Two Great Kings of Judah and What We Can Learn

Well, happy Sabbath once again. Today I would like to begin thinking about the meaning behind the spring holy days. I know it's kind of early, but I want to give us some food for thought and begin thinking about our lives, how we're doing in our lives, how we are progressing, using God's Holy Spirit to develop the fruit in our lives. And I'd like to do this today by looking at the history of two kings of Judah. They reigned about 46 years apart. As a matter of fact, the first one we'll mention was the great grandfather of the second one, who is Josiah, the great grandfather of Josiah.

So we're going to take a look at the reign of these two kings. And I believe it's what we can learn from the example is always a good warning for the New Testament Church of God to be cautious, to be aware of how quickly the truth can slide, how quickly we can be ensnared by Satan the devil. And I think it's also a very good warning for each and every one of us in our personal lives. I'm going to do something a little different today than I normally do for sermons. First of all, we're going to primarily be in one book for most of the sermon.

We're going to be in second kings. For some of us, we're getting elderly. I know it's exhausting turning pages in the Bible, so we're not going to do that today. We're going to primarily stay in one book. The second thing is going to be a little bit different today. As I'm going to dig deeply into the description, we're going to be doing a lot of reading today, a lot of looking directly into the history of these two kings, and see what we can learn from them.

Again, as we just begin to think about the spring Holy Day season coming up shortly. The first king I want to talk about is a king named Hezekiah. I'm going to read you a paragraph from the Holman Bible Dictionary, because it kind of consolidates what I want to pass on to you in this paragraph, where I would have to read many, many, many, many scriptures to get all of this information to you. This is the Holman Bible Dictionary in Hezekiah. He was the son and successor of Ahaz as king of Judah.

Hezekiah began his reign when he was 25 years old. It says, at this time in history, the nation of Assyria had risen. Hezekiah's reign can best be understood against the background of Assyria's military activities during the years of Hezekiah as he served as king of Judah. When Ahaz succeeded Jotham as the king of Judah, he began pro-Assyrian policies by making Judah a vassal to Assyria.

Ahaz's political involvements with Assyria brought idolatry and paganism into the temple. And they refer to 2 Kings chapter 16 and verse 7. So let's go to 2 Kings chapter 16, and we're actually going to begin in verse 1. And before we get to Hezekiah, I think we should understand a little bit more about his dad and some of the things that his father Ahaz brought to Judah because he inherited those problems. So again, 2 Kings chapter 16 and verse 1.

It says, in the 17th year of Pica, the son of Ramallah, now this happens to be the king of Israel, he was the 18th and next to the last king of Israel before they went into captivity. So it was in his 17th year Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. Again, this is Hezekiah's dad. Verse 2, Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God as his father David had done.

But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. Now that's not a compliment. When Israel broke away from Judah, do you remember some of the very first things that the first king of Israel began to do?

Well, let's see. He changed the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles from the 7th to the 8th month. He built shrines in a couple of cities so that people didn't have to travel to Jerusalem to worship God. They could worship God in the new nation of Israel and not have to leave their own boundaries. So he obviously introduced idolatry. He changed time. He twisted the truth of God. So when it says here that he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, that is not a compliment. That's a bad thing. And it gets even worse indeed. He made his son pass through the fire. Now that was a sacrifice in which you took your living child and you literally sacrificed them. They were burned alive and there are some sketches without getting too gruesome. There are some sketches of the way that they think these metal statues or furnaces were meant to build a fire underneath and then they would go and put their child into the arms, the outstretched arms of these statues, and they would be roasted alive as a living sacrifice. So that's what he did continuing here. According to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. But something's going to happen here. Then, Resin, king of Syria and Pika, the son of Ramallah, the king of Israel, came to Jerusalem to make war. So they both ganged up on Ahaz, the northern tribe of Israel, and also their associates in Syria, came down and attacked Judah. So what we've seen here, oh, and continuing, and came up to Jerusalem to make war, and they besieged Ahaz, but he could not overcome them. Obviously, two armies, two nations combining their armies together against Judah alone. Judah could not overcome them. So we're seeing here an incredible level of wickedness and idol worship in the example of Ahaz, the king of Judah. He can't defeat Syria, so he's going to call upon a Syria to help him. And he gave a Syria as a reward for coming to help him. He gave them silver and gold from the temple as a payoff, and a Syria has to defeat, which it's able to do, the two nations that were coming upon Ahaz. So a Syria does what it's supposed to do in his mind. He pays them off with gold and silver from the temple, and so he has created an alliance with essentially the worst enemy he could possibly have. Have some of us begin to create an alliance in our lives with the worst possible enemy that we could possibly have?

Have we begun in our own lives to compromise with God's law, to cut corners and some moral or ethical teachings of the Bible? Have we begun to cross that line? Have we begun to pay off kind of by time, by allowing Satan to have a greater and greater influence in our own lives?

Verse 10, Now King Ahaz went to Damascus, this was after Syria was defeated, and met Tiglath police, or king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was in Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the design of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship. Then Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So Urijah the priest made it before King Ahaz came back from Damascus. So he's skilled artisan, he received the prints, the drawings, the specifications on this altar that the king had seen in Damascus, and he's already finished this new altar. Contrary to the altar that's already in the temple of God, this new altar is already finished when the king returns home. Verse 12, and when the king came back from Damascus, the king saw the altar, the king approached the altar, and made offerings on it. So he burned his burnt offering and his grain offering, and he poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace on the offerings of the altar. This was something only the Levitical priesthood was supposed to be doing.

We saw, and we understand from past sermons and understanding of Scripture, that Saul one time decided to make an offering for himself and not wait for the priest to arrive, and it didn't turn out really well for Saul in the end. And unfortunately, a similar situation is here. This king on this new pagan altar is going to make his own sacrifices. And as they say on TV at late night, you haven't seen the half of it yet. Verse 14, honey, he also brought the bronze altar, which was before the Lord from the front of the temple, from between the new altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of the new altar. So he's planning on replacing the use of the altar that's in the house of God with this new altar. Verse 15, and king A has commanded Urijah the priest, saying, on the great new altar, burn the morning sacrifice, or the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king's burnt sacrifice, and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings, and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice, and the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by. So he's repurposing the bronze altar that's already there, and he's initiating his own altar just near outside the temple of God. So he brings this pagan altar and these ceremonies into the very presence of the temple of God, and he made offerings on it. He then proceeded, and if we were to continue reading verses, he then proceeded to dismantle much of the temple and its association with Yahweh. So he strips the walls, he basically sells things off, he takes things out of the temple, he in essence desecrates it himself. So though these are not very positive things, and this is the father of Hezekiah. Verse 20, so he has, he rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, then Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his place. So there's been a desecration of the temple, there's been an introduction to pagan sacrifice. He himself was thoroughly paganized, even sacrificed his very own son in a fire. So these are not positive things. There's an open introduction to idolatry in the land, and by the time Ahaz dies, Judah is spiritually and morally weak.

And so much so that he wasn't even respected. According to 2 Chronicles chapter 28 verse 27, he was not buried in the royal tombs where previous kings had been buried, he was buried with his family. So he dies, and now we're going to have a brand new king. And I'd like to read a little bit about him from Holman Bible Dictionary. Again, this is Hezekiah. This is the first of the two kings that I want to highlight today. Hezekiah, again, I'm quoting from the Holman Bible Dictionary, they encapsulated well, Hezekiah began his reign by bringing religious reform to Judah. Hezekiah was not willing to court the favor of the Assyrian kings.

The temple in Jerusalem was reopened. The idols were removed from the temple. Temple vessels that had been desecrated during Ahaz' reign were sanctified for use in the temple.

