2CO 32-36Mamma. I dare say you remember in the history of the kings how Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against Judah. And he told the people not to fancy that God could save them out of his hand.
S. Oh yes, and he wrote a letter which made Hezekiah very unhappy, so he spread it out before the Lord, and prayed.
M. Just so. And the Lord sent His angel in the night to smite the Assyrians, and the next morning they found their enemies lying dead upon the ground. And Hezekiah was magnified in the sight of all nations.
After this Hezekiah was very ill, and thought he would die, but the Lord made him well. But when the men of Babylon came to him, God allowed him to follow the vanity of his own heart, that he might know what a, poor heart he had after all God's goodness to him.
S, That was he time that he shewed all his beautiful things to the men of Babylon; and God was displeased, and He said that some day they would carry off all his nice things to Babylon.
M. This came to pass very soon. Hezekiah died and was buried, in the very chief of the sepulchers of the kings of David and with all honors. His son Manasseh was only twelve years old, and he was very wicked, and tried to undo all the good his wise father had done. So the Lord sent the king of Assyria to carry him away captive into Babylon. But when he was in affliction, he humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, so that God brought him again to Jerusalem. After this he tried to banish the strange gods that he had set up; but it is easier for a man to do evil than to undo it. He died and was buried in a place of his own, and Amon his son succeeded him. He was wicked also, and was slain by his own servants.
The next king was Josiah. He was only eight years old when he began to reign. He began at once to seek the Lord while he was yet young, and when he was twelve years old he began to banish idolatry from the land; and he set men to repair the house of the Lord. The faithful few who loved the house of God, brought their money and gave it to the high priest. Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord, which was given by Moses, and he sent it to the king who had never read it before. Do you remember that God had directed that each king of Israel was to write with his own hands a copy of the law, and to read in it daily. It shows how they had forgotten Him that they did not do so. As soon as the king heard the words of the law of the Lord, he rent his clothes, and called for the high priest; and for all those around him who feared the Lord; and he sent them to inquire of the Lord for him; for he said, there must be great wrath from the Lord for all the wicked deeds of our fathers, and because they had not kept God's law. So they went to a woman who was a prophetess, to ask her.
S. Why did they go to a woman?
M. I suppose there was no prophet in Jerusalem at that time. It is always a proof of the low state of things when God uses a woman. It shows that there was not a man to be used. Thus a Deborah may lead an army to battle; and a prophetess may answer the king's questions. Huldah's reply was that wrath would surely be poured out upon the place, and upon the land for their idolatry. But, she said, the Lord had seen that the heart of the young king was tender, He had seen his tears and how he humbled himself before the Lord; therefore the evil should not come in his time. Thus, again the nation was saved, for a time, by the faithfulness of the king.
S. But there were some good people still besides the king?
M. Oh yes. God never let His testimony be lost; in the very darkest times He always had His faithful few; or, as they began to be called, His remnant.
S. Was the king comforted when he heard what the prophetess said?
M. He was encouraged by the Lord's grace to him. He called all the people together, great and small; and he read out before them all the words of the book that was found. And the king stood in his place against the pillar Jachim, where the young king Joash had received the testimony from Jehoiada, and made a covenant with the Lord, to keep His word with all his heart. And he caused all who were present to join in the covenant. And as long as he lived they did not depart from it.
Now having got the word of God, he kept the passover, as God had appointed it, in the fourteenth day of the first month.
The king did everything according to the law of Moses, as he read in that precious book which had been found. There had not been such a passover in Israel since the days of Samuel; not even in the times of David, or Solomon.
After all this, Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, came up to war with the king of Assyria; and Josiah went out against him. But he sent word to Josiah, saying, that God had sent him, and he must not hinder him; but Josiah would not be warned; and disguised himself to fight against the king of Egypt.
S. Did God send the king of Egypt to fight?
M. Yes. God intended judgment. Josiah would not listen to the warning; and the archers shot at him with their bow and arrows, so that he was wounded; and he told his servants to carry him away. He died at Jerusalem, and was buried in the sepulchers of his fathers; and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. The prophet Jeremiah lamented for him; he knew that Josiah was the last good king, and that he was the last hope of Israel; and that now God's judgments would surely come. And with all the singers of Israel, their singing was turned into mourning.
God's people had done idolatry with the false gods of Egypt; and He was going to let them feel what it was to be ruled by the kings of Egypt. For Necho came up to Jerusalem and put the land under tribute.
The people made Jehoahaz king when Josiah his father died, but he only reigned a month in Jerusalem, doing evil all the time. Then the king of Egypt took him captive into Egypt, and he died there; and the king of Egypt made another son of Josiah king instead of Jehoahaz, and changed his name to Jehoiakim.
S. Why did he change his name?
M. To show how completely the king of Judah was in his power. He treated him as a slave, and he made the people of Judah give their silver and gold to pay the tribute to the king of Egypt. He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, who bore with his evil ways for eleven years. Then God sent Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to fulfill His word which he had so often told His prophets, even that He would allow His people to be carried away into a strange land, because they had forsaken Him. They bound the king in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and they carried away the vessels of the Lord's house, and put them in their temple in Babylon.
S. How could they have a temple in Babylon, when God only chose Jerusalem to put His name there?
M. It was an idol's temple. Ever since the days of the tower of Babel, when men made a city and a tower, that they might do without God, Babylon has been a place where man's inventions were worshipped; and they always liked to imitate God's people, even in their false worship.
S. Is there a Babylon now?
M. In the sight of God there is; the spirit and ways of Babylon are everywhere, and alas! the people of God are mixed up with it. Babylon is really the world mixing itself up with the people of God. But those who are drawn away by the false worship of Babylon, are captives in a land which is not their own.
Jehoiakim was also a wicked king, as was Zedekiah, the last king. He swore by the Lord that he would obey the king of Babylon, yet he rebelled against him; and added this to all his other transgressions, that he broke his word, given in the name of the Lord. And when God sent Jeremiah the prophet to speak to him, he would not humble himself. Both king and people despised God's messengers, and mocked the prophets; thus God's holy anger rose against His people, till there was no remedy. We have seen what great mercy He sheaved them, because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place. Then God gave them over to the king of Babylon, who had no compassion. He burnt up and destroyed everything; and left the land desolate, that the land, which was still God's land, might enjoy her sabbaths.
S. What does that mean?
M. You may remember, that God said, every seventh year should be a year of rest. They should not sow or reap, but God would make everything to grow so plentifully in the sixth year, that there would be enough for three years. They were not to reap anything that grew of itself in the seventh year, for the joy of the Lord would be meat for them. But for four hundred and ninety years the children of Israel had forgotten to keep the seventh year holy, therefore the land was to lie waste for seventy years; because in that time they had lost seventy Sabbatical years. (Read Lev. 25-26:34.)