WWUTT 679 Many Wicked Kings Point to One Righteous King?

This is a wicked world that we live in, and though there are going to be times and periods in which several world leaders will flirt with peace, it doesn't bring about any true peace which comes only through Jesus Christ when we understand the text.

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Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of 2 Chronicles today, looking at chapters 27, 28, and maybe getting into a little bit of chapter 29 as well.

Chapter 27 is a relatively short chapter. It's only about nine verses long, covering the reign of King Jotham in Judah.

And Jotham is the last of a series of four kings in which we have seen a mixture of righteous and unrighteous.

For the most part, the chronicler speaks of these kings in a positive way, but there's also something about these kings that reminds us that they aren't perfect.

And we're still looking for that perfect king who is the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David, the one who is going to save his people and establish his throne, his kingdom forever on the throne of David.

And these four kings that we've read about goes back a couple of weeks ago. We read about Joash and then

Amaziah, Uzziah, who we talked about last week in the book of 2 Kings, his name is

Azariah, and then Uzziah's son, Jotham, who we read about today. Now a reminder that these kings are a mixture of righteous and unrighteous.

And so Uzziah, though he did right in the eyes of God, he still had some pride about himself.

And he assumed to do things that were not his role to do. He went into the temple to do things that God had appointed only the chief priests and the

Levites to do. And because of Uzziah's pride in the presence of the Lord, he was stricken with leprosy.

And due to illness, he had to step down as king. And so Jotham reigns in the place of his father,

Uzziah. He began to reign at a pretty young age, and he doesn't reign very long.

As we read about here at the start of chapter 27, Jotham was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem.

Now we don't ultimately know why Jotham died. It's not said for us here, nor does it say in 2

Kings. We just know that he lived and reigned for a very short amount of time.

And then his son Ahaz reigns in his place, and Ahaz was a very wicked king.

The Chronicler has some positive things to say about Jotham, and really nothing but positive things. But Ahaz was very wicked, and the

Chronicler says nothing positive about Ahaz. So we continue on here with Jotham. Jotham's mother's name was

Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok, and he did what was right in the eyes of the

Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the

Lord, which is what Uzziah had done, and of course was stricken with illness because he had done that.

But the people still followed corrupt practices. Now that's really the only statement that the

Chronicler makes about Jotham that would indicate something negative.

In the book of 2 Kings, when we read about Jotham in 2 Kings chapter 15, it's a little bit more explicit as to what

Jotham had done wrong in the eyes of God. He did not tear down the high places, and he permitted, or he allowed, because he did not tear down the high places, he allowed the people of Judah to continue to worship at those high places, which they were not to do.

So this is kind of the one unrighteous side of Jotham that the Chronicler kind of hints at.

We get more details about in 2 Kings, but we really read more details about Jotham here in 2

Chronicles than we got in 2 Kings, and it goes on to talk about that. Jotham built the upper gate of the house of the

Lord and did much building on the walls of Ophel. Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah and forts and towers on the wooded hills.

He fought with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them. And the

Ammonites gave him that year a hundred talons of silver and ten thousand cores of wheat and ten thousand of barley.

The Ammonites paid him the same amount in the second and the third years. So Jotham became mighty because he ordered his ways before the

Lord, his God. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

He was twenty -five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.

And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Ahaz, his son, reigned in his place.

Perhaps one of the more noteworthy things about Jotham as well is that it was during his reign that the prophet

Micah began his ministry. So we read at the start of the book of Micah, the word of the

Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

So there we have that at the introduction to the book of Micah. And so then it's also during the reign of Ahaz that Micah the prophet continued in his ministry.

And this was one of the darkest periods in Judah. Ahaz was a very wicked king.

And again, the chronicler says nothing positive about him here. But these things make us long all the more for the

Messiah that is going to come. Even as we're reading in this story, and even as we know the outcome, we still see this wickedness prevailing in Judah at the hands of King Ahaz.

And we long for resolve. We're looking for the coming of that promised Messiah, Jesus, who would not only save his people

Israel that would believe in him, but also his people whom he has called from the Gentiles, uniting

Jews and Gentiles together through the blood of Christ. That is our anticipation.

Even as we read about the evils of King Ahaz here in chapter 28. And that is our anticipation even now, when we observe the evils that are going on in the world around us.

