II Kings 22:1-25:30

[00:00:00] Remember, we are dealing now with the comparatively short period of the single kingdom of Judah, all that now remains of the nation, and we have already covered some ground. You remember, we discovered that in this short period of the reign of eight kings, all of them were evil, except for two. [00:00:24] Last week we dealt with Hezekiah, the greatest reformation that ever took place till his day in Judah. [00:00:34] And then we ended, I believe, on the reigns of the two kings that followed him. Manasseh, who reigned for 55 years, and Ammon, who reigned for two years. Manasseh, although it's not recorded in the Book of Kings, it's recorded in the Book of Chronicles, actually repented at the end of his life. He was carried away to Nineveh, and there he repented of much of his evil. But even so, the rabbis always used to say of Manasseh that his was one name that would never be discovered in heaven. [00:01:13] His name was held in abhorrence by all the faithful because of the terrible evil that he brought in. He set the nation upon a course which, even as we're going to discover tonight, the very thoroughgoing reformation in the days of Josiah could not permanently halt. [00:01:36] This, perhaps is one of the greatest lessons we can learn from this period of history, that unless human nature is dealt with deeply and radically at the cross, no superficial faith, no superficial knowledge of the Lord, no shallow experience of the Lord will ever, in the end, get through. [00:02:02] There is something about us all which is too strong for the upward pull. [00:02:09] Unless we are prepared for the most shattering and devastating experience of the cross which frees us from what we are naturally and, as it were, gets us into the clear with the Lord. There is very little hope of a lot getting through. [00:02:28] Hezekiah was such a man who got through. He and the little group in fellowship with him who were, as it were, the sort that saved the corruption in their day. [00:02:41] Manasseh deliberately reversed the whole policy of Hezekiah. It was a deliberate act. [00:02:49] He introduced so many forms of demoralizing and depraved rights and aspects of national life that the Lord in the end, said that Manasseh had made his people worse than the very nations that he drove out before them in the days of Joshua. [00:03:15] So we can understand something of. And it's a nasty word, but it's the only word that describes it, the depravity of the situation. [00:03:26] Ammon is the only king who. Who had a foreign name in the whole history of the people of God. That shows you how far it had gone. It shows you the type of Man Manasseh was he called his son, the name of an Egyptian divinity, Ammon. [00:03:44] Ammon's son was Josiah. And here there is something which seems to be quite inexplicable for one of the things we're going to note this evening as we look at these chapters 22 from beginning, very first verse of chapter 22, one of the things we discover is simply that this man who had so evil a father could be from an early age, so pure of such a pure spirit. [00:04:19] We've learnt this and it might be interesting for parents to see this, how they need to pray for their children. And for those of us who want to save parents, pray for our parents. Because you see, Hezekiah's father Ahaz was the most evil man yet Hezekiah was so good a man. Hezekiah's son Manasseh was more evil than his grandfather, followed by an evil son, Ammon. And yet Ammon had a son who was renowned for his beauty and for his goodness. [00:04:51] He was to be followed by three sons who were each one of them intensely evil. [00:05:00] Of all the sons of Josiah, we do not know of one good son. [00:05:05] Isn't this a matter we should take note of that? So good fathers could have such evil children and such good children could have such evil parents. [00:05:20] There's something which we understand that there is a sense and a right sense in which we cannot inherit from our parents, nor can we pass on to our children. [00:05:32] So we find ourselves at the very beginning of this chapter in the second greatest reformation in the history of Judah. [00:05:42] Some scholars believe that the reformation of Josiah was greater than the reformation of Hezekiah. They believe it was even more thoroughgoing than Hezekiah's day. [00:05:55] Now, I want you to note one or two things that stand out in these few verses in this chapter 22 to chapter 23, verse 30. [00:06:09] The first thing is the Lord had a nucleus. [00:06:14] Now here there is something which I feel we've all got to learn. We're living in days very much like Hezekiah and Josiah. The people of God are deeply compromised. There is very little real knowledge of the Lord. The house of the God is a house of God. The church is a lumber room. [00:06:32] It's something that you just talk about in rather vague terms or we're all one in Lord Jesus or. Oh, don't get split on this question of the church. It's something that can just be a cupboard for every skeleton. [00:06:47] It's a lumber room, It's a storm, the doors are shut, it's got dirt Inside it, it's just broken down. Oh, there's a lot that goes on in the courts of the Lord, but the house of the Lord has somehow got closed and shut up. [00:07:02] Now, in each of these movements of the Holy Spirit, we have found a nucleus. And it is surprising how small a nucleus the Holy Spirit requires to really do something in a day of decline. [00:07:19] Here we have them clearly mentioned. Josiah is one, Jeremiah is another. Zephaniah the prophet is another. Then we find Hilkiah, the high priest. We find Shelom and his wife Huldah. And by the way, his wife was the one with the ministry. So Shelom and Huldah, the prophetess who brought the word of the Lord. And then we find Shaphan and Achbor and Ahikam and Ethia. [00:07:55] This group, they're the only ones mentioned by name, were absolutely welded together in one great desire to see the Lord get something in their day. [00:08:09] And it is interesting, almost to the point of amusing, to see how here in the scripture, their names are recounted. All their names, one after another, are mentioned again and again, just as it were to bear home to us the necessity in a day of decline, of having a group fused together. [00:08:30] Each one of them has a different ministry. I often wonder what Shallem thought about his wife. [00:08:36] There was Hodah, was administering shalom, evidently was the keeper of the wardrobe. It seems just as if the Lord's inverted an order there. But they were. They all had their functions. There's Jeremiah with his