahaz 10 degrees backward so the Sun returned ten degrees by which degrees it was done down let's back up in Damascus I believe there is a sundial that impressed a has so a has had a copy of it built for himself and this apparently was like a monument that he could watch from his window and the shadow of that sundial fell on the ten steps okay and God says to Hezekiah what sign would you have shall I make this thing go forward or backward well there's a guy who's making it forward doesn't sound like that big a trick he said like making go backward it's God's okay so as he watches the shadow that sundial goes backwards ten steps and those ten steps turn out to be about 15 degrees now so he so the Sun goes turned returns 10 it says degrees here but three steps by which degrees it was gone down so how did God do this nobody knows there are all kinds of strange stories that make no sense I won't waste our time on those it's very simple as it could be just as simple as refracting the light to make that shadow move you didn't have to stop the planet Earth the spinning or a that sort of stuff there are stories around that try to link the long day of Joshua which is obviously many centuries earlier with the 40 to 40 minutes that are missing and they try to and those are nonsense bluntly they sound very cute at first but the best of my awareness they're nonsense and I just mentioned that if you come across it don't get all hung up on that stuff in any case let's get back to chronicles but Hezekiah render not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem and this is 2nd chronicles step back to think runners again notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah Hezekiah had exceeding rich exceeding much riches and honor and he made himself Treasuries for silver and for gold for brench stones and for spices and for and for all manner of pleasant jewels storehouses for the increase of corn and wine and oil installs for all manner of beasts and encodes for the flocks moreover he provided him the cities and passions of flocks and herds and abundance for God hath given him substance very much but he gets some ambassadors from Babylon visiting and in great pride he shows them his Treasuries and that's what sets the stage a generation later or babbling to come after those treasures he you know he made a mistake and and Isaiah scolds him for that you showed him what then predicts what's going to happen that's all again and the Isaiah account the same Hezekiah also stopped the upper water courses that gahan and brought it straight down the west side of the City of David and Hezekiah prospered in all his works one of the things not detailed here but is in the scriptures the tunnel that he built dug through solid rock from the Gihon spring to the pool of Siloam that's seventeen hundred seventy seven feet in Rock workmen digging from each side and it meanders but they meet how they navigated that I have no idea it's very well you and your there it's hard to figure out but in eighteen eighty they found in the description that one end of the tunnel about nineteen front were nineteen feet from the pole Solomon and it narrates the history of the excavation and it's generally regarded as probably being executed that description by Hezekiah workman there are some scholars that suspect that parts of that if not all of it might actually have actually been done since the days of Solomon but it's generally described as a Chaya that's good known as the tunnel of Hezekiah that's referred to here in the scripture now here's an allusion of these ambassadors howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of princes of Babylon who sent unto him to inquire of the Wonder that was done in the land God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart and he makes a big mistake that I say it'll take them down on but chronic pardon me the chronicler doesn't dwell on this you find all this out by reading Isaiah and Kings now the rest of the accent has a and his goodness behold they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos and in the book of kings of Judah and Israel it's it's a little frustrating to try to summarize Hezekiah in just first of all the chronicler just as four chapters and we'll sort of stick with that but I want you to be aware of the fact that in the writings of kaya you'll find some Psalms you'll find it and we learn a lot about how Psalms are organized by some of the details of studying the psalm of Hezekiah and so there's there's there's much richness there is much more to study than we've retaken we're just retaking the you know skimming the the cream here of the chronicler and Hezekiah slept with his fathers and they buried him in the chiefest of the SEPA kurz of the sons of David the best the top ones and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did on and get him on her at his death and the NASA his son reigned in his stead we have the best King and we're going to end up with next one is the worst we've got the best of the bunch here Manasseh is worse now it turns out that Manasseh was born in those 15 years that God gave him that were extra and that causes some people to prognosticate that that was probably unfortunate Hezekiah might have been better off if he had died when God had originally scheduled it because it was in that 15 years he makes his mistakes in that 15 years that Manasseh is born and as Manasseh turns out to be a major major problem in fact it's understanding Manasseh that we we will gain a major insight as to what really happened in the days of Josiah that follows him we need to understand both so next time we're going we've been in we've been in Hezekiah chapters 29 through 32 next time we're going to take two kings we're gonna take Manasseh who has really bad news they'll be blood in Jerusalem from border to border God is so upset with the rule of Manasseh that he pronounces a judgment upon Jerusalem in Israel over that desire comes along as a young kid but his heart is really right so much so that God says I'm still gonna have that judgment but it won't be in your days so that's a cloud overhanging the nation Josiah promotes a revival very effectively but it's very important for us to understand some of the details of that and it's going to tangentially involve the Ark of the Covenant because in the third in the third verse of chapter 35 of second chronicles desire orders the Levites to return the Ark of the Covenant to the holy of holies around that verse have emerged some conjectures by most commentators that are wrong I'll show you why I think they're wrong they assume the Levites conform to that request of the king there's some evidence to the contrary in fact we're going to trace next time some background that's all in the text of second chronicles 35 that will open up the possibility of some big surprises so next time is going to be a great fun time so we'll deal with that that will leave for us only one session that will cover chapter 36 which is the big climax in the sense of the fall of the southern kingdom to the Babylonians and there's some surreal surprising aspects to that that we'll try to bring out and to the extent that we have any extra time we'll go ahead and put the whole thing in perspective by doing a summary next time there's a session after next so with that I was going to say let's stand for word of Prayer before we do let's ask our selves a delight of kings there's a you know 20 some-odd what are the lessons we learn from each one of these what's the repetitive lesson all the way through if you're gonna sit in say okay great check that's this great history what's it got to do with me bosses whatsoever things are written aforetime were written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of Scriptures might have hope what hope what do we get out of these lessons we have bad kings most of the mad some good ones some really really good what made the difference faithfulness they they listened to God they trusted God many of these guys were faced by astonishing odds and they didn't buckle they trusted God in other cases they had huge supporting strength didn't trust God and they got clobbered you know the one thing I think the Holy Spirit would have us glean from this besides there's some very intricate aspects to the history of Israel which has all kinds of messianic implications and we'll try to touch on that as we go but just in terms of our practical everyday life the kings that trusted God that took him at his word prospered and not just in spiritual terms and in material terms they prospered the rains brought peace and so forth it's so strange because the lessons are almost black and white black and white and then when they win and when they lose they lose and it's all a question of did they were they paying attention to what God had told them to do and we're going to see that dramatized especially next time in contrasting Manasseh with Hezekiah the worst against the best and so forth so anyway with that let's stand for a closing word of prayer for ourselves

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Length: 55min 32sec (3332 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020