2 KINGS 12-19 ISRAEL IS CONQUERED2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Kings 12-19 Israel Is Conquered

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012.

We looked at this week chapters 12 through 19 of 2nd Kings and so that's the chapters that we'll be covering this evening. As we look at the book of 2nd Kings, we don't know exactly who the author was. It was really a compilation of different authors because of the large span of time. The book of 2nd Kings covers about 863 B.C.,

all the way through 560 BC. So about 300 years of history is covered by this book, looking at both the kings of Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom.

On the timeline, that's what this looks like. And so this blue box here is the book of 2 Kings. We covered, you know, the first part in 1 Kings and 1 and 2 Samuel. We got to see the beginning of the nation as a kingdom with King Saul and then King David and then King Solomon. But then after Solomon, the kingdom was divided in two, right? There you see the big red line that goes down the middle. And so then you had the northern kingdom called Israel and the southern kingdom called Judah. And so you got to see the beginning of the nation as a kingdom with King Saul and then King David and then King Solomon.

And so we've been following kind of back and forth, back and forth, the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah, and back and forth. We've been following the history of all of these kings. Well, as we go through the chapters we read this week tonight, we're going to see all the way up to when the northern kingdom is conquered by the nation of Assyria. That's about 722 BC. So we're going to see that develop and then happen in the chapters that we read this week as we look at that this evening.

Well, here's the geography of what it looks like. The divided kingdom at one time under Saul and David and Solomon, it was all united and the borders were far expanded beyond what this is here. But

After Solomon, when the kingdom was divided, then they lost a lot of territory. They lost all of the, you know, the tribute that all the nations around them were paying, and they were split in two. And so the northern kingdom went by Israel. Last week we got to see on the east side of the Jordan River, this whole section right here, that was lost to Syria. And so that...

That's no longer part of the nation anymore. And so the rest of the nation of Israel is going to be dwindling more and more as it comes to the end for them. And they're finally conquered by Assyria. Same thing for Judah. We see Judah there, but the borders will be constricted more and more as Assyria comes and then later Babylon comes. And we'll see that in our reading this coming week as we continue on in 2 Kings.

Well, that brings us to our chapters this week, and we begin in chapter 12 of 2 Kings. Verse 2 is the key verse. It says, Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Here we have the king named Jehoash, also known as Joash. He reigns for 40 years of the nation of Judah. He's reigning over the southern kingdom.

We were introduced to him last week in chapter 11 when Athaliah, the queen, put to death all the descendants of the king except for Joash. He was hidden from her. And so when he was about eight years old, he was crowned as king by Jehoiada, the priest.

And so Jehoiada helped establish him, taught him the things of God, kind of raised him in many ways. And as he began to become a man on the throne, he continued on in that, except for verse 2 tells us, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest had instructed him. When Jehoiada dies...

We see that Joash begins to walk away from the Lord. And we don't see the full story here in 2 Kings, but we will see it in 2 Chronicles later on as we go forward in continuing to read through the Bible in three years.

And so we'll get a little bit more of the detail back then as we get there to what took place there when Jehoiada died and how Joash turned away from the things of God. But as we see here that he did what was right for a while and then Jehoiada died, then he began to turn away from the Lord. It's a good opportunity to call us to examine and consider this.

Are you able to stand on your own in the faith? That if the person that you rely upon in your faith in the Lord was to die, would you then turn away from God? Would you then wander away? What's your anchor to the Lord? If it's a person...

like it was for Joash, Jehoiada was his kind of anchor to the Lord who held him accountable, made sure he's continuing to walk with the Lord. And as long as he was around, he was like, okay, I'm going to continue to walk with the Lord. But as soon as Jehoiada was gone,

He had the, well, kind of the wandering eye and he began to do his own thing. Warren Wiersbe points out here, he says, if your faith is propped up by others, what will you do when the props are gone?

And so I want to encourage you as we begin looking at our chapters this evening to make sure that you study to show yourself approved unto God. That your faith is not based upon other people and that you're not reliant upon them. Of course, we're reliant upon one another as the body of Christ because he's intertwined us. But that doesn't mean that we would then walk away from the Lord. We also need to have our own relationship with God.

That it's not just when other people tell you this is what God wants to do, but that you have your own personal walk, that you hear from God, that you know how to walk with him, that you know how to study and dig into the word of God, that you know how to worship him, even if, you know, the people that you rely upon, that you're closely connected with are not there anymore. We need to have our own strong walk with God.

Well, Joash does well. And so in verses 1 through 16, we see that the temple is repaired. The northern kingdom of Israel, they never had a good king. From the very beginning when they divided the kingdom, they always worshiped false gods. And it went from bad to worse. They never had any revivals. They never, you know, came back to the Lord. They just continued to worship these false gods and refused to come back to the right worship of God.

