II Chronicles 10:1-20:37

[00:00:00] We apologize the listener, for a very bad patch of interference. [00:00:04] This interference only lasts about seven minutes. We do apologise. [00:00:09] We start at 2 Chronicles, chapter 10. [00:00:16] We've come now to the third and as far as the two books of Chronicles go, the last section of these books, which is the we have headed or entitled the Continual Conflict over the House of God or the Temple and Its Ruin. [00:00:40] I don't think we can in any way now, except as we go on in the studies, refer back to what we have studied previously. [00:00:53] We enter now with this chapter 10, a new atmosphere altogether. [00:01:01] It's quite different in every way from what preceded chapter 10. [00:01:08] It's an atmosphere now of conflict and intrigue for all the time, whether outward or whether inward, whether tangible or intangible. [00:01:20] You are in an atmosphere now of intrigue. [00:01:24] At one point it is from it is as it were, Egypt or Ammon or Moab or Edom or Syria. [00:01:34] Later on it will be Assyria and it will be Babylon. [00:01:41] We're finding all the time that these outward powers are combining all individually, seeking to annihilate and eliminate the people of God. [00:01:56] That's one great outward battle that's being fought throughout these chapters, that it's very, very rarely that we shall find the little kingdom of Judah really at peace. [00:02:10] In this whole period of something like 300 to 400 years, there were perhaps something like about 50 years of real peace. [00:02:21] The whole long story is a story of terrible battle and conflict from without. [00:02:31] Nations and civilizations far, far greater than the little kingdom of Judah could ever hope to be outwardly were, as it were, concentrating their energy and their intellect upon somehow or other, eliminating from the scene this little nation. [00:03:00] And then again, it's not only that we find this conflict from without, we find it from within. We have now moved into the period that we've already taken in the Book of Kings of the terrible disruption of the nation into two antagonistic and hopefully opposed camps. [00:03:20] This form we're going to find all the way through was one of the greatest forms in the flesh as. And it must always be, a house divided against itself cannot stand. [00:03:32] And perhaps more than anything else, this was one of the greatest. [00:03:39] The greatest ground be given to the enemy was this disruption of division. On the one side, there were many people living in Judah who were Israelites from the north, from the northern kingdom. They had parents, they had children, they had relatives that had settled in the south. [00:03:58] And this division cut them in two. [00:04:03] And there were all these natural affections and natural links between the north and the south. Apart from anything else, the two, the south and the north, were one nation. [00:04:16] And as always, the folk of the south, the common people particularly, and indeed many of the leaders, could not distinguish wherein lay their unity and wherein lay the vital necessity of remaining apart. [00:04:35] And so, right the way through this history, we're finding the sentimental and the affectionate desire to somehow be one. [00:04:48] And here again, this great ground, the enemy's work. [00:04:53] We have already looked at it from one standpoint in the book of. In the books of Kings. Now we're going to look at it from another standpoint. We're going to see the heart of this matter. [00:05:06] You have these. This one nation divided irrevocably into two antagonistic. [00:05:15] They were never to be brought together. [00:05:18] The only hope of them ever coming together was for those in the north to fake their ground and adhere to the South. [00:05:27] Then, of course, even worse, these chapters, these chapters from 10 to 36 of the second book of Chronicles are filled with the worst kind of intrigue which is within the kingdom of Judah. [00:05:44] Not only from the great nations around them, not only the fact that the nation had been divided into two camps, but far worse was all the intrigue, the plotting and the rivalries that existed within the actual kingdom of Judah. This gave the greatest ground possible to the enemy. [00:06:08] So really, we have got to see this evening that this next great portion of the books of Chronicles is filled with conflict and intrigue. It's just one long battle, and the focal point of all the conflict is the Temple. [00:06:35] In every reign and in every attack, we shall find that the heart of the matter is the Temple. The chronicler selects his material to show to us that all this has a master plan behind it. It's not some coincidental history. [00:06:58] It's not just something that, as it were, was a series of hats and chances. [00:07:05] This whole history, now we've got it, and we can see it from a bird's eye view. [00:07:11] We can see that behind it was a master plan. [00:07:15] This master plan, this master strategy was to destroy the house of God, the habitation of God, to compromise irreparably the people of God, and to destroy the messianic line. In other words, to first smash the place that was God's habitation on earth. [00:07:40] Secondly, to compromise the people of God so that God must cast them off forever, dissociate himself from them. [00:07:51] And thirdly, to smash the line of the Christ, to somehow obliterate that line somewhere down, down the line, to obliterate the link and so stop the Messiah from ever appearing on the Earth, we must remember together that when the enemy tries to get you and me to sin, it's not just because the devil loves sin, nor is it that he wants you and me to have a good time, as we often think. [00:08:33] The devil is far, far more clever than that. Sin and his temptations are not habits, they're not chances, they're not coincidental. They are part of a master strategy. [00:08:45] And his strategy is all always the same, through members of the body to smash the habitation of God, honor to wreck it, to compromise the people of God to such a degree that God must dissociate himself from them, and to stop the Christ from returning. [00:09:07] These are the three things that the enemy is out to do or his aim. [00:09:13] You see, when he gets you and me into sin, it's not that he's going to give us a good time, believe me. I wish I could bring some backsliders to you to stand here at scene and tell you whether they're having a good time or not. They'd soon tell you the truth, really, if you could uncover what's out for it. [00:09:29] The devil doesn't ever get people away to have a good time. He's far too clever for that. He involves them in sin in the hope that by getting them more and more deeply involved in sin, they cannot come back and God will finally cast them off forever. [00:09:47] This is always the enemy's attempt in any kind of sin, get God to dissociate himself. That's why, going back to David, you have the wonderful story that God will not forsake David. Even though David sinned, the enemy's attempt was to try and get God to cast off and dissociate himself from David. But you see, the wonder of it is that God knew there was a master plan behind it. Bigger than David, an intelligence greater than David. [00:10:16] And