function, the Zephaniah with his function. There's Josiah with his function. There's Hilkiah with his function. Then there's Shaphan and Achbor and Ahikam, all with their different functions, yet all have been fused together in one great ministry in a day of decline. [00:09:11] The heart of the matter was the throne of God and the house of God. [00:09:17] You know as well as I do that kings deals with the throne and the king more than the house of God. Chronicles deals with the house of God more than the throne and the king. So we expect to see here the throne in view. [00:09:31] But in Josiah's, the record of Josiah's reformation, the Holy Spirit brings out some things which he brought out in no other reformation. [00:09:43] It's as if, coming to the very end of these two books and four books with the two books of Samuel, it's as if the Holy Spirit now is, as it were, in this last great halting of the tide tragedy that was to come. It was as if the Lord was underlining some great principle for us all. [00:10:08] And so you see, one of the first things we note is that the Lord had a nucleus, this nucleus. Oh, they must have had some difficulties. I am quite sure I have often pondered, and perhaps some of you have, whether Jeremiah and Zephaniah exactly hit it off. To put it rather crudely. You see, Zephaniah was a very young man and he was a young man who wanted to see something happen. And indeed, Zephaniah was the instrument in God's hand to bring about the reformation. It is probable that he was the one, more than any other, who's used a God to influence Josiah and bring about this reformation. Jeremiah never has a word to say about this reformation. [00:10:51] You would almost think he was salking because he never commends it. And indeed, the only few things in his prophecies that he does say are not exactly complimentary. He simply says that whilst this was a move, it's where has it ended? [00:11:09] You see, Zephaniah, as far as we know, did not outlive Josiah. [00:11:14] He lived through the evil days of Manasseh and Ammon and then saw the crown of his ministry in this glorious movement of the Spirit in Josiah's day. Jeremiah, on the other hand, as far as we know, Libben, as far as we know, began his life in Manasseh's day. But his ministry began in the day of Josiah. And Jeremiah lived right the way on past Josiah and through the last four kings of the monarchy and into the exile. Jeremiah was taken into the exile. And there's a sense in which Jeremiah saw far, far more than Bethany. He saw that this revelation was not deep enough, not widespread enough, not inward enough to stay the corruption that had begun. [00:12:07] And I often wonder just how the two worked together and for that matter, how the others blended. You see, Josiah lost his life. Although it's not clearly stated, it would seem that Josiah lost his life of a lack of fellowship. [00:12:25] It is implied that he should never have gone out against Pharaoh necklace. [00:12:30] But somehow, somehow a rupture came in this little group that stuck together. And there came a point when Josiah listened to the court prophets rather than these that had been raised up of God as he went out to meet. And he died at the age of 39. And with him died Judah's last hope. [00:12:54] Well, there's a lot there that we learn about fellowship. You see, many of us begin together, few of us end together. [00:13:03] It's easy to begin together, it's hard to end together. [00:13:07] Many people come in at the beginning when everything's flopping with life. And there seems to be a great sense of destiny. [00:13:14] Few stick right through to the end when all the temperaments become apparent, when the collision cannot be avoided, and when somehow or other, as we're fused together, we get to know each other and get rather disillusioned and disappointed, as we all must come to be once we really get to know each other. So you see, it's easy to begin together, it's hard to end together. And one fault in this matter of fellowship can lead to disastrous consequences. And this is one of the greatest lessons we must learn if we're going to really see the Lord do something and carry it right through to it, to the fulfillment of his purpose in mind. We have got to learn the answer practically to fellowship together and to staying together, whatever we discussed other not in a kind of oh, dear, dear, dear, I suppose I've got to stick with them or that kind of spirit. Some people get that crushed spirit where they think, oh dear, they've all sat on top of me, but I better go through to the end. And then you just turn up and draw back into your little shell and become a kind of like a little hermit crab, you know, that's rarely really seen by anyone. You just got into your shell because you've been so hurt by others and that's that. But you're in the fellowship, you're going through to the end. But it's a rather hurt spirit. [00:14:42] That's not triumph, that's not the way through. That's not going to get the Lord anywhere. [00:14:48] We have to get right through on that so that we joyfully find what is the Lord in one another and dwell upon what is the Lord in one another and forbear with what is not of the Lord, even if sometimes you have to be very firm with each other. So let's learn some of those lessons there, then. Another thing I want you to note about this reformation, of course, is that Josiah freed himself entirely from the foreign yoke. Now, this is a very wonderful thing. He was the only king in this period of history that entirely with the Lord's help, freed himself from any foreign yoke. On the one side, Egypt, on the other side, Assyria. But he would not in any way become allied with either, nor would he become vassal to either. He stood clearly on the ground that the Lord was his deliverance and his strength. [00:15:39] It may well be. It may well be that Josiah learnt the lesson of history. [00:15:47] He may have learned the lesson of his grace, great grandfather Hezekiah, and from him, from what Perhaps came down to him from the records. He may have learned that Hezekiah's weakness was the alliances and the leaning that now and again he got into upon foreign powers. That's another point I want you to note. Then I want you to note also the thoroughness of this reformation. There was nothing half hearted about Josiah. How he destroyed all the BAAL worship, how he cut down the grove, the Asherah, how he beat them to dust. It wasn't like the rest. He didn't just turn them upside down and throw them over, he beat the things to dust. Now you know those stones of pillar took some beating to dust. [00:16:36] And this just