2 Kings 17 - 25

Speaker 1 00:00:15 Welcome to the weekly deep dive podcast on the add on education network, the podcast where we take a look at the week, come follow me discussion and try to add a little insight and unique perspective. I am your host, Jason Lloyd here in the studio with my friend and this show's producer, Nate Piper. What's up? Hey Nate. Hey buddy. Headed to Alaska. Huh? You know it. Oh, I'm jealous. Wait, we'll see how that goes. <laugh> have fun travel safe. Good to you're you're not the only one that gets to travel, bro. Yeah. Well, it's good to be home and not travel for a minute. Yeah, that's actually true too. I get that. Um, so we are diving into, I don't know, maybe some of the most tragic scriptures in, in the old Testament and that is the destruction of not just Israel, but Judah. And I don't know if you guys have noticed this as we've been reading through these scriptures that typically they refer to the Northern kingdom as Israel and the Southern kingdom as Judah. All right. So let's dive into first is gonna be the destruction of the Northern kingdom. Israel. Let's get it by the, uh, Syrians dang as Syrians. And, and so, you know, for the record, I mean, we'll hit this when we get to, uh, Jonah, but the capital of ASER is Niva. Whoa. Yeah. Some Jonah Niva some Jonah Niva. Yeah. We'll, we'll get you that context when that comes along. But this is, uh, right around that timeframe, but we're not talking about Jonah today. Speaker 1 00:01:53 Soha is ruling in the north and he's doing a terrible job and, and that's kind of why they're blaming the destruction on him. One of the, one of the more interesting things I see in this is the king of the north does a terrible job. And so they all get deported because of it. Thanks a lot king in the north and the south, it's like, no, our king was righteous. We were righteous. It was his grandpa that really wrecked us. And so we're paying the consequence of a different generation because we're good people. I, I don't know. I, I find it a little interesting how they shift that blame. Like they, they have a hard time accepting accountability in the moment. It's easy to point fingers when it's somebody else. Speaker 1 00:02:37 So for context's sake, a Syria is north of Israel and it becomes a mighty power. At this time. It's gonna conquer the entire near east. It's gonna come down to, uh, Babylon and it's even gonna pass through Israel all the way down to Egypt and Egypt. That's kind of like another superpower at the time. And Israel's thinking maybe we can rely on Egypt to help. And as serious saying no, like lying, relying on Egypt is like leaning on a broken read because the Reed Snapp just gotta sharp edge. Just gonna go right through your hand and hurt you. Don't rely on a, a country that's not willing to back you up or support you or be there to help you out. Israel wants to form a Confederacy. Uh, there's a whole cool in here and things that are gonna happen that we really don't get to get into in this scripture that's happening at this timeframe, but we will get into it to help us understand the Isaiah prophecies because Isaiah is living right around this timeframe as well. Speaker 1 00:03:44 Anyhow, they try to, they try to form a Confederacy with, with Judas king, replace him and, and then go to war against a Syria that comes back to bite. As Syria comes through, destroys Damascus, destroys Israel, and they even destroy most of, of Judah. But when they go to destroy Israel, Israel, um, as Syria has a policy that they take people out of the country that they conquer, relocate them all throughout their kingdom. And the idea that it's going to disrupt their ability to unite and fight back against them. And when they pull all of these people out and they conquer Northern Israel, a bunch of lions come outta the woods. And, and so they're relocating people from all of these different kingdoms into Northern Israel, and these lions start tearing them up and destroying them. And so they say to the kingdoms of a Syria, like, look, obviously we have offended the gods of the land by bringing in these people that don't know how to worship the gods of this land. Speaker 1 00:04:55 And if they don't know how to worship the gods of this land, they're never going to prosper. If they don't prosper, we don't get good tribute. We don't get good money. We don't have a happy people. We, we don't wanna cohesive people that will unify and fight against us, but we do wanna prosperous, somewhat happy people. So the solution is let's get Levis that we conquered from Israel and send them back and they will teach the people how to obey the law of Jehovah while they're in there. So that lions don't come and eat them anymore. So they send these Levis down the Levis, teach them about worshiping the Lord and what that means. And now you have a people in the north that's a mixed race. They're part Israel, they're part priest, they're part other nations or Gentiles, but they're worshiping God and they're worshiping oftentimes their own gods as well. So remember how Elijah's saying, how long are you gonna limp between two? These people are definitely limping between two. They worship God, but they also worship the gods from where they came. So it's kind of this mixed race. And, and by the way, do you know what the capital of Israel is Jerusalem? No, that's Judah Southern, Speaker 2 00:06:17 Uh, Speaker 1 00:06:20 Bethlehem Samaria Samaria, Speaker 2 00:06:23 Of course, obviously. Speaker 1 00:06:25 So what, what do you call a bunch of, uh, mixed races living in Samaria that worship the Lord that Judah worships, but they also have these pagans and these Gentiles mixed in that make 'em unholy or unclean Samaritan. This is the beginning of the Samaritans. Speaker 2 00:06:45 I got it. Right? Speaker 1 00:06:45 Answer baby. Yeah, buddy. This is where, this is where the whole rivalry with Samaria, the Samaritans. It, it kind of begins ever since the kingdom split because there's a little bit of Amity between Judah and Joseph and, and Joseph, his son E from is the capital of Israel. So this is E froms territory and Samaria's the capital there. So they always have this little bit of a rivalry like between brothers and they, they don't like each other, but this mixing of Gentile, nations and IPR practice really becomes the part where the Jews look at them with, with serious disdain. Like you are not holy, you've been mixing all of these nations in and all of these different practices, even though they did worship the Lord. And, and in some instances, the Samaritan scriptures, the Samaritan records, and some of the things that Samaritans did, it might Riv be even more true to, to, to practice of what the Lord expected. So it, it's kinda interesting for what it's worth. Speaker 3 00:07:49 Very cool. Speaker 1 00:07:52 So when, when the king of a Syria goes down and conquers all the way down through Egypt, and he takes all of the cities and the walled cities of Jerusalem, excuse me, of Judah. He takes everything but Jerusalem, and, and this is really cool. Not always do you see records from the ancient world, from outside sources that line up with what we read in the Bible, but in son's own writing. So he is the king of a Syria. He describes it as I have taken all of these cities, everything but Jerusalem. And he Akia, I have like a caged bird ready to stick my hand in and pluck him out. So we, we actually have good conformity with the historical record and the biblical record for these stories. Now, it's interesting when we start talking about the Southern kingdom, cuz Northern kingdom really ceases to be relevant at this point with, with this Syria and it just, the Bible doesn't ever treat it the same. Speaker 1 00:08:54 But with Southern kingdom was, we're gonna start rolling into their demise. In these next few chapters, you're going to see an interesting pattern of righteous king wicked king wicked king righteous king. He AIAA is counted as, uh, an extremely righteous king. And perhaps this is the reason why Jerusalem stays independent and doesn't fall at this time with the Syria and, and how they get delivered. But when, when the Syrians come down, snack group takes his army down and he, he kind of posts there and lake ish and we even, we have all sorts of records from this time period. We even have the lake ish letters and letters written from the city of lake ish, which was a, a town or a city in Judah, but it wasn't part of Jerusalem. So it was all of these walled cities fall. And these correspondences that go back and forth and what's happening. Speaker 1 00:09:50 We have all of these records in here and when the king laid siege to Jerusalem, he had it all surrounded so that they were gonna starve the people out. Think of what we saw last week with Elisha and, and the part where they're selling pigeon dug because everyone's besieged and they have no food and things are getting desperate Andina expert and Sakri sends a messenger to go and talk to the people of Israel. And the messenger speaks in Hebrew to the people. And one has AKA's man. This translator says, don't speak in Hebrew, speak in as a Syrian, we have translators. We'll understand. We don't want the people hearing what you have to say. And the translator's like, oh no. Or excuse me. The, the rims message is like, my message is for everybody. And his message is don't trust God, but it's an interesting message because he says your Lord is the one that commanded sin NARI to come down here and take you out anyways, which is true. Speaker 1 00:10:55 Not just from, from what the, as Syrian's saying, but from what the Bible tells us, even Isaiah, when he describes this and he says that an enzyme will I lift up to the nations? This enzyme is a call to the, as Syrians to the Babylonians, to the Egyptians, to come and to raid the Lord's people. And, and the Bible tells us that the, as Syrians were called to come and, and work this destructive work because of the wickedness of the people. So it is interesting that this messenger saying, Hey, so, you know, we're on the Lord's errand. The Lord sent an acro here to take care of you. So why do you think the Lord's going to protect you? But it is interesting because as he goes on with his taut, he AIAA and his righteousness had ordered the destruction of the high places, the groves, the, the cult places of worship all throughout Jerusalem, because they had turned away from the Lord and they, they were worshiping, but all they were worshiping other gods and, and Zakiya is destroying all of that. Speaker 1 00:12:00 So when this messenger goes, he says your king has destroyed the worship of God. And, and it's interesting because he connotes all of these high places and sacred places and things that has Akaya destroys with Jehovah worship. He says, your king has, has given up on Jehovah or else. He wouldn't have destroyed all of these ways in which you worship Jehovah. So it's interesting to note the Jewish people, as much as they were, uh, practicing idolatrous practice, a lot of them were doing these, uh, adopting these foreign practices to still worship the Lord. Very similar in what you see with the golden calf. They, they still wanted to worship the Lord, but they were adopting foreign manners and how to do it. Speaker 1 00:12:49 So Sakri, I, I, the King's there, he's trying to demoralize the people he's asking for he Akaya to, to give all the gold that he has. He AKA is melting the doors off the temple, the gold off of the temple doors and everything. He can get to try to pay this off and save his people nothing's working. And, and he consults Isaiah the prophet. And we're, we'll read this about this. And Isaiah, cuz Isaiah, this is where the prophecies, the beautiful prophecies start coming of the a child shall be born to a Virgin. And, and when you think it's talking about Christ and it does have dual fulfillment in that, but he's also talking about the Lord, delivering this people in this day and what's going to happen and, and how they're not gonna have to worry, but how some of these Des distractions are gonna happen and how the Lord's going to redeem them and how they're gonna be scattered. And yet again, how they're gonna be restored. So, so this is definitely the timeframe of, of Isaiah. Anyhow, Speaker 4 00:13:50 How do the, what do, what do like people in the Jewish religion? How do they take all of these Isaiah scriptures that are directly prophesying of Jesus? Speaker 1 00:14:02 Well, in, in this case, it's almost not directed prophesying of Jesus. When you talk about let, let's just take a second to look that verse up. Cuz when he says a child shall be born. Speaker 4 00:14:14 Yeah. Speaker 1 00:14:15 Give me a second. I'm flipping my pages than Isaiah. Speaker 4 00:14:19 You, you actually flip through scriptures faster than