This afternoon I want to continue to look at 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings. We’re looking at the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judah. And if you have your Bibles, and you’ll turn with me, I want to look at 2 Kings chapter 15, and we’re also going to be looking at 2 Chronicles, and I believe it will be chapter 27.
And I want us to look at, we’ve been looking at Uzziah, and then after Uzziah in Israel, Uzziah’s son, Ahazariah, Uzziah means Ahazariah, and then following him, Zechariah was a king who came to rule in the northern kingdom of Israel, but as Uzziah died, his son came to rule, and his son’s name is Jotham. And we’re going to be looking at Jotham, and also we’re going to be looking at 2 kings. There was a period in the northern kingdom of Israel, within a short period of time, there were 4 kings that ruled.
They kept getting assassinated by the one that would take over their posts. There was Zechariah, then there was Petitpiah, and then there was Ezekiel, and then the last one was Hoshia. And they ruled, and rather, for the most part, in quick succession.
And we’re going to be looking at them because the last 2 of those kings ruled at the same time as Jotham, and then the son of Uzziah ruled, and then also Jotham’s son Ahaz ruled. We won’t take a look at Ahaz today because there’s a lot of things to cover from scripture about Ahaz, but we will be taking a look at the reign of Jotham, and then also Petitpiah and Hoshia. And so that’s before we do, let’s just bow and pray.
Father, I pray that you would just come to us this morning, and see me now, and just look at your word, this understanding, and help us to see, in the lives of these men, the importance of looking to you, and not to the world. Father, I will speak to us in prayer in Jesus’ name. One of the things that has been happening in the southern kingdom of Judah under Uzziah, it started out very good, ended very bad.
We tried to take over the position of priests, and God struck him with leprosy, and he did that. And his son began to rule, even though Uzziah was still on the throne, still the king, but he didn’t live in Jerusalem anymore because of his leprosy. And so I want us to take a look, and if you turn with me first to 2 Chronicles, we’re going to be looking at Jotham, his son, who takes over for his father, Uzziah.
Jotham was 20, 2 Chronicles chapter 27. Jotham was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jeshua, the daughter of Zadok.
And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did, albeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord, and the people did not, did yet corrupt him. I want us to pause here. He did not do what his father attempted to do and become a priest.
He didn’t do that. But what he did not do is tear down the high places. His father didn’t tear down the high places, and neither did Jotham.
Even though Jotham was said to be a good king, he did that which wasn’t good there. So you understand what the high places were. The high places were the areas where the people would go outside the city of Jerusalem to worship the false gods.
They had places of worship there, they offered incense to the gods there, and they worshipped all of these pagan deities, even though they were Israelites, they were descendants of Jacob, and even though God had established them in the land, and the country of Judah, the southern kingdom, was not as wicked in this aspect as the northern kingdom had been, but yet the people of the southern kingdom were doing a similar thing. And Jotham did not stop them from doing it. The people did it anyway.
And we see that his father didn’t stop them from doing it. And so in that way he did what his father did. Now he did do some things in the city of Jerusalem.
In verse 3, he built a high gate on the house of the Lord, and on the wall of Ophel he built much. Moreover, he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers. He fought also with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them.
And the children of Ammon gave him the same year a hundred talents of silver and ten thousand measures of wheat and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him both the second year and the third. Now remember the Ammonites were the descendants of Lot.
Lot was the nephew of Abraham. These were all, in essence, relatives of the Israelites. But Ammon and the Ammonites were related to the Moabites.
And they all were enemies of Israel. And you’d say, why should they be? Well, the Edomites were too. And they were even closer related to Israel.
Because they were the descendants of Esau, who was the brother of Jacob. And to this day, much of the problems in the Middle East still stem back to things that go back all the way to what you’re reading in Scripture here. And you still have many of the Arab peoples look to Abraham as their father because they came out of a different line than Jacob.