so God took the pawn, as it were in the game, dealt with that pawn lovingly, brought him back in contrition, repentance and brokenness, and then used the very thing that the enemy tried to smash him up with to fulfill his purpose. [00:10:34] And we shall find this that right the way through here. All the enemy's attempt to somehow or other thwart the Lord in his onward move are met by the Lord. [00:10:47] And even finally, when the children of God are taken into exile, it is an act of God. [00:10:54] Satan may have felt then that he'd got his full way. Jerusalem was raised to the ground, everything was at an end. But God knew only too well he was using Satan to forge in exile an instrument that would be far purer than anything he'd had since David's life. [00:11:15] So we have to look at this history like that. [00:11:19] Now, one or two facts. Before we look at the first reign recorded here, we must of necessity mention one or two things we've already mentioned. But reiteration is not a bad thing. It's the basis of teaching. [00:11:33] Israel is almost entirely ignored. [00:11:37] We've said that many times here in Chronicles is ignored. Now, do you remember in kings, Israel was given the largest place and the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel were always put first, the kings of Judah always put second. [00:11:52] Here it is entirely reversed. [00:11:58] The kings of Judah are found here alone and Israel is almost entirely ignored. And that deliberately, the chronicle, deliberately, as it were, obliterates the memory of Israel. [00:12:14] That's one point to remember. The second thing is even more staggering. The term all Israel or Israel is used in chronicles in such a way that you have to look into the context to see whether the chronicler means Israel, the kingdom, the northern kingdom, or whether he means the southern kingdom. Because often and particularly as we begin to move on into the record, we find that all Israel means Judah. [00:12:43] In other words, there's a lesson there for us to learn in God's side. Judah is the whole nation. [00:12:52] That is why from beginning to end, the kingdom of Judah is taught by the Lord to maintain the unity of the whole nation. [00:13:03] In other words, although they are exclusive in a sense, although there is a sense in which they have been cut off from the others, yet there is another sense in which they are being taught all the time that they represent all the people of God. This is a very big lesson for us to learn in a day of ruin, in the same, very much the same. There's a principle there for us to learn. We maintain the unity of all God's people. We are not divided from them in that sense. [00:13:34] We belong to all the people of God. They belong to us whenever we come to the Lord, oh, may the Lord deliver us. From praying for Zambia the tragedy when we pray for them and they God would have us pray for us to include them, as it were, with us and to pray for the rest of the people of God as being part of them, not maintaining a division. [00:14:06] Very important point. [00:14:08] So all the way through we find here these lessons we're going to learn. [00:14:12] Israel is ignored because she has left the right ground. [00:14:18] She has her own house of God, she has her own service of God, she has her own priests of God, she has her own ministry of God. She has it all all in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel. All with the same history as the history of Judah. [00:14:38] Much as we see from the books of Kings was really of God. Much was taken up by God in his sovereignty and blessed and used. [00:14:46] If we were there, many of us would scratch our heads and say, what is the Lord doing? Why does he use Elijah and Elisha in the north? He should cut them all off and only stick to the folk in the south who are on the right ground. But no, we have to learn big lessons here. They are his people. Though they are on the wrong ground. God will seek to do all he can with them. His aim in the end is to retrieve everyone who can be retrieved from the north and plant them in the south. And that is why here in Chronicles we continually get the record of people leaving the north and coming to the south. In the books of Kings, we were never told that. We were always, as far as we could make out, Judah remains Judah, and the northern tribes remained the northern tribes. But here in Chronicles, we're told all the time that there were people from the north coming down to the south. They were continually coming down to the south and as it were, coming to settle and live in the south. [00:15:47] Then another point that might be a real help is that Solomon's prayer. You remember at the dedication of the temple, that tremendous prayer when he related everything to the house of God. Whether it was famine or pestilence or judgment of God or exile or going out to war or anything else, he related everything to the house of God and the attitude to the house of God and the way that they prayed toward the house of God. [00:16:12] Well, that prayer and God's answer to it is the key to the whole of these chapters all the way through. We're going to find that it's their people attitude towards the house of God that determines the measure of God's deliverance of them and the measure of real victory and knowledge of God that they come into. [00:16:40] That I say is again a very important point because the chronicler selects the material for each vein very carefully. Indeed. He is very careful to see that his material is diligently selected. [00:17:02] Now let's look together at chapter 10. [00:17:05] And we come to the first king of Israel, King Rehoboam, a rather silly king. [00:17:16] Whilst he said that his little finger was thicker than his father's loin, we can very quickly see that he was somewhat empty headed. [00:17:26] He was the king that is held responsible for the disruption and division of the nation. [00:17:32] You look at it, you will find Very, very quickly. What we're going to do with these reins, by the way, is very quickly traverse the facts given about the raiment material selected and then draw from it the lessons that we are meant to learn. [00:17:47] With Rehoboam, we find first of all that he is the one that is held responsible for the disruption of the nation into two camps. [00:17:55] You remember they quite rightly, the folk of the north came and asked, would it be possible, as many of us feel today as well, that the taxes could be just a little bit, the heaviness of the taxes be alleviated a little. [00:18:11] They felt they were paying a bit too much, the duties were a bit too arduous, their life wasn't worth living. [00:18:18] After all. Solomon had indulged in the most amazing schemes of building cities and roads and goodness, what else? All over the land, plus the temple, plus his own house, which had taken 13 years, all of which had meant arduous work for the common people of the land. Well, they quite rightly came and asked, could we have a little bit of alleviation, please, Jeroboam? Rehoboam asked them to come back in three days time, if you remember the story. And then he took counsel with the counselors of his father, aged men who had imbibed something of the wisdom of Solomon. [00:18:59] And they said to him, we feel the