[Brother V]

2 Chronicles 34-36

Today ends Chronicles (technically chronicles of the kings of Judah). Throughout both books of Chronicles we've been told the stories of the offspring of David/Solomon.

Today we get:

• Josiah as king
• Josiah's passover
• Jehoahaz as king
• Eliakim/ Jehoiakim as king
• Jeconiah as king
• Zedekiah the last king

2 Chronicles 34

1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.

Josiah's father Amon was 24 when he died; he became a father at 16 years old. Josiah reigned until he was roughly 39 years old.

2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.

Well, it's about time we have a good king, through his entire life again.

3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.

When Josiah was 16, he gave his life to Christ (even though Christ wasn't around yet; but that's what he did). Now, this goes to show the age of ACCOUNTABILITY. Josiah was old enough to be king at 8, but he wasn't mature enough to realize that he should worship the LORD until he was 16. When he was 20 he started house cleaning. Parents today push their children to accept Jesus at very young ages (I've seen pre-teens baptized), Josiah was 16 before he became "religious". If a person isn't mature enough to drive/drink/vote, how will they be able to make an informed decision about their religion?

In Josiah's purging, they broke the altars of the false gods; even better than that; they defiled the altars by killing their priests on them, burning their bones and offering that to the false gods!

5 And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.

8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

Josiah's timeline was:

8, become king
16, follow the LORD
20, purge Judah of false gods
26, repair the temple

14 And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses.

Apparently all the previous kings who worshiped the LORD did it by what they thought was right; and by what they were told by the Levites and priests. It wasn't until Josiah (and we don't know from when; possibly Solomon) that they actually had the LAW again.

So the law was presented as a gift to Josiah; it was probably to be a great gift; but as it was read, Josiah realized that they were all DOOMED!

19 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.

What was nice about the LORD, was that He wouldn't destroy Judah, at least until they knew what they were being destroyed for. The recovery of Moses law was the needed impetus for the LORD to wipe Judah out.

So the king sent out some people to question Huldah the prophetess on what God was gonna do.

21 Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book.

She told them.

24 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah:

25 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.

She did tell them that the LORD was somewhat merciful and he wouldn't kill them all until after Josiah's reign ended.

The king tried to make the LORD forget that he was gonna kill them all, and he tried to make a covenant with the LORD.

31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.

Then Josiah went out and cleared the rest of Judah of anything else that could be thought of as somebody else worship.

2 Chronicles 35

1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

This was one of the greatest passover's ever.

11 And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.

12 And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen.

Makes you wonder what the previous passover of Hezekiah was like. Did they have the book of Moses with them? Or did they just kind of wing it and do what they thought they should do?

18 And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

They hadn't had a passover this good since Samuel; probably.

19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.

So this was done after the priests repaired the temple. It seems that every time the temple is repaired, there is a passover immediately after.

20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

This would have been Necho 2 (the revenge) of Egypt came to fight the Babylonians. Josiah sided with the Babylonians against the Syrians/Egyptians.

Necho didn't want to fight against Judah.

21 But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.

In fact, the LORD commanded Necho to kill the Babylonians but to leave Judah alone. But Josiah wanted to fight, so he went out anyway.

23 And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.

When someone tells you they don't want to fight you, you should probably not fight them.

In this instance, Josiah got shot and died.

2 Chronicles 36

1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem.

Next king of Judah, Jehoahaz.

2 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

Josiah died at 39, so he also was 16 when he had a child.

Necho decided he wanted some tribute from Judah, so he charged them 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold. Then he took Jehoahaz captive. In Jehoahaz's place, he put his older brother Eliakim as king of Judah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim.

5 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

Well, Jehoiakim was Jehoahaz's older brother, so Josiah had Eliakim when he was 14.

The king of Babylon came and captured most of Judah and captured Jehoiakim.

He also took most of the stuff from the temple.

Replacing Jehoaikim as king was Jehoiachin.

9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.

(The book of kings says he was 18). Jehoiakim was 36 when he was replaced, so Jehoiakim was either a father at age 18, or 28.

10 And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar had enough of the 9 year old king, and put Zedekiah as king.

11 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

This was pretty much the same year as Jehoiakim's removal, so Zedekiah was born when Jehoiakim was 15.

12 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD.

Since Zedekiah was the last king, he was also the last of the bad kings.

13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.

Zedekiah may have been an atheist. He wouldn't swear by any gods let alone the one REAL God.

17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.

The Chaldees were members of Babylon. They killed everyone.

18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.

They took all the stuff from the temple.

19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.

They burned everything else down.

20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

Everyone who wasn't killed was taken away. The Babylonians didn't do nation building, they did the opposite. They may not have killed everyone right away; their goal was to breed their enemies out of existence. Same as the Jews tried to do to the Moabites; the Babylonians were almost successful against the hebes. If you can't destroy them, dilute their precious bloodlines so that no one has any claim to being a purebred anymore. Think Locally; Fvck Globally!

So what have we learned today?

1. When you finally get to read the word of the LORD, you will probably realize that you are due to get your ass delivered to you.

2. Necho 2 didn't WANT to kill Josiah; but sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

3. "He ain't gotta be a black boy to be livin like a slave/ Rich people have always stayed on top by dividing white people from colored people/ but white people got more in common with colored people then they do with rich people/ we just gotta eliminate them. White people, black people, brown people, yellow people, get rid of 'em all/ All we need is a voluntary, free spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction/ Everybody just gotta keep fvckin' everybody til they're all the same color."