The History of the Governments
of Israel and Judah

Lesson Eight

The Subject Material Of This Lesson is divided into four parts.

Part One:  Josephus: Book 10, Chapter 1. How Sennacherib made an expedition against Hezekiah; What threatenings Rabhakeh made to Hezekiah when Sennacherib was gone against the Egyptians; how Isaiah the prophet encouraged him; How Sennacherib, having failed of success in Egypt, returned thence to Jerusalem; and how, upon his finding his army destroyed, he returned home; and what befell him a little afterward. 

Part Two: Josephus: Book 10, Chapter 2. How Hezekiah was sick, and ready to die, and how God bestowed upon him fifteen years longer life, (and secured that promise,) by the going back of the shadow ten degrees. 

Part Three: Josephus: Book 10, Chapter 3. How Manasseh reigned after Hezekiah; and how, when he was in captivity, he returned to God, and was restored to his kingdom, and left it to (his son) Amon. 

Part Four: Josephus: Book 10, Chapter 4, How Amon reigned instead of Manassah; and after Amon, reigned Josiah; he was both righteous and religious.

The Antiquities Of The Jews: By Josephus. In these lessons we will hear the witness of the historian Josephus (Joseph Ben Mattias). His father was a Levite and his mother was of the tribe of Judah. During his life he was a priest, general, prisoner, and later a Roman citizen and author. He lived from 37 A.D. to about 100 A.D. His writings are available in any Christian Book Store. We will present Josephus account parallel to the Bible's account.

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But First:
A Review of Recent Events 

2 Kings 18:9-12               History of Israel
(9) And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which {was} the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, {that} Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.

(10) And at the end of three years they took it: {even} in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that {is} the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

(11) And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor {by} the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:
At the end of lesson 7 Israel had been carried away into captivity in a foreign land.

This lesson starts with the beginning of Hezekaih's reign and includes a few additional details of the events in Israel just before their fall.

In the third year of Hoshea king of Israel
Hezekiah the Son of Ahaz Reigns Over Judah in Jerusalem

History of Judah

2 Kings 18:1-8 

2 Chronicles 29:1-2
(1) Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, {that} Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

(2) Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also {was} Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.

(3) And he did {that which was} right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did.

(4) He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

(5) He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor {any} that were before him.

(6) For he clave to the Lord, {and} departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.

(7) And the Lord was with him; {and} he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.

(8) He smote the Philistines, {even} unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

 (1) Hezekiah began to reign {when he was} five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name {was} Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

(2) And he did {that which was} right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

 

Hezekiah The New King Starts A Revival

 

History of Judah

2 Chronicles 29:3-11

Josephus: Book 9, Chapter 13, Section 1 continued from the last lesson.
(3) He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.

(4) And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,

(5) And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy {place.

(6) For our fathers have trespassed, and done {that which was} evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned {their} backs.

(7) Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy {place} unto the God of Israel.

(8) Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.

(9) For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives {are} in captivity for this.

(10) Now {it is} in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.

(11) My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.

 Now in the fourth year of the reign of Hoshea, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, began to reign in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abijah, a citizen of Jerusalem.

His nature was good, and righteous, and religious; for when he came to the kingdom, he thought that nothing was prior, or more necessary, or more advantageous, to himself and to his subjects, than to worship God.

Accordingly, he called the people together, and the priests, and the Levites, and made a speech to them, and said, - You are not ignorant how, by the sins of my father, who transgressed that sacred honor which was due to God, you have had experience of many and great miseries, while you were corrupted in your mind by him, and were induced to worship those which he supposed to be gods: I exhort you, therefore, who have learned by sad experience how dangerous a thing impiety is, to put that immediately out of your memory, and to purify yourselves from your former pollutions, and to open the temple to these priests and Levites who are convened, and to recover all to the ancient honor which our fathers paid to it: for by this means we may render God favorable, and he will remit the anger he hath had to us.

 

 

 

 

Questions

Question #1: Perhaps Hezekiah saw that, if Judah, failed to change her ways, God would deliver them into captivity. Notice the king's statement in verse 8 about the wrath of the Lord. What was the first thing Hezekiah did when he came to power?  (2 Chronicles 29:3) 

      (  )   a.    Draft soldiers to rebuild the Army.
      (  )   b.    Borrow money from the bankers to rebuild the army.
      (  )   c.      Applied 2 Chronicles 7:14.

 Question #2: In 2 Chronicles 17:24, who shut up the doors of the house of the Lord?         

      _____________________________________

 Question #3: Are many of our nations rulers systematically closing the doors of the temple by enacting laws and policies contrary to Bible Law?

       (  )   Yes.  (  )   No.

 Question #4: If America loses its military battles, becomes an astonishment and a hissing before the other nations, what is the reason?

       (  )   a.    Our leaders made stupid decisions.
       (  )   b.    The intelligent decisions of the enemy.
       (  )   c.     Because our fathers, i.e., prior administrations had closed
                     the doors of the house of the Lord

 Question #5: Who suggested (and had the power to make it happen) that the nation come out from under the wrath of the Lord by entering into a new covenant?

       (  )   a. A civil leader. (The king/politician.)
       (  )   b. A leading clergyman.

Answers and Next page - Click Here

 

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