2 CHRONICLES 21-28 THE NEED TO SEEK THE LORD2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Chronicles 21-28 The Need To Seek The Lord

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. All right, well this evening we're in the book of 2 Chronicles. We're looking at chapters 21 through 28, the chapters we read this week and going through the Bible in three years.

And as we begin looking at Chronicles again, the author of this book is Ezra. Author is probably not the best term, actually. He compiled all of these things from different resources and put it together for us to give us the account of the kings of Judah, covering from about 970 B.C. to 560 B.C., and we'll see that on the timeline in just a moment. As a reminder of the history that we're covering, we studied through 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings.

And 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings are one historical chronological account. It's just event after event after event, back to back to back. Now as we're in 2 Chronicles, we are rewinding a bit and covering some of that same history with slightly different details and perspectives from the resources that Ezra is able to have. And so we're looking at 1 Chronicles, we already studied 2 Chronicles, we're

we're covering the time period that was covered in 1st and 2nd Kings. And so a lot of these accounts we've seen already, but we're getting some different details and perspectives as we look at the book of Chronicles. So here's what the book of Chronicles or 2nd Chronicles looks like on the timeline. We're covering quite a bit of history. 1st Chronicles was only about 40 years or so, but 2nd Chronicles is about 400 years from Solomon all the way

into the conquering of Jerusalem by Babylon. And so we're kind of right in the middle right now. We'll be just up to Hezekiah. We'll pick that up this week in our reading. And so we'll be finishing off the time of Israel's history before they were conquered by Babylon this coming week.

Well, here's what it looks like on the map. On the left, you have Solomon's territory as he was reigning over Israel in its glory days. At the height of its glory, the peak of its prosperity, the borders were far extended under Solomon's reign. But under Solomon's son, remember the kingdom was divided. The northern part was named Israel. The southern part was called Judah. And

And so Israel and Judah now are quarreling against each other. And we see that in our chapters this evening. And we've seen it already as well throughout the weeks that we've been studying. And so Israel is about to be conquered by Assyria. That's going to happen sometime in our reading this week as well. But we're really focusing just on the kingdom of Judah and the descendants of David as the kings of Judah in the book of Chronicles.

Well, we start out in chapter 21 this week. Verse 1 is the key verse. It says this,

So in verses 1 through 7, we're introduced to Jehoram who reigns now in Judah. And the parallel for this, if you want to check it out, is 2 Kings chapter 8. Jehoram reigns for about eight years and he's married to an interesting person. He's married to the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.

her name is Athaliah and so you remember Ahab he was the worst king of the northern kingdom of Israel and Jezebel his wife was terrible and remember how she threatened Elijah and he ran away scared and we studied all of that in the book of Kings well this is their daughter that Jehoram is married to and you can see the influence in the reign of Jehoram as you look at chapter 21 the

The first order of business as he ascends to the throne is he puts to death his brothers. Anybody who would have, you know, some kind of possible potential claim or threaten to take the throne, he wanted to make sure they were eliminated. So he put to death all of his brothers so that he would not be disputed as king.

Well, under his reign, verses 8 through 10, it tells us that Edom and Libna revolt. And so they had influence still and authority over some of the areas around the nation of Judah. But now they're breaking away. And so Edom is revolting and saying, hey, we're going to have our own king. You're not going to rule over us. And then also Libna, which is a city near the Philistines. We'll see it in just a moment. And they are revolting against Judah as well.

Now it tells us very clearly why this is happening in verse 10. Right at the end of the verse there it says, because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. And so Jehoram was not a good king. He was a evil king. He was not seeking God. And as a result...

These other nations begin to break away and they begin to lose their power, their authority, and the glory. Now they've already lost a lot of it, but still yet further, their life, their nation is being destroyed because they had forsaken the Lord God.

It's amazing to me how many times we as human beings expect to be blessed by God while we are forsaking the Lord God. We expect God, we demand that God bless us and we say, you know, how could God allow this in my life? But we do not remain faithful to God. And it's amazing to me how we have this expectation that God should bless us no matter what. But what we see happening here is

is because they have forsaken the Lord, they're experiencing the consequences of that and their life, their nation is breaking down and beginning to fall apart. And it's a principle that you and I can hold on to today and understand that we should not expect to be blessed while we're living in disobedience.

We should not expect for God to bless us while we are living in sin. That we have a responsibility to draw near to God and walk with God and to stop practicing those things that he's called us away from.

And so their life is falling apart. Their nation is falling apart because they have forsaken the Lord. But God hasn't given up on them. And so verses 11 through 15 describe for us Elijah's letter to Jehoram.

And so Elijah sends a message. This prophet of the Lord sends a message and proclaims judgment. He says, hey, judgment is coming upon you because you've forsaken God. And so it's not a mystery. You know, it's not like, well, I wonder if it's the judgment of God. No, it's very clear. Here's the message from the Lord. God is bringing his judgment upon you. And as we have always seen throughout the scriptures, whenever God announces judgment, it's an opportunity to repent. Jehoram doesn't

repent. He doesn't take heed or humble himself at this announcement. Instead, he continues to harden himself, and so the judgment will be fulfilled.

