Episode Transcript
In 2 Chronicles gives us more detail.
Listen to this passage.
This is 2 Chronicles 35, verses 20 through 22.
After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt, it's the same as Pharaoh Necho, came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him.
But he, that's Nico, sent ambassadors to him to Josiah, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah?
I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war.
For God commanded me to make haste.
Do you hear that?
Nico, or Pharaoh Neco, is telling Josiah, God with a capital G, that's your God, the Lord God, Jehovah, has commanded me to make haste.
Forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him.
And hearkened not unto the words of Nico from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
And we know what followed after that.
Josiah was seriously wounded and ended up dying because of his injuries in the battle that he should have never fought in the first place.
And we have A Gentile king, an unbeliever, telling him, Hey, God sent me here.
You have no business out here with me.
I have no business with you.
I'm fighting against another enemy.
You're not supposed to be here.
And nevertheless, Josiah disobeyed God, and he was a believer.
And Pharaoh Nico at this time obeyed God, and he was an unbeliever.
And this is a And as we've learned before, God had promised through this woman named Huldah the prophetess that Josiah would be gathered to his grave in peace.
And he would not see all the evil that God would bring upon Judah for their rebellion.
And if Josiah would have just said, According to thy word, Lord, so let it be.
And just been gathered to his grave and not seen any of these wars and any of this judgment God would pour out upon Judah.
That would have been well.
But he decided not to do that.
So Josiah Had the words of God spoken through the prophetess about this very thing.
And as he prepared to fight against Pharaoh Nico.
Josiah had the words of God again, this time spoken through Pharaoh Niko and his ambassadors.
And both Huldah, a believer, and Pharaoh Necho, an unbeliever, served God in their roles, in their different roles.
It's fascinating.
However, it can confuse Bible students sometimes.
And if you're here, you're a Bible student because we're studying the Bible, and that makes you a student.
And you might say, well, how could an unbeliever say, God is with me?
Because that's what Pharaoh Nico said.
How could an unbeliever say, God is with me?
How could God use someone like Pharaoh Nico to do his will?
And this is a great time to use our study to learn a little bit more about God's providence.
And there are probably several phrases you could use to describe or to define providence.
But I'll read you some scriptures that'll help you see what it is.
Romans chapter 8, verse 28.
Romans chapter 8, verse 28.
Just write that down in your notes.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.
So right there, we see that God is in complete control of how all things work together.
In Genesis chapter 50, Genesis chapter 50, Joseph's brothers were afraid.
That Joseph would take revenge on them for selling him into slavery.
Perhaps you remember this story.
For some of you, it may be fresher on your mind than others.
But Joseph had been sold to a band of Ishmaelites as a slave.
And the Ishmaelites sold Joseph to the potiphar of Egypt.
And while he was in Egypt as a slave, the Pharaoh took notice of how the Spirit of God was with Joseph.
And he made him second in command over all Egypt.
And a great famine followed.
And Joseph's father, who thought all along that Joseph was dead, Joseph's father sent his sons to Egypt to fetch corn because of the famine.
And during all of the events that followed, Joseph's brothers eventually found out Who Joseph was and what his position was in Egypt.
And they were afraid.
And Joseph embraced them.
And he moved his family to Egypt to the land of Goshen where they prospered.
Now, when you look at the fact That a Jewish slave, Joseph, became a Gentile Pharaoh's right-hand man, most people would think that's impossible.
There's no way.
But when we listen to what Joseph said about it all, we see that Joseph understood God's providence.
Listen to Joseph's words to his wicked brothers after they found out who he was and what his position in Egypt was.
It's found in Genesis 50, verses 19 through 20.
Genesis 50, verses 19 through 20.
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God?
But as for you, ye thought evil against me.
But God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive.
You remember the scripture I read you from Romans chapter 8, verse 28?
It says that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
And Joseph loved God.
He was the called according to God's purpose.
He was a believer.
And so all of this evil as we see it, all of this unjust persecution, imprisonment, forced labor.
Name calling, all of that work together for good to Joseph, and not only to Joseph.
But to his family, and to all the land of Egypt, and to all who would have been affected by this famine.
Now, were the brothers' actions wrong?
They were.
Was it wrong for the Ishmaelites to sell a Jew who owed them no money?
This wasn't indentured servitude.
