← Cornerstone Chapel - Audio Podcast
Cornerstone Chapel - Audio Podcast
What is Your Legacy, Faith or Flesh?
00:36:37
2 Chronicles 20:21-22:12
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All right. It's always good, at least for me, if no one else needs this to orient myself. Where are we? In Second Chronicles, who's the king at this time? There are two kingdoms, one to the north, one to the south. So here's our map again. The capital of the north is Samaria. The capital of the south is Jerusalem. There are two kings, one king to the north, one king to the south. Israel is a divided nation at this time. And when we left off here in Second Chronicles, Chapter 20, the King of the south is Jehoshaphat. Now, Jehoshaphat is a pretty decent king overall. And one of the things that he was well known for was the way that he called the nation of Israel, or Judah. The southern kingdom called at this time to a time of prayer and fasting. And why did he do this? Because there was this imminent threat from the east. And you see there in circles Ammon and Moab. Those are other tribal, foreign nations. They are pagan nations. They have decided for no reason to launch an offensive attack against Judah. And Jehoshaphat has been warned of them. And so he calls the nation to prayer. He calls them to fasting. He says, we're going to seek the Lord. And so last week we left off. We looked at three different principles from chapter 21 is our best weapons against fear are prayer and fast. Fasting number two. It's a good reminder to us that the battles we face are gods to fight. We just sang that as one of our worship songs tonight. The battle belongs to the Lord. That's straight out of scripture. That's part of what Jehoshaphat said to the nation. Actually, it was the prophet Jahaziel who said that to the people to encourage them that this battle is the Lord's. This is not theirs to fight. They need to just simply stand and watch what the Lord will do. And then also we see a third principle like prayer and fasting. Worship is a weapon of our warfare. That's verse 21, how Jehoshaphat decided to put the praise team right out in front of the army. I made a little joke last week that the worship team is always expendable. But I didn't really mean that. I just meant it's just an interesting thing to see how he puts the worship team out in front of the Israeli army. Why? Because he led with worship. The more you exalt the Lord, you watch him fight your battles. So this is just this wonderful triune gift that God has given us, prayer, fasting, and worship that we can use during times of stress, discouragement, spiritual warfare, let the Lord fight for you. Just seek him through prayer, fasting, and worship. So that's where we left off, right at verse 21. Just notice again, I'll read verse 21 where it says, and when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord and who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and were saying, praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever. So now, verse 22, this is 2 Chronicles 20:22, says, now when they began to sing and to praise the Lord, set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah. And they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. What did the Lord do here? Well, Jehoshaphat led the people of Judah in prayer, fasting, and worship. And God turned the enemy on itself. And so Moab and Ammon and Mount Seir, who had joined forces to come against Judah, are now fighting against each other. Moab and Ammon turn to start fighting Mount Seir, Mount Seir, the people of Edom, Mount Seir, they start fighting the people of Ammon and Moab, and they start this fighting amongst themselves. And the people of Judah don't have to do a thing. They're just watching the armies that have come against Judah defeat themselves because they've turned inward. Verse 24 says, and so when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude, and there were their dead bodies fallen on the earth. No one had escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies and precious jewelry which they had stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away. Okay, that's a lot of bling, ladies and gentlemen. That's so much jewelry, you can't even carry it all away. And they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much. And on the fourth day, they assembled in the Valley of Berechah. Some of your Bibles have a footnote there. Berechach in Hebrew means blessing. They're calling it the Valley of Blessing, for there they blessed the Lord. Therefore, the name of that place was called the Valley of Berechach until this day. And then they returned every man of Judah and Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat in front of them to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies. And so they came to Jerusalem with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets to the house of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. And then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around. Now, folks, there's a danger to always insert yourself in every story of the Bible. Really, the one who is most prominent in every story of the Bible is Jesus, when you see