Well, it continues to get worse in verse 16 and 17 where now the Philistines and the Arabians invade Judah. So it's not just people breaking away now, but now the Philistines, the Arabians, they're invading, they're conquering, they're taking treasures, they're taking cities, and they are doing great damage to the nation of Judah.

Well, then we have the death of Jehoram in verses 18 through 20. And it's the fulfillment of what God said through the prophet Elijah. He had a severe disease of his intestines. And it was a very painful and harmful or hideous disease that he experienced and that brought his death.

The letter that came from Elijah. Elijah, remember, he was a prophet really to the nation of Israel, to the northern kingdom. Jehoram is in Judah. He's reigning there in Jerusalem. So Elijah wasn't really around Judah that much, but he goes out of his way. And this is what is remarkable to me. That even though Jehoram is not seeking after the Lord, he's not, you know, trying to find God. He's not interested in the ways of God.

God is going out of his way. He's sending people out of their way to make sure that his message is delivered to them. So even though Jehoram is not seeking, you know, God, what are you saying? God makes sure to get this letter through the prophet Elijah. And I just want to point that out to share with you. You know, sometimes you don't really know why God wants you to say something or do something or share something. But sometimes

I would encourage you to be obedient as the Holy Spirit prompts your heart. And you might think, well, that's just not really in my area. You know, it's kind of out of my comfort zone or I don't really minister to that person. I don't really deal with them. But why do you have this, you know, word from you on my heart, God? And I would encourage you to be obedient because you don't know the full picture. You don't know all that's going on. And God may want to use you

to deliver a very timely and important message. I ran into a homeless couple this past Sunday afternoon. And, you know, I was like, it's kind of unusual for me. I just, you know, saw this guy. He was there. He had his head down. And I just went and I said, hey, you know, what's going on? How you doing? You know, do you need prayer for anything? And I got to talk with him. And I've just been churning on that this whole week. And what the Lord really spoke to my heart is,

Because I encouraged him from what we studied on Sunday, right? To call out to the Lord because, you know, he's the one who can provide. He's the one who gives and his promises that he will clothe you and feed you, you know, if you follow him. And so I was able to share that with him just fresh from the message on Sunday. And I was like, Lord, that was interesting, you know? Like, I didn't get to help him, you know what I mean? I didn't really get to do anything else except for share this message that you had on my heart. And I'm like, why did you want to do that?

And I don't know the details. I don't know what happened next. And I keep praying for them. But the thing that the Lord keeps stirring in my heart is, I think God wants to bless them. But he wanted to make sure that they knew it was from him and not from someone else. And so he had me say, hey, God loves you. He wants you to call out to him. And

He promises to take care of you as you put him first and seek first the kingdom of God. And you never know what God might want to do as you're obedient to those things that he puts upon your heart. And so be like Elijah. Hey, go out of your way. Send the letter. Hey, it's not your area. It's not your town. It's not your, you know, person that you normally minister to. But God may want to use you. And so he puts those things on your heart for a reason.

Well, we also see in this chapter that Edom revolts and the Philistines invade Judah. So Edom's there south of Judah. Actually a little bit south, even further than what shows on the map, but I put it up a little bit so you can see it a little bit. But

underneath the Dead Sea there, that's where the nation of Edom was. And so they break away from Judah's authority. And the Philistines are right there on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. And you know the history. They've been going back and forth with Israel for a long time. But now they're, you know, extending their borders into Judah and attacking Jerusalem and attacking those towns and cities around them.

so that they can expand their territory. And it shows the weakness of Judah at that time. All right, chapter 22, verse 2 is the key verse. It says, Now Ahaziah reigns in Judah. We see in verses 1 through 3. The parallel for this is 2 Kings chapters 8 and 9.

He reigns for a short time, just one year. His mom is Athaliah. Now remember, she is the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, the wicked king and queen of Israel. So it's her daughter, that's his mom, and her influence is strong. It says in verse 4, Therefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab. For they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction.

And so we see here Ahaziah, he's receiving counsel from his mom, from his mom's family, who are not walking with God, and it was to his destruction. Because again, and we'll see this theme throughout our chapters, you cannot forsake the Lord and expect to be blessed. When you forsake God, it will always be to your destruction. And that's what Ahaziah is going to learn the hard way. In verses 4 through 9, we see that Jehu kills Ahaziah.

becomes the next king of Israel and he was commanded by God to kill the house of Ahab and so he puts to death Ahaziah as part of that because Ahaziah was Ahab's great grandson and so he's part of the family of Ahab and so he's put to death by Jehu. Then in verses 10 through 12 you have Joash being hidden while Athaliah kills all of the royal heirs.