The kingdom of Judah, on the other hand, they had some good kings and mostly bad kings. They had a lot of bad kings, but a few good kings. And so Joash is considered one of those good kings, but there's been many bad kings before him. And so the temple has fallen into disrepair. It's in bad need of some maintenance, some TLC, right? It needs some attention. And so

So Joash calls for the repairing of the temple. Verse 9 tells us that he takes a chest, he puts a hole in the top, and he puts it next to the altar so that people are able to give in order to, you know, maintain the building and maintain the temple, to bring it back up to what it once was. And the faithful giving of the people enabled the temple to be repaired.

And I just want to give a quick thanks to all of you. The body of Christ here at Calvary Chapel Living Water. Maybe you noticed, you know, we've been able to do a couple things around here. The handrail that went in, the cement work, and we've been doing some things over in the trailer. We've got some more plans for the house and working to install some air conditioning units there for the Spanish ministry. And it's really been a blessing.

In the same way that we see here in chapter 12 of 2 Kings, the people faithfully gave and the temple was repaired. You know, there's been a faithful giving here at Living Water that has enabled us to kind of do some of these things around here that we've been wanting to do for a long time. So thank you for being obedient as God has been speaking to your heart. And I want to encourage you to continue to be led by the Spirit in how you use the resources that God has given to you.

Well, it goes on in verses 17 and 18, and now Syria begins to threaten Jerusalem. And so because Israel and Judah are both walking away from God, God is going to be using nations around them to bring correction, discipline, and judgment upon them.

And so Syria begins to threaten Jerusalem as Joash begins to walk away from God. God brings Syria against Jerusalem to bring this correction and to start bringing some of the judgment that they're going to be deserving. We see at the end in verses 19 through 21 that Joash dies. They conspire against him and put him to death. And then...

put another man on the throne. So Joash dies here at the end. Now Syria threatens Jerusalem. First of all, here on the map, up in the north there is where Syria is at. It's a little bit beyond the map there. But they came down, they attacked Gath, and then they thought, well let's take Jerusalem now. And so they set their eyes on Jerusalem. And God is going to be using Syria as

The nation of Israel, he's going to be using Assyria and then finally Babylon to come against Judah and Jerusalem because his people, although they have some good kings, the people as a whole continue to rebel against God and will not turn from their wicked ways. And so we see that happening here as Syria comes against Jerusalem and they're beginning to see the discipline and the correction of God because of their rebellion against him.

Well, that brings us to chapter 13, verse 20 is the key verse. It says, Then Elisha died, and they buried him, and the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year. So in verses 1 through 9, we have Jehoahaz reigning in Israel.

He reigned for about 17 years. Again, he was reigning in Israel, the northern kingdom. Not a good king because there never was a good king in the northern kingdom. Then in verses 10 through 13, you have Jehoash reigning in Israel.

reigning in Israel. He reigned for 16 years. Now, some of the names are similar. We just were talking about Jehoash, but that was the king that was over Judah. This is the king over the nation of Israel. Different person, same name, Jehoash, also known as Joash. And so sometimes that gets a little bit confusing. But Jehoash, the king of Israel, was not a good king. He reigned for 16 years and continued to lead the people away from God.

In verses 14 through 21, we have the prophet Elisha and his death.

Elisha has been ministering for quite some time now. We've been seeing him from, you know, a while here in 2 Kings. And he's been ministering to the different kings and calling them back to repentance, really ministering to the northern kingdom, the nation of Israel. And so he's been calling them back, calling them back. They haven't been listening. And so now we come to the conclusion of his life and the end of his ministry.

It's interesting though, as he is on his deathbed, Jehoash, the king of Israel, comes to Elisha and Elisha gives him some instruction. He says, hey, shoot out the window. And he says, look, God's gonna continue to work. And so he's giving him some illustrations here by this archery that he's having Jehoash do. But one of the things that's interesting is he tells him, okay, now you shot out the window, here's the message for that, but now strike the ground.

And so he tells him to take the arrows and to strike the ground with the arrows, to shoot at the ground with the arrows. And it's interesting because he only shoots a couple arrows. He shoots three arrows into the ground. And Elisha is a little bit frustrated with this. And he says, if you had shot more arrows, five or six arrows into the ground, then you would have had great victory over Syria.

But since you only shot a few arrows into the ground, you will not have a great victory. You'll only have a little bit of victory. It's an interesting thing to consider because Jehoash considered this to be such a minor thing, right? I mean, the prophet tells him, strike the ground with the arrows.

Well, what for? What's the point in this? He's really kind of considering, why am I doing this? What's this all about? And he's going through the motions, but he's not really zealous in it. He's not really passionate about being obedient in this instruction.

Warren Wiersbe says it this way. He says, You know, there's a saying that we often refer back to, you know, the importance of being faithful in the little things.

You know, there in the Gospels when Jesus said, hey, you've been faithful in little, you'll be faithful in much. You'll be entrusted with much. But it starts with the faithful in the little things. And this instruction here to Jehoash by Elisha was a little thing, but Jehoash wasn't faithful in it. He wasn't diligent about it. He says, strike the ground. He's like, okay, you know, he's not really in it. His heart's not in it. He's not diligent in it.

And so the victory that he experiences is limited. I think it's a good opportunity for us to consider, am I faithful in the little things? Specifically, I would say, hey, are you faithful in things when you don't understand their meaning? Or you don't understand why you're being instructed or asked to do this?

You know, a lot of times we're half-hearted in things because I don't know, I don't see why this is so important, right? Like when you're a kid and you're doing geometry and you're like, why do I got to know this? This doesn't make any sense, you know? I'm never going to use this again. So you're half-hearted in it. We're half-hearted when we receive instruction, be it from the Lord or spiritual leaders or bosses at work or wherever it is. We're half-hearted in it when we can't figure out, well, why is this so important?

And yet, the word tells us to do all things as unto the Lord. That we're not to do stuff half-heartedly. Specifically, and most importantly, spiritual things. That we are to be fully engaged in what God has set before us. And even if you don't understand exactly why God has instructed you or you're receiving this instruction from somebody else...

You need to be diligent because, well, when you're faithful in the little things, you will be entrusted with much. And there's great blessing that comes from being faithful and diligent in the little things that God gives to you. Let me throw out a couple examples. You come for prayer because, well, you're really struggling and you don't understand why you're still struggling with this issue, why you still continue to go back to that.

Why is this still an issue in my life? Well, I would encourage you to consider, are you being faithful in the little things? He has a member of the body of Christ here. We challenge you. We called you back from the beginning of the year and we continue to do so throughout. We're going through the Bible in three years. It's part of what God has called us to do as the body of Christ. Are you participating in that? Are you joining with us? Well, you know, I already read through the Bible once before or whatever. It's a little thing in our mind, right?

Are you being faithful in the little things? You want to experience the fullness of the victory that God has for you? Be fully engaged in what God has for you. Be fully engaged in the instruction that God has given to you. Are you being faithful in your time in the word? Are you being faithful in your devotional life? Are you being faithful to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together as we talked about on Sunday? That you're being faithful to join in and participate, to not just come and sit in the chairs and enjoy service, but

to minister to one another, to be part of exhorting and lifting up one another and stirring up love and good works amongst each other? Are you being faithful to that? It's maybe a little thing in your mind, but it's a big part of the victory that God wants you to experience in the rest of your life.

Are you being faithful in your time in prayer? We could go on and on considering lots of things that we might consider little. In fact, many people consider them little and so they don't participate in them. But then we wonder, why am I still struggling? Why am I still having these issues? Why am I still so weak as a Christian? Well, you got to be faithful in the little things. I don't understand why I got to read these all about all these kings. It just doesn't make sense. And so we're just half-hearted. We're not diligent.

We're just kind of shooting a couple arrows half-heartedly into the ground. Now be diligent, be passionate, be zealous about the instruction that God has given to you because in doing so, you'll be entrusted with much. You'll be faithful in much and you'll experience the victory that God has for you. So here Elisha dies. Jehoash...

is given a test. He fails it. And so he's only going to receive a little bit of victory. And then verses 22 through 25, you see that little bit of victory as he recaptures some cities from Syria. So Syria had conquered some of the cities of Israel and he's able to recapture some of those. You know, here in chapter 13, we get to see the amazing grace of God.

Because Jehoahaz, he wasn't super faithful. He wasn't real diligent. He wasn't real zealous. And yet, it says in verse 23, but the Lord was gracious to them, had compassion on them, and regarded them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them or cast them from his presence.

I think this is so amazing. We get to see God's amazing grace here because the nation of Israel is on their way to destruction. It's not much longer from here that Assyria is going to come and conquer them. But still in the midst, as they're on their way to destruction, God extends his grace. They haven't repented. They haven't turned back to God, but he was gracious. There's not been a revival, but he was gracious.

God is continuing to extend his grace, his mercy, and give them opportunity to respond to him. It's God's amazing grace. And so we see that with Jehoash here in verse 23, but we also see it with Jehoahaz in verse 4 and 5. Jehoahaz was a bad king. Again, he wasn't faithful to the Lord. He was a king of the north. He always was involved in idolatry. But it says that Jehoahaz pleaded with the Lord and the Lord listened to him.

For he saw the oppression of Israel because the king of Syria oppressed them. The amazing grace of God that even kings of wicked nations, of nations that have always been rebellious, God is extending his grace to. And when King Jehoahaz calls out to God, God responds and he sends a deliverer. This is an amazing picture of God's grace. That even when people have been in rebellion against God,

even when they've been full out running from him, against him, practicing things that he has commanded not to be practiced. When he calls out to God, God responds and sends a deliverer. It's a great encouragement to approach God on the basis of who he is and what he has done, not based upon our own works that we can call out to the Lord. Hey, you've messed up, you've blown it, you've failed, you've been in rebellion.

you still have the opportunity to call out to God. You still have the opportunity to receive His grace and His mercy that's never-ending, that's new every morning. It's amazing how good God is to us. Well, let's go on into chapter 14. Now, verse 3 is the key verse. It says, And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like his father David. He did everything as his father Joash had done. So now we're introduced to Amaziah.

He reigns in Judah in verses 1 through 6. He reigns for a total of 29 years in the nation of Judah. In verses 7 through 15, though, he becomes a little bit foolish and he calls Israel to battle. First, he has victory in Edom. We'll learn more about this in the book of 2 Chronicles. He kills 10,000 soldiers at the Valley of Salt there in Edom. And so he has this great victory. He's really happy about it.

He allows it to really become a point of pride for him. And so he comes back home and he's like, all right, that was a good fight. Who else can I fight? Who else can I take down? He says, all right, Israel, why don't we come and face one another? Let me show you how strong we are. And so he challenged Israel and Israel replied back and said, hey, you know, why are you going to try to do this? And you're only going to get hurt in this. But

Amaziah insisted, so they went to battle and lost. In verse 10, the king of Israel said, you have indeed defeated Edom and your heart has lifted you up. Glory in that and stay at home. For why should you meddle with trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you? There was a little bit of wisdom here from this wicked king as he says, hey, you've had victory, great.

Stay home and enjoy that victory. Don't now come and try to challenge me because you will be defeated. And that's exactly what happened.

Well, then in verses 16 through 22, Amaziah is killed in Lachish. And so he is put to death there and then his son is set up. But verse 23 through 29, Jeroboam reigns in Israel. So you can see the back and forth and it gets a little bit confusing. So we'll look at the timeline and try to keep it in track in just a moment. But Jeroboam now is the second Jeroboam. And when the kingdom was divided after Solomon...

His son Rehoboam took the throne. Jeroboam led the nation of Israel to Rehoboam. And then they decided, hey, we're not going to listen to you. So they split the nation. That was the first Jeroboam. This is a couple hundred years later. It's another guy, same name. And so this is Jeroboam II. He reigns in Israel. And he reigns in Israel for about 41 years.

Well, here's a couple maps to look at the things that happened in chapter 14. First of all, Amaziah badams Edom. Edom is to the south of the salt sea or the dead sea there. And so he goes down to the south and has this battle, has a great victory there with Edom.

Then he challenges Israel. So he calls out to Israel, said, let's face one another. And they meet at Beth Shemesh there and they have this battle. Judah is defeated and then they take it back to Jerusalem and tear down part of the walls. And so Amaziah is defeated there by Israel. So a great victory followed by a defeat as he was lifted up in pride.

Then Amaziah is, well, he flees to Lachish and there he is put to death. Now, when we were in Israel, for those who were with us back in 2006, we drove by Lachish and the tour guide told us how to pronounce it properly. It's Lachish. So that's the right way to pronounce it in case you wanted to know. So he's killed in Lachish and then

Finally, we have Jeroboam who's restoring territory to Israel. So I told you before, this whole right portion here, east of the Jordan, that was conquered by Syria. Well, some of the northern portion was conquered by Syria as well. And that's circled there. And so Jeroboam restores that territory. He reconquers that. And so he extends the borders up to the north once again in the final part of his reign. And so you can see that in verse 25 and 21.

Oh, verse 25 actually has something interesting. It says that he restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of Arabah according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who is from Gath-Hephardt.

Here we have a reference to the prophet Jonah. We know Jonah as the one who didn't want to go to Nineveh, right? So he ran away and got swallowed by the big fish. Well, that same Jonah is mentioned here in verse 25 of chapter 14. And he prophesied about this portion being restored through Jeroboam. And so the word of God is fulfilled.

Again, we see the amazing grace of God. Jeroboam is not a good king. He's not a godly king, but God's speaking through his prophets. He's showing them that he is real and he's giving them opportunity to repent over and over again as they head towards their destruction.

Well, that brings us now to chapter 15, verse 28 is the key verse. It says, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. Here we have a bunch of kings that happen rapidly, right? One on top of the other. Verse one through seven, we have Azariah reigning in Judah. So that's the southern kingdom.

He reigned for 52 years. He was a good king. You might also know him as Uzziah. Remember in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. This is that king. Uzziah is also Azariah. It's the same name. In fact, you'll see Uzziah mentioned throughout 2 Kings 15 here. The names are used interchangeably.

Well, then in verses 8 through 12, you have Zechariah reigning in Israel. So now we're looking once again at the nation of Israel. He reigned for six months. It wasn't very long. And this was the fulfillment of what the Lord had spoken to Zechariah.

to Jehu. In verse 12 it says, this was the word of the Lord which he spoke to Jehu saying, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. And so it was. And so he reigned for six months and then the line of Jehu was cut off. Then in verses 13 through 16 you have Shalom reigning in Israel. He reigned for one month. So a couple quick

there. And then verse 17 through 22, you have Menahem reigning in Israel. He reigned for 10 years. And here in his reign, you see the king of Assyria become, start to become more and more of a threat. In verse 19, it tells us that Assyria came against the land and he gave him a thousand talents of silver that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his control.

So Assyria is coming against Israel and Israel is a sense trying to buy them off. Hey, here's a thousand talents of silver. Here's a bunch of money. Leave us alone and we'll be your servants. You don't have to come and defeat us in battle.