how he is threaded through all of Scripture. But, you know, at least this is an important principle short of us just putting ourselves in the story and talking about how, you know, Satan comes against us as our enemy and God will always fight our battles. This is an important thing to just remember that God is in control, he's sovereign, he's on the throne, and we can trust him. And how he gives victory to the people of Judah. And they didn't have to fire a single arrow. All they had to do was just trust the Lord. It just is a good reminder to us to trust the Lord and God will take care of us. He is our Father in heaven and he delights to take care of his children. So lean into him and trust him. And so let's continue reading. And so in verse 31 it says, and so Jehoshaphat was king over Judah, a southern kingdom. He was 35 years old when he became king, and he reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. So we're going to find out. He dies at the age of 60. And his mother's name was Azuba, the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in the way of his father Asa, who was also a pretty good king and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God of their. So in other words, while Jehoshaphat was a good king and he brought good reform to Judah, not all the people were on board. And some of the high places still remain. Now, the high places are referenced to some of these shrines that they would build to false gods. So there was still a sprinkling of this idol worship. Jehoshaphat was a pretty good king. He gave the people of Judah a good example as a spiritual leader. But, you know, look, you can have a good leader in a situation like this and not Everybody is following, and certainly they're not all following. After the Lord, their hearts had not completely turned to the God of their fathers. And verse 34 says, and now the rest of the Acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, indeed, they are written in the book of Jehu, the son of Hanani, which is mentioned in the book of the Kings of Israel. And after this, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, allied himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who acted very wickedly. Okay, so I said he was basically a good king, because here's something that he's not doing. Well, now let's go back to our map, because here we have now Ahaziah in the north. He's the king of Israel. So Jehoshaphat is still king of the south in Judah. And this is kind of like an epilogue to Jehoshaphat's life, because it started to conclude there, talking about how old he was when he reigned, how long he reigned. He's about to die here. He did basically what was good in the eyes of the Lord, although the people weren't completely directed their hearts toward God. And then it speaks here about this alliance that Jehoshaphat forms with Ahaziah to the north. But notice, Ahaziah was a wicked king. He acts very wickedly. So it's never a good thing to align yourself with someone who is wicked. And so it says here in verse 36, and he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish. And they made the ships in Ezion Geber. But Eleazar the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has destroyed your works. And then the ships were wrecked so that they were not able to go to Tarshish. Okay? So the Bible doesn't say how they were wrecked. Maybe God brought a big storm and just wrecked this fleet of ships that Jehoshaphat has built with the alliance with Ahaziah. But at the end of the day, it says God just wrecked it. And so to me, it's a good point to remember. It's number four on our list. It's a merciful thing when God wrecks our bad plans. We don't always see it at the time. You know, some of you maybe just got through a serious breakup and you're like, you know, these are bad plans. Maybe not. Maybe God wrecked your bad plans. So sometimes the things that we think, you know, that's God not being kind to us is Actually his mercy. Because sometimes when life is difficult and we think that, you know, we're in a bad situation, it's actually God's mercy. And God was merciful because Jehoshaphat had previously made a bad alliance. If you remember, back in chapter 18, Jehoshaphat had made an alliance with the king of the north, who was Ahab. In fact, Jehoshaphat arranges his son to marry the daughter of the king of the north at that time was Ahab. So Jehoshaphat has a history of making alliances with bad people. And this was actually God's mercy. Like, you shouldn't be making an alliance here with Ahaziah. He's a wicked guy. You made a bad alliance with Ahab. You even gave your son in marriage to Ahab's daughter. So I'm going to spare you something here. What you're doing is not right. I'm going to wreck your plans. How many of you have looked back on your life and you're thankful that God wrecked some of your plans? Let me see your hands. All right, the younger ones. Look around at all the hands. Okay? It's a merciful thing. Sometimes when God wrecks our plans because they're bad plans, he's got better plans for us. Let's go on to chapter 21. And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers. Now he dies and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And then Jehoram, his son, reigned in his place. So let's go back to the map. So we see Jehoshaphat in the south. So now we're going to replace his name with Jehoram. So now his son is king, reigning in his father's place. Verse two says, this guy's a wicked dude, so watch out. Look at verse two. He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat. Here's a list of his brothers. Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michel and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. Their father gave them great gifts of silver and gold and precious things with fortified cities in Judah. But he gave the kingdom of Jehoram. He gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn. Now, when Jehoram was established over the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself notice and killed all his brothers with the sword and also others of the princes of Israel. Now, I didn't make this as a bullet point, but folks, look. Insecurity leads people to do terrible things. And that's really, the root of, why would you kill your brothers? Why would you kill? Because he feels threatened that any of them might take over the throne. And so in order to eliminate the threat, he just has them all killed. So this is a wicked man, but he's motivated to do this wickedness, really, out of an insecure heart. And so he kills his brothers, and he kills anybody who could be a potential heir to the throne. He kills them. Now, it says Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years. So his reign's not very long. He's going to reign only eight years. He's going to die when he's 40. We're going to see how he dies. Here it says, and he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. That's not a good thing. Just as the house of Ahab had done. For he had the daughter of Ahab as a wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. Okay, so I said a minute ago that Jehoshaphat gave his son to Ahab's daughter in marriage. So this is that son. This is Jehoram. And he marries Ahab's daughter. We're going to find out her name later, but I'll just tell you now. It's Athaliah. And so Jehoram marries Athaliah, and you marry into a wicked family. And there's a good chance that that wickedness is going to influence your family. So Jehoram comes from a decent dad, Jehoshaphat, considered one of the few relatively good kings. But because Jehoram marries into a family, Ahab's family, Ahab married Jezebel. Jezebel. She grew up in the home of a Sidonian priest. She's a pagan. As pagan comes. She's not even Jewish. Ahab should never have married her. He marries her. They have a daughter, Athaliah. So Athalia is bringing all of the influence of paganism from. From her mother, Jezebel, which influenced Ahab, which influenced the whole nation of Israel. Now Athalia is going to come from the north and marry into the son of the king of the south, who now is king himself. And this is just setting up for failure, because there's wickedness here in this whole family. And it's very specific. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, verse 7. Yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he had made with David. And since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever, so this is God's mercy. You see here. And in his days, Edom revolted against Judah's authority and made a king over themselves. Now, Edom's not on the map, but it's kind of. It's to the east. It's kind of between Ammon and Moab. And so Jehoram went out with his officers and all his chariots with him. And he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots. And thus Edom has been in revolt against Judah's authority to this day. At that time, Libnah revolted against his rule because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, okay, little idols and shrines and idols, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotry and led Judah astray. And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet. Okay, this is that same Elijah that you read about in Kings. Okay, here comes Elijah, and he sends an email, and he's like, here, you better read this. Better read this. Listen up, king. Thus says the Lord God of your father David, because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat, your father, or in the ways of Asa, that would be his grandfather, king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, the wicked ones, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father's household. Look, who were better than yourself. Ouch. Behold, the Lord will strike your people with a serious affliction. Your children, your wives and all your possessions. And you will become very sick with the disease of your intestines until your intestines come out by reason of sickness, day by day. That's not a good way to die, everybody. Your intestines coming out day by day, like little by little over time. Now. Now, Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian who lived in the first century, he writes that the disease that Jehoram was afflicted with was dysentery. Dysentery is basically a very invasive bacteria of the GI tract. In fact, during the civil war, more soldiers died from dysentery than died in combat. And it's really, when