2 Chronicles 34

2 Chronicles 34:1-33

THE SECOND BOOK OF discussing the First Book of Chronicles we called attention to the fact that according to Ussher’s chronology, the two Books, not reckoning the table of genealogy, covered a space of 468 years of history; the First Book only 41 of these, and this second, 427. As to the authorship of these Books, Ezra is commonly accepted.The analysis of any book is largely the presentation of a personal view. One man divides this Second Book of Chronicles into two portions: The Reign of Solomon, chapters 1 to 9, and The Kings of Judah, chapters 10 to 36.Scofield in his reference Bible, says of this Book: “It falls into eighteen divisions, by reigns, from Solomon to the captivities; records the division of the kingdom of David under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and is marked by an ever growing apostasy, broken temporarily by reformations under Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah.”It is our purpose to follow neither of these divisions, however natural they may be, but to discuss the volume under three heads: Solomon and the Temple; Rehoboam and the Division, and the History of Judah. SOLOMON AND THE TEMPLEThe Book opens with a declaration concerning the new king, “And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly” (2 Chronicles 1:1).The history that follows gives occasion to say several things concerning this marvelous man of immortal reputation:First, Solomon’s kingship enjoyed an auspicious beginning. The man who ascends the throne under the favor of the Lord necessarily begins a reign of promise. If, as in Solomon’s case, he sensibly recognizes his responsibility and seeks wisdom from the only sufficient source, he adds greater certainty to his success. When, in addition to this, his objectives are high and God-honoring, the glory of his kingdom advances accordingly. Certainly, Solomon’s preparation to build the temple was not only a noble objective, but one in line with his kingly father’s purpose and prayers, and the great Heavenly Father’s will for him.The interesting history here of gathering materials and appointing men for this marvelous construction is made more interesting still by the king’s personal supervision and spiritual interest. It takes some courage to conduct war, and we believe it takes almost more courage and even a clearer sense of God, to build sanctuaries, make their appointments according to the Divine pleasure, and call the people to worship within the spacious rooms of the same.

Yet, when you have read but five chapters of this Book, you find such a work complete, and are not in the least amazed or even surprised to read, “The glory of the Lord had filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:14).It is doubtful whether any company of men have done more for the establishment of spirituality in the earth and for the strengthening of the souls of their fellows, than have those who brought sanctuaries into existence and led congregations of people to a genuine worship of the most high God.The on-going of this Book reveals Solomon’s conscious dependence. When the altar was erected he stood by it with outstretched hands (2 Chronicles 6:12).

That is the attitude of prayer and possibly of adoration. When his lips parted to speak, he says,“O Lord God of Israel, there is no God tike Thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their hearts:“Thou which hast kept with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him; and spakest with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with Thine hand, as it is this day.“Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in My Law, as Thou hast walked before Me” (2 Chronicles 6:14-16).“Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy Word be verified, which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant David” (2 Chronicles 6:17).Then follows an appeal that God’s eyes should be open upon their house day and night; that His ears should hearken to the prayers made in that place, and if sin were committed, that forgiveness should be granted, and if the people fail before the face of the enemy because of sin that they also should be pardoned; that if heaven be shut up on the same ground, upon repentance the dearth should end.Then he concludes in a more personal petition to Him:“Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all Thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:“Then hear Thou from Heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive” (2 Chronicles 6:29-30).These are only samples of the long petition that followed the dedicatory sermon. They wind up with a sentence like this: “O Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine anointed: remember the mercies of David Thy servant” (2 Chronicles 6:42). It is a model prayer; it is the petition of a sincere soul; it is the cry of one who knows that the mercy and love of God are the only grounds of hope.The further text records Solomon’s fame and death. That fame was based upon Solomon’s wisdom, accentuated doubtless by the magnificence of the temple, but made more honorable still in the extent of his organization, the luxury of his court and the wealth of his treasury.Evidently, among the rulers of the earth, the queen of Sheba held conspicuous place, and when the fame of Solomon reached her, she came to prove him with her questions, and impress him with her own riches and glory. The difficult questions were satisfactorily answered, the temple was adequately shown, the table of the king groaned with its good meats, the apparel of the servants was profoundly impressive, and the queen said to the king,“It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom:“Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.“Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, winch stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.“Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God” (2 Chronicles 9:5-8).The compliment to the king is followed with a statement of Solomon’s annual income, the magnificence of his throne, the rich appointments of the palace, the extensive commercial importance of his kingdom, and the willing tributes of the earth’s lesser lords.Then, as if the task of telling all was too great, we have this record,“Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the Prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?“And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.“And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead” (2 Chronicles 9:29-31).It is a surprising end, and yet strangely true to human history.

How many men spend all their days in preparing to live, and when the preparation seems almost complete, proceed to die? The last enemy is no respecter of persons.

His bow is drawn against the great as well as the humble, the rich as well as the poor, the wise as well as the ignorant. Death respects neither thrones nor kings; he holds the key to the palace room, and even to the throne room. Kings may command their humbler fellows, and even counsel their equals; but where death calls, they also obey. AND THE The emptying of a throne is forever fraught with perils. The eternal and pertinent question is this, Who shall come after the king? The tenth chapter answered that concerning the throne of Israel. The answer was an ill omen! Rehoboam’s tyrannical spirit split the kingdom.

When Jeroboam and all Israel came to him, saying, “Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee” (2 Chronicles 10:4), they delicately referred to the increased taxation to which the luxurious court and the personal orgies of Solomon had given rise. They thought, as people commonly do, that the new rule would prove the people’s friend. Their hope was in vain.The old men, former counselors of Solomon, advised kindness and compassion; but the young bloods, spoiled by their fellowship with royalty, counseled increased oppression; and under their influence he said,“My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions” (2 Chronicles 10:14).It was enough. The war was on; and that war has never ended until this day, for Israel and Judah are not yet one. A man who divides brethren and sets them to battle, little understands the infinite reach of his mischief. The father of Modernism in America, when he fell asleep at a comparatively early age, little dreamed that he had set influences to work that would divide every denomination on the continent, destroy the fellowship of men who loved one another as twins are commonly supposed to love, wreck schools and churches by the thousand, and start a war that may easily exceed the famous “Hundred Year War” of history.Israel and Judah—blood brothers—became the bitterest of enemies.

For some reason Second Chronicles pays little attention to Israel, but proceeds to trace Judah’s history to the year of Cyrus, king of Persia, or through a period of almost a half millennium. The family feud occasionally projects itself into the record, but for the most part, Israel is forgotten, and the doings of Judah are recorded in detail.The explanation of this is found in the circumstance that Jeroboam rejected the worship of Jehovah (2 Chronicles 11:14-15).

When God is once put away, when God’s priest is disposed of, and His minister is heard no more, then degeneracy compels a declining record.Unitarianism three quarters of a century ago denied the Lord. Its history has amounted to little; and if it were recorded, it would simply prove, as the Jeroboam movement, a breeding place of apostasy; and yet this record regards not one apostasy only, but two.The man of many favors may forget God.“When Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the Law of the Lord, and all Israel with him” (2 Chronicles 12:1).What a sad commentary on the uncertainty and unstability of human nature! The explanation of Rehoboam’s failure has fitted thousands, yea millions of cases. “He did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord” (2 Chronicles 12:14). Of all disappointments, none exceed this—to begin well and end badly; to give promise and create disappointment; to be the subject of Divine favor, and become the slave of God’s adversary.THE HISTORY OF JUDAHChapters 11 to 36 contain the roster of kings. The fortunes of the country answer accurately and inevitably to the characters of their rulers. On the whole, the history is a down-grade.

In that respect, it runs true to form. The doctrine of evolution may find an illustration in national life if it goes from the simple to the complex, but in so far as it contends for improvement, history fails to illustrate it.

Degeneracy of nations has more often taken place than has social and moral progress.The foundations of Judah were laid under David; the kingdom’s glory appeared under Solomon. From that moment until this, one word expresses Judah’s course—“decline.”Africa was once an advanced nation, now a heathen one; Italy once ruled the world, now she holds an inconspicuous place; Greece once represented the climax of physical and mental accomplishment, now she boasts neither. The reasons for decline are varied, but in Judah they were one— the God who had made her great was too often forgotten, too willingly offended. When the nations neglect the source of their strength, weakness naturally ensues. Judah’s strength was in the Lord, and when her kings forgot Him, despised His Word, entered into unholy alliances that were followed by the people, her fame declined, and her land fainted.The mixed social condition manifested her sinfulness. We have a phrase, “Like people, like priest.” We can paraphrase that, “Like princes, like people.” The study of these kings results in no compliment to human nature.

Some of them were utterly evil; most of them were a mixture of the good and bad; two or three of them were sound. Among the utterly evil ones, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Manasseh, Amon and Jehoiakin held first place.

