Posts that reference the book of 2 Kings

2 Kings

Revival Begins with Repentance

We’re in the home stretch in our look at Biblical revivals. This week, King Josiah leads Judah in their last revival. Babylonian captivity looms in the near future. Josiah’s three sons and a grandson will be the final kings. Knowing that, it seems strange to consider how revivals begin this late in the game. But it is King Josiah’s response to the truth in God’s word that prompts the reforms and revival that followed — repentance.

Josiah is a good king.

Josiah became king at age eight after his father’s assassination. After the moral and spiritual collapse under Manasseh and Amon, no one remembered the revival under Hezekiah or anything else the good king had done. Josiah began to seek God, the God of David, while still in his teens. As a young man, he worked to rid the nation of all traces of the idols worshipped by his father and grandfather. Then he began a temple restoration project and ensured the project was adequately funded.

Maybe we can see some similarities between our lives and Josiah’s. We aren’t royal, but maybe we started following Jesus early in life. Maybe we’ve worked hard to rid our lives of ungodly influences. Maybe we’re committed to the work of the church and give generously to it. That doesn’t mean we don’t need repentance and revival.

The Word of God prompts repentance.

Then the court secretary Shaphan told the king, “The priest Hilkiah has given me a book,” and Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.
2 Kings 22:10-11

Faced with the inescapable truth that he and the nation had fallen well short of God’s holy standard, the king tore his clothes in a sign of deep grief and repentance. Hebrews tells us about the power of God’s word:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12

Consider your own response to the word of God. Is it just a collection of feel-good sayings? Has it been reduced to slogans for stickers and t-shirts? Or is it a brutally honest mirror, showing us who we really are? It should be. But that’s a very good thing. When we see who we are in all our ugly wretchedness, we see the full, glorious mercy, grace, and love of God through Jesus Christ.

Repentance leads to action.

Josiah was already taking actions that evidenced his devotion to God. After hearing the Law, his personal grief and repentance prompted even more action. He shared God’s Law with his entire kingdom, personally reading it to them. He led the nation to publicly recommit themselves to God. He removed every vestige of idol worship from the kingdom and required worship of the One True God.

Likewise, if our time in God’s word leads us to repentance, our actions must follow. We can’t go back to our routine. If changes like sharing the gospel, renewing our commitment to God, and removing distractions and enticements to sin from our lives aren’t the next step, maybe what we experienced was closer to regret or remorse rather than genuine repentance.

And genuine repentance can’t help but lead to revival.

We have two more revivals. Both occurred after the Jews returned to the land after seventy years of Babylonian captivity.

Too Discouraged to See God at Work

By Paula

Exodus 6:9 “When Moses told this to the Israelites, they were too discouraged and mistreated to believe him.” (CEV)

Moses told them God had heard.
He was marshaling His mighty power on their behalf, fulfilling His promises, pouring out His grace.

And they couldn’t see it.
All they knew was their situation and how it left them.
Discouraged.
Despondent.
Beaten down.
Broken.

They couldn’t see His hand in their circumstances,
and yet, He was doing far more than they asked.

Is He working on my behalf in ways I can’t see?
Is He working on your behalf in ways you can’t see?

Yes.

Don’t believe me – pray like Elisha 2 Kings 6:17 “Open my eyes that I may see.”

Intercession: When Trouble Comes

By Paula Wiseman

Intercession is going to God on someone’s behalf. It a holy privilege and duty, not to be taken lightly. It is strenuous and it can be messy. But it is one of the greatest ways we can minister and show love to others. We have learned from Nehemiah and his BURDEN for others, and from Daniel and his IDENTIFICATION with those for whom he was interceding. Most recently, we learned from Elijah how to pray for those who are sick. Today we’ll learn from King Hezekiah how to pray for ourselves and others when trouble comes.