most people. You were probably that dude in seminary, always winning in the scripture. Chase weren't you <laugh>, you can say it, dude. You can, you can take a victory lap Speaker 1 00:14:31 Seminary. Speaker 4 00:14:33 I went to two years of seminary. Yeah. I think I was supposed to go to four, but I stopped going. Pretty Speaker 1 00:14:39 Sure you're supposed to go to four, but I don't blame you for, oh, I shouldn't say Speaker 4 00:14:42 That. I mean, it was tough. You can, you don't. It was tough. But they tried to gimme a two year degree still. I'm like, what is that all about? It's basically like those, uh, fake callings that they give you in certain wars. Just cuz they need you to like still keep coming to church. Tried to, they tried to gimme a two year seminary degree. Just try to get me to go to seminary graduation Speaker 1 00:15:07 By fake calling. Are you talking about um, your second counselor in the Sunday school presidency? <laugh> Speaker 4 00:15:15 What Speaker 1 00:15:16 Cause. Cause that, that was, Speaker 4 00:15:19 Are you calling me? Are you telling me that that's a fake you're telling me that my calling's a fake calling. Speaker 1 00:15:24 That was also my calling. Speaker 4 00:15:25 No, I, I mean it's a pretty, it's a pretty relaxed calling hang out in the library and Speaker 1 00:15:32 Cause even the holy ghost doesn't know who the second counselor. Speaker 4 00:15:35 Oh yeah. Oh man. Just beating my calling up right now. Speaker 1 00:15:39 Ah, that's terrible. Speaker 4 00:15:40 Mostly like, well, nevermind. I don't wanna start calling out other people's callings too, but there's definitely some, we just need you to come to church callings in this church. I feel like that that's a two year seminary degree. <laugh> it's a, will you please just come to seminary graduation as a, as an 18 year old to hopefully feel some sort of the spirit in your, in your troubled youth? I was like, Nope. So they sent it to me in the mail. Speaker 1 00:16:05 Oh boy, Speaker 4 00:16:06 They made that thing up for me, dude. Speaker 1 00:16:08 <laugh> they made it up. All right. I'm in Isaiah chapter Speaker 4 00:16:12 Seven. Okay. There we go. Speaker 1 00:16:14 Uh, and it, and it came to pass in the days of a, has the son of Jotham the son of Uzi king of Judah that resin and the king of Syria. And PECA the king of rammalia king of Israel went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David saying Syria is Confederate with Efram and his heart was moved. And the heart of his people as the trees of the water, moved with the wind. So to give you context here, that king, the king of Israel, and remember Israel is the north. So, so resin, the king of Syria. And PECA the son of Amalia. King of Israel went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail. Why, why, why is Israel and Syria going to war against Jerusalem is because they want to rebel against a Syria, but they know that neither of them stand a chance against a Syria. Speaker 1 00:17:11 The only way they can defeat a Syria is if they're to get Jerusalem on their side. So the United Kingdom of Israel, both south and north and the kingdom of Syria, those three nations together might stand a chance. So Syria and Israel form a league and they go to Jerusalem and invite them to join the league. The king of Jerusalem says no, a has says no. And they say, okay, so they go to war and, and they lose and then said the Lord unto Isaiah, go forth now to meet a has. So he's the king of Judah turning the sorry now and the sheer and, and sheer Josh by son at the end of the conduit of the upper pool and the highway of the Fuller's field and say on him, take heed and be quiet. Fear, not neither be fainthearted for the two tells of these smoking fire brands. Speaker 1 00:18:06 So these two smoking fire brands, one is Syria. The other is Israel, right? Don't, don't be afraid of these two guys for the fierce anger of resin with Syria and the son of Amelia because Syria Efram and the son of Amelia have taken evil counsel against the saying, let us go up against Judah and vex and let us make a breach they're in for us and set a king in the midst of it. Even the son of tabel. So they're saying let's go to Judah and let's de throne him. We have a Confederate that will support us. Let's put him on the throne instead, that's their plan. And he says, thus, say it to the Lord. God, it shall not come to pass. Neither shall. Um, neither shall it come to pass. It shall not stand. Neither shall it come to pass for the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of damascus's resin and within three score and five years shall Efram be broken. Speaker 1 00:18:58 That it B not a people and the head of ERU is Samaria. And the head of Samaria is Ramal son. If you will not believe surely you shall not be established. So he's telling him, don't worry about these. Both nations will cease to exist before they have a chance to Deone you and moreover, the Lord's spoken to a has saying, ask for a sign of the Lord, ask it either in the depth or in the height above. And a has said, I will not, neither shall attempt the Lord. And he said, here you now, oh, house of David. It is a small thing for you to wear. Amen. But will you worry? My God also, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name, Emmanuel butter and honey, shall he eat that? He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good, but before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land at thou horse shall be forsaken of both her Kings. Speaker 4 00:19:55 Yeah. It sounds like Jesus. Speaker 1 00:19:57 Jesus. Speaker 4 00:19:58 I don't know. Speaker 1 00:19:59 He's Speaker 4 00:20:00 Saying Origin's gonna have a baby and his name's gonna be Manuel. Speaker 1 00:20:03 His name's gonna be Manuel Speaker 4 00:20:05 Yeman. Wait, did we already talk about the Amy Grant Emmanuel song? Not yet. Oh, well now I guess our listeners know what's about ready to happen right here as I'm purchasing the tune Yeman. Amen. All right. Okay. So how is this not about Jesus? Speaker 1 00:20:24 Okay. Speaker 4 00:20:24 Explain Speaker 1 00:20:25 It. So let me, let me give you a little context. Yeah. What year does Israel cease to be a nation? Speaker 4 00:20:30 I don't know, like Speaker 1 00:20:31 7, 7, 20 BC. Speaker 4 00:20:35 I'm even shocked that I got the seven. I was just guessing a number Speaker 1 00:20:38 <laugh>. So if it's 720 years before Christ comes and they're worried about, about being killed by Israel and Damascus cuz Israel and, and Syria Damascus being the capital of Syria and um, Samaria being the capital of Israel. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. If they're worried about these two nations destroying them and God says fear, not both Damascus and Israel will cease to be countries. And he says, ask me for a sign that this will be the case. And he says, I don't wanna trouble you for a sign. He says, no, don't quit, quit, quit testing. My patients. I'm giving you a sign, a Virgin will conceive and bear a sun. And before that sun's old enough to choose right or wrong. Those nations will disappear. So if you're talking about Jesus, you're talking about 720 years down the road, Israel Damascus were destroyed 720 years before Jesus even came. So, so how is that prophecy about Jesus Speaker 4 00:21:40 Dude, stop, stop making fun of me, man. I don't know. That just sounds like Jesus to me Speaker 1 00:21:45 <laugh> it does sound like Jesus. It it's used to reference. They sing. Speaker 4 00:21:51 They sing about it in the Moab, like Christmas special. They sing that scripture. Speaker 1 00:21:59 Amen. You Speaker 4 00:21:59 Will. No that's that's Amy Grant. She's not the one that's in Moab. I'm telling you Moab references that scripture when talking about Jesus. So you're telling me, Moab has this wrong too. Speaker 1 00:22:11 I'm not saying they have it wrong. Speaker 4 00:22:12 It's kind of what you're saying, Speaker 1 00:22:13 Man. I'm saying that scripture has been taken to refer to Jesus. Yes. But in this context it wasn't talking about Jesus at all. Speaker 4 00:22:22 All right. Speaker 1 00:22:23 Um, it's it's gotta be dual fulfillment. Speaker 4 00:22:26 Okay. Speaker 1 00:22:27 Because, so when they say a Virgin is going to conceive, yes. The Virgin in this case is Isaiah's wife. Your <laugh> your look does not translate into audio. Speaker 4 00:22:43 I know. I'm sure my, my awkward pause and silence probably does though. <laugh> okay. I continue. Speaker 1 00:22:50 And, and so it's not to say so Virgin does not mean necessarily that there's no intercourse involved. Speaker 4 00:23:01 Oh, oh, okay. Speaker 1 00:23:03 Virgin means pure like Virgin oil, Virgin olive oil. That means it's a hundred percent olive oil. It's pure. It's not mixed with other types of oil. Okay. It's not. Speaker 4 00:23:13 Okay. All right. Speaker 1 00:23:14 I'm with you. So a Virgin bride is a bride that is loyal to her husband and does not have intercourse with any other husband. All right. All right. So Israel is compared to a Virgin, even though she's married to the Lord and Isaiah's wife is referred to as a Virgin in the sense that she is pure, that it's a, a pure woman who, who does not defile herself with any other man. So where she is not defiled, she is pure. She is Virgin. Speaker 4 00:23:41 Okay. Speaker 1 00:23:42 So we've, we've kind of taken that and, and applied it differently in, in, in a sense today to say, well, defiled, I, I think it, maybe it's early Christian kind of derailing and looking at sex as a sin and saying any kind of sex as a defilement. So you can't be a Virgin anymore if you've had intercourse because that's defiling. Mm. But I, but, but that's not born out in the scriptures. In fact, quite the opposite intimacy is associated with worship of God. And this idea of a pure relationship is, is Virgin. Okay. So Isaiah's wife is going to bear a child. In fact, Isaiah's wife is going to bear a couple children and he's going to use their names to describe what is happening to Israel and what will happen to Israel. And so the sign that he gives is I am going to have a kid before that kid. So let's go back to this verse, just make sure I'm reading this right. Speaker 1 00:24:42 As I, as I flip the Kings, instead of Isaiah, okay, here we are. Um, before the child shall know, to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou horror shall be forsaken of both her Kings. Um, so, so before he knows right or wrong before the kid kind of can be independent and make his own choices, you'll know that these things have happened. So he can look at that child. And see, as that kid's getting older and closer and know this is going to be fulfilled. These nations are gonna be destroyed. If he was talking about Christ 720 years later, then how is that assigned a, has the prophet to look and see Christ grow up and develop and be like, oh, okay, good. Now I know that my nation is going to be safe. Right? Speaker 1 00:25:29 So going back to, how did the Jews interpret this? Uh, I, I think they interpret it quite literally and how it, and what it meant at that time period to a has. And I think Christ and Christians look at that scripture and say, it's more than that. It is also referring to the coming of Christ. And it's particularly talking about that. The coming of this child is a sign that you are going to be delivered from these nations that are oppressing you. And really two different enemies here because you've got Israel and you've got Damascus. And the coming of Christ in, in this being born of a Virgin 700 years later, is coming to actually deliver you from two enemies, spiritual death, physical death. So it's an, it's an interesting interpretation. It's taking a, a prophecy that was fulfilled and giving it new life and new meaning to, to understand in the, in the new Testament, Speaker 4 00:26:23 Sweet. Let's keep going. Speaker 1 00:26:25 All right. So he Akia. That Speaker 4 00:26:27 Was a, that was a thorough explanation. Thank you. Hope. Speaker 1 00:26:30 Hopefully that makes sense. I'm not. And people Speaker 4 00:26:32 Got some Amy Grant, our favorite. We should see if we can't get Amy Grant on the podcast. Speaker 1 00:26:38 <laugh> Speaker 4 00:26:39 My man. She's Christian. Speaker 1 00:26:41 I don't think it's gonna fly, but I mean, Speaker 4 00:26:42 I'm gonna honestly connections. You have, I'm gonna try to con I'm gonna try to find her on Twitter, Speaker 1 00:26:47 Find her on Twitter Speaker 4 00:26:48 Name or Instagram. I'm gonna be like, yo, we've got this podcast about Jesus. We'd love you to come on and talk about it because I know Amy that you love Jesus too. So what I'm gonna tell her, that's gonna literally be the full context of the message. She'll write back and say, what are you talking about? And, and now