The godly king Josiah dies and so ends Israel’s glory period. Judah is then led into captivity in Babylon.
2 Chronicles 35: Josiah Keeps the Passover
1 Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of the LORD.
3 And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the LORD, "Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You need not carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and his people Israel.
4 Prepare yourselves according to your fathers' houses by your divisions, as prescribed in the writing of David king of Israel and the document of Solomon his son.
5 And stand in the Holy Place according to the groupings of the fathers' houses of your brothers the lay people, and according to the division of the Levites by fathers' household.
6 And slaughter the Passover lamb, and consecrate yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of the LORD by Moses."
7 Then Josiah contributed to the lay people, as Passover offerings for all who were present, lambs and young goats from the flock to the number of 30,000, and 3,000 bulls; these were from the king's possessions.
8 And his officials contributed willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings 2,600 Passover lambs and 300 bulls.
9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings 5,000 lambs and young goats and 500 bulls.
10 When the service had been prepared for, the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their divisions according to the king's command.
11 And they slaughtered the Passover lamb, and the priests threw the blood that they received from them while the Levites flayed the sacrifices.
12 And they set aside the burnt offerings that they might distribute them according to the groupings of the fathers' houses of the lay people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the bulls.
13 And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule; and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the lay people.
14 And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and the fat parts until night; so the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
15 The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place according to the command of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the gatekeepers were at each gate. They did not need to depart from their service, for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.
16 So all the service of the LORD was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah.
17 And the people of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days.
18 No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.
Josiah Killed in Battle
20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him.
21 But he sent envoys to him, saying, "What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you."
22 Nevertheless, Josiah did not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plain of Megiddo.
23 And the archers shot King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am badly wounded."
24 So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made these a rule in Israel; behold, they are written in the Laments.
26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds according to what is written in the Law of the LORD,
27 and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
2 Chronicles 36: Judah's Decline
1 The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem.
2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
3 Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz his brother and carried him to Egypt.
5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.
6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon.
7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried part of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon.
8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations that he did, and what was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.
9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
10 In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of the LORD, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD.
13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.
14 All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the LORD that he had made holy in Jerusalem.
15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.
16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy.
Jerusalem Captured and Burned
17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand.
18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
19 And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels.
20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,
21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
The Proclamation of Cyrus
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
23 "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.'"
Things to think about…
1. The book of the law had been found in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah and in that same year, the Passover was kept, 2Chr 35:19. Can you imagine what this was like after almost 60 years of the Passover not being kept. It would have been a foreign concept. 2Chr 35:13 says they roasted the lamb and gave it to the people. As a church we are holding a Passover meal on Friday the 19th April. We hope that it will be a time of joy and fellowship and hopefully an opportunity to see more fully how Christ has fulfilled the Passover through some of the types and shadows of the feast.
2. 2Chr 35:20-27 are some of the saddest verses in scripture. 2Kings tells us that Josiah died in the 31st year of his reign, he was only 39 years old. Pride had filled his heart to go against Neco. Pharoah Neco spoke the words but they were from the mouth of God 2Chr 35:21, 22. Josiah no doubt would have received other counsel, not just advice from the Egyptian leader. Just because you follow Christ does not mean you are impervious to pride and become hard of hearing with respect to the Lord’s voice. God sometimes speaks through unbelievers as well, Neco had given Josiah wise counsel, but he did not listen. Judah and Israel were the ultimate ones who were to suffer. Josiah could have made Judah even greater if he had reigned for another 30 years. God is sovereign of course, but there is a principle here. Ask yourself, as I have to ask myself, are there any areas in your life where God may be speaking to you and yet you are not listening. It’s an important question to ask because our families and our church are withheld from experiencing God’s best if it is the case.
3. In 2Chr 36:1-16 we see the quick succession of the final Judean kings who rebelled against the Lord. Have a look at vss 15&16. God did not give up on them. He sent messengers and prophets, but the people would not listen. It is a tragedy when the people of God no longer want to hear the counsel of the Word of God, but want to listen to worldly reason or their own fallen humanistic agenda. What measures can we put in place to stop this from happening within the church? We only have to read Revelation 2 and 3 to know that the church is not immune from turning away from the Lord’s counsel.
4. Jerusalem is finally destroyed is prophesied by Jeremiah, 2Chr 36:21. God did not spare the people. There was no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged, vs 17. God can judge the church in our generation when it stops listening to or being accountable to the Word of God.
5. 2nd Chronicles was compiled after the Babylonian captivity in 587BC and after the Persians defeated Babylon in 538BC. As such the book finishes with hope, 2Chr 36:22, 23. A little like the book of Revelation. God will bring back His people and He will have a new house built. May we see the Lord continue to build His church in our day and receive the same encouragement as Cyrus gave to the returning exiles, vs 23, “Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him.” Amen, may it be so.
Vision Point for cell groups
CBC’s Vision :- To be a growing biblical church community, significantly influencing our city and beyond, through intentional outreach, fulfilling our mission.
Title was “Is there another way in” from Galatians 1
1. Paul says there is only one gospel. Have you ever lied about your age or got entry into a club or society by not being honest, either falsifying a stamp or used the facilities without paying?
2. Paul gets quite passionate about his arguments for maintaining what the gospel is. What was Paul’s background. Why does he get so passionate?
3. Confronted Peter in Antioch. What was the significance and background to this event? How is this compounded by the vision given to Peter by the Holy Spirit in Acts 10:9-16.
4. Pray for our new government, that the gospel and churches are made stronger. Pray for Ukraine and other issues within the group.
Prayer Points
1. Mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Elementary school 21 dead. 18 students, 3 adults. More deaths may follow. No words for this horror.
2. Our new Albanese government. That the Lord would be merciful. We need it with the spiritual change that has been happening in Australia.
3. Peace to rest over Ukraine.
4. Continue to pray for the flood clean-up as well as the money donated to help.
5. Folk sick with Covid – relief and healing.
6. Pray for other building projects – café roof, the repair of the house roof.
7. Growth, conversions, joy in the Word and Spirit to remain and increase.
Praise Points
1. The we have the freedom of a democracy in Australia
2. Worship on Sunday – thankyou team.
3. Our business meetings our enjoyable. Thankyou CBC.
4. All those who faithfully serve in ministries, Worship, Sound/Technical/Kids Church/ Cell Groups/Admin - Bulletins/Finances/Property/Welcoming/Spiritual Leadership/Cafe
5. Joy, peace and grace we see at CBC. Thankyou Lord
Announcements
1. Andrew Otte preaching this Sunday – don’t miss it.
2. Remember to check your duty rosters.
3. Church bank details bsb:- 704 913 and Acc number:- 4000 4388 1
4. Tune in again this week on our youtube page. Subscribe to the CBC channel Chuwar Baptist YouTube channel.
Catechism question for May...
Q. 3. Will Christ come again? A. Yes; at the last day Christ will come to judge the world.