The sacrifices were initiated with singing and the sounds of musical instruments. The tribes of the northern kingdom, Israel, had been subjected to Assyrian dominance. Hezekiah invited the Israelites to join in on the celebration of the Passover in Jerusalem. So we put an olive branch out there to the northern peoples in the nation of Israel. Said, come celebrate the Passover with us.

Places of idol worship were destroyed. Hezekiah even destroyed the bronze serpent Moses had erected in the wilderness so the people would not view the bronze serpent as an object of worship, which they had been doing. Hezekiah organized the priests and Levites for conducting the religious services. The tithes were reinstituted. Plans were made to observe the religious feast called according to the law. So again, what I just read is from the Holman Bible dictionary. So he does a complete reversal of his father to restore the faith and the worship of Yahweh within Judah. Let's review some of this in 2 Kings chapter 18 beginning in verse 1, if you will kindly turn there.

And once again, they will link his reign to the reign of the king of Israel going on at that time.

Now it came to pass in the third year of Hosea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah, and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days the children of Israel had burned incense to it and called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him, for he held fast to the Lord.

He did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.

The Lord was with him, and he prospered wherever he went, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and did not serve him. So, brethren, how are we doing in our personal growth using the fruit of the Spirit of God? Are we doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord? Is our life a testament to God, to the truth that he's given us? Are we holding fast to him? Can it be said about us, like Hezekiah, that he or she trusted in the Lord God of Israel? Is that something that could be said about us? Have we decided to rebel against the influences of Satan the devil? Is there that sin that still we struggle with? Maybe we've been making those compromises. We've had an alliance with Satan on some particular issue or sin that we're struggling with. Are we ready to rebel and say, enough is enough? No more compromises, no more giving in, but now I'm going to take that hard extra step and do the right thing and root that sin out of my life. Hezekiah was a righteous king who removed all of the idols and heathen worship from Judah and the temple, and he also rebelled against Assyria. And I'll bet that you can figure out what the Assyrians responded with. If you've ever tried to overcome a sin, have you heard a little voice in your head? Say, a little voice in your head maybe from the dark side. Say, okay, I quit. Go ahead. No, you'll never hear that because Satan doesn't want to let us go. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, what did Pharaoh and his armies do? All the way up into the edge of the Red Sea.

They went after them again. They went back to get them, didn't they? They went back to punish them. So when we try to overcome something that we're struggling with in our lives, Satan doesn't want to let go, and he's not going to give in easily. We have to fight, and we have to fight hard, and we have to struggle, and we have to stay close to God and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to help us to overcome those strongholds, those high places in our life where there's still compromise. And maybe there are some things going on that shouldn't be going on within our hearts and within our minds. So the Assyrians, as I'm sure you figured it out, they're going to respond. They're going to come down, and they are going to march south, and they are going to attempt to conquer Judah, to pay them back, because they're no longer sending money. That's what it is when you're a vassal. When you are a vassal, what that means nationally for a nation is that now you are subservient to the powerful nation. You exist because they let you exist. You exist because you shovel money off to them on a regular basis to bribe them, to pay them off, so they'll leave you alone. That's what it means to be a vassal. So let's pick it up here in 2 Kings chapter 19.

Therefore, says the Lord, as Assyria had marched down to Judah, therefore thus says the Lord, concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come down before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it. But by the way that he came, the same road, the same path, by that same shall he return. And he shall not come into this city, says the Lord, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. And when people arose in the morning, there were all the corpses all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. Now we don't know, we're not given the details how this happened. I mean, it's possible if God wanted to use something natural and biological to do this mass slaughter. It could have been a fast-acting virus that suddenly took a lot of people's lives. We know from our recent pandemic that if you get a virus spreading through a community, and these are soldiers, they're in close quarters. Anyone who's a military historian will tell you that usually in most wars more soldiers die of disease than die in actual battle because they're packed together in questionable sanitary situations. Someone gets sick, it just riddles the entire group of people that they're so close with. So we don't know exactly what this may have been if God chose to use something that is natural and biological. It might have been a fast-acting virus, but nonetheless 185,000 died, and obviously they went back home and Judah was saved. So God protects Judah from Assyria. And Hezekiah is blessed by God because of his faithfulness to God. But there's one episode, we'll take a look here at chapter 20 in verse 1, in which Hezekiah, we could say, dodges death because he's so humble, because he is sincere, because as we read earlier, it said that he trusted in God. He held fast to the Lord, is what we read earlier. In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said, thus says the Lord, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. Well, that would be pretty discouraging. How would you react if you received news like that? Here's what he did, verse 2.

