[0:00] Finish 2 Chronicles, but the next Sunday will be the following Sunday will be the last Sunday of the month. We'll be at the fall retreat, so we'll have no evening services. Possibly the next Sunday night service when we're all together we'll do a Q&A. We'll take time to do that. It's been a while since we've done that.
[0:15] So maybe we'll take time to do that. And we can do that. I try to do it when we're transitioning books. I don't do it every time we do, but I try to do it sometimes. But tonight our verses will be in verse 20 of chapter 35.
[0:31] So 3520 into chapter 36 we'll stop at verse 4. So we have a reasoning for that, but that will be our text. Let's pray and then we'll get right into it with one another. Father, we're so thankful.
[0:45] Thankful that we have the opportunity to gather together with brothers and sisters in Christ. We're always thankful for our fellowship and the encouragement of our midweek service as we gather.
[0:57] We encourage one another by our presence and by our fellowship and our kindness. We are so thankful for that. We thank you for the privileged opportunity it is of opening up the Word of God.
[1:10] So we pray as we open up Scripture with one another, that as we read it and we hear it, that we would come to an understanding of it. Lord, we don't want just to read it and to pass through it and say, well, that was nice, but rather we want to come to an understanding of what it is you're declaring to us.
[1:31] The truth that has application even in our time today. So we pray that you lead us and that by the power and presence of the Spirit, that you would give us discernment and understanding.
[1:42] We pray for those working with our children and our youth in the back. We ask that you would be with leaders and the students alike. We ask that in all things you be glorified.
[1:53] Christ, we ask that you are magnified within this place, throughout the walls of this building and all that takes place. And we pray that as we study together, we would be better equipped to live in the world that you've placed us in and that we would live for your glory and honor.
[2:11] We ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. We have been for some time now, for the last several weeks, looking at the reign of Josiah. Josiah is the last good king of the people of Judah or the southern kingdom.
[2:29] There's much to understand before we get into our text, and that is the historical setting of what has taken place. By this time, the northern kingdom has long since fallen to the Assyrian Empire.
[2:41] They have been carried away almost 100 years earlier. They've been carried into exile, and they are being disciplined for their disobedience.
[2:56] While a remnant remains in the northern kingdom lands, that remnant has been welcomed to worship with the people of the southern kingdom of Judah during the reign of Josiah.
[3:07] Josiah has repaired the temple, which had went into disarray after Hezekiah, his great-grandfather's repair, because of the two kings which followed Hezekiah's reign, let the temple go.
[3:20] Josiah has repaired the temple. He has restored the Levites and the priests. He has not only torn down the altars and the false Asherahs and the bells, but He has ground them into powder and even resurrected the bones of the priests who had offered those false sacrifices and burned the bones upon them.
[3:39] He has made a complete cleansing of the land. He has done that not only within the confines of the property or the territory of Judah, but He has also went into the territory of all of Israel, getting into where the remnant of the people to the north were left.
[3:56] He has cleansed many cities. He did in the 18th year of His reign. He extended an invitation, and they worshiped and celebrated the Passover, and Scripture tells us like no other king in all of Israel has ever done.
[4:13] So when we say He's a good king, He has done some amazing things. He has led the nation to celebrate the Passover in the right way and in the proper way, like has not happened since the time of Samuel.
[4:26] So that means no king, not even David, had led the people to celebrate the Passover in such a manner as this. And it has been a time of celebration and a time of rejoicing as we have seen the life and the reign of Josiah.
[4:42] But the passage before us tonight kind of transitions. And I love the reality of Scripture that it is very clear to us that even when we run upon a good man or a good king, it's still not the king or the man we're looking for.
[4:59] He still falls woefully short for we look for another. Of the same lineage? Sure. Of the family of David, of the tribe of Judah?
[5:09] Absolutely. But we haven't found him yet in Scripture. We will find him when we turn the page in the New Testament and we are introduced to the lineage which leads us to Christ.
[5:20] It is easy, admittedly, to read these passages and to be discouraged and to try to find where is the application in this. But we want to remind ourselves as we look at the Word of God not only what is happening among the people of God but really just how amazing and how powerful God is to preserve what we know will usher in the Savior Jesus Christ.
[5:47] His faithfulness, His goodness, in spite of every obstacle that we see that is before what we would think His great plan and purposes.
