Let's come to our Bibles now in Second Kings chapter 23.
And as we turn there, I want to testify that the Lord encouraged
my heart earlier this week in a very unique way that made me
even more excited to prepare for the very passage that we'll be
looking at. And before I even began
examining this text, I stumbled upon a headline of a major
secular news article that was titled The following
Archaeologist discovered the fingerprint of a biblical figure
from 2600 years ago. That's something you're going to
click on. And so I did.
And here was the summary of that report dated August 4th, 2025.
Archaeologist found a clay seal with the signature of an
individual whose name is found in the scriptures and the type
of seal it was and the writing on it more specifically showed
that it dated during the first Temple period again 2020, 600
years ago. And the most exciting part about
that discovery was that expert believe that the name that was
on that seal was the son of Asahiu, one of King Josiah's top
officials. What is the name Asahi?
You appear in the study of Second Kings, while I told you
to turn to 2nd Kings 23. But look at chapter 22 verse 12
very briefly. We looked at this not too long
ago in Second Kings 2212. And the king commanded Hilkiah
the priest, and Ahihai the son of Shafan, and Akbar the son of
Micaiah and Shafan the secretary, and Asiah the King's
servant, saying it's that last name underline that Asaya, the
King's servant, isn't that amazing.
I encourage you after the service to look up that article
if you're interested in more details and the technical
aspects of this amazing uncovering.
But I mentioned it briefly at the outset of this study because
when I read it earlier this week on Monday morning, it served as
a providential nudge. A wonderful reminder of the
authenticity of the scriptures and the reliability of what you
and I love with all of our hearts.
Now, I'm always encouraged to see people come here on Friday
nights, but I am not certain of the different levels of faith
that are represented here. And whatever the strength of
your faith may be, know this what we've been devoted to week
after week on Friday evenings, it's not.
It's not us building our convictions or learning lessons
from myths or allegorical stories.
No, we have been immersing ourselves in God's truth that He
has given us and has protected and preserved throughout the
ages and has never failed to be confirmed and uncovered and
realized in undeniable ways. And I praise the Lord for His
ability to provide timely encouragement for our efforts
and studying God's Word, especially in this book as we
near its completion. That's right, we're almost
finished this book, and that will be especially more real to
us because we plan to finalize chapter 23 today.
And while there is much that occurs in the rest of this
chapter, there are three main events that are worth
highlighting this evening. And these events also provide a
wonderful way of organizing our observations and our
reflections. And they are easily identifiable
because they all start with the letter P, the Passover, the
passing, and the progeny. We'll be looking together at the
Passover that King Josiah charges the people of God to
celebrate. Moreover, we will look at the
passing of King Josiah, the report of his death, and
finally, we will consider the progeny, the descendants of
Josiah, and unfortunately, how disappointing they are.
Shall we begin? We're looking at Second Kings
23, verse 21, and we will read down to verse 23.
And the king commanded all the people.
Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in
this book of the covenant. For no such Passover had been
kept since the days of the judges who judge Israel, or
during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of
Judah. But in the 18th year of King
Josiah, this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.
Let's pray. Well, we ask that you would help
us, guide us, illumine our hearts, enlighten our eyes that
we may behold the death of your wisdom, Jesus, who he is, what
he has to offer us, what it means to follow Him.
Lord, we want to know all that you have to say in this passage
and we we rely on your help to discover it for ourselves.
We give you thanks again for the eternal Word of God that is in
our hands. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. Well, yet again we're being
reminded that King Josiah's efforts to reform the land, the
country, the nation has reached a new level in the 18th year of
his reign. It was the word of God that was
the driving force for King Josiah to cleanse the land of
all its spiritual filth. And as effective and widespread
as his efforts were, we learn here that it didn't cross 19
verses where good you've been here, second cross been here.
Second Chronicles 35. And while we will not look at
every detail, we will look at key things that made this
moment, this feast, so distinguishable.
And through it we will learn the kind of worship that truly
pleases the Lord. So turn with me to Second
Chronicles 35, verse one. The Spirit expounds on this in
19 verses, but we'll start here at the beginning.
In Second Chronicles 35, verse one, we read Josiah kept a
Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered
the Passover lamb on the 14th day of the first month.
So in this introduction alone, there are at least two things on
worth underscoring #1 notice that Josiah kept the Passover to
the Lord, to the Lord. This reinforces what we heard
the past two weeks. The motive of Josiah's obedience
to God? It was for God and for God
alone. Everything that this man did was
stimulated by his sincere ambition to bring pleasure to
God, to honor God, to exalt the Lord.
And this is even shown in the the following 2 verses of this
chapter. Look more specifically at verse
3. We read here that he commands
the Levites to do what? To return the ark to its
rightful place, to bring it back into the most holy place.
Now why is he doing that? Before he does anything, before
he places any Levite at any station, before he slaughters
any animal, he wants to make sure that the ark is rightly
positioned. Why?
Because that ark is a symbol of God's earthly throne, and in
Josiah's mind, he did not see it valuable or profitable to
worship in the temple. If God is not seated where he's
supposed to be seated, if God is not exalted, if he's not the
center, why move forward with this feast?
And so his priority at this moment was bring the ark and
position it where God designated it to be, and everything would
orbit around that. And this is yet another call to
remembrance about our worship. Is it motivated for God?
Is it to the Lord? Is it for his smile?
Is it for his pleasure? That's the essence of worship.
But more than that, we see something else in verse one and
that is how the feast was performed at its designated
time. Did you notice how we're told
that it was celebrated on the 14th day of the first month?
When I first read this I thought why mention it?
Why mention it when God had already said that this is when
it was supposed to be celebrated?
It seems unnecessary. Seems redundant unless that many
of the Passover's before this were not celebrated when God
said it should be celebrated. That's precisely why it's being
brought up. And the overarching lesson is
that Josiah was extremely mindful of the details of God's
Word. There is not one thing he was
relaxed on. There was not one thing he
wanted to miss. Anything that God had prescribed
and mentioned, God wanted. Josiah wanted to honor and
observe with all of his heart, even in the timing of the feast.
And this is something that he longed to do and you see it
throughout these verses. I mean, if you actually take the
time to look at Second Chronicles 35, you just you find
how meticulous and surgical Josiah was and we see it in one
strong example. Just Scroll down again.
We don't have the time to look at everything.
Look at verse 13 and what the Holy Spirit says.
After much organization happened, we read here and they
roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule, and
they boiled the holy offerings and pots and cauldrons and in
pans and carried them quickly to all the lay people.
I'm going to pause here and open it up for answers to this
question. What stands out to you from this
one verse? There should be things that
stand out. We are students of the Hebrew
Scriptures. What stands out to you about
this commentary? Somebody said something.
OK, The generosity. That's one thing that we will
consider at a moment. According to the rule.
Absolutely. That's emphasized over and over
again. Anything else?
What do they do to the lamb? They roasted it.
Why is that important? Because when God had given His
original decree about the Passover after slaughtering the
lamb in Exodus 12/8, they were instructed to roast the lamb.
Why? Because again, all of the
Passover points to Christ, and people tend to just limit the
understanding of the Passover to Christ being our Passover lamb
in His sacrificial death. And it's a Tony work, yes, but
when the lamb was roasted, that's a picture of Christ
enduring the fury of God's wrath.
And so they didn't skip this part.
They didn't just slaughter the lamb and apply his blood.
No, they even went to the point of roasting it.
We see something else in this one verse.
What else? This one's a little bit more
difficult to pinpoint, but it's equally important.
Look at it again. There's no rush.
Very, very good. Did you hear it?
Look at the last part and carry them quickly to all the lay
people. Why is that important?
Anybody have an idea? Well, because in Exodus 12,
verse 11, listen to these words in this manner, You shall eat it
with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your
staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover. Even the speed of the feast was
honored by Josiah and his officials.
They were to eat in haste. What's that a picture of?
Well, it's a picture of many things.
One of my favorite applications of this truth is that it speaks
about the readiness and the willingness of the one who has
tasted of Christ to flee out of Egypt, to escape slavery and
bondage, to run into the wilderness, to worship the Lord
in haste. Today is the day of salvation.