Some of them, although the Edomites are not prevalent in the Middle East today, but other descendants of Abraham, who was second wife to Torah, and also the Ishmaelites, who were Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Hagar. Many of those people, their descendants are some of the Arab tribes that fight against Israel today. And so this still is going on.
And you see that Jotham did war against the Moabites and prevailed against them. Now one of the things that would happen when they were at war is oftentimes the losing one would have to pay tribute to the one that won. And so when the kingdom of Judah won over the Moabites, they gave them silver and gold and wheat and barley.
And that was their tribute in having lost the battle. And Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord, his God. And I want you to see there that Jotham was a man who did consult with God before he would do things.
But he still didn’t do everything right. But still he would go before the Lord. His father Uzziah started out doing those things but didn’t finish doing those things because God would have never told him to go into the temple and offer incense.
But Jotham, we see, did consult to the Lord and did that which the Lord directed him to do. Now the rest of the Acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And he was 5 and 20 years old when he began to reign and reigned 16 years in Jerusalem.
And Jotham slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David. And Ahaz, his son, reigned in his stead. Now, if you want to keep your finger there, I’m going to go back to 1 Kings chapter 15.
In 1 Kings chapter 15, we’re going to read more, a little bit more, about Jotham and what happened during his reign. In chapter 15, verse 32, it gives us some of the same things that we’ve read in 2 Chronicles. And then we’re going to go back to the first part of chapter 15 and see who was ruling in Israel when Jotham began his rule.
And in the second year of Pekah, the son of Amalia, king of Israel, began Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, to reign. 5 and 20 years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem and his mother’s name, as you saw before, was Joshua, the daughter of Zadok. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
He did according to all that his father Uzziah had done, albeit the high places were not removed. And the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. And he built the higher gate to the house of the Lord and now the rest of the Acts of Jotham.
And all he did are not written in the book of Chronicles but in the book of Judah. And in those days the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Amalia. And Jotham slept with his fathers in the bury in the father’s city of David.
He was buried in the city of David, his father, and Ahaz, his son, ruled in his stead. Now I want us to go back in the beginning of this and we’re going to take a look at who he’s talking about, this man who is referred to as Pekah. Pekah came to power in the northern kingdom of Israel and, as I mentioned, it was a series of kings that didn’t rule very long that came to power by assassinating the previous king.
And Pekah was not a good ruler. And Pekah also, as we see, began to war against Jotham. But Pekah was replaced by a man by the name of Pekahiah.
And he replaced Pekah. And in verse 23 we read, In the fifteenth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekahiah, the son of Nemehan, began to reign over Israel in Samaria and reigned two years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. And you’re going to see that the only one, well, and even he didn’t depart from that. Every king of the northern tribe of Israel never departed from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.
Who was Jeroboam? He was the one that God said, I will make you king over Israel. If you will honor and worship me, you and your descendants will sit on the throne of the northern kingdom of Israel. And the first thing that Jeroboam did was set up golden calves for the people to worship.
And Bethel and Dan turned their hearts away from worshiping the true and living God in Jerusalem because he feared the people would go back to Rehoboam if he allowed them to go to Jerusalem to worship. And so he established false worship, a false center, a political center and violated everything that God told him to do. And so God did not fulfill his promise because Jeroboam didn’t.
But everybody was matched against Jeroboam. And guess what? Every king that followed him did the same thing. They never got away from idol worship in the northern kingdom.
And it always became worse and worse until under Ahab it was the worst that it ever was. And he married Jezebel, the Zidonian princess, who brought their all worship along with the golden calf worship. So they had all kinds of idolatrous worship.
And we see that this is still going on at the time of the kings that were ruling when we see that Jotham is in power. Now, Pekah, I got this backwards, Pekah ruled instead of Pekaliah. Pekaliah was the one that only ruled two years.