[5:59] It seems as every time we turn the corner there is something else which is seeking to hinder what God has determined and yet through it all we know that His purpose is not thwarted, it is not changed, it is not altered and it remains the same and it is not because of the goodness of the people but the faithfulness of the Lord God Almighty.
[6:19] That's comforting, that's assuring. Because we're reminded of that in the Old Testament but we find that application also as well in the New Testament. We will see that when we study fruitfulness for those going on the retreat.
[6:36] We will see it as we study portions of Scripture that who we are in Christ and what God has called us to be and appointed us to be is not because of how good and worthy and deserving we are but because of how sufficient He is to enable us to be that.
[6:54] And we see that even here in the portion of the Old Testament. Starting in verse 20 it says, After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho, king of Egypt, came up to make war at Carchemish on the Euphrates.
[7:12] And Josiah went out to engage him. But Necho sent messengers to him saying, What have we to do with each other, O king of Judah? I am not coming against you today but against the house with which I am at war.
[7:26] And God has ordered me to hurry. Stop for your own sake from interfering with God who is with me so that He will not destroy you. However, Josiah would not turn away from him but disguised himself in order to make war with him and nor did he listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God but came to make war on the plain of Megiddo.
[7:48] The archers shot King Josiah and the king said to his servants, Take me away for I am badly wounded. So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in the second chariot which he had and brought him to Jerusalem where he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers.
[8:05] All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Then Jeremiah chanted a lament for Josiah and all the male and female singers speak about Josiah and their lamentations to this day and they made them an ordinance in Israel.
[8:19] Behold, they are also written in the lamentations. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his deeds of devotion as written in the law of the Lord and his acts first to last.
[8:29] Behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. Then the people of the land took Joaz, the son of Josiah, made him king in place of his father in Jerusalem.
[8:41] Joaz was 23 years old when he became king and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. Then the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem and imposed on the land a fine of 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold.
[8:55] The king of Egypt made Ilicum, his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Necho took Joaz, his brother, and brought him to Egypt.
[9:07] 2 Chronicles 35, 20 through 36, 4. I want you to see the sudden collapse of the good. The sudden collapse of the good. Very rapidly, if you were to look ahead in the 36th chapter, you will see that the spiral downward now escalates.
[9:29] For some time, we have known, since the reign of Manasseh, for it is the sin of Manasseh that God decrees is the reasoning for the Babylonian captivity.
[9:40] But for some time, we have known that the Babylonians were coming. We have known that the people of Judah will be carried away into exile. Jeremiah begins his prophetic ministry during the reign of Josiah.
[9:55] And it continues until after the Babylonian captivity because, if you remember, Nebuchadnezzar's leader of military forces allowed Jeremiah to decide, do you want to go to Babylon or do you want to stay behind?
[10:09] And Jeremiah stayed behind. We understand that throughout Jeremiah's prophetic ministry, he is declaring the coming and certain destruction of Jerusalem, the fall to the Babylonian empire.
[10:21] And then afterwards, he decries that what he had declared actually came about and why it had come about. But we have had a little bit of a stay for we have seen a good king and it seems as if there is hope in the land for Josiah is reigning righteously.
[10:39] And now we see this sudden fall, this sudden collapse of the good and it seems as if that final straw has been broken and now we are really rapidly ascending upon the time.
[10:52] As a matter of fact, it is during Jehoiakim's reign. If we were to read the very next verse that the Babylonians begin to come into Jerusalem. The Babylonians begin their overtaking of the city.
[11:05] It does not completely fall until sometime after that. But the writing is already on the wall. And the question is, well, how did it happen so rapidly?
[11:16] How did it happen so immediately? Now, ultimately, we know that this captivity and this exile is a long time coming. But for the forbearance and the patience of God, it would have already taken place.
[11:29] It wasn't that they were deserving or worthy of it. It wasn't even that Josiah had stayed the hands of God. God was merciful upon Josiah and declared to him that it would not happen during his reign when they read the book and the scroll that was found in the temple.
[11:42] But it wasn't because Josiah was good. It was just because God was merciful. But we know that it could have been many years prior to this when the Babylonians had come in.
[11:54] But God had a chosen instrument, an appointed tool that would be his hand of discipline upon his people.
[12:06] And if we were to put history and scripture together, we would see that now is coming the time when the Babylonians are beginning to rise in power and the Assyrians are rapidly falling from power.
[12:21] What we read in scripture is not the complete history of mankind, but rather we are reading the history of God's interaction with his people.