That's the picture. So you see, every single
ingredient and instruction points to an element of the
gospel. And Josiah honored every part he
could. The roasting of the lamb, eating
it in haste. And when I meditated on Josiah
zeal and discipline not to deviate in the slightest from
God's word, I was reminded of Jesus words and what He expects
of us as worshippers, as obedient servants to Him.
This verse was opened to me many, many years ago and I
praise God for it because it transformed the way I view God's
word and the way I apply it to my life.
This is worth turning to in Matthew 5 and look at verse 19.
I pray that it makes an impact on your heart and even a greater
impact than what it's done for me.
Matthew 519. Jesus says, Therefore, whoever
relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches
others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of
heaven. But whoever does them and
teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven,
not powerful. Whoever relaxes.
What does it mean to relax something?
Ah, it's not a big deal. I don't take it too seriously.
I don't get too caught up in the minutiae of God's word, of his
commands, of his instructions. Whoever relaxes one of these
commandments, the least of these commandments, what did Jesus
say? They'll be called the least in
the Kingdom. I don't know about you.
I don't want to be called least in the Kingdom.
You can call me the least in this world all you want, but
when it comes to the eternal Kingdom of the Son of David, if
there's a way to be commended by God beyond this, I'm pursuing
it. And one of the qualifications of
knowing excellence in the eyes of God is by looking at every
detail on His Word and saying this is God's Word.
I'm not going to relax one element of it.
But whoever does them, notice the emphasis here.
Notice the priority. Whoever does them and teaches
them. There are a lot of people who
want to teach but not do. Whoever does them first and then
teaches them will be called great.
What is greatness in the eyes of Jesus?
Those who look at every part of his word and say, God, by your
grace and strength, help me honor the least of these
commandments. Josiah was such a man.
And I'm sure you can see how we can linger here for a while.
But for the sake of time, let's consider one more trademark of
this Passover. And somebody already alluded to
it, and it is the radical willingness and sacrifice it
took to carry it out. Second Chronicles 35, Look at
verse 7. Very quickly then, Josiah
contributed to the lay people as Passover offerings for all who
are present, lambs and young goats from the flock to the
number of 30,000 and 3000 bulls. These were from the King's
possessions. This is remarkable.
So Josiah doesn't just instruct the people to honor this feast,
he helps them honor it. This is impressive generosity on
the King's part, and though the amount of the donation is
impressive, it's the reason why he is charitable that's more
moving. It could be that many of these
people couldn't afford to give at the Passover.
And so Josiah saw this need and because of that, he did what he
could from a personal level to help people encounter God.
He didn't just enjoy this feast for himself.
He sought to do what he could do to draw people to the Lord and
allow the Lord to make himself known to the people.
And here's what I took from this.
What a change it would bring to our attitude in giving and our
even even our experience in giving if we viewed it in a
similar way. I want to encourage you and I
want to encourage myself to view giving as a means to help people
come into contact with Christ, to experience the Lord.
I mean, is there any other way of knowing greater thrill in our
giving than that mission, than that purpose?
Here's Josiah reaching into his own possessions, his own
resources, and doing what he can to ensure that as many people as
possible can taste the lamb, can see their need for a Savior and
praise God. Even this day and age, there are
many ministries that are working very hard to do just that.
And one of the ways that we can advance such a purpose is by
doing what Josiah did, sacrificing, investing, thinking
critically and eternally. How is it that I can help move
forward the things of God? And what I love about Josiah is
that his passionate priority was contagious.
Look at verse 8 right after and his officials contributed
willing to the people. Do you see that as soon as
Josiah stepped out with his wholehearted commitment and
radical worship, radical generosity, others saw and they
said, we want to do it, sign us up.
Is there any other need? You know, sometimes it just
takes one person to step out and do something for the Lord to
move others. And perhaps in your own circles,
you're looking around, you're wondering why aren't people
doing more, praying more, loving more, serving more, evangelizing
more? Will you ever consider you
stepping out and seeing what would happen out of your
obedience? That's exactly what this man
does. His officials followed him and
it just became this infectious spirit.
Whatever this this amazing sense of inclusiveness and we find it
here in verse 18. I won't read it, but if there's
one more thing we can say about this unique Passover is how a
united Judah and Israel. In a manner that the nation had
never experienced in a long, long time.
