We have been talking about the covenant-breakers in the Northern Kingdom of Israel that led to her utter annihilation in 723 B.C. There were no righteous kings in Israel.
As you will note in the above chart, Judah had four kings who were righteous covenant keepers: Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah. She had four others who were good men, but who were not committed enough to lead their people out of sin. Finally, Judah had a dozen kings who were covenant-breakers, who led the people into sin. The Bible calls these kings evil.
At the time of the fall of Israel, Judah was also besieged by the Assyrians. Because of the wisdom and righteousness of Judah's King Hezekiah Jerusalem withstood the siege and did not fall.
Hezekiah led the people in righteousness. He heeded the prophets. He prepared for a siege which he knew was coming by digging a tunnel under the walls of Jerusalem to the spring outside the gate that provided Jerusalem with water. Hezekiah's tunnel not only provided water for the city, it also cut off access to the water to the camp of the Assyrians outside the walls. Hezekiah went to the prophet for help. He was told that the Lord would protect Judah.
Unfortunately, the pattern seemed to be that when a good king died, he was followed to the throne by a wicked son. After Hezekiah died, he was followed by his evil son, Manasseh. Over the next century, wicked king followed wicked king. Isaiah had promised that Jerusalem would not fall nor the Holy Temple destroyed at the time of the Assyrians, that did not mean it would never fall. The Lord had His protective wall around Jerusalem while they kept the covenant, but when they departed from it, they had no protection.
I think there is a lesson there for anyone wise enough to take it.
No comments:
Post a Comment