The Bible Recap - Day 187 (2 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 25) - Year 5

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap. Today we open in the Southern Kingdom of Judah with the new King Amaziah on the throne. You may recall from yesterday that his dad, Joash, who had become King at age 7, was killed by some of his servants. And that's when Amazaya ascended the throne, and one of his first acts was to avenge his father's death by killing the men who killed him. One thing that was really popular back then, even though it wasn't sanctioned by God, was to kill the families of those who threatened the king's reign.

Starting point is 00:00:39 But Amazaya doesn't. He obeys God's commands and refuses to punish the children for the sins of the Father. God commanded his people not to carry out justice generationally, even though he sometimes does. He's the decider of what's just. He can be trusted with that kind of thing. In general, Amaziah was a pretty good king, especially at first. But 25-2 tells us that even his good actions weren't done with a fully yielded heart.

Starting point is 00:01:07 And this shows up and now he handles a few of the things God commands, initially that he left the high places of idle worship intact. It's starting to seem like the high places are like the last five pounds. If you've ever been on a diet, you know what I mean. Amaziah decides to go to war against their long-standing enemy the Edomites, and he hires 100,000 soldiers from Israel to join his army in Judah. He pays more than 1.5 million in today's US dollars for these soldiers. But then, a man of God calls him on his lack of faith for hiring the enemy army, so he

Starting point is 00:01:39 sends the Israeli soldiers home. They get angry about it and raid the cities of Judah and retaliation, killing 3,000 people. It also cost Amaziah the $1.5 million in silver because he didn't get that money back. We can look at this in one of two ways. We can either say obedience is costly, and it is, or we can say disobedience is costly, because it was his mistrust of God that got him into that spot to begin with. And on top of that, he would have lost far more if he hadn't heated the Prophet's words.

Starting point is 00:02:11 Even without the help of the Israeli soldiers, Amazaya and his army have a significant military victory over Edom, but this God-given victory leads him down a path of pride, because he forgets who granted him that success. First, he begins to worship the gods of one of the people that defeated. That doesn't even make sense. God sends a prophet to tell him how wicked and irrational this is, but Amazigh is too proud to listen and even threatens to kill the prophet. The teachability he displayed earlier is gone.

Starting point is 00:02:43 Maybe he's still bitter about the money he lost when he listened to the Prophet the first time. Regardless, this is foolish idolatry if there ever were. His second prideful move is when he requests some meeting with the King of Israel, a much larger kingdom at this point. It's possible this wasn't just a request for a coffee date, but was actually an invitation to war, which is exactly how King Jeho Ash receives it. He sends Amazaya a snarky email about it laughing it off.

Starting point is 00:03:10 He's basically like, so you scored a touchdown once in high school and now you want to play against the Patriots. But Amazaya and his pride are not having it and he picks a fight with Israel anyway. Israel wins, they rage Jerusalem and they take Amazaya captive. He's imprisoned, then he flees, then he's captured and killed, and his son Azaraya becomes king. Meanwhile, in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, we've got a new king, Jeroboam II.

Starting point is 00:03:38 You may recall that the first king of Israel, right after the kingdom split into Israel and Judah, was a guy named Jeroboam. We called him King Jerry for short. And now, many kings later, we've arrived at King Jerry II. Jerry II. He's a king in the North, so we know he's a naval king as far as God and his ways are concerned, and things get really rough for the people during his time.

Starting point is 00:04:01 This is a fulfillment of the prophecy of a bigha in 1 Kings 1410. It says, Behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam, and I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam as a man burns up Dung until it is all gone. But God was only committed to wiping out Jeroboam's line, not all of Israel at large, so he uses Jerry too to accomplish some good things for the people of Israel. They've lost a lot of land in prior battles, and he manages to get it all back and restore the kingdom of Israel to its original size. Even as an evil king, Jerry too is still accomplishing what God ordained.

Starting point is 00:04:42 Jerry II is still accomplishing what God ordained. 1425 tells us that this restoration had been prophesied by Jonah. Yes, that Jonah. He was alive during King Jerry II's reign, and tomorrow we'll read his story. Jerry II is an important king as far as God's plans are concerned. And in fact, at Meghito, one of the sites we visit on our Israel trip, archaeologists who have dug through 25 levels of civilization have discovered an ancient ring with a seal of one of Jerry II's servants

Starting point is 00:05:10 dated to this exact time period, 700-ish years before Christ. Today, my God shot was woven into the story of Emma Zia's Wars. When the man of God shows up to rebuke him for hiring soldiers outside of Judah, he says, God has power to rebuke him for hiring soldiers outside of Judah, he says, God has power to help or to cast down. We reminded that both victory and loss are in God's hands. He can't give one without the other. His plans for Judah to win was also his plan for eat him to lose. And God turns the tables not long after that when Amaziah worships false gods and picks the fight with Israel.

Starting point is 00:05:46 Two people tried to warn Amaziah, but 25-20 says, Amaziah would not listen for it was of God in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies because they had sought the gods of Adam. God closed Amaziah's ears as punishment so that he might start and lose the war. We like to think of God as neutral, not picking sides in anything, but scripture paints a different picture. To be fair, it's probably less that he's on one side and more that one side is on his side.

Starting point is 00:06:18 I want to be on his side always. I'm glad he picked me for his team. He's where the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be reading the book of Jonah, the prophet who lived during this time. His story is only four chapters long. We're linking to a short video overview in the show notes that will really help set you up for success with this new book. So check it out if you've got nine minutes to spare. I spy with My Little Eye, a new website. Well, actually two new websites, the TBR site and the TLC site.

Starting point is 00:06:51 That's me. Have you seen them? It's still us, and it's the same great content, but it was time for them to have a little wardrobe change. If you want to see our latest improvements, check out the BibleRecap.com and TerriLeeCobble.com. And of course, you know we've linked to both of those in the show notes. Do you know scripture well enough

Starting point is 00:07:10 to tell the difference between inspirational quotes and the Bible? If you'd like to guess along on the new episode of this or that from Way Nation, text quote to 67101. Is it Solomon or is it Instagram? Find out by texting the word quote to 67101.

The Bible Recap - Day 187 (2 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 25) - Year 5

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