Then he turned his face towards the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what is good in your sight and Hezekiah wept bitterly. And what Hezekiah said was absolutely true. We read that earlier in 2 Kings 18. It said he trusted in the Lord with his whole heart.

Verse 4, and it happened before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court. So Isaiah, after he brought that bad news, is just still leaving. He's walking in the middle court of the palace and he's just heading home. And before he'd gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, stop, turn around, return, and tell Hezekiah the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I've heard your prayer, I've seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. On the third day, you shall go up to the house of the Lord. In other words, you'll be able to go up and worship in the temple. Verse 6, and I will add to your days, 15 years, I will deliver you from this city, deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant, David.

So God is merciful and He adds 15 years to His life because of His lifelong faithfulness to God.

But there's something we have to realize here that's another lesson for us, as we're going to find out in a few minutes. Though God is going to bless Judah because of the faithfulness of Hezekiah, there is still a price that has to be paid for the years of idolatry, for the years of the nation breaking the covenant with God, for the evil kings and all the wicked and evil things the people have done as they've broken their covenant with God. Let's read about that here in verse 16. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord, Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. In other words, they won't have the capacity to carry on your line and have children of their own. So what's going on here? The prophet is saying that Judah still has to pay for its sins. God is going to hold back the punishment, but there's still a price to pay. So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good.

For he said, Will there not be peace and truth, at least in my days? He's not very futuristic, right? I think that's kind of a disappointing answer myself. Well, as long as I get to live in peace and harmony, that's cool. And what happens beyond me I really don't care about. At least that's the impression that you kind of get from reading this. Now the rest of the Acts of Hezekiah, all his might and how he made a pool in a tunnel and brought water into the city. Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? Wow, I wish somebody would find that book. It says that after almost every king. What an incredible history that lost work would reveal if anyone ever found those. So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. This is about 686 BC.

Then Manasseh, his son, reigned in his place. Well, brethren, the great thing about the New Covenant is that we have a Savior, and our sins can be separated as far as the east is from the west, when we repent of our sins, and when we are cleansed by that blood of Jesus Christ. That's why I spent a number of weeks talking about the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, they still had to pay the consequences for their sins. Under the New Covenant, we are totally and completely forgiven of our past, of our sins. Now, that doesn't mean as we continue a life of dysfunction that we're not going to have problems, or we're not going to have issues, but the deeds of our past, the sins of our past, are totally and completely forgiven thanks to the grace of God and the shed blood of Jesus Christ as part of the New Covenant. So Hezekiah dies, and he's replaced by his son Manasseh, who had the longest reign of any Judean king in their entire history. He reigned 55 years, including 10 years when he was a co-regent with Hezekiah. You know, there's an old saying that only the good die young. Well, this king was evil for a long, long time. Second Kings chapter 21 and verse 1. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hebzizabbah, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So let's see what's going on here in the background. About 716 BC, Hezekiah had come to reign at age 25, and he was a good king, and he reversed all the evil practices of his father, Ahaz. Hezekiah removed the pagan altar from the temple. We remember reading that. He stopped Judah's alliance with Assyria. About 15 years before he died, the prophet Isaiah said that there would be someday a downfall of Judah because of their past sins and because they were breaking the covenant. Hezekiah himself dies in 686 BC, and he's followed by Manasseh, who is a very wicked and evil king. As I told my wife the other day, if these show anything, these show the concept of free moral agency. How is it that you can get a king who is such a scoundrel, such a, if I can use a modern term, a scumbag, and yet his son will be so righteous and will eliminate all the idolatry from the land, and he can have a son who's a reformer, and he loves God, and he sets the right example. And he dies and another scumbag rises up and reverses everything that he did. How can you explain that? Well, my wife thinks it's because some who had very good mothers turned out one way, and those who didn't have good parents or didn't get enough attention from their parents turned out another way. And she may be right. We don't know the exact reason, but I think it tells you that at the end of the day, the bottom line is, as individuals, we all make our own moral choices.

