I'm glad to have all of you with us, regulars and non-regulars alike. Nice to have fellow believers come along and remember the Lord with us and sit under the sound of his word. It's so good. A very honorable thing that you make time in your travels, I think, to meet with the Lord's people, even when you're on vacation or just trying to get from here to there. And it's a real big blessing to his people also to have those visitors. So we hope you're blessed as well being here with us. Why don't you go ahead and turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 3. For those of you who are visiting, what we've been doing in the times that I've been speaking is taking a look at the Kings of Judah. The Bible says that these things that were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we might take heed to ourselves lest we fall and follow some of their bad examples. So we've been looking at some bad examples, we've also looked at some good examples as well. And try and take heed to those things that the Lord would teach us. through these examples of those things that are preserved there in his word. Last time we took a little bit of a detour and looked at a place in the book of Luke where we would take heed, but now we're going back to the kings of Judah. Now I said when we finished the series on Josiah, I said that he was really the last true king of Judah. But we're going to go ahead and take a look at his sons that also reigned after him, even though they really weren't independent, they were subservient to these other world powers that were fighting with one another at the time. But we're going to go ahead and take a look at their reigns because I think there's a lot of good stuff there that we can take heed to as well. If you'll remember Josiah, he died in battle. He went out to fight the king of of Egypt, the Pharaoh, who really wasn't even looking to fight with him. He was just on his way to fight. He was on his way for world domination and to become a major power. And really, Judah at this time wasn't a very major player in that. They had been in years past, but their glory days were over. And so the king of Egypt, he really didn't have anything to do with them. But as he passed by, Josiah still saw him as a threat because he was traveling through their land with an army. And so he went out to fight him, but he got killed right away. And that war pretty much stopped even before it started. The people mourned the death of Josiah very greatly. He was probably more and greater than any king that Judah had ever had. Because number one, he was a great leader. He loved the Lord and he brought great reforms. But number two, because the Lord had promised that even though he had wrath that was promised to the nation of Judah. He said it wouldn't come in the days of Josiah. So now when Josiah dies and the people knew of that promise, I think there was part of that that made that mourning even greater because it was almost like Josiah was this dam that held back the wrath of God. And now that Josiah was gone, there was nothing further to keep that wrath from coming. There was nothing left to hold it back and to delay the wrath of God. What we're going to take a look at today is a tale of four brothers. We're going to take a look at Josiah's sons. And they're important, and I want to show you this here in 1 Chronicles 3 so that you can see the importance because it names them here among the kings. 1 Chronicles 3, let's go ahead and begin in verse 10. It's just giving the chronology and the history of these kings. And you'll see some names here that you recognize from some of the past messages. And Solomon's son was Rehoboam. Abiah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, Ammon his son, Josiah his son. And the sons of Josiah were? the firstborn, Johanan, the second, Jehoiakim, the third, Zedekiah, and the fourth, Shalom. And Shalom, as you will see, is Jehoahaz that we'll be talking about this morning. And actually, all of these guys, when they began to reign, their names changed. And there were also some duplicates. There were more than one guy named Zedekiah. And there's going to be a lot of difficulties, because there's a little bit of information given here in the Kings, and then the Chronicles, and then you got to go digging for the rest through the Prophets. So this is going to be work. for us to do this study, but I think it's worth it. I think it's worth it to really dig out and search out those things that are hidden there in the Word of God for us for our learning as we go through this study. So it won't be easy, but I hope you're up to the task with me. Joe Haman here means Jehovah is gracious. In other words, And I'm sorry here, I'm in verse 15, we're looking at the tale of four brothers here, these four sons of Josiah. Johanan, the firstborn, means Jehovah is gracious. He condescends, or he shows his unmerited favor to those who are inferior. To those who are undeserving, he shows his grace. We know nothing more of this man, the first son of Josiah, other than this, that his name is Johanan. The rest of Josiah's sons all have a major role to play in the production at the conclusion of the Kings of Judah and the subsequent captivity that takes place. They're all major characters in the chapters that we're going to be looking at. But Johanan is