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Hey, hey, hey, don't skip. We're a couple days away from the end of our reading plan, which means you're about to be a part of the 6% of Christians that have actually read the entire Bible cover to cover. So stay tuned until the very end of this episode to hear about something special that we have planned just for you Bible nerds. Let's dive in to today's episode. Family, welcome to day 363. Today we are looking at two Chronicles, chapters 28 to 30. We've got two kings that we're going to be looking at. Obviously, a father and a son couldn't be more opposite than each other. We're going to be looking at King Ahaz and King Hezekiah. King Hezekiah is on that Mount Rushmore of, like, just incredible kings. No notches against him, like Josiah, Hezekiah, Solomon, and David are gonna be like the gold standard for kings as far as Ezra is concerned or AKA the Chronicler is concerned. But if you haven't done the reading, okay, if you haven't consumed the content, the Bible reading today, chapters 28, 29, and 30. This is my gentle nudge to stop the video. Pause audio. You definitely want to go get the reading done so that you'll understand exactly what I'm going to be talking about. And for all of us that have done the reading, let's jump into our context clues, and then I'll give you as many nerdy nuggets that I can. And we'll always end the episode with a timeless truth. Day 363. Come on, let's go. All right. Big, big, big, big, big context. Okay? Tiglath Pileser iii, It's. That's the name that you gotta know. All right, so the syrophramatic war is the big overarching context. All right? So chapter 28 is going to deal with the alliance or the war that led to the destruction of both Aram, Syria, Israel, as well as Judah becoming a vassal of Assyria. So that's the big, big, big thing that just contextually is about to happen. So even when we get to chapters 29 and 30, all of this reform that Hezekiah is spearheading is being done while Judah is a vassal state of Assyria. Okay? Big bad empire. Remember how a couple days ago, I was saying. Or maybe that was yesterday. Yeah. I was saying that the three leaders, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham that we had looked at yesterday were very lukewarm leaders. They weren't extremely bad, but they Also weren't extremely good. They weren't extremely weak or extremely strong, just lukewarm. And they kind of got lucky. Like, the Assyrian Empire just hadn't hit a stride yet. And the Assyrian Empire was shrinking, contracting instead of expanding. And that is not going to be the case today. All right, the Assyrian Empire, by the time we get to chapter 28, the Assyrian Empire is on the move. Tiglath Pilessa III became king of Assyria in 745 B.C. okay? His reign stopped the shrinking. In the quiet period of the Assyrian Empire, he led the Assyrians on a series of expansionist wars that practically tripled or probably even more, maybe even quadrupled the territory of the Assyrian Empire. His rule then threatened the entire area that Israel is in, which is called the Levant. Like, if you've ever seen that in a textbook, it's a very academic word. The Levant, it's like the Fertile Crescent and kind of goes all the way down. It's a gateway to Egypt, which is the ultimate destination for all empire builders in the Middle east, is to eventually get to Egypt, knowing this is an alliance made between Pekah, king of Israel, Rezin, king of Damascus. The idea being that they would create a coalition of smaller peoples to unite against the Assyrian threat, as their predecessors, Ahab and Ben Hadad, had done a century before when they stopped Shalmaneser iii. Okay, I know that name. Shalmaneser. I've said that name tons of times. Sometimes Bible names trip me up. But Shalmaneser is not a hard one. They wanted Judah to join this coalition. Okay? That's what they're baiting Ahaz into doing. And when he refused, they went to war with Judah to force it to join the coalition. Okay, so that's the background for this entire conflict, which we're gonna know as the Syrophramatic War. The Syrophramatic War. If you need any additional context and what I have the time to do, like on the episode, you could always Google Syro Ephraimatic War, or Tiglath Pilees of the Third. And you can. Honestly, Wikipedia probably has tons of valuable information. Okay, if you remember, this was the context of the first 12 chapters of the book of Isaiah. I know we're in Isaiah. A long, long, long, long time ago, when Isaiah prophesied to Ahaz telling him to trust Yahweh and these two kings would