Day 29 ~ 450 years without a Passover

Here are a couple of handy charts on the kings of Israel and Judah. http://www.lightuntomypath.us/kingsjudahisrael.htm
http://www.biblestudy.org/prophecy/israel-kings.html

• more duplicate king names...resist the urge to create a spreadsheet...
• chapter 14:8 - just because you beat the Edomites, don't think you can take on others - the king of Judah gets big headed and takes on the kingdom of Israel and is Judah is soundly defeated. The king of Israel warned the king of Judah, but he wouldn't listen.
• Wow...not only did the king of Israel defeat Judah, he came in and destroyed part of the wall around Jerusalem and sacked the temple
• Chapter 15 - Azariah is king of Judah for 52 years, but hides out in the palace with leprosy while his son Jotham judged the people. Then Jotham reigned after him another 16 years (:33)
• We get a list of kings of Israel, all wicked (part of that bad kings for four generation curse from God, :12)...Zechariah (6 months), killed by Shallum, who reigned for 1 month, killed by Menahem (who killed pregnant women and ripped out their babies, as predicted) reigned 10 years. He raised taxes to pay off the king of Assyria who was threatening the land. He dies a natural death (for once) and is replaced by his son Pekahiah, killed after 2 years by the son of his officer named Pekah. Pekah reigns 20 years. Assyria comes back and steals a few cities away from Israel during his reign. Hoshea kills Pekah and reigns in his place.
• While Pekah is king in Israel, Jotham (who covered for his father king Azariah the leper) comes to rule in Judah and rules for 16 years. He was mostly good, but there was still idolatry. He built the Upper Gate of the house of the Lord.
• Pekah (Israel) joins the king of Syria and strikes against Judah. Jotham is killed and his son Ahaz takes the throne.
• Chapter 16 - Ahaz reigns in Judah 16 years and was a bad king, and worshiped idols himself. The king of Israel and Syria attack again, but can't overcome Ahaz, but do take some of Judah's territory.
• Ahaz pulls the back door trick and appeals to the king of Assyria who has twice struck at Israel in the last two reigns to save him from Israel and Syria. The king accepts silver and gold from the treasures of Judah's kingdom (can't be much left to give!). Assyria attacks Syria, kills their king and takes their capitol, Damascus.
• This can't be good - while looking over the taken city of Damascus, Ahaz sees and altar he likes and has it replicated in Jerusalem and then makes offerings on it. He makes the old altar a crystal ball of sorts. Why didn't the priest Urijah stop this?
• Apparently under pressure from Assyria, the king of Judah begins to disassemble portions of the temple.
• Ahaz dies naturally, then his son Hezekiah reignes in his place. Looks like they are really a puppet of the king of Assyria now. Which is interesting, because the northern kingdom will fall to the Assyrians first, not the southern kingdom. Will there be a double cross?
• Chapter 17 - Well, didn't have to wait long for that...the next king of Israel, Hoshea, conspires against Assyria who is still asking for tribute money. The king of Assyria (Shalmaneser, 18:9) finds out about the conspiracy and besieged Samaria, then takes Israel captive back to Assyria. This is in about 721 BC. We get a long recounting of how Israel disobeyed God repeatedly and in many different ways which led up to this capture, even after repeated warnings to turn from their evil.
• Assyria moves in to Israel and occupies it, but sends the people of Israel (northern tribes) out. God still claims the land and sends lions to plague the Assyrians in His promised land. The Assyrian king was smart enough to get a priest from Israel and send him back to Samaria to teach the Assyrians how to sacrifice to God to perhaps get Him to ease up on the lion attacks.
• It was a melting pot of religions (including a fear of the Lord, but not a reference for Him) with the multiple allies of Assyria also occupying the taken territory.
• Chapter 8 - I predicted it...the bronze snake image that Moses cast at God's command had become an idol in Judah, but a decent king, Hezekiah, destroys it and the other areas of idolatry in Judah.
• Hezekiah held off the hand of the Assyrians (who set their sights on Israel and overtake them) and subdued the Philistines. But after only eight years, king Sennacherib of Assyria captures the fortified cities of Judah. Hezekiah strips the gold from the doors of the temple along with other silver and gold and pays it to the Assyrian king...this does no good and the king continues to harass Judah.
• Apparently there is some sort of allied treaty with Egypt and Judah, but Egypt was described as weak (18:21)
• Chapter 19 - enter a new prophet, Isaiah. My guess is he's pretty good, since he has a whole book named after him, and it's still at least 110 years before Judah falls. Isaiah prophesies of the death of the Assyrian king, who has blasphemed God.
• Hezekiah prays fervently to God, but God doesn't speak directly to him - he speaks through Isaiah.
• 19:31: for out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant (is this Messianic?)
• The Lord strikes 185,000 dead overnight in Sennacherib, camp against Jerusalem, and he returns to Nineveh. He is killed by his own son, Esarhaddon, who ascends the throne.
• Chapter 20 - Hezekiah, near death, appeals for a longer life and God grants him 15 more years. God shows a sign of his promise by making a shadow go backward 10 degrees.
• For some stupid reason, Hezekiah shows a new foreign leader, of Babylon, all his treasures. Where does he keep getting these treasures? Not so long ago he had stripped the gold from the temple doors. God tells Hezekiah that Babylon will carry all these treasures off as well as some of Hezekiah's descendants, who will serve the Babylonian king as eunuchs.
• Apparently Hezekiah did something cool with water in Jerusalem. He dies (extended by 15 years), and his son Manasseh took the throne at the age of 12.
• Chapter 21 - Manasseh was a bad king, reintroducing idolatry, including in the temple of the Lord.
• 21:41 - God will forsake the remnant of His inheritance because of their evil deeds.
• A 55-year reign of evil ends, and Manasseh's son Amon takes his place, following the same evil path. He is murdered after 2 years and replaced by Josiah.
• Chapter 22 - But Josiah, only 8 when he was placed on the throne, did right in God's eyes. He has repairs made to the temple of the Lord, and guess what they find? The Book of the Law!
• Interesting - Jerusalem is broken up into quarters - as it still is today (22:14). A female prophet named Huldah. She tells of the unquenched anger of God to come, but also prophesies that the good king Josiah will not have to witness it.
• Chapter 23 - the king gathers the elders and does something that hasn't been done in probably a long time - and which is to be done at least every seven years if I remember correctly - he reads the book of the Law.
• Josiah cleans house - gets rid of the idols within the temple, the high places, removes the corrupt officials.
• Passover is reinstituted. 23:21