not. He is only mentioned here. Now, Johanan is a common name, and you'll find it other places in the Bible, but only here in 1 Chronicles 3, verse 15, is this Johanan, the son of Josiah, mentioned. Perhaps he died early as a child. Perhaps he chose to live quietly and never asserted his responsibility to take a leadership role as the oldest son of Josiah. Perhaps due to some mental or physical challenge, he was not capable of doing so. We don't know. All we know is that his name is Johanan. You know as much about him as I do now. His name means God is gracious, and that is all we know. But I suppose that even in this, there is a lesson. The lesson to be learned is this, is that if we go through all of this life and we learn nothing else, the one thing we must know is that God is gracious. The one thing we must understand is the grace of God if we know nothing else. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 1 says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, said Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Nothing but the grace of God. Galatians 6, 14, another similar passage. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing else but God's grace that can deliver us from the punishment of our own sin. And once we know and believe and experience that grace, there's nothing that can tear us from it. There's nothing that can take it from us. If you grab hold of nothing else in this life, if you know nothing else in this life, know the grace of God through our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and through His death on the cross for us. If that's the only thing that you can know, that is the one thing to know. So even in this name, Johanan, God's grace, we know nothing else about Him, but we know enough. Enough about Him. Now, back to our list of brothers. We talked about Johanan, now let's talk about Shalom. It has him mentioned as the fourth here, but apparently he was actually the third by birth order, as we'll see later. It says that Johanan was the first born, but The others are simply referred to here as the second, the third, and the fourth, not necessarily second born, third born, and fourth born. Perhaps not a reference to their birth order, but some other order of importance is given with the rest of these brothers. Some think that it was an intentional degradation or demotion to Shalom here, to put him at the end. We know this because These last three, the reason we know their order is because these last three that are mentioned here in 1 Chronicles 3 verse 15, the last three all reigned as kings. They all took the throne there after Josiah's death in their very order. And if we take those accounts that are present in the books of the kings and the chronicles, which we're going to look at, you'll see that Shalom is third. because it gives the order in which they came to reign and their age when they came to reign and so forth. So we can see by those accounts, if we take those accounts to be accurate, then we have to realize here that they're not given in birth order. In the account of the kings, Shalom is named Jeholahaz. However, from the evidence in Chronicles that we just saw, Most everyone agrees that Shalom and Jehoahaz are one and the same. The name Shalom means recompense or retribution. The name is derived from the Hebrew word Shalom. The times that we see this Hebrew word used, Shalom, is the first time in Isaiah 34, 8. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion. And the second use of the word is in Hosea 9, 7. The days of visitation are come. The days of recompense are come. Israel shall know it. And there's really no other way to better describe what's going on here in this transition as Josiah has died and the people take one of his sons and put him on the throne is that this is kind of what's coming, this recompense or this retribution from the Lord. Surely the name Shalom was fitting because Josiah was the last king for which God held back his fury and promised that his vengeance, though deserved, would not come in Josiah's day. The recompense or the wages of the nation of Judah for past sin was God's wrath. Now that Josiah is gone, Shalom does wickedly and there's really nothing left to further delay the recompense that they have coming. Let's go ahead and turn now to 2 Kings, the book of 2 Kings and chapter 23. And that's where we'll find our story for today. And as I said, here in 2 Kings, when you see the name Jehoahaz, that is the same as this Chalim. And you'll see more evidence for that later as we go through the other accounts of the prophets and so forth. The name Jehovahaz actually has a similar meaning to the name Shalom. We talked about how the name Shalom means recompense or retribution. His other name Jehovahaz means Jehovah seizes or Jehovah takes hold of. At this time, God begins to take hold of the nation and deal with them according to their works. It is interesting that though Shalom, or Jehoahaz, was younger than his brother, he is the one who takes the throne after Josiah dies. Let's read the account, 2 Kings 23, verse 29. In his days, Pharaoh Deco, and excuse me, we're just jumping right at the end of the story of Josiah. In his days, Pharaoh Nico, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates, and king Josiah went against him, and he slew him at Megiddo when he had seen him. And his servants carried him in a chariot, dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahab, the son of Josiah, and anointed him and made him king in his father's stead." They had to anoint him because he really wasn't the rightful one to take the throne at this point. It was a special circumstance. Just as Solomon was anointed when he took the throne, or David was anointed also. These were special circumstances because they weren't the firstborn of the reigning king. So they anointed him as king under this special circumstance. It does not say that Jehoahaz usurped the throne, but that the people took him and made him their king. The people seize him or lay hold of Jehoahaz to be their king. But just as his name is interpreted, Jehovah seizes. It is God who is taking hold of the nation at this point to begin his discipline. Now back to our text, verse 31. Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libna. That's not the prophet Jeremiah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. Fathers here indicates past kings, of Judah, not his immediate father, Josiah, obviously. We learned enough about Josiah to know that he was a good king, so when it says that he did wickedly or evil, according to all that his fathers had done, it's talking about those other grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers in his lineage that did wickedly. And the primary wickedness of those kings of Judah, the ones that did wickedly, their primary wickedness was that of idolatry. So maybe we can make the assumption here that this Jehoahaz was idolatrous, because it says that he did according to all that his fathers had done. And Pharaoh Necho put him in bands, this is verse 33 now, Pharaoh Necho put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and put the land to a tribute of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold. So as you can see here, remember we already talked about Pharaoh. He had already marched through the land once. And when he did, Josiah came out to fight him in battle. And so Josiah got killed. So that ended that battle and Pharaoh Necho goes on. Well now three months later he's on his way back through the land again and he finds that the people have taken Jehoahaz and made him king. And Pharaoh Necho puts the land under a tribute. Now a talent is approximately 75 pounds here and this really This tribute is relatively a small one compared to other things that we've seen. No doubt it still created a great hardship on the people of Judah because of their economic situation at this time, but it really was relatively a small amount for this king to ask of them. It was moderate because if you were to look back 100 years ago, Sennacherib had enacted a tribute of 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold, as compared to here where we have 100 of silver and only one talent of gold. These were not the glory days of Judah any longer. Pharaoh knew that he could not squeeze water from a rock, and so he doesn't lay a tribute on them more than what they can afford, but he does it according to what they can afford. If he asks more than they could possibly pay, then obviously they would have no choice but to rebel and to fight, and that doesn't seem to be what Pharaoh Neco in this situation is really wanting. Also, it does not seem to be in his mind, in the Pharaoh's mind, to be cruel and oppressive at this point. You'll see what I mean as we move on. Verse 34, And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king, in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt, and he died there." Now remember, originally, Pharaonico had no qualms with Judah. These things had just kind of happened because they were just on his way from one place to another. But something about what had happened displeased this pharaoh. He had gone through the land once, and Josiah had challenged him. Josiah died. And now three months later, as he's coming back through, he sees that the people had taken Jehoahaz, which was not the next in line to receive the throne. He wasn't the current oldest son of Josiah. They had taken him and pushed him as king. Something about this displeased the pharaoh. Perhaps Pharaoh simply had a natural distrust for the one that the people would select to be their king. That makes sense. Or perhaps the very action of setting up a king at all was taken as a sign of rebellion here to the Pharaoh. Or perhaps Pharaoh, upon his return, found Jehoahaz doing something that greatly displeased him. And so for that reason, he took him away captive, and puts up his brother, Eliakim, as the new king. He puts Eliakim in charge, and when he does, he changes his name. Now this I find very interesting. We've spoken about names in the past and the importance of names and the meanings of the names, but how about the giving of the name? When you have a child, as a parent, is the one who has the right to give that child the name because they're the one who is most responsible and most in charge of that child. I mean, of course, God is in charge of all of us, but directly, from a human standpoint, the parent gives the name to the child because the parent is the one who is ultimately responsible and in charge. When a king in those days would take hold of a captive or have someone who was subservient to them, or like in