time has come to speak kindly with the people. If you will deal with them kindly, if you will only lift a little of the burden from them, because it is not now so necessary as it was, they will be wholeheartedly with you. [00:19:20] Then, you know, Roha Bohm, for some unknown reason, decided that he would rather also seek the counsel of his the young men that were his contemporaries, which he did. And when he sought them, they had a very different bit of advice to give. Their advice was deal with them firmly. They are trying to compromise your authority. That was their idea. If you stand on it and you are absolutely firm and use a male fist, sort of the male fist with them, you will find that having begun firmly, all will be well in your way. Roheburn decided to listen to the young men and not to his father's counselors. The result was that he dealt very roughly with the deputation that came to him. And the result was the disruption of the nation into two camps. [00:20:16] And when a thing that I've always rather enjoyed, I must confess, when Rehoboam sent the chief task officer, that is his minister for works to the north, to jolly well see that they did the task work, he was stoned to death. There was a riot and he was lynched and murdered. And that was the final disruption of the nation into two camps. [00:20:44] From that point, they were to be at war with each other. There was to be no more mutual fellowship or work, any kind of alliance for many, many years. They had now split into two absolutely opposed forces. [00:21:01] So that's the first thing we find about Rehoboam. The next thing we find is very interesting. If you read on, you will find in, in chapter 11 that many of the faithful in Israel, chapter 11, chapter 12, many of the faithful in Israel began to filter back to Judah. Now this is an important point. It reveals to us that the British Israel theory may well be utterly without any foundation. [00:21:35] Of course, British Israelism today is not the power that it was, but it may well prove to us, this small point, that British Israelism has very little real foundation. They try to prove to us that the 10 tribes went out of existence and that of course, the British nation is the lost 10 tribes. [00:22:00] They found their way here and we are there. We are there. [00:22:06] Well, there are some very fascinating theories about British Israelism and many seem to have a lot to commend them. But the point is this, that scripture explicitly states that although it is called the Kingdom of Judah, it comprised thousands and thousands of the faithful of Israel, of the northern kingdom, who from the very first reign of Rehoboam right down through to their own being carried away, exile filtered in ever growing numbers into Judah, which meant that in the end there was ground for the chronicler saying all Israel, calling the kingdom of Judah all Israel. [00:22:53] Particularly, we are told, the Levites left their towns and their suburbs and their possessions and came to Judah. Of course, there must have been many, as I think Professor Ellison says, there must have been many Levites who put their pocket before their service to God and remained in the north. But others who were faithful to the Lord, they left the north and came down to the south. [00:23:21] Then we find the next thing mentioned in Rehoboam's reign is his backsliding. For three years he was faithful to the Lord. He walked in the ways of Solomon, but after three years he fell away. And the Lord, as it were, brought a judgment upon Judah. The judgment was the invasion of Egypt and the victory of Egypt. [00:23:45] Egypt came up against Judah and came right out to Jerusalem, took all the fortified cities and destroyed many of them. And then when they came to Jerusalem, laid siege to Jerusalem, made a breach in the wall, got into the city and then took all the treasures of the house of God. And the treasures of the palace. [00:24:09] In other words, they desperately. [00:24:11] The temple and the king's palace. That's an important point. We shall note that a bit later. [00:24:17] And then just before Egypt made that breach in the wall, Rehoboam returned to the Lord from his backsliding. He repented and he said that the Lord is righteous, you see. And the nobles of Judah also wept before the Lord. And because they wept and repented, the Lord said that he would not allow Egypt to utterly raise the land. He would only allow them to bring them into his service. Now this is an important point. [00:24:48] It meant that Judah became a vassal state as early as that of Egypt, Solomon's son. [00:24:59] And Israel, in all its greatness and prosperity glory was now, through sin, subjected to Egypt, a vassal state. And by the will of God, not just willy nilly, the Lord himself subjected Egypt. Now this is a big point. Some people think backsliding is due wholly to the responsibility of the person. I don't. [00:25:30] Just as no one can come to the Lord without the Lord's sovereignty, so no one falls away from the Lord without the Lord's sovereignty. There comes a point when the Lord allows us at times to go. [00:25:41] He's ruth with us and he smites us in order that whatever is the root of the matter can be dealt with from the far country. [00:25:52] Here then we find a repentance and a very remarkable little word. [00:25:58] The Lord says, moreover in Judah, in verse 12 of chapter 12, moreover, in Judah there were good things found. [00:26:06] This is an interesting little word, good things found in Judah. Our Lord said there were good things found in Judah. This speaks of the faithfulness of thousands. There were many in Judah, even if the king wasn't faithful, who were faithful? [00:26:20] Now what are the lessons we learn from the reign of Rehoboam? 1? What does the chronicler teach us? The first thing he teaches us is this. The temple is the heart of this conflict. You know the most remarkable thing? That when Egypt comes up, she robs the temple. [00:26:38] It's the temple that's the heart of this battle. [00:26:42] When Egypt makes a breach in the wall, it's the temple that she spoils. And Mars, she takes the gold from the temple. [00:26:51] That's where it all is, all taken from. It's the temple that's robbed and spoiled. [00:26:56] The king's palace follows the temple. The temple is the thing first. The king's palace is second. [00:27:04] So we find that the temple is the key to this. Why does the enemy divide Israel into two camps? [00:27:14] Because his whole plan is to divide a Whole section of the people of God from the only ground where they can be secure. [00:27:25] Satan had in mind two to 300 years of history. But he knew that in the end, he was going to wipe the Northern kingdom off the face of the earth forever. [00:27:37] Every division is not personal. [00:27:41] Every faction is not personal. [00:27:44] There is always a mastermind behind division. [00:27:51] If we have a body and suddenly something starts to grow, a cancer or some other growth starts to grow, before long, somehow or other, there is a paralysis somewhere. [00:28:07] The thing is harming the whole body, for one thing. It's drawing the goodness and strength of the body into itself. [00:28:18] It is living like a parasite upon the goodness of that body and making that body tired, worn