Hope From the Word

Announcer: Coming up on Hope from the Word. The most important part of the crowning of the king.

Bill Luebkemann: One of the jobs of a new king, he was to write out his own copy of the scriptures. He did not just go down to, you know, the Sunshine Christian Bookstore and select one of the many copies that are available, in the different translations, bindings, colors, shapes, and styles. He had to write his own one, taken from that of the priest. So they would have to loan him one of their copies and he would write it all out. And who knows how long that would take? You write something out, you remember it better.

Bill Luebkemann: It has been said that promises are only as strong as the person who gives them. Someone has counted the number of promises given in the Bible and arrived at 1,260. Each and every one of those promises has been or will be fulfilled one day. That is because God never fails, and neither do his promises. We will be reminded of that today on Hope from the Word as we take you to Second Chronicles 22 and 23.

It is good to know that we can count on God's word to be true. Here is why, from Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

Bill Luebkemann: So, if you will open up to Second Chronicles chapter 23. We left off with Athaliah taking over when her son died. Her son was Ahaziah, and he died at the towards the end of chapter 22 there. The reason why he died was he was hanging out with the king of Israel, and this guy, Jehu, who was sent by God, really, to wipe out the household of the king of Israel, also wiped out Ahaziah, the king of Judah, who was up that way visiting.

Now, when his mother, Athaliah, heard about this, she destroyed the entire royal family. So she decided she wanted to be in charge. She did not want some cousin or some uncle or some other relative becoming the king and then she would not be able to be the mother of the king anymore. So her way around that was to destroy the entire royal family.

However, Jehoshaba, who was the wife of the high priest, Jehoiada, she took Joash, one of Ahaziah's sons, and hid him away. So this guy, Ahaziah, all his sons got wiped out by his mother. So they were killed by their grandmother, except for this one child, Joash, who was just an infant really. And they hid him away in the Temple of God for six years. And during that time he grew from, I do not know, maybe one year old to seven years old or something like that. He was very, very young, just a baby when they hid him away, and they kept him safe and protected him, and his own grandmother did not know he even existed.

And she he was living right under her nose in the temple there, and perhaps in an apartment or something where the high priest lived with his wife. And this high priest waited out the time, and after seven years, the child had grown up to be the age of seven or eight. Now, I think we will see his age here. So let us start out with chapter 23, verse one, and then we will see what happens.

In the seventh year, Jehoiada showed his strength. He made a covenant with the commanders of units of a hundred, Azariah, son of Jehoram, of Jehohan, Ishmael, son of Jehohan, Azariah, son of Obed, Massiah, son of Adayah, and Eliphat, son of Zicri. They went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites and the heads of Israelite families from all the towns. When they came to Jerusalem, the whole assembly made a covenant with the king at the Temple of God.

So here is what this guy did, Jehoiada, he waited out these seven years, very patient guy here, while this woman who was evil was ruling the kingdom, and they pretty much were not worshiping the Lord in the temple. We are going to see that temple worship for all intents and purposes was not really happening, but apparently she left the high priest alone and he and his wife were protecting this child in their living quarters, and she had no idea of it, and apparently not many people knew. It does not really say how many people knew, but not many people knew. But after seven years, when the child was about seven or eight years old, the high priest decided to show his strength because he knew that the throne should be occupied by a descendant of David.

And here we have a descendant of David, this child. He is the only one left in this line. All his brothers have been killed, and he is the rightful heir to the throne. So this priest made a covenant with these commanders who are listed here. Now that means he had to take them into his confidence. They might not have known what was going on. So he had to he had to take them in and trust them that they were not going to run and tell the mother, the grandmother, Athaliah, what was going on. He took these guys into his confidence and he said, "Now look, everybody thinks the previous king, all his sons were killed, but really, one of his sons is still alive. We have him hidden away here. He is seven or eight years old now. And I want to make him king. He should be the rightful heir."

And I do not think anybody loved or liked the woman who was leading things up. She was an evil person, and they were probably very happy to hear this good news. So he had to take these five guys into his confidence. It tells us who they are here. Azariah, Ishmael, Azariah, Massaiah, and Eliphat. So these five guys, I make no claim, by the way, of having correct pronunciation. You can pronounce them any way you want to. And he took them into his confidence. And then they dispersed and they went throughout Judah, and they gathered all the Levites together, and also the heads of the families, and they let them in on their secret.