[12:33] And it is set in time and space. It has eternal truths, eternal applications, but it is set within the confines of history and time.
[12:48] And the two kind of juxtapose one another, that is the working and moving of the people of the Lord and the circumstances and the happenings of what's going on in the nations around them because God has never isolated his people.
[13:01] As a matter of fact, he's always put them right in the middle of the chaos. And he still does that today, by the way. It has never been the call of the people of God to isolate themselves.
[13:17] It has never been the calling of the people of God to separate themselves from the chaos of what is going on in the world around them. For God has intentionally, you look at the nation of Israel, you see it in particular, especially in the Old Testament, the land that he gave the nation, by the way, set along a major trade route known as the King's Highway and was the most sought-after piece of land in all of the Middle East and still to this day continues to be that.
[13:45] We can see what's going on even in current events. And God has always set his people in the middle of what is going on among the nations. To be a light, to be a witness, to be a billboard to a watching world of what it looks like to follow a holy God.
[14:02] We don't get those things in isolation, but that is the purpose, right? But unfortunately, what we see before us is that sudden collapse of the good because of what is going on around them.
[14:15] There are a number of reasons this comes about, and if we're not careful, it would be some of the reasons that it could happen even in our own day. The first one is, is we see this comes about because of a misguided concern.
[14:28] First, it takes place because of a misguided concern. There's a phrase here that we have to be careful not to overlook because it is in Scripture and it is there intentionally. After all this, after all this, what is all this?
[14:46] It is the cleansing of the nation from idolatrous worships and idolatrous figures. It is the restoration of the temple that was in disrepair.
[14:58] It was the renewing of the Passover celebration. It was the reinstating of the Levites and the priests and how it says just a few verses prior to this that Josiah strengthened the hand of the priest to do their work.
[15:13] The musicians were playing, the gatekeepers were watching, the Levites were serving, and the priests were working. And things are going smooth. After all this, it tells us, when Josiah had set the temple in order, now between what took place in the 18th year and what takes place in the verses starting in verse 20 before us, the after all this, 13 years go by.
[15:43] 13 years have passed. 13 uneventful years if you remember, every other major period in Josiah's life is marked by which year of his reign it was.
[15:55] But now 13 years have passed. And we are at this point historically where all the matters that needed to be addressed within the nation of Judah, at least that we are aware of, have been addressed.
[16:10] There's no great concerns. We have no reason to believe that the temple worship is not still going on as it should. We have no reason to believe that the Levites and the priests aren't serving as they should.
[16:23] We have no reason to believe that any idolatrous worship is taking place as it should not. And really, we have good reason to believe that it is not doing it because it is his children that restore that and reinstate that back into the people of Judah.
[16:35] So we know that as long as Josiah is reigning, now for 13 years, things have been as they should. But man has this great problem. Men in general have this problem, but mankind have this problem.
[16:52] That is, man wants to be concerned about something. They want to have a problem to fix or an issue to address. And they need to have something to confront.
[17:06] And it has been relatively peaceful for 13 years. But what has taken place in those 13 years are the Assyrians are really falling off in power because God has declared through that minor prophet, remember Nahum, that he would judge the people of Assyria and he has.
[17:24] And the Babylonians are beginning to rise in power. Actually, it tells us in 2 Kings, this will tell you just really how instrumental this time is historically, that Pharaoh and Necho was going to oppose the king of the Assyrian Empire.
[17:43] The king of the Assyrian Empire in particular that he is talking about is actually the first king of the Babylonian Empire. But the people of Israel so recognized the Assyrians still that when the two came together, the Babylonians and the Assyrians, and the Babylonians had overtaken the Assyrians, I know I'm telling you a lot of information, but you'll understand why in just a moment, that they were still recognizing the Assyrians as being in charge.
[18:08] And it wasn't until a latter date as actually that king in particular said, I'm not an Assyrian, I'm a Babylonian. And he began to define, he had moved his kingdom, but what the people of Judah thought was taking place is, well, the Assyrians had just moved their capital.
[18:24] They had moved it from Nineveh because Nineveh was judged again. Read Nahum. They had moved it from Nineveh and moved it down to Babylon. And it was that king who said, no, they haven't moved capitals, they've lost purpose.
[18:39] They're no longer in existence. We are now the power. But it was all taking place, and it was taking place at this time in history that the people of Israel would still refer to them as the Assyrians.