I'm getting a restraining order. All right. What what's next? Speaker 1 00:27:07 So Speaker 4 00:27:09 Hopefully not the restraining order though, Speaker 1 00:27:11 In these conversations, Speaker 4 00:27:12 Hold on, though, if somebody gets a restraining order, you can still listen to their music. Right. <laugh> like a restraining order. Doesn't like, make it so that you just can't have like any involvement in their lives whatsoever. Right? Like you just have to stay like what a hundred yards or something away from 'em. Speaker 1 00:27:26 Uh, you know, I wonder if you could get a restraining order, custom built for something like that. They can't Speaker 4 00:27:31 Listen to your music anymore. The police show up, we hear you listening to Emmanuel. And what was the other one? We were listening. What was the one that we listened to earlier this year? Speaker 1 00:27:41 Um, was it, um, Speaker 4 00:27:42 Oh, it's a, it's a Speaker 1 00:27:44 It's um, I, I, I got it on the tip of my tongue. Oh, should I? Oh, Speaker 4 00:27:47 Should I, oh, should I, should I in here tonight too? Amy gram get two Amy grants tonight about that for restraining order. All let's keep going. Speaker 1 00:27:58 I'm sorry, everybody. This Speaker 4 00:27:59 Is on. No, I'm not sorry, everybody. You're welcome. Speaker 1 00:28:01 That lack of preparation. What has opened the door? Speaker 4 00:28:04 No. What are you talking about? Well, it open. No. What are you talking about? First of all, plenty of preparation is happening and we're giving the people what they want. Speaker 1 00:28:14 Nonsense. Speaker 4 00:28:15 Please go ahead and leave us a five star review. <laugh> Speaker 1 00:28:29 Well, the miracle of the story is, Speaker 4 00:28:31 Is Speaker 1 00:28:32 When Theia is all seized up and not sure what to do, they are delivered Isaiah prophesized, not one arrow will fly over this wall. Uhhuh Uhhuh, the, uh, the king of a Syria has kind of, um, you know, maybe, maybe he started off when the Lord's Aaron, but when he started putting himself above Lord and the Messenger's all Speaker 4 00:28:55 Bad news, Speaker 1 00:28:55 Dude, your gods can't save you. Nope, no, no. God's gonna save you load about all these gods from all these other cities. Did they save them? No, because we are God, that, that didn't sit so well. So they, they hear of a problem back at home. RI goes home to investigate and his sons slay him in the temple. And that is the end of sin, Ari and ISAR Hayden rules in his stead. And, and as Syria in the chaos leave, the siege Jerusalem is delivered and is actually the only city, essentially in the entire near east that does not fall by the hands of a Syria. Speaker 4 00:29:37 Fantastic. Speaker 1 00:29:39 A Syria rules for quite some time. But then they start to have some struggles and in a, in a, in a vacuum when a nation falls, other nations rise up to the, to the challenge. Yeah. Egypt gains their independence and they test a Syria by, by launching a, an army. Which interesting enough, we'll talk about this Israel or not Israel. Israel's kind of, non-existent here Judah under the, the righteous king, Josiah goes out to meet Egypt and fight him. And, and Egypt's like, what, what, what are you doing? I'm on the Lord's Aaron, we're on the same team. We're on the same team. Yeah. Why are you fighting me? And he sliced Josiah and Josiah dies of largest king. Is that true? Yeah. Speaker 4 00:30:30 Wow. Josiah, you blew it, bro. Speaker 1 00:30:32 Yeah, it was kind of a weird, didn't make a whole lot of sense. Kinda like this podcast type thing. Speaker 4 00:30:38 No, this podcast makes complete sense, dude. You gotta stop. Stop trying to bury the podcast, dude. All right. This is gonna be, this is gonna be one of our highest listen to episodes. I'm calling it right now. Oh dear. They're gonna know. They're gonna know that all they're gonna know that we've got Amy Grant. We got jokes. We got Joe Siah, the righteous king blowing it. Speaker 1 00:30:56 Lots of numies behind door. Number one. Speaker 4 00:30:58 Lots of numies. Speaker 1 00:30:59 Okay. Speaker 4 00:30:59 Coke, zero <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:31:02 So in the absence of a Syria, the rise of Egypt, and then Babylon Babylon also wants to feel this vacuum. If this sounds vaguely familiar to you, it should somewhat sound familiar. There's this power struggle between Egypt and Babylon and Judas caught in the middle having to pick sides Speaker 1 00:31:28 And some of Israel, excuse me, Judah are picking to support Babylon, cuz they feel like Babylon's gonna be the next big thing. But a lot of the wealthy people in Judah are picking Egypt cuz they have good trade with Egypt. They've been profiteering a lot. Mm-hmm <affirmative> on, on Egypt, rising out of the, the shadow of a Syria and gaining prominence. It's a very economically wealthy. So in this political setting, you have a trader in Judah. Who's making money trading goods with Egypt who sides with Babylon and says Babylon is going to destroy and rule. If we don't repent and, and the people of his class and the people of wealth and the people of, of political clout are upset with him saying, whoa, whoa, whoa. Egypt is going to be our, our, our allies. They're going to deliver us. We're fine. We don't need to worry about that. And they sought to kill him. Do you know who I'm talking about? Speaker 4 00:32:33 Oh, I thought we were just talking about the him yielders of Israel and Babylon. We bid the farewell cuz, but I I'm totally lost. Now. I thought we were just talking about the song. Speaker 1 00:32:43 Lehigh, Speaker 4 00:32:44 Lehigh, Speaker 1 00:32:45 Lehigh. That's the setting for Lehigh. Speaker 4 00:32:49 Okay. But does this have anything to do with the song? The elders of Israel? Oh, bad. Not okay. I thought I, I was actually so stoked cause I was like, I totally have this one. All right. Yeah. Lehigh cuz we're at what? 400 Speaker 1 00:33:00 BC? No, no, no. 6, 6, 600 Speaker 4 00:33:02 BC. 600 BC. Speaker 1 00:33:04 Yeah. Yeah. We're we're stepping up in there. So a sir destroys at about seven 20 and now we're gonna go through this, this hiccupy timeframe. And, and as a serious power starts to wane and, and they start to kind of fall apart. You're gonna see Egypt rising and you're gonna see Babylon rising then as Babylon's rising, that's the side that, that the Lord warns Lehigh and not just Lehigh, but lots