Then Pekah ruled. And it says in verse 27, in the 250th year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah, the son of Bremaliah, began to reign over Israel in Samaria and reigned for 20 years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. And again, you see the same line. That is the mark of those northern kings.
They hated God. And in those days, Pekah, king of Israel, became Igath, Eleazar, king of Assyria and took Ajin and Abelbeth, Machah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Nepali, and carried them captive to Assyria. Now, what you’re seeing here, and you can go historically and see that this wore out in secular history as well, that during this time of the reign of this king, God said, enough is enough.
And he began to bring the nation of the northern tribes into Assyria in captivity. And if you would go to Israel today, this would be pretty much most of the northern portion of Israel up by the Galilee, over towards the coast, up around what would be referred to as Mount Hermon area. And the land that he didn’t take at this time would have been over in the Golan Heights area and down into Samaria.
But otherwise, the king of Assyria began to take captive all of the northern tribes of Israel. And they were taken captive much earlier than the southern tribes, but part of it was because of their idolatrous worship. Ever since they broke away from the south, they continued to go deeper, as I mentioned, into idolatry and rebellion against God.
And it culminated with God’s judgment coming. The final judgment is going to come when the man who takes the place of Pekah comes to power. If you turn to chapter 17, verse 1, you’ll see this man is introduced of second Kings.
The reign of Hoshea in Israel. In the twentieth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, began Hoshea, the son of Elah, to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. Now he ruled in Pekah’s place.
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. And so the one thing he didn’t do is, he wasn’t as wicked as they were, but still he was wicked. Against him came Shalamezer, king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his servant and gave him presents.
And so we see the beginning of the capitulation, the final capitulation of the northern tribes under Hoshea. If you would go and buy a book that would be giving you a chronological order of the kings of the northern tribes of Israel, you would see that Hoshea was the last king of Israel. Because he is the last one that rules it all over the northern tribes.
It is during his reign he begins to have the northern tribes fall into final, being taken away into captivity to Assyria, under Hoshea. But before he does, he is also going to rise up against Judah one last time. Then in verse 4, And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to so king of Egypt, and brought no presents to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year.
Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. You see that the things that were happening in the Middle East were happening then too. Promises were made and not fulfilled.
This is exactly what Hoshea did to the Assyrian king. He said, I’ll pay you tribute if you don’t take the rest of the northern kingdom into captivity and we’ll get along. But then he went down to Egypt.
Egypt is always someone that has gone to when people want to seek a source of power apart from God. And Egypt is always also referred to, made reference to, as being like the world. For example, when Jacob’s sons and their families came out of Egypt and were delivered under Moses, they were delivered from a worldly system that worshipped and was very worldly.
You see that as you study the kings of Judah, later on when we get to the time of end of Isaiah’s ministry and into Jeremiah’s ministry, you’ll see that Israel, I mean Judah rather, instead of turning and calling on the name of the Lord, they had the great idea, let’s go get Egypt to help us. That’s exactly what Hoshea said. Let’s go get Egypt to help us.
Let’s go get the world to help us. You don’t see him calling on the name of the Lord. You don’t see him saying, we repent of our sin.
We’re sorry that we built these idols. We’re sorry we had this false worship. Lord, help us, deliver us from those that would desire to enslave us.
No, instead he makes a false treaty with that guy to get him off his back and then seeks to make another treaty with Egypt to have Egypt come and fight against Assyria. And never do you see Hoshea calling on the name of the Lord. Then he goes on and he says, And the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three days.
Because remember, he hadn’t taken Samaria before. Now he’s coming to take Samaria. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria and replaced them in Hala and in the harbor by the river Goshen and in the cities of the Medes.
And so we see that this was a practice that the Assyrians did. They would bring the people in and acclimate them into various portions of their country. And in turn they would take other people and bring them and acclimate them and bring them to take over the land that they had conquered.