[18:50] That's how really pivotal this time was. And so what was going on, and just so you can paint the picture, is the Pharaoh Necho down here in Egypt saw that there was a disruption of what was then the superpowers to the north.
[19:03] And so he said, well, I'm going to go up there and defeat them while I can. I'm going to Carchemish to defeat them while I can. And caught in the middle was the land of Israel and in particular the nation of Judah.
[19:16] And he had to go along the king's highway, right? He had to go along that region to get to that place where he could try to establish himself as the superpower. And right there in the middle of it is Josiah.
[19:32] And Josiah says, here's my opportunity. I'm going to go fight Necho. Now, why would he do it? That's a great question. Why did he need to do it?
[19:43] Because even Necho says, why are you coming out to fight me? My battle is not with you. Well, here's probably the dangerous part of it. Josiah and the people of Judah were still recognizing the authoritative power of the Assyrian Empire.
[20:01] They had been subjugated to the Assyrians prior to this. And they were still afraid that they still had control over them.
[20:13] And so to maintain favor with the powers to the north, he said, I'm going to stand in the way of Necho on his march. You say, Pastor, that's a lot of history.
[20:25] Why does it matter? Because when the people of God begin to be more concerned about the affairs of the world, then we have a misguided concern.
[20:38] When we begin to look at what's happening historically more than what matters eternally, we have a misguided concern. And when we begin to think that we can affect what has taken place in history by our power and our authoritative ability, when we have not been given a divine command to do so, then we are stepping outside of our lane, so to say.
[21:08] God had not called Josiah to fight this battle, but Josiah thought it would be a good thing to fight this battle because this was not his concern, but he wanted to make it his concern because he would maintain favor with the powers of the world to the north of him if he was to do so.
[21:25] And by doing that, he began not to be concerned about the things of the Lord, but began to be concerned about the things of the world. And he began to be a little divided in devotion.
[21:40] the good always rapidly falls off when we begin to have misguided concerns.
[21:53] And we understand that. We know that. We want to focus on the eternal and the things that endure rather than we need to acknowledge, we need to be aware of what's going on around us.
[22:11] But that should not be our focus. That should not be our primary purpose. It is a misguided concern. Secondly, we see that the sudden collapse of the good takes place when there are ignored warnings.
[22:29] There are clear warnings. Now, we need to understand scripturally that the author of Chronicles is writing after these events. So, he is looking back in hindsight. And as they say, hindsight is 20-20.
[22:42] The author of 2 Kings doesn't give us all these details. The author of 2 Kings tells us that Pharaoh Necho is going to fight against the king of Assyria, who in turn is also the first king of the Babylonian Empire, or the first powerful king of the Babylonian Empire.
[22:58] He's not the first one. But he is going to fight against him. And Necho is on his march, and Josiah interferes, and Josiah dies, in the battle. We're not told all the back story, but here we get the back story.
[23:09] We see what is going on behind the scenes. And we're thankful for the chronicler as he looks because we are told that Necho says, why are you king? What have we to do with each other, O king of Judah?
[23:20] I'm not coming against you today, but against the house of which I'm at war. And God has ordered me to hurry. You say, oh, great, Necho's a believer. No, not really. Don't go so far.
[23:30] Don't give him that, right? The pharaohs of Egypt believed in a multitude of gods. We understand that. Believed in a multiplicity of gods and believed that there was a great, all powerful God, though they didn't have him right.
[23:44] Notice here also we're not using the name Yahweh. We're not even using the name Jehovah. We're using the name Elohim. That's what G-O-D God means. It's Elohim. That is just the proper name.
[23:54] He is Elohim. In the beginning God. Elohim created the world. He created the heavens and the earth. Elohim is just the kind of, I don't want to say generic because no name of God is generic, but it is the general name.
[24:04] It's not the covenant name. It's just the official name. It is often recognized by nations around them that they're sure there is a big Elohim. Even the Egyptians recognized that someone was in control.
[24:18] Every military campaign that they went on, they assumed that they were doing it with a divine authority. The chronicler is looking back, clearly stating that God was giving warning.
[24:32] Because, and don't let this upset you, God is not confined to have to use people who genuinely believe in him to deliver his word. That is, even an unbelieving Pharaoh can be the messenger of a holy sovereign God.
[24:52] And Necho says, fight is not with you. Josiah presses on. And then it tells us that Josiah did not listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God.
[25:08] The chronicler looks back and says, you know what? God was warning him. Pharaoh might not have even known it. Nobody around would have known it. But as we look back, we see how God was warning him and cautioning him.