there's, you know, poor conditions, when there's, you know, especially like during times of war and you have dead bodies and you have a lot of disease, the effects of the bacteria from especially war causes dysentery. And it's basically diarrhea that then just completely depletes your system. You completely become dehydrated, your organs begin to shut down. It's a very terrible way to die. In fact, some of the latter stages of dysentery. Sorry to be so graphic, but include rectal prolapse, which is what this is talking about here. Your intestines are going to fall out of your body here. And so. Yeah, sorry, I know you just ate, but let's. Is this a medical lab or a Bible study? All right, well, verse 16 says, moreover, the Lord stirred up against Jehoram, the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabians who were near the Ethiopians, and. And they came up into Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king's house and also his sons and his wives, so that there was not a son left to him, except Jehoahaz, we're going to see. His name is also Ahaziah, the youngest of his sons. So he has one son that wasn't carried away captive. You know what's worse than having uncontrollable diarrhea is to have somebody invade your house and steal your wife and your kids. And that's what happens here. And he can't really defend himself because, you know, you're in your sickbed. And verse 18 says, and after all this, the Lord struck him in his intestines with an incurable disease. And then it happened in the course of time, after the end of two years, that his intestines came out because of his sickness. And so he died in severe pain. And his people made no burning for him like the burning for his fathers. Yeah, he had enough burning of his own, by the way. I don't. Look, I'm not going to make him the butt of any jokes. That's terrible. Isn't that terrible? I'm sure the doctors did all they could to get to the bottom of things, but it just ended up being a dead end. But anyway, so this is. Look, just. Look, I'm going to put the fun back in fundamentalism. Everybody, let's just relax. Just, you know, you have to laugh. It's not too soon. This is like, you know, centuries ago. But anyway, he dies here when it means here. They didn't. They made no burning for him. Like, they did not give him a dignified burial. And it says in verse 20 that he was 32 years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and to no one's sorrow departed. However, they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. So he didn't get an honorable burial. Here's a point here from chapter 21. The life we live is the legacy we'll leave. This just really stood out to me, the way it says here. No one was sorry the guy died, and no one was sorry. I don't think it's an indication of what a good person you were that, you know, depending on how many people show up at your funeral and are sorry and crying. But there is something to be said of what will people say about you after you're gone? Well, that's going to be based on the kind of life that you lived for Jehoram. No one was sorry because he lived a wicked life. And that's the legacy he left. And so in effect, the people are saying, well, good riddance. We're not even going to bury him where the other kings are buried. So this guy has, you know, this is a sad life. And. And literally God took him out. God afflicted him. It was God's judgment against him. But at any point, you know, there are other times when you see different people that God dealt with and they respond with repentance. And when they respond with repentance, God is merciful. You don't see any repentance with this guy. You would think. Notice again in verse 19. I know we've just kind of been laughing about it. But seriously, in verse 19, it took him two years to die from this affliction. I'm convinced that at any point during those two years he could have turned to the Lord and God would have been merciful, but he just didn't. And God is patient with us to a point. But then there is a day of accountability for all of us. And so, you know, I don't know if God's dealing with you about something right now, but how much time has to pass before you just humble yourself and repent? God is a merciful God, and he would have shown mercy here. But Jehoram showed no repentance, no humility, no sorrow for himself, and therefore people had no sorrow for him. Well, chapter 22. Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son, Jehoram's youngest son, king in his place, for the raiders who came with the Arabians into the camp had killed all the older sons. Remember, we read that back up there in verse 17, where it says that his youngest sons was also called Jehoahaz. So Jehoahaz and Ahaziah, same person so back to the map here. We have in. In the south. Now we have King Ahaziah. And so, yes, that means there are two Ahaziahs. This gets a little confusing here. There's a King Ahaziah in the north, there's a King Ahaziah in the south. So this is the king in the south we're talking about, because this is the legacy from Jehoshaphat to Jehoram and now to Ahaziah. And so he's reigning now in the south. And it says, and so rest of verse one here, chapter 22. And so Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned. And Ahaziah was 42 years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. Now, this is a scribal error, everybody, because your footnotes will even tell you. Ahaziah, it says was 42. But remember, his dad died at the age of 40, so he can't be 42 when he takes over like this. So in 2 Kings chapter 8, you know, you look at 1 and 2 Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, they are companion books. And in 2nd Kings chapter 8, it says he was 22, not 42. Now, some people get wigged out, like, oh, no, the Bible's got an error here. There are a couple of scribal errors like this when it has to do with numbers, but there are no errors when it has to do with the overall message of the Gospel. There's nothing compromised here. And in the whole overall story of Scripture, when we realize here that, okay, second Kings 8 says he's 22, and second Chronicles 22 says he's 42, we know that he can't be 42 because his dad was 40 when he died and he assumes the throne immediately. So this is one of those rare things. And, you know, it does bother me when people who are skeptics of Christianity, skeptics of the Bible, they say, well, you know, your Bible has mistakes in it. Okay, now I know that there are scribal errors like this, but what I always like to say to somebody who says that is, well, show me where the mistakes are. I guarantee you they can't point to Second Chronicles chapter 22. And by the way, that mistake is only a scribal error of numbers. It has nothing to do with the overall story of the Bible. So it doesn't, like, invalidate Scripture. So don't get wigged out about it. But I had to point it out because there is a difference between 2 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 22. So he's 22 years old when he becomes king, and he reigns one year, okay? He's going to have an even shorter lifespan than his dad. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri. Now this is that Athalia that we mentioned a moment ago. So his mom is Athalia, the granddaughter of Omri. And Omri's son was Ahab. So these are the kings to the north. You have Omri, Ahab. Ahab was the wicked king who married Jezebel. They have the daughter Athaliah. So this is that Athaliah. She's from the north, and she's grown up in the home of Ahab and Jezebel. So you're going to see here she is wicked. You know, there's a lot of wicked people in the Bible, by the way. You know, the Bible's not about good people and bad people. The Bible's about bad people. And there's only one good, and that's Jesus, who came to rescue all the bad people, including us. All right, but she's another wicked person here. And it says here in verse three, he also talking about Ahaziah. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother advised him to do wickedly. So this is a failure. Like what a bad mom encouraging her son to do wicked things. And 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. He also followed their advice and went with Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, to war against Hazael, king of Syria, at Ramoth, Gilead. And the Syrians wounded Joram. Now this gets really technical. In fact, in my study, I had to, like, go back and forth and who, who are we talking about? Because Joram is another name for Jehoram. And there are two Jehorams also. So it's hard to track all this. But just try to keep this in mind. You have Ahaziah to the south. The, the, the Jehoram he's talking about is a king who was previously king in the north. And so this, this gets very confusing back and forth. But he's a wicked guy. Just keep that in mind. And he's wicked because the influence of his mother, who grew up under the influence of her mother, Jezebel. And he's taking advice from the household of Ahab. So this is all bad. And it says in verse six. And then he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received at Ramah when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria. And Azariah, also known as Ahaziah, who we're talking about, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Jehoram, the son of Ahab, in Jezreel because he was sick. And his going to Joram, or Jehoram, was God's occasion for Ahaziah's downfall. For when he arrived, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu and the son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. All right, let's park it there. Just real briefly. Jehu is an interesting guy. There's no J in the Hebrew Alphabet. His name is pronounced Yahu. Yahu is the commander of the Israeli army in the north. God is going to raise him up not just to be commander, he's also going to end up being king. And God raises him up to snuff out the current evil kings. So Juu is going to lead a military coup against the king, and God calls him to wipe out the king of the north, who is a descendant of Ahab, because Ahab is a wicked influence. But God brings Ahaziah from the south up to the north so that while he's there, Jehu can kill them both. So Jehu's going to take out the king of the north, and he's also going to take out the king of the south. This is just like an amazing chess game that's happening right here. And this is God's doing. And so verse 