Lesson 26: Living in Fear Is a Choice

22 And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor. 23 Now when all the captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite. 24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” 25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26 Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. (II Kings 25)
The people of Judah had seen it all: their land invaded and decimated, their capital plundered and destroyed, their leaders abused and exile, their homes and the House of the Lord leveled.  There was little left.  What else could happen?  They were instructed by their leaders, and by prophets like Jeremiah who remained, to live wherever they were making the most of what they had. If they would remain faithful to God and finally obey, He could still use them for His glory.  Instead, most continued to rebel - against the leaders and therefor God - and had to run in fear.  The reality is that sometime - sooner or later, we need to stop running and hiding in fear and trust in God. Fear is a natural God-given response to crisis.  The decision to continue in fear is a choice we make.  Which will we choose today?  

Lesson 25: The Last Thing You See...

And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it. 2 So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.4 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king's garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. 6 Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. 7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon. (II Kings 25)
Things had gone from bad to worse.  The kings and people of Judah had repeatedly rebelled against God, yet seemed to think they were immune from chastizement or punishment, and would be protected from Babylon's ever-reaching hand.  There was no food, no hope, no escape.  When Zedekiah got to the end of the line, they did one of the most cruel things to him: killed his sons before him, making him watch, then putting out his sight, making all the evil he saw become what he would remember forever. It also made him totally helpless - a beggar in bonds.  If you were to suddenly go blind today, what would be the last things you would see, etched in your memory the rest of your life? Would it be something that gave you peace and contentment, knowing all is well and God is in charge? Or would it be a series of events caused by your rebellion and rejection of all God desired for you?  Create precious, positive memories today. 

Lesson 24: A Pattern of Rebellion...

18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 20 For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

(II Kings 24)

Zedekiah was among the last of the kings of Judah to reign before the exile.  None of them reigned very long, and all of them "did what was evil in the sight of the LORD..."  Enough was enough... God finally cast them out of the Holy City.  But something else was a part of this pattern: rebellion against others.  Zedekiah and others had such an entitlement mentality that they acted as if the great king of Babylon was acting of his own accord, and would run away scared because of their being God's "chosen" people.  They did not see that God was using the Babylonians to chastize them, so He finally used them to punish them.  Rebellion does that: It makes us angry, but we focus our anger at everyone by our sin.  May we have humble and penitent hearts, ready to have Him show our rebellious ways, repent, and be corrected.  

Lesson 23: One Man Can Do Only So Much...

24 Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 25 Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

26 Still the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. 27 And the Lordsaid, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”  (II Kings 23)

Josiah had done so much to stir up revival in Jerusalem. He had the temple fixed, the Word of God read, the Passover reinstituted, every semblance of idol worship removed from Jerusalem and the high places, cleared out those who promoted demonic practices.  Verse 25 summarizes his rule well: Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. Yet, after it all, the judgment of God would not be averted forever.  The consequences of repeated and increased evil had risen too high for Judah to be what she should have been all along: a nation that drew the world to God.  Such a truth should not prevent us from going all out for good, as if it was to no end.  It was for that day, that people, at that time, what needed to happen.  We must not err to either extreme: not doing something today because we do not care about what it means for tomorrow, nor the opposite: that we do not do something today because we do care, but in the long run it will "make no difference."  It does make a difference to God, for others, and for ourselves.  We must realize that we are not the ones who hold the destiny of the world and nations in our hand.  Only One has that job.  

Lesson 22: The Penitent Man...

18 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard,19 because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. 20 Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.
(II Kings 22)
Josiah.  As soon as you see the name at the beginning of this chapter, it's like a deep breath of fresh air.  He was one of those kings who did right in the sight of the Lord.  This was just after one of the most wicked ones.  As soon as he was mature, he sought to rebuild the temple. While that was being done, they found the copy of the Law of God, which he had read. That led to his call for repentance and a seeking from God mentioned in the passage above.  What was the key to his impact?  He was penitent. He was willing to be shown where he and the things he was responsible for were wrong, then humbly ask forgiveness and seek to make things right. This twin spiritual virtue of humility - penitence, is just as rare, if not more so.  What an approach to life: I don't know it all, and if I do, I'm sure I'll find where I'm wrong, so I will be teachable, approachable, and willing to admit my error, change my ways, and see what God will do with me and through me.  What would today look like if we all aprroached life that way? 

Lesson 21: Negative Revival

10 And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, 12 therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”

16 Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. (II Kings 21)

Words cannot begin to describe the evil that Manasseh did as king of Judah.  After the great years of Hezekiah's revival - removing the idols, faithfully calling out to God for help, refusing to trust in the help of evil people - Manasseh reverses it all and goes miles further away from God, beyond restoring idolatry, to personally sacrificing his children and many other evil practices beyond those of the Amorites who were so wicked God had driven them out from the land.  How could God be just if he did not do the same to Judah?  Intermingled with this story of man's faithlessness is God's faithfulness to His Own character. He had promised Hezekiah peace during his lifetime, but that promise did not carry over to the wicked days of his son, and further descendants.  One wonders how much Hezekiah's final days of complacency affected his family and their turn away from God.  Did he sow the seeds of reversing the revival? May we never back down from serving God fully and trusting Him completely, and may we have no part in creating a "negative revival".  

Lesson 20: Finishing Well...