of profits of the destruction of Jerusalem. If they don't repent from Babylon. And so they're saying, whoa, Babylon's coming to wipe us out. We need to repent. And, and we need to make sure we're paying tributes and picking the white, the right side here. Mm-hmm <affirmative> you, your choices are Babylon Egypt. And, and a lot of the wealthy people wanted to go with Egypt because that's where their wealth was earned. That's where they established trade. That's where they were doing really well. And, and they, they, they picked the wrong side here and Babylon is going to deport the, the, the Kings, the high CRE the high class, the, the top of the society pull 'em into Babylon and, and then leave kind of the lower class there that are a little more subservient and, and the ones that kind of pick them anyways and, and try to establish order in their rising kingdom as they establish the new, the new order. Speaker 4 00:34:24 But Lehigh knew that the people were picking the wrong side. Yes. And so he's like, we're out here Speaker 1 00:34:30 Out, we're out. We are not going to be destroyed by Babylon. Speaker 4 00:34:34 That's awesome information kind of backstory on Speaker 1 00:34:37 Context. Yeah. Give you a little context. What was, what was Speaker 4 00:34:39 Happening? Lehigh was getting ready to bail. Speaker 1 00:34:41 This is an interesting time in the Bible. It's very critical because we have Isaiah, we have Jeremiah, we have Jonah, we have a Syria. Um, we're gonna have Babylon coming and understanding the whole captivity of Babylon, which is gonna take us to the story of Esther, the story of Daniel, the Misha Shadrock and Abed NoGo and where all that comes from. I love Speaker 4 00:35:02 These stories. Speaker 1 00:35:03 All of this is tied into like this timeframe of what's going to happen here. And, and this is setting the stage for, for all of those stories. So kind of a kind of important part of history. Um, he, AKA's a righteous king and towards the end of his life, as he's looking for deliverance, uh, the Isaiah promise is gonna be saved. Also, he AKA gets sick and he asks Isaiah about his illness. Isaiah says, you're going to die. Speaker 1 00:35:36 So he, Kaya is in tears, not ready to die. And he's praying to the Lord as Isaiah's leaving. And as he's, as he's leaving, the Lord tells Isaiah to go back because of the prayers and the sincerity and the cries of Isaiah heza Kaya, then tell him, okay, you'll live a little bit longer. And as a sign that you're gonna live a little longer, there's a sundial out there. And I will cause the shadow to move forward. And he, a Kya says, well, moving forward seems like no big deal. Why don't you cause the sundial to move backward? Cuz that seems like it would be impossible. And he says, okay, fine. We'll make the sun dial, move backward for you. <laugh> so the sun dial moves backwards. Speaker 4 00:36:18 Hewards have to give him a sign at all. Hey man, I'm a prophet and you're gonna live longer. Speaker 1 00:36:23 I would think the best sign is just not dying. Speaker 4 00:36:25 That's what I'm saying. Like, oh, oh sweet. Speaker 1 00:36:27 I'll take it. Not die. I'll Speaker 4 00:36:28 Take it. No, I need you to make something crazy happen. Speaker 1 00:36:32 Yeah. Well something crazy happens. Okay. He lives and, and he's so happy that he lives and, and some, so this is where it gets a little bit interesting. Mm-hmm <affirmative> as, as Babylon, some sends some representatives to heza Kaya to, to find out how he's doing. Maybe sending him some, get well wishes and, and see how, how things are going. He, Akia is enjoying his new Le lease on life. And so he takes these emissaries from Babylon and he shows them everything he has. Let me show you all of my gold. Let me show you all of the gold side of the temple. Yes. Let me show you all of the gold inside of all of Israel. Let me just show you all of my goods. Speaker 4 00:37:12 I see where this is going. Really, really smart move there. Speaker 1 00:37:15 Yeah. So they go back to Babylon and, and Isaiah comes to, has a Kaya and says, Hey, Speaker 4 00:37:20 What are Speaker 1 00:37:21 You just outta curiosity? Who were those guys? Oh Speaker 4 00:37:25 My gosh. Speaker 1 00:37:25 And he says, oh, they're they're from a really far away place called Babylon. Like they don't, don't worry about it. Speaker 4 00:37:30 You're like, bro, that's like next door. Speaker 1 00:37:33 <laugh> like, what have you, uh, what did you show them by chance? Oh my gosh. Just, just everything I had that, that just all my, my, my gold and my jewels and, and all my valuables, you know, it kinda showing off a little bit and Isaiah says, yeah, that's not gonna go well for you. <laugh> be, Speaker 4 00:37:51 Let me show you another sign Speaker 1 00:37:53 Because, because you did that, Babylon is going to spoil your kingdom. Yeah. Speaker 4 00:37:59 I'll show you a sign Speaker 1 00:38:01 And he says, but don't worry. It won't happen in your lifetime. You'll die. And it'll be good. It'll happen like down, down the line in your kid's lifetime and has a Kai. Who's like sweet. As long as it doesn't happen in my lifetime, I guess it's good. Speaker 4 00:38:15 <laugh> little, Testament's wild. Speaker 1 00:38:17 It's a pretty weird place. So Nate, what can you get outta that story? Speaker 4 00:38:22 Okay. Hold on. I mean, there's definitely some lessons to be learned here. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, here's, here's what I get out of that story. Speaker 1 00:38:28 I'm listening. Speaker 4 00:38:31 It is interesting. The, uh, the, uh, what is the, I'm trying to remember the movie that, that he, uh, oh man, I gotta remember the movie where basically the, uh, this person owes a lot of money to somebody, right. And all kinds of crazy things. The, the person owed a bunch of money because of a gambling debt and some family member of this person finds a way to get the money so that this person, even though they're kind of a creep can go pay this gambling debt. And as soon as they raise the money for this person to go pay the gambling debt, he's like, um, okay, but now that I've got all this money Speaker 1 00:39:14 Double or nothing, Speaker 4 00:39:15 Maybe we should go back and they're like, take the money and pay off the debt and the other person's going well. I mean, but it is my money that you gave to me. Right. It's kind of feels like this