PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

Even if you don’t know exactly what you are doing and if you don’t have everything exactly right, it is still important to praise the Lord.  This is what we find here with King Hezekiah who is really trying to rally the people to worship God in the best way possible.  He calls on all of the surrounding nations and the surrounding tribes of Israel to come into Jerusalem and worship the Lord on the Passover.  It had not been done correctly in decades.  Many of those who received the messenger mocked the message and did not take seriously this attempt by the King to bring them closer to God.  We are doing just fine.

But those who came were still in great number.  If you were going to worship in the temple you had to be ritually clean in order to enter.  Well, that wasn’t necessarily followed by the people because they simply were out of practice and did not know what it took in order to be ritually clean.  Hezekiah asks the Levites, all of the priests to pray for the people so that God would know that they were at least trying, even if they didn’t get everything right.  At least they were trying to follow.  

God, of course, blesses them and the time is so significant, this week together of being blessed and sanctified before the Lord, that they decided to extend it another week.  As we read in vs.26 that this was a singular event: “there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.”  Hezekiah is finally doing what all of the kings before him should have done.

What a change you can experience from one king to the next.  I do not mean in administrations, but I guess that applies as well, but I do mean in kings as Hezekiah not only did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but he does so just as David had done.  That is a big deal.  In the very first year of his reign, in the very first month, his number one priority was to get the temple back in working order.  It had been used by Ahaz as a place for offerings to foreign divinities and things were just a mess in there.  It had to be reconsecrated.  Where does he get his motivation to do this in the name of the Lord?

Look at who his grandfather was.  Look at vs.1, we read that his mom is Abijah who was the daughter of Zechariah.  Remember Zechariah?  He was one of the prophets and we find a book of the Bible called after him.  So his mom is probably the one who gives him the marching orders on what he needed to do first, which was put the house of the Lord back in order.  

He is not satisfied with just cleaning up the temple a little bit.  He demands that the people of God make a new covenant with God just so that his fierce anger would turn away from them.  We read in vs.35 and following that the service of the house of the Lord was restored.  As a result of that restoration the people and Hezekiah rejoiced because of what God had done for them.  Then it leaves us with this little morsel: for the thing had come about suddenly.

We find in Scripture and in life that things can come about suddenly.  Normally when something happens suddenly it is something immensely negative.  But here we see a sudden transition to the people and the leader turning to God in a way that was genuine and long lasting.  Well, at least lasting as long as this leader is in place.

Ahaz was a bad, bad man and an even worse king.  We read about how he immediately moved away from the ways of the Lord and we read in detail about some of the things that he did which might surprise us.  He began by making cast images of baals, the god of the times and made offerings for those same baals as well.

But then we read in vs.3 something even more heinous than we could imagine.  It states that he made his sons “pass through fire”.  That means that he actually conducted human sacrifices of his own sons in order to appease and please these false gods that now consumed him and his way of being.  He was a mess and he was a disaster for Judah right at a time when Judah had experienced great prosperity under his father.  

As a result of his apostasy Judah was handed over to the king of Aram who took the people of Judah into captivity, this first captivity that took place under the prophet Isaiah, while he was still prophesying.  Then the northerners, the Israelites, they came and invaded as well.  This was actually a bit of a problem so God came and told them off, the northerners, and they left and did not take the people and the booty that they had originally planned on taking.  

In the middle of all this Ahaz asked for help from the king of Assyria, the sworn enemy to the people of God, and instead of coming to help, he came and conquered and took over Judah.  You read in vs.19 that the Lord brought Judah low because of king Ahaz.  In fact, the worse things got, we read in vs.22, the more faithless he was to the Lord.  In every city in Judah he made high places to all of the foreign gods.  He didn’t get the honor of being buried with the other kings.  Not a good king.  Hezekiah is next.  Let’s see how he does.

A short but sweet chapter on the reign of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the previous king.  We read that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.  I mean he really did what was right in the sight of the Lord which included not invading the house of the Lord.  I guess this means that he also didn’t get the added benefit of a little breakout of leprosy on your face.  So that is positive.  He defeats the Ammonites and they pay him a tax for years to come.  He rebuilds some of the towers and the walls of the Temple, and so that puts him in the good graces of God.  

But notice that even though you have a king who is following the way of the Lord, vs. 2 tells us that the people still followed corrupt practices.  You can’t force people to do that is right even if you lead them in ways that are right.  People will not always follow the example set by their leader, especially if it is a good example.  Now, more often than not, the people would follow a bad example of their leader.  

It is neat to see the overlap of the prophets with these kings.  We find both Zechariah and Isaiah mentioned in this chapter, and they are prophets that we know and with whom we are familiar.  So Uzziah takes over for his father after his father was killed.  He begins his rule when he is 16.  Can you imagine the US with a president who is 16 years old?  We read in vs.4 that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.  The reason for this is because Zechariah was guiding and directing him in the way of the Lord.  God makes him prosper as long as he seeks the Lord.

We read about his military conquests and of his rebuilding of the walls and the towers and the cisterns and all of the success that he has.  But then over time we read in vs. 16 that when he became strong he became proud.  This pride manifested itself by going into the temple and thinking that he didn’t need the presence of the priests in order to give of a sacrifice.  The priests gathered together and told him to leave, and he became angry, but then leprosy began to break out on his face and he decided to leave.

Nothing like a little leprosy breaking out on your face to make you realize that you probably shouldn’t do something that is against God’s will.  What would happen if each of us had a little leprosy break out on our face when we went against God’s will?  This world would probably be a better place if that were to happen.