So here's Athaliah. She's killing all the heirs to the throne so that she can now be the queen of Judah. But Joash is hidden from her in that time. Now, this chapter...

really captivated my attention for a little bit because I was so confused. There's all this killing of this and that person and this person over here. And so I kind of mapped it out a little bit and I want to just walk you through it real quick to make sure we understand what's going on here. So here's a kind of like a genealogy, right? So the king of Israel was Ahab. His wife was Jezebel.

He has a son named Joram who becomes the next king. He also has 70 other sons. They're not all from Jezebel, but he has all 70 sons. But then he also has the daughter Athaliah.

Okay, so that's the king of Israel, his son, and you're beginning to see that progress. Now in Judah, you have King Jehoshaphat. Remember Jehoshaphat and Ahab, they hooked up together. They went to war together, but it wasn't wise. It wasn't good. They were unequally yoked, and God rebuked Jehoshaphat for that.

Well, Jehoshaphat has a son named Jehoram. That's who we've just been reading about. And also some other brothers. And then Jehoram has a son named Ahaziah. He also has 42 other sons and then a daughter, Jehoshabeth.

And then Ahaziah has some other sons, but then also Joash, who's going to be the next king. So here's how all this works. So first of all, we have Ahab and Jezebel and Jehoshaphat. And they're, you know, in the same time frame. They're living and ruling during the same time. But then they die. They pass on the kingdom, right? So Ahab dies and Joram is now king of Israel. Now Jehoram marries Athaliah around this time.

And then the first thing he does is he wipes out all of his brothers. So now he is the only one survivor of his family. He's the only one who is able to sit on the throne and have the right to the throne. You with me so far? All right. So then what happens? Okay, we're looking at Joram, his sons, his sister Athaliah.

Jehoram dies. He dies from that intestines disease, remember? And Ahaziah takes his place. He has 42 brothers and one sister. Then Jehu comes on the scene. So God sends the prophet to anoint Jehu

And so now he is the next anointed king. And so Jehu, by commandment of God, begins to clean house and deal with Ahab's family because of their great rebellion against God. And so Jehu wipes out the family of Ahab, takes care of Jezebel, takes care of Joram, takes care of all the 70 sons. The only one who's left is Athaliah because she's in the nation of Judah.

But then Jehu also takes care of business in Judah, taking out Ahaziah, putting him to death, and his 42 brothers. So Jehu, you know, is just cleaning house. He's taking care of all of the family of Ahab, just like God instructed him to do. So now we're left with Jehu, Athaliah,

Jehoshabath and then these other sons and Joash. Well, now we begin to pay attention to Athaliah. And she comes on the scene. She's married, or she was married to Jehoram, but he's dead. Their son is dead. And so now what she does is she takes out Ahaziah's sons. She murders her own grandkids.

The only one who survives is Joash, and that's only because Jehoshaphat hides him so that he can later on become king. So this is kind of the map of what we just read there in chapter 22. It gets messy in the wording, but what we end up with is Jehu is the king of Israel. Athaliah now is reigning as queen over Judah.

But Joash is hidden away and now will be made king in the next chapter. So that's what took place there, the great devastation. And so again, you can see the twistedness, the devastation of sin. These are both nations now who are not seeking God. They've forsaken the Lord. And so this looks all pretty hideous to us. But that is what we should learn to expect from

From nations and people that are dominated by sin and rebellion against God. All right, chapter 23 now. Verse 11 is the key verse. And they brought out the king's son, put the crown on him, gave him the testimony and made him king. Then Jehoiada and his sons anointed him and said, long live the king.

So in verses 1 through 7, now you have the priest Jehoiada planning to crown Joash. And so he makes the arrangements, gathers the appropriate priests and Levites, and, you know, makes the arrangements so that they'll be able to safely and securely crown Joash as king without having Athaliah put him to death.

Then verses 8 through 11, the plan is fulfilled and Joash is crowned as the king. He's seven years old at this time. He's going to reign for about 40 years, but obviously at seven years old, the real authority and power is lying with Jehoiada, the priest, who is, you know, kind of ruling through him or on his behalf.

In verses 12 through 15, Athaliah is put to death as she cries out treason and tries to put a stop to it. They take her out and put her to death. And then in verses 16 through 17, the people tear down the temple of Baal.

And so there's somewhat of a revival going on now. The people are getting rid of this idolatry that has been in place while Athaliah and the previous rulers were on the throne. You know, they've allowed and encouraged and set up places of idolatry. And now they're cleaning that out, tearing down the temple of Baal.

and restoring there in verses 18 through 21, the temple and the worship at the temple. And so that's been neglected. And now they're making a move to get back right with the Lord, to make things right, to begin to worship God and serve God once again. Well, we move on now to chapter 24. Verse two is the key verse. It says, "'Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord "'all the days of Jehoiada the priest.'"

So in verses 1 through 14, the temple is restored. It's rebuilt. It's renewed. It'd been broken down, falling apart, and they're restoring it. And along with it, restoring the worship of God to the nation. And during this time, Joash is doing what is right in the sight of God. He's walking with God. He's seeking God. He's encouraging the people to worship God and follow him.