Not only were later at the time of Jesus, the Samaritans were looked down upon by the Jews because of the history of Israel. The Samaritans were always viewed as being those that were not committed to the Lord. But the other thing is, at the time of the Assyrians, the Assyrians brought people who were not Jewish and they intermarried with the Jewish people that were left in the area of Samaria.
And so you had basically, if you would, half-breed Jews, people that weren’t completely of Jewish descent. And this was still going on. These people were still there.
Their descendants were still there at the time of Jesus. And the Jewish people really didn’t have anything to do with the Samaritans. They looked down on them.
That’s why it’s so amazing when Jesus goes and speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well. Because number one, she was a woman. Rabbis didn’t talk to women.
Secondly, she was a Samaritan. Thirdly, she was rejected by her own people who were rejected by the Jews. So she was, if you would, a triple reject.
And yet Jesus was there talking to her and introduces her before anybody else that he’s the Messiah that had come in fulfillment of all the prophecies that had been made. And he was the Messiah that had come to take away their sins. And he offered her the means of salvation.
Which shows the depth of God’s grace and mercy. And he doesn’t hold these prejudices that we hold or that even Jewish people were holding. But all of that goes back to these events that are occurring here.
And that’s why the things are going on at the time of Jesus. And so you see, look at what’s happening in the Middle East today. The only solution to that problem is the Lord.
The only solution is that the Arabs have to come to Christ. The only solution, ultimately, for the Jews is that they have to accept the Messiah. Because these conflicts go back thousands of years.
And a lot of it is rooted in what we’re reading here in the time of the division of the kingdom in Israel. And Israelites introducing the Northern Kingdom to all of this idolatry where they really don’t see the light and salt of the world that they were supposed to be. That God intended them to be to the Gentile nation.
And so we see that this is going on. Well, let’s take a look at what the sins of Israel are very quickly. And it says, For so it was that the children of Israel had sent against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods.
And walk in the statutes of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel and of the kings of Israel which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. And they built them high places in all their cities from the tower to the watchman to the fenced city.
So it wasn’t just like the calves of Dan and the calf of Bethel. They had it throughout the whole northern kingdom. And they set them up images in groves in every high hill and under every green tree.
They were all over. And this worship of these pagan gods was an ugly worship. It doesn’t give us a lot of specifics in here.
It does give us some of the things of the pagan gods, the Molochs, how they would burn their own children alive as a sacrifice to the gods of Moloch. You know that they sacrificed their children in the northern kingdom of Israel. There were things like that that went on.
And now they’re doing it throughout the whole nation, all over. This is the sins that result from God allowing them to be taken into captivity. So they served idols where the Lord had said to them, you shall not do this thing.
Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all the prophets and by all the seers saying, turn ye from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and that which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. And I want you to see that the northern tribes of Israel, they came out of Egypt at the same time that the southern tribes of Israel came out. But they forgot God much quicker.
And God also raised up godly kings in the south who called for revival. We’re going to be studying King Ahaz next. He was not one of the godly kings, but he was the father of Hezekiah, one of the godly kings who brought revival to Judah.
And this is why Judah was not taken away at this time with the northern tribes of Israel, because they did repent as a nation. Notwithstanding, they would not hear but harden their necks like the neck of their fathers and did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that made with their fathers and his testimonies which he testified against them.
And they followed Vanity and became vain and went after the heathen that were around about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. And we just got done reading. They went to Egypt, the very place that God had delivered them.
And that’s where Hosea was going to go and get help, instead of going to the Lord. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and searched for all. And the host of heaven is demonic spirits.
And when you’re looking at worshipping the host of heaven, you see that the southern side of Judah begins to do the same thing because Jeremiah condemns them for doing that, for worshipping and making takes to the queen of heaven. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through fire, that’s just what I was talking about, sacrificing their children, and used divination and enchantment and sold themselves to do evil.
Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord. And the people did yet corruptly.
3 He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.
4 Moreover he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
5 He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year, and the third.
6 So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.
7 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
8 He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
9 And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.