this case, or like later on when the Babylonians take them away and they take Daniel, Ananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and changes their names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, it's a sign of being in charge. of those, that he had the right, he had the ability to change their names. And so here, this Pharaoh changes the name, or changes the name of Eliakim, and he changes it to Jehoiakim. Now, Eliakim means my God raises up and establishes. Jehoiakim pretty much means the same thing, only it's taking the L name for God, the generic name for God, and replacing it with Jehovah, the more specific name for God. And so Jehovah raises up and establishes. Pharaoh actually gives more specificity, can't say that word, to the name of Eliakim. He makes it more specific. Christ on the cross, remember, he cried, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, okay? My God, my God, Eli, Eli. And so, we know El is, in Hebrew, is God, is the generic name for God. And Eli, that's my God, that's personalizing it. And what he has done here, Pharaoh simply changes the my God to be Jehovah. to be God's name, his actual name, Yahweh. As if to say to the nation, your God is still Jehovah. I mean, I don't know what he's thinking when he does this. He's asserting, in a lot of ways, his power over them. But he hasn't given them this huge amount of taxation. He wasn't trying to pick a fight with them to begin with. And here, when he changes his name, he does so in such a way that says your God is still Jehovah. So now your king's name, Eliakim's name was my God, raises up and establishes. Now it's Jehovah who raises up and establishes. Your God is still Jehovah. I just find this interesting. the way he's acting, and I'm not, like I said, there might be more to it, but I don't really understand all the reasons for why he did this. But he seems to be acting reasonably, this pharaoh does. So what kind of king then does Eliakim, or now his name Jehoiakim, what kind of a king does he turn out to be? His brother only got to reign three months, but it said that he was evil, just like all of his grandfathers. And so he was idolatrous, so let's take him down, let's give the throne to the rightful one, who's apparently the oldest living son of Josiah right now, because Johanan must have died or something happened to him. So let's give it to the rightful one and see how Jehoiakim does with the throne. Verse 35, And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money. According to the commandment of Pharaoh, he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of everyone according to his taxation to give it unto Pharaoh Necho. Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign. Now remember, I told you we can tell the order of their birth by the ages given here. When we look back a few verses earlier, we saw that his brother, who took the throne three months ago, was twenty-three when he reigned. He reigned for three months and now his brother is taking the throne and he's 25. So apparently he is the older. And he, verse 36, Jehoiachin was 20 and five years old when he began to reign and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was the Buddha, the daughter of Padaia of Ruma. And he did that, which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. So unfortunately we don't get really an improvement in our situation when we get rid of Jehoahaz and we set up Jehoiakim. It doesn't seem to be any better for us. And the king, although he didn't walk into great wealth, because I don't think Josiah was super wealthy, he still had seemingly a long enough period of peace to where the king's treasury might have been able to afford this meager tax that had been put upon it by the pharaoh. But instead of going to the treasuries of the king, he taxes the people and seemingly doesn't pay any of his share. He doesn't hurt for it at all. Only the people seem to suffer under his reign. And we'll see much more of this later. You'll see how just oppressive this king, Jehoiachin, is. To learn of Jehoiakim, we won't get through all of it today, because as I told you earlier, we start digging through the prophets. There's a lot of the prophecies that take place. What better way to take heed, but to read the prophets that are telling the people at the time to take heed. We've got a lot of good material there that we're going to be able to go back and look at and actually learn a lot more about Jehoiakim from what the prophets are telling us. And also about a third of the next chapter, chapter 24, deals with Jehoiakim as well. And we have lots of historical evidence. So we're going to look more at Jehoiakim next time in the will of the Lord. And what we find is that these When we read the prophets and we take the time to study and to line them up with the kings, they turn out to be the best commentators on the historical accounts that we look at here. And it should be very profitable. So if we are willing to search, we're going to find some good stuff. But just to kind of whet our appetite, and because we have time to do it today, we're going to take a look at one example of how we can go to the prophets and find a commentary here on what's going on in the Kings and the Chronicles. So turn to Jeremiah chapter 22. Hopefully this will encourage us into our further