Year 2, Week 9, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 9, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 2 Kings 21; 2 Chronicles 32.

Today’s reading contains two historical accounts of events in the life of Judah. 2 Chronicles 32 describes the siege that Jerusalem experienced during the reign of Hezekiah by the hands of the Assyrians: “Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. And the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword. So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side” (2 Chronicles 32:20-22). But 2 Chronicles 32 also records Hezekiah’s prideful blunder in showing the Babylonians the wealth of Judah: “And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart” (2 Chronicles 32:31). The accounting of these events are also written about in Isaiah 36-39 and 2 Kings 18-20. 2 Kings 21 describes the reign of Manasseh, who followed Hezekiah as king of Judah: “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 21:1a); as well as the reign of Ammon, who followed Manasseh: “Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 21:19a).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the extreme wickedness of Manasseh, which put in place the announcement of Jerusalem’s fall: “therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down” (2 Kings 21:13-14). Manasseh rejected the godly ways of his father, Hezekiah: “And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed” (2 Kings 21:2-3a). And instead, Manasseh embraced the ways of Ahab, the wicked man who had been King of the Northern Kingdom of Israel: “and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them” (2 Kings 21:3b). By his actions concerning Jerusalem, Manasseh greatly offended the LORD: “And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD” (2 Kings 21:4-5). Manasseh also followed the ways of the pagan gods by killing a son: “And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger” (2 Kings 21:6). Manasseh led Judah to new lows: “But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel” (2 Kings 21:9). These were dark days in the life of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

Manasseh’s son, Ammon, was not much better: “And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshiped them. He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD” (2 Kings 21:20-22). Ammon’s reign was filled with political chaos. This chaos was seen first in the assassination of Ammon: “And the servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house” (2 Kings 21:23). But then the chaos continued with the elimination of those connected to Ammon's assassination: “But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place” (2 Kings 21:24). These were troubled times of political coups and revenge; but there were times that were still under the providential control of the LORD. After two extremely unfaithful Davidic Kings covering a period of over fifty years, it is intriguing to see that with all of the political chaos and changeover, a King from the line of David was made the next King. Josiah’s installment as King seems to come as a surprise from a human standpoint. Politically, it would have seemed tempting to forego with another Davidic King, especially how Josiah was the son and grandson of two of Judah’s most wicked kings. But Josiah was made king, ultimately by the Hand of God, for the LORD had established a promise: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-13). Political upheaval does not up end the purposes of God. The promises of God are a sure anchor through the storms of wicked political chaos.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe