2 Chronicles Explained

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I love the emphasis of the heart in this book that God looks for a loyal heart. He looks for a heart that's humble. In fact, Jesus would say about himself, I am gentle and lowly in heart, and there's nothing more beautiful than a tender, humble heart before God. That's the greatest way to start revival. And it's the greatest way to maintain it. Stay humble before the lord.

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Welcome to the You Can Learn the Bible podcast. where we summarize complete Bible books in single episodes. I am Bodie Quirk from YouCanLearnTheBible.com, here as always with Joey Rozek, Lead Pastor of Living Springs Fellowship in New Jersey, and today, I, we get, Joey, who's looking a little more dapper, looking, you've got the shirt on. how are you doing today, my friend?

Yes, well, I know I'm dressed in the remains of my nice suit from a beautiful service we had for a dear saint who went home to be with the Lord, just this past week, in fact, this is actually the first member of our fellowship that has gone home to be with the Lord, and so it's wonderful to be able to honor a woman who has honored Jesus, and so that's why I'm looking a little more dapper today, Bodie.

I love it.

But we're back for another episode. We are in episode 20 of our podcast, aren't we, Joey, and we're going to cover the book of Second Chronicles today. So we're picking up right where we left off, Second Chronicles Explained, our seven part framework to equip and inspire your Bible study. So we hope that to make this book more approachable, a little bit more accessible, don't we, Joe?

What are some things that people can look forward to as far as the way we're going to go about helping people just get their minds around this book? How do we go about each episode?

Yeah, well, one of the great things we've been doing through this podcast from the very beginning is, you know, we're not reading through the whole book. We're not giving you every verse and chapter. What we're doing is giving you a great framework by which you can dive in for yourself, and read, and glean and, and enjoy the riches that are in the scriptures.

So we have this seven part framework, we start with the essentials. Like what's the background of the book. What's the who, what, why, where, when, how of the book, the things , we need to know, because remember, these books are written by human authors to a human audience, and it's important for us to understand the context.

And then there's a storyline. This fits into a bigger narrative of the whole Bible. So we go number two is our storyline. Number three, big themes, ideas, things that are important for us to not miss when you read through a book like this. Second Chronicles today.

Number four structure. How would we break down this book? What are the ways that will divide up the chapters and help you to see the flow of the book? And then number five and six we share together. What did we learn about God? What did we learn about us? We always do give you application because every book of the Bible is for our learning. And then Bodie. you and I sometimes share our favorite nuggets and gems from the book.

The goal is to really help to accelerate your familiarity and confidence so that you, as Joey said, so that you can go and read the book for yourself.

We do offer a couple, add ons or helps, one is that you could actually watch and see on YouTube, the video version, if that helps, sometimes we use maps and graphics and timelines, and we have some of that in our episode today. So if you want that, that is available for you on YouTube, of course, the audio is on Apple podcasts and Spotify. We also summarize the whole episode in a. single page PDF, if you'd like to download that, we'll give you a link at the end of the episode to get that, cause we really just want to equip you, right, Joey? We want people to feel like, Oh, I get it. I understand how this thing fits.

So let me hand it off to you. Number one is the essentials. So, what do we need to know first, if we're going to study the book of second Chronicles well.

Well, once again, you know, for those that don't know, Chronicles is the last book of the Hebrew Bible, so they put Chronicles all the way at the end. We've already gone through part one, this is part two of this one volume, amazing scroll called Chronicles. And so this is second Chronicles, and so let me give you the important essentials about this particular book, because we're learning about Kings. This is a repeat. Remember of what we did when we studied first and second Kings. The difference between Chronicles and Kings is Chronicles focuses entirely upon the southern kingdom of Judah.

We are focusing on Jerusalem, the city of the great King. We are focusing on the temple. We are focusing on, especially in this episode, the birth of the temple through Solomon. So last time we focused on David in part one, now we're going to see Solomon forward. So it was written between four 50 and four 25 BC before Christ, as those scribes looked back and wrote, about the history of Judah.

So this is focusing on the history of Judah, that's the genre. It was authored by probably many scribes. Some believe it was edited by Ezra, who was a key scribe, which we'll be reading about in the following book. The setting takes place, again, post exile. We're looking at Solomon all the way to Cyrus. So this is a really important period for the Kings because Solomon's going to have the longest reign of peace, and then you're going to see that Judah struggles like Israel with a lot of problems, and then there's reforms, and we're going to learn about that. The purpose of this book though, is always on true

Mm hmm.

to God. How do we keep our hearts loyal to God? And so of course it focuses on national Israel, but it's never limited there. It's for all generations of faith. I will add one, one little interesting point is that second chronicles is not in any way in the new Testament ever quoted is interesting. It's not a single quote in this book in the new Testament. And, as we look at these different Kings body, which we're going to dive into so many life lessons, right? So many

things we can

exactly. Perfect. Yeah. So this is again, part two of a single scroll, a larger volume, which was a chronicled collected history of Judah. Basically the first chronicles went all the way back to Adam, did a lot of genealogies. Now we're really going to get another glimpse, another angle at the Kings.

And so now let's look at where does this book fit in the storyline? This is number two of our framework. So first, first and second Chronicles, again, a single scroll that was divided up because of its length.

