King James Bible Study – [Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.]
Date: Tuesday, July 06, 2021
Chapters: II Kings 13-14, II Chronicles 25
Message: One God, One Grace, & One Christ
Hello My Friend,
I was thinking about this passage as I read the chapters for today, [Matthew 15:22-28 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. 24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. 27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. 28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.]
It might sound strange, but it was important that Jesus be rejected by the Jews before the rest of the world caught on to Him. However, Jesus never denied anyone the opportunity to get saved, even before His passion. This is why it is important that we realize that believers had the same faith in the coming of Christ before His passion as we do now. There are so many Christians who frown at the teachings of those who believe that those who believe in Christ before He came here in the flesh look to the cross that He was to hang on for their faith while we look to the cross that He hung on. They believe that since they never knew Christ in the flesh then how could they have known to look to a cross. And therefore, salvation by grace was never an option until His passion. Well, Jesus proves otherwise, [John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.]
As much as most of the Jews still reject Jesus as the Messiah, and as much as they reject Him, God will always have a soft spot for Israel. Why? Well, He chose them to be His people. Here is the thing, God did not choose the children of Israel to be His people because they all obeyed Him, and contrary to what many Jews still believe today, He does not save all of them either. God will forever save only those who put their faith and trust in Him as their Saviour, no matter what generation or descent we came from. As much as God despised the way that most of Israel rejected Him and still rejects Him today, He still never gives up on them completely. While Judah had its ups and downs in their faith, Israel just kept getting worse, and while it was not as bad as the Baal worship, most of them still followed the gods that Jeroboam had created. However, they were not oblivious to the fact that God watched over them and would protect them if they cried out to Him. Now, after Jehu died, his son, Jehoahaz reigned, and while they still followed Jeroboam’s God, he did something that got God’s attention.
[2 Kings 13:1-6 In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. 2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. 3 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, all their days. 4 And Jehoahaz besought the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him: for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. 5 (And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime. 6 Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained the grove also in Samaria.)]
[And the LORD gave Israel a saviour,] Do you see how God places judgment on His people, but then always makes a way for us to be delivered from it? Jesus did not just give His life for the Jews, He gave His life for all, not one people, but all people, [Romans 2:9-10,14-16 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.]
I was thinking about the part of the world who believes in God, but not enough to accept Christ, compared to the worldly Christian, who is saved, but not following Christ beyond that. Which one do you think grieves God the most? You see, the concern of the worldly Christian is that they do not follow God with all of their heart, which is why so many are quick to turn away from Him. While God dealt with Israel and their worship of false gods, He had His ups and downs with Judah depending on what whether or not the king decided his was going to worship God. Amaziah, was next to reign after Joash, while he did follow God, it was not with a perfect heart.
[2 Chronicles 25:1-4 Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart. 3 Now it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he slew his servants that had killed the king his father. 4 But he slew not their children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin.]
[but not with a perfect heart.] This, sadly, is the majority of Christians. They are saved and go to church when it fits in with their schedule, or live every abomination that God hates, using their salvation as a cloak for their sin. We cannot live the life of heathens and expect God to be happy with us. Jesus does not tell us to sin no more after we are saved because we would lose our salvation, He does it because the suffering we face for living in sin without repenting of it, is much harder on us, [John 5:13-14 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.]
In the beginning Amaziah did very well as king, but he never really trusted God completely, when facing a battle with Syria he literally paid Israel to bring their army to assist him in the battle, but that was not what God wanted, He sent a prophet to talk to him about what he had done and actually listened to Him to an extent.
[2 Chronicles 25:7–9,11-13 But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. 8 But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down. 9 And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this. 11 And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand. 12 And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces. 13 But the soldiers of the army which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Bethhoron, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil.]
[with all the children of Ephraim.] Why was God so hard on Ephraim? Jeroboam was of Ephraim. They are the ones who brought idol worship to Israel. they being idolaters, worshipers of the calves; and since they had forsaken the Lord, He had forsaken them. Amaziah may have appeared to have a perfect heart toward God on the surface, but since he did not have a perfect heart and God knew that, He also knew that it would only be a mater of time before he turned it completely away from Him. After Amaziah’s victory over Edom, he actually got a very big head. he also made a grave decision that would be the death of him, when he took the idols of Edom.
[2 Chronicles 25:14-17,21-22 Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them. 15 Wherefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? 16 And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Art thou made of the king’s counsel? forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel. 17 Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us see one another in the face. 21 So Joash the king of Israel went up; and they saw one another in the face, both he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Bethshemesh, which belongeth to Judah. 22 And Judah was put to the worse before Israel, and they fled every man to his tent.]
[and hast not hearkened unto my counsel.] Not only did Amaziah lose sight of God, he also got filled with pride, so much so that he thought he could take on any nation, including Israel. He sent for Jehoash and a civil war broke out, and lost his life. God is so merciful that He gives all an opportunity to repent and turn away from the false gods and turn to Him, but mercy has a time limit for the lost, if He sees no sight of repentance it will run out. Why? Because He will have mercy upon whom He will, [Romans 9:15-16 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.]
Israel represents the unsaved who are in the world, Judah represents God’s people, who are in His church. How corrupt must it have been in Judah that God helped Israel and not Judah? God saw the affliction of Israel, it grieved His heart to see their state and how they just ignored Him, but He never gave up hope that they would return to Him. He tried time and time again to get the current king to listen to Him, once in a while He was able to do that, such as the case with Jeroboam II.
[2 Kings 14:23-27 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. 24 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher. 26 For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. 27 And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.]
[And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven:] This is exactly why salvation has always been about grace. Regardless of whether or not we know Him as the LORD who was to come in the flesh through David or has come in the flesh and endured the cross, we must call upon the name of the LORD to be saved. That is the only way that our names are not blotted out from under heaven, [Isaiah 55:6-9 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Luke 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.]
Jesus Christ Magnified: [2 Kings 13:5 (And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime. 2 Chronicles 25:9 And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.]
Today’s Prayer: God, As much as I love You, I know that my flesh is weak and has a way of desiring things that could give me a less than perfect heart for You. I want to live all my days here on earth with You in it, following You through every challenge, trusting You to lead me through every battle, and listening for everything You have to say to me. Lord, give me Your power, wisdom, mercy, and grace, strengthen my heart, make it perfect for You. Let me not become too boastful or forget to acknowledge that You are the source to every blessing, and every battle won, and let me not get caught up in the cares of the world, only looking forward to the amazing life I will have when I see Jesus. I ask these things in Your name, Jesus, Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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