And we read about wicked kings and wicked dictators and wicked generals of armies and places in the world that are in upheaval because of militaristic regimes and all these kinds of things.

When we read about this, we long for the coming of our Lord Christ, because we know that at Christ's second coming, he is going to put an end to all of this.

It will be done with the breath of his mouth. He will obliterate

Satan and all of his schemes. And then we who are in Christ Jesus delivered from the wickedness of this world, we will reign forever with him in a kingdom where there is no corruption, no more sickness and disease in the body, no more temptation, no more evil, no more sin.

We will be forever with Christ in his perfect, glorious kingdom. And that is a day that we look forward to.

We long for those things, even as we experience the evils of this world, crying out along with the

Apostle John, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Some of the last words that he wrote at the end of the book of Revelation in chapter 22, something that's real big in the news right now is

Kim Jong Un, who is the supreme leader of North Korea, desires peace with South Korea.

He's already done something that no other leader of North Korea has done. And that set foot in South Korea. He desires peace with the

United States of America. He's talked about disarming the nuclear program that they have been pursuing, which

I mean, just last year, they're launching missiles over Japan. There's the threat of launching a missile against the

United States. And suddenly, Kim Jong Un desires peace. And there's promises of all of these things that he's going to do to bring about peace with the nations that he's been in turmoil with in the entire existence of the country of North Korea.

I don't know what's going on there. I don't know if Kim Jong Un has something up his sleeve in which he's fooling everybody or that peace really will come about.

And he desires to make peace with these other nations. Is he going to get rid of the gulags that he has in his country, the people that he's put in prison camps, people that he has under his thumb and he is treating so abusively?

Are those things going to come to an end in North Korea? We can pray and we can hope.

But whatever happens there, there is not some sort of saving grace because North Korea would desire peace with other nations.

There's no salvation there. It doesn't matter how great a peninsula the

Korean peninsula becomes or how great a nation the United States becomes. There is no salvation in any of these things.

Salvation is only in Christ. This world will always be wicked, even when we see signs of peace among nations.

And it will continue to be wicked until Christ returns to put an end to all of this evil.

We must not lose sight of the prize and the prize is not world peace, at least manufactured world peace at the hands of man.

But it is the peace that surpasses all understanding, which is found in Christ alone.

We are saved by grace through faith in his finished work and no other way.

There will be peace among nations in some parts of the world, but there will still be a lot of unrest and violence and evil in many other parts of the world.

And so this is only this can only come to an end at the hand of Christ and the scriptures promise that it will happen.

Let me put it a little bit more specifically. This will only end by the word of Christ, since Paul specifically says it's by the breath of his mouth that he destroys his enemies.

In the meantime, as we see evil things happen all around us, may we long all the more for that day in which our

Lord Christ will return to usher in his peaceful kingdom forever.

Second Chronicles chapter 28, Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem and he did not do what was right in the eyes of the

Lord as his father David had done. But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel.

He even made metal images for the bales and he made offerings in the valley of the son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering.

According to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree, which was forbidden in the law in the in the book of Deuteronomy.

This mention here that a has burned his sons as an offering. That's even more so than what the book of Second Kings says.

It just says that he burned his son singular as an offering. But the Chronicler indicates here that a has had done that more than once.

And the child sacrifice that we read about in the Old Testament in the books of Second Kings and Second Chronicles is no different than the child sacrifice that we see going on in the world today through the abominable practice of abortion.

So we continue on here in verse five. Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus.

He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel who struck him with great force.

For Pekah the son of Ramaliah killed 120 ,000 from Judah in one day and of them men of valor because they had forsaken the

Lord the God of their fathers. And Zichri a mighty man of Ephraim killed Maaseah the king's son and Azraqam the commander of the palace and Elkanah the next in authority to the king.

The men of Israel took captive 200 ,000 of their relatives, women, sons and daughters.

They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. But a prophet of the

Lord was there whose name was Oded and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them,

Behold because the Lord the God of your fathers was angry with Judah he gave them into your hand but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven and now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem male and female as your slaves?

Have you not sins of your own against the Lord your God? Now hear me and send back the captives from your relatives whom you have taken for the fierce wrath of the

Lord is upon you. Certain chiefs also of the men of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan and Barakiah the son of Meshalemoth, Jehezkiah the son of Shalom and Amasa the son of Hadli stood up against those who were coming from the war and said to them,

You shall not bring the captives in here for you propose to bring upon us guilt against the

Lord in addition to our present sins and guilt. For our guilt is already great and there is fierce wrath against Israel.

