2 Kings 24

Is it frustrating to anyone else when you begin reading a chapter and see “he did evil”? This chapter doesn’t begin that way (chapter 23 ends that way to show the beginning of this new king), but most of the new kings seem to fall under the evil category. No matter how bad it has gotten for Judah, they are so blinded that they don’t see they have the power to try and begin to fix it. This chapter begins with King Neb (sorry not typing the whole thing) came to take Jerusalem. In other historical readings, I found that he did this because the king of Egypt had gone into Babylon, and Jerusalem has been loyal to Egypt.

 King Neb stopped his campaign because of his fathers death, and he went back to Babylon to claim his inheritance. At this point, Jehoiakim rebelled against King Neb. This is where God stepped in. Jehoiakim was rebelling you save Jerusalem, yes. But he was doing it for the sake of independence alone, not for the sake of God. So the Lord set up Jerusalem to be taken because of all the innocent blood she’s by Manasseh. Jehoiakim does and his son takes over, also doing evil in the sight of the Lord (verse 9). Babylon takes control of Jerusalem, takes all the treasure, and puts Jehoiachin’s uncle as new king. Who is also evil. 

God warned them over and over again to turn from their evil ways. He laid out his plans against them, and the still did not listen to him. Thankfully because of Jesus’s death, we don’t have to fear God’s anger if we sin. I still believe if we choose to sin against another and do not seek repentance, you may face His anger. But that’s between the sinner and God. For me growing up, facing my parents anger if I sinned was enough for me to never make that mistake again. When I was maybe 8 or 9, I stole some Tic Tacs from the grocery store. I had a fanny pack on, and while mom was checking out, I snuck it in the zipper. When we were home and unloading, my Fanny pack hit against the car and she heard the candy make noise. (Because I was naive enough or guilty enough to still wear the bag while unloading groceries). My mother told me she was disappointed in my choice, took me back to the store, made me return the candy to the office manager and I had to apologize. I have never again stolen anything because of that incident. I fully understood what it meant after that, and didn’t want to hurt other people like that again. 

It is good to know that God loves us enough to forgive us when we sin. That he will not forsaken us. But we also have to choose to be forgiven. And that the choice I make daily. 

Chapter 24

God’s prophetic word was fulfilled when Judah went into exile.  God allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to steal the treasures of the house of the Lord and capture all the people of Jerusalem including the warriors, craftsmen, smiths, the king and his royal family.

God warned the kings of Israel over and over to turn from their wicked ways, but they refused to listen to the prophets of their day.  As a result, they faced severe consequences for their waywardness.  Because of Jesus’ death on the cross covering our sins, we do not have to live in fear of God’s judgement.  But we still sin and because we sin, we face sorrow, broken relationships and other kinds of pain in our lives. Can you think of a time, when you were disciplined for something sinful in your life? What consequences did you face?  Is there anything in your life that you need to repent of today?  Confess it now and commit to changing your ways.

2 Kings 24:20 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. 

2 Kings 22

This chapter begins with Josiah, who is only 8 years old, being named king. This is so because his father was assassinated. Maybe it was good in a way it happened this way, so Josiah didn’t become evil like his father was, because he didn’t have enough time to observe it. Instead, he headed the guidance of the priests.

Josiah followed in the ways of King Jehoash many years before, and took care to repair the temples. He treated the workers kindly and fairly. His heart was for God. 

Unfortunately, the book of law that was found informed them of the law that had been ignored by his ancestors. Josiah was astonished and convicted by the sins of his ancestors.  He knew the people of Jerusalem would face judgement for what had been ignored all this time. Because Josiah held his reign to the goodness of God, because God could see Josiah had a good heart, God told Josiah that he would not see the destruction that would be brought upon Jerusalem. His godliness couldn’t stop the judgement. But it was able to prevent him from having to suffer through it. Living a godly life doesn’t mean we won’t struggle or suffer. It does mean that no matter what we face, God is on our side. He is always with us. 

2 Kings 21

Ok, so when I first read verse 1 that Manasseh rules for 55 years, I though he must have been good. Right? To be allowed to rule for such a long time without getting killed, he must have been doing something right. But, then verse 2 tells that he followed in “abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord has cleared out of the way of the Israelites.” Well there went my hope.