thing. It's like this dude gets a new lease on life. And the first thing he does is just go now, I'm basically just gonna give everybody a reason to come and destroy me. Hey, thanks for the lease on life. I was really sad about this. Um, but, um, let me just, let me just show the Babylonians, everything we have. I don't know. Maybe the lesson that we learned here is don't be an idiot. It Speaker 1 00:39:50 Be wise. What more can I say? Speaker 4 00:39:52 Yes. I mean, that's, that's about as deep as it gets for me. I'm afraid. Speaker 1 00:39:56 Well, and I, and I take this too and I, and I look at it and say, we can pray and ask the Lord for protection. We can pray and ask the Lord to bless the food that we're eating. We can pray and ask for all sorts of things. But if we aren't taking measures to protect ourselves, I mean, I mean, I mean, what Speaker 4 00:40:17 Are you really asking the Lord to do at that point? Like, like, please, please protect me in all of my terrible decisions. Yeah. Is that, is that the prayer that you're asking, cuz that's kind of a wild prayer, so please protect me and me being irresponsible. Speaker 1 00:40:32 The, the Lord expects us to, to, to be wise, as I says, be wise, what more can I say? And, and use some prudence, develop, develop some common sense and maybe not be so trusting all the time. Sometimes we're very trusting and we trust the wrong people or, or we are too open and too willing to share things that maybe we shouldn't share and that maybe we should keep to ourselves, use a little bit of wisdom. Uh, use a little bit of, uh, what's the word I'm looking for, discernment and, and what you choose to say and who you choose to say it to and what you decide to show and who you decide to show it to Speaker 4 00:41:13 Works for me, man. All right. Speaker 1 00:41:16 So that was his Akia. He dies. Yep. And then you have his son and, and his son is not like Heka Speaker 4 00:41:25 Okay. Speaker 1 00:41:26 One of these sons is not better or worse. The other worse. Speaker 4 00:41:28 Oh man. Speaker 1 00:41:30 Um, much, much worse. So this is, this is Manas Manas rules longer than any other king in all of Judah history, 55 years, this guy's king, this Speaker 4 00:41:43 Isn't the E from Manas Manas. Speaker 1 00:41:45 Right. Different Manas. I'm Speaker 4 00:41:46 Just making sure, just making Speaker 1 00:41:47 Sure Manas that's Speaker 4 00:41:48 Quite some time difference between those two. Speaker 1 00:41:50 He's actually credited for the death of Isaiah. Oh, because Isaiah was a prophet, uh, during heza Kaya, during aha. Uh, leading up to here and even during Manas, um, Manas decides that he's going to take everything his father did and go 180 on this thing where his father is destroying all of the different worship. He's going to not only reestablish these high places and the B all worship, but actually like destroy the temple and, and kinda let all of that fall and disrepair and ignore it and let it go to the side and, and really push for idolatry. That's his deal. And, and he's very, he's, he's counted as such a wicked man that man NASA, even though it's not even his son or his grandson or his great grandson, when the Babylonians finally kind of wipe out all of Judah, he still gets blamed for the act happening like a hundred years later saying that, that man, right there was so wicked, it was his fault. It doesn't even matter what we did. We had no choice in the matter, cuz God already decided he was gonna wipe us out when that guy took the plate. Speaker 1 00:42:59 And, and part of that might have been the fact that he took Isaiah according to legend, put him in a tree and saw himm in half Speaker 4 00:43:06 That's. Right. Speaker 1 00:43:07 Which isn't a great thing. No, no. And, and legend has it that, so Manasa in, in his defense, he takes the throne at a fairly young age, uh, kind of immature young king and, and they say there's a legend to story that he gets actually deported into Babylon kind of going with, um, with what Isaiah was telling he, AKA has AKA showed all this stuff to, to Babylon Babylon comes and they take man NASA and deport him down into Babylon and put him in a prison. He's spending time in a prison there and it humbles him and, and the legend has it. They've got a, a pseudo full scripture, the prayer of Manassa, where he is praying for forgiveness for having killed Isaiah and for all of the wicked things that he had done. And the Lord actually forgives him and he gets sent back to it, um, Judah to Jerusalem and, and retakes the throne and, and ends up being a more righteous king than what he started for, for what it's worth. Speaker 1 00:44:06 And, and it's hard to know exactly what happens here. The, the people who write, uh, second Kings and then for the record we skip first and second Chronicles when we do the old Testament as, as we're studying cuz first and second Chronicles are almost the exact same thing as first and second Kings. It's a retelling of the same story from a different perspective, different books, but both the, both the authors are very negative on man NASA and, and they really focus on the wicked things that he had done. I think they have a really hard time forgiving him for killing Isaiah and, and especially for killing Isaiah in such a gruesome way for, for what it's worth. So he's a supposedly a really wicked king for a very, very long time. And then after, and, and he is, he, he is blamed entirely for the destruction of Jerusalem after him. Speaker 1 00:44:59 Josiah takes the throne and, and Josiah is like, he Akaya super righteous. So again, we go from bad, good back and forth, right? Josiah is so righteous. He, he actually goes to the temple, restores it, and he finds the, the scriptures in the temple and he says, what we're supposed to be reading this <laugh>. And, and he, when he reads it and he is like, whoa, we're supposed to be doing a lot of things we're not doing. And, and there's a lot of things that we are doing that we never should have done. We're doomed. And, and so he wants to save the people and he is fasting and praying and distraught and, and doing anything he can do to try to save himself. And God says, because you're so righteous, Israel won't get destroyed or Judah won't be destroyed during your reign. You'll, you'll die in peace. Speaker 1 00:45:52 It'll it'll happen in subsequent generations, like, oh, as long as it's not my