The ones that represent a mixture of good and bad were Jeroboam, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jehoiakim; while the truly good consisted of Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah. In all probability the reign of each of these good kings was profoundly affected and made spiritually fruitful by the ministry of Isaiah, the greatest preacher among Old Testament Prophets. It is perhaps a fact of history that no rulers have ever proven faithful to God without the stimulating and salutary influence of the Gospel ministry.The judgments and mercies of Second Chronicles alike vindicate Jehovah. In this record wickedness does not go unpunished; and yet it is a marvelous revelation of Divine mercy.There is never the least sign of penitence on the part of the ruler and the people without an immediate and generous response from Jehovah.When Jehoshaphat declined in his loyalty and effected a sinful coalition with Ahab, judgment fell; but instantly upon his repentance, mercy was shown. Judgment is always and everywhere God’s strange work, the work in which He takes no pleasure. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11).Mercy is His nature, His essential character, for “to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness”. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

2 Chronicles 34:3

THE MIGHT OF A GODLY YOUNG MAN2 Chronicles 34:3.DR. A. C. DIXON says somewhere, “I saw two portraits in the National Art Gallery in London, under one of which was the title, ‘A Man’, under the other, ‘A Woman’. They were meant to express the artist’s ideal of manhood and womanhood, and, as I gazed upon them, I thought: ‘It is better to be a man than a king, a true woman than a queen’.”I am to speak to you this evening of Josiah, a king in official station, but more kingly still in character, and so in many respects a model man. In taking the text itself as a basis for what I shall say, I must discuss his character in its representative, rather than its historical features.

I want us to learn from Josiah the might of a godly young man. The first thing that impresses me is this:HE SEEKS GOD AT SIXTEENWe read, “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign”, and “in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father”.He was old enough to be conscious of his need of God.

One of the customary and fatal mistakes of life is that of leaving the Lord out of mind and heart during the days of youth. Contrary to much Scripture, in spite of plainest illustrations from history, and even against the promptings of the heart itself, youth is often wasted on the world without any thought of sin, or any earnest desire for salvation. Parents are, in some instances, guilty of discouraging godliness on the part of their own children, opposing the counsel of God, as expressed in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them”. The Church of Christ has seemed super-suspicious of child-conversion, and many a modern disciple deserves the Saviour’s rebuke. “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14).But Josiah was still young enough to find easy acceptance. He had not passed beyond the limit of that precious promise, “Those that seek Me early shall find Me”. Oh, Josiah, I congratulate you on that!

I look around me and see men by the score—some just quitting youth without Christ—some attempting to bear the burdens of maturity without being borne up themselves on the arm of God—some stopping beneath the weight of years without any staff of hope such as supported David and made him sing, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me” (Psalms 23:4). I see them willing to hear the Lord, but remaining unmoved by it, and I pity the self-imposed inability and thank God afresh that I came to Him while young.

It is then or never with ninety-nine out of a hundred. Satan’s suggestions of better seasons notwithstanding, my young friends, it is now or never for the most of you. I call as witnesses of this truth the many unsaved of this house who, having rejected Christ at sixteen, are nothing moved now to accept Him. They stand like the dying trees of the forest. When the rain falls in gracious revival, starting up all younger trees, it only softens the outside of the dead oak and strikes decay deeper toward its heart. When the sun shines, and the youthful sprouts bud and blossom, it only hastens the dissolution of the barren, old barkless monarch of the forest.

It is so in life. The showers of revival start the tender emotions and goodly graces of the young, just as rain starts the sap in springtime.

But as all rain of fall and winter fails to evoke answer from the seared leaf and the stilled, closed tissue of wood, so the revival of grace leaves men and women of late summer, autumn and winter ages as cold and indifferent in spirit as if it had never come. “Tis easier work if we begin To serve the Lord betimes,But sinners, who grow old in sin Are hardened in their crimes.”Again, Josiah sought God just in time to have His help when most needed. We hear much of “sweet sixteen”—the age when buds of girls blossom into early womanhood. It is an age characterized by natural beauty, and rapid growth of natural graces, and mental and emotional activities. But oh, it is an age that Satan specially besets. I sometimes fear that those of us who were helped in the battle of life by the Son of God, forget how fierce it is for those who are trusting in their own strength. I am quite confident that many, for whom advance into maturer years has made self-control an easier thing, have forgotten the burning passions of sixteen summers, the colossal schemes of Satan intended to entrap souls at that period of life.

I noticed by an evening’s paper that several boats had parted their hawsers in and along the Atlantic shore, and in the late storm gone adrift carrying some several passengers. As the biting cold winds of last evening whistled about this church, I could not forget those unfortunate people who, terror-stricken, faced so cruel a death.

But a soul adrift on the rough sea of life, held by no cord of faith to Christ the Eternal Rock, guided by no safe and saving hand, driven by the euroclydon of passion, or threatened by drowning waves of vice, is sadder still. If God’s Word be true, every unsaved soul is daily driving toward death because daily drifting farther from the Divine hand of help, the everlasting harbor of Heaven.The second thing to be noted in the might of this young man is also an evidence of his wisdom.HE PUT IN FOUR YEARS MAKING READY TO BE A MAN“In the eighth year of his reign, * * he began to seek after the God of David”, and in the twelfth year of his reign, or when he was twenty, “he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem”.Four years he had spent in making ready for his manly work. The summers sixteen to twenty are naturally seasons of preparation. They are schooldays now; they are days of special studies, days of budding ambitions, and of plodding work; they are days of foundation laying. With few exceptions, they are days whose use becomes an earnest of afterlife. If they are misspent, squandered in riotous living, one reaches his manhood a moral and intellectual bankrupt, and never recovers the lost future.

