Lesson 19 II Kings The Waning Days of Judah

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Nathan McLaughlin
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1 Lesson 19 II Kings The Waning Days of Judah Introduction Israel(the ten northern tribes) has been exiled to Assyria, foreigners have been brought in to live in the cities and the houses of the Israelites, and tiny Judah is left t be a pawn to greater nations. Judah has enjoyed a season of some safety and prosperity because they were led for so many years, 29 years, by good King Hezekiah who trusted God, turned the people s hearts back to God, and was called a king who led as King David might have done. Even good King Hezekiah was subject to the human lust for pride, for out of his pride he set up Judah to become a vassal state of Babylon. Hezekiah was a good and righteous king, yet he was followed by two kings who did evil in the sight of God. Chapter 21 Kings Manasseh and Amon Were Evil Kings Vs. 1-9 When Hezekiah died his son Manasseh sat on the throne and Manasseh did evil by doing the abominations of the nations of Canaan. He reigned for 55 years. Manasseh rebuilt the high places, altars to Ba al, Asherah, worshipped the host of heaven (astrology), even putting altars for the host of heaven in the courtyard of the Temple. He made his son pass through the fire of Molech in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is the Hinnom valley that runs along the south side of Jerusalem and in the time of Jesus was the valley which became the namesake, Gehenna, a reference to hell. Manasseh also practiced witchcraft and divination and utilized mediums and sorcerers. He carved and placed the image of Asherah in the Temple, thus desecrating the house which God spoke to David and Solomon, In this house and in Jerusalem, I will put My name forever. And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all the Law that My servant Moses commanded them (I Kings 9:3). Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom God had destroyed to give the land to the Children of Israel. Read Ezekiel 8 whee the prophet is taken into the Temple by the Spirit of God and observes all the abominations that hav been incorporated into the Temple. It is disgusting to think that such abominations, such pagan grossness could be brought into the Temple, the one place on earth where the presence and essence of the Living God resided. Vs God had enough of this evil. Not only did Manasseh lead the people into pagan deity worship, abandoning worship to Adonai, he shed so much innocent blood that Jerusalem streets literally ran with blood. God spoke through His prophets that a great calamity was about to come upon Judah. He states he will stretch over Judah the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab. God was going to bring such destruction on Judah that it would be unparalleled, like one who wipes a plate and turns it upside down. 1

2 God s language of destruction in this passage is frightening when we stop to think about the fact that God has spoken earlier He would preserve Judah for the sake of the throne of David which would be the forebear to the coming Messiah. Now He is saying He will forsake and abandon the remnant of His inheritance and deliver them into the hand of the enemy. In truth, the recorded events in scripture all point in some way to the coming Messiah because He is the fulfillment of God s plan to redeem sinful man not just the Children of Israel, but all mankind. I can only imagine the danger and potential pain for the prophet who was sent to make this impending destruction to known to King Manasseh! II Chronicles 33 informs us that God allowed the Assyrians to capture Manasseh and bind him in chains and hooks and take him to Babylon. Here in captivity, Manasseh humbled himself to God and prayed for relief, asking forgiveness, confessing his sin, and God was moved by his supplications, and allowed Manasseh to return to Judah. When Manasseh returned to the throne of Judah, he destroyed all the pagan temples, altars, idols, etc. and cleaned the pagan relics from the Temple. Manasseh fortified the walls around Jerusalem and fortified other cities. Manasseh restored proper Temple worship but the people continued to worship God by sacrificing to Him on the high places. Manasseh died after 55 years of reigning on the throne of Judah and his son Amon sat on the throne in his place. Vs Amon was only twenty two years old when he ascended the throne of Judah and he reigned in his father s place for two years. Amon did evil in the sight of God, walking in the ways of his father and serving the pagan deities. Amon s servants conspired against him and murdered him in his own house. The servants who conspired against King Amon were rooted out and killed for their treachery. Amon s son, Josiah, was anointed king over Judah and he reigned in the place of his father. Chapter 22 The Torah scroll found and Josiah repents Vs. 1-2 The new king, Josiah, took the throne at only eight years of age but he did what was right in the sight of God, turned neither to the right nor to the left, and walked in the paths of his forefather, David. Josiah reigned for 31 years. Vs. 3-7 King Josiah sent his scribe, Shaphan, to Hilkiah the High Priest, instructing him to take the money collected at the Temple and use it for any necessary repairs the Temple might be in need of. Workmen are to be hired, skilled carpenters, stone masons and builders, they are to buy lumber, hewn stones and anything else needed to make the repairs. Vs In the process of emptying the treasury for the money to pay the workmen, a copy of the Torah scrolls, the book of the law, was located. Hilkiah gave the book to Shephan the scribe who presented it to, and read it to, Josiah the king. 2