But then in verses 15 through 18, we see a change happen where Judah turns to follow idols. And they turn to follow idols immediately after Jehoiada dies. And so Jehoiada is this high priest. He protects and covers Joash.

until he's old enough to be anointed king at seven years old. He's with Joash, you know, those early years of his reign. He's part of this movement of bringing the people back to the Lord. But as soon as Jehoiada dies, Joash and the people turn away from God. And you can see it clearly in verse 17. It says, Now after the death of Jehoiada, the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them.

Then verse 18, therefore they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers and served wooden images and idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass. And so it's so clearly spelled out for us. Jehoiada dies. He's gone. Now it's the leaders of Judah. They've been frustrated for a little bit. They want to pursue these false gods, but Jehoiada has power and has authority and

So they're holding back. They're not doing what they want to do because, you know, this righteous king, well, this righteous king is backed up by the righteous high priest. But as soon as that high priest is out of the way, they see their opportunity. They say, hey, now's our chance. Look, we've been really wanting to go after these other gods. We've been really wanting to worship these other gods. There's some great opportunity for us here to be seeking and pursuing these things.

And the king listened to them. And we see the tragedy here of Joash. He's walked with God for a long time. But now we understand it's because of Jehoiada the priest. And now that he's gone, Joash is quickly and easily removed from walking with God. And he begins to serve these other gods. And the wrath of God now comes upon Judah because of their trespass.

This illustrates for us so clearly the need for you to have your own personal relationship with God. Because if you are relying upon somebody else to have the substance, to have the foundation for you, when they are gone, you will be easily moved into things that are not of God.

You cannot rely upon somebody else to have your spiritual foundation for you. The strength of a strong walk with God. You can't rely upon somebody else. You can't rely upon your spouse. Honey, you have the strong walk with the Lord. You hear from God. I want to do the things that are of God. But, you know, I'm looking to you. You have the strength. You have the walk. And then we'll walk with the Lord together. But then when that spouse is out of the way...

you will have no foundation. And just like Jesus said, the house with no foundation, it's going to come crashing down. You can't rely upon your parents to have the strong spiritual foundation on your behalf because they will be gone one day. You can't rely upon your pastor to have the strong spiritual foundation for you. No, you need to have your own relationship with God. And you yourself, you need to learn how to hear from God.

You need to recognize His voice. You need to know what you believe and why you believe it. You need to know how to dig into the Word of God. You need to develop that depth and have deep roots into our Heavenly Father through a relationship with Jesus Christ. You need that. If you're relying upon somebody else to hear from God for you,

then you're in a dangerous position. That's where Joash was. Now, I know what we think, right? We think, well, I would never turn away from God. And so if I really needed to, and if that person wasn't there, then I'd really dig into the things of God. I'd learn to hear from God, but I don't really need to right now because they're here for me right now. And I bet you Joash would have said the exact same thing. We always, you know, think that we'll do better up ahead in some unknown situation.

But the reality is what we need to do in the future, it will only take place if we do it right now. And Joash never developed that personal relationship with God, that personal walk with God. And so he was quickly swayed. And now the whole nation goes with him and is turned to idols. And the wrath of God is being now poured out upon the nation.

Once again, God does not give up though. And so verses 19 through 22, God calls Judah back to him. And so verse 19 says, he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord. But it also says they would not listen. He sent Zechariah, the prophet. In verse 20, Zechariah says, why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he also has forsaken you. See, we see the principle again.

God's challenging them. He's saying, look, why do you expect to be blessed and to prosper when you have forsaken me? You can't have that expectation. You can't expect God to work and to bless and for you to prosper in the things of God or in the things of this life if you are forsaking God and walking away from Him. It's not going to happen. God has made it very clear. If you want abundant life, it's found by walking with Him and

If you walk away from him, it's guaranteed destruction and judgment. Because you have forsaken the Lord, Zechariah says, he also has forsaken you. Well, then in verse 23 through 27, you see the death of Joash. He was severely wounded by Syria as they were attacking Israel. And then his servants killed him while he was recovering on his bed.

Here's what that looks like on the map. Syria is the far north, actually a little bit farther north than this map shows, but they came down. They first attacked Gath. We learned that from the account in Kings. And then they came over to Jerusalem. And in that battle, Joash is injured. And then his servants assassinate him while he is in bed. So this tragedy of King Joash, who had this great beginning, this revival happens here.

But a terrible ending as he walks away from the Lord. Well, now we go on to chapter 25. Verse 1 is the key verse. It says,

So in verses 1 through 4, Amaziah now begins to reign in Judah. And he reigns for 29 years, a good long time. The parallel for this is 2 Kings chapter 14, if you want to check that out. We go on now in verses 5 through 10. It says that Amaziah hires men from Israel. He's planning to go down and deal with Edom. Remember, they revolted against Judah. And so there's this battle now between Judah and Edom. And so he hires some help.