This is a summary of Judah's history part two. So we're picking up right where we left off at the end of the last episode. Right now, however, the differences for this episode in this book, versus First Chronicles, we're seeing the transition away from David. David is such a pinnacle figure in Judah's history. The story goes up to him, really culminates with him. And then we see now the story from David, the handoff to Solomon, and we're going to start to follow each of the Kings of David's line.

So we get to see Jerusalem the height of its glory in this book, in Second Chronicles, really surrounding around the. formation and the dedication of the temple. But I think it's this idea of dependence on God being so paramount. It's emphasized even more in this one, I would say, Joey, than in the last episode, because we're still seeing the covenant working its way out. Are they going to be faithful to Yahweh or are they going to follow the way of Jeroboam? Those two ways that we talked about in our Kings episodes. But again, Chronicles is different because it's an overview book.

It's a summary, but in this one, we're really going to see from Solomon until the collapse of Judah and into the exile. Whereas you said earlier, that's where the book is written. So that's a little glimpse on the storyline. Joey, anything you want to throw in there before we move on to themes?

Well, I think as you mentioned already, not all kings are the same. Not all nations have a perfect track record. And so Israel really gives us a good glimpse of the sinful nature of man that has to be constantly sanctified by God. And I think this is why are so grateful to have history like this. The Bible is filled with pages of history and narrative to give us the understanding of God's dealings with man, as we align our hearts with him after times of rebellion, repentance, which of course, everybody listening to this right now can relate to.

And so the goal would be to avoid the pitfalls and learn from the mistakes in the past, let's pray that we get to do that. And even as we dive into the themes and ideas, you're going to see some great ones here that we get to, to focus

Let's look, let's go to number three.

Let's look at what are the key themes of this book, compared to First Chronicles. So now, so that's a little bit on the essentials. We now looked at the storyline.

So Joey, walk us through these themes. 'cause what I think we are gonna see is once we introduce these themes, we are then gonna see them at work as we go through the structure and then into the application. So. If we don't know much about the themes of second chronicles, what are some of the things that we want to make sure that our listeners don't miss?

we are looking at actually the longest span of history that's given in the books of the Bible, when we look at this period of time with the Kings, and it really, it gives us so much insight on understanding where pitfalls come from so there's going to be an emphasis on the prominence of wisdom and the power of prayer because Bodie, if we as God's people don't humble ourselves and rely on God, this is where we open ourselves up even in times of peace or prosperity where we're susceptible to danger.

And so, we're gonna focus on the temple in Jerusalem and how that was so central for the Jewish way of life. These opening like nine chapters are really all about the reign of Solomon and his glory, we're going to look at that. We're going to see how, how does God define success? This is always based on obedience, isn't it? Not based on numbers and. External things. It's always based on a heart of obedience.

We're going to see how God dealt with the kings and the people due to their times of disobedience and blessings when they obeyed. And then we're also going to see that even the best kings, there were eight total good kings in Judah, but every one of them had flaws.

Bodie, not one of them was without some kind of area where they just compromised even a little bit, and so we're going to look at that. And, the conflict of course, is always the dealings with the neighbors that, you know, stuff that's going on even in our times today, where you have Israel dealing with people dwelling in the land and the reality of true worship versus pagan worship, but then what's beautiful about second Chronicles is we're going to highlight to you some of these wonderful times of reformation reforms and a way that God will bring back his blessing to his people after times of judgment in Judah. So that's what we're going

Yep. Lots of really exciting themes that we're going to now see come to life as we now walk you through the structure of the book.

So we'll repeat some of these as we go, but now we come into number four. So we, we talked about the essentials. We've now looked at where it's at in the storyline when it was written, the themes and ideas, and so now we want to ask, four, five, and six together. We want to look at the structure of the book. That's helpful to kind of know where some of the breaks are, but as we do with each section, now we want to then with each one go, what do we learn about God and what can we apply to our Christian life today?

And so I think Joey, these historical books, people feel like there isn't really much in there for us. And we hope, to kind of show you that that is definitely not the case. There is a lot that we can learn about God and that we can apply to our lives today. But we do need to know how the book is broken down.

And so we have done a three part breakdown, to Second Chronicles, but here is the larger structure of this book. In chapters one through nine, where, as Joey already said, we are going to look at the glory of Jerusalem under Solomon. There's a heavy focus on Jerusalem and Solomon in this book. Chapters one through nine are really the best of Israel's history. And we're going to look at a summary of their splendor under Solomon, the building of the temple, the sacrifices, and the dedication of the temple, all of that really beautiful period of Israel's history is recapped in chapters one through nine, the glory of Jerusalem under Solomon.

Then we see that, of course, things change. Chapters 10 through 12, they're really important because this is where we talk about the divide or the split of Israel under Solomon's son, Rehoboam. So now we've already covered this again in the books of Kings, but this is a retelling of the failure of Rehoboam and how his pride unfortunately led to the division of the nation, and so you have the really great days under Solomon, the divide under his son through Rehoboam.

But then Joey, we have a really big section after that, it really, it's kind of a collection of subsections, isn't it? 13 really through the end of the book, 36 is all about the rest of the Kings after Solomon, it's really about not just about who they were, but it was about their reign, but it was also about the reforms, and we're going to spend a lot of time talking about, those Kings in Judah who really returned to the Lord, it's just basically, it's a bunch of biographical sketches, but the emphasis is on five periods of spiritual reformation, and we're going to show you that and we get into part three.