Then in verses 23 through 26, you have Pekahiah reigning in Israel. He reigned for two years. And then Pekah reigns in Israel in verses 27 through 31. And he reigns for 20 years. And under his reign, you get to see the continued growth of the kingdom of Assyria. Because in verse 29, it says,

Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, came and took these cities and the land of Naphtali and he carried them captive to Assyria. And so part of the northern kingdom is being conquered now by Assyria and people are being taken captive and dispersed throughout the Assyrian empire. And so we're beginning to see the growth of Assyria here in chapter 15 and the further decline of the nation of Israel.

Well, then verse 32 through 38, you have Jotham reigning in Judah. He was a good king and he reigned for 16 years there in Judah. That brings us to chapter 16. Now, verse 2 is the key verse.

It says,

But he was not a good king. He turned away from the things of God. He, in verse 3, gives us an insight to how wicked he was. It says that he made his son pass through the fire.

This is a reference to the practice of worshiping the God of Molech, where they would take their babies and put them on the altar that was heated up in the fire, and their baby would be sacrificed in their worship of this false god. And so he was practicing that and involved in that and put his own son through the fire.

Well, Assyria comes against Judah at that time. And in verses 5 through 9, Ahaz sends a present to Assyria. Actually, it was the nation of Syria and Israel that were coming against Jerusalem. And so Ahaz sends to Assyria and says, hey, here's some money. Attack these other guys so they stop bothering me. And so he becomes the servant to Assyria as he pays

for them to attack Syria and Israel. And Assyria does. They take the money and they attack. So it seems like it's successful, but he's going to regret it later. Verses 10 through 18, Ahaz copies the altar that he saw in Damascus. So after he pays him off and they attack Syria and Israel and it works, then he goes and meets with the king of Assyria in Damascus, which is in the far north there above Israel.

And as he meets with the king of Assyria there, he sees this altar that he really likes. And so he, you know, draws a picture of it. He puts the plans together. He sends it back to his priest. He says, build this altar, man. This is the coolest altar I've ever seen. So build this altar. And so the priest puts the altar together and builds it. And so when he comes back home, then he's able to worship on it. Now, again, he's not worshiping correctly, but he is sacrificing on this new altar.

Verse 15 is really interesting here. I think it has some key insight for us to consider. It says,

So he's saying, look, this new altar that we found, that was really great. Do all the normal sacrifices, all of the offerings there on that altar. But the end of verse 15 says, and the bronze altar, this is the original altar that was built for the temple. That bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by. I think this is really interesting. We see here that King Ahaz, he was not a good king.

He's going through the motion. He's offering all these kinds of sacrifices. He's introducing this new idol. But he knows when it comes time, when he really needs to hear from God,

Well, he knows how to do that. He knows that he needs to go back to what God had prescribed and instructed. And so he goes back to the bronze altar to inquire of the Lord. When he needs to hear from God, he goes to that bronze altar. But for the rest of the sacrifices, he says, use the other altar, that awesome new altar that I saw in Damascus. This is a great picture for us of, well...

our own lives to challenge us, to cause us to consider, who are you worshiping? You know, we talk about idolatry a lot. We talk about the reality that it's not necessarily bowing down before a statue, that kind of thing. I'm sure that you're familiar with that if you've been around a little bit. So I would ask you, what altar do you worship at daily? See, the daily altars or the daily offerings were now under this instruction to be done at this new altar. And

And I've experienced in my own life, I've seen it happen in many other believers' lives as well, where we begin to offer our daily sacrifices at a different altar. That is, you know, we're like everybody else, we're in need of fulfillment. We're thirsty, we're searching, we desire something, we want to be filled. And we know as believers that we're

The way to receive that fulfillment, the way to receive what it is we're looking for is what's found in Jesus. And yet even though we know that, many times we start to build these other altars in our life. And we begin to try to fulfill ourselves in the pursuits of different things.

Be it, you know, work or entertainment or a relationship or whatever it is. We begin to pursue these different things and we're trying, it's our daily altar. It's our normal routine. We're trying to fill ourselves and fulfill ourselves at these different altars with these different things. But then here's what happens. Then there's a great need that comes up. There's a crisis that hits. And we know which altar to go to at that time.

We know, oh man, I really need to call out to the Lord. And you'll hear people say, yeah, I really need to get back to church. Or I need to really get back into the time in the word. I really need to get back into. We know where we need to go to find out what the Lord is saying, to hear from God. But our daily routine, our daily practice, our daily offerings are on different altars.

And so it's a good picture for us. A warning light should go on when where you go when there's a crisis is different than where you go daily. There should be a warning light that goes on, I'm saying it again, when where you go when there's a crisis is different than where you go daily.

We need to be worshipping the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Not just in times of need and moments of crisis. We can always go to God, even in those times, even if we've been unfaithful, but we, well, we betray our own understanding, our own rebellion, when we know where to go to hear from the Lord, but we don't go there daily.

We offer on these other altars instead of going to spend time with the Lord through Jesus Christ. And so I want to encourage you. Where are you offering? What sacrifices are you offering? What altar are you offering them on? Are you walking in that daily relationship? In the morning offering, the evening offering, they're offering on this new altar.