So the word went out, "We are going to have a coup here. We are going to take over the we are going to have the righteous king." And the people were excited to hear this news. We are going to see that in a little while also. They were happy, overjoyed that the Lord would give them a king again who would be the rightful heir to the throne. And they gathered all these people, these five guys went out across the land, brought in all these people, the heads of the families, and here they are, when they came to Jerusalem, the whole assembly made a covenant with the king at the Temple of God.

Now, I do not know how they did this secretly. I do not know how many people this was, and I do not know how many people lived in Jerusalem, but there were times when they had festivals when there was a lot of people in Jerusalem. So it may be that this number of people when they came to Jerusalem may not have been that noticeable. They got him into the temple there of God, and they introduced him to the king, and these people made a covenant. So we are going to allow you to be our king, we want you to be our king, we believe God is calling you to be the king, and they made a deal with him. But now, they have to get rid of this woman, Athaliah.

And who knows how many supporters she has? And I do not know if they know how many supporters she has, but some people might be her supporters. So Jehoiada again, he is the high priest. Jehoiada said to them, "The king's son shall reign, as the Lord promised concerning the descendants of David." The Lord promised that there are going to be a descendant of David on this throne. And we are just all we are doing here is trusting God for his promise. And look, and I think we can all learn a lesson from this of trusting God for his promises. And you know what? It was not very apparent to them. They did not even think there was an heir of David alive.

The nation as a whole is worshiping the Baals, worshiping idols. This evil woman is running the nation, so evil that she killed her own family. And you would think that there would be nothing but despair in the land. You would think that everybody would be afraid to act. "Golly gee, if we take any action and she finds out, we could get executed." And this is a story here about people who took action based on their faith in God's word, and they believed God's word. They believed when when it said that God made a promise, when Jehoiada said to them, "The king's son shall reign as the Lord promised concerning the descendants of David." That puts them ahead of a number of people, a lot of people in the world today.

How is that so? How are they ahead of people in the world today? Well, first of all, they believe there is a Lord, these people. Second of all, they believe the Lord made certain promises. And third, they believe the Lord is capable of and is going to fulfill the promises that he made. So at least three ways that I can think of that these people were ahead of a lot of people alive today.

The Lord promised his son is going to reign. Now, this is Jehoiada speaking again in verse four. "Now this is what you are to do. A third of you priests and Levites who are going on duty on the Sabbath are to keep watch at the doors. A third of you at the royal palace, and a third at the foundation gate. And all the other men are to be in the courtyards of the Temple of the Lord."

Well, you say, "Well, what is that about? A third, a third, and a third, and the rest of them?" Well, how can there be a rest of them if there is a third, and a third, and a third? Who is the rest of them? A third, and a third, and a third, three-thirds, that is the whole. There are not any other ones. But here, the answer is really in here, pretty clear. "A third of you priests and Levites who are going on duty." See, there were some priests and Levites who were already on duty, and then there were other ones that were coming on duty. In other words, this was a shift change.

But he says of the ones that are going to go on duty here, "A third of you priests and Levites who are going on duty on the Sabbath are to keep watch at the doors. And a third of you at the palace, and a third of you over at the foundation gate. And all the other men are to be in the courtyards of the Temple of the Lord. No one is to enter the Temple of the Lord except the priests and Levites on duty. They may enter because they are consecrated, but all the other men are to guard what the Lord has assigned to them."

So all the other men are to be in the courtyards of the Temple, and we see here that it says, "No one is to enter the Temple of the Lord except the priests and Levites on duty." So the ones who were on duty were the ones who were in the courtyard. You with me? The ones who were on duty, their shift is ending, but they are still on duty. They are in the courtyard, and the ones who were coming on duty who were not consecrated yet, their shift had not begun yet, but they were going to guard the door, the palace and the gate at the outside. So he has himself a plan here.

Now, the Levites are to station themselves around the king, each man with his weapons in his hand. Anyone who enters the temple must be put to death. Stay close to the king wherever he goes. So he has a circle of guys around the king, all with weapons, prepared if anybody should attack the king. We have the the one shift in the courtyard, the other shift guarding the perimeter, and we have now a circle of guys around the king. If anybody comes in the temple here, they are going to be killed. And if anyone approaches the king, we are going to defend him. So this guy had a really solid plan here.