out. [00:28:28] This is always division. Division is to mutilate the body of Christ. [00:28:33] It is to paralyze the body of Christ. Always. [00:28:38] The house of God or the habitation of God is the heart always of every division. And that is why the New Testament is filled with warnings about, if we've got anything against one another, go to each other. Don't come to the altar and put your gift there. If you've got something against or someone else has got something against you, get things put right. Don't come to the Lord's table with a division in existence because you eat condemnation. You eat judgment to yourself all the time. This question of being one. Why does the Lord just want us to be a nice, happy, gay family? [00:29:14] Or is there that there is something deeper even than that? There is something deeper than just being happy and gay. It is this whole question of the mutilation and paralysis of the body of Christ. [00:29:29] You will find always that in all these things, behind each point there is the house of God. [00:29:36] You see, it is an interesting point to make that later on when God judges Judah, he speaks in verse 8 in chapter 12 like this. Nevertheless, they shall be his servants that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. Now, what did the Lord? I puzzled over that for a while. I thought, now what does that mean? [00:30:05] What on earth does the Lord mean? That they may know my service and the service of the kingdom of the country. And then suddenly I saw just what it meant. [00:30:16] The Lord said, very well, Robin. If you despise despised my slavery, I'll let you have an overdraft of the slavery of this world. You can have it. [00:30:30] You can have it. Just despise the living. Just despise the living, just as it were. Talk unguardedly about the moon and the Lord will say, all right, then, you can have. [00:30:42] Is the grace of God that allows us to have our own way. Remember, that's what it says in the psalm. Herod granted their request to lean us into their souls. [00:30:52] God's way is the best way, it is the happiest way, and in the end, it is the most joyful way. And it is the way of true self fulfillment. Always in the end, if we want to argue with God, if we want to despise God, God will not bludgeon us into going his way. He will say, you can know my service, and you can know the service of the kingdoms of the countries, and then you can choose. [00:31:22] It is an interesting thing that three to 400 years later, when the whole of Judah went into exile, after 70 years in exile, the choice was, shall we have the service of this world or shall we have the service of God? [00:31:39] And there were many who went back to the land because they preferred, they loved bitterly, that the slavery of God was freedom and the slavery of this world was true slavery. [00:31:54] So you see, this is one of the great lessons we learn. People often say to me about the house of God, oh, dear, you know, it's this, it's that, it breaks this, it does that. [00:32:04] There's a spiritual claustrophobe about it, which is perfectly true, but all other kinds of things perfectly true. The house of God. [00:32:12] When you're in the house of God, I've been prisoners, you're chained there, you're kept there, you're held there. [00:32:18] But, oh, you know, the devil's whole aim is to get us to forget. When I left Egypt some years ago, and now I always think of Egypt, usually in the winter, and I always think of Egypt, of glowing sands and blue seas and sun and sun and down. Always I think of each other. And then I sit down, I think, I mustn't think. [00:32:39] Do you remember the flies we used to kill? Sometimes 70 in a quarter of an hour in one little room. [00:32:45] And within an hour they were all back there, clouding the plates. Remember when I used to go out, they used to walk up and down here. You hit them and they went off. They came back and you hit them and you hit them, and back they came. And then I thought of the dust storms and I thought of the incense, and then I thought of the perspiration. I thought of not being able to sleep in the night. And then I thought of all the smells and everything else in the night. Well, isn't that funny? I never think of that. That's all gone. That has to be. I have to be Prodded to remember that. But I can remember summer sky now. Another very strange is when we were in Egypt, we always used to say, oh, for a fog only we could have a fog. [00:33:27] We had those every day for a year, was beautiful, really. And when a little bit of rain came one year that I was there, it rained for 10 minutes twice in a week. And we all went out from the offices and everything else to stand in these few spots of meager rain that dropped. It was so wonderful. But you see, we forget all that when we're back. [00:33:50] Paul, we loved her. We remember all that's good now. The devil does just that with us. When we come to the Lord, we think of the afflictions. We think of the slavery, as we put it. We think of the fact that all the cost and everything else. We forget the world. We forget the misery we had in for. We forget the emptiness, we forget the aimlessness. We forget all that used to bring us to the point of just sheer despair and desperation. All those things have forgotten. [00:34:18] Instead, we think all the time of the way that we're having to go now. Well, the Lord, if there is a real spirit which cannot be cured in any other way than by knowing the real distinction, the Lord says, all right, you have your way. The point is, you will learn, you will learn that it is better to be absolutely in the clear with the Lord in his slavery than to be a slave to Egypt. Be a bashful state to Egypt. [00:34:50] That's a very big lesson to learn. It's a very, very amazing one. But the Lord's behind it. And sometimes backsliding is not so much a thing that has happened personally, but it is something God allows in his sovereignty to cure a people or a person of something or some ground. [00:35:09] And then I want you also to note that when the temple is spoiled, the palace is spoiled. [00:35:15] If you lose the temple, as far as real witches go, you've lost the palace. [00:35:23] This is very true. Spiritual if once the house of God is lost, there's very little personally to be gamesmen spiritual. [00:35:36] It's very meager and poor what we gain personally. [00:35:41] And so we can learn many, many things. But can I tell you one little thing that perhaps will be a key to many a situation in our own lives? [00:35:50] Rehoboam's mother, it is expressly said, was mammonitis. [00:35:56] This goes right back to Solomon's many wives. [00:36:00] And so a good man like Solomon, who had many wives, was laying the foundation of his own son decadence. [00:36:12] A small point, but a point that we noted In Kings was in the end to be of tremendous importance. You remember his foreign wives? He had, he had a Moabite wife, he had an Egyptian wife, his favorite and he had a Moabite wife and he had Ammonite wife. What do you know? He had literally hundreds. [00:36:31] And he built for them little shrines. Do you remember the little shrines he built for his wife? [00:36:36] Those shrines were to become the high places and those high places were to become the downfall of the