So we got Solomon in part one, we got Rehoboam in part two, and we pretty much got everybody else in part three. And so, let's get into part one, if we could, this is really one of the most beautiful parts of this book under Solomon's reign in Israel. So Joey walk us through some of these key parts first, and then let's talk about how we can apply this to our life.

Yes. Yeah. So the first biographical sketch we have in the book of second Chronicles is focused on the life of Solomon and he gets the largest volume of the scriptures, nine chapters, and we break up these nine chapters into four parts. You know, the first part, you really see Solomon's wisdom being given to him.

This is a beautiful part of how God, imparts to him because Solomon asks for it. The New Testament tells us if we lack wisdom, we should ask of God who gives wisdom to all liberally and without reproach. We see Solomon getting that in chapter one, chapters two through four. We see a strong emphasis now on the building of the temple and not just the temple, but remember all of those key furnishings within the temple, every piece of furniture was ordained by God, was designed from a pattern in heaven, and this is a part of God bringing his presence and his glory down to the earth through this temple.

So, so important those chapters. Chapters 5 through 7, we see the dedication of this temple and the glory of the Lord actually fills it and Solomon prays this beautiful dedication to God, when the temple is established and then God sends fire down from heaven. I mean, talk about an answer from heaven where God consumes the altar, he shows his glory and people are just amazed. Wow. God is meeting with us in this place.

And then chapter seven through nine is this covenant, lived out now, and the way that God blessed Solomon with such great foreign relations, the peace and the splendor of Solomon's kingdom was unparalleled. People came from far and wide to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and, uh, then we see his death, at the end there. So that's what the nine chapters are going to show us, and we can go back and kind of look at some of these key things before we leave this

Yeah. There's a lot that happens under Solomon, again, this is a recap from God's perspective about what matters to God. And so remember that God had promised that there was going to be a king. Saul was the one the people chose, but David was the one that God had chose, and there was going to be home, a place, the mobile tabernacle that had been a key part of Israel's identity is now going to have a permanent dwelling in the place that God had always ordained in Jerusalem, and we get to really get this beautiful recap of God authenticating this. God blessing it. And even though Solomon, like many of the Kings we're going to look at, later kind of stumbles and falls.

What I love is that God doesn't like look at Solomon's whole life and judge by that. He says, when you're obedient, I'm going to bless you, and it's so encouraging for us today that regardless of what we have done or will do, if we're obedient now, we can trust that God's favor will bless our lives because we are going to see that there's Kings that start well, and Solomon is one of them, but, I don't want the end part of Solomon's story to soil the incredible beauty in chapters one through nine, like this covenant that God makes with them, like you said, the foreign nations that were all part of the blessing of Israel. But I personally love, Joey, the dedication.

When Solomon dedicates the temple, it is just one of the most beautiful examples of a godly leader. putting God first, showcasing His glory, leading the people in repentance and worship, and really aligning the national heart towards Yahweh, because we see that that's the thing that they miss later in the story, and there's a lot more going on. What are some things you love about this section one through nine?

Yeah. So for those of you listening, I'd really just want you to just pick up on some things that you really need to not miss. Okay. Chapter one is a great. Example for anybody that has any responsibility of leadership in the world. What does Solomon do? God appears to him and asks him an open ended question. What's the question? He says, ask, what shall I give you? This is greater than the genie of the bottle that says, you know, you got three wishes, this is the creator of the universe saying, just ask me whatever you want, what's the one thing you want?

And you know, here's the beauty of a man who understands his responsibility before God and before people. He asks for wisdom and knowledge that seeking so that he can go out and come in before his people and judge them righteously. That is a beautiful request, and because God sees that his heart was not just asking for something selfishly, but rather sacrificially, how can I be a blessing to others? This is the beginning of what is good about anybody in leadership is they're thinking about the benefit and blessing of others.

I'd like to also add, you know, when you get into chapters two and three, as I mentioned before about the temple being built and of course into chapter four as well, it would be good to throw out to you that Solomon, when he is building or having these things built, he's utilizing the people around him. I mean, he gets the cedars of Lebanon that get brought over. He has, artisans skilled men with the power of the Holy Spirit upon them, helping to make the furniture, and another reminder to us in leadership, you need to utilize the strengths around you see and recognize who's in your life. Who is God placed around you with their gifts, their calling, and what they're able to add to the mission and purpose of God. So I think that's beautiful.

But in chapters five through seven, when we look at the dedication. This is so important because you see, it's one thing to ask God for success or for building something, what we can easily do is think that after it's done, we did it. As if to say, like, look at what I made. Look at how amazing this is. But Solomon reminds us. When it's all said and done, he worships. He glorifies God. In fact, everybody comes together with trumpeters and singers, and we learn in chapter 5 and verse 13, in one voice, they made one sound to be heard, praising God, and thanking God.

And they lifted up their voice and they, they praising for he is good for his mercy endures forever. And the house of the Lord was filled with the cloud and the glory of God was so powerful that they could barely even contain themselves. The Bible says the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. That's awesome, Bodie. I just think, wow, what a great example. What a great picture here. And what a powerful picture of God's

Oh, well, and Joey, I love that you put us right into that moment of this dedication of this temple, the permanent dwelling place of God, because what we read is a verse that often gets quoted outside of this context. In fact, Second Chronicles chapter seven, there's a verse that gets often quoted for any nation in general, but what's fascinating, and you'll probably recognize this quote, we're going to read it in a second, but I want to read the verse before it, and I want to read the verse after it, cause those don't get read quite as much, but they're in the context that Joey just put us in.