And it turns out, it does not look like they had much to worry about defending, but I do not think they knew exactly who was going to be loyal. So it seems like he is going to be prepared for the worst. The Levites and all the men of Judah did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each one took his men, those who were going on duty on the Sabbath, and those who were going off duty for Jehoiada the priest had not released any of the divisions. So these ones are going off duty, but they had not been released yet. Their time was coming to an end, but we are still going to keep them on duty a while longer. So we really have double the number of personnel that we would normally have. We have the ones who are who shift is ending, the one whose shift is beginning.

Then he gave the commanders of units of a hundred the spears and the large and small shields that had belonged to King David and that were in the Temple of God. He stationed all the men, each with his weapon in his hand, around the king, near the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple. So here they are, he gives them the weapons, he they have this they have the spears and they have the shields that had belonged to King David, which were still there in the temple, and he stationed them around to protect the king.

So he is ready to make a public announcement. And you can think of this like, you know, the Secret Service detail that is around the President of the United States, always protecting him. And if the President goes overseas, he is in Asia now, you know, the Secret Service goes over there ahead of time. And every place he is going to go, if he is going to speak in some place, they check it out ahead of time. They check out the stage, the hotel, the meeting room. They they bring all kinds of fancy equipment that they probably do not want to tell us about.

They even run cell phone jamming machines when the President is giving a speech, because bombs can be set off by cell phones. We have all seen that in the news. Terrorists use they make a bomb, attach a cell phone to it, and then they dial that number from another cell phone, and when the phone rings, it sets off the bomb. So when the President speaks, they jam all the cell phones. If you were ever to go to hear the President speak, try to use your cell phone, it would not work because they run jamming devices, which are not really that complicated. They are highly illegal in the United States of America, but you can buy them.

And I have heard of movie theaters, churches, and other groups using cell phone jamming technology so people's phones do not ring in a setting like that. We do not do that, that is not legal in the United States, but the President, well, he can do whatever he wants because he is the President. And the Secret Service is going to protect him. Well, you kind of get that idea here. They were protecting him, they had their weapons, they were jamming the cell phones, no one could set off a bomb. They were going to protect him every way that they knew how.

Jehoiada and his sons brought out the king's son and put the crown on him. They presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him and shouted, "Long live the king!" Now, this is it. He was not the king before, he was the son of the king, he had never been officially become the king, but now he does. And they bring him out. Here Jehoiada and his sons are helping him, and they bring him out and they set him up there and they put the crown on him. They give him a copy of the covenant. What is that all about? Well, look, if you look back at Deuteronomy 17, beginning in verse 18, it says this about a king. "When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully the words of this law and these decrees, and not consider himself better than his brothers, and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel."

One of the jobs of a new king, he was to write out his own copy of the scriptures. He did not just go down to, you know, the Sunshine Christian Bookstore and select one of the many copies that are available, in the different translations, bindings, colors, shapes, and styles. He had to write his own one, taken from that of the priest. So they would have to loan him one of their copies and he would write it all out. And who knows how long that would take, but that was what you write something out, you remember it better. And once he wrote it out, he was to read it all the days of his life. You know, I I I heard a guy say years ago, "You know, I read the whole Bible and I read it a couple times and I do not really see any point in reading it anymore because I already know what it says."

To which I think, "I better move away from you, buddy, just in case lightning strikes." But God wants us to be reading his word. And here here was the good advice for the king: reading it every day of his life. It did not say just read it through one time, then you will get it all and you will remember it. You would be reading it all the time. And Jehoiada here, he was familiar with the law, and he gave the king this copy of the covenant. They made him king, and he did not forget this important thing. "Look, Joash, here is your copy of the covenant and here is a pencil and some paper and no no Microsoft Word here, anything like that. I use Word Perfect, but none of that stuff, you just have to write it out yourself." And get started. They anointed him the king, and they said, "Long live the king."

Now, a big, big party is going on here. All these people, and they are making noise and when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and cheering the king, she went to them at the Temple of the Lord. She heard all this ruckus, "What is going on here?" She went out here, it is like the Fourth of July. She looked and there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets and singers with musical instruments were leading the praises. Then Athaliah tore her robes and shouted, "Treason! Treason!"

Really, it was treason when she took over. This was not treason. This may have been treason against her, but it was not treason against the Lord, and it was not treason against the nation, because they were doing the right thing. These people were having a worship service here. They had trumpets and, you know, their their praise team was not probably as good as ours, but you know, they had to make do with with what they had. I am sure they did fine. And all the people were rejoicing and blowing trumpets and singers leading praises, and it was just a big, wild party here.

I am sure it was organized, however they organized it. If any of us were to view this, maybe we would think it was organized, maybe we would not be. They were here rejoicing and happy, "We are getting a king. He is from the line of David. The Lord has not forgotten us. He has not looked away forever." Things were pretty bad in the kingdom with Athaliah reigning, and I think the people were delighted to see this happen.

Jehoiada the priest sent out the commanders of units of a hundred, remember that was the five guys we saw earlier, who were in charge of the troops, and said to them, "Bring her out between the ranks and put to the sword anyone who follows her." For the priest had said, "Do not put her to death at the Temple of the Lord." So they seized her as she reached the entrance of the Horse Gate on the palace grounds, and there they put her to death. Get rid of her. She is not the king anymore, she is not the queen anymore, whatever she was, she is not it anymore. Now we have a new king. And they were prepared to put to death anyone who followed her. It does not really say if anyone followed her. So maybe maybe nobody followed her. It seems like everybody was happy to be rid of her, and there was no great loss there.

Jehoiada then made a covenant that he and the people and the king would be the Lord's people. So they had not been following the Lord. I I believe from reading this through, you will see as we progress, I I think we can assume that the sacrifices were not going on, the worship was not going on. Things were not going on in Temple that were supposed to be going on there. They were not making the offerings. I am given the just from the context of this story, it seems like that had been abandoned. And so Jehoiada leads them to make a covenant, to make a contract between the people and the king and the priest that they are going to be the Lord's people. "We are going to serve the Lord now. We are going to follow him now."

And the people were into it. It says, "All the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altar." So they all got together. Now, remember, when Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem, they were all shouting, "Hosanna, Hosanna!" And then just a few days later, they were shouting, "Crucify, crucify!" So how fickle a crowd can be. And these people here who are making this covenant here, we will see in a number of years, the the nation becomes wicked again. But at this point, they were really into it. They were carried along by the joy and exuberance that they all that that everybody had there. And they went on down to the temple of Baal and wiped out the priest there and tore down the temple, smashed the altars and idols, put an end to worshiping Baal.

Then Jehoiada placed the oversight of the Temple of the Lord in the hands of the priests who were Levites, to whom David had made assignments in the temple, to present the burnt offerings of the Lord as written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing as David had ordered. He also stationed doorkeepers at the gates of the Lord's Temple so that no one who was in any way unclean might enter. Now, from reading this, it would seem to be that they were not doing these things previously.

And even though Jehoiada may have been the high priest, he may not have been strong enough to prevent things from being done. We are going to see in a little while here that people were going in and taking stuff out of the temple and using it to worship Baal with. And David had set up a whole system where the descendants of different people, this descendants of this guy were in charge of watching the doorkeeper, the doors, and the descendants of this guy were in charge of this and that. They had set up a whole system. And it appears that that system had not been used. And Jehoiada started it back up again. He placed the oversight of it into the hands of the priests who were the Levites, to whom David had made assignments. By saying that he did that, I think the implication is clear that it was not being done prior to that point.

And there was rejoicing and singing, and he stationed the doorkeepers at the gates so that no one who was in any way unclean might enter. Again, if you read between the lines, if we are going to keep out the people who are unclean, with the doorkeepers being stationed there, that would lead you to believe that previously they did not have doorkeepers there and people were coming and going as they saw fit. He took with him the commanders of hundreds. This was the original five guys we saw earlier. He took them, the nobles, the rulers of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from the Temple of the Lord. They went into the palace through the upper gate and seated the king on the royal throne. And all the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet because Athaliah had been slain with the sword.

You have got to love it. Here they go from the temple to the palace. They are having a big party, making noise, blowing trumpets, singing, and they go into the palace. Athaliah is gone. The king, this young kid, gets to sit on the throne of his father. And the people are rejoicing, and the city is quiet. All because this one woman has been slain. It does not say anybody else was slain. So you just get the feeling there, she caused a lot of grief. And they are happy to be rid of her.

Announcer: You have been listening to Hope from the Word. We are currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann's study of Second Chronicles. If you would like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccMarlton.org, download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find podcasts.

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Before the day is done, we would like to connect with you. Share a praise report, prayer request, or what you are learning from this series. You can easily email us from our website, ccMarlton.org, or just call us at 856-983-1662. There is more to come from Bill's study of Second Chronicles, and we will have that for you next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.