He gets a bunch of guys from Israel to go with him, but then God sends a prophet to him and says, hey, don't take those guys into battle with you. They're not blessed. You won't be blessed if you take them into battle with you. God is telling Amaziah, do not be unequally yoked. You will not be blessed if you are unequally yoked. Paul talks about that as well in 2 Corinthians chapter 6.

Now Amaziah is concerned though because he hired these guys. He already paid them a down payment. In verse 9, Amaziah says to this man of God, he says, but what shall we do about the hundred talents which I've given to the troops of Israel? And the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give you much more than this. I love this reminder. You know, we need to be obedient to God no matter what. And sometimes we get hung up on the amount of

of what we've spent or what it would cost or you know what God's asking us to do and and how costly that would be but we need to be obedient to God knowing that God's able to give much more than that money's not an issue for God it's a big issue for us and we worry about it and stress about it we talked about that on Sunday but for God that's no big deal he could give you all the money in the world tonight if he desired that's that's no problem for him that would be an easy thing for him to do

That's not the issue. The issue is, will you be obedient and trust God to provide for you and meet your needs? And that's what Amaziah did. And so he goes now to battle against Edom in verses 11 through 16 and he is victorious because he trusted in God and not in this alliance with Israel. But then...

So we have Amaziah. He's doing really good, trusting in God. He obeys God, even though it's costly. I mean, hey, he lost a hundred talents there in this deal and sending the people away. He goes down to Edom. God gives him victory. But then we also see that he brings back the gods of the Edomites. And he begins to worship these false gods of the Edomites.

And how quickly things change. Because in verses 17 through 24, you see that Israel now defeats Judah. This victory over Edom puffs Amaziah up and he says, hey, that was fun. Let's go to battle again. Who can we fight? All right, Israel, let's go to battle. And the king of Israel says, hey, you know, enjoy your victory. You don't have to stir up trouble. You're not going to be successful in this.

But Amaziah wouldn't listen. He's puffed up. He's already turned away from God and bringing back these other gods. And so he's not listening to wisdom. He's not listening to what's right. He's just doing what he wants to do. And he brings this defeat upon himself in provoking Israel. And so we have the death of Amaziah in verses 25 through 28. His servants conspire against him. He flees away to the city of Lachish. But they catch up with him there and kill him there.

So here's what it looks like on the map. Edom again is south of the Dead Sea there. So Amaziah leads this attack down south of the Dead Sea to Edom. He's victorious. He has a great victory. He's all excited. He comes back and tries to battle against Israel, but then Israel defeats them at Beth Shemesh and then goes over to Jerusalem and breaks down the walls and is victorious over the nation of Judah.

chapter 26 verse 1 is the key verse it says now all the people of judah took uzziah who was 16 years old and made him king instead of his father amaziah so verses 1 through 5 now we're introduced to uzziah who reigns in judah he's also known as azariah and you can read about him more in second kings chapter 15 he reigned for a

In verse 5, it tells us that he sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. You see this parallel again? God's making sure that we understand. This is clear. As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, God made him prosper. As he sought the Lord, God was with him and he prospered. But he's going to, like the other kings we've already seen, not seek the Lord and there's going to be destruction as well.

But first off, he seeks the Lord. Verses 6 through 15 now, he has a strong military. And it says in verse 7 that God helps him against the Philistines. God helps him against the Arabians who are living in the area. In verse 15, I think it's interesting. It says that he made devices in Jerusalem invented by skillful men to be on the towers and the corners to shoot arrows and large stones. So his fame spread far and wide for he was marvelously helped till he became strong.

As I read that verse, I was envisioning, you know, the Lord of the Rings, you know, when they're attacking the city and they've got all these, you know, cool things. They're throwing rocks and all kinds of things at the army that's attacking. These are the types of things that were invented under Uzziah's authority, under his reign. And they're set up there in Jerusalem to make Jerusalem very strong. Then verses 16 through 20, you have his downfall. Uzziah tries to burn incense in the temple.

So he becomes strong as he's seeking the Lord. And as long as he's seeking the Lord, he's prospering and God is with him. But we learn a very important lesson here. Sometimes prosperity and strength are worse for us than poverty and weakness. And we would never think that looking ahead. Oh, if only I had...

strength and riches, you know, then everything would be wonderful. But sometimes that's worse for us than poverty and weakness, than suffering and trials. Because in our strength, we begin to rely upon ourself. In verse 16, it tells us, when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. So some people listen to bad counsel to their destruction. Some people are lifted up in pride, trusting in themselves, trusting in their own strength. And

To their own destruction. And he transgressed against the Lord. By entering the temple of the Lord. To burn incense on the altar of incense. He tries to perform the priestly duty. Something that is violating. The very word of God. That he has been following up to this point. Well as a result of that. He becomes leprous.

And so he's thrust out of the temple and thrust out of the community. He's put away until his death. And verses 21 through 23 describes that death for us. This is something that you might be familiar with because the prophet Isaiah prophesied around this time. You might remember in Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord lifted up. And so it gives you some time frame as far as the prophecies of Isaiah and his ministry. That vision of heaven that we often refer to took place in the year that this King Uzziah died.