generation. And so it's weird. These King's attitude, like I don't care what happens to my kids as long as everything's good under my name. We're good. And, and, and Josiah is the one very righteous. And, and he actually gets all of the people to be very righteous. And the commentators say for as righteous as Judah was, it didn't matter. Cuz God had already said he was gonna destroy him because of how bad Manassa was. So they're not gonna take accountability for what happens after Josiah. They're not. And they say, it doesn't matter how good you are. God's never gonna save you if he's already decided. And, and we've seen that. That's not the case. I, I don't, I don't agree with the, the commentary that's being written here at this point in the Bible. Cuz I just like NVA with Jonah. If, if the king of nive and all the people repented just like Josiah did and God was willing to save Niva he certainly was able to save Judah and spare them. What was going to happen? The weird thing though, Josiah does go out to fight, um, Pharaoh and, and I don't know why nobody really kind of knows why. And certainly not. The Pharaoh knows why Pharaoh's like, what are you doing? And, and so Josiah dies rip. Speaker 1 00:47:09 Yeah. Rest in peace. Sorry, Josiah. Oh. And, and they say about Josiah, you know how up to this point, they always say like he was a king like unto David, but really David was like the ultimate king. There was never a king like David cuz David was the epitome of what was the best kind of king in all of Judah, Josiah. They say there was never a king like unto Josiah either before him or after him. And he had, he reinstated, um, reinstated Passover in such a big way. They say there was never a Passover celebrated as much as it was in Josiah's time. So he really did turn the people to their roots, uh, extremely righteous king anyways, a little bit more. We weirdness happens here and, and then you get, um, you, you get actually Egypt coming in. This is, this is setting the throne for the, the kind of that dual nature that you're gonna be seeing that puts Lehigh in that odd spot of having to choose between Babylon and Egypt, because Egypt is going to come and, and try to get Judah to, to fall in line with, with, with Egypt and support them. Speaker 1 00:48:26 And the king doesn't support Egypt as much as they want. So they're gonna Deone him and put on a puppet king that supports Egypt and that king reigns for a number of years. And, and then he dies. And, and again, you get this back and forth of wickedness and, and then finally you get to the point where Babylon is gonna come in and, and Babylon is going to take over and destroy Jerusalem. They start wiping them out and then you get Ze AKA's king. And, and then that's where you pick up in the book of Warman. And the, and then the rain is at a Kaya and all these prophets prophesying and this weird little thing coming on between Babylon, Judah, or, and, and Egypt and Babylon winds takes over. And what they're gonna do is deport. All of Judah, bring them all back into the east, except for a small number. Jeremiah actually survives deportation and, and escapes down into Egypt with a group of, of Israelites. They flee down into Egypt, but Judah kind of ceases to exist as a nation at this part, they're all being carried away, captive into Babylon, and then they're gonna lose their identity there for a while. And this is where Isaiah prophesized, don't worry, you'll be there, but the Lord will bring you back out. You're just gonna have to wait. And, and that's the sad story of the destruction of Speaker 4 00:49:51 Jerusalem. There it is. Speaker 1 00:49:53 It's a sad story. Speaker 4 00:49:54 The like we've seen over and over and over the Lord continues to restore his people really, even after they've flown it, even if they, even after they've blown it and they've had to suffer the natural consequences of their poor decision, God's still loves them and is still gonna restore. 'em still gonna bring them back Speaker 1 00:50:16 Restore. Speaker 4 00:50:18 It's like, uh, it's like you see the cycle over and over and over Speaker 1 00:50:23 Pride cycle. Speaker 4 00:50:24 Yep. Speaker 1 00:50:26 The whole judge's cycle, Speaker 4 00:50:28 The whole thing. It's it's history repeating itself. All right. Um, anything else? Speaker 1 00:50:34 No, Speaker 4 00:50:35 This is a good, you guys got a good history lesson. You got some Amy Grant. Speaker 1 00:50:39 Got, you got a little sadness, which is appropriate because this is a, Speaker 4 00:50:42 It's kind of part of what's going on in this part of the scripture. So we got a little Lehigh. We got a little Lehigh connection here. Mm-hmm <affirmative> thank you for listening. Go ahead and go leave us a five star review and tell 'em why this was your favorite episode that we've done so far. Um, Speaker 1 00:50:57 I apologize in hindsight for this Speaker 4 00:50:59 Episode, no, you don't need to apologize for anything. This is my favorite one other than maybe theat. Do we have a GA? Ooh, do we haven't had any BGAs for a while. Speaker 1 00:51:07 I know we have a Speaker 4 00:51:08 Lot up figure that out. We need to figure that out. All right. Um, I will be, Jason might be pulling, um, podcast duty alone next week. We'll see when I get back, but uh, either way, um, one of us will see you next week. Speaker 1 00:51:24 Hey, Hey, you didn't even ask what we're talking about next week is, cause I, I know we Speaker 4 00:51:27 Don't bad cause I know we dunno. I learned my lesson last week. You would think that after a year and a half of doing this, that I would've learned before, now that we never have any idea what we're talking about next week. Do you actually know what we're talking about next week? No. Speaker 1 00:51:38 Okay. Just kidding. We're talking, we're talking about Speaker 4 00:51:40 What did you do? What? Speaker 1 00:51:42 Ezra Illa. Speaker 4 00:51:43 All right. That, okay. Well, sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't ask you what we were talking about next week. You were ready, dude. You were Speaker 1 00:51:48 Prepared. I, I let you down so many times. I figured I might as well have this one ready to go, man. You up. Totally. And the pitch Speaker 4 00:51:53 You've given me, you've re you've reins. Still hope in Speaker 1 00:51:56 Redeemed yourself. Totally Speaker 4 00:51:57 Redeemed yourself all until Speaker 1 00:51:59 Next week.