This wasn't where he owed them money, and so he had to work it off or something like that.
But it was wrong.
Was it wrong for the Potiphar to imprison Joseph upon the false accusation of the Potiphar's wife?
Yes, it was.
But in and through all those things, God's perfect will was done.
I'll give you one more passage before we tie this together and move on.
It's Matthew chapter 16, verses 21 through 23.
Matthew 16, 21 through 23.
And I believe this part of our lesson is really going to help you if you struggle.
If you say, why does God let bad things happen to good people?
Well, you have a false premise there.
There are no good people except those who are saved, and they're good because they are in Jesus Christ.
Now, you and I may say, well, I've got a good neighbor over here.
And I do.
I have some good neighbors.
They don't raise cane.
They don't trash the place out.
They don't have loud parties.
But one of my good neighbors is a Muslim.
Their family is Muslim.
Another one, I have no idea, because he won't talk to me.
He can talk, Becky can make him talk, but I can't get him to talk.
And then I've got a Presbyterian pastor and his family on one side.
The spiritual condition of these people, I don't really know.
One, I'm a little more sure of than the other.
But when you say, why do bad things happen to good people, if you have ever thought that, and I think every one of us probably have at some point.
Understanding God's providence will help you in those situations.
You'll be able to claim these scriptures.
In Matthew 16, verses 21 through 23, speaking of Jesus, from that time forth, Jesus began to show unto his disciples How that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day.
Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee.
But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offense unto me.
For thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Now in that passage we see that Jesus perfectly understood the providence of God.
He knew the evil things that were done to him and that would come to pass at the hands of the elders and the chief priests, his very own people, as well as the Gentile Romans.
He knew they must come to pass.
Were those things wrong?
Yes, they were wrong.
Was it wrong for Jesus to be killed?
Pontius Pilate himself said, I find no fault in this man.
Gentile laws could not condemn Jesus.
But what we also see there is that Peter didn't really understand God's providence like he would later on.
Because he did the same thing Josiah did.
He tried to prevent what God said would come to pass.
Evil must come upon Judah, but Josiah tried to stop it.
Jesus must be arrested and tried unjustly and condemned and executed on the cross.
He must.
Listen again from the text there in Matthew 16.
Jesus told his disciples how he must go into Jerusalem and suffer and be killed and be raised again the third day.
This was the Son of God saying it's not optional.
It must happen.
And Peter's viewpoint was from that of a friend.
He didn't want to see his Lord, his friend, his Savior, unjustly condemned and executed, and he tried to prevent it all.
And then Jesus taught Peter who was really behind the resistance to God's providence.
He taught him who was behind the resistance to God's working together of all things.
For good to them that love him when he told Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan.
Now he didn't think Peter was Satan, but he knew the influence that was behind those words and that action.
And as the roaring lion that he is, Satan tried to persuade Josiah.
To prevent the evil that must come upon Judah.
And he tried to persuade Peter to prevent Jesus' arrest.
In each case, God used unbelievers as his servants to carry out his will even when the believers resisted.
And that is by no means a complete teaching on God's providence.
No way.
But I hope it puts you a little further down the road in your understanding of it than you were before.
And thank you, Brother Fulton, for the profitable discussion we had on the matter last week.
Concerning Pharaoh Necho's respect toward the Lord God when it came to his words and changing the name of Eliakim to Jehoiakim.
And so let's continue on in our text.
You should be at verse 36 in 2 Kings 23 if you're just joining us.
Jehoiakim was 20 and 5 years old when he began to reign.
And he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.
God's original design for government went like this: God reigns over man.
Man submits directly to God.
That's it.
That was what is known as a theocracy.
A theocracy is not when Sharia law decides to rule a nation.
A theocracy is when God rules over man and man submits to God.
And that's what you had in the Garden of Eden before sin entered into the world.
It was the only perfect form of government ever instituted.
And did you know one day we're going to return back to it?
It's not going to be because we came up with some idea of how to make our Constitution and our Bible and all of that.
No.
It's going to be when God Himself redeems His creation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
And that's a wonderful thing to look forward to.
But we have messed it up because sin entered into the world.
And when sin entered into the world, another ruler came between God and man.
And that was by man's choice.
In Genesis chapter 3, we read about the serpent, the devil.
Persuading Eve to violate God's commandment.
And had she told the serpent I serve the Lord God and Him alone.
