Read: 2 Kings 15:1-16:20; Acts 19:13-41; Psalm 147:1-20 Proverbs 18:4-5
The kingship of Israel was like a revolving door while Azaria ruled in Judah 52 years as a god-fearing king. Not the same scenario in Israel. While Azaria was ruling in Judah, these are the kings who ruled in Israel: Jeroboam reigned 27 years, then Zacharia ruled for 6 months, followed by Jabesh that ruled one month. He was succeeded by Menahem who ruled 10 years, then Pekahiah who ruled 2 years. All of them were evil kings.
Judah’s king, Azariah was succeeded by Jotham who reigned 25 years and was also a good king while in Israel Pekah and Hoshea ruled in Israel being bad kings.
After Jotham in Judah, his son, Ahaz came to rule and he was not a good king. He followed the idolatry of the kings of Israel. God sent the king of Syria and the king of Israel against him to besiege Judah but they couldn’t overcome him. The Syrians recovered some of the cities they had lost in past battles. Ahaz appealed to the king of Assyria to come help him fight Syria and Israel. He had to pay him with the silver and gold that was in the house of the Lord and in his own palace. The king of Assyria did come and took Damascus for him and slew the king of Syria.
While Ahaz was in Assyria with the king he saw his altar and was envious to have one himself. He came home and told his priest about the altar and had him build one like it. Ahaz started using it as his altar as if he was the priest. He had the brazen altar moved and put it on the north side of this altar. Ahaz stood as the counterfeit religion that will be set up in the end times to supplant the real worship of god. He is like the false prophet bringing his counterfeit religion which looks a lot like the real.
In Acts, some of the Jewish exorcists witnessed how Paul dealt with evil spirits with the name of Jesus with great results so they decided to use his name, too. It didn’t work for them because they didn’t know Jesus. The evil spirits attacked them and they had to escape naked and wounded. I bet that was a sight to see! It did cause the fear of God to fall on the city and many believed in Jesus. Many that had followed witchcraft and satanic worship burned their books and tools of worship to worship the true God. This caused the silversmith’s to loose so much money since they made idols of Dianna for the people to worship. Since so many were being saved they no longer wanted silver Diana idols. The silversmith’s tried to sound religious and make it all about not worshipping Diana but they were really upset about their lose of income. It is always about the money. Abortion is about the money, but they will always try to hide this behind other motives to hide the greed of their hearts.
Lord, help us to guard our appetites and hunger for the true righteousness of God.
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