Right? We can be taught the right way. We can be taught the truth, but the bottom line is we still have to choose to obey the truth, and some of these kings chose to obey the truth, and unfortunately some of them chose to reject the truth. So Manasseh is very evil. Again, he reigned 55 years and was replaced by Ammon, who was also evil, and he reigned for only two years.

So Manasseh and Ammon essentially reversed all the good that Hezekiah had done. Ammon himself was murdered and replaced by his young son, Josiah, who is the great-grandson of Hezekiah. I'm going to read the last time I'll quote from the Holman Bible dictionary what it says about Josiah. Here's what it says. Quote, A personal name meaning Yahweh heals. Judah's king from about 640 to 609 BC, he succeeded his father Ammon, an idolatrous king who ruled for only two years before being murdered by his servants. Josiah became the king at the age of eight. How would you like to make some of those tough decisions? At the age of eight, due to the wishes, quote, of the people of the land, and they refer to 2 Kings chapter 21 and verse 24, the people of the land who put his father's assassins to death. Josiah's reign lasted for 31 years, so let's review a few things about Josiah's life. 2 Kings chapter 22 and verse 1. And here's what it says. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name, it's imagine, my wife would probably wink, wink, and say, see how it mentions their mother's name all the time? And it does, it usually does mention their mother's name, was Jeididah, the daughter of Adiah of Bozkath.

And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Brethren, people who know us, can they say that about us? Are we that balanced that our lives aren't veering over to the left or veering over to the right, but are walking right down the middle of the path of God's law and are loving God's law and are people of sincerity and respect and truth and kindness, people who are exhibiting all of the fruit of the Holy Spirit to everyone that we meet? Can that be said about us? Continuing, he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Verse 3, now it came to pass in the 18th year of King Josiah that the king sent a saphon, the prescribed, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshulam, to the house of the Lord, saying, go up to Hilkiah, the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the Lord's house, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people, and let them deliver it into the hand of those doing the work. Much like we've done in our own building, there's a remodeling going on in the temple. There's maintenance that has to constantly be done to keep the temple looking good. It needs to be remodeled, and as people would come in, they would donate money, it was put in a box, and this is what it's talking about here. And let's continue here, and let them deliver it into the hand of those doing the work who are the overseers in the house of the Lord. Let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work to repair the damages of the house, to carpenters and builders and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. However, there is no need for an accounting made with them of the money delivered in the hand because they deal faithfully. They can be trusted. The contractors, unlike the reputation many contractors have today in our world, the contractors there could be trusted. All right, verse 8. Then Hilkiah, the son of the high priest, said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan and read it. So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and we have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work and oversee the house of the Lord. Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. Now it is believed that this was the book of Deuteronomy. It's what it's believed. And you may recall there's a particular chapter in Deuteronomy, chapter 28, that's called the Blessings and Cursings chapter. That's kind of the nickname that that chapter has. And God says, If you keep my covenant, all of these good things happen. Remember their physical promises. We've covered that, hopefully, enough. And if you do evil things, if you break my covenant, then all of these bad things happen to you, ultimately captivity.

And the king is going to read about this. And Shaphan read it before the king.

Now it happened when the king heard the words of the book of the law that he tore his clothes.

Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Echam the son of Shaphan, Akbor the son of Mikaliah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asisiah the servant of the Lord, saying, Go inquire of the Lord for me for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book, which have been found for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, and to do according to all that is written concerning us. Again, that's chapter what we would call chapter 28 of Deuteronomy. They didn't use chapters back then, but that's the term we would call it today. Verse 14.

So Hilkiah the priest, Echam, Akbor, Saphan, and Asisiah went to Hilda the prophetess, the wife of Shulim the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She dwelled in Jerusalem at the second quarter. That's a geographic location. And they spoke with her. Then she said to them, quote, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, tell the man who sent you to me, thus says the Lord, behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched, the prophetess says.

Verse 18, But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him, thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender, because you're innocent, because you you're sincere, you're humble, because you weep, because you're broken up over the sins that the nation has committed, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord. When you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes, because you tore your clothes and wept before me. I also have heard you, says the Lord, surely. Therefore I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place. So they brought back word to the king. Wow! Another reformer. His great-grandfather's a reformer. Josiah is a reformer. But there's a lot of wickedness before Hezekiah. There's wickedness between Hezekiah and Josiah. And unfortunately, we won't cover it today, but there's also a lot of wickedness after Josiah. Let's take a look at chapter 23 verse 19, see some more things that Josiah did.

And Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the king of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. He executed all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars and burned men's bones upon them and returned to Jerusalem. Then the king commanded all the people, keep the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this book of the covenant.

Such a Passover, surely, had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. But in the 18th year of the King Josiah, this Passover was held before the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, Josiah put away those who consulted the mediums and spiritualists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law, which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.

Brethren, can we prepare for the most exciting Passover and days of unleavened bread in our entire lives? We can, and one of the things we probably need to do, each and every one of us, is search our minds and search our hearts and see if there are still those high places in our lives where we're making compromises, where we need to change, where we need to cry out to God, where we need to allow the Spirit of God that powerful tool and gift that He gives us to help us to overcome some of those things that we are still struggling with in our lives.

He has the zeal of a religious reformer. Do we have that much zeal to eradicate, to assassinate those areas of our lives in which we're still making those compromises, in which sin still resides in our thoughts, or heaven forbid, in our actions? And in our thoughts is really the tough one. I don't think it takes too long to learn to physically obey the letter of the law of the Ten Commandments. The really tough part is what's going on in our heads, our attitudes and our thoughts, and not controlling those and allow daydreaming and allow other things to take over and take our mind to places where it should not go, to have thoughts, evil thoughts about other people or events or wickedness that should not be in our minds and should not be lingering in our thoughts. Josiah eradicates the pagan idol worship from Judah and even parts of Israel. Verse 25, Now before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and all his soul and all his might, according to the law of Moses, nor after him did any arise like him. Verse 26, Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, which his anger was aroused against Judah because of all the provocations of which Manasseh had provoked him. Well, we don't have time today to look at the rest of this history, but it's kind of sad anyway, to be honest with you. It's a sad history from this point on. Jehoi has replaced his father Josiah, and it says in 2 Kings chapter 23 and verse 32, And he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. But he didn't have that long to do evil, because within a few months an Egyptian pharaoh, Neko II, took him into Egyptian captivity.

And Neko set up his brother Jehoiakim, and he reigned for 11 years until 598 B.C., and only about 12 years later Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, and Judah was no more. Most of the brightest and the best were taken back to Babylon at that time. So what are some of the lessons that we can learn as we begin to think about the holy days this year? Well, Josiah came to reign in 640 B.C., and Judah once again was a spiritual mess and had angered God. And when Josiah came to reign, it was only 46 years since Hezekiah had died. Think of all that happened in that 46-year period of time. Evil, faithfulness and restoration. More evil, evil, and then faithfulness and restoration. And evil. What stage is your life in? What stage is my life in?

Do we have a good life? Can God look down upon us and say, my son or my daughter in whom I am well pleased? They're really trying. They're coming to me and they're asking for help.