Hezekiah was the king of Judah, the southern kingdom. In 701 BC, the mighty Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem ready to lay siege to the capital city and complete its conquest of the nation. Twenty years earlier, Assyria had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel so the threat was very real to everyone. Hezekiah had emptied the treasury and stripped the gold from the doors of the Temple to get a tribute of eleven tons of silver and a ton of gold. This did not satisfy the Assyrian king. His general delivered a letter to Hezekiah, threatening him and mocking the God he served.

In 2 Kings 19, Hezekiah took the letter to the Temple and laid to before the Lord and he prayed.

Hezekiah approached God on the basis of His covenant relationship with Israel, and His place above all as creator.

15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: Lord God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you are God — you alone — of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.

How do we approach God? We have a unique position and relationship with Him because of the blood of Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 4:16). But coming boldly is not the same thing as coming with flippancy, demands or a sense of entitlement.

Hezekiah next draws attention to the Assyrians’ sacrilegious mocking of God.

16 Listen closely, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.

Notice this. God’s glory and God’s reputation are Hezekiah’s primary concerns. He does not mention the cities that have already been overrun by the Assyrians. He does not mention whether the city of Jerusalem has enough provisions for the coming siege. He does not mention the size of his army versus the size of the Assyrian army. Even when trouble came, Hezekiah understood that when God is revered as God the other things fall into place.

Finally, Hezekiah requests deliverance so that God gets the glory.

19 Now, Lord our God, please save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are God — you alone.

Hezekiah could have prayed, Save us so that Your people whom You love don’t suffer. Or perhaps, Save us so the city You have chosen isn’t destroyed. But he didn’t. He prayed for God to be recognized as God alone.

None of this is to say that if you pray using these words, God will automatically answer like it is some incantation. That is NOT how God works. Rather it is an invitation to consider how our hard times can be situations where God gets glory. We, that is I, usually seek the restoration of my own equilibrium, I seek relief from hardship. I complain and launch into how God doesn’t love me because He fell asleep at the wheel and let these terrible things happen. It’s not fair. I have been a faithful servant. And on and on.

What Hezekiah models in his prayer is that we need to take a step back and see a bigger picture. He keeps God’s character and His greater purposes in focus. He knows what the Assyrians are capable of. He is afraid– any sane person would be, but because he knows God’s power and God’s character, when trouble comes Hezekiah prays that this trouble would be an opportunity for God’s glory to be revealed.

That is a prayer of great faith.

A Study in Contrasts: Namaan

By Paula

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 Kings 5:1

We are continuing our look at contrasts in Scripture marked by the conjunction “but.” Today we have a straightforward one with the Syrian commander Namaan.

When I was a kid, this was a pretty popular story in the Sunday school rotation. Who knows, maybe it was a roundabout way to impress on all of us the importance of taking a bath. (Kind of like how Daniel 1 is used to encourage kids to eat vegetables.) But in the last fifteen or so years that I taught Sunday school, we never covered Namaan. So if you’ve missed out on his story, let me give you some background.

Namaan was the commander of the army of Syria. Syria had just soundly defeated the Israelite armies under King Ahab, who was joined by Judah’s King Jehoshaphat. You can read about the battle of Ramoth-Gilead in 1 Kings 22. The Jewish historian Josephus believes Namaan was the archer who fired the shot that eventually killed King Ahab. (1 Kings 22:34).

A quick check of his resume in 2 Kings 5:1 lists him as a great man, highly favored, victorious in battle (even God-given victories), a mighty man of valor. BUT he was a leper. Leprosy, as described in the Old Testament, could be anything from a regular rash that healed quickly to the incurable disease that often resulted in a loss of digits and eventually death. Leprosy made the sufferer an outcast. Sometimes people were stricken with leprosy as a judgment from God like with Moses’s sister, Miriam, and King Uzziah.

In Scripture, leprosy is a “type” of sin or kind of a symbol. Our sin cuts us off from God’s presence just like leprosy prevents the sufferer from joining with the community. The only cure for leprosy was divine intervention. The only way our sin can be dealt with is by Christ’s death on our behalf.

If you finish reading 2 Kings 5, you find that Namaan receives his cure. His wife’s maid, an Israelite captive, tells them of the mighty prophet Elisha who prescribes a cure for the commander. However, the cure involves humbly submitting to doing things the way the prophet said.

With all that in mind, let’s consider some takeaways from Namaan’s story.

The successful and powerful need Jesus.
A quick glance of any news broadcast– whether politics, sports, or entertainment– will reveal scores of people who have reached the heights of power and influence, but who are cut off from a relationship with the God of heaven. Pray that the “maid” who has access to them can tell the good news that there is a cure. Consider who you might be the “maid” or the “prophet” to.

Humility is hard but life-changing.
Not just for the powerful and influential, either. In 2 Kings 5:11, Namaan became furious because the healing was not going to come the way he envisioned. However, as soon as he gave up his protests and his pride and followed instructions, healing came. Consider the sources of anger or frustration in your life. Would those situations be helped or resolved by the humility?

The glory is God’s alone.
Namaan was overwhelmed by the miracle in his life and, in his enthusiasm, he wanted to give a generous gift to Elisha. The prophet refused. This not only sent a message that messengers of the One True God were different from the pagan priests and prophets in Syria (and Israel too), but that glory for the healing belonged to God. Elisha wouldn’t risk any misunderstanding of that. Consider where God deserves glory in your life and make sure He receives it.

Read more from the Study in Contrasts series

Lessons from the Good Kings: Jotham

By Paula

So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. 2 Chronicles 27:6

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been surveying the lives of some of the kings of Judah. Today is our last one. Maybe you’re not into history. But all of these guys– Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah— should encourage us and bring us hope. That’s why we have their stories. We’ll finish up with Jotham.

Jotham was a young man, only twenty-five when he ascended to the throne. However, he was well-prepared for his reign. We saw last week that his father, Uzziah, had been struck with leprosy and forced to live out his last years in seclusion. This left Jotham to fulfill all the official duties of a king for a full decade before ruling on his own.

Scripture doesn’t tell us very much about Jotham, fewer than two dozen verses in fact, so it’s tempting to skip him as unimportant. But a close, thoughtful reading shows some admirable things about this king.

Jotham learned from his father’s failures.

2 Chronicles 27:2 makes a point of telling us that Jotham did not enter the Temple presumptuously. Furthermore, the chronicler uses the very same word to describe Jotham — mighty — as he did for Uzziah in 26:16. However, that was the moment Uzziah became filled with pride. Jotham was tremendously blessed with civil, financial and military success, but he remained humble.

We need to be wise enough to learn from others. It is easy to tell ourselves that the bad outcomes won’t happen to us, that we will somehow be different, but that rarely happens. Jotham knew pride and presumption led to disastrous consequences and he resolved not to give in to it.

Jotham remained committed to God, leading by example, even though his subjects persisted in their corrupt lifestyles.

As king, there is no doubt his every move was scrutinized. There is no comment on whether or not Jotham was a popular king, only that he was a godly one.

We too must remain steadfast even when we are in the minority. This will only be more difficult as our culture becomes more and more stridently anti-God. (Unless of course God intervenes and a great revival breaks out.)

Jotham’s purposefully ordered his life, his routines, his habits so that they lined up with God’s law.

His life was marked not simply be the absence of evil but by the presence of godliness.

We can’t expect a God-honoring life to happen by accident. It takes intentional effort to cultivate as well as time and practice to make it a reality. Let’s renew our commitment to holiness.

Unfortunately, Jotham’s reign was a short one. He died at forty-one and his son Ahaz became king. Ahaz was the opposite of his father. He worshiped the idols of Israel and even sacrificed his children to the false gods. (2 Chronicles 28:3) Not even a stunning defeat at the hands of Israel and Syria, including the death of his own son in the battle, could bring Ahaz back to his senses. However, Jotham’s grandson, Hezekiah, built on the foundation of devotion to God. You can read about Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32 and in the book of Isaiah.