Well, in the beginning of his reign, God helps Uzziah because he was seeking the Lord and he goes against the Philistines. He's successful. He's victorious. He establishes these cities after he's defeated the Philistines there. And so this great work of God, he becomes really strong. But then his downfall is he tries to offer incense, the job of the priest. Now, this is the incense altar that God gave the instruction for Moses to build. And he's trying to build it.

Now this is now inside the temple. This diagram is of the tabernacle. But it's the same basic layout so you get the point. So it's made out of acacia wood. It's covered in gold. It's about three feet tall. And it has the bars that go through it so the priest could carry it. Now this was placed right before the veil in the temple.

Remember there was the two parts. There was the holy place and all the priests would go in the holy place because they had to maintain the lights, they had to replace the showbread, and they had to burn incense on this altar. But then you had the veil and then on the other side of that was the Ark of the Covenant where the presence of God was. Only priests were allowed into the holy place.

Kings were not allowed in. Didn't matter how much authority you had. They were not allowed in. Nobody else was allowed in. You had to be a priest, a descendant of Aaron, in order to be able to enter into the holy place. But Uzziah thinks, hey, I'm pretty hot stuff. You know, I've been walking with God. I've been strong. He's been with me in victory. He's been with me in battle. He's accomplished these great inventions and made us very secure people.

So I think I can do what I want to do. And you know what I really want to do is burn incense in the temple. And so he enters into the temple to burn incense. In doing so, he's violating the word of God. And so he brings this destruction upon himself and God strikes him with leprosy. Again, we see this pattern. He was strong. He was prosperous as he sought the Lord. But when he

stopped seeking the Lord, when he did what he wanted to do, trusting in his own resources or strength or whatever, then that's when destruction came. It was to his destruction that he relied upon himself. It's a very clear pattern. We need to learn the lesson. The Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Corinthians that these things are written for our example so that we don't lust after the things as they lusted after them.

That we need to learn the lesson. We cannot live in disobedience. We cannot do just whatever we want to do and expect God to work and to bless to prosper us. We can't expect to know God and hear from God if we're not walking with Him and if we're just disregarding what He has said. It's a very clear principle that we need to get through our heads because we really want God to just bless us while we do whatever it is that we want to do.

But that is not the way that it works. We see this king after king after king. Chapter 27, now verse 1. Jotham was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. So now in verses 1 through 9, short chapter, quick look at the life of Jotham. And he is reigning there in Judah.

He reigned for 16 years. He was a good king. He was blessed by the Lord with victory as well as he went against Ammon, which was a nation nearby, and he was victorious against that. He was a good king. Verse 6 tells us that Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.

So you see how God is making sure he's going out of his way to make it very clear. You don't seek God. You don't follow God. Then it's to your own destruction. But as you prepare your heart to seek the Lord and you prepare your ways before the Lord, as you put God first, God is with you. It doesn't mean that everything is always going to be easy, that there's never going to be any problems, but God is with you. When you walk away from God, when you ignore what God says, it's always going to be easy.

to your destruction. When you walk with God, even though there's trials and difficulties, it will always be to your benefit as you walk with God. Yeah, there will be difficulty, but it will be to your benefit. It's just like what Moses laid before the children of Israel back in the book of Deuteronomy 28, 29, 30. He says, I lay before you blessings and cursings. You walk with God, there's great blessing there.

Even when there's difficulty and tragedy and those kinds of things, it's to your benefit and God works all things together for good. But on this other side, if you disobey God, it's always going to bring curse, destruction, devastation. The wages of sin is death. Jotham was a good king. God wants to make sure it's because he prepared his ways before the Lord. God wants to make sure that you know that. Walk with God. Follow God. Put God first. He will be with you.

And it will be to your benefit. Well here's what that looks like on the map. Jotham defeats Ammon. It was a nation that was across the Jordan. This territory on the cross of the Jordan. By the way has been taken by now. By some of the surrounding areas. And so Ammon. You know is a power that's there. And so.

he goes against Ammon and is victorious against them, and they begin to pay him tribute. And so he's blessed. He becomes a little bit strengthened, has a little bit more authority as he is walking with God. But after his reign, now we come to chapter 28, our final chapter for this evening. We have King Ahaz. Verse 19 is the key verse. It says...

And so again, we see clearly, God is making this clear. He doesn't want this to be guesswork. This is not meant to be ambiguous. Why did Judah become low? Why were they brought low?

He says, because he encouraged moral decline, it had been continually unfaithful to the Lord. God is showing the pattern here so that we can learn the lesson. When we walk with God, he has great blessings. It's to our benefit. When we disregard God, when we're unfaithful to the Lord, it's to our destruction. We see that in king after king after king. Verses 1 through 4 here, Ahaz reigns in Judah. He reigns for 16 years.