nation. [00:36:44] Well, there we are. That's the reign of rehoboam from chapter 10 to chapter 12. Now in chapter 13 we have the reign of Abijam or Abijah. Abijam in Kings and Abijah in Chronicles. [00:36:59] And in the first part of this chapter 13 we find there's an all out war between Judah and Israel. [00:37:07] Now Abijah is not a good king. [00:37:10] In fact, in Kings we're told that he is a bad king. He didn't seek the Lord with his whole heart. Yet Abijah, it is recorded of Abijah, one of the most wonderful prayers in chronicles. [00:37:25] In chapter 13 you will find this wonderful prayer that takes up most of it, certainly from verse five right down to verse 12. A wonderful prayer. [00:37:42] Now when you read this prayer, you would have thought that Abijah was the most godly young man the you could have ever wished to have met. But listen to him. I think I'll read it to you. Ought you not to know that Jehovah, the God, he shall not prosper. That's a very wonderful prayer for a bad king. [00:37:59] That was an address that Abijah made in the presence of the armies of the Northern kingdom. [00:38:10] His heart, we're told in Kings, was not perfect toward the Lord. [00:38:14] He had a knowledge of God. He had a knowledge of the way of God. And you will also note that he had a knowledge, a real conception of the habitation of God. [00:38:25] But in spite of all that, his heart was not perfect toward the Lord. [00:38:32] Now if you read on the last few verses of that chapter, you will find that Israel cleverly ambushes Jesus. [00:38:40] There is an ambush laid and it almost succeeds except for one thing. It says that Judah looked back. Behold the battle was before and behind them. And they cried unto the Lord. [00:38:52] Now we're going to find in Chronicles that this crying unto the Lord is the secret of victory. [00:38:59] It is really the attitude of Moses. Do you remember Moses? Whenever anything went wrong, Moses felt on his face before the Lord. [00:39:07] Somewhat, we would think, unintelligent reaction to trouble. [00:39:13] But whenever there was any kind of trouble, Moses didn't stop to talk about it. He didn't stop to try and react to it himself. He fell on his face before the Lord. It seemed to be an automatic reaction. He just fell on his face before the Lord. [00:39:27] Now, whatever Abijah might have been, and he was a bad king, his heart was not perfect. Yet there was one good thing. [00:39:35] When he was ambushed, he and the army of Judah, they cried unto the Lord. Whatever they did, they evidently didn't fight. [00:39:44] They fell on their knees and cried to the Lord. And the answer was a most remarkable deliverance. The Lord heard them. And it says expressly, the Lord heard them because they relied upon him. [00:39:57] They were greatly delivered. [00:40:00] It says that many. [00:40:03] The battle went very much with Judah in the end, and many, many towns were taken by Judah. Now, what do we really learn from this reign of Abijah? [00:40:16] We learn first of all, again, that the house of God is the focal point of this division. [00:40:22] In the sense that you note that in his address, Abijah mentions three things. He mentions, first of all, the messianic line, the royal house of David. He says, you have left that. [00:40:39] You've left that. And secondly, he mentions the priesthood. He says, you have cast that out. [00:40:46] And thirdly, he says about the service of God, the house of God. We are fulfilling the service of the house of God. [00:40:58] Now, we have got to remember that these people who were fighting these battles were the Lord's people. This was a civil war, really. [00:41:06] I'm afraid that this is a thing that's happened again and again in church history. [00:41:11] The Lord's people just fighting themselves. [00:41:14] Great, great battles ensue between sections of the Lord's people. [00:41:19] Their ground is the house of God. [00:41:21] And the house of God encompasses within it the Christ, the lion of the Christ and the priesthood. That is true intercession and worship and service. [00:41:38] All these things are encompassed in the house of God. [00:41:43] Then the other thing we learn is this, that they cried to the Lord. [00:41:47] They not only cried to the Lord when they were ambushed, but they blew the silver trumpet. Now, if you look at Numbers, Chapter 10 and Verse 9, you will understand the significance of those trumpets. [00:42:02] It says this, and when ye go to war in your land against the adversary that oppresseth you, then ye shall sound an alarm with the trumpet and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. [00:42:19] These silver trumpets were an ordinance of God. [00:42:23] When they were blown, the Lord said he would deliver his people. [00:42:27] When the silver trumpets were blown, Abijah blew those trumpets when they Went out when they were ambushed. And because they blew those trumpets, the Lord answered them and delivered them. [00:42:43] Now, this is a very interesting thing. They cried unto the Lord and they blew the trumpets. [00:42:49] Isn't that interesting? [00:42:51] Two things. [00:42:53] They sounded an alarm and they cried unto the Lord. [00:42:57] In other words, it was an illustration of utter dependence. I mean, after all, that's not the way to win a battle. You know, to get on your knees and cry to the Lord and then have a lot of priests blowing a trumpet while men of war are all around you ready to wipe the lot of you out. To be weak, to be without hope and to admit it and to say it's no good fighting. The only thing is to get on our knees and to blow an alarm up heavenward. [00:43:27] Those silver trumpets, by the way, did nothing on earth. You do realize that, don't you? They called no one together. They didn't bring any rallying forces. They rallied no one. All those trumpets did. Was a bit silly, wasn't it really when you think of it, Blowing trumpets when you're just in the face of death, you're just about to be slaughtered by overwhelming numbers of heavily armed men on every side of you. [00:43:50] And all your inward moral courage has fled. [00:43:54] And what do they do? They blow silver trumpets while the rest of as it were. [00:44:03] That's how the animals walk. That's the beat. [00:44:26] You. [00:44:50] That's why it always happens. [00:44:57] Seems to get. [00:45:05] Over it. [00:45:26] The point is deliverance. It's always the end. The end is deliverance. But the beginning is a very real sense of being foolish. [00:45:35] Very real sense being foolish. After all, food companies and so on and this world builders and so on might quite just think there are man. [00:45:55] The actual act is not a fear of all spiritual way to victory though we have to learn these lessons. [00:46:05] When they cried to the Lord and they blew those trumpets, the Lord delivered them. Why? Because the key to it was reliance upon the Lord. [00:46:14] You see, they kept the mosaic for the Lord. [00:46:18] The Lord said, this is what you do in that given situation. [00:46:25] I was talking with a brother the other day and we were talking about so often the way people talk and react to different suggestions and so on and tell you how people do. Oh no, they don't think that. Oh, it's this or this. Oh no, they think that or something else or the other