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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Hey, everybody, this is Shelby and Scott. We are in the book of 2 Chronicles. We hope that you are subscribed or following so that you don't miss a single episode as we walk through the Bible this year in second chronicles today. Scott, we're in chapters 28 through 30. And just a reminder, we're mostly looking at the kings from the southern kingdom. So what kings are we going to walk through in our chapters today?
- [00:31]
B
Got a couple. We got King Ahaz and then King Hezekiah. So a lot of us are actually familiar with Ahaz, even if we are not aware that we're familiar with him. He shows up in Isaiah 7. So in Isaiah 7, he has this conversation with the prophet Isaiah. And Isaiah encourages Ahab. Ahaz implores him to trust in God for military protection rather than turning to other nations for help. And Ahaz refuses to ask the Lord for help. And in response, God gives Ahaz this sign of a virgin conceiving and giving birth to a child named Emmanuel. So it's a passage that comes up a lot. We read about Ahaz at Christmas time. So. But Ahaz is a bad dude, just all around, not a good king. He offers child sacrifices at the valley of Ben Hinnom. At the end of chapter 8:28, he shuts the door of the temple, which is a big deal. Sh. Because again, Chronicles, if there is one big message in Chronicles, it's you take care of the temple, attend to the temple, and he shutters it. And you know, there's this comment in verse 19 that the Lord humbled Judah because of King Ahaz, who threw off restraint in Judah and was unfaithful to the Lord. Not a good look for this guy. So again, we're being shown this time a negative example that the of how important it is to worship the one true God and that things go well when you do, things derail when you don't.
- [01:56]
A
Okay, so that's Ahaz. We're also walking through the reign of Hezekiah today. What about him?
- [02:03]
B
He is a. I love Hezekiah. He's a wonderful king. He's a breath of fresh air after Ahaz. This is a king who is just so devoted to the proper worship of God. He's a model of what a king should be over God's people. In chapter 29, he reopens the temple. He has it purified. It's fully functioning. Again, Shelby, I love this comment in 29. 3 that he opened the doors of the temple in the first year of his reign in the first month. So this guy got to work fast. Like, this was a priority for him. Yeah, like this is. This is a huge priority for him. So, you know, good job, Hezekiah. So he didn't just wait around till it was convenient. Maybe one day I'll purify the temple. I love 29:36 that the people rejoiced over how God had prepared the temple, for it had come about suddenly. And we. We see this focus on worship continue as we get into chapter 30 with this awesome scene with the Passover. So this festival, if you recall, like, this was the defining moment for Israel when God led them out of slavery. And so this was to be annually observed, the Passover, as a reminder of what God had done for them in Egypt, the fact that they were God's people. And this is cool, too. I love that Hezekiah invites people from the Northern Kingdom. So by this point, the kingdom has been destroyed, the Northern Kingdom, by Assyria. But he invites people who are left over to come join them in the south to observe this festival. And he just has this vision of all the tribes being united in the worship of Israel's God. And, you know, some reject the offer and kind of mock him, but. But some do come. Some accept the invitation and come observe. And again, I'm just. You have to imagine how the original audience of Chronicles would have read a scene like this, like the survivors of the Northern Kingdom, which had also been destroyed. And so, you know, they've returned to Jerusalem, these exiles. They've built a new temple. They too need the reminder that God will not turn his face away from you if you return to him. That's from 39. So for those who turn to God, better days are ahead. That's a great message. You know, in Hezekiah's day, that's a great message for the original audience of people who'd return to Jerusalem.
- [04:13]
A
Yeah, absolutely. How encouraging. You know, I think a takeaway for me today. You mentioned this earlier. Hezekiah reopened the temple. He also purified and cleansed it. And I was thinking about how we are the temple today, that God's Spirit lives in us and we've been cleansed by Christ. And at the same time, we're being sanctified, we're being continually cleansed through his work in our lives, in the work of the Spirit. And so you made the point like Hezekiah got straight to work. Like, this was important to him. And sometimes I feel the Spirit's work in my own life in the same way. He's getting straight to work. Like, this is important. This is important. And so, so I saw a parallel there that was neat to see in these chapters. Okay, thanks for walking us through 2 Chronicles 28:30. We're going to talk through more in this book tomorrow.