He was a wicked king who sought the false god named Baal. He also worshipped these other gods which...

the sacrifice of his own children. Where they would heat up the altar. The altar would have these outstretched arms. They would heat up this altar and lay their children on the altar. And the child would be put to death there because of the heat of the altar. And they would do this in the worship of these false gods. And it points out here, these are the practices of the people that were there in the region of Israel before Israel.

And God said, because of their practices and their wickedness, I'm driving them out and I'm giving this land to Abraham's descendants. But now Ahaz is practicing those very same things that the people were practicing before Israel was there, before Joshua led them into the promised land. That their wickedness now is to the same extent as what was happening before they were in the land.

In verse 5 through 8, Syria and Israel defeat Judah. Now again, verse 5, it says, therefore, therefore. It describes to us Ahaz, his idolatry, his offering up these children to the Lord. And so, therefore, Syria and Israel defeat Judah. Again, God is making it clear. He's showing us this is why. Because he has been involved in these horrendous sins of idolatry.

We see a little bit of mercy from God though in verse 9 through 15 where Syria and Israel have defeated Judah and so Israel has taken all these captives from Judah and they're leading them into the nation of Israel, taking them up north. But a prophet of God comes and speaks to the leaders of Israel and says, hey,

God allowed you to have victory because of their rebellion against God, but you also are rebellious against God and you're incurring more wrath from God by bringing them as captives here. And so Israel is persuaded to release the captives and allow them to go back to Judah. In verse 16 through 21 though, their troubles aren't over. Now Assyria begins to distress Judah.

Assyria is the world power that's raising up at this time. And they're going to be conquering the nation of Israel in the next couple of chapters. But at this time, they're still rising to power. And now they begin to distress Judah and come against Judah. And so their troubles are not over even though they were released by Israel. Then verse 22 through 25, it tells us that Ahaz turns to other gods.

So he was unfaithful at the beginning of his reign. Now, later on in his reign, he becomes even more unfaithful. In verse 22 it says, Now in the time of his distress, King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord. This is that King Ahaz. So he takes it steps further and begins to go farther and farther away from the things of God in his rebellion against God.

In verses 26 through 27, then we have the death of Ahaz. Here's what it looks like on the map. Syria comes down, joins up with Israel. The capital of Israel is Samaria. And so they join together against Jerusalem. They're victorious. They begin to lead the captives up north into Israel. But then the prophet of God intervenes and they are released and allowed to go back. And then here's the Assyrian Empire.

They're growing into this world power right now. They're going to be conquering Israel. They do not conquer Judah. That happens with Babylon a little bit later on. But this time they're still in the process of rising to power. And so they begin to afflict Jerusalem and the nation of Judah at this time. Even though Ahaz tried to buy them off and pay them money to leave them alone. But that didn't work. So these are the kings. These are the chapters that we read this week. Now as we...

have seen the pattern this evening of seeking the Lord and the benefit, the blessing there and forsaking the Lord and the destruction that it brings. Let me just run through these kings real quick for you. Jehoram, he was a bad king. From the very get-go, he never walked with God. He killed his brothers. He didn't want anything to do with God and he was destroyed and Judah was brought low. Ahaziah, his son, was also a bad king. He didn't last very long. He was put to death.

and he didn't lead Israel to God. Then came Joash. And Joash, man, this great hope, you know, because he started off so good and he restored the temple and renewed the temple and brought back this great revival to the land. But then it's so tragic how later on in his life when Jehoiada wasn't there to kind of keep him in check, he turned away from God. Then you have Amaziah who also started out well.

And he was seeking the Lord. He was walking with God. But then he began to worship the gods of the Edomites. And then when God rebuked him, he wouldn't listen. He turned away from the Lord. Then came Uzziah. He also started out really good. He was strong and there's these great inventions and God helped him in battle. But then he's puffed up in pride and he begins to disobey the word of God. And his great pride and he becomes leprous. His pride destroyed him. Then we have Jotham who was a good king.

It's one of the few who just, he was a good king. He didn't turn away from God at the end. He's one of the few. He just walked with God. And then you have Ahaz, who was a bad king all the way through from the very beginning. And as we consider these kings, there's three things that I think you and I need to really take to heart this evening.

Three things that I think are so important for us to walk away with this week. That as we consider these kings and learn from their example, first thing I need to encourage you to do is to make sure that you have a personal relationship with God. Do you hear God's voice? If the only time that you are in the Word of God is if that's only here at church, you don't have a walk with God. And when church isn't here and available for you anymore, you're going to be easily turned away.

If this is all that's keeping you and your walk with the Lord, you're in trouble. You're in a dangerous position. You need to have your own relationship with God. You need to be hearing from God. You need to be walking with God. You need to know how to hear His voice and know how to read His Word.

That's why we're spending so much time considering the Bible in three years, encouraging you. Get into the Word of God because you need to learn to walk with God and to have that strong connection between you and Him alone, not relying upon somebody else to hear from God for you, to walk with God on your behalf. It doesn't work that way. So first of all, make sure you have your own personal relationship with God.