I reviewed commentary and timelines after first reading this chapter. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king. Manasseh was born in the last 15 years of Hezekiah’s life. In the last 15 EXTRA years God had granted him. So not only in those last 15 years did Hezekiah become prideful and turn his heart from God, resulting into God telling him that his future would lose Jerusalem, he also fathered the worst king in Jerusalem history. Of course the birth of Manasseh was part of God’s plan and retort to Hezekiah’s foolish ways. 

Verse 3: He rebuilt the high places which his father had destroyed. Manasseh opposed everything Hezekiah tried to establish. All the good Hezekiah tried to bring back, Manasseh destroyed. He brought the evil practices back into custom, even burning his own son in the practice of immolation. What Manasseh did by changing all the good back to evil shows us that at any time, under new leadership, things can be changed. Reform, repentance, traditions, customs, laws, etc, and not necessarily permanent. It reminds me of a saying about Kansas weather. “If you don’t like the weather, hang around for a while. It’ll change.” If you don’t care for the rulings of one leader, the next one might change things. Of course that could always backfire, and things could always get worse. 

The people in Jerusalem didn’t listen to God. “Manasseh misled them into doing greater evil...21:9” Manasseh misled them, yes, but the people WILLINGLY followed his corruption. The chose to listen to Manasseh and not God. They made their own choice. When there is a leader who is not God centered, it is very easy to see how the people could fall away from God. When you have a group of people who already don’t care about the direction of their culture, and put in place a leader or leaders who are self-centered, you end up with a group that glorifies immorality. 

I don’t want our group to get political. I do want us to pray for our leaders, for our nation. Pray that whomever is chosen to lead us has a God centered heart. Pray that our nation as a whole turns from its self centeredness and grasps the goodness of God’s promises. 

2 Kings 20

So, Hezekiah find out he is dying and prays to God, asking Him to remember how faithful he was. So God gave him more time.
 At this time Babylon took notice of Judah, because they had defeated Assyria, who was in control of Babylon. So the son of the king of Babylon paid a visit to Hezekiah. Hezekiah was proud and enjoyed the attention. He brought the prince into his home and showed the prince all of his treasures. He wanted Babylon to see how rich Hezekiah had become. To show off his fortune. But this was not spiritual pride. This was worldly pride. He was not showing what he obtained through victory with the Lord’s help. He showed off his possessions, his trophies, his jewels, as if he took them by his own might. To any sane person keeping up with history could see that by allowing a foreign enemy to see all the possessions is showing them all the things they could potentially come back and steal or take by force.

Isaiah found out what was going on, the Lord informed Hezekiah that everything is his house would one day be carried off to Babylon because of these acts, including some of Hezekiah’s own descendants (one would be Daniel). Hezekiah was then smug enough to think that he would have peace and security because the Lord mentioned “one day” and “descendants” and it wouldn’t really affect Hezekiah because he would be long dead. He had turned into a very self-centered man after being given extra time to live.

Extra tome and age doesn’t always make people better. We hear often of “If I had a second chance...”. In this situation, Hezekiah has one and blew it. He could have accomplished so many things for his kingdom and it’s future. Instead, he allowed pride to steal that very future. If you think about it, each day we wake up, we are given a second chance. A second chance to make the wrongs of yesterday right. To forgive those who you hold grudges against. To ask forgiveness of those you have wronged. We are only given a short amount of time on this earth. We have no idea when today will be our last, when we run out of “second chances.” What are you going to do with your second chance today?

2 Kings 19

2 Kings 19:15 ...You are God alone... You have made the heavens and the earth.

At this point, Hezekiah has gotten two letters from Sennacherib about their impending doom if they don’t follow Assyria. Hezekiah brings these before the Lord, because he trusts in God. Our God is the only God. Even calling him God is such a simple title. Master of all creation. There is nothing he can not do, nothing beyond his control. But we still need to bring our petitions before Him. We need to show God we trust in Him and need His help. 

Our God is all powerful, all knowing. He did create every animal on this earth. He created you and me. If He is that powerful, surely He is more powerful than our biggest problems. Have you heard the children’s song God is bigger than the Boogie Man? It’s a Veggietale video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CKWmmj0Cs-U

God is bigger than our biggest fears. If we try to take our eyes off how big our fears are and realize how big God is, it might change how we see things. If we don’t ask for help, then we must have control over it, right? But in all reality, we don’t. I know I don’t. Why struggle with those problems alone?? God wants to help. He just wants to hear our problems. He never gets tired of hearing from us. Just as a mother never really gets tired of hearing that she is needed, God loves us so much, He doesn’t care how many times we have asked Him for help. He is right there, waiting with open arms. 