fall, unfortunately, Ahaz, our first king that we've got on the docket to look at today, unfortunately, Ahaz trusted in another suzerain, Tiglath Palisade III to become his vassal, which led to him attacking Aram and Israel, destroying Aram and conquering half of Israel, the lands east of the Jordan. These actions of Ahaz meant Judah was enslaved to other nations for almost 600 years. And it would lead even sooner to the complete destruction of Israel and the loss of the ten northern tribes. We will see that chapter 28 adds way more detail to that war between Judah and Israel and Aram, the syrophragmatic war, and to the aftermath of Ahaz's betrayal. This context also then adds extra weight to Hezekiah's reforms in chapters 29 to 31. Okay, as Hezekiah is doing all of this when he was a vassal of Assyria. That's huge. Most people, when they're a vassal, they take on the gods of their suzerain. They don't like go ten toes down on their, on obeying their gods, you know. But Hezekiah is essentially saying, even though I'm a vassal to Assyria, really, we are vassals to Yahweh and that man. Woo. That's a timeless truth. That right there is a timeless truth. I may be an American citizen, but at the end of the day, I. I'm a citizen of heaven. Like I obey the Lord. So that is 100% a timeless truth. Which would mean, among other things, that he would have to worship Assyrian gods. That what it means to be a vassal, to break a part of that treaty, could mean retribution from Assyria, which is what we will see in chapter 32. It highlights then the courage of Hezekiah, especially when compared to the cowardice of his father Ahaz. All right, I hope that's enough context for the syrophramatic war. For Tiglath pileser, for Ahaz and for Hezekiah, they are the two main characters that we're going to look at today on day 363 as we look at chapters 28, 29 and 30. All right, let's dive into our nerdy nuggets for the day. Okay, chapter 28 is all about Ahaz. Okay. And it's all about Ahaz's like betrayal. I'll read two Chronicles, chapter 28, starting in verse one. 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 Yahweh as his father David had done. But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. Remember, Israel is now a foreign nation. So to compare the a king of Judah to a king of Israel is the worst. Like, is just. It's. I mean, get the diss track ready. Okay. Like, Ezra is roasting Ahaz at this point. Okay. He even made metal images for the Baals. And he made offerings in the valley of the sun of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering. Oh, gosh, I just got chills reading that. That is just. That is terrible. According to the abomination of the nations whom Yahweh 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. That's 2 Chronicles, chapter 28, verses 1, 2, 3, and 4. All right, so what we're going to get in 2 Chronicles is actually a different perspective, I mean, surprise, surprise, than what we're going to get in Kings and Isaiah. All right? In Kings and Isaiah, it's just the series of events are a little different. And so our understanding of Ahaz is a little different. So we're going to compare the cause and effect of the two accounts. In Kings, Isaiah, which agree with each other, Pekah and Rezin attack Judah. So Isaiah urges Ahaz, okay, to turn to Yahweh for salvation. But Ahaz turns to Tiglath Pileesa for salvation. Okay, you get that? Three things happen. Pekah and Rezin attack Judah. Isaiah then urges Ahaz to turn to Yahweh for salvation. Instead of doing that, Ahaz turns to Tiglath Pileser for salvation. Okay, here's what Chronicles is going to say. The first thing that tick like the first domino to fall is Ahaz commits great idolatry. Therefore, Pekah and Rezin attack Judah. Therefore, Ahaz turns to Tiglath Pileesa for salvation. In Kings and Isaiah, the attack is a chance for Ahaz to repent, to turn back to Yahweh and Isaiah's role as a prophet, because remember, Kings is the prophetic history. Isaiah's role as a prophet is highlighted. Ahaz betrays Yahweh and hands Judah over to another Suzerain. Imagine the slap in the face. No, you're not a good enough suzerain. Yahweh. We're going to trust Tiglath Palisa from Assyria. In Chronicles, the attack is Yahweh's judgment. For Ahaz first betrayal of him, no chance of repentance is mentioned, and Isaiah is missing from the story. The second betrayal with Tiglath Pileser is in the context of someone already far from Yahweh, who doesn't even Consider asking Yahweh for aid. This is somewhat surprising because generally speaking, we've seen this with both David and Solomon. The