16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 18 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” (II Kings 20)
Hezekiah had done great things in leading Israel out of trouble, and out of bondage to the Assyrian empire.  At the beginning of the chapter, God sent word that his work was about done, and to get his things in order.  Hezekiah balked at that, and asked God for more time.  God gave him 15 years, and though most things went well, it was during that time that Hezekiah became lax. He had his guarantee, and somewhat flaunted his success before the King of Babylon. That move would cost Hezekiah's descendants in the future.  This last statement he makes causes me to flinch: "Why not, if there will be peac and security in my days?"  What a warning - for us to never get lax or self-secure or complacent about finishing well what God has caused us to do.  May we serve Him to the end: whole-heartedly, passionately, never ceasing to trust His plan and His time.  

Lesson 19: Don't Mess with God

22 “Whom have you mocked and reviled?
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
    Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
    and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
    to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
    its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
    its most fruitful forest.
24 I dug wells
    and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
    all the streams of Egypt.’

25 “Have you not heard
    that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
    what now I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
    into heaps of ruins,
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
    are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
    and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
    blighted before it is grown.

27 “But I know your sitting down
    and your going out and coming in,
    and your raging against me.
28 Because you have raged against me
    and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
    by which you came. 

(II Kings 19)

Hezekiah was a speedbump in the way of the Assyrian Army.  They had been taking over nation after nation, defeating king after king, but when they came to Israel, he refused to cave.  Instead, in the beginning of this chapter, he sends royal messengers to Isaiah the prophet to find out what to do.  God assures him Assyria will return home without defeating Israel.  Once again, the general of Assyria does a lot of trash talking - not just against Israel and King Hezekiah, but against their God.  Once again, Hezekiah calls out to God, and this is God's answer - not just to Hezekiah, but beyond that - to the Assyrians.  Yes, they had been winning against nation after nation, but that is only because God allowed them to, and even designed them too.  But now they had assumed they were the gods, and were declaring war on Him.  They captured kings and humiliated them by puting hooks in their noses and draggin them wherever they wanted to take them, into exile.  Now God was going to be hooking them, and taking them back home to die.  For now, Israel would stand, and even enjoy relief from the great famine they had endured during the seige. Most of all God would be glorified - not only in Israel - but even to the great king of Assyria. May we be humbled. May we call out to Him. May He be glorified. 

Lesson 18: Refreshing Change

 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). 5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city. (II Kings 18)
After hearing about king after king who did evil in the sight of the LORD, any hint of good is refreshing.  Here we find Hezekiah, about whom descriptions of goodness pile up: "he did what was right", "he removed the high places" of idol worship; "he broke in pieces the bronze serpent" which had become and idol of the history of Israel; "he trusted in the LORD"; "he held fast to the LORD"; "he  kept the commandments"; he refused to bow down to the Assyrians; he drove out the Philistines, reminiscent of David's drive to establish the Kingdom.  This is a picture of whole-hearted devotion to live for God's will.  As we will see, he was not perfect, but he is a refreshing change, and what he did was "written for our example" (I Corinthians 10), reminding us that whatever our background or culture, we can "go against the flow" and live all out for Christ.  It's all about taking the first steps: removing the idols, trusting God, clinging to His commands, and choosing to serve God first and foremost.  May we be a breath of fresh air for the LORD today and from this day forward.  What a way to say "Thank you!" to Him.  

Lesson 17: Return to Egypt...

In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods8 and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. (II Kings 17)

This chapter has the most succinct discription of why Israel, the northern kingdom, ended up exiled and scattered. They kept going back to Egypt, the land of many idols and the land of bondage.  Here they king of Israel hoped that Egypt would help deliver him from the Assyrians.  By going back to Egypt - their former land of slavery - for help, they ended up not only captives, but scattered. The chapter goes on to list all the ways these people had rebelled against God and brought judgment on themselves.  It is a sobering read. Like an addict who keeps going back to his old haunts, we have this tendency to fall back into old idolatries that pull us from God and His blessings.  But as always, He keeps calling: "come back to Me; trust in Me; worship only Me." May we heed His voice today.  

Lesson 16: No End to the Evil?

In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. (II Kings 16)
Israel, the northern kingdom, had a foundation of compromise and idolatry, so the kinds of things we find in Kings is not that surprising. But to have a king do the things Ahaz did as king of Judah seem astounding.  He went beyond the evil of many of the Northern kings, even sacrificing his own son and proliferating idolatry.  The chapter goes on to say that he went on to seek the help of the king of Assyria, and adopting the idolatry he brought into the region, as well as "taking apart" the sacrificing area of the temple of  the Lord. He did not just put idols alongside temple worship; he replaced it with them.  Twenty years - a long time for evil to reside, settle in, and become embedded in the culture. Yet, our God is a God of Hope.  The story does not stop here.  Amidst all the evil man can come up with, God still has a plan.  Even when it seems it couldn't be any worse. 

Lesson 15: Man's Evil "Creativity"

13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned one month in Samaria. 14 Then Menahem the son of Gadi came up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and he struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and put him to death and reigned in his place. 15 Now the rest of the deeds of Shallum, and the conspiracy that he made, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 16 At that time Menahem sacked Tiphsah and all who were in it and its territory from Tirzah on, because they did not open it to him. Therefore he sacked it, and he ripped open all the women in it who were pregnant. (II Kings 15)
Often, in reading these accounts, it is hard to believe we are reading about those who are supposed to be living as the people of God.  Menahem could well have been nicknamed Mayhem.  Talk about instability!  He killed the king after only one month of rule, then committed one of the most wicked acts of revenge recorded in scripture (and history!)  The passage goes on to tell more about his "accomplishments" as king, but this paragraph gives enough of an idea. What evil are we capable of? Were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit transforming our minds and hearts, we are capable of nothing less.  May He change us and use our "creativity" for Godly good, blessing everyone we meet today.