Passover had not been practiced since the time of the judges. Ouch. Let's see, the first king (ending the time of the judges) was Saul about 1095 BC per my OT chronology CD. We're at least 18 years into Josiah's reign (22:3; 23:24); or Josiah was 18 years old, which would be about 10 years into his reign, so about 630 BC. Josiah found the book of the Law, he wasted no time clearing out the country. A quick scan for the word "Passover" shows that the last time it was used was way back in Joshua 5, when the Israelites first crossed into the promised land and celebrated Passover in their new territory. This is disgusting - did they really quit celebrating the important festival for 450 years? Why even go to the trouble of having all the sacrifices? Perhaps they did it just to try to appease God. Not even David turned to the Law as did Josiah. Is there any evidence to the contrary that the Passover feast was celebrated in this timeframe?

• But, it's not enough. God's fury is still hot.
• If there was a sort of treaty in the past with Pharoah, it's over now. For some reason, while Pharoah is battling Assyria, Josiah tries to take on Pharoah. I'm sure we'll see details of this in the Chronicles, but Josiah dies in battle.
• Jehoahaz, Josiah's son, returns to evil as he rules for a short three months. The Pharoah imprisoned him and taxes Judah, and sets another son of Josiah, Eliakim/Jehoiakim on the throne. He was also evil, and ruled with heavy taxes for Egypt for 11 years.
• Chapter 24 - Ah, here he is...Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The end is near. The egyptians leave Judah alone now because Nebuchadnezzar has plundered them as well.
• Jehoiachin replaces his father as king after Jehoahaz' death, as short three month reign beseiged by Nebuchadnezzar, and are taken prisoner.
• Why has the author consistently given the names of the mothers of these kings?
• All of Jerusalem (except the poorest people) and the treasures are carted off to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzer wants the soldiers, craftsmen, and ablebodied only.
• Mattaniah is made king over Judah in Jehoiachin's place by Nebuchaddnezzar. Neb changes his name to Zedekiah. He'll change the names of the captives when they get to Babylon too. No surprise that he doesn't follow God, but somewhat surprising that he does rebel so quickly.
• Chapter 25 - not a good ideal to rebel - it drew Neb's attention back to Jerusalem.
• Good info for cross referencing other historical records - in the fifth month, seventh day of the ninetheenth year of Nebuchadnezzer's rule in Babylon, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the walls of Jerusalem were broken. By my handy chart, this was 586BC.
• More captives were carted off from Jerusalem. Some were left to farm and care for the vineyards for Babylon's use.
• Where is Riblah? Is it halfway between Jerusalem and Babylon?
• I'm not sure, but it looks like those left behind fled for Egypt because of the Chaldeans.
• Apparently Nebuchadnezzer is no longer on the throne, and a new king of Babylon, Merodach, releases the deposed king Jehoiachin of Judah from prison after 37 years, and Merodach gives him a place of honor in his cabinet. Don't understand that logic.

That is the end of 2 Kings. 12 books down, 54 to go. From all the times we read "are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah" I think we're going to get some ugly details of the failed time of the kings.