or the other. [00:46:44] And I think a lot of the difficulties there would be pills to the people of God the equivalents because they don't know the history of the church and they don't know their Bibles. [00:46:57] Our Bible is a well as every single possible God life purchase whatever makes purchase. [00:47:26] You see, in all of our difficult instead of. [00:47:49] When they were ambushed, they remember now this is the one of God blows all the. [00:48:02] Walls of church. [00:48:16] When they obeyed the Lord, the Lord did the rest. That is always the weapon. It's a very small point. Sometimes the Lord's requiring of obedience. When he gets obedience to humanity, there is victim. [00:48:30] So the key is reliance. When the Lord asks us to do something which doesn't seem to affect the situation one wit but we know the key to it. [00:48:56] Or something else to see that we get through, we got through or something else, we're covered in some way or another. [00:49:04] Certainly no difficulty there and so on. But my word, if we're really holy with the Lord going on holy with the Lord, the Lord will lead us into some rather strange ways and into some rather strange situations in order to make us dig deeply into the word of God and this discover what there is within it. [00:49:24] Then in chapter 14 we find the story of Asa. [00:49:30] Asa was a good king and we find there are quite a few facts recorded about him. The first thing we're told is that he deals with the inroads of idolatry. [00:49:41] He is the first king to deal with these inroads. He cuts out high places, in many places anyway. He. He destroys them. [00:49:49] He deals with the idols, the sun images, the little shrines in the cities, the burning of incense before these idols and much else. He deals with it. [00:49:59] He counteracts the growing inroads of idolatry and heathen worship. [00:50:05] Then we're told he sought the Lord and embarked upon a great bilder scheme. Now I like that. He saw, sought the Lord and then he embarked on a building scheme. I think the enemy would always try to get us ethereal. [00:50:20] They would always try to either get us seeking, seeking, seeking, seeking, seeking and seeking and seeking and never doing anything. [00:50:28] Which is a very, very foolish conception. [00:50:32] I've only got to look in the word of God or in church history and you will find that in every move of God there's been a practical step of obedience to the Lord's revealed will. Always doesn't matter what it is or where it is. [00:50:50] You see, there is this conception, let me just mention it. There is this conception abroad and it's very deeply rooted that if you've just got everything as it should be and everything is right, then all the people who flow to you and they'll be saved, they'll just pawn in and they'll be saved. [00:51:12] I used to listen to this and used to think, well, that sounds awfully good. That really sounds awfully good. It's spiritual. It sounds really spiritual. When the church is right, when you've got everything inside the church right, and you've got the right spiritual character, then you'll find the world rapport in everything will come in and the Lord will say, but do you know, I've come to see, that's one of the most amazing fallacies that is in existence. It is a true, true, genuine fallacy. [00:51:49] There is not within the word of God an instance of people's sitting down and everything happening, not even praying. [00:52:00] Even at Pentecost, even at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came inside, they went out. [00:52:07] And when they went out, they stood up. And when they stood up, 3,000 were saved. [00:52:11] And then they went everywhere. They went everywhere. It took two feet, two hands and two lips and they went everywhere. And wherever they went, people got saved. And do you know what the Lord had to do do in order to get churches throughout Judea, cause persecution in judiciary, turn the church upside down and scatter two feet, pairs of feet, pairs of lips and pairs of hands all over Judea. And then you had churches everywhere. [00:52:38] So much for this fallacy that's so inherent, particularly in Calvinism, that, that all you've got to do is have everything right inside. And now, dear, dear brothers, the point is this. Look at any company in this world today that is sitting, waiting and tell me whether the world is coming to them. [00:53:04] Now if you can find a company of such, I will publicly tell everyone because I think I should be counteracted in that state. [00:53:12] I do not know any, any company in this world where they've sat down or waited and waited and waited till everything's all right inside. And then they'll all come. And they've come. I don't know. [00:53:26] It didn't happen in China, it hasn't happened in India. [00:53:29] The whole point is this, that when God does something inside, there is a corresponding outside. [00:53:37] That's the point. And the outside is based on the inside. But both are in faith. [00:53:44] If we wait until something happens to us, we'll wait forever. [00:53:49] So you see, I love this about dear old Asa. [00:53:52] He sought the Lord and embarks on a building program. I think that's really good. [00:53:57] That's the right thing. We seek the Lord and then we go out. [00:54:01] We really seek the Lord and then we meet. [00:54:05] Well, that's something that needs to be said. Because you see, if the devil can't stop us from becoming Spiritual people. He will inject a pseudo spirituality. [00:54:16] And that's what he's done in church history. He's only got to study church history. That's why I wish the people of God would study church history. They would find that every time there's been a move of God, if it began to veer towards true spirituality and a reproduction of the character of Christ, then suddenly questions started. Don't you think that sounds spiritual? Don't you think we should do this? Don't you think? Don't you think? And gradually, gradually, gradually it stopped and all has become internal. And then it ended. On the other hand, you've got the other side, you've got the out and out and more out until it's lost in just sheer good works and outward activity. [00:54:56] Those two sides, there is a balance between the two. If the devil can't stop us from becoming spiritual people, then he'll create a pseudo spirituality which is valueless and powerless in the end. Do let us take that very much to heart, because it's something that we will learn again and again. Well, Esau sought the Lord, and it says again and again in the few chapters that he sought the Lord, but he not only sought the Lord, he embarked on a great building program. He built cities, he fortified cities, he built walls, and the rest of it. You'll find it all there. Then you will find there was an Ethiopian invasion. [00:55:36] And Asa cried unto the Lord a very wonderful prayer again. And the Lord delivered them because he cried. He told the Lord that they were. They were without stress. And he said, lord, it doesn't matter to you whether they're mighty or we're without strength. You can deliver us. And because of their faith, the Lord delivered them. And there was a wonderful victory over the Ethiopians. [00:55:58] That's another wonderful thing. Then I want you