And we know this for a number of reasons based on what it was we read in first and second kings

Israel was their kings were always wicked there were no righteous kings and they constantly served and worship the bales and false idols and golden calves and on and on the sins of Israel went.

So it's interesting to note here that there were some convicted men in Israel that did know they had committed great sins against God and they were only compounding upon those sins by doing this wicked thing with the captives from Judah verse 14.

So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly and the men who have been mentioned by name rose and took the captives and with the spoil they clothes all who were naked among them.

They clothed them gave them sandals provided them with food and drink and anointed them and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys.

They brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho the city of palm trees.

Then they return to Samaria. So we've read about Israel very little over the course of first and second

Chronicles but here in this account in in chapter 28 we see kind of a light in a dark place a sense of repentance coming from such a wicked nation that the

Lord would grant them this repentance and lead them back to righteousness which would eventually come about although it would be after the exile.

So verse 16 at that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help for the

Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried away captives and the

Philistines had made raids on the cities in the Shefilah and the Negev of Judah and had taken

Beth Shemesh Ajalon Geteroth Soko with its village with its villages

Timnah with its villages and Gimzo with its villages and they settled there for the

Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel for he had made Judah act sinfully and had been very unfaithful to the

Lord. So Tiglath Pellicer king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him for Ahaz took a portion from the house of the

Lord and the house of the king and of the princes and gave tribute to the king of Assyria but it did not help him partnership with the world is not going to give us a right place in the presence of God for what fellowship does

Christ have with Belial and so we must be wholly devoted and worshipful of the king of kings and Lord of lords and that is

Jesus Christ and him alone verse 22 in the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the

Lord this same King Ahaz for he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said because the gods of the kings of Syria help them

I will sacrifice to them that they may help me but they were the ruin of him and all of Israel and Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God and he shut up the doors of the house of the

Lord and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem and every city of Judah he made high places to make offerings to other gods provoking to anger the

Lord the God of his fathers now the rest of his acts and all his ways from first to last behold they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel and Ahaz slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city in Jerusalem for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place now we see many great reforms happen at the hands of Hezekiah but I'm going to wait until next week to get into that which is 2nd

Chronicles chapter 29 so notice here the pride of Ahaz even though the Lord punished him and afflicted him because of his wickedness he didn't see the problem he didn't realize the sin that he had committed against God instead because his enemy had been successful against him well

I'm going to do what my enemy did and maybe then I will receive the same kind of blessing that they had and I would be able to overcome them but of course that would be the ruin of Ahaz and Judah with him because he was so faithless against God may we pray and ask that the

Lord would grant us a heart that is convicted whenever our sin is pointed out to us that we don't try to cover it up with more sin or we try to sin another way to cover up the previous sins that we had done this is foolishness it's madness it is from a mind that has been given over to depravity let us never lose our conviction that and that only by the blessing of God that whenever we sin and we have been confronted with that sin we are convicted to the core to our hearts we would seek

God for forgiveness and we would walk in those sinful ways no more let us pray our

Lord God our father in heaven you have granted us salvation through your son Jesus Christ we have been called out of darkness and into your marvelous light we have been set free from the bondage of sin and corruption that we were in and now we are free to walk in righteousness and worship you in a worthy way and so I pray that with your spirit upon us and in our hearts that we would not lose conviction that we would never become comfortable with our sin but whenever we stumble and fall by the wayside we would be cut to the heart we would seek you for forgiveness and we would desire to walk in those sinful ways no more may we hate our sin to the point that we would want to have nothing to do with it but desire more and more the righteousness of Jesus Christ deliver us from this flesh and the wicked ways of this world come quickly

Lord Jesus we pray these things in Jesus name and we pray God that you would grant peace and and that you would grant your mercy to those who are being afflicted in this world and may they come to know the only way to peace and that is through Jesus Christ send missionaries to them those who speak the gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ that they may be delivered from the plight of this world and have a hope and an expectation in your eternal kingdom to come we pray and ask these things in Christ's name amen this has been when we understand the text of pastor

Gabriel Hughes for all of our podcasts episodes videos books and more visit our website at www .utt

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