But save that bronze altar. Don't get rid of it because, man, I'm going to need to hear from the Lord. And so that's where I'm going to go inquire of the Lord. We can't set up this dual thing where we have these, well, this idol that we're worshiping and then also, I also want to worship God. We need to be wholly devoted to the Lord. And so the daily offerings, the way that we worship daily needs to be the same as when we worship whenever we are in need to hear from the Lord.

So Ahaz copies the altar that he saw in Damascus and gives us a good example for us to be challenged by to make sure that we're wholly devoted to God and not trying to worship on different altars. Then we have his death in verse 19 and 20.

It says in verse 20, Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Notice then it says, then Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. Now Hezekiah, we'll get to see him in the next couple of chapters. He's a good king. In fact, he's a great king. He follows the Lord. He restores the worship of God.

And I just say that to point out you don't have to father, you don't have to continue in your father's sins. You don't have to further on in your father's sins that you can break the chain. You don't have to continue on with the same bad temper. You don't have to continue on with the same addictions. You don't have to continue on with the same bad attitude.

You can break the chain by worshiping God and by restoring the worship of God to the people. And that's what Hezekiah did. And so he's not a bad king like Ahaz. He's a good king because he turns to the Lord. Well, we've been talking about the Assyrian Empire for the past couple chapters. And they've been rising to power. The capital of the Assyrian Empire is Nineveh.

And Jonah will be ministering to them. We'll see that once we get there in the book of Jonah. But the kingdom has been expanding. They've been conquering peoples. And so they conquer Syria, which the capital is Damascus, and they conquer that. They also conquer Egypt.

Samaria, which we'll see in just a moment, and so they're, you know, starting to come against the nation of Israel. They're unable to conquer Judah, which we'll also see in the next couple of chapters, but they're continuing to grow and expand their borders and conquer the lands all around Israel.

All right, chapter 17, verse 6 is the key verse. It says, In verses 1 through 4, we have King Hoshea reigning in Israel. He reigns for nine years in

But then he conspires against Assyria. So at first he's a servant to Assyria. He's paying tribute, but he withholds his tribute and he says, no, he tries to team up with Egypt and say, come on, let's unite together. We can throw off the yoke of Assyria.

But instead, Assyria comes, lays siege to Samaria. And so in verses 5 through 6, you see that Assyria conquers Samaria after three years of siege. We talked about siege last week. They camp all around the city. They starve him out, basically. After three years, Assyria finally breaks the walls and conquers Samaria and completely destroys the northern kingdom, the nation of Israel.

In verses 7 through 23, you have the explanation of Israel's destruction. God wants to make sure it's very clear. He wants to make sure you and I understand. And so he goes through the details. This is why. Here's why Israel was conquered by Assyria. Let me read to you a little bit from this chapter. I know you probably read it this week, but it's worth reconsidering. Verse 7 here says,

It says,

Verse 1.

And they built for themselves high places in all their cities from the watchtower to the fortified city. They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. There they burned incense on all the high places like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them. And they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. For they served idols of which the Lord had said to them, you shall not do this thing.

Verse 1.

Nevertheless, they would not hear, but stiffen their necks, like the necks of their fathers who did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he had testified against them. They followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them.

Verse 1.

Also Judah did not receive the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of plunderers until he had cast them from his sight. Here God explains. It's very clear. It's not difficult to understand. They turned against God. They rejected God's commandments. They did exactly what God told them not to do. And so he sent them the prophets.

And called them to repentance. Called them back to the Lord. And they became more stubborn. They refused to repent. And they continued on and became more and more wicked.

And God continued to send the prophets. Now, this is over several hundred years that they're continuing to rebel against God. God's sending them prophets and giving them opportunity to repent. And they refuse, they refuse, they refuse, they refuse. Until finally, God says, there's no other choice but to bring this judgment of Assyria upon them. Here we see the pattern for the way that God often works.

When his people are in sin, he patiently, mercifully calls out for repentance. And if the people don't respond, then he'll increase the affliction. He'll increase the discipline to give them opportunity to respond. And he continues to patiently call out for repentance. And if they continue to resist, then he'll increase more while he patiently waits and calls them back to repentance. And he'll increase more while he patiently waits.

All the while giving them opportunity. All the while, even up to the very end, giving them opportunity to turn and get right. But if his people refuse, then ultimately he's forced to bring the full judgment upon them. This is the pattern which God very often uses. It's the pattern that he operates with nations and with people. And that's why, you know, you...

Get involved in sin and you don't immediately get struck with lightning. You begin to go down the path of sin and you're not immediately, you know, just put to death because God's patient. He's waiting. He's giving you opportunity. He's calling out to you. He uses people around you. He uses church services and Bible studies. He uses many different things to call out to you to come back, to get right. Don't continue down this path. It will lead to your destruction.