shows the thoroughness of Josiah. He was not going to allow single block of anything to remain which could, as it were, become a souvenir. And so later on an object of worship he would beat everything down to the finest dust. [00:16:54] Furthermore, you note he dispersed and executed many and dispersed many of the heathen priests. [00:17:02] He broke up all the little monasteries and so on that had sprung up in the country and dispersed this foreign and compromised priesthood. He abolished religious prostitution, which was a tremendous step to take and a very, very unpopular one with the people. He banned it. He closed down the houses of those religious so called priests and priestesses in the very house of the Lord. He closed them down, destroyed the things. He brought out every vestige of compromised worship in the house of God. He destroyed those altars, those BAAL altars, so he could go on. It may interest you, some of you, as to why he desecrated things. Why did it say he desecrated things? Why did he defile things? Doesn't that seem to show a rather venomous nature, a rather vindictive and spiteful nature on the part of a child of God, to not only close it down and ban it, but to actually defile it? No, it doesn't. Josiah knew that when he was dead there was every possibility that if those places weren't defiled and desecrated they would be used again. But if he desecrated them, they could never again be used. This is an indication of the thoroughness Josiah's revival. Sometimes people get very upset when they hear us say things about organized religion, when they hear us really, really portray it and speak about it clearly. They don't like it. They think we're being critical. They think, oh, that's wrong. But you know, there is a place for beating things into the dust, for desecrating the very spot with such awful error and compromised Christianity can live. [00:18:56] It's much better to be Absolutely thorough with the Lord. That's why the Lord often has so blessed people that we tend to just be a little bit amazed. I mean, I don't know how many of you have read anything of Luther, but if you have, I think you will be just a little bit surprised at times that the Lord's with him. I mean, when he refers to bishops as nipthics and the Pope as Satan himself and so on, perhaps you think his language is getting just a little bit too fanatical. Yet in his day, it might not seem right in the mouths of people today, but in his day it was right. The Lord was with him. [00:19:42] There was a sense in which he had to take hold and do violence with things that had become compromised in the name of the Lord, stood for the name of the law, and were themselves the very embodiment of evil. [00:19:54] So you see here Josiah's Reformation. There was nothing dispassionate about this reformation. It was thorough going, absolutely full blooded. Some people, you know, have got that rather reserved temperament. They don't like anything being too thorough. But, you know, you have got to get into the clear with the law about being absolutely thorough. Balanced, yes, but thorough. Thorough to the point of it going right down to the smallest details and things being beaten to die and even if necessary, as it were desecrated so that never again can you ever go back to that spot or use that spot in the way that it has been. We have to do violence with our flesh life at times if the Lord's going to really get anywhere with us. And you notice that Josiah took it a step further. He took his reformation into the households of the people. He actually dealt for the first time in the history of Judah with the teraphim. Now, the teraphim was something that was found in the households of Judah from the days of Abraham. They were the household gods. And in the quiet of the land, you often, if you went into a house, would find the household God. [00:21:09] Yet Josiah Revelation went so far that though he was the first king to deal with household idols and destroy the lot, he banned them. And he himself, if you read the paragraphs here, you will find that he himself expected thoroughly to see that the work was carried out and that even the household idols were destroyed. He went into the homes of the people and destroyed spiritism. [00:21:37] That was one of the hardest things that he could destroy because it was in the quiet, darkened chambers of the people's homes that spiritism was carried on. [00:21:48] It's one of the old, you know, it's the Oldest religion in the world, or as it's now known, as spiritualism. And he carried it right into the home and destroyed, banned it. So we find Josiah's reformation was very, very talented. [00:22:09] Then I want you also to note that Josiah went right back to the roof of the backsliding. It is most interesting here in these chapters 22 and 23 to see how in chapter 23, Josiah's reform went right back to the roof. First of all, he found that Ahaz had built some altars in the house of the Lord on the roof. And he went and he destroyed them. Then he found anathema. His grandfather had built also altars in the corpse of the Lord. He went and he destroyed them. Then he went back to something which I have no doubt no king. I don't believe even Hezekiah dared to touch the high places which Solomon, King Solomon had instituted. [00:23:10] And Josiah was the first king who was bold enough to destroy and desecrate the high places which Solomon had created. [00:23:25] Now, you know as well as I do, if you throw your mind back now of these studies which are flung over a few weeks now, you will remember that right back when we were talking about Solomon, I pointed out to you that that very small thing that Solomon did as a little gesture to his foreign wives was to be the undoing of his people. [00:23:47] It was only a little gesture to his wife, but it was the undoing of the nation. [00:23:55] Josiah went right back to Solomon's sin and he destroyed it. [00:24:03] Then he went back to Jeroboam, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. And do you remember the sin with which he caused Israel to sin? He built an altar with cards, do you remember? At Bethel. [00:24:20] Now, Josiah sent to Bethel, went there himself, and they destroyed that altar at Bethel. [00:24:29] They destroyed the car, destroyed the altar and desecrated. He took the bones of the priest over the centuries who had served at that altar and high place. And he strewed all over the high place. [00:24:48] Then he saw a sepulcher. Now. Now this sepulchre must have stood out. It must have been something about it. It must have been quite a monument. And you know, he inquired, and they