August 2. 2 Kings 20-21

Post by Dana Parriera:)

2 Kings 20-21

So. We have been reading quite a bit about Isaiah and what he and the Lord have been talking about in Isaiah 49-66. There is this theme of a blessing and a curse, which is set before those who walk on this planet, depending on which way they will walk with the Lord.

If they obey the Lord - they get a blessing.
If they disobey the Lord - they get a curse.

2 Kings 20.

Verse 1: Here the King of the time, Hezekiah, gets sick. This is a 'remember when' time, as this was 12 years before the fall of the King of Assyria, Sennacherib. And it lets the readers know about a time that was very important and helped shape the obedience of King Hezekiah. When Hezekiah gets sick, Isaiah visits him and states that the Lord has pronounced death for the king.

Have you ever had this? A time when either you were close physical death, spiritual death, or emotional death? A time when you had to make a choice? To turn to God or to turn away from Him. Has that ever happened to you in the past? Or are you in that time at the present? Or will you be there in the future?

You always have a choice. A choice to go to God. Or run away from Him...

Verses 2-3: Hezekiah has a choice at this point. He can hate God, for His pronouncement of Judgement on his life. Or he can surrender and seek the Face of the only God that can save him. His choices are two different paths. Two different roads. But Hezekiah instantly knows what to do and takes the obedient road. He seeks the Lord and begs for Him to remember him and heal him. And Hezekiah weeps bitterly, as his emotions are all on his sleeve, as he knows it is all or nothing at this point.

Verses 4-7: Before Isaiah, is even out of the palace, the Lord has already seen and heard Hezekiah, and speaks to Isaiah. The Lord tells Isaiah to turn back and tell Hezekiah that he gets 15 more years. The Lord is merciful and graceful. The Lord is the healer and a redeemer.

And if you turn to the Lord, He is so generous and gracious that by seeking His Face, I can promise you one thing. That He will give you life everlasting.

But will you believe it?

Verses 8-11: It sounds all good right? The Lord will give you life. Right. Can He prove it. That is what Hezekiah wanted to know. The unbelief of Hezekiah shows that he really didn't know if God was going to give him what He promised. And the King longed for a sign. Before the King Hezekiah obeyed and traveled to the House of the Lord and before he was to be healed, he wanted to know if the words that Isaiah spoke were true. Hezekiah wanted proof. And the Lord gave him a miraculous sign of the earth tilting and caused the shadow to change directions, twice.

We are asked not to test the Lord. Jesus tells us not to test God.

Matthew 4:7

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

But we also have to understand that the Lord knows our heart. Somehow, the Lord wasn't upset by this unbelief but instead gave Hezekiah what he wanted.

This wasn't something that we are to follow. Here the Lord gives His Word of Life and we are to trust in what is said. Jesus came to give us life, that we may live. And we must not doubt that gift of life everlasting, which is living with Jesus after we die. We must not doubt. But believe.

James 1:6

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

Verses 12-13: Hezekiah now is healed up and get presents from surrounding nations and kings visit him. But Hezekiah was proud of all of his things and he showed his storehouses of wealth to the foreign kings. In his pride and man made glory, Hezekiah shows off to all the Babylonians. I am not sure why Hezekiah shows off to those who aren't even his friends. But I guess it is like that old temptation to try to impress people by showing off. And this always leads to a bad end result.

Have you ever done this? At one point you are begging the Lord for breathe and the next act like the King of the World? At one point you are begging God for mercy and the next you forget that it is God that gives you everything that you have, and gloat in your achievements?

Well. That is what Hezekiah did. The minute he was healed, he forgot his close encounter with death and turned around to be proud of the things that he had. But One Face always sees. One God always sees.

Verses 14-15: Isaiah talks with the King and wants to know what they said and what they saw. And Hezekiah brags that the Babylonians saw everything.

Verses 16-20: Sadly, this idea to show off things that were given to Hezekiah in the first place, by the Lord, is going to backfire. And the Lord is pronouncing that Babylon will come and conquer and take all that they have seen. But even in this, Hezekiah thinks, "Who cares, I am dead anyways..." He doesn't say it. He only thinks it. And after his 15 years have ended, he dies. And his son reigns in his place.

Even the most godly man, is still a sinful man - when it comes to mind and heart.
Even the most godly man, is still a sinful man - when it comes to the inner thoughts.

Have you ever done the same thing? Have you ever thought the same thing? "Who cares, I will be dead anyways..."?
Have you ever not cared about what you will behind?
Have you ever not cared about the next generation after you?
When we read how selfish it is. It should steer us to not think like that...

2 Kings 21.

Verse 1: Maybe Hezekiah should have cared a little bit more about the next generation Because everything seems to go bad, for his son Manasseh who took over the throne. The writer mentions his mother. Why does the writer do this?

Mothers have major influence over their children. And often when the Mother is mentioned with a King, it is either to give her praise for the great job she has done or to let us know how horrible she did raising her kids. In this case. For this mother... It was a bad deal all around. And Manasseh was a bad, bad boy.

When he was only 12 years old, he started his reign as King. And this boy set out to destroy the ways of the Lord and he reestablished all of the false gods, that his dad tried so hard to wipe out.