We see there that Israel, whoever was left after this year
in exile, joined Judah to celebrate this Passover.
No wonder it stood out. If you want more reasons you
have, you have the permission to study it further and look into
it. But we must move forward and
look at the passing. Let's come back to Second Kings
23, the passing of King Josiah. We read the first 3 verses of
the section. Let's read on in verse 24.
Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and
the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that
were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might
establish the words of the law that were written in the book
that Hill Kai, the priest found in the House of the Lord before
him. There was no king like him who
turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and
with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor did
any like him arise after him. Still the Lord did not turn from
the burning of his great wrath by which his anger was kindled
against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh
had provoked him. And the Lord said, I will remove
Judah also out of my sight as I've removed Israel, and I will
cast off the city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the House
of which I said my name shall be there.
So Josiah's wonderful efforts did not change God's indictment
against Jerusalem and Judah. He knew this already.
Hold of the prophetess assured him that nothing would alter
God's judgement and His wrath being poured out against his
people. And we're being reminded of
that. That is awesome as this Passover
was. It did not change God's mind.
It was sealed, and this is the main part now of the second
element of our study, verse 28. Now the rest of the acts of
Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of
the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
In his days Pharaoh Nikko, king of Egypt, went up to the king of
Assyria, to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him and
Pharaoh Nikko killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him,
and his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddon,
brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb.
And the people of the Atlantic Joaz, the son of Josiah, and
anointed him and made him king in his father's place.
Oh, how I had hoped that Josiah's story would have ended
in that wonderful climax. Wouldn't a bit?
Wouldn't have been refreshing to just simply read that Josiah led
the people in exuberant praise, faithful worship, and then he
died. That's not what we find.
Instead, we find Josiah dying in a very questionable manner.
There are a few questions you and I should have.
The first one is why are we being told that the Pharaoh at
the time was making his way to meet with the king of Assyria?
Second, why did King Josiah feel the need to intervene and try to
impede this Egyptian advancement?
And lastly, why was he killed the moment that Pharaoh saw him?
Where do you think we're going to find our answers?
You're right. So let's go there.
In Second Chronicles, we're told in far greater detail exactly
why this happened. Chapter 35, verse 20.
After all this, all what? The Passover after all that was
done, all that was accomplished, all that was celebrated, when
Josiah had prepared the temple, Nikko, king of Egypt, went to
fight at Carcamish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out
to meet him. But he sent envoys to him,
saying, What have we to do with each other?
King of Judah, I am not coming against you this day, but
against the house with which I am at war, and God has commanded
me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with
me, lest he destroy you. Interesting.
So we already have more light. Egypt was moving forward because
they were on the move for war. This is what's taking place.
But war with whom? If you just had Second Kings and
Second Chronicles, you would think that he's going to war
with Assyria. But when you look at Jeremiah in
chapter 46, we discovered that Egypt was actually preparing to
go to war with gas Babylon, which means that he was meeting
with Assyria to make an alliance to come against the rising power
of Babylon. That's what's happening here.
So we answer that. But the following question is
why is Josiah including himself in this?
This has nothing to do with Judah.
There is no mention here whatsoever, no hint that Egypt
or Seer or Babylon have Judah on the radar, and yet he he feels
compelled to interject himself and to try to hinder Egypt.
No explanation is given. Could it be though, that Josiah
is looking at these geopolitical shifts and remembering hold of
the prophetess and her word about the coming judgement
against Judah, is seeing all of this as preparation for that
prophecy to come to pass? And for whatever reason at this
point he wants to try to prevent it from happening?
That's just speculation. It's just a thought to consider.
Nothing is told, nothing is explained plainly, but whatever
the reason was, Josiah believes that stepping in in this way
would somehow benefit the Kingdom of Judah, when in
reality it would lead to his own demise.
There are a few important truths from this that we need to apply.
The first thing is how we as believers need to be very
careful involving ourselves in squabbles that do not directly
involve us or God's Kingdom. The strongest example of this
today is how many believers are investing most of their time and
energy in things like cultural, political battles at the expense
of them growing and investing in what truly matters, the gospel
ministry, the Word of God. Now, I'm not suggesting at all
that we should avoid or be passive from engaging in various
aspects and spheres of society when opportunities arise to
promote righteousness or to denounce wickedness.