It was Lamennais who once wrote to a young man passing through these critical years saying, “You are now at an age at which decision must be formed by you. A little later and you have to groan within the tomb you yourself dug, without the power of rolling away the stone.

That which the easiest becomes a habit in us is the will. Learn, then, to will strongly and decisively; thus fix your floating life and leave it no longer to be carried hither and thither like a withered leaf by every wind that blows.” But Lamennais’ mistake is the common one of feeling that fixedness of purpose, superior education, or some personal accomplishment is the bed-rock on which to build character, to lay the superstructure of a noble life.Beckford had a fixedness of purpose. He was going to make Fonthill Abbey the famous temple of luxury and pleasure. But his failure was as signal as that of the men who started Babel in the plain of Shinar. He died in despair because he had no hope in God. William Pitt was splendidly educated, and yet his days ended in grief.

Haydon the artist was accomplished, but finding no satiety in his own successes, he sickened of life and by his own hand shortened it. There is many a man chasing some phantom that promises happiness, but which, when taken, is a bauble ready to burst and leave him empty-handed, empty-hearted, disappointed, despairing.Better than all fixedness of purpose; better than all education; better than any personal accomplishment, is the fixedness of faith, education in God’s truth, and talent for Divine suffering or service.

Better converted to God young than display the most marked mental abilities. Better at Christ’s feet for five minutes a day for four years, sixteen to twenty, than in the university, under a halfscore of renowned instructors. There are parents that bank much on educating the boys, on “finishing” the girls, but mental development without moral and religious foundation is in vain, and “finished” girls who don’t know God in His saving and keeping power are open to temptations that may easily render their education a means of evil, and their morals an everlasting ruin.President Harrison is reported to have excused himself from drinking with one who proposed his toast by saying to those who sat at the table, “I am one of a class of seventeen young men who graduated at college together. The other sixteen members of my class now fill drunkard’s graves, and all from the pernicious habit of wine drinking.” They were as well educated as he; some of them more talented. But he put into the preparation of his life Christ, the Foundation Stone, and stood like granite against the stones of passion that swept his sixteen fellows into the sea of sin and drowned their souls. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).But Josiah would teach us a third lesson, for he is one of the immortal names who though dead, yet speaketh.HE WITH THE AGE OF MANHOOD, MANLY ACTIONWhen twenty years old, “in the twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem”. When the teens are left the boy ought to become a man, and the world ought to feel the touch of twenty years.

The greatest achievements have been wrought in the twenties by many men. It may be so that Plutarch began Latin at seventy, Cato, Greek at eighty, and Theophrastus wrote his best at ninety.

But Alexander the Great made his name in the twenties. It was the boy Raphael that made canvas live; Philip Sidney was dying at thirty-two, while others in statesmenship, letters, art and war, won their largest laurels before they ceased the use of two to tell their age.Young men and young men, let me beg you to reflect that now, to-night, you are settling your course for all of time, and deciding your eternal destiny. You who are full-grown in physique, what are you in morals, in self-mastery, in mental power, in strength of soul? What you are to-night is an earnest of what you are going to become. If you are purging the citadel of your own soul of unclean idols; if you are seeking to purify and sweeten the social atmosphere about you; if you are in love with and in league with God, well and good. Go on!

Go on! There is a beauty about youthful religion that pleases God and is approved of all good men.

There is security in it against Satan’s purpose to capture and imprison your souls. There is holiness, and holiness is happiness, and heaven! The soul can never be satisfied short of that. If you deny it God, you orphan it, and permit its adoption by the arch-enemy, and prepare for its never-ceasing sorrow.Dr. Martyn, in last Monday’s lecture, told how our city authorities cart the sick children who are suffering with smallpox, to our pest-house, and how, deprived by law, or lawlessness, of mother, they wail, and wail, until exhausted of pain and piteous unavailing appeal, they weaken to sleep. But the sleep is feverish and full of sobs. Awake or asleep they suffer that unutterable sense of mother’s loss. So the soul cries for God.

You may quiet it at times into apparent peace, but its stillest hour has in it a cry, a sob, and when awake again to its sickness in sin, and its wretched watchers, it sobs aloud. It is for you to say whether, as a man in age, you will be a man in action; whether you will turn out of its room the enemy and alien and let God come in, claim His own, and touch with His healing power every leprous spot and make you clean.