The dedication of the temple, the glory of God, the establishment of this nation that God has, put Solomon, the leader over this guy who's asking for wisdom, and God says this in 2nd Chronicles 7, 13 through 16, when I shut up the heavens and there's no rain or no command, the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, when judgment is right, which it, which we're going to see it come down, right? And then, and it has been part of their past. If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, well, then I'm going to hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

Now, my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made where, Joey, In

In this

See, that's really important because we're part of still this dedication moment for now I have chosen God says, and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. See, we often extract that when I do think it applies to any nation. If we do repent and turn, I think God will respond, but we forget that

Yeah. The principle. The principle

the principle is there, but this is really for this nation that God has made this covenant with. And so I just love this moment. And I think it's such a key part of this first section that we see that Israel's heart is turned collectively to the Lord and God is promising blessing for them.

Yeah. And let us remember the whole rest of the New Testament is basically centered around this same exact place that this promise, this covenant promise is given to. So this isn't just a random thing wherever you happen to be in the world, but there's this sense of, well, first of all, my people called by my name.

Now, of course, we know that God's people is bigger than Israel today. We know that God's people are more than the Jewish people alone. We know that now, but you got to see, as we look at context, this is such a powerful passage for the covenant promise of God to a nation of people that God has spoken so clearly about where he says, my eyes, will be open my ears attentive to the prayer that's made in this place.

Because again, this is where Jesus Christ will come the first time It's also where Jesus Christ will come the second time, and so really when he says that I consecrate this house that my name may be there forever And my eyes and my heart there for all time, you can see why.

Now, of course, we do know that eventually, the temple will be replaced by a spiritual temple, we know that the spiritual temple is made up of all those Jews and Gentiles who have the Holy Spirit in them today. Paul would say that in first Corinthians three and first Corinthians six. Do you not know that you are the temple? Of the Holy Spirit.

But a very important promise given to a very specific group of people at a specific point in time here, and we thank the Lord for his principles, this is a very important, part of the whole book of second chronicles, isn't it?

So that brings us, really, as we, as we look at Solomon kind of coming to the end of his life at the end of this, section here, Bodie, before we go into the next section, can I just share one more thing is in chapter nine, we see that the queen of Sheba comes because of the fame of Solomon and when she arrives, she sees the splendor of not just the temple, but of Solomon's palaces and, all of the people that he has gathered around. There's so much unity at this time. There is so much amazing, splendor of seeing what happens when God's people are rightly positioned before God.

And she said, at one point, she's like, there's no more spirit left in me. Like she was just so blown away. And, she would go back and bring what she learned from Solomon and his wisdom and his splendor and bring it back to the parts of the world where The Jewish faith began to grow in that way, which will set the tone for the book of Acts in the New Testament.

When, like, for example, the Ethiopian eunich comes back in the book of Acts chapter eight with Philip, it's because of what happened here where they went back and established Jewish synagogues. Then the Ethiopian eunich comes back to Jerusalem to learn about the Messiah, and so you can really see, this is the historical framework and foundation for the movement of God on

Oh, it's awesome. That's all so good.

So that's the first section, really focused on Solomon's reign in Israel. Now we go to part two, chapters 10 through 12, which is basically the divide of Israel, the split under Solomon's son, Rehoboam. So here we know that Rehoboam has a chance to lighten the load of the people that, that who basically built the temple, and he goes to the older counselors and says, Hey, should I do this?

This is in chapter 10. Now we're in this second section. And Solomon and his dad's counselor say, yeah, you should lighten it. He goes to his friends and they say, nah, man, they should make it harder, and of course he listens to his friends. There is a revolt.

So, you have basically Rehoboam makes this foolish vow, in chapter 10, he does to defend what happens, the consequences of his choices in chapter 11, because now, Egypt is now plundering Judah and all, everything that was so good is now falling apart in this second section, it's basically going to set up the rest of the book, which is all of the Kings that follow back down here, Joey, we've already covered the split, and of course, the fact that this wasn't just Rehoboam's foolishness, it was God at work. It was them breaking the covenant for many, many. , what are some key things that this section offers our listeners?

Well, I think it shows us that even when we have aligned ourself with God's purpose. We are in covenant relationship with God. The sinfulness of man still dwells in our hearts. And as sure as Psalm 133 says, Oh, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. We can see how Satan loves to divide God's people from within.

And so this is a civil war moment. This is a sibling rivalry. This is a house divided. This is where Satan comes and sows discord among the brethren. And this is what the enemy still seeks to do today is to divide Christians up, to divide people into sex or into even sometimes, sadly, our denominational breakdown sometimes don't carry the testimony of the unity that God would want us to have as the people of God who love one another and who love our Lord together.

And so I think we just don't want to miss that in very critical, pinnacle moments, we can see how division is such a serious thing to avoid, and it all came because of pride. If we would just keep ourselves humble, we would discover that many of these things don't have to happen. Through humility, we can maintain the unity of God's spirituality among his

That's good, and I think that Joey, you just mentioned something that not all bad things have to happen. Israel missed out on so much blessing because of the fighting and the warring that happened, but it did not mean that God forsook the covenant or forsook them. But that's basically everything now in, in section two is basically the split because Joey, we have a huge section ahead of us. And that's the third part of this book.