That's what I'm saying. I'm talking about those who
identify more strongly, who are energized with greater thrill to
a political party than the church, or coming to a point
where they think that they should involve themselves in pop
cultural scandals discussed on podcast instead of knowing the
promises of God and prophecies in scripture.
There are many Christians like this.
In fact, we can even add this dimension.
This is a wonderful example of being careful, of not getting
ourselves sucked into trivial theological debates, Debates
that are fruitless, UN Christ like, ego driven, unproductive.
So many Christians are fighting the wrong battle.
They're so preoccupied with things that don't truly matter.
And Josiah is an example of that.
He steps outside of where he's supposed to be and into an arena
that is going to be dangerous for him.
And I'm afraid there are many Christians who are doing the
same to the detriment of their own spiritual vitality and
growth, even to the tarnishing of their own testimonies.
Josiah shows us that even the most righteous and Bible
obsessed believers can get distracted and lose focus and
what God tells us to keep our eyes on.
The second thing to notice how we can lose our sensitivity to
God's counsel. One of the most remarkable
things about the verses we just read was that when Pharaoh
learned that Josiah was on his way to actually fight against
them, he warns him. And how does he warn him?
God told me I'm supposed to do this, get out of the way.
And Josiah, if you don't get out of the way, you're going to be
destroyed. There's debate here.
Is Pharaoh lying? Is Pharaoh saying that Yahweh is
the one who spoke to him? Or is he claiming that one of
his own deities gave him this Commission?
The answer is actually in verse 22.
Look at the first part, more in the middle.
Nevertheless, Josiah did not turn away from him, but
disguised himself in order to fight with him.
He did not listen to the words of Nico from the mouth of God.
There's your answer. It was the real God, the true
God, the only God that made this known to Pharaoh.
And Pharaoh is telling Josiah. God told me to do this, so it
must have been in the dream, or perhaps a prophetic word that he
received. We're not given the explanation
of how Pharaoh knew that God was the one who gave him this
revelation, but the commentary is clear.
God did tell him and Josiah chose to ignore him.
And we can sympathize with Josiah.
God told you Pharaoh, A Pagan king, to do this.
However, there is something that Josiah could have done and
should have done. The least that he could have
done was take this very grave warning and bring it before the
Lord. Was there a king who received
more than one letter? More specifically, a threat from
a foreign king who claimed to speak on behalf of God?
Yes, Hezekiah, you remember that right?
Where the Syrian king on more than one occasion tried to
persuade him that God told them to surround Jerusalem and to
ransack them. But what did Hezekiah do with
those threats? He didn't fold them in his
pocket. He went to the temple of the
Lord and laid it before the feet of God and say, Lord, what's
this all about? What am I supposed to do with
this? And God gave him a word.
Josiah does no such thing. Pharaoh says God told me to do
this and it didn't matter to him.
He didn't stop and think, He didn't receive counsel.
Instead, we realized that he disguises himself and goes ahead
anyway. This seems so out of character
for a man who was known for his tender heart and wisdom.
In fact, it's even more startling than you think.
I want you to see something in verse 20 to verse 23 and tell me
if it sounds familiar. Nevertheless, Josiah did not
turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to
fight with him. He did not listen to the words
of Nico from the mouth of God, but came to fight in a plane of
Megiddo, and The Archers shot King Josiah, and the king said
to his servants, Take me away, for I am badly wounded.
Does this sound familiar? Oh, I see a lot of heads
nodding. What does it sound like?
The way Ahab died in First Kings 22.
Do you remember? Ahab received the prophetic word
that if he were to go to battle, he was going to what?
You're going to die? So what does he do?
He disguises himself and once he's on the field, what
happened? An arrow shot him.
And once he was shot, what did he say?
He made a request to the driver of the chariot.
Take me back home. This is so intentional.
What's the lesson that a man for most of his life who imitated
the love and devotion of King David died the death similar to
wicked King Ahab? If it hasn't registered yet,
hopefully Josiah will convince us.
It's not how you start, it's how you finish.