kings of Judah are seen in a more positive light in Chronicles than they are in Kings, okay? But here Ahaz is worse in Chronicles than he is in Kings, and he's pretty freaking bad in the Book of Kings, okay? Ahaz is presented as the worst king in Chronicles, whereas in Kings, the worst king is definitely Manasseh. Okay? Ahaz is presented as the absolute worst king with no redeeming features, and is especially contrasted to his son Hezekiah, who is placed in a similar situation, okay, but acts insanely different, like polar opposite in the chronicler's eyes, AKA in Ezra's eyes. From Ezra's perspective, Ahaz is the worst of the worst. He is the one who betrayed Yahweh more than any of the kings of Judah before or after him. His betrayal and becoming a vassal of Assyria is seen in the context that this was nothing new for Ahaz. He. He had been betraying Yahweh since he started on the throne. In a sense, you could say he didn't actually betray Yahweh because he was never, ever loyal to Yahweh in the first place. Okay? As if things aren't bad enough, it's going to get climactically bad. Okay? 2 Chronicles, chapter 28, starting in verse 24, is going to say this. And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God. Oh. Oh, Ahaz, what are you doing? Temple. Okay, Ezra, don't mess with the temple. 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 Yahweh. He closed the church down. Oh, man. He closed the temple. He closed the doors of the Temple. He shut up the doors of the house of Yahweh, and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem, in every city of Judah. He made high places to make offerings to other gods, provoking to anger Yahweh, the God of his fathers. That's 2 Chronicles, chapter 28, verses 24 to 25. I want you to, like, put this in perspective, okay? David, his sin with Bathsheba, the murder of Uriah, not even mentioned by Ezra the chronicler. Why? Because he treated the temple, right? Solomon, foreign women, slave labor, all kinds of stuff, but downplayed. Why? Because he treated the temple well. Our guy, Ahaz. Oh, selling off vessels of the house of God, desecrating the House of God, shutting the doors. This is not going to go over well. Okay? It does not matter what Ahaz does, right? He has committed the cardinal sin as as far as Ezra is concerned. And so for Chronicles, he is the worst of the worst. However, here's what's insane. His son is going to be the exact opposite. So when we look at 2nd Chronicles, chapter 29, verse 2, it is an instant contrast to the first paragraph. Sorry, the first paragraph of what we have of Hezekiah is in contrast to what we have in chapter 28 about his dad, Ahaz. Okay, here's what it says about Hezekiah. And he did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that David, his Father, had done. 2 Chronicles, chapter 29, verse 3. Hezekiah opened the doors of the house of Yahweh and repaired them. So not only is he going to rebuild, he's going to repair, he's going to consecrate. I mean, he's going to reopen. I mean, dude, Hezekiah is a temple guy. He's a temple guy through and through and through. So chapter 28 is all about Ahaz. Chapter 29 is an immediate shift. Like our dude, Hezekiah is immediately getting to work undoing everything that his dad had done. And this involves setting up the temple, reorganizing priests, getting Levites in place. He sets them to work to cleanse the temple from the sacrilege of Ahaz's reign. They take out all the uncleanness within the temple. This could mean both literal rubbish like trash and unclean things that shouldn't be in the temple, like, I don't know, bacon or actual idols and shrines of. Of pagan gods and consecrate the temple. Okay. In fact, in chapter 29, verse 17, we are given a new clue to when this happened. They began to consecrate on the first day of the first month. And on the eighth day of the month, they came to the vestibule of Yahweh. Then for eight days, they consecrated the house of Yahweh. And on the 16th day of the first month, they. They finished that. Second Chronicles, chapter 29, verse 17. Dr. Manny, that's a lot of details. What are you getting at? I'll tell you exactly what I'm getting at. Literally, on the first day on the job, Hezekiah ordered and began the cleansing of the temple. He wasted no time. There was no wait to establish his rule. He knew that his rule was established by Yahweh. All the Suffering that his people had gone through in his father's reign was because the temple was, was closed. Point blank period. They were not worshiping their true king. They are vassals of Tiglath Pilesa the Third, not Yahweh. So