King Amaziah starts off strong at a young 25 and he follows the way of the Lord, at least for a short time.  It is interesting that in vs.2 it states that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord but not with his whole heart and then this whole chapter is about him murdering and worshipping other gods,  strange.

He gets ready to go into battle after he has killed those who killed his father.  But he spares the children of those who killed his father because of the mosaic law that states you cannot blame the children for the sins of their fathers.  That seems almost kind even in the face of cold-blooded murder.

As he gets ready to go into battle he listens to the Lord and pears down his soldiers and those he sent home are so angry that they end up invading the home land and killing three thousand people and taking a lot of loot.  For me this is a bit unfair because Amaziah does what God asks him to do.  Okay, granted he comes home from battle with other gods and begins to worship them, but that was after the fact.  

He tries to get nice with the king of Israel, the northern king, but it backfires and as a result they kill him in Lachish and bring him back on horses.  Not a fun way to day.

Joash is 7 when he takes over the throne and become king.  We know that he has Jehoiadah who is guiding and directing him which is a good thing because what could a 7 year old do that would be helpful.  He reigns for ten years and he is only 17 at that time.  What good could a 17 year old do.  We do see that he reigns for a total of 40 years which would make him 47 when he was killed at the end of this chapter.

Now, Jehoiada continued to give him direction and guidance and together they rebuilt the temple and did all things that needed to be done in order to restore the presence of the Lord back in Jerusalem at the temple.  This included a temple tax which the people joyfully gave and celebrated because they could see the direct impact that tax had on rebuilding the temple.  That is the key component to any giving.  If you can see a direct result of your giving you will be more than likely grateful to give.

Once Jehoiada dies, then things go downhill fast.  Not even his son, Zecheriah, is able to prevent the downslide.  Joash kills Zecheriah and as a result he opens himself up to an invasion which comes shortly after that.  This invasion then leads to his death.  Upon his death his son, Amaziah, succeeds him.  You wonder if the cycle is going to continue or if Amaziah is going to lead the people in the direction that God would want them to go.  We will see the next chapter.

Talk about cleaning house.  While in the past we see the king take the initiative in ensuring that God’s will would be done and that order was established in the land, here it is the high priest who takes the reins and reinstates the king, drives out the false queen, Athaliah, and throws out the gods and their temples and reinstates not only the political king but also the presence of the Lord as the sole presence of the deity.  Jehoiada is the reformer who brings back that which the Lord wanted from Israel all along.

The most pernicious cycle that we see happening in the life of Israel is that they do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord which primarily consists of worshipping false gods.  God raises up someone to bring order and a refocus on the priorities of the people of God, that person reigns and then they die and then confusions reigns.  

We find ourselves in the state where Athaliah is dethroned.  She enters the temple and see that Joash is being crowned the new king, he was the son of the king after all, and she yells treason expecting the crowd in the temple to follow after her.  Well, they do follow after her but only to kill her.  Joash is now king and we hope that this also means an instilling of peace and the pursuit of God as a result.  Let’s see what happens next.

Remember when I mentioned that I believe in the inerrant truths of Scripture?  That is far different from believing that every single word is inerrant.  Here we have what we call a text critical issue.  The king Jehoram dies when he is 40 (21:18-20) and his son takes over, according to the text, when the son, Ahaziah, is 42.  How in the world can the son be older than the father?  While the Hebrew may say 42 it is thought that there was a misrepresentation over time and it should be 22.  I do not have an issue with the text not representing accurately for every single line.  Have you seen my typos?

But back to the Scripture.  Jehoram followed the ways of the north as they worshipped false gods, his son does the same.  This ill fated rule which was set up because all of the royal family and specifically the brothers were killed only lasts a single year.  Then something historic happens.  The mother of Ahaziah takes over the throne.  This was unheard of because it is not like what we find in the United Kingdom.  There was no such thing as the queen, it was the male who took over the throne.  Only a male could be crowned king.  But not here since everyone else was killed the mom of Ahaziah, Athaliah, takes over and her first step is to kill the entire royal family.  

But she misses someone.  Joash was hid by his mom and you will see that he ends up taking over as time goes on.  But that is for another chapter.

Now we start to see the decline of Judah as we transition to a king who loved God, Jehoshaphat, to his son who was in it for himself.  Look at what he does in his first 100 days in office.  Jehoshaphat had many sons, but his eldest was Jehoram.  As soon as he takes office he kills all of his brothers.  They were a threat to him.  Instead of rooting for his rivals he decides to root up his rivals and destroy them.  He does so.  He also “walked in the way of the kings of Israel.”  That is not a good thing.

God does not destroy him and his lineage because he had promised to David that his kingdom would last forever.  As a result we have these splinter groups break out from Judah because they saw the unfaithfulness of the king and wanted to obey God in ways that would give God glory.  Edom was one of them.  

We also see the prophet Elijah, remember him, the one who killed the prophets of baal.  He sends word from God that God will punish him and destroy his family except for one to take over the throne.  The king is also promised to receive a disease of the bowels that would ultimately destroy him and cause a lot of pain and suffering.  In the meantime the Philistines came and carried away all of the possessions of the land.  

Once Jehoram dies they bury him but do not give him a kingly burial.  I love the understatements that are used in this passage.  Look at vs.20: “He departed with no one’s regret.”  Basically, no one was sorry that he died.  He was buried in the Jerusalem but not in the tombs of the kings.  He was not respected as a king because he was so bad.  I guess that’s what happens when you try to go rogue and govern as you want to and not as God wants you to.