3 Upon hearing the book of the law read, the king tore his clothes for he believed that they as a nation of God s people, had wandered far from God through ignorance of what was in the book of the law, the Torah. Question: In what ways are we like Josiah and the people of Judah, actually having access to God s word, living a form of His commands for His people, but out of ignorance not really following His law? Do we follow a watered down form of His Torah thinking we are doing well? King Josiah ordered Hilkiah the High Priest and his aides, Akiham, Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah to Inquire of Adonai for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of the book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us. Can you imagine the fear that struck King Josiah when he read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 describing the calamities that would befall all of Israel if they failed to keep the statutes of Torah? Go back and read those two chapters to see why Josiah might feel such fear. Vs Hilkiah the High Priest, Ahikam, Achbar, and Shaphan went to a prophetess in Jerusalem named Huldah to seek if God had spoken to her about these matters and if there was a prophecy regarding Judah. There was indeed a prophecy from God to be carried back to King Josiah and it was not favorable at all. God s anger was great toward Judah and Benjamin for the evil in the land and in the people. God had been forsaken and Incense was being burned to other gods. God s wrath was burning against the land and its people and it was unquenchable. However, because King Josiah humbled himself so completely in the reading of the Torah, God would preserve him from the wrath that was to be poured out on Judah and Benjamin, and King Josiah would die in peace and be gathered to his fathers, thus avoiding the wrath that God would bring. Chapter 23 Josiah leads the people in observing the Torah Vs. 1-3 After finding and reading the Torah, King Josiah set about to lead all of Judah into paths of obedience. He called all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, all the priests, the people both great and small, gathered with King Josiah at the Temple. Here he read all the Torah to the people and made a covenant before Adonai to walk with the LORD and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes withal his heart, and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people agreed and joined in the covenant with King Josiah. Difference between commandments, testimonies and statutes 3

4 Commands (mitzvah) generally commands or laws to be performed like observing Sabbath, doing charitable works or good deeds, etc. Testimonies (mishphat) formal decrees such as festivals which are to be observed perpetually or for all time Statutes (chuqqah) related to ritual and moadim, or God s appointed days. Keeping Sabbath, celebrating festivals and the proper manner in how to do so, ritual related to purity and becoming ceremonially clean, etc. Vs King Josiah begins cleansing the land of pagan idolatry by beginning with the Temple: Removal of vessels made for Ba al, Asher, and the host of heaven These were carried outside of Jerusalem and burned in the fields of the Kidron and the ashes were carried off to Bethel He removed all the priests who ministered to the idolatrous gods in the Temple and among the high places. He broke down the houses of the male prostitutes which were in the Temple where the women weaved hangings for the Asherah. Next King Josiah began to rid other places of the pagan idolatry shrines and high places: From Geba to Beersheba The high places of the gates at the entrance to the gate of Joshua, governor of the city Topheth, in the valley of Hinnom where the children were passed through the fire of Molech He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun at the entrance Temple and burned the chariots of the sun The altars were destroyed on the roof of the palace of King Ahaz as well as the altars King Manasseh had built in the courtyard of the Temple; The high places built by Solomon for the Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon He broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with graves, full of human bones. Vs Next King Josiah went to Bethel and tore down and burned the altar that Jeroboam son of Nabat had built 361 years earlier (Josephus : Antiquity of the Jews; Book Ten Chapter 4.4) God sent a prophet to warn Jeroboam that this altar and shrine would be destroyed and the bones of the priests would be burned with it. King Josiah took the bones of the priests who did evil and burned them on the fire with the altar and shrine, just as had been 4