Sometimes we think because we don't experience the immediate consequences that God's okay with our sin. But no, God's just patient. He doesn't want to bring judgment upon you. He's waiting for you to turn, to respond, to repent. This is God's pattern. And so I want to just call out, hey, if you're involved in sin, if you're living a sinful lifestyle, this is an opportunity for you. This is one of the prophets that God sent to Israel now being sent to you saying,

Get rid of sin. Repent of it. Turn it away from it. Get it out of your life. God's not okay with it. And if you continue on, you will experience judgment just like the nation of Israel did. Judah watched all of this happen and God uses it as a testimony to Judah saying, hey, didn't you see what I did because of their rebellion? Turn and get right with me. But the nation of Judah will not do so either. But you don't have to follow in their footsteps.

You have the opportunity. Turn away from sin. It will bring your destruction. So God wants to make sure he explains the destruction and he'll do so again in the next chapter. In verse 24 through 41 now, we have Assyria placing people from other nations in Samaria. This was Assyria's practice. They would conquer a people.

Then they wouldn't put them all to death, but once they were conquered, then they would disperse them and put them in different regions so that they would still be useful for the empire. They'd still, you know, produce stuff, but they wouldn't be grouped together and be able to, you know, mount an attack or revolt against the empire. So they'd be dispersed all throughout the nation. And so now that Assyria has conquered Israel, they've taken people from other nations that they've conquered and brought them into Samaria. And now they're,

or inhabiting this nation or this area that's the northern part of Israel. And so this was Assyria's practice. They disperse and relocate the people that they conquer. And so we see that take place here in the final part of this chapter.

Well, here's what it looks like on the map. Again, here's Nineveh, which is the capital. Assyria comes down. They always do this. They go along the Euphrates River up on the north there and then come down. So they're always talked about coming from the north. They come down against Israel and conquer Samaria and then disperse the people throughout the empire. All right, chapter 18. Now, verse 5 is the key verse.

It says, he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him.

So verses 1 through 8, you have Hezekiah reigning in Judah. He was a good king. He reigned for 29 years. He made some mistakes. For example, verse 9 through 16, Hezekiah gives gold and silver to Assyria. So Assyria comes and tries to conquer some of the cities in Judah. And so Hezekiah says, hey, here's some money. Stop bugging us. We'll pay you whatever you think is right and appropriate.

And so then he gives him 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. Now it's not going to be sufficient. And so we're going to see that continue to develop. Verses 11 and 12 are really interesting here though. Because the point is reiterated.

It says, He makes the point. Again, God wants to make sure it's clear. We understand.

They were in rebellion against God and so, well, judgment was brought upon them. That is the reality. You cannot live in sin and escape God's judgment. So it's an opportunity for us, as God reminds us, to not continue in sin but to turn and repent.

Well, Assyria is not satisfied and they come against Jerusalem. And so verses 17 through 27, Eliakim is sent out by Hezekiah and he speaks to the Rabshakeh. The Rabshakeh is basically the commander of the Assyrian army.

And so there's this challenge. He says, hey, you're trusting in Egypt. Don't trust in your God. The gods of all the other nations, they haven't been able to save them. I'm going to come and conquer Jerusalem. And so he's having this discussion there with Eliakim.

And then in verse 28 through 37, he turns it and speaks to the whole, really the whole city, all the men on the wall, as the commander of the Assyrian army calls out to them and says, hey, look, you don't have to fight this battle. You don't have to worry about this. You can't trust Hezekiah. You can't trust in your God. Again, the gods of the other nations haven't saved them. You can't trust in Egypt, but here's what you can do. Just surrender. Just give up.

Let us win and then I'll come and take you to a place where you can have, you know, a nice farm. You can have a happy life. But all you got to do is surrender. Such a good picture of the enemy. The enemy always says that to us. Satan always says that to us. Just give up.

God can't save you and I have good plans for you. If you'll just give up and let me do what I want to do. Just give in to the plans that I have for you. You'll be happier that way. That's what the Rav Sheka says. That's what Satan says. And in both cases, it is a lie. So now Assyria has conquered Israel. Now they come against Jerusalem. But Hezekiah calls out to the Lord.

As he hears the threats, at first he just tries to buy him off. When that doesn't work, he realizes, I need to call out to the Lord. And so he calls out to the Lord and the Lord responds. In chapter 19, we see this happen. Verse 14 is the key verse. It says, So verses 1 through 7 here, Isaiah tells Hezekiah not to fear.

Isaiah the prophet, you probably have heard of his book, Isaiah, there in the Bible. This is the same guy. So Isaiah the prophet, he lived during the time of King Hezekiah. And so he comes to Hezekiah and says, do not fear. This is what God says, you don't need to fear the king of Assyria.

In verses 8 through 19, Hezekiah prays over Assyria's letter. So Assyria goes, the commander of Assyrian army goes back. They hear about a war, so they go away. But they write a letter to Hezekiah and say, don't think this is God winning. No, we're still going to come back. We're still going to get you. Your God can't help you and continue to, you know, throw out these blasphemies against the Lord.

And so Hezekiah does a great thing. He just spreads out the letter before the Lord. He says, Lord, you see what they're saying. You defend your name. And God responds again in verse 20 through 34. He sends Isaiah and Isaiah says, the Lord will defend Jerusalem. They're not going to come in here. They're not going to have victory is what God promises through Isaiah. And we see that fulfilled in verse 35 through 37 where Assyria's army is defeated and the king of Assyria is killed.