also to note that Judah was not only delivered, but there was a wonderful renewal of the covenant. This is a wonderful part of the word of God. It's the first great reformation since David. [00:56:13] In chapter 15, you find first they renewed the altar. And after they renewed the altar in the house of God. That's in verse eight. Then later on in verse 12, they entered into the covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers. And they did some wonderful things. They said that if anyone didn't enter into this covenant, he would be stoned to death. [00:56:33] And secondly, it says clearly, they sought him with their whole desire and he was found of them. And the Lord gave them rest. Round about a tremendous point in the history up to now, has been reached, a real move toward the Lord. The covenant's been renewed. The altar has been repaired. That's wonderful, isn't it? At the cross, you know, this question of the cross. Whenever there's any beginning or disintegration or backsliding, the cross is always the key to falls into disruption. [00:57:05] It's no longer assorted to. It's no longer an experience. The cross is just something looked at, sung about, prayed about, sometimes thought about, read about experience. They renewed it. And when they renewed it, they entered anew into the covenant of the Lord. What is this covenant? It's on the ground of death, Something slain. [00:57:28] And that covenant was a marriage bond with the Lord. He was there, and they raised. [00:57:35] Well, that's a very wonderful point, and I love the next point. He deposes the queen mother. [00:57:40] Mothers are very difficult people to depose, particularly when they've been queens. [00:57:48] They've been used to ruling the household. [00:57:52] And this lad was, in their eyes, still a lad to them. She was his mother. [00:57:59] But his mother had indulged in idolatry of the worst kind. [00:58:07] It was connected with the asheron. [00:58:11] And because of that, he deposed her. [00:58:15] Now, that took courage, and not only took courage, but it meant, of course, had to do a deep work in relationship there to cut so free from his own mother in that way and publicly depose her. [00:58:30] But there was something very sad. This is a wonderful story of Esau. He was a faithful man and a good man. And then. [00:58:38] And here you find the weakness comes out. Suddenly Israel comes up against him. [00:58:45] And they certainly don't think he did not seek the Lord. [00:58:50] He took all the gold and the silver out of the house of the Lord. And he sent it to the Kingus of Syria. And he said, make an alliance with me and attack Israel. William it was a compromise. [00:59:04] And Syria took all the silver and the gold of the Lord's house and the king's palace. [00:59:10] And then he attacked his. [00:59:13] And he, as it were, managed to save Judah by a compromise. [00:59:23] And the Lord rebuked him. And the Lord told Esau that if only he had relied upon the Lord, he would have been delivered as he'd been delivered from the Ethiopians, he would have been delivered from Syria, but he had, hadn't. And because of that, there would be a judgment of God. Now, Asa's judgment was a remarkable judgment because you read on, you find that his feet were diseased. They were so badly diseased that he could not in the end, walk. And he died from this disease of his feet. It was A judgment of God. But it says one little phrase. The one little phrase there which is very. [01:00:04] It says, even when this disease of his feet developed, he refused to seek the Lord, but he sought the physicians. [01:00:15] Now these physicians were cracks. [01:00:19] They were the heathen physicians. And it was all mixed up with heathen God. [01:00:27] And he sought them step of the Lord. And instead of it getting better, he died. [01:00:34] What is the summer? What can we. How can we summarize that? [01:00:38] Well, simply, it is. It's a question of reliance upon the Lord. The key to it all is reliance. [01:00:45] If Asa had relied upon the Lord at the end, as he'd relied upon the beginning, it would have been a very different story. Not only would Syria being saved in Syria, but he would be saved from that disease. [01:00:59] Reliance then upon God or dependence upon God is the key. [01:01:03] And then the last king we find here we could deal with quite shortly is Jehoshaphat. [01:01:11] We find that Jehoshaphat is the best king since Solomon. He had a heart for the Lord. [01:01:18] And we find quite a few things about him. First of all, he embarked on a teaching program. He sent Levites and priests throughout the whole country, teaching the law and versing everyone, educating everyone in the law of God, which was a wonderful point. He also embarked upon a magisterial program. He sent new judges out, civil and religious judges. And these judges were told they were not to tape rides. [01:01:46] Everything was related to the Lord. Jehoshaphat was a man of God. He related everything to the Lord. He said he wanted the people to be instructed in the word of God. And not only that, but he wanted there to be right, judgment, justice in the land so that people who had difficulties and problems could come and could have their. [01:02:04] That was the first great mistake. Because later on the enemy was to take up Athaliah. And she was the one woman used to by the enemy to bring nearer the realization of Satan's plan than any other person in the history of Chronicles. She was the one that blotted out every single person in the line of the Christ in the royal house. And it was only by a remarkable deliverance of God that a little child of 6 months of age was saved. [01:02:38] And then also you will find there that Jehoshaphat got himself involved in a very futile war with Ahab. And you remember they brought down all the prophets, and all the prophets prophesied good things. And one took up an iron horn. He said, look here, King Ahab, this is what God is going to make you like with the Syrians. And then Jehoshaphat said, but isn't there a prophet of Jehovah, of the Lord, a faithful prophet? And Ahab said, well, there is one. He never says a good thing about me. But if you want to bring him, we will, Joshua, then I think we should hear him. And they brought Micaiah into the presence of the two kings. Remember what Micaiah said. First of all, he said, well, very good, very good, King Ahab. Go up to war. You'll be all right. But Ahab knew very well he wasn't telling the truth. [01:03:20] And he said to him, now you tell me the truth. [01:03:22] And then he said, no, the whole of Israel will be scattered. [01:03:28] You remember, one of the. The prophets was most annoyed, spoke him across the mouth. In which way did the spirit of the Lord come out of me to you as I did that? And then you remember what happened. Micaiah was put in prison. Jehoshaphat never protested. [01:03:42] And by not protesting, Jehoshaphat became involved in a futile war and nearly lost his life. Because the king Ahab was much more clever than Jehoshaphat. And the children of this world are more clever from the children of God. He said, I'll disguise myself in my chariots. You just go out and battle in your royal roads. And the Syrian king said, mark who the king is and follow him. Leave everyone else but destroy that