said that was the man of God, the young man who was sent with the Lord into the kingdom of Israel to this very altar to prophesy before Jeroboam the son of Nebat that there would come a king called Josiah who would destroy this place and d and burn proof, bones on it. [00:25:22] Do you remember that young man? [00:25:25] Do you remember the lesson we learned about that young man, do you remember the old prophet who tried to get him to stay when he was told not to stay on the wrong ground? And he stayed. And do you remember he lost his life as a result of it. [00:25:42] Now, these two were buried together. You remember, it said so side by side. And a monument was evidently built about them to commemorate this. That has happened now Josiah is taken right back to the beginning. Now, what does this mean? [00:26:06] Why is the Lord taking at the end of the monarchy when the Lord knows that none of these reforms are going to stop, stem the tide of evil? Why is he taking us right back to the root? [00:26:17] He is teaching us lessons. [00:26:20] He has gone back to Ahaz. He's gone back to Manasseh. He has gone back to Solomon. He has gone back to Jeroboam. [00:26:28] And he's gone back to the young man who was so faithful to the Lord, but who didn't see clearly enough. [00:26:38] Now, all these simple things, so small in their beginnings, were the basic principles that operated the decline tragedy of Judah. [00:26:56] I wish some of us could just see this more and more and more clearly, this question of ground. [00:27:04] Here you have the Lord's people on the right ground. Here you have the Lord's people on the wrong ground. [00:27:11] The Lord's people on the right ground are now as bad as the Lord's people on the wrong ground. They are going to go into the fire, they're going to go into the furnace of affliction. They're going to be purging, but out of them is going to come a little that are going to come back purified, utterly purged of all this evil that are going to come back to the land and rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the house. And we people the land and be the means of bringing back the Messiah. [00:27:51] You see, in our day, if once we can only understand the life of God within us, we must learn how to distinguish, maintaining the unity of all God's people on whatever ground they found. And yet at the same time not to become involved in anything which is compromised or error. This is the hardest lesson. It needs the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit in us to be able to distinguish. Yet, you see, my eyes would pray for all the people of God. I would love all the people of God. I would seek to help all the people of God wherever they are. But I wouldn't become involved in anything that was not on the right ground. Anything. I would question everything and seek to find what its aim is and what its ground is. If I can find that it is on this right ground which is summed up in the house of God in Jerusalem, then I know I'm right with God. I know that even my sin, which will be dealt with by the Lord, even though it's going to be drastically dealt with by the Lord, something's going to get through. I know that something's going to get through. It cannot be lost. [00:29:05] And I want to learn that lesson. Here at the very beginning of Kings, we find the story of the young man and the old prophet. [00:29:16] Here at the end of the Book of Kings, we find the story of the young man and the old prophet. Now take note of that. [00:29:24] Old people don't always see so clearly. And there are many old people that will try to temper young people who are seeing something and tell them, now, don't be fanatical, don't go too far. There's no need for that. [00:29:39] All this talk about the house of God, all this question about church, you want to be careful, but you listen and you take it in and you get mouthy and vague and abstract and then you can lose everything. Something will waylay you. When you're on the wrong ground, something will waylay you. [00:30:00] And your bones will rest with those who love the Lord, the long ground. [00:30:07] So at the end of this story we find this thing that we are all to seek the Lord about. The whole Book of Kings is enclosed in this little story. [00:30:15] We ought all to seek the Lord as to what is the meaning of this strange little story about the young man and the old prophet. [00:30:24] It is very, very interesting that Josiah includes all Israel in his reformation. [00:30:31] Even though Israel had gone, he included it in spirit in his reformation, so that he destroyed the Bethel altar. Why did he destroy the Bethel altar when there was no longer any Ishare? Because God was not allowing Josiah to get away from the complete, the completeness of his people. [00:30:50] Some adornments, Joseph, but you can't exclude them. You can't cut them off, you can't get away from them, be separated from them. You've got to go out to them all. [00:31:01] Is it not interesting that Hezekiah and his reformation had exactly the same spirit? Do you remember how they went through the whole of Israel, destroying the high places and so on? You see in every movement of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't matter where it is in this world, there has never been a movement of the Holy Spirit which has not been for all, all the people of God, denominational folk, and even ourselves. We love to think that if the Holy Spirit's going to be given, he'll just be Given to our little group. [00:31:30] There will be a clearly marked line and he'll come to us, he'll come to our little group the way we think. There's never been any movement of the spirit of God like that. God will always move where he's got right conditions on the right ground, but it will be in the light of all his people that he needs. So that's what the enemy is always trying to do. Get us, on the one hand, wrongly involved with them and mixed up and vague and muzzy in our seeing things, so that he can't move, he can't commit himself. Although on the other hand, get us so watertight, so exclusive, so separated, so divisive that he can't move on that ground. Island. We see it all so clearly, but we're divisive in spirit. [00:32:16] The thing to do is to move between those two to see how not to get involved and yet at the same time to have a spirit that is out to every child of God, whatever they are. I am as much one with my brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church as in the Protestant. [00:32:36] So that is my. That's my attitude. I. I will not be cut off from my brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church