And so the glory of Jerusalem under Solomon deserved more time, but now we have the split. This nation is now Israel to the north, Judah to the south, which we've covered previously. But the rest of this time, we really are going to look at every king between Rehoboam and the fall of Judah again, so looking at, so part three, chapters 13 through 36 are both the reigns and more specifically the reforms of Judah, and they are these biographical sketches,

and so what we're not going to do is go through each and every King of Judah, what we're going to do is we're going to focus on five of them. Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah. And the reason why is because these were the kings of Judah. Judah had eight good kings, but these were the ones that weren't just good, they actually made positive reforms returning to the Lord that the other kings didn't. And so we want to spend our limited time focusing on this, because this is what God wants.

God wants his people, who are called by his name, to humble themselves and pray, and to seek his face. That's what we see in this third section. So we're not going to look at each and every King. We are going to look at these five. And so Joey, give us kind of an overview of maybe some of these reforms, how they're consistent, what, and what we can learn in our own lives. As we look at this part three, the reigns and reforms of Judah's Kings.

Well, as we look at the five that you've already mentioned, Bodie, these men who God raised up to bring reform, when we say reform, we're saying a bringing back to the original intent of God for his people. There's a reformation taking place. Whenever we go back and restore what God intended to be there so we can go forward in it. We learned, for example, in second Chronicles 16, nine, that the eyes of the Lord are searching to and fro, throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him. So what you see in each of these reforms is we're going to highlight more of, as you said, these five particular Kings, starting with Asa.

Now, when you get to chapter 15, it's beautiful that the opening words of chapter 15 is this. Now the spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Oded. You see, there's already now the spirit of God is moving. Verse two says, and he went out to meet. Asa and said to him, hear me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, the Lord is with you while you are with him. Did you hear that? The Lord is with you while you are with him. And so I think that that's, what's really key about a reformation here is that we've got to make sure our hearts are realigning with God.

It's not that God left us, it's that we left him, and when we realign, when we draw near to God, he draws near to us, we read in verse seven, but you be strong and do not let your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded. We learn in Hebrews chapter 11 verse six that without faith, it's impossible to please God and anybody who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Well, that's what we see Asa doing um, he basically seeks the Lord diligently and calls all the people to, be purged of their idols, get rid of those things you're turning to that's not loyal to God, and so he does this beautiful reform and it renews the covenant. And that verse I quoted from in chapter 16, verse nine was contextually in a time where you also see, unfortunately, Asa's demise a little bit.

He made a treaty. With Syria and in doing so that opened the door, for there to be still an open way for idolatry to come back because of the foreign idols and foreign, gods that came with these alliances. But remember the eyes of the Lord are looking for loyal hearts. So that's the first thing we would look at with Asa in chapter 15. But let's go over to Jehoshaphat. You want to jump in with Jehoshaphat, Bodie?

Well, you have these early kings of Asa and then Jehoshaphat, is his son, and we're constantly battling idolatry, we are constantly battling the people's hearts. yearning after things that, that the Lord hates. In this case, it's these idols. It's these false gods. And so you have this Jehoshaphat who seeks the Lord, but it's interesting how he also doesn't just say, just seek the Lord.

He actually abolishes and removes a lot of the high places from Judah, and this, as we've mentioned before, This kind of becomes the linchpin, like the benchmark of their level of obedience. Like, are they going to, they're going to say, yes, seek the Lord, but if they don't take away the high places, that stumbling block for the people is still there.

And that's why, for us to follow and to be obedient to Christ means like we saw in Ephesus, where they burned their magic books, there is a sense to where we actually have to completely. obliterate certain things that will take us away, because now the temptation is gone, and so Jehoshaphat, he seeks the Lord in a beautiful way, but he also removes that these high places, but then there's a big emphasis on the teaching of the law.

And one of the things that we're going to start to see in all of these reforms Joey is there are consistent elements that show up in all of them. One of them is the spirit of the Lord comes upon somebody. Another one is the destruction of idols, but then a big factor is a return to obeying the law.

And we really that in Jehoshaphat in chapter 17, he teaches the law, the law spread throughout Judah, and the people's hearts are being turned back because it's spiritual formation isn't magic. It comes through the means that God has ordained for us today, too. We need to be people who are praying, who are abolishing idols, but who are also in the presence of God and learning from the word. So I just love some of those key elements from Jehoshaphat.

Amen, and I love just to recap that, we have the spirit of God coming upon someone. We have the removal of idols and false worship, the teaching and preaching of the word of God. And then we see prayer. And I love that you just made a mention of that. Prayer is so powerful. It's a very important theme in these reforms, and it's amazing because Bodie, these are the same principles today when God wants to bring reformation in our times, it's going to be based on these same principles, these same teachings. In fact, one of the verses that I want to highlight about Jehoshaphat in chapter 19 is found in verse nine, which says, and he commanded them saying.

Thus shall you act in the fear of the Lord faithfully and with a loyal heart. Remember, we already learned from Asa that God is looking to show himself strong on behalf of those who have a loyal heart. And here you hear a command from Jehoshaphat, keep your hearts loyal. And so that's so much what we need today.

And we'd be remiss if we didn't share this verse where, when it's time to do battle. He says in chapter 20, verse 17, I love this verse. It says, you will not need to fight in this battle. Someone needs to hear this even today because you can position yourself.

You can stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you. Oh, Judah and Jerusalem do not fear. Do not be dismayed, but rather tomorrow go out against them for the Lord is with you. See, we all need to know the presence of God in our lives. We need to know the power of God in our lives and that the battle always belongs to the Lord.

We learn in the book of Ephesians, when we're dealing with spiritual warfare, Paul would tell the Ephesian believers be strong in the Lord. and the power of his might. And we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this age. So what does Jehoshaphat do, Bodhi?

He sends out worship leaders, singers and musicians, and as they worship God, they discovered that's where their strength is really found and they win the battle as they're praising God. And I think some of you out there, you're in a battle. Start praising God, turn it over to God, see what God will do as you see how big he is, you'll see how the giants get so much smaller as we've learned so many times throughout the Old testament. And that brings us into another reform, right? Chapter 23,

Right.

we come into a great period, which involves two people. This is now a time where we've got, Joash, who's going to be a king that's going to be raised up, but why is he raised up? Well, there's this queen. This evil queen named Athaliah, who's wanting to take power for herself to such a degree that she actually goes and kills all of the royal heirs. This woman is willing to kill her own family. This woman, she's got power hungry, Jezebel spirit going on here, and yet, she thinks she's killed everyone who's an heir except there is this priest. This godly priest named Jehoiada, who actually takes one of the men, one of the sons, and he takes him aside and hides him for six whole years.

Who is this guy? It's Joash. Joash is the one who's going to become the next king because Jehoiada strengthened himself in the Lord, was willing to risk his own life and to protect one of these Levite sons, and it's beautiful because now a king rises up in Joash, a young king, he's the youngest king of all the kings, seven years old, seven years old.

Six years hidden on the seventh year, he becomes king and we see that amazing reform happens. The covenant's renewed with God. Joash restores temple, by making sure all the defilement is removed in the temple and Athaliah is put to death and Jehoiada makes a covenant between himself. The people and God in chapter 23, verse 16, such a powerful series of events. Bodie, anything you want to add on this? What an amazing period

love it. Well, what's amazing is it's that you don't have to be a king to have a massive influence. Like, you just have to care and you have to seek the Lord. Jehoiada is a priest. He's not a king. But he is literally the reason why the kingly line is preserved. Because even though I think it's the daughter of one of the previous kings that actually saves Joash's life, it is Jehoiada who is really the spiritual force toward Yahweh.

And we know this because unfortunately, later when Jehoiada dies, Joash goes the way of idolatry. But it's so important. We all need those spiritual leaders, those anchors in our lives, because we are all prone to weakness, to sin, to temptation, to distraction. And Jehoiada is a phenomenal example of a leader that steps up and does what is needed in such a way that it really transforms the nation.

But between him and the next one, which is Hezekiah, and then later Josiah, there's a major gap.

And what's interesting is that we can actually look at the timeline between these two, this is kind of fascinating, Joey, because the reforms one, two, and three are roughly about 30 years from one another. But after this one that we just talk about, this revolt where Jehoiada basically, he, he just installs this young King Joash on the throne. Athaliah freaks out and basically she is taken down. But then there's 120 years of a lot of stuff that happens until our next reform. So if you're watching this, you can kind of see the timeline.

We're going to now go to King Hezekiah, which is the fourth of our, five reforms. What is important that we should know about Hezekiah, Joey?

Well, that was beautiful, Bodie. I'm so glad you came and gave us a panoramic view of the timeline here because it just really helps us to know that by the time Hezekiah rises up, there's been a vacuum of just people forgetting the goodness of God. The loyalty has turned to disloyalty.

120 years is a long time. Yeah.

It's a long time. In fact, if we can remember, it was 120 years that we had, um, was the period of time of the United Kingdom. That's the period of time of Saul, David and Solomon all added together. And here, this same period of time, 120 years is a divided kingdom and everybody is in division with God and with each other. That's powerful. So, on the backs of that comes a new king, a new time of reform.

We hit chapter 29 and we come to this king known as Hezekiah. Now he became king when he was 25 years old and the Bible tells us he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done. Remember that is the key distinction between a king that is good versus a king

Yep. David or Jeroboam. Yep. Which one are they going to choose?

That's right. And so one of the things we see Hezekiah doing is immediately he starts with the house of God. Isn't it interesting that the New Testament says judgment begins In the house of the Lord.

And so he goes into the temple and he begins to open up the doors of the house and he repairs everything that's been damaged. He restores all that's been defiled, and he begins to call out to the Levites in verse five of chapter 29. And he says, now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord, your God, of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish.

From the holy place. I wonder how many people need to get rid of the rubbish in your life. And I, and I'm not talking about going up to your attic or your basement and doing some spring cleaning. I'm talking about getting rid of the junk in your life, getting rid of the evil. The wickedness, the pride, the things that just cause us to be negligent in our service to the Lord.

And so this is what Hezekiah does. He restores temple worship. He gathers the people together and he begins to just bring unity back surrounding the worship of God. He does it diligently to such a degree. That at the end of chapter 29, it says that Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had prepared the people since the events took place.

So suddenly of setting everything in order. And that's actually how the last reform ended too, Bodie. We see that in the days of Joash, everybody rejoices again. See, here's the key. If you're walking rightly with God, you can be rejoicing that there's blessing in being close to God, walking with Him, even when life is hard, you're rich, dear saints.

You are blessed when you are walking with your Father in Heaven and through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, one more thing I, we should probably bring up about Hezekiah is, as he renews the covenant and the temple worship, Levitical priesthood, they also go back to the Passover.

Now they had, they had actually forgotten to continue in the feast, Bodie, even something as important as remembering the redemption of God in times past and so that he restores the Passover, they keep it and that brings everybody back in alignment again with their heritage, history, and the holiness of God's people.

which is the purpose of this whole book is it is to remember who they are, remember who their God is, and remember what they need to do to, to preserve and retain their national identity. They cannot have idolatry. They've got to be true to Yahweh, but also the beauty of, we see, like you said, the restoration of temple worship, Levitical priesthood. All this happens under Hezekiah. And these reforms are beautiful examples of the kind of influence we can have when our heart is loyal to the Lord.

We're going to now go to King Hezekiah, which is the fourth of our, five reforms. What is important that we should know about Hezekiah, Joey?

Well, that was beautiful, Bodie. I'm so glad you came and gave us a panoramic view of the timeline here because it just really helps us to know that by the time Hezekiah rises up, there's been a vacuum of just people forgetting the goodness of God. The loyalty has turned to disloyalty.

120 years is a long time. Yeah.

It's a long time. In fact, if we can remember, it was 120 years that we had, um, was the period of time of the United Kingdom. That's the period of time of Saul, David and Solomon all added together. And here, this same period of time, 120 years is a divided kingdom and everybody is in division with God and with each other. That's powerful. So, on the backs of that comes a new king, a new time of reform.

We hit chapter 29 and we come to this king known as Hezekiah. Now he became king when he was 25 years old and the Bible tells us he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done. Remember that is the key distinction between a king that is good versus a king

Yep. David or Jeroboam. Yep. Which one are they going to choose?

That's right. And so one of the things we see Hezekiah doing is immediately he starts with the house of God. Isn't it interesting that the New Testament says judgment begins In the house of the Lord.

And so he goes into the temple and he begins to open up the doors of the house and he repairs everything that's been damaged. He restores all that's been defiled, and he begins to call out to the Levites in verse five of chapter 29. And he says, now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord, your God, of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish.

From the holy place. I wonder how many people need to get rid of the rubbish in your life. And I, and I'm not talking about going up to your attic or your basement and doing some spring cleaning. I'm talking about getting rid of the junk in your life, getting rid of the evil. The wickedness, the pride, the things that just cause us to be negligent in our service to the Lord.

And so this is what Hezekiah does. He restores temple worship. He gathers the people together and he begins to just bring unity back surrounding the worship of God. He does it diligently to such a degree. That at the end of chapter 29, it says that Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had prepared the people since the events took place.

So suddenly of setting everything in order. And that's actually how the last reform ended too, Bodie. We see that in the days of Joash, everybody rejoices again. See, here's the key. If you're walking rightly with God, you can be rejoicing that there's blessing in being close to God, walking with Him, even when life is hard, you're rich, dear saints.

You are blessed when you are walking with your Father in Heaven and through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, one more thing I, we should probably bring up about Hezekiah is, as he renews the covenant and the temple worship, Levitical priesthood, they also go back to the Passover.

Now they had, they had actually forgotten to continue in the feast, Bodie, even something as important as remembering the redemption of God in times past and so that he restores the Passover, they keep it and that brings everybody back in alignment again with their heritage, history, and the holiness of God's people.

which is the purpose of this whole book is it is to remember who they are, remember who their God is, and remember what they need to do to, to preserve and retain their national identity. They cannot have idolatry. They've got to be true to Yahweh, but also the beauty of, we see, like you said, the restoration of temple worship, Levitical priesthood. All this happens under Hezekiah. And these reforms are beautiful examples of the kind of influence we can have when our heart is loyal to the Lord.

jump in, Joe.

Yeah. No, I just want to say since we mentioned before how every King, every good King had flaws, we should probably let you know. Hezekiah had a big flaw at the

Yes.

See, he got sick and he was about to die and he prayed, remember this? We talked about this in Kings, but he prayed and asked God for a continuation of his life. God gave him an extra 15 years, but it was during that time. Where he made some really poor decisions and judgments. He actually opened it up for the temple to be viewed. He actually gave birth to a son named Manasseh who ended up being one of the most evil kings of all of Judah And it was during that extra 15 years of his life.

And so sometimes brothers and sisters you might be in a situation where You know, you're trying so hard to just keep pressing on and pushing through something. And God's saying, it's enough, I'm ready for you to stop, and you're saying, no, I don't want to stop, and you hold on so tightly that you break what's in your hands, and I think that's something we can learn from Hezekiah.

And it brings us to the time of this final reformation where we come to the life of Josiah. Josiah to me is very special because out of all the kings that we read about in Israel and Judah, and of course we're focusing on Judah in Chronicles.

Josiah, to me, stands out because here is a King who is the last good King of the Southern Kingdom and his name, which means Yahweh heals. He brings a beautiful healing to the land. He was eight years old when he became King. It says that there was no King that ever sought the Lord with all of his heart, soul and strength like Josiah. We read about that in Kings.