man. Well, of course, naturally they thought in battle of Jehoshaphat with the king of Israel. And they sentenced all their attacks upon him. They couldn't get him. And then at last, this story is that Jehoshaphat cried unto the Lord in the midst of the battle, and the Lord delivered him. And an archer, not realizing that was king the king of Israel, shot him. And Ahab died. But Jehoshaphat only got out in his life. [01:04:34] He near. He. Everything nearly ended with Jehoshaphat because of compromise. [01:04:39] Two blocks on Jehoshaphat's life. The first one, the marriage of his son to Athaliah. [01:04:46] And the second one, this involvement with the people of the Lord. [01:04:55] Well, you know, we've read that wonderful story about that battle. The Ammonites, the Moabites and the Edomites, they all allied themselves together to destroy Judah. And they came up and do you remember what happened? Jehoshaphat was a man of God, even though he had these thoughts. And he. And he sought the Lord with fasting and prayer. And as he sought the Lord, this wonderful prayer came out of his heart. He led the people of God in prayer, and they asked the Lord and mark his knowledge of history and his knowledge of the word of God. You know, he said, now, Lord, you promised, you said through Solomon that if we pray before this house, toward this house in a time of defeat or a time of war, you would hear us and deliver. [01:05:37] And his knowledge of history, it's correct, it's informed, it's with insight, spiritual insight that shows spiritual history behind Jehoshaphat. And then that wonderful thing when the Lord answers them through a prophet and says, that's all right, you don't do anything. Now mark this, don't you don't do anything wonderful. The Lord says, set yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. But you know what set yourselves means? It means go out in battle, not sit still, as many people think. It doesn't say. It says, set yourselves, set yourselves. A word is a military word. Put yourselves into. In all your positions of war, don't do anything. Just get yourselves into action. [01:06:24] That's why one moment he says standstill, and the next moment the Lord says, go out tomorrow, for the battle is the Lord's. [01:06:32] Do you see? [01:06:34] Whatever. What did this mean? It meant that they all went out and took their positions on. On the battlefield and that they didn't do anything. [01:06:44] It's a rather remarkable way to win a battle, isn't it? But they didn't do anything. They went out and took their positions on the battlefield. Let them first stood still and went to see the salvation of the Lord. [01:06:56] But the most wonderful thing of all was that when the Lord said, now you don't have to do anything. This battle is mine. You have to go out, you have to take a position, but you have to wait and I'll do the rest. [01:07:08] That they took a great step in, pray in faith and had a praise. [01:07:13] And it says, they praised the Lord exceeding loud. Now that was faith because the battle was on the next day. [01:07:21] There they were praising the Lord the day before on just the sheer ground that the Lord was going to do it. The next day they were started to go out. And then suddenly Jehoshaphat stopped them and took counsel. He said, don't you think it would be a good idea to put the singers in the flood? [01:07:38] And so they put the Levites and the priests with the trumpets and the singers. You know that wonderful choir in the house of God, they put that up and they went out for an amazing way to win a battle. [01:07:50] All the men of war were behind, but the singers were afraid. [01:07:54] They went out. They stood against this great array of three nations, alive together, all heavily armed, armed for the people waiting. And what did they see? All these coming, taking their position. [01:08:07] And what did they come in front of them? [01:08:10] A quiet with psalteries and harps and cymbals and trumpets. [01:08:21] And then they all took their position and they wanted to have. They had a praise meeting and they all sang hymns. [01:08:28] But it wasn't very long before something happened. What happened, we do not know. But suddenly the enemy camp disincent and the Ammonites and the Moabites turned on the Edomites and wiped them out. And then in the general, for all it evidently developed, everyone started wiping each other out. The end was that the enemy had wiped itself out. [01:08:51] All the world did bodies. That's all. This, of course, has been happening, known to happen in ancient history. [01:08:59] Something suddenly happened in everyone on berserk. [01:09:02] They just didn't look in the general melee. They didn't look to see if they were enemies or what they were. They just thought man nearest to them. The result was a tremendous victory for the Lord. [01:09:15] Now, there's a great lesson for us because Jehoshaphat's life was centered in the temple. But do you know that right after that wonderful story there comes a very amusing little paragraph? It's not really very amusing, but it just tells us that Jehoshaphat combined his navy, which evidently was his great joy and pride, with the navy of the King of Israel again. [01:09:39] And it angered the Lord and a terrible storm developed and he lost his navy. It all went down. [01:09:51] Now, what did Jehoshaphat teach? [01:09:54] He teaches us first that compromise is the most terrible thing. [01:09:59] He was a godly man, Jehoshaphat. He was a good man. He knew the Lord and his life was centered in the house. Do you know that that great battle began in the house of God and ended in the house of God? They began there in prayer and fasting. They went out after a praise meeting. They came back after the victory and ended it in the house of God. That's an illustration of the kind of man Jehoshaphat was. [01:10:24] He really was a man of God, a real man of God, but the weakness is apparent. [01:10:35] Compromise was his weakness. [01:10:38] So we need to learn those simple lessons. [01:10:45] They are simple, but they're profound. [01:10:48] Jehoshaphat may have been a man of God, but compromise was undoing. He introduced into the royal house a woman who was to be absolutely and utterly devoted to the devil, to the destruction of all that Judah stood for. [01:11:07] He did it out of a sentimental desire to make the people of God and out of many other desires to bring the two together. He nearly lost his life and his throne and his kingdom. [01:11:21] Let us learn from this thing. [01:11:23] The key to all this conflict is the house of God. The enemy's trying to smash. He's trying to get there to ruin it. [01:11:31] Our only answer to it all is to be utterly, utterly faithful. [01:11:37] The Lord is emphasizing in these chapters lessons which were inherent within the life of David, and so on. [01:11:54] Thus we ask Thee simply to take this study this evening, and if there is anything of will value to write it upon our hearts that we may be a people who in the simplest and most direct way, are utterly dependent upon Thee to know Thee, Lord, have an understanding of what Thou art after, utterly given to Thee, but above all, wholly dependent upon Thee. [01:12:23] Make it make us such a people. Dear Lord, we do ask in the name of our Lord Jesus.