I see growth in their lives, maybe not every day, but when I look over the 46 years of their life, if you're that old, if you're older than 25, it makes me sick.

I remember one time years ago, I complained to Mrs. Rocco, a Jan's mom, when I hit my 50th birthday and I complained to her, she said, she said, I got dresses older than you are.

But are we in a good place? When Hezekiah died, Judah was in a good place.

Are we spiritually in a good place at this point in our lives? But during the next 46 years after Hezekiah died, Judah slid backward into compromises and sin. 46 years in one way is a long period of time, and another if you've been around a while, it would be like comparing our lives from 1977.

To today, that's 46 years. Has the world changed in 46 years? Has the United States changed in 46 years? Wow! That could lead me into another 10 sermons alone, just that topic. So there's a lot that can happen over that period of time. As God looks at your life and my life, whether we're 25 or whether we're 85, can God look at us and say that I've seen growth? I've seen that person tear down the strong, the high places in his or her life. I've seen growth in the right direction, and you know, it's incremental, and it takes constant struggle and effort and hard work. Are we ready to have a Reformation in our life? Are we ready, no matter where we're at, to make this the best Passover, the most fulfilling, spiritually rewarding Passover in days of unleavened bread ever in our lives? You know, I have a, and I keep it there to remind me, I have the 1953 edition of the Plain Truth magazine hanging on a wall in my office. November 1953, that happens to be the month I was born, and the headline says, regarding the recent Feast of Tabernacles, it says, the best feast ever, and I don't think they mean because I was born in November, but they had reached a plateau with the number of people traveling to Big Sandy and the west coast to celebrate the feast. Everyone was excited because they just saw tremendous growth going on.

Is there tremendous growth going on in our lives? There can be, and most assuredly we should be removing those high places that we have not been dealing with, whatever that happens to be in your life and mind. It's time for a Reformation in your life and in my life. Final scripture, 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 8. Today we've looked at the importance of being vigilant. We've seen that Israel, particularly Judah as well, had their highs and lows. They went through periods of righteousness and being right on mark with God, and then periods in which they compromised, and they allowed the idolatries, and they allowed the paganism to enter their thoughts and their minds and their lives. Well, here's what Peter wrote. This is, I guess we could call the New Covenant version of not allowing that to happen to us. He says, be sober. Be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion. You know, Judah made a compromise with Assyria. Assyria was a powerful nation. They were a roaring lion, and except for the mercy and grace of God, who stopped them from the outskirts of taking Jerusalem, Judah would have fallen many, many years before it actually did. Your adversary, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him. Steadfast in the faith. Hezekiah was steadfast in the faith, but his son wasn't steadfast in the faith, and his grandson wasn't steadfast in the faith.

It took getting down to his great grandson, Josiah, before once again they were steadfast in the faith.

Can you and I be steadfast in the faith? Can we be a Hezekiah? Can we be a Josiah and look at our lives and say, this needs to go? This habit needs to stop? This frame of mind needs to end?

This attitude needs to be assassinated and removed from my thoughts and from my mind?

Can we do that? We absolutely can, because we've been given the most powerful gift that anyone can possibly receive, and that is the gift of God's Holy Spirit to coach us and guide us and to lead us. Again, verse 9, resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. We're all human. We're all struggling with the same kinds of issues in our lives. So, brethren, let's begin thinking about the spring holy days this year. Let's begin thinking about how we can take something that's been a negative in our lives, and it may not necessarily be a sin, but it might be something that turns people off. It might be something that's turning our maid off, turning our own children off from us, maybe turning the brethren off from us because of a sense of negativity or superiority or the way that we say things or the way that we approach things.

Let's use the gift of God's Holy Spirit to plateau and take another step towards the righteousness of Jesus Christ that dwells within us. So, I wish all of you a wonderful and fulfilling Sabbath day and look forward to seeing you this evening.