study in these passages. Jeremiah was a prophet. He prophesied during the days of Josiah. He lamented the death of Josiah. And now here he is. He's a prophet during the days of Josiah's sons. No doubt disappointed in what he sees. Jeremiah 22, beginning in verse 10, he says, Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him. And I believe right here what he's talking about, because as we go through, this will kind of unravel. But just so you know, I'm pretty sure he's talking about Josiah here. Remember, the people mourned greatly for their king, Josiah, when he died. And Jeremiah did as well. But Jeremiah is now telling the people the time now is not to weep. for the dead, neither bemoaned him, but weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country." I believe that this would be Josiah's son, the first one we talked about, Jehoahaz, or Shalom. He says, weep for him that goes away, because he's not coming back. And truly, that prophecy did take place, because Jehoahaz died, there in Egypt. He never did return to the land of Judah. Verse 11, For thus saith the Lord touching Shalem, or Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place, he shall not return thither any more. But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive and shall see this land no more." Remember Jehoahaz only reigned for three months before Pharaoh carried him off and put Jehoiakim as king instead. Once the people experienced the oppression of Jehoiakim, indeed they will mourn for the one that got carried away. They will find that no matter how bad Jehoahaz was, really they probably liked Jehoahaz. You know, even for all Josiah's reforms, the whole, the nation as a whole had not turned a 180 and started following God. They did under Josiah's reforms because Josiah made it the law of the land. But I really don't think the people's hearts were for Jehovah at this point. Because when Josiah died, they take his idolatrous side and they set him up. And it doesn't take long for the nation to go into idolatry again. And I think there's a lot of evidence that supports that although Josiah was pure in heart and he led great reforms and the people followed, Ever since the time of Manasseh, where he had seduced the people to do more wickedly than the people that the Lord had driven out before them. Ever since that time, the people never seemed to get that out of their system. And they always had that longing for that idolatry and that immorality that he seduced the people with. But anyway, Jehovah has been carried off. The people are wishing, Jeremiah is like, once you experience his brother Jehoiakim, you're going to be wishing, you're going to be crying for him because he's been taken away. You're going to wish that he was your king when you see the way that Jehoiakim is going to treat and oppress you. Verse 13 says, Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong. that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work." Now, as you're reading this, because verse 13 follows verse 12, and verse 12 was just talking about Shalom, or Jehoahaz, you would think that we're still talking about Jehoahaz, but as we go through this, and when we get down to verse 18, you'll see very clearly that the prophet is now talking about Jehoiakim. his brother, the one who is now on the throne. It will be made obvious when we get down to verse 18. Remember Jehoiakim taxed the people to pay the tribute to Pharaoh and we are now seeing in this prophecy the severity of his oppression. Jehoiakim lived high on the hog while the people suffered. Chambers here that it says were built is literally, the Hebrew word is literally something lofty. It has to be at least two stories high. And in those days when they were dealing with large stones and heavy decor, it was very labor intensive to build up. And this he was doing, Jehoiachin was doing on the backs of those who paid all the taxes and tribute that were owed to Pharaoh. Not only did he tax the people, but he refused to pay them when he employed them to build his house. It was basically slave labor that he employed in order to build his house. Verse 14 says, that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers and cut him out windows and it is sealed with cedar and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was well with him. Was not this to know me, saith the Lord? You see, as a young man Jehoiakim had a lot of years ahead of him and apparently he had supposed that he would be on the throne for all of his days and he planned to live them out in luxury regardless of the economic impact on his people. Whatever the cost was to others didn't matter. He wanted to live this luxurious lifestyle of the rich and famous because he was the king. And so he forsook his father's example. He didn't study the life of his father, which the prophet here is making an argument saying, you know, your father ate and drank sufficiently. He had his needs met. He still lived as a king, but he didn't forsake the judgment of the people in order to do so. He didn't oppress the people in order to have all the things that he wanted. He was able to do both. He had the things that he needed, but he also provided for the needs of the people. And you should have taken his example Jehoiakim, because this thing that you're doing is not going to work out well