And no matter how strong your start is, if you're not
dependent on the Lord daily, even men of such caliber can end
in unthinkable ways. If you ever heard of a minister,
a ministry crashing and burning, a thought to yourself, how did
that happen? Here's Josiah, one of the most
renowned praised individuals in all of redemptive history.
And the Holy Spirit portrays his end and mirrors it to King Ahab.
May God keep us. May you cling to the Lord.
May I cling to the Lord. This is amazing to witness.
The artistry of the Bible is astounding.
So we find here something about the passing.
But there is one more thing I'd like to mention before we go to
the final part of our study. As we're still processing the
passing of King Josiah, look at the intensity of the lament for
this man in verse 25, Second Chronicles 35, verse 25,
Jeremiah also uttered A lament for Josiah.
Pause. That says something about Josiah
for this prophet who denounced most of the nation throughout
his ministry, that when Josiah died, he lamented for him.
Josiah was a truly godly man. He had a lapse of faith.
He did not finish in the most exemplary way, but that did not
disqualify his walk with God. Jeremiah was broken.
He grieved. Can you imagine the sight of
Jeremiah not just weeping over the sins of the people, but
weeping over this man of God? He was raised up in the 13th
year of his reign. I wonder what kind of
conversations they had. I wonder how they encouraged one
another. This signals to me that Jeremiah
surely knew Josiah and he understood that Josiah was a
true man of God, and he lamented when he died.
But it wasn't just him. We go on and all the singing men
and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this
day. They made these a rule in
Israel. Behold, they are written in the
laments, a book that we don't have today.
So the grief over Josiah, the words that were spilled over
him, the accolades, the acknowledgments, they were
recorded and kept. That's how monumental this man
was. That's the kind of impact he
made in this Kingdom. And here's the most remarkable
thing. So great was this lament that
Zechariah the prophet used it to reference a future brokenness
that will come to the people of Israel.
In Zechariah 12 we learn of a time, a time to come, when
Israel will look on him whom they have pierced, and they will
mourn after him as one mourns after an only child.
They will realize that Jesus Christ is their Messiah, that
they did indeed reject him and Pierce him and kill him, but in
one moment the nation as a whole will turn to him, repent, and
crown him as their Messiah. And here's a reference that is
made in Zechariah 12/11. On that day, the morning in
Jerusalem will be as great as the morning of Haddad Ramon in
the plain of Megiddo. So whatever's happening here in
Second Kings 23 and Second Chronicles 35 has an element of
prophecy to it, and it encourages us yet again to see
Josiah as some type of a Christ. We've touched on this throughout
our study in Josiah's life. And here's yet another one.
What we find here is just as Josiah was killed after leading
Israel, one of the greatest Passovers, the Lord Jesus, was
pierced after celebrating the fulfillment of the Passover.
Is that right? However, Josiah is different in
this way, inferior, far more inferior than Jesus.
He celebrates the Passover, then he's killed.
Jesus celebrates the Passover. The fulfillment of the Passover
inaugurates the New covenant. He is killed.
What's the difference? Josiah walks to his death
because of disobedience and stubbornness.
Jesus walks to his death because of selfless love and total
submission to the will of God. That's the difference.
Let your heart enlarge in tonight to see how these
passages are perfumed with prophecy pointing to the
substance Jesus. This is the passing.
Let's look at the final thing. That's the progeny, which is
another word for descendants. Let's come back to Second Kings
23 and let's read from verse 31 down to verse 37.
Joe Has was 23 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 3
months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamotel,
the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna.
And he did what was evil in the side of the Lord according to
all that his father's had done. And Pharaoh Nico put him in
bonds at Ribla in the land of Hamas, that he might not reign
in Jerusalem, and laid on a land a tribute of 100 talents of
silver and a talent of gold. And Pharaoh Nikko made Eliakim
the son of Josiah king, in the place of Josiah his father, and
changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jowaz away, and he
came to Egypt and died there. And Jehoiakim gave the silver
and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money
according to the command of Pharaoh.
He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land
from everyone, according to his assessment, to give it to
Pharaoh. Nikko Jehoiakim was 25 years old
when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.
His mother name was Zebeda, the daughter of Padaya of Ruma.