By faith in Jesus Christ. It's not about works. But it's about you really know him. And you hear his voice. And you walk with him. Well now. Second thing. Once you have that established. Okay. I know the Lord. I walk with him. I hear from him. And I do the things that he instructs me to do. Now. The second thing. That we need to learn from these kings. Is to then continue in that personal relationship. First of all. Make sure you have one.

But secondly, don't get lazy and don't get slack. It's easy, like Uzziah in our times of prosperity because we've been walking with God and he's blessed us. It's easy then to kind of just go, hey, I can coast now. I can just relax a little bit. I know enough about the Bible. I've read it enough times. I've heard those stories enough. I know enough.

I can just relax. I don't have to be so intense in my time with God. I don't have to be so serious and dedicated. I don't have to be so diligent. But we see time and time again, these kings, they start out well, but they finish so terribly. And that can happen to us so easily. Let me tell you this. If I don't maintain my personal relationship with the Lord, my life will be destroyed in moments.

In minutes. There's none of us who are immune to walking away. To experiencing the destruction that comes from sin. Every single one of us. Whether you've been with the Lord for a day, a year, 75 years like Larry. Just kidding. None of us. We don't get beyond the point where, hey, I don't need to have a daily walk with the Lord. I don't need to get into the Word of God. I don't need to hear from God. We don't get to that point.

None of us do. We have to maintain. We have to continue. Don't get lazy. Don't get puffed up. Don't get slack. Make sure that you're diligent to walk with God because you don't know what's down the road. You don't know what's around the corner. And if you're not preparing now, if you're not walking with God now, you will not be prepared for those events, for those situations that are yet coming. So have a personal relationship, number one. Number two, continue in it. Be diligent. Be faithful. Don't slack off. Then number three, this one's very important.

Teach the next generation how to have that personal relationship. First of all, you have one. Then make sure you continue in it. But don't just stop there. Teach the next generation how to know God. This is way different than just teaching them the rules. It's not just saying, okay, here's what we do. Here's what we don't do. Memorize this list. Remember this. No, no. You teach them how to hear from God on their own.

You teach them how to walk with God, how to know God's voice, how to obey God, how to know when God says go and to know when God says don't go. What we see in these kings is, well, you see Jotham. He was a good king. He didn't turn away from God. But his son, from the get-go, is a bad king. Now,

Ahaz has his own personal responsibility and choice and maybe Jotham did everything he could. But what we see as the pattern throughout scripture is that the next generation is not taught to have their own relationship with God. They're just taught, well here's the rules.

And so they don't know God. The next generation often rebels, walks away, has to experience destruction of sin, and then remembers and calls out to the Lord and has to learn how to walk with God at that point. But it doesn't have to follow that pattern. And so I want to encourage you. Who's around you that you are discipling, that you are ministering to? Teach them

how to walk with God. Don't be their Jehoiada, where you just tell them, this is what God says, and this is what you should do. Don't let them make you Jehoiada, so that when you're gone, then they don't, they're clueless. They don't know how to walk with God. No, don't let that happen. No, teach them. Okay, Joash, here's how you can hear from God. Here's how you can walk with God. Here's how you can know what God wants for your life. Those that you're ministering to, your children,

Whoever God's placed in your life that you're discipling. First of all, you have a personal relationship. Secondly, continue in it. Be diligent. Don't slack off. But thirdly, also important, teach the next generation how to do the same. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we look at these kings and learn from their example as you instructed us to, we can see clearly the need for us to walk with you. Because when we turn away from you, when we're not walking with you,

It's destructive to us. It's to our own destruction. Lord, that's why you call it sin because you know it destroys our lives. And so, Lord, I pray for any here who are practicing sin, for any who are caught up in sin, for any who know that they're in disobedience to what you've called them to. I pray, God, that you would help them to repent, to turn away from those things, Lord, that they would find the redemption that you offer from that destruction that we bring upon ourselves.

And as they turn to you, God, I pray that you would strengthen them and encourage them and speak to their heart and establish them that they would be steadfast and immovable. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to continue in that relationship with you. Lord, in times of blessing, it's easy to get so lazy, to get puffed up, to begin to rely upon ourselves. But Lord, I pray that you would remind us. Lord, right now in our hearts, remind us how much we need you.

And Lord, those areas that we're trusting in ourselves or we're getting puffed up or we're getting lazy and lax, I pray, Lord, that you'd remind us right now, you'd stir up our hearts and our minds, Lord, that we would be cautious and on guard, that we would be diligent and not allow those areas to slip. And Lord, I pray that you would also help us to teach others. Help us, Lord, not to be

their Jehoiada, but help us to connect them to you, to help them to walk with you, to teach them how to know you and hear your voice, Lord, that they might experience the great blessings, Lord, that they wouldn't have to learn the hard way like we have so many times. Teach us, Lord, help us to pass it along that the next generation would walk with you and know your voice. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.