Wed.’s Devo - The Last Kings of Judah

Read: 2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23; 1 Chronicles 1:1-17; Psalm 27:1-6; Proverbs 20:20-21 Josiah led the last revival in Judah. He instituted the Passover again and assigned the priests to teach all Israel the law and how to follow the Lord in carrying out the feast. He gave 30,000 lambs to be sacrificed and cooked for the people to eat. They celebrated the Passover and Unleavened Bread for seven days just like Moses had instituted in the law. After Josiah had restored the Temple, King Neco led his army to do battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates River. He was on his way to fight the Assyrians but Josiah led his army out to meet him. The king of Egypt asked him why he came because he didn’t want to fight Judah. He told him he was on an assignment from God and Josiah was getting in his way. Josiah refused to listen to what Neco had to say and led his army into battle on the plain of Megiddo. Josiah was wounded in the battle and died on the way back from Jerusalem. All Israel mourned his death. Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz became the next king. He only reign three months before he was taken to Egypt as a prisoner by Neco. Neco installed Eliakim, Jehoahaz’s brother as the king. Neco changed his name to Jehoiakim. He reigned 11 years and did evil. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and captured Jerusalem taking Jehoiakim away in chains to Babylon. He also took treasures from the Temple to put in his palace. Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin became king and reigned 3 months and ten days. He was also evil and Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon also. Nebuchadnezzar installed Jehoiachins’s uncle, Zedekiah as the king. He reigned 11 years. He was also evil and refused to humble himself even when Jeremiah gave him words from the Lord. The priests became more and more rebellious also. The people refused to listen to the words of the prophets and scoffed at God’s words. God turned them over to the king of Babylon who killed Judah’s young men and women and had no pity on the people. They took anything of worth from the Temple of God and the people. They took the survivors to Babylon as slaves. This lasted until the kingdom of Persia came to power. All of Jeremiah’s words came true. The land was able to finally enjoy its Sabbath rest. It lay desolate for 70 years. Then King Cyrus came to rule in Persia and God moved the heart of Cyrus to build him a Temple at Jerusalem. He invited any of the people of Judah to participate and blessed them. Paul established the church at Corinth and spent 18 months there. He then left and went to start other churches and communicated by letter and occasional visits. Corinth was a Greek city known for their idolatry, divisive philosophies, spirit of litigation and rejection of a bodily resurrection. It was a huge commercial city which controlled much of the shipping between the East and the West. It was famous for its sensuality and sacred prostitution. “To Corinthianize” meant to practice prostitution. Their chief deity was Diana who was the goddess of licentious love. A thousand professional prostitutes served in the temple dedicated to her worship. This all explains the problems that the church in Corinth faced. Paul had to deal with their problems of incest, lawsuits, fornication, marriage and divorce, eating food offered to idols, wearing of the veil, the Lord’s Supper, spiritual gifts and the resurrection of the body. Paul addressed them as a people who had been called by God to be his own holy people. He told them that they had every spiritual gift they needed to keep them strong and free from blame when Christ returned. He dealt with their division and sectarianism. They all had their favorite leaders and Paul tried to bring them together under Christ. Lord, help us to walk in the freedom you have given us. We are free to walk in righteousness and holiness because of the power of the Holy Spirit living inside us.