5 prophesied in I Kings 13. However, he did not disturb the bones of the young prophet sent to warn and prophecy against King Jeroboam or the old prophet s bones buried with them. Josiah continued north removing and destroying the high places throughout Samaria which the kings of Israel had made and provoked God by worshiping idols. He slaughtered all the priests of these high places and burned their bones on the fires of the burning altars, pillars and high places. Then King Josiah returned to Jerusalem. Vs King Josiah realized it was the season for Passover, the 14 th day of the first month. Passover had not been celebrated in Israel since the days of the judges, nearly 500 years earlier. Passover is perhaps one of the singularly most significant events in the history of the Children of Israel as it is the one event that initiated the exodus from Egyptian bondage and slavery. To have not celebrated Passover, a perpetual statute as given by God throughout Torah, was a huge oversight and failure on the part of the kings. On this year, the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, all of Israel was invited to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover. VS Continuing the purge of all things pagan, King Josiah removed all the mediums, spiritists, teraphim (plural; it is unclear what teraphim were, but it is generally thought they were household idols perhaps used in divination), idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. This was to honor all that he had read in the Torah scrolls found in the Temple. There had been no king like King Josiah who had turned to God with all his heart, soul and might, and there was none like him afterward either. Deuteronomy 6:4 records what is known as the Sh ma, the very statement Jesus goes to as the greatest command when questions in Mark 12: It is a core statement within the Children of Israel and certainly within the culture of the Jews today. Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4 This is no light matter that the writer of II Kings uses these very words to describe King Josiah. What we see here is a desire of one man, full of passion and zeal for God, doing everything within his power to turn the hearts of the people back toward God. Is this not the picture of the Messiah, Jesus Christ? Within the ministry of Jesus, did He not cast out the demons that took possession of people s lives? Did He not clear the Temple of the corrupti0n of the money changers? Did He not challenge the religious leaders of the day who were corrupt and oppressed the people? Did He not bring peace, even in Samaria to the most unlikely of people? 5

6 And yet, even Jesus did not keep Israel from being crushed by the Roman Empire in due time. All this that King Josiah had done did not turn the will of God against destroying Judah because of all the spiritual rejection of God that had gone on for so many years. The LORD said, I will remove Judah also from My sight, as I have removed Israel. And I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the Temple of which I have said, My name shall be there. Vs After all of this King Josiah died in a manner that would seem most unpredictable. Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt amassed an army and traveled across the land of Israel to do battle with the Medes and the Persians who had by now conquered the Assyrians. According to Josephus, Pharaoh Neco had a desire to conquer all of Asia and the Medes and Babylonians stood in his way. King Josiah lead his army to the area of Megiddo in Samaria to stop the Egyptians form traversing his nation, prepared for battle, if the Egyptians continued their trespass. Pharaoh Neco sent word that he had no interest in battling with Judah, his goal was to go to the north, in fact, Neco stated that the God of Israel had commissioned him to go battle the Assyrians, Medes and Babylonians, and that he had no fight with Judah. He pleaded with King Josiah to step down and not interfere (II Chronicles 35:20-27). But King Josiah stood his ground and prepared for battle. It would be just a small thing, a matter of time that if Egypt was successful or not in battling the Medes and Babylonians, he would eventually come back and take control of Judah and Israel. The historian Josephus records that as King Josiah traveled from one wing of his army to the other, an Egyptian shot him with an arrow, thus mortally wounding King Josiah. The king was returned to Jerusalem in his chariot and there he died from this wound. He was mourned greatly by all the people and buried magnificently in the sepulcher of his fathers. Josephus suggests that the Lamentations by the prophet Jeremiah was written on the occasion of King Josiah s death. The people anointed Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, to sit on the throne over Judah. Vs Jehoahaz was the grandson of Jeremiah, yet he did evil in the eyes of God, even after all he had observed in the righteous ways and revival of Judah as performed by his father. He reigned for three months when he was captured and exiled to Egypt by Pharaoh Neco. By capturing the king of Judah, Judah fell under the control of Egypt and Pharaoh Neco ordered Judah to pay Egypt a fine of 100 talents of silver and 1 talent of gold. Pharaoh Neco placed the brother of Jehoahaz on the throne as his puppet king. The brother s name was Eliakim, but Neco changed his name to Jehoiakim. 6

7 Jehoahaz died in exile in Egypt. Jehoiakim taxed the people of Judah to pay the fine demanded by Pharaoh Neco, putting additional hard burden on the people of Judah. Jehoiakim did evil in the sight of God for all of the eleven years he reigned over Judah. 7

2 Kings 22:1-20 ESV - Josiah

2 Kings 22:1-20 ESV - Josiah Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 And he did