And he did what was evil in the side of the Lord, according to
all that his father's had done. An unthinkable and tragic
reversal just took place in the broader narrative.
God's story, this crucial transition of power in the
Kingdom of Judah is unlike anything that we've seen.
Think about it this way. We just read how the king of
Judah, including the northern part, all of Israel, celebrate
the Passover. What's the Passover about?
Recognizing and remembering their deliverance from bondage,
from slavery, their original exodus.
They commemorated that together. And once King Josiah dies and is
replaced by his son, Pharaoh takes Josiah's successor and
brings him back to Egypt. And then he takes Josiah's other
son, places on the throne, gives him a new name, and then taxes
him. And the people.
What do you have here? In essence, the people of Israel
going back to their bondage, to their original slavery, to who
they were before God brought them out and made them a people.
This is massive. This is the big picture.
This is the overarching theme of this section.
They're going back, and it's setting the stage for yet
another massive turning point in God's grand story.
But here's how we view it on a personal level.
Why did Pharaoh, after just three months of Josiah's son
becoming king in such a vicious way, arrest him, seize him,
abduct him, and then supervise over the Kingdom of Judah?
I think the best answer is the context that we just covered.
Josiah poked the wrong bear. Josiah ignored God's word, made
a move against Pharaoh, and it could be that Pharaoh, even
after Josiah's death, thought that Josiah's descendants would
potentially be a future threat. And so he acts early and he
subdues them in this moment of transition and vulnerability.
Here's what ran through my mind when I meditated on this earlier
today. There are many here who aspire
to be parents, many here who have become new parents.
Wherever you are in that area of life, never forget Josiah's
sobering example. A parent's willful disobedience,
prayerless decisions, and hard headedness can even lead their
children into bondage. Josiah's foolishness didn't just
affect him, it affected his sons.
Pharaoh didn't just go after Josiah, he went after his
children. And I think there's a very
practical illustration here that you and I, especially the men of
this house, have to understand that your devotion to God does
not just impact you. You can't do anything about
that, by the way. It's inscribed in God's law.
You're the head of the house. Your decisions or lack thereof,
your walk with the Lord or lack thereof can have generational
effect. Now, you can hear that and that
scare you, or you can hear that and that excite you.
And I hope it excites you because God has given us
everything we need to be men of God.
And that's what we find here, an unfortunate story of a man who
was a remarkable king, but perhaps not the best dad.
Oh, there's much more that we can say here, but I'll just end
it on this point. We're never going to see a good
king after Josiah. There will be a handful of kings
after this, and it'll just be one big failure after another
until the Lord brings Babylon to sweep up the place.
And this will change our Bible study and a major way moving
forward. We're not there yet.
A cliffhanger, perhaps a couple of chapters left, but I think
that's enough for us to meditate on.
Let's pray and thank the Lord. Father, we've heard so much in a
short amount of time. Thank you for these truths in
the Passover, in the passing of this man, and even in the
progeny of this king. Lord, what a great mistake it
would be to hear these things and not use them to inspect our
own hearts. Lord, we want to finish well.
We've heard it over and over again in our study of kings, and
there's a reason why you repeat it.
Lord, help us not get involved in conflicts, battles,
investments that you've not called us to will help us not
lose our sensitivity to your counsel that when you speak, we
would hear it. We would take heed that we would
have enough discernment to see your providential interruptions.
Oh Lord, we can't wait for the day when Israel will crown your
Son Jesus as a Messiah. We pray for the nation of
Israel. Help them, Lord, more
importantly than anything else, we're not asking for political
gain, military victories, We're not asking for any of that.
We're asking for their eyes to be open to see the the gospel
and how Christ is a fulfillment of what they are looking for.
Well, we ask finally that we would see the joy of walking
with you and that we would feel the weightiness of what it means
to be your servant, especially if we are leaders in any
capacity. Lord, give us the grace like
Josiah in the beginning of this story, inspiring others to live
for you, but help us do it where it matters most in the home and
it for it to flow from there. Lord, with all that was said,
help us retain it. Help us remember it, chain it
around our hearts. We trust that you'll bring these
things to remembrance and for that we say thank you.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen and Amen.
Why don't we stand and worship the Lord?
Isn't his word wonderful? Oh, this is God's word.