Verses 2-6: Manasseh rebuilt all the false god alters and dedicated himself to Baal worship. He reinstated Baal and Asherah worship, even sacrificing his own children. He turned to witchcraft and paganism.

You might wonder what the big pull is for this 'Baal' and 'Asherah' worship. Right? I mean come on. Stupid idols that are so obvious to us, that it isn't right. Right? Who would fall for them again? Well. What if I told you that you are wrong. What if I told you that the gods we worship today are the same as these ancient false gods?

Baal is the god of money, sex, power, wealth, riches, and masculinity.
Asherah is the goddess of sex, beauty, attraction, children, lust, riches, and female sexuality.

These gods are still widely worshiped today.
I wrote a blog more in depth, if you want to read about it and how Victoria Secret models are made in the image of ancient Asherah...  click here.  

And the temptation to worship these gods of the world, are prevalent today. So. They weren't stupid for always falling for these gods, in fact - so does the world today. We better learn from the Lord and from History that following these false gods only lead to death and destruction...

Verses 7-8: Can you have two gods?
Can you have power and money (aka Baal) and the God of the Bible?
Can you have a great body and sexuality(aka Asherah) and the God of the Bible?
Can you have all that your heart longs for and the God of the Bible?
Can you have it your way?
Nope. You can not.

And often in pagan false god worship, they worshiped gods in pairs. As husband and wife. We see this in almost all pagan worship. And Asherah is the wife of Baal. But sometimes those in the Ancient times also gave 'counterparts' to the God of Israel. These female 'false god' wives were given to the Lord as a counterpart to be worshiped. We see this, with the golden calf when the Israelites came out of Egypt, in Exodus 32. Egypt was famous for their worship in pairs. And this idea was taken into Israel. So it is not uncommon that a female counterpart to the Lord was placed in the House of the Lord. But the Lord makes it clear that He doesn't need a female god along side of Him. You can not worship the God of the Bible and another god. The Lord God will not accept shared worship. And the Lord will not accept partial worship.

Do you love God and something else? If so - get rid of it. The Lord will not accept partial worship.

Verse 9: But they didn't listen to the words of the Lord. And the leadership of Manasseh lead the people of Israel into disobedience.

Will you listen? You have the Words of the Lord too. You have the Bible. Be careful to do what it says.  Don't be lead by others, into disobedience. Instead be lead by the Lord.

Verses 10-16: And the Lord sends His Prophets to speak for Him. The Lord pronounces judgment against Manasseh and Judah for their disobedience to Him. There is always a blessing or a curse. Remember the Lord told Hezekiah that He would have Judah be conquered, and years went by. But the Lord's timing is always perfect and He never seems to be in a hurry... But it didn't last forever, as we find out that Judah was taken over by Babylon and that Manasseh was hulled off to Babylon as a prisoner and then got to return and reign in Jerusalem before he died. During his imprisonment the evil king turned towards the Lord God of Israel and the Lord God changed his heart.

If the Lord can do it for Manasseh, he can do it for anyone:)

Verses 17-18: And Manasseh died. And his son Amon reigned in his place...

Verse 19: Amon was 22 years old and reigned for 2 years. Here is another mention of a mother, and it is a bad mention. As this young man is as evil as his daddy was before he turned to the Lord.

Don't underestimate the influence that you have over your children.
Don't undersestimate your influence over your children.
Don't undersestimate your guidance.
Don't undersestimate your visual example.
For there are always, little feet following you.

Verses 20-24a: Amon followed in his early fathers foot steps and did all the evils of following Baal and Asherah. But this didn't go well for him, as even his servants didn't like him and murdered him. Some of the people who lived in Judah found these servants and killed them for killing the King.

Verse 24b-26: Since King Amon was dead, they buried him and put his little 8 year old son on the throne. But this was a good thing. As Josiah had a good mother...

Don't underestimate the influence that you have over your children.
Don't undersestimate your influence over your children.
Don't undersestimate your guidance.
Don't undersestimate your visual example.
For there are always, little feet following you.

I don't know if you have ever listened to Casting Crowns "Slow Fade".  But here are the lyrics.
And I will highlight some that I think are valuable, with what we are studying...

Be careful little eyes what you see
Its the second glance that ties your hands
As darkness pulls the strings

Be careful little feet where you go
For its the little feet behind you
That are sure to follow

Its a slow fade
When you give yourself away
Its a slow fade
When black and white are turned to gray

And thoughts invade, choices are made
A price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day

Its a slow fade
Its a slow fade

Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattering leads to compromises
The end is always near

Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises
Leave broken hearts astray

Its a slow fade
When you give yourself away
Its a slow fade
When black and white are turned to gray

And thoughts invade, choices are made
A price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day

The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than youre thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking

Its a slow fade
When you give yourself away
Its a slow fade
When black and white are turned to gray

And thoughts invade, choices are made
A price will be paid
When you give yourself away

People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

(Mothers never crumble in a day)

Oh, be careful little eyes what you see
Oh, be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh, be careful little eyes what you see

Click here to listen to song and watch the music video...