This is an absolute theocracy.
Get thee behind me.
This would have been a beautiful picture of theocracy in motion, not just in theory.
But she allowed herself to be persuaded by another.
Another whom she put first.
Now there were two rulers in the life of man, once again.
By man's choice, was there this second ruler?
And those two rulers were God and Satan.
2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 3 through 4.
2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 through 4.
Where Paul wrote, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world, that's with a little G, that's Satan.
In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
The God of this world, little G, is Satan.
Does that mean he's more powerful than the Lord God?
No, it doesn't.
God made Lucifer.
Lucifer, because of sin, was cast out of heaven and his host.
And in the Garden of Eden, this God with a little G, Satan, told Eve to disregard what the Lord God told her to do and not to do.
Now, God wanted Eve to believe him.
He commanded Eve to believe him.
Satan wanted Eve to ignore God.
When the gospel is preached, God wants man to believe his words.
The words about the forgiveness of sins through his Son.
But the God of this world wants man to disregard those words.
So, when we think about the reign of Jehoiakim, let's remember how many rulers the people of Judah are now under.
It's mind-boggling.
They're under Jehoiakim, but he's under Pharaoh Necho, who is under Satan, who is under God.
That's too many rulers.
That's a lot of rulers to serve, but because of what we've learned about God's providence, who do all those rulers really have to answer to?
They have to answer to God.
When Satan wanted to afflict Job, he had to go before God and get his permission.
He couldn't overpower God's will.
And God, in spite of all their wicked ways, they've got to answer to him.
And he even uses these wicked people to do his will, as we mentioned a moment ago.
And they often acknowledge God when they do, even though they don't trust him for their salvation.
It's amazing how hard the hearts of most people are.
Judah served a king.
Who served a Pharaoh, who served the God of this world, who ultimately was under the Lord God of all creation.
So when you see the words In our text, he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.
Just know that Jehoiakim was not a sovereign, all-powerful ruler.
He was a puppet.
Look back in your text.
It says, and his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pediah of Rumah.
Now, his mother was not the same as the mother of his brother Jehoahaz.
We would call them half-brothers today because they shared the same father, Josiah, but they had different mothers.
And as good a king as Josiah was.
What might this tell us about him?
Now, God has already said, thou shalt not commit adultery.
So, for him to have two wives at the same time was certainly adultery.
Did he?
Well, to be fair, let's look at what we know.
Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim were about two years apart based upon their ages when they began to rule and based upon the length of time Jehoahaz ruled.
Remember, he only ruled for three months and was taken to Egypt, where he died.
But we also don't know whether Jehoahaz's mother died between the time he was born and the time Jehoiakim's mother became pregnant.
So I'm not going to render judgment one way or the other on whether Josiah was an adulterer.
Many kings were.
Solomon certainly was.
Because the Bible doesn't specify.
So, enough on who the mother is there and anything from that.
Look in verse 37 about Jehoiakim.
And he did evil, excuse me, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all his fathers had done.
Jehoiakim was another evil king, just like his fathers.
Now the word fathers here is plural, so it obviously carries another meaning or an alternate meaning than that of a biological parent who is a male. is translated as the word families and also as the word forefathers when it's combined with a Hebrew adjective.
So it doesn't always mean your dad.
And just the fact that it's plural ought to tell you it's more than one person.
Jeremiah chapter 11, verse 10.
Uses this word forefathers instead of fathers.
It uses fathers too.
And it says, They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words.
And they went after other gods to serve them.
The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers.
So you hear four fathers and fathers.
So when you read the word fathers in the Bible, It's not a guy's not saying I have two daddies.
It's not at all what that means.
He's talking about his forefathers, his ancestors.
And also, we know that Josiah, his father, Jehoiakim's father, did not do evil.
Now, he was a sinner, saved by the grace of God, but he was not known in the Bible as an evil king. like his son was, and like his next son was.
He was a godly king who followed God's word, he guarded it, and he tried to cleanse the land of Judah and Israel from all the filth.
In fact, we've even used this word fathers more recently in history.
In the Gettysburg Address in 1863, President Lincoln said Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the position that all men are created equal.
So, as you continue to study your Bible, Remember, when you come across something like that, the study helps that I gave you a few weeks ago, and this is where you would get your concordance out and look at the English word.