And, it was so important to me and Bodie that I actually named my son, after this King, my oldest son that is. And, so I have a son named Josiah and he, I mean, he got rid of everything, Bodie. We're talking. Every altar, every rival throne, anything that's going to stand up to compete with God.

He says, no, I don't want anything competing with my God. And he destroyed all opportunities. He didn't give the potential for people to worship false gods because he destroyed every false altar. And eventually while they were cleaning out the temple, they found something. Didn't they, Bodie something really special. Let me turn it over to you. Something beautiful was found in the temple during this

Well, as we talked about way back, hundreds of years back, when Jehoshaphat taught the law and the teaching of the law went across the land, that was throughout these 120 years of really evil kings that we skipped over, the law was forgotten again. And so in here we see the recovery of the law in a beautiful way that it is again, Part of the same transformation experience.

You cannot return to the Lord without returning to his Word, and when we do, we see this amazing national repentance. We see the rest or the resurrection of the Passover celebration, and Josiah's reforms are the best of what we can do we turn our hearts back to the Lord.

And I just love how all of these elements, Joey, continue to show up every single time. The spirit of the Lord, the law, the Passover, and the obedience, but of it is tied to the presence of God, which God removes when we choose sin, and which he activates when we choose obedience and love, but so much more.

just skimming the surface, but land the plane on Josiah, because I think we're coming up on the end of our time, Joey, but what, any, any final thoughts you have, there's just so much we could do a whole episode on him, but we're not going to yet.

Well, one of the things, as we said, that brings Reformation back every time is a rediscovery of the beauty of the Word of God. And when Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law, he, he handed it to Shaphan, and Shaphan carried the book to the king, and as soon as it was read, the king immediately tore his clothes.

It was like that conviction of God came into his life because he saw that the way he was living was not consistent with the holy words of God. And that is where we all need to measure ourselves by. It's where we need to reform our own lives is are we being faithful to do what God has called us to do?

Are we living in light of his commands and of his teachings? Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And so Josiah continues in the Passover where it was once forgotten, again, he reinstitutes it, and eventually he dies in battle, but, but not after having listened the longest reign of peace that ever took place by a king happened in the days of King Josiah, and it wasn't just an outward peace, but the peace of God, which rules in our hearts. When the word of Christ, the word of God is dwelling in us richly.

So praise the

man. And then of course the book ends, with them going into exile, which we're not going to focus on all the final Kings, we've covered that previously,

but if you can remember that one through nine is a review of the glory days under Solomon and then 10 through 12 is basically the divide.

And then 13 through 36 really is every King after that. But we really wanted to make sure that we didn't miss what God seems to care about most in this book, which is these people returning to him. And friends, if you are far from God, we pray that, that this is a reminder that you can never be too far from God, if you turn your hearts back to him and repent and receive Christ afresh on this new day.

But Joey, it's so good. I think we've covered, man, everything. I think one of my favorite, as we go to our final question, what do we personally love? I love, like you had mentioned that. There's no perfect character here in this book, but there are moments that when we obey the covenant, when we honor the Lord, God honors those who honor Him.

And I think I just love that part as well, because you almost want these guys to root and so of time they get so close to the end and then they fall off. But that's a good reminder for us that God is not interested in a perfect record. That's already happened. Jesus of Nazareth is our perfect record. He is our high priest.

He is our great King. And so for you, friend, wherever you're at, know that God is still for you and he loves you. And only imperfect people are welcome because there are no perfect people other than Jesus, the son of God. What do you love? Any final thoughts? And then we can land the plane.

Yeah. I'll just land with the heart. You see, the Bible tells us that God wants to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him. That verse comes straight from this book. And going back to Josiah. was said of Josiah in chapter 34 verse 27, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before me and because you tore your clothes and wept before me, I have heard you says the Lord.

So can I just say to all of you as well,

I love the emphasis of the heart in this book that God looks for a loyal heart. He looks for a heart that's humble. In fact, Jesus would say about himself, I am gentle and lowly in heart, and there's nothing more beautiful than a tender, humble heart before God. That's the greatest way to start revival. And it's the greatest way to maintain it. Stay humble before the lord.

so good, Joey. Awesome. So many good insights. Well, friends, we hope that this, Episode 20, this seven part framework of Second Chronicles has helped you get your arms around the book and hopefully inspired you to read it and to maybe see things you would not have looked for previously,

if you would like a one page summary of this book, that is available at YouCanLearntheBible.com/notes. And that is where you could download a PDF summary. That is YouCanLearntheBible.com/notes.

If you're able or willing to leave us a review or a comment reviews are on Apple podcast or Spotify comment on YouTube. That just helps us to know that this is a valuable for you and it's appreciated by us.

But Joey, we're done with the ones and twos for a while, and now we're going to episode 21, right? So we get to look at the book of Ezra next time. Ezra explained is going to be episode 21. As we close, what is one thing our listeners can look forward to in our next episode?

Um, and now we get to really focus on, what it looks like to restore, the temple of God and really see that. The key teamwork. We're going to look at how a lot of new names, not Kings so much anymore. We're going to move away from Kings to just ordinary folk like us. We're going to see how God uses everybody for the great works that he does. So you don't want to miss that, uh, for the next

Yep. That's awesome. So until we meet again, stay in the word, stay faithful as usual, we believe that you can learn the Bible, and, we'll see you again later. Thanks a lot. ​