[25:21] When I look back in my own life, and I'm sure if you look back in your life and you see how a sovereign God moved powerfully throughout your life, how often you would hear a word from him now looking back and be amazed that he was speaking through those circumstances or those individuals or those people and a word was delivered here or a word was there and a word of assurance there and people that didn't even know that they were being used.
[25:43] But God moves mildly and God gives warnings and even leadings and guidance to his people. Yet what we find is Josiah ignored that. Josiah thought, well, that may just be what Necho is saying, but I'm determined that I'm going to do it.
[26:02] He never stops, he never prays, he never asks counsel of the Lord, never asks counsel of the priests or the Levites or any of the people around him, but he ignores the warning.
[26:14] And when we begin to ignore clear warnings from the Lord, then we must not be amazed when all of a sudden that which is good suddenly collapsed.
[26:32] And even still, Josiah pushes on. He pushes on because he thinks what he is doing is right.
[26:43] And this leads us to the third thing. We see there's a misguided concern, we see there's an ignored warning, there's the third reality. There is an unexpected ending.
[26:56] Josiah disguises himself, now if he would have looked at anything historically among the people of God, he would know that if you disguise yourself, it doesn't matter. Josiah disguises himself and gets into a chariot.
[27:07] One thing that I would not do as a king of Judah is disguise myself and get into a chariot when somebody is shooting bows and arrows because disguised kings and chariots have a way of getting shot. Just read your scripture.
[27:19] But Josiah thinks, well, I'm going to make sure that I do this and we need to be really assured of this reality. No matter how much we try to hide or connive or manipulate the system, we can never step outside the bounds that God has called us to walk with him and be undisciplined.
[27:44] Josiah would not turn away from him but disguise himself in order to make war with him nor did he listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God but came to make war in the plain of Megiddo and the archer shot King Josiah and the king said to his servants, take me away for I'm badly wounded.
[28:02] So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in the second chariot which he had and brought him to Jerusalem where he died. Josiah is the first king of Judah to die in battle.
[28:18] You say, well, Saul died in battle, right? Saul was the king of Israel after the division of the king. Other kings have been shot in battle. He's the first to die in battle.
[28:33] He's a good king. Kings of the north had died. Josiah dies in the middle of the battlefield.
[28:43] It tells us in the second kings he died on the battlefield. It tells us here they brought him back to Jerusalem and died probably in between the two places. He's a good king.
[28:56] And we know that it was so unexpected. It's in the 31st year of his reign, I believe it is. It's in the last year of his reign. It's so unexpected that there's a great mourning and a great weeping and a great even lament over him.
[29:07] It tells us that Jeremiah wrote a lamentation of him. Some think, some Bible scholars believe that Lamentations chapter 4 was written in response to the death of Josiah. Some believe that that lament of Jeremiah is lost to us in history.
[29:22] That it was something outside of scripture and we don't actually have it recorded. I tend to lean more towards the second. I don't, I mean I can see how Lamentations 4 could be that. But I believe the book of Lamentations is actually a record after Jerusalem fell.
[29:36] Now and Jeremiah is looking at the outcome of the fall of Jerusalem not just the fall of Josiah. So, I mean, but not like I'm going to break fellowship with someone who says, no I think Lamentations 4 is there.
[29:48] Either one, we could read it that way. But it is such a sorrowful time, such a broken time that they make these songs and they write these songs and the singers sing them and they keep them and even until the day of the chronicler they are still in existence.
[30:01] And that's after Babylonian captivity. That they are written and recorded and they are still weeping over the reality. They didn't see it coming. It was an unexpected ending.
[30:13] Why? Because here's one who did what was right in the sight of the Lord as his father David had done and led the nation to celebrate the Passover like none other had done. And yet, doesn't necessarily do anything innately wrong.
[30:26] We don't see the sinful. But we see he begins to be concerned about things he shouldn't be concerned about. He begins to ignore the warnings that are given to him and all of a sudden it just abruptly ends. And now we end up in chaos, which is the fourth and final thing is you have a disrupted society.
[30:48] There's no smooth transition from that. It tells us in chapter 36 the first four verses that the people of land took Joah as his son and made him king. That's the people's choice and the if we read this we'll say well maybe they chose Joah because he was better but if you go read 2nd Kings chapter 23 and following you'll see that Joah is not better.