if there was to be any hope of restoration in the land, then the temple doors needed to be open. And then we get to chapter 29, verses 20 to 36. Hezekiah is going to restore temple worship. And to be honest, all of the language from chapter 29 should make you think of David and Solomon. Like the singing and the joy and the praise and words like willingness and like the culture that's created by Hezekiah as a leader. Like, you can feel it off the page. Like, it's like the words are so full of life. And then chapter 30 and Hezekiah is going to restore Passover. Okay, so not only is Hezekiah gonna cleanse the temple, reopen the temple, restore temple function. He's gotta restore Passover. It's the festival that's also important. And he invites people up in the north who are not in Judah to take part in the festival of Passover. It is not just the temple and sacrifices that are restored. Hezekiah then announces that the Passover will be celebrated again. Okay, you might also notice that Hezekiah's Passover takes place in the second month rather than the first, where it should be celebrated. The reason given is that they couldn't keep it in the first month because that was when they were still cleansing the temple. The cleansing took 16 days, and Passover begins on the 14th of Nisan, the first month. So the temple wasn't ready for Passover, which means, of course, there were priests who were not ready either. So instead it was celebrated in the second month, like, which is a fantastic solution, which is that that situation is actually covered in the Torah. Okay, numbers, chapter 9, verses 9 through 11 says this. Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel, saying, if any of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body or is on a long journey, he shall keep the Passover to Yahweh in the second month, on the second day at twilight, they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. I want to read the result of celebrating the Passover, which man, Hezekiah, scores a ton of points with Ezra, because he not only reopens the temple, not only consecrates the temple, but man, he brings Passover. It says this in chapter 30, verse 16. There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, the there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, this holy dwelling place. Ok, great joy in Jerusalem. I bet, man. I bet this is going to inspire Ezra's audience. No doubt about it. Only thing we have left for this episode is our timeless truth. And honestly, our timeless truth for the day is something I'm a poster child for, man. I don't just think that this only applies to Hezekiah or to Ahaz, but our Thomas roof for the day is that your dad is never an excuse. Like, Aaz is a terrible leader, terrible father, terrible king, the worst, according to chronicler, according to Ezra. And literally his son goes ahead and becomes one of the best kings that Israel is going to have. Which means you can't use your father as an excuse as to why you don't actually follow God or why you have a mediocre life. I get it. Like, it doesn't feel fair. It feels like, man, I would be even better had I had a functional dad. But Ahaz is 100% wicked and Hezekiah does not walk in his footsteps. Hezekiah paves a completely brand new path forward. And honestly, that's not just helpful for me or for you or for any of the Baba characters that, that we could name or list. I think that that is timelessly true for every generation, everywhere, all, all the time. That it doesn't matter who your parents are, that you have spiritual DNA, that God can break all generational curses off in your life and you can chart a new path, you can blaze a new trail. Or in terms of Hezekiah, he just returned back to the old path, back to the old trail. He went back to the ancient ways. So tomorrow we've got day 364. Can you believe it? Our second to last day on the podcast. We're going to be looking at two chronicles, chapters 31, 32 and 33. Three more chapters for tomorrow. I love you guys. I'm so proud of you. See you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible department podcast. Hey, we're almost there. I bet you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're towards the end of the year and I'm so proud of you. If this episode and this year of reading through the Bible was helpful, how about you invite a friend to join you on the journey next year? To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com and to learn more about the 6% Club, make sure you go to thebibledepartment dot com Club. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.