any more than I will be cut off from my brothers and sisters in the Protestant, wherever they are my brothers and sisters. They're my brothers and sisters and I shall ask no questions, but I shall go out to seek to help them. But I will not become involved in anything either Roman Catholic or Protestant, but in any way. There's a contradiction to the Lord's house. [00:33:05] We have to learn that because that's the lesson that the Lord brings out in Josiah's life. Then I want you also to know Josiah's remarkable youthfulness. You know, he was eight years of age when he came to the throne. He was 16 when he began to seek Lord, he was 20 when he began the Reformation. He was 26 when the Reformation reached its climax. Now isn't that remarkable? Now all think again. [00:33:29] Think again, you who feel that the Lord must wait until we're all 50, 60 or 70. See eight years when he came to the throne, 16 when he started to seek the Lord. That's rather young. He's only a teenager. What's he doing? He's seeking the lord when he's 16 years of age. By 20 he started the greatest reformation in the history of the people of God. [00:33:56] By the time that he is 20, it's reached its tremendous climax and consummation. [00:34:06] That's tremendous, isn't it? And so when he's 20, he starts 26, reaches its current 39. [00:34:15] Perhaps some of you will think that it's better to start young and end early than to live a long life that doesn't count. [00:34:25] Or something to be said for it. [00:34:28] There's something to be said for it. Josiah did more in his few years than many people have done in a lifetime, much longer. [00:34:37] Now, here is another remarkable thing. I would remind you what Brother Lee said. It is a singular fact that both the. Both the men, the Holy Spirit that it used in the Reformation, both started when they were very young men. [00:34:52] Hezekiah was 25 when he entered upon that great reformation of his day. And Josiah was 20 when he entered upon him. Both, strange enough, died when they were youngish men. [00:35:07] But there is something that is of great interest to us all. You see, when the Lord's got to do something quickly, he will take up those that are young and he will do it. He will take up babes and sucklings, and he will teach the wise and the prudent well, all take courage. [00:35:27] 16 when he sought the law. 20 when the greatest reformation started. 26 when it reached its great climax. Isn't that wonderful? Now, here's another rather wonderful thing. [00:35:41] The order of Kings is entirely different to the order in the book of Chronicles. Chronicles gives a quite different order. [00:35:49] King dwells upon his 26th year. It ignores everything that went before and dwells upon all that happened in the 18th year of his reign, which was his 26th year. [00:36:03] And then again, King changes the order. Chronicles gives the actual order, the chronological order, the sequence. Kings changes the order. Now, this is all in keeping with what we're getting at. In this last great Reformation, the Holy Spirit is not concerned with chronology or the sequence. He's concerned with driving home some big points. [00:36:26] Now, here's the point. [00:36:28] In the record of King, it begins with the repair and rescue and recovery of the house of God. [00:36:39] Now, we know very well from Chronicles that in actual fact the great reformation began much earlier. [00:36:47] It actually began six years before. And a tremendous amount happened in those six years. Yet King begins with the restitution and recovery of the house of God. Now here's another interesting fact. As soon as they start to repair the house of God, they find the book of the Law. [00:37:06] And after the book of the Law, we find that a covenant is made. In other words, the people commit themselves to what they find in the book of the Law. [00:37:15] And then we find that a tremendous purge is carried out. Now, that's not Actually, a chronological teaching. But in kings, that's where it comes a tremendous purpose. [00:37:26] And then the Passover. Now, the strange thing is, in the other day, the Passover is the thing that comes throughout the bond. [00:37:35] In the chronicles, the Passover is dismissed in a few words. It comes as the crown of this whole movement of God. [00:37:43] Now, what can we learn from that? Why has the Holy Spirit changed the order? Why has he not dwelt upon all those years from when he was 16 to when he was 26? Why did he, as it were, caused to jump in fully clothed when he's 26? [00:38:00] Because the holy Spirit wants us to see very clearly one or two things. [00:38:05] It is simply this. The heart of all this matter is the right of God. The rights of God are alone found within the house of God. [00:38:19] You cannot give God his rights unless you understand what the house of God is. [00:38:25] Now, when you and I, as living stones, are built together, we begin to discover the principles of the life of God. [00:38:36] No one can fully discover the principles of the life of God outside of the house of God. When the house of God is recovered and restituted or restored, you discover the principles that are inherent within God's life. [00:38:54] The book of the law is discovered in the house of God. [00:38:59] It's in the heart of the house of God. When you've got to the point of clearing up everything inside the house of God, getting all the rubbish out, cleaning it all down, putting it all right, then you discover the law, this glorious law. The body. [00:39:17] The law of the Spirit of life is in the body. [00:39:21] It's there, it's in the body. [00:39:24] You discover that if you're going to obey the law of that spirit of life, you've got to be right with your brothers and sisters. And furthermore, you've got to be built in with brothers and sisters. This is a common salvation. [00:39:41] This salvation has a corporate basis. [00:39:47] When I discover the principles, every principle I discover I have to commit myself to, I have to covenant with the Lord. [00:39:55] When I covenant with the Lord, there's a consistent reformation going on. [00:40:02] As every fresh bit of light is thrown on my life, as I gather with the people of God, and as I live, even though not always together in that wonder, I have to continually adjust, continually adjust to new life, continually be obedient to what the Lord is showing. And as that is happening, so these altars are being smashed, so these, these awful things, these dark things, these polluted things are being dealt with by the Spirit of God. That is the only way. [00:40:34] It is interesting that the