And if it's in the Old Testament, it's normally going to be Hebrew.
Sometimes it will be Chaldean, as we were studying in Daniel, but most of the time.
You're safe looking it up, and it'll give you the meaning of the word when it was given, not necessarily the way we use it today, because it can be a little bit different.
And in the New Testament, you will be looking up the Greek.
So be a good Bible student.
Slow down a little bit and don't think, oh no, he had two fathers.
Look up what the word means, and you'll see that it doesn't always mean the biological dad.
Okay, verse, or chapter 24, and verse 1.
In his days, that is, in the days of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up.
This is exciting.
Now you're going to begin to read about some of the things that occurred while Daniel was alive.
In fact, let me read you Daniel 1, verse 1.
You're going to think I'm reading out of 1 Kings.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it.
How about that?
It says he came up in our text.
He came up.
Because our text says in his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up.
You may remember this, but when you see the word came up or words came up or went up.
It's always going to apply in the case of somebody going to Jerusalem.
They don't go down to Jerusalem.
They come up to Jerusalem, or in some places, go into Jerusalem, but it never says they go down to Jerusalem.
And even though our text does not say, our text doesn't say Nebuchadnezzar came up to Jerusalem, Daniel 1:1 says he came unto Jerusalem.
I'm sorry, our text does say he came up to Jerusalem.
Daniel 1:1 says he came unto Jerusalem.
And because those two verses are telling of the same event here, it's logical to conclude that the words came up in our text refer to Nebuchadnezzar's journey to Jerusalem.
I just thought that was exciting when I read that verse and said, Hey, Brother Fulton and I are teaching about the same time in history.
From the viewpoint of 2 Kings and from the viewpoint of Daniel, both of which are inspired by God.
And then we see it says, And Jehoiakim became his servant three years.
He became Nebuchadnezzar's servant.
It didn't say he became the Lord's servant, but Nebuchadnezzar's.
Had Jehoiakim served God first?
Then his service to Nebuchadnezzar would have been more like Daniel's.
Daniel was not a rebellious subject to Nebuchadnezzar, but he served God first.
Even when Nebuchadnezzar put him and his fellow servants there in the fiery furnace.
And he turned.
And rebelled, I'm sorry, he put the Hebrew children into the fiery furnace.
And it says in our text, then he turned and rebelled against him.
So now we have Jehoiakim.
Serving Nebuchadnezzar, and he turns and rebels against him.
And that shows us that this was an outward service only.
And I'm sure Jehoiakim didn't like being a puppet.
He probably thought, well, I'm on the throne now, and I'll do things the way I want to do them.
And he got overruled by Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar probably sent some.
Ambassador, some lackey, to tell Jehoiakim you can't do that.
King said no.
I'm just supposing they're based on human nature that that may have been the case.
And Jehoiakim had already been a puppet king to Pharaoh Necho.
He'd already given Pharaoh Necho the people's gold and silver.
And then levied a tribute or a tax upon them.
It was a fine, is what it was called.
And now he goes from one master to another master.
In verse 2, and the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon.
And sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets.
This is what he had told Josiah he was going to do after he gathered Josiah to his grave in peace.
So based upon what we've learned about God's providence, who would you say were the servants of God when it came to destroying Judah?
It doesn't mean the servants were believers.
It means they were instruments used by the one who sent them.
And those servants were the Chaldeans, the Syrians, the Moabites, and the children of Ammon.
This conquest we're reading about was not a result of Satan overpowering God or Satan's forces overpowering God's forces.
It was the result of God.
Punishing a nation, the nation of Judah, by directing the path of the nations who already hated Judah and wanted to conquer it anyway.
God brought together the evil desire of one group of people and the punishment due to another group of people.
And to understand his purpose better, you need to read and understand the book of Daniel and the book of Jeremiah And then the words of other prophets in the Old Testament.
And it requires patience.
It requires verse-by-verse reading and studying.
This doesn't happen overnight.
Well, you can't make a TikTok video about how to understand all this, nor would we try.
Verse three.
Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah to remove them out of his sight.
Now let's look at the word surely.
It's a word of affirmation.
It means certainly or without a doubt when God brings to pass What he said he would bring to pass, that means he has surely brought it to pass.
It's God's way of showing us he means business.
In his long suffering, he holds back his wrath.
In his judgment, he pours out his wrath that he once withheld.
And when we read about the things that God promises and then does, it ought to strengthen our faith.
And it also ought to remind us that God will chasten us.
He said he will.
And he will surely do it when we go astray.
On Wednesday night, I think it was about two weeks ago, we studied Proverbs 13:24.
That said, he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
Now listen to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 6.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
The act of chastening Is reserved for God's people, whom He calls sons or son in the singular here.
And the Hebrew writer tells us that God chastens every son whom He receiveth.
Chastening is teaching.
Chastening is striking as punishment, but always with the purpose of teaching, not harming.
If you're missing Wednesday nights, you're missing out on that.
You would have heard it.
But I encourage you to tune in and watch those lessons again.
And the Greek word translated every in that Hebrews text means all.
In other words, it is sure.
It is every.
It is all.
God surely caused Judah to be removed out of his sight because he said he would.
And that ought to be enough to discourage anyone from going against God's word.
And he said he did it.
Look back in your text for the sins of Manasseh according to all that he did.
Again, God went back.
To the sins of a king who reigned several generations before that.
But a king who was largely responsible During his 55 years, during most of his 55 years on the throne, he was responsible for leading the children of Israel and Judah into idolatry.
And into rebellion against God.
And it's a wonderful story because when you read the accounts given in Kings and in Chronicles.
You see that Manasseh repented of his sin.
He became a believer toward the end of his reign.
And even though he repented toward the end of his reign, there was still a price for Judah to pay.
Perhaps this will help you understand this example.
I'm going to give you, will help you understand why God would still punish a nation for the sins of its king, even if the king repents.
David Berkowitz, also known as the son of Sam, was a serial killer and a serial arsonist in New York City.
And he was caught and convicted and sentenced to consecutive 25 to life terms.
So when he finished one, he'd have to start the other.
In other words, he's never getting out of prison unless he escapes.
During his time in prison, he claimed to have become an evangelical Christian. and he wrote a bunch of essays on the matter and had prison ministries in the facility.
Now only God and David Berkowitz know whether his faith in Christ was genuine.
But let's say it is.
Does that excuse his horrible crimes?
On earth, there's still a price for him to pay.
In eternity, if he's a believer, Jesus paid that price for him.
Now, you know, that's a hard pill for people to swallow.
They'll say, they'll look at you and You sure about that?
I mean, he was a serial killer.
So was I.
Not with my hands, but right here.
Have you ever been angry with your brother without a cause?
You've committed murder in your own heart.
Have you ever looked upon a woman or a man with lust that was not your spouse?
You've committed adultery in your own heart.
And so in eternity, Jesus paid that price no matter how much suffering and how many lives that man ruined.
And just like God forgave Manasseh, he carried out his sentence on Judah.
Just like he forgave David Berkowitz if he became a Christian, the sentence against him on this earth had to be carried out, and prison would be his grave.
Let's be reminded of what Manasseh's sins were.
You might think, well, David Berkowitz was worse than Manasseh.
No, he wasn't.
Verse 4.
About Manasseh, and also for the innocent blood that he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood.
Innocent blood means Clean blood or guiltless blood.
It means the people who were killed were innocent of any wrongdoing against society.
They had broken no laws.
Killing innocent blood or innocent people, shedding innocent blood is also called blood guiltiness in the Bible.
And you see it in Psalm chapter 51, verse 14.
And if you're taking notes, put the lowercase letter A.
And for those of you new to that, we do that to let you know we're not quoting the whole verse, we're quoting the first part of it.
Psalm 51, verse 14, lowercase letter A.
Where David said he was praying to God, he said, Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation.
The reason God did not let David build the house of the Lord was for the blood he shed and the great wars he had made when he was a king.
And David knew that during all that bloodshed, he and his soldiers had caused the deaths of people who had not committed crimes worthy unto death.
Oh, many had.
Manasseh was blood guilty.
And at the end, it says, which the Lord would not pardon.
And because we need to properly understand what that means, Rather than getting unsettled about it, we're going to look at that next week in a little bit more detail.
But our time has failed us, so let's pray.
Father, we're so thankful for the ones who have come and who have the hunger to learn your word.
And thank you for the truth that we've learned today.
And we just ask that your Spirit bind it to our hearts, that we would meditate upon it throughout this week and grow in our faith, and that it would draw the loss to you.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen
