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Episode 643: In this episode, we delve into the darker narrative of King Ahaz, who ruled Judah poorly and led his people away from God. We read from 2 Chronicles 28, detailing Ahaz's wicked actions, including idol worship and even sacrificing his own sons. This sets the stage for a discussion on the consequences of his actions, including military defeats and the eventual downfall of Judah.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bob Guys. Here we are, we are here, and we're starting a brand new episode today. We're super excited about it. A brand new episode. Yes, and we just filmed the yesterday's episode about three minutes ago. That was an old episode. No, yes, brand it is brand new and improved, new and improved. Yes, yeah, why not? Hey, so today's excuse me. I understand you've listened to an episode of The Bible Guys before. Oh, yes, I have. It's new and improved. You know those commercials, oh right, the old commercials where they get like man on the Street things and they say it's new and improved. Have you ever tried to use just soap that didn't work? Yes? I did, Well, this is new and improved. There's so old time radio stuff. I used to listen to old time radio shows all the time. You never did, like Lone Ranger and all those I know. I actually no, oh, I love. The old time radio shows. And it was all those old funny you know, core Ox and all those things. You know, and then it was always the old stuff didn't work. But now there's a new and improved one. So yesterday's episode, yeah, well, but today is a new and improved Bible guys episode. I've always thought it was fascinating how people used to sit around the radio, though, right, it's like, and I've mostly seen that depicted in movies, right, like wooi'es round up or what's the other one I'm thinking of in the movie where they all sat around the movie Oh Annie, remember Annie, the musical Annie. Yeah, people would sit around and listen to the radio, gather around the radio. So you know, we didn't have a TV now as a kid, but I probably owned three hundred old time radio programs on cassette and records. Oh wow. Yeah, well, I listened to The Shadow, and I listened to at a Lone Ranger, and I listened to Gangbusters, and I listened to Amos and Andy and oh yeah. I'm not even sure i've heard an episode of The Lone Ranger, although I've seen the movie, the Black and White movie or the you know. What I'm saying, the series. I remember the radio programs came up before the movies. I know that okay, but I but I did. Used to watch The Lone Ranger. He'd leave behind his silver bullets. And then it always stopped so there'd be a commercial. And the commercials were almost always man on the street type commercials. Yeah, okay, yea proof proof that what we're doing other people like what we're doing now, right, that's what I was making for. Well, hey, today we're going to dive into mail bags, and so mail bags it has a theme, has its own theme. Mail bags. There you go. Mail bags is actually only possible if you right in. So we just encourage you send us an email at info at the Bible guys dot com, or you can comment in on any of our you know, uh, YouTube or speaker or anything like that. If you want to give us feedback or ask questions, we'd love to consider using them. That'd be awesome. And Karen G writes in for this, Karen G. And she writes this, which Bible character do you think had the best sense of humor? And then there's a second question, and which one would you want to be your best friend? And I guess that can be the same answer, Oh best friend, who do you think of the best sense of humor? Best sense of humor. Well, I'm tempted to answer first because I don't want to think my answer. Go ahead, John, John, Yeah, he's the one that you know, he's like, he's like they both ran to the tomb, and the disciple that Jesus loved arrived first with no reason whatsoever other than. Say he was faster. Yes, there was no theological issue about this. Right, And and the fact that he always referred himself as the decay that Jesus loved, and the fact that he uh oftentimes was he was way more colorful than the other gospel writers. I think that he had the best sense of humor, and so I like that. But we know he was the youngest of Jesus disciples, and he beat Peter, who was the oldest of Jesus disciples. Right, So do you remember I can remember the first time I beat my dad in a race. Oh do you remember ever beating your dad or your older brothers? Yeah, yeah, there's a big memorable moment. So that's kind of funny. But yeah, that's a great one. I think Elijah was kind of funny. Yeah, I think you know, when he's mocking the prophets of bail, Hey, keep jumping around and cutting yourself. Maybe maybe Bale's just sleeping. Maybe maybe he's in the John Right, that's kind of funny. So he's kind of just I like his sense of mocking people. Uh, he's pretty hardcore. I mean he also killed eight hundred of them, so there's that. But they make fun of you and now you die. Right, Okay, Well who do you think could be? Like the want to be the best friend? The best friend j is I mean, obviously Jesus is not included. I'm a big fan Jesus. Jesus is my best friend. Jesus is a friend of my. Yeah, I would say best friend honestly, I would like I'm gonna pick Barnabas. Barnabas ooh, the Son of Encouragement. He is the best friend is He's the best friend in the Bible? Yes? All right, man, that's pretty good. That was a good one. I think David would be a great friend. David was a great friend to Jonathan. Jonathan was a great friend to David. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, And you can't go wrong with David. You know, having a king as a friend is not a bad thing. Yeah, a warrior king, right, where's my guy is? You know, only known in certain circles. So he's going to go out and fight, and then he's going to write songs and sing and then they're gonna have big parties. David's gonna dance. I think David be tons of fun and I think it's crazy fun. And you're safe with David, yeah. Because of his mighty men. His entourage was pretty great. Yeah, yeah, so I would. I would definitely think David would be the most fun to hang out with, okay or Solomon because he's crazy rich. Oh song me pretty good. Yeah, he's smart, he's kind of smarty pants. Yeah. I would. Samson be fun, but he'd be unpredictable. Well, and he was living kind of a wildlife. Yeah yeah, yeah, Well, I mean that's the fun. Let's have David's fun. Let's have David's fun and not you know, David's dancing and having parties, but he's celebrating God. Yeah. But Samson, Samson's like the Tales of Foxes come on. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's pretty bad. Yeah. I think that's it is, between your sense of fun and my sense of fun. Growing up, you never know what's gonna happen. Yeah, that's truth. It's like it's like, oh, it's a wild Friday. Night, so you're you're picking bars. He's a son of encouragement, I am. Yeah. And he made everything better. He did everything Barnabas did, he made better. Yeah. And he was the kind of friend that helped, actually helped. Yeah, he did. Okay, well, there you go. You choose Barnabas, I choose David as our best friends. Yes. And then as far as the funniest people in the Bible, you think, I. Think John John, and you chose Elijah Elijah. These are good answers. Okay, we've done well, man, we nailed it. We should just shut the episode down now seven minutes and we peak. I agree, I agree. And by the way, even though that we did so well on the you know that segment. We nailed it. You know who didn't do well? Who as a king you did it? This week? Is a Has? Wow, he did not do well. He did not know. In fact, he did so not well. That actually the only three big mentions and main accounts of a Has really point out how evil he was. Well speaking of that in Second Chronicles, chapter twenty eight. Yeah, man, that was a great, great terrible transition to thank you. That's all three this week. Thank you, thank you. You're on the street. Hey. By the way, think about how much we've jumped around. We went from Amos, we skipped right over Second Kings, we went to Isaiah, and then we went to Micah, and now we're going to be in Second Chronicles. This is all kind of a hot spot of God engaging with people. Yeah, so these kings a Has and Hezekiah and who is the one up there in Jotham and all that, and then Micah has to go talk to all these guys. It's all happening about the same time. So there's a bunch of prophets and then the whole series of kings back to back to back to back to back that God's dealing with. And so this is kind of a hot spot of God communicating. He's about to go silent right after he's done with Isaiah, right right Malachi, he goes, he goes quiet, and so there's a a window here of God intensely communicating with his people. So in Second Chronicles, chapter twenty eight, it says a Has was twenty years old when he became king and he rained Drusalm sixteen years. He did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, as his ancestor David had done. Instead, he followed the example of the kings of Israel. He cast metal images for the worship of Bail. He offered sacrifices in the valley of Ben Hinham, even sacrificing his own sons in the fire. In this way, he followed the detestable practices of the pagan nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the pagan shrines and on the hills and under every green tree. Because of all this, the Lord his God allowed the King of Arab to defeat Ahaz and to exile large numbers of his people to Damascus. The armies of the King of Israel also defeated AHAs and inflicted many casualties on his army. In a single day, Pekka, son of Ramalaiah, King Israel's king, killed the und twenty thousand of Judah's troops, all of them experienced warriors, because they had abandoned the Lord, the god of their ancestors. Then Zikri, a warrior from Ephraim killed Masiah, the king's son, Azrakam, the king's palace commander, and al Cana, the king's second in command. The armies of Israel captured two hundred thousand women and children from Judah and seized tremendous amounts of plunder, which they took back to Samaria. But a prophet of the Lord named Ovid was there in Samaria. When the army of Israel returned home, he went out to meet them and said, the Lord, the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah, and let you defeat them. But you've gone too far, killing them without mercy, and all Heaven is disturbed. And now you are planning to make slaves of these people from Judah and Jerusalem. What about your own sins against the Lord your God. Listen to me and return these prisoners you've taken, for they are your own relatives. Watch out, because now the Lord's fierce anger has been turned against you. And some of the leaders of Israel as Aria son of Johonnah, and Vera Kaiah son of michellema Wo Jekiah, jay His Kaiah, the son of Shalem, and a mass of the son of had I agreed with this and confronted the men returning from battle. You must not bring the prisoners here, they declared. We cannot afford to add to our sins and guilt. Our guilt is already great, and the lord's fierce anger has already turned against Israel. So the warriors released the prisoners and handed over the plunder in the sight of the leaders and all the people. Then the four men just mentioned by name came forward and distributed clothes from the plunder to the prisoners who were naked. They provided clothing and sandals to wear, and gave them enough food and drink, and dressed their wounds with olive oil. And they put those who were weak on donkeys and took all the prisoners back to their own people in Jericho, the city of Palms, and then they returned to Samaria. Wow, there it is. There you go. So, so there's a write up about a has and it's a part of our Life Application Study Bible. Yes, so we love the Life Application Study Bible. And we don't get any sponsorship from them, even though we've been promoting them. For how long years? Years? Years, And we definitely and by the way, I've had people come up to me in the lobby and the church lobby, and because they're new to the Bible, it's completely understandable that people may not understand that there's a translation, right, So then the translation is like, what translation of the Bible are you going to read from? You know, it's been translated from the Greek, so it's you know, the King James version was back in the sixteen hundreds. There's the NIV, which is the New International Version. There's the NLT. There were people in the lobby that came up to me and they were confused. They thought the Life Application Study was a translation. Oh right, yeah, you know what I mean. It's like, no, no, no, no. So what we're reading from is the New Living Translation and LT that's the translation, that's the conversion into English. And then on top of that that, that Bible is coupled with a study and it's the Life Application Study Bible, and it's an actual Bible that puts together what like helpful. Little notes, notes on key passages and explains the hard things to understand, yes, and gives you some historical background. There's on this page that we're looking at right now. There's one, two, three, four, five, six different notes on key verses. It also has a whole chunk explaining who a Has was. Yes, and then there's a photo of some QNEA formed tablet that proves that a Has was a real guy that we found in archaeology, and it tells the little story of how they found that and that he was paying a tribute to the Assyrian king. Right. Yeah, So that's what you get is you get some notes that explain it, you get some uh maybe some bigger elements that kind of highlight major characters and explain the big picture of their story. And then there's also some historical maps and archaeological proofs and stuff of what you're what we're reading about. Which is extremely cool. Yeah, and it's super super approachable, right right, So sometimes I was we were laughing. I had to read all those goofy names. Dude, I've said this before, but I said, normally you get through them like a chance. Yeah, but I stumbled to it. Yeah, But Michelle Moth that one got me, Like, like. When we were determining like who was going to do the intro of the outro, who's going to read, who's going to do this, Who's going. To do that? I said, dude, I said, you could read, And I said for two reasons, I said, number one, because you have a really good reading voice. I said, but besides that, you tackle these names like a champ, and I don't think I want to do it. I would just barf it all up. And uh and today, Yeah, when you came across Kayas Hill him off yeah and Jay his kayah, those two back to back, I just couldn't get. So, you know, you read those names and you go, oh, I can't understand the Bible. Skip the names. Just you say that guy and that guy is sometimes that guy and this other guy that's okay, right, or or I have a friend they'll just use you know, the first letters. Jay, you know A was the son of J, M. B was the son of M. Right whatever. Because you don't know those names or the names of the towns, don't get bogged down on those. The big story is this Judah rebelled against God. God allowed even and even though because a has was so wicked. So God allowed the the armies of Samaria in northern Israel to defeat them. Then this guy obed he was a prophet. He goes and says, hey, so you defeated the army. Don't take the women in children captive and abuse these people, turn them into slaves. God's going to judge you now because of your own sins. Right. And then those four guys, I couldn't read their names, those four guys, four guys speaking of Hey, you know what, we should show compassion. And so what do they do? They bound their wounds, they clothed them, they put them on donkeys, got them back home. That's that's a big picture. You can understand the story if you don't get bogged down in the big words. Yeah, that's it. And really understanding is more important than being able to read a word out loud. That's that's the thing. And so what a good study Bible does for you is that it gives you these extra notes, Like you know, a has was so deprived that he sacrificed his own son to the pagan gods. And this was a practice of the Canaanites, whom his rights were supposed to have driven out of the land in the time of Joshua. Yeah, because they didn't finish the job in Joshua's time. Four hundred years later, they're still tempted by the sins of that group of people. Yeah, and I'm not sure if that was Dagon, but dagone was. Probably the god that they did that with. Yeah, this one was. It says, oh, it does. Say that, Okay, because uh, you know the. Uh, it's just it's detestable to even think there were so many kings that decided to do that. And back then, by the way, they had so many sons because they they you know, slept with so many wives and concubines, so they had sons everywhere, right. And so and then you know, the sad thing to me, if we're going to really drive home an application today, the sad thing to me is, you had Jotham was a good guy. You had Hezekiah was a good guy. But a Has just kind of throws off his family heritage at this point, right Usiah. So Usiah was a good guy following God. Usiah's son, Jotham is a good guy following God. So a Has his father and grandfather were godly men, and he was so tempted by the way that the Samaritan or the Samerian nation was living, you know, northern Israel, that he saw their temples, he saw their worship practices, all this magic that they were doing all this stuff, and he decided he threw off the temple of God, he threw off the worship of the One True God, and decided to embrace this other wickedness. And I think about you know, we had read a couple of weeks ago how the kings of Judah had started making alliances with the kings of Israel. They shouldn't have anything to do with the kings of Israel, because the kings of Judah were serving God and leading the people to serve God, and Israel was clearly always walking away from God. Always, they almost never had a good king that led them to follow the Lord. And instead what happens is they start whereas that Jeroboam allows his daughter to be married to the king of you know, to the prince in Israel, all those things you. Got to give him, give it up for him at least trying trying to unite the kingdom. Right, yeah, but God said, don't hang out with these people. Right. God has driven a wedge between the people who are following God's ways and sending judgment on the people who are walking away. From suggesting that was forbidden. Oh yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, I think so, huh yeah, And so they shouldn't have have been hanging out with them. God is always calling his people to get away from culturally, leave the culture of the of those who are rejecting God right, don't be you should be different, and they are hanging out with them. So if you hang out with them long enough, you're going to be like them. And so what happened was Usaiah didn't really bend over to their ways, and Jotham didn't, but Usiah's grandson did, right, which would be Jeroboam's great grandson. So me, it's a good time to go back to I was going to read this this little block on a has It says our heritage influences but doesn't necessarily determine our life decisions. Kings of Judah illustrates this truth. He turned away from the good examples of his father Jotham and his grandfather Usiah, but his poor example seems to have little effect on his own son, Hezekiah, who proved to be a great and godly king. Isn't that crazy? The circumstances circumstances of the life of king has will fall into the general categories A bad and worse When Judah suffered a dehabilitating attack from the rivals of Israel and Aram, the king ignored the opportunity to see God's help and turned instead to Assyria for assistance. A Has, his cowardly leadership, forced Judah into the virtual slavery to the Assyrians. Soon every evidence of Judah had once been a godfing nation was smashed, defaced, or tucked out of sight. A has imported idolatry. He even presented some of his children his offerings to the gods, as he had hoped would rescue him from his nation from their disastrous situation. We sure A has a sin when from beneath a load of failures in trials we turn away from the good examples from God. Instead of repenting of any known sin and God calling upon or in calling upon God for relief, We, like a has have, may appeal to every source other than God for aid. Our own abilities, our own money are harmful habits. The results only serve to increase this tragic circumstances. Difficulties and mistakes will either devastate our faith or they will stimulate growth and maturity. The positive differences come from when we humbly see God's help whenever the situation trials that tempt us and turn away from God should instead spur us toward God. Yeah, so so there it is. And by the way, that's also a sermon in there. I bet you're somewhere, you know. Sometimes the suns they just they haven't paid the price, they haven't. Learned the lesson the hard way. You know, you grew up with a silver. Spoon in your mouth, and you don't necessarily understand the dangers of what it means to reject God, even though that he should have, you know, but you know, when you're when you're third generation of a good godly dynasty, you know, you just everything's everything's been good for a couple of generations, right, you don't necessarily understand probably the dangers of what it means to go off and pursue all these ungodly things. And and he has sure did model it so much so to where I'm sure you know, Hezekiah grows up and says, who, like, you. Know, my kaya saw one hundred and twenty thousand of Judas troops get wiped out and the prophets coming out, and saying, you know that happened because your dad, because your dad. Yeah, right, that so he saw all the bad results, the fact that they literally mortgaged their future by by trying to make an alliance with Assyria. As matter of fact, the little historical element that's in this thing that has the quinea form is a has is paying taxes to Assyria. So this is what happens is when we start going against God's way. Next thing, you know, our wealth and our power and all those things begin to flow away from us. Right, And this is what happens to them is Judah was so strong and so healthy and so prosperous. But then when aas begins to walk away from God, they become very weak. And now he's paying out taxes to Assyria, trying to get some help from them. Eventually it wipes them out, right, they get wiped out by by Assyria. But I think that you see Hezekiah seeing man, my dad went the wrong way. Yeah, and Hezekiah wants to be a good king. He was moderately successful. I think he personally was a good guy. He made a couple of mistakes, but he's a good guy. He's trying to lead the people back. Later on, we'll read about his life soon, but he'd learned hopefully from the wickedness of his dad and change the direction. But his dad was just a bad guy. Yeah for sure. Well that is our time, so we will hopefully pick up with you tomorrow on the Babba Gush