passover comes at the end. Because sometimes when we see these polluted things, we tend to get very, very, very disillusioned. And we think, perhaps the Lord hasn't even saved us. How can these things be? How can they be there? But isn't it a wonderful thing, the Holy Spirit has put at the end the Passover Lamb, to just point out that when we've seen all that we are, Christ is our Passover sacrificed for us, that is a wonderful thing. No one can be drastically dealt with who does not come to know the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. [00:41:14] Once you begin to see what you are, you must hide in what Christ is. [00:41:21] Otherwise you will be undone. [00:41:26] So there are some very, very wonderful lessons that we can learn there. I think some of us might well be held up on this point. We're not discovering what these principles are. We're not discovering what these laws are, because we're not getting rightly related. [00:41:43] We have to get rightly related. We have to acquiesce to the Lord, submit to the Lord, and then we discover what these lessons are that we can alone learn in the house. [00:41:56] Then I also want to point out to you simply and briefly, that this was the period of Zephaniah's ministry and Jeremiah's ministry. What a wonderful couple they were linked with them too. We have two others, Nahum and Habakkuk. Both of them lived in this period. Habakkuk probably was only born in this period, but Nahum was already ministering in this period, although his ministry is all to do with Nineveh. So if you want to read the little book of prophecy of Nahum, you'll discover that it's set into this particular part of the world in the reign of Ammon and Josiah. We find the ministry of Nahum. [00:42:35] And then we also find Zephaniah. Such a small little prophecy, such a vivid prophecy, so useful a prophecy. He was a young man, but so influential in this reformation. Then we discover Jeremiah, who outlived them all and was to live to see the day of that exile. And then Habakkuk. Do you remember Habakkuk? We believe Habakkuk was a Levite because he wrote, you remember, a psalm at the end of his little prophecy, which is all in a very involved musical type of setting. And you remember he was the one who said, although this will not happen, and that will not happen, and the other will not happen, yet will I praise the Lord. He'd heard Jeremiah's ministry. [00:43:20] I'm afraid he sat under Jeremiah's ministry and it wasn't exactly comforting. In some ways he had seen possibly something of Josiah's days. Then he saw what happened afterwards. And then you remember what happened. He said, I've got to wait. I've got to sit and wait for the Chaldeans to come up like locusts. I've got to see them swarm over the land and destroy it. Oh, what a terrible prospect, he says. [00:43:47] Yet he says, even though all this will happen, my part is to praise the Lord and to worship the Lord. [00:43:54] So we've got these wonderful men, men of faith. And you remember it was Habakkuk, who is the prophet of faith. The just shall live by faith. These men of faith in these days live so, so faithfully to the Lord. [00:44:10] It's possible, of course, more than probable that all four of them knew each other. [00:44:15] Then, as we've already said, Jeremiah saw far more deeply than Josiah, than Zephaniah. [00:44:21] His ministry was far wider and he, as it were, saw light through. It's a very interesting point. If any of you will only bother to sort out Jeremiah's prophecies, which are not in chronological sequence, if you will go by what this is, what range they were in, you will group them all together. [00:44:42] Scroggy has done this for us. So if any of you want to borrow that book, you'll be able to see it. You'll see them all mapped out. You will find that in Josiah's day, Jeremiah's ministry was all to do with shallowness. [00:44:56] In the days immediately following, his whole ministry was solemn, terribly solemn and dark. Warning, awful judgment. [00:45:08] But isn't it wonderful? In the last reign of Zedekiah, which was only three months, he suddenly. It's just as the sun comes out from behind. Thunder thunderclap. And he refuses any more to talk about it. He just talks about the glorious hope he's going to be, the remnant of going to come back. It's rather wonderful that here's this man who has to face so terrible a prospect. Is it not interesting that it's the exact opposite to what we would naturally have done in Josiah's day? We would have rejoiced in the days that followed, we would have probably tried to encourage them by the prospect and try to get them back to the Lord. And then at the last, when we knew it was lost, we would bitterly warn them of judgment. But no, no, it's the other way around. [00:46:02] He bitterly warns them of judgment. And then when he knows the day's lost, he comes in with a glorious ministry of comfort. Now why is that? Because at the end it was as if he forgot the rest. He dealt with the faithful. [00:46:18] You know, there was Daniel, there were the three who went with Daniel. They were faithful. [00:46:24] What a comfort to them. Jeremiah had Ezekiel, the Mordecai grandparents. What a comfort to these people, Jeremiah, in those last days when they knew everything was lost, judgment of God was about to break on them. Then they heard Jeremiah. And I believe that's why Daniel loved Jeremiah and why he was always searching the prophecies of Jeremiah. Remember in the end Jeremiah, he found in the prophecy of Jeremiah that 70 years will fall. [00:46:53] So that's again interesting. When the Lord has given up this world, he speaks to his people, society. And the Lord at last is given up. And the judgment is absolutely immense. And the Lord turns the tremendous ministry of comfort to those that have got to go through it. [00:47:10] They may be kept and encouraged. [00:47:13] So let us learn from all these things. And the other thing I wanted to say was the tragedy of Josiah's end. You see, Assyria was breaking up. This great empire of so many, almost millennium now breaking up. Whole thing was disintegrating. [00:47:31] And Egypt, under Pharaoh Necho, thought they would take advantage of the internal weakness of Assyria and went on what they called a move to help Assyria against the Babylonians. [00:47:47] They went, so they said, to help. But in actual fact, it's quite clear that Pharaoh Necho's idea was to acquire as much territory as possible before Babylon could get a real hole on things, was to spread his frontier as far as he possibly could. Now, Josiah knew that if Pharaoh, he knew what was in Pharaoh Mecho's