The thing that stands out to me in this survey of the kings is that godliness is not necessarily passed on. Some good kings had evil sons. Sometimes, we as teachers, leaders, or parents can instruct and model faith, but each individual must decide to embrace it. That decision is out of our hands.

On the flip side, some good godly kings came from wicked, idolatrous parents. This shows that legacy is not destiny. We shouldn’t write anyone off because of their family or background.

We’ll start a new series next week!

Hello My Name Is Abijah

By Paula

Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. 2 Chronicles 29:1

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve looked at some “footnote” people in Scripture. They are people whose stories aren’t the most familiar, but their character and faithfulness are just as solid. For today, I’ll say up front that most of my case is by inference. Let me explain.

Hezekiah became king of Judah in 729 BC. Now, he had probably been a co-regent with his father Ahaz since 715 BC, or since he was eleven years old. Ahaz was not a good king, morally or politically. In spite of the advice of prophets like Isaiah, he led Judah to a very dark place. He shut up the doors of the Temple so no one could worship (2 Chr 28:24), gave the utensils inside to try to pay off the Assyrians and had a new altar built to match the one he saw in Syria. His immersion in the worship of Molech was so complete that he sacrificed his own son to the false god (2 Kings 16:3). The historian summed him up this way: Now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the LORD. This is that King Ahaz. 2 Chronicles 28:22

So, with that kind of example, it’s almost miraculous that Hezekiah turned out to be the godly king that he was. Sure Isaiah was around, but if Ahaz didn’t pay attention to the prophet, why would his son? Someone laid a tremendous foundation for Hezekiah, a foundation so strong that when he was no longer a co-regent but a king in his own right, he began to turn the nation back to God.

With that inference, I’m guessing it was his mother, Abijah. She would have had a great deal of contact with and influence over her son during his early years, the years before his father took him to begin instructing him in the ways of the court. Perhaps young Hezekiah’s grandfather, Jotham, a godly king had some influence. Perhaps, Abijah’s parents also played a role.

Someone was courageous enough and committed enough to stand against culture. Whoever they were, people in the future king’s life pointed him toward strong, active faith in God. Admittedly, that’s not always enough. Hezekiah had to embrace that faith for himself, but seeing people around him, like the prophets, like his mother and grandparents perhaps, helped solidify that. As believers in Christ, we have to exemplify that same courage and commitment.

Someone took instructing the next generation seriously. We don’t know what God has in store for the young people around us, but we know that they won’t pick up the tenets of faith by osmosis. We have to be intentional, and take advantage of the time and opportunities we have, whether it’s our kids, our grandkids, the kids at church, or the kids in the neighborhood.

Someone understood what was at stake. Embracing the idolatry of the Syrians and selling out to the Assyrians threatened the nation of Judah’s very existence. Unfortunately, they were a minority. Less than a hundred and fifty years later, Judah was devastated by Babylon. We have to understand that while society is at risk, the eternal destinies of countless people are even more threatened by everything from apathy and indifference to outright hostility. We must invest in the people around us.

Who are you influencing for Christ?
Who influenced and instructed you?

Previous weeks: Obadiah, Ebed-Melech

Revival Begins with Repentance

Josiah is a good king.

The Word of God prompts repentance.

Repentance leads to action.

Too Discouraged to See God at Work

Intercession: When Trouble Comes

Hezekiah approached God on the basis of His covenant relationship with Israel, and His place above all as creator.

Hezekiah next draws attention to the Assyrians’ sacrilegious mocking of God.

Finally, Hezekiah requests deliverance so that God gets the glory.

A Study in Contrasts: Namaan

With all that in mind, let’s consider some takeaways from Namaan’s story.

Lessons from the Good Kings: Jotham

Jotham learned from his father’s failures.

Jotham remained committed to God, leading by example, even though his subjects persisted in their corrupt lifestyles.

Jotham’s purposefully ordered his life, his routines, his habits so that they lined up with God’s law.

Hello My Name Is Abijah

Encounters Series

Covenant of Trust Series

Foundations Series