[31:08] As a matter of fact he is not the oldest son. He's the younger son. He's 23. His brother's 25. Now they're not from the same mother. I get that. So he's not even the oldest son here. But it tells us in 2nd Kings that it had been Joah's practice up to this point to live wickedly and to do that which was wicked in the sight of the Lord.
[31:26] So he is not living an upstanding life. Right? So even before they made him king he was not doing what was right. But they said we want him to be king so he's king and they make him king and he's king for three months.
[31:37] What happens in that three months historically is Necho continues his march after his archers shoot Josiah. Josiah goes back. Necho continues his march goes up to Carchemish fights the battle. Kind of wins that temporary battle because the Babylonians are beginning to rise in power.
[31:50] They're not there yet. And so then on his way home three months later Necho goes well that's not who I wanted king. And now all of a sudden you have a problem because the Pharaoh of Egypt is deciding who is king.
[32:03] Because when you begin to interfere with the world the world gets to dictate who you are. And so Necho stops short of Jerusalem.
[32:14] He's actually outside of Jerusalem it tells us. The historian Josephus tells us and other historical writings tell us that he calls Joaz to himself and when he calls Joaz to a meeting they have a meeting he deposes him as king.
[32:26] You're no longer king by the way. And made his brother king change his brother's name. Gave him a righteous name. Put the name of the Lord in his name. Really they essentially mean the same thing.
[32:37] So the name Jehoiachim just means the Lord will establish. Which by the way is not accidental. It is really testimonial to the fact that God is still working in this.
[32:48] So don't get lost in all that disruption. God is established in that family. God will maintain his purposes and his plans and he will maintain the Davidic lineage of the Messiah and the king will come from that lineage in spite of everything we see going on right here.
[33:03] Even with the reality that the king of Egypt is deciding who's going to reign over the people of Judah. It is amazing to me that God in his sovereignty is still using all these pieces and parts of what's happening.
[33:16] But look at the disruption. Three months this man's king he's brought down he's taken to Egypt he ends up dying in Egypt. This man is made king his name's changed and now they're paying tribute to the Egyptians. You know those various people that years and years prior to this God had delivered them from.
[33:33] And now we're going rapidly down. The Babylonians will come into Jerusalem during his reign. There'll be this division between do we go to Egypt do we resist the Babylonians will we flee and we'll see it even going on throughout the writings of Jeremiah.
[33:49] You remember even after they fall Jerusalem falls and Jeremiah says don't go to Egypt you don't want to lean on Egypt but they do anyway. Why? Because they began to think at some moment they needed to be concerned about what was going on in the world around them than who it was that put them in the world to represent him.
[34:11] they began to be concerned about all the disruptions. I know I gave you a lot of history tonight but all these things were disrupting society and the world as they knew it and everything in their area was peaceful so they began to kind of mingle with the affairs of the world and then they get absorbed into them very quickly.
[34:39] Now ultimately God in his sovereignty is using that to discipline his people. God knew these things would come about but that does not remove the responsibility.
[34:56] Listen the sovereignty of God does not remove the responsibility of man. So we'll be careful to maintain that. God is sovereign.
[35:07] The Babylonians will arise to power. The Babylonians will invade Jerusalem. The Babylonians will lead them away into captivity. But that does not mean that Josiah is not responsible for going to the battle he should have never fought.
[35:25] That the people are not responsible for setting wicked men over them as kings. It does not remove the responsibility of man for their actions. it is really the greatest crutch of all to say well if God is sovereign what does it matter what I do or how I live.
[35:42] It absolutely matters. But ultimately what we do and how we live does not change the plans and purposes of God but it may change where we are within those plans and purposes of God.
[35:58] we see here the sudden collapse of the good because they began to be concerned more about that which was around them than the one who was among them.
[36:17] And if the temptation was there at that time we know that God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, today, and tomorrow. The book of Ecclesiastes also tells us that man does not change.
[36:31] What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. And so the temptation still remains even now.
[36:42] to be misguided in our concerns, to ignore the warnings that are given to us even from unlikely sources, to have an unexpected ending which leads to a disrupted society, that we lose our focus.
[37:00] We find it in 2 Chronicles 35, 20 through 36, 4. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. Thank you.
[37:18] Okay. Does everyone have a copy of the prayer list? Okay, we're going to take some time to go over these names, so please let me know if there are any changes.
[37:36] Christy Altman, Jenny Faye Andrews, Patrick Harris, okay, David and Brenda Bragg, Randy Cooper,