heart, undoubtedly, and he knew very well that he might lose his independence and so wrongly, not trusting in the Lord, Josiah went out against Theodore Nicole. It is probable that he listened to the court prophets, the professional prophets in the court divine. He probably said, go out, the victory is yours. It's also very probable that Jeremiah counseled the mission quietness. [00:48:39] It was a tragedy. [00:48:41] Even an ungodly godly Pharaoh, a man who did not know God, said to Josiah, turn away. Why should you die? I've not even come out against you. I'm going up to Assyria. Get out of the wood. [00:48:56] And when he knew that Josiah wouldn't, he said, God has told me to go up, thinking that that at least would impress Josiah. Josiah would not like. [00:49:07] And the end was. Josiah died at the age of 39. As we've said, when Josiah died his last hope of Judah. [00:49:19] When Josiah died there were only 24 years more left to the kingdom. In these 24 years, four kings reigned. Two for three months and two for 11 years. First, Jehoahaz, one of Josiah's sons, he reigned for three months. He was deposed by Pharaoh Necho, taken to Egypt, where he died. [00:49:43] He was followed by Jehoiakim, another son of Josiah, Jehoahaz's brother, who reigned for 11 years, who was followed by his son Jehoiakim, who reigned for three months, was taken to Babylon, was executed, and then he was followed by Zedekiah, another son of Josiah, or uncle of Jehoiakim, who reigned for 11 years. [00:50:18] That's the confused state of affairs that existed in the last 24 years of the history of Judah. The whole thing was upside down. The period of great, great chaos. At the same time, Assyria had disintegrated and in its place came the new great world power, Babylon. [00:50:40] Nebuchadnezzar could never came on the scene. One of the figures probably we know better than anyone else of the heathen kings of the Old Testament. [00:50:50] And there is a very, very remarkable sense in which the Lord not only raised up Nebuchadnezzar, but was with Nebuchadnezzar. Very, very interesting. [00:51:05] Now let's just very simply, in closing, look at these last four kings. There's not much to say. There's not very much in the scripture about them. The first one Jehoah has, you will find in the last verses of chapter 23. [00:51:22] All four of these kings were evil. Jehoahaz was anti Egyptian. Because of that. He was deposed after three months reign by Pharaoh Necho. And as I've said, he died on arriving in Egypt. Pharaoh Necho installed his brother Jehoiakim in his place. [00:51:42] Jehoahaz was the first king of Judah to die in exile. [00:51:50] Now it's interesting that again, Judah becomes a vassal of Egypt. [00:51:59] Pharaoh Neh installed a puppet king, that is Jehoiakim, who was a very evil man. [00:52:07] Jehoiakim, you remember, so hated the word of the Lord that when Urijah the prophet prophesied against him, he had to flee for his life to Egypt. And Jehoiakim was so furious that he sent an envoy and a group of soldiers to drag back Urijah from Egypt and he was executed. [00:52:27] Jeremiah prophesied loudly against Jehoiakim and very courageously. And you remember there was one point when the Lord said to Jeremiah, put down in writing your prophecies. Do you remember how Jeremiah got Barak the scribe, and they wrote out the prophecies. Then send a copy to Jehoiakim. He sent a copy. This is the first actual reference we have in scripture of the of what we now have as books. He sent a copy, a scroll to the king. And when the king was being read out to the king, so the king took a pen, according to my version, the king took a penknife, slit it and threw it into the fire. [00:53:12] Jehoiakim was a man who blatantly refused the word of the Lord. [00:53:19] It is very interesting that, as you know, he was a vassal to Egypt. [00:53:23] And it was in his reign that he became. [00:53:29] A siege was laid to Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar hated Egypt, as you know from history. And he laid siege to Jerusalem. And we find the first stage of the captivity, you know, these little brown stars and three stages of the captivity. The first stage was in Jehoiakim's reign. [00:53:52] He took of the temple vessels, it says. He took certain of the noble people of the seed royal and quite a number of other aristocratic families. Now it was in this reign of Jehoiakim, the first stage of the captivity, that Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego went into captivity. [00:54:19] I don't know whether any of you have got an imagination, but you can just imagine what it must have been like for those lads. They were only lads. They were only in their very, very early Teton when they were taken. What happened to their parents? No one knows whether it was a definite plan, operational method of Nebuchadnezzar to take the young aristocratic people of the land, teach them Chaldean, train them in the art and education and culture of Babylon, and so make them as it were, Babylonian. [00:54:53] It may have been a long term policy of Nebuchadnezzar, but there you are, the captivity has begun and Daniel has gone. Daniel and his three friends have gone into captivity. [00:55:08] That was a little later followed by a rebellion. [00:55:13] Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and the result was that Nebuchadnezzar came, besieged Jerusalem and executed Jehoiakim. That was the end of Jehoiakim. He was followed by Jehoiakin, his son, who reigned exactly for three months. It was a rather interesting little reign. Again, we are not told why Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem. This time he encircles the whole city until they give up. When they give up, he takes 10,000 people into captivity. He took the whole nobility of the land and all the professional classes, all the craftsmen and artists of the land were taken into captivity. [00:55:55] Jehoiachin was also taken into captivity with the queen mother. [00:56:00] It was in this reign, the second stage of the captivity, that Ezekiel was taken into captivity. He did not go with Daniel. He went on the second stage of the captivity. And so did Mordecai's grandparents. As far as we know, they also went at this time. If you want to find these things, you'll find them all in these different prophecies and books. You'll find it mentioned in the exact stage of the captivity that they were taken, which is a very, very telling point in the early history and the formative influences of these men and women of God. [00:56:40] Then lastly we come to Zedekiah. Zedekiah was put installed as king by Nebuchadnezzar. [00:56:49] He, as