2 kings 18

S: 2 Kings 18:5 He put his trust in the Lord, the God of Israel.

O: Hezekiah took great strides to separate himself from the previous leaders of Judah. So he was seen as being more like David, and a great ruler.

A: Hezekiah did put his trust in the Lord, even though his father Ahaz was not a good leader. Hezekiah saw what was happening to Israel and knew that Judah would suffer the same fate if they did not return to God’s commandments. So Hezekiah removes all the false idols, pillars and poles of worship.

The Assyrian army continued their destruction and came close to Judah. In fear, Hezekiah told Assyria that he had done wrong and tried to please the king by sending all the treasure of Judah. So much so that the Judeans began to suffer and starve. Hezekiah also put his trust and faith in the king of Egypt. Both of these things were done instead of putting faith and trust in the Lord. During this time, Isaiah was the prophet of God. These same events are replicated in Isaiah chapter 36. Isaiah foretold what would happen to Israel and told Hezekiah not to trust in Egypt.

The king of Assyria sent the commander out to meet with king Hezekiah, and to taunt the people. To make them more afraid. Satan does the same thing all the time. He uses truth to try and frighten us, to demoralize us and being us to despair. To make us doubt when we can’t see the clear end of our path. To make us want to give up. But we must remember God’s truth in Jesus. He sent Jesus so that our sins could be forgiven. We must continue to put our faith and trust in God even when we can’t see a clear path. We must know that God is at our side in light and darkness.

As we will see in future chapters of 2 Kings, faith in God does make us prevail against the devil. I need to keep God in the forefront of my mind, so when ever any slip happens, I know He is still there. I know even in my darkest hour, He has not forsaken me, regardless of what the darkness calls out to me. My faith is in my true King.

K: Lord, thank you for delivering your people time and time again. Thank you for forgiving my sins time and time again. For always being at my side. I trust in your Lord and know you will not forsake me, but will lead me down the path you have chosen for me.

2 Kings 17

S: 2 Kings 17:33 But while venerating the Lord, they served their own gods, following the worship of the nations from among who they had been deported. 

O: The people of Israel and Judah had lost sight of God.

A: This whole chapter is a mess. The people of Israel and Judah made their choice to ignore God’s warning, and chose to continue to worship false gods. Their children learned from them and continued to follow their parents suit. When you are in a house where God isn’t mentioned, unless someone else is sent by God to cross your path, you won’t know him by no fault of your own. But if these children heard God and also ignored him, then it is their fault as well. 

We have many “gods” that we are choosing to let command our lives. TV, video games, money, stature; the list can go on and on. We need to be better role models for our children. My fault is reading. I LOVE to read, and when I get settled into a good book, it’s just as hard for me to break connection with it as it is for a child playing a video game. I think having the kids see me read is a good thing and might help instill reading for them. I don’t read all day if they are home, and I get my own chores done before I sit down. Mostly at their nap-time and before my bedtime. But I have been known to ignore their request for something because I’m reading. The hardest is when it’s on the iPad (on the digital library bc the paper copy wasn’t available). Because then I’m telling them no they can’t play on the iPad (they have to earn time anyway) and need to go play outside but I am on the iPad.

K: Lord let me be a servant of your Word, that I never put idols in front of you. I pray my children see you through my actions and hear you .

2 Kings 16

S: 2 Kings 16:7 I am your servant and you son. Come and rescue me from the clutches of the king of Aram and the King of Israel, who are attacking me.

O: Ahaz surrendered to one enemy to defeat another.

A: Instead or appealing to God, begging for forgiveness in hopes of defeating his enemy, Ahaz appeals to a foreign country for help. He brings the king of Assyria treasures from his temple and pledges loyalty to him.

He refused to trust in God. I can only imagine how much better his kingdom could have fared if he would have prayed for help. In our times of weakness and struggle, we must turn to God like David did, Psalm 18:6 “In my distress, I call upon my Lord...” What Ahaz did by submitting himself to the king of Assyria was make him and Judah a pawn in Assyria’s plan to gain control. We should be no one's pawn in life. We are here to submit ourselves only to God’s will, and make our way to heaven.

K: Lord I pray that no matter how gloomy it may get, that your light will always shine for us to see. So we may never think of looking for help elsewhere on this earth, and not fall in Satan’s power.