It tells us there in verse 35 that the angel of the Lord goes through the camp of the Assyrian army, wipes out 185,000 of the soldiers in one night. Just whoosh.

One night they wake up the next morning and 185,000 soldiers are dead. So they go back defeated. The king is put to death. Assyria never becomes the power that it once was. Now Babylon is going to start to rise up in power and we'll see that develop over the next few chapters.

Well, here's a quick look at the timeline to give us a good picture of what's going on here. The top bar is the kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom. And so we saw Jehoahaz, we saw Joash, we saw Jeroboam, Zechariah, Shalom, Menahem, Pekah, Hiya, Pekah, and Hosea. We saw all those kings tonight. All of them were bad kings. None of them were good because they were part of the northern kingdom. And then we see that Israel is conquered by Assyria under the reign of Hosea. Now,

These green ones are the prophets that are ministering during that time. And so we'll come back and revisit that as we go through the prophets. So you have Jonah there mentioned, Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, we've just been talking about. And so he ministers during Azariah. Remember, you also know him as Uzziah, all the way through Hezekiah. And so these prophets are all ministering to the people and calling them back to repentance.

Here the bottom bar is the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah. And we've seen Joash, Amaziah, Azariah, Jotham, Ahaz, and then Hezekiah. We'll continue to see Hezekiah's reign in the next couple of chapters as we continue on this week.

Well, this week we're going to finish up 2 Kings. Next week we won't review those chapters because we'll be having light the night. And so we'll make available, though, the slides. And so you can check those out next week if you want to look at what we would have covered.

as we finish up 2 Kings. And then we're going to be heading into 1 Chronicles. And I wanted to just touch base real quick on 1 Chronicles to give you a quick reminder of what we're going to be looking at. So here's the kingdom books. We started in 1 and 2 Samuel looking at the kingdom of the nation, right, with King Saul and King David, and then into King Solomon and 1 Kings and 2 Kings. And that's one continuous chronology.

So 1 Samuel, then 2 Samuel happens right after that. 1 Kings happens right after 2 Samuel. 2 Kings happens right after 1 Kings. It's just one continuous story. But now as we go into 1 and 2 Chronicles, we're going to be coming back and looking at some of the same things again with some different insights and some different parts of the story that weren't told in the other books. But we're going back in time essentially as we finish 2 Kings and then into 1 Chronicles.

And 1 Chronicles is going to cover the same time period as 2 Samuel.

And then 2 Chronicles is going to cover the same time period as 1 and 2 Kings. And so we're going to kind of do some review and remember some of the reigns of these kings and look a little bit more in depth at them over the next couple weeks as we continue on reading through the Bible in three years. So as you go forward into 1 Chronicles, just keep that in mind that we're kind of backing up and revisiting some of the history that we've been studying with slightly different details and a little bit more insights.

Well, as we wrap up this morning, you know, we saw a couple times the amazing grace of God and also the dual...

worship or the the people trying to worship these the the true and living God along with their other gods we saw the altar right he had the the new altar that he thought was really cool but then he had the real altar where he knew oh that's where I go to inquire of the Lord we also saw the people of Samaria as they were settled in there they tried to worship God as well as worship all of their idols and so this evening as we close I want to just encourage you and call you once again to

To a wholehearted, full surrender to the Lord. That you don't try to live in, you know, worshiping these false gods. Jesus said no one can serve two masters.

You can't have a divided heart. You need to have a united heart, a single heart where you are fully devoted and committed to the Lord. That the same altar that you worship at when you really need to hear from God needs to be the same altar that you worship at for the morning sacrifice, for the evening sacrifice, that he needs to be your God full-time. He's not a part-time God.

but he needs to be your full-time God, that you continually call out to him and look to him and obey him and walk with him, that you don't just do it occasionally or when you really need to hear from him, but that it's ongoing day after day, morning and evening, that you're walking with the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for all of us that you would help us. Lord, it's so tempting to try to be fulfilled, to try to

these other things that are not you. And we know they don't fulfill and yet somehow we find ourselves continuing to pursue and chase after these things and worship on these other altars. Lord, when we know you declared an abundant life is found in you. What we really need, what we're really looking for is you. And Lord, that person can't satisfy us. That job isn't the answer for anything

The yearning of our hearts. Lord, that thirst that we have cannot be quenched by the things of this world or by the people of this world. Lord, that what we really need is you. And so God, I pray that you would help us to wake up, to see how we've set up the different altars in our life. Lord, help us to be like Hezekiah, to break them down, to clean house, to restore the worship of God in our lives. Lord, that the same altar...

would be used, that we would worship you in the good times and in the rough times, when we need to hear from you, when we're desperate for you, but then also daily, that we would come to the same altar, that we would come to you by faith in Jesus Christ. So Lord, help us. I pray that you administer to us, not because we deserve it, not because we've earned it, but because you're so gracious to us and merciful toward us. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.