8 says, and it happened when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab. Okay, you can write in the margin of your Bible, Second Kings, chapter nine, the whole. The details of this is in Second Kings, chapter nine. The chronicler skips over certain details. So let me just fill in. Jehoram in the north and Ahaziah in the south. They come together to go against Jehu. Well, Jehu actually calls them together. And they don't realize that this is a trap, a trap orchestrated by the Lord. And when they do, Jehoram decides to. So he flees. And when he does, Second Kings, chapter nine tells us that Jehu launches an arrow, strikes him between the shoulders in the back and kills him. So he's dead. So now Jehoram is dead, King of the north is dead. But now look what else Jehu does while he was executing judgment on the house of Ahab and found the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers who served Ahaziah, that he killed them. And then he searched for Ahaziah, and they caught him. He was hiding in Samaria and brought him to Jehu. And when they had killed him, they buried him because they said he is the son of Jehoshaphat who sought the Lord with all his heart. So that's actually a statement, that they gave him an honorable burial for the sake of his father. They're like, this guy's wicked. Jehu knew the Lord had assigned him this task to take out these two wicked kings. We're going to start over. Jehu's going to end up being king of the north. Ahaziah's going to be succeeded here, but not immediately with a good person. You'll see here in a moment. And so now Ahaziah is dead, but they give him a decent burial. Why? Because his father was a decent man. So, like, we're going to give honor to the son here, they buried him. And so the house of Ahaziah had no one to assume power over the kingdom. But now, look, we'll close out this chapter, verse 10. Now, when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs of the house of Judah. Okay, what is she doing here, everybody? She's killing her grandchildren. When I said this woman is wicked, I meant this woman is wicked. She's killing her grandsons because she wants to be ruler. She wants to be queen. She wants to be a monarch here. And so she doesn't want any of Ahaziah's sons to succeed him. She sees that her son is dead, so she kills her grandsons. But now one escapes. Verse 11. But Jehoshapheth, the daughter of the king, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. And so Jehoshapheth, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, for she was the sister of Ahaziah, so that means she's hiding her nephew. Hid him from Athaliah so that she did not kill him. And he was hidden with them in the house of God for six years while Athalia reigned over the land. Now, to be honest, I don't know how you hide a child for six years in a room that Athalia didn't know. But, you know, the palace is pretty big, I suppose. And so they hide Joash until He can be a little bit older. And then they're going to bring him out as the legitimate king of Israel. And spoiler alert, they're going to end up executing Athaliah and putting Joash on the throne. But this is where, you know, we have to be reminded. Look, God will execute his justice in his time, and he's going to. He executes justice with Jehoram to the north, Ahaziah, and he's going to execute justice with Athaliah. She now becomes queen after Ahaziah, her son, dies. She's now queen of the south. She is the only female monarch in all of the history here of Israel. She is queen of the south. But don't applaud this lady. It's like, yes, the woman broke the glass ceiling. She's a wicked woman, okay? She's naughty, Nana. She killed all her grandsons, all right? And so she will reign for six years because she promoted herself to the throne by way of violence. That's the kind of person she is. But God, in his infinite divine wisdom and plan, has protected young Joash, and he will end up being here a good king who will serve the Lord and God will deal with Athaliah. And so God, for the sake of his own name and his own promise, has preserved that line of David so that Joash will soon become king when he's a little bit older, not very old. He's still a young little boy. But they want to at least give him six years in hiding until such time that God will then bring him forth to be the next king of Israel or Judah to the south. We'll park it there for tonight, Father, we just thank you for this time together in your word. And some of this is hard stuff to read, Lord, but you've included all of it in your word. That we might be reminded of these things, that we would be encouraged about the good things and be warned about the bad things so we can learn lessons from these people, Lord, so we can learn lessons about how you deal with people. You are merciful and yet you are also a God of justice. And we just pray, Lord, that your word would continue to speak to our hearts even as we go forth tonight. Thank you for this time in your house, in your word, worshiping you and praising you. Bless our time now as we extend the time with prayer and ministry in the courtyard. We just thank you, Lord, and we give you praise and glory in Jesus name. Amen and amen.