for you in the end. Verse 17, But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence to do it. Apparently, not only was he not paying the laborers that build his house, but there was also some other types of murder and things going on in order to get him the things that he wanted. A good example of this, although it's not giving us specific examples here, a good example would be what Ahab did to Naboth. Remember Ahab wanted his vineyard and Nabal said no this has been in my family for many years so I'm sorry I can't really sell it to you at any price. So Ahab comes up with a conspiracy with the help of his wife Jezebel. They find something to blackmail him with and they get rid of Nabal. And then his vineyard rather than being left to his family as it should have been an inheritance to them the king just seizes it. and takes hold of it. So now the king had what he wanted and he got there through shedding innocent blood. Well apparently this Jehoiakim is doing the same types of things because it says your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your own covetousness and to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence to do it. Verse 18 Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, they shall not lament for him saying, Oh, my brother, or all my sister, they shall not lament for him saying, Oh, Lord, or all his glory. These were the ways that people were lamented whenever they died. The funerals would take place and they would hire mourners and they would have these laments and they would write these things and say these things and a lot of them were done to show the mourning and the turmoil when somebody passed away. But the prophet here is to Jeremiah saying, Joachim, it's not going to be that way when you die. Nobody's going to care. when you die. In other words, no one's going to say, oh my brother, and somebody would lament for a family member. There's not going to be anyone from your family that misses you when you're gone. And awe, Lord, or awe for His glory, you know, the lament of a king that just died. That's not going to happen for you. What a contrast between what had just happened with Josiah, the king who was probably mourned more than any king when he died, And now his son that is on the throne, they're going to be glad when you die. In fact, nobody is even going to care when you die. You will be forgotten more than any king. And your subjects will not mourn for you. Verse 19, he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. So disregarded was his body after his death, that there's no mention of it even in scripture. Most of the kings of Judah, if not all of them, it says, it talks about their burial, you know, it gives their, you know, they lived this long and they did evil and they did good and then they died and they were buried with this or whatever. It just says that he died. It just says he slept with his father. It doesn't even mention where he was buried or what was done with his body. How fulfilling of this prophecy. Just like an ass. There's no record of where that thing got buried. The body just gets tossed aside because it's done with. It was just like an animal. And they're saying, you're like an animal. When you die, there won't even be record taken of what happens to you. So disregarded will you be among the people. Verse 20. Go up to Lebanon, and cry, and lift up thy voice in Basham, and cry from the passages, for all thy lovers are destroyed. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, the Lord said. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidest, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyest not my voice. God tells the people, the time and time again I spoke to you, I sent my prophets to you when things were going good. In the time of prosperity, I warned you that you should turn and serve me, and the people did not. And such has been your manner for all these many years, ever since thy youth. And now when times are hard, because hard times are coming and hard times are here now and hard times are here to stay for a long time, you need to be listening to the Lord. You know, oppression, well, let's start at covetousness. In a poor person, and we might all consider ourselves poor compared to a king here, A poor person, covetousness will cause discontent and coveting and maybe even theft. But when somebody is wealthy and somebody has these privileges and somebody has these things accessible to them like a king does, covetousness causes oppression and greed. And here, the way that he treats these people so that he can live this lifestyle is just abominable for us to think about. But most of us have never been put in the situation where we had the opportunity to oppress other people. But we do have the opportunity to take advantage of other people. And I think about myself. I think about times past in my life where, for whatever reason, in some kind of a business deal, maybe I'm purchasing a car from someone, and I know this is a motivated seller, because they've really got to unload this thing, and they need the cash quickly, and they don't have any other potential buyers, and so I'm kind of seeing an opportunity here to get something that I need for way less than it's worth, and take advantage of somebody because of their situation. And so I give them this lowball offer and I come away with the thing, walking away with something for way less than it's worth. And I think God would find that as oppressive. Now I did it legally and I got the other person to consent to the deal. But I took advantage of them because of a difficult situation that they found themselves in. I don't know that I ever did this exactly with a car, but I just think back to my former mindset and I'm sure that I did these types of things. Now it's one thing to be in the business of buying something that's not of much value. You're going to have to put some work into it, turn around and sell it for a profit. Those are reasonable business deals. But we can go into these things sometimes and take advantage of people. Just because it's not against the law, or just because the person consents to it, doesn't mean that we're really treating them fairly. We have the opportunity to take advantage of people. And when you read through this, and the more we go through these lessons, you're going to find God hates oppressive people. Not paying wages that are deserved. withholding the wages of somebody and not paying them on a timely manner. Oppressing people. God hates it. And so I have to look and try and search my life because I can't say that I've ever done anything like this king did. But you know I've never had an opportunity to do what this king did. What have I had the opportunity to do? And did I act oppressively? And did I mistreat other people? And did I take advantage of people? And was I oppressive? I have to ask myself these questions so that I can take heed of what's going on. You know, during these next few lessons we're going to be looking at a group of people who are in turmoil, who are in very, very difficult and hard times. Now, I've probably not been through the hard times that some of you have experienced. I had a time where one of my children was extremely sick for a very long time and we almost lost him and it was this long, drawn out battle with health difficulties and traveling to other cities for hospitals and things. So I've been through some difficult turmoil. But I have experienced some really hard times that maybe some of you have been through. What we need to remember is that God is still God, even in the hard times, and he still has expectations of his people of how they ought to act, even during the difficult times. Now last night the electricity went out. Now you want to talk about hard times, what was it, like three hours? With no TV or anything like that? It wasn't hard times, but it gave me some time to sit there in the dark. And to think about what it would be like if times really were hard. I mean, what if there wasn't electricity for long, long periods of time, or anywhere? Where would I get my water? Where would we get basic needs? How would I be able to survive in that kind of heat and humidity when I'm just not accustomed to being out in it? I don't know. I think of what other people have gone through in their lives and the difficulties that others in other generations have been through. Even what other people in the world now experience. We're at the top of the food chain when it comes to economic living conditions. Us Americans, even the poorest among us are in the top upper percentage of the world's wealthiest. And we have a great standard of living. How much more so does God expect from us? But a lot of times when things get difficult for us, relatively difficult for us, we start to excuse ourselves about what God would have us to do and how he would have us act. You know, we're just trying to get by. We're just trying to survive. And maybe we think God lowers his expectations upon us because times are tough. I don't see that in this. I see God still having expectations of his people. And we're going to look at that as we look through these hard times. It might be tough to look through, but we're going to take a look at the difficult stuff as we go through the rest of these passages and finish out our study of the end of the book of Second Kings and Second Chronicles. Let's pray. Our God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And we thank you for the warnings that are there for us to take heed to. We thank you for the examples that are there for us, and we pray that you would help make it real to us how we can apply these things to our lives. We pray, Father, that we wouldn't be selfish and greedy in nature, that we wouldn't be covetousness of desiring things that belong to other people, or even desiring the things that you don't desire for us. But Lord, that we would look to you and that we would be content with the things that you have given to us, that we would desire to share those things that you have given to us and that we would desire to work hard to make things better for people, not worse. And we would think about how the things that we do, how it might affect other people and how others might suffer for something that we have done or something that we want. We just pray, Father, that we wouldn't have that selfish mindset that would cause us to be oppressive if we were given the opportunity. But Father, that we would always be seeking to do your will, that we would put others before ourselves. We pray for your help in these things as we go from this place. In the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.