you know, was torn between two policies. If any of you twice understand Jeremiah. But to understand the simple point, this poor man, a weak man, was torn between two camps. On the one side, he had a very large group of councilmen who counseled him to side with Egypt against Nebuchadnezzar, to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, and as it were to join the Egyptians. Jeremiah, almost alone counseled Zedekiah not to do this, but to quietly submit to Nebuchadnezzar as God's servant. [00:57:29] Jeremiah was therefore called a traitor, and they wanted to execute him as a traitor. [00:57:34] But Jeremiah was right. Zedekiah refused Jeremiah's counsel and followed the counsel of the majority. He rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. He thought that Egypt would come to his e, which they did too late, and then turned back as soon as Nebuchadnezzar looked at them. The result was Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. And three years, three years he posted his troops round the walls. [00:58:04] In the end, if ever you want to read an account of what happened in Jerusalem, its last terrible days, you want to read lamentation. People at the ground, they had already eaten all their children, men and women, fathers and mothers. They actually ate their own children. Terrible when they said. And then they went for one another. [00:58:27] There were days that Jeremiah lived through. He was in the city, he saw it all, and he wrote those terrible, terrible lamentations of all that was happening. And you, you remember, in the very heart of that awful cry there comes these wonderful words. Great as I faithful thy compassionate. They fail not, they are new every morning. [00:58:50] These were men of faith that lived in dazed and terrible judgment. [00:58:56] How they rebuke us the end was simply that a breach was made after three years in the wall of Jerusalem. [00:59:03] And at night Zedekiah got out and a few of his courtiers and fled. But they were overtaken and his eyes were put out. Before his eyes were put out, all his sons were put set in front of him. Then his eyes were put out. He was taken into Babylon a captive. Then the whole nation was deported bodily into Babylon. Everywhere the walls of Jerusalem were sledgehammer down to the ground level. The house of God was raised to the ground by fire. The king's house and every important house in Jerusalem was destroyed. They literally sledgehammered the thing flat with a methodical operation. [00:59:46] The end was absolute desolation to Jerusalem, to the house of God and to the people. They left just a little group of demoralized people, the heart, the very, very poorest and the most difficult. The rest had all gone. [01:00:05] That's the end. [01:00:07] That's the end of the book of Kings. [01:00:13] It ends rather wonderfully because we believe Jeremiah wrote it with one little ray of light that a cow had died. Jehoiakim was still alive in captivity. And it says that at a certain year, the 37th year of his captivity, King Nebuchadnezzar lifted up Jehoiachin and caused him to eat at the royal table. That's just a little way are loved. [01:00:49] So we look back over these two books of kings. In fact, we look over the four books from Samuel and Kings. What do we learn? [01:00:59] There's a sense, you know, in which the curtain comes down here. [01:01:03] This is the end of biblical history. [01:01:07] Chronicle, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther are from a wholly different standpoint. [01:01:16] It's strange that the Holy Spirit leads the record of history at this point. Captivity. We look right back now, right over and at the very beginning, we find the little story of Ruth. [01:01:29] We find the travail of a woman called Naomi. And we find the travail of a woman called Hammer. [01:01:37] And if you recall all the long, drawn out, agonizing history that went into the bringing into being David and then the long, slow climb to the throne, and then the building of the house of God in the days of Solomon, and then seemingly all lost over these years. Wonderful years, prophetical years, years, the most wonderful incidents and acts of God. And yet seemingly all that, the history ends. [01:02:18] But you know, we are going to move on to Chronicles, the Lord willing. [01:02:25] And we're going to find that Chronicles looks at the whole thing from a different standpoint. [01:02:29] And it's as if the Lord has called a Halt for history here and said, this is where it ends. No more of this in chronicles. We're going to discover the very thing the Lord was really after from the beginning. [01:02:43] When he brings the people back, it is for the thing he was after. There's nothing else. There really isn't a throne, There isn't a king. [01:02:55] As if to emphasize the thing. [01:02:58] Now we're going to find what the Lord really was after all the time. [01:03:03] And when he brings a remnant back, it is just for that. [01:03:07] Nothing else is going to divide their eye. They're going to have a single eye. Nothing else is going to get in the way. [01:03:14] When they go back to the land, it's to build the walls and to build the house of God and to be the people of God. Well, we need that. What is the meaning of these books of kings? Oh, it is simply this question of the throne coming to the throne, question of kingship in the sight of God, Something which is not inherent in us, naturally. [01:03:38] God's king. [01:03:40] God's idea of kingship is something which is alone found in Christ and will be found in us only insofar as Christ has reproduced us only. [01:03:50] It needs Christ inside if there's going to be any reaching the throne and any true kingship. It also teaches us that the throne of God is secure. Above the disorder, above the decline, beyond all the evil. The throne of God is secure. The prophets are the expression of the throne of God, as if in the darkest they come out and say, the throne of God is above all. Isn't that wonderful? And later on, Daniel is able to take up that cry and say, the kingdom of the most high rulers of all. [01:04:24] These are the cry that comes out these days. Thy throne, o God, is forever. [01:04:31] Well, that's something we have to learn too. In days when everything seems to contradict the throne of God, that God's throne is no other and that they that died with God brought ground. So let's learn simply from the book of kings this great lesson of ground, this question of ground. [01:04:55] All the people of God. Yes, but where is my home? Jerusalem, the house of God that the 80:40 song the Sparrow babble.