LIFE OF LOT

LIFE OF LOT

The life of Lot, in the true sense of the word, does not hold good for our daily devotions because his actions and choices were not worthy for a true Christian to follow. His extended degrading family failures appear to be unworthy for a sermon or for Sunday school children. Still, the life of Lot began with a promise but ended in humiliation and frustration like many Christian families today. Apostle Peter warned us in the New Testament that every believer must live the life of righteousness. He wanted us to be holy in all manner of conversation. As it is written “Be ye Holy for I am Holy” (1 Peter 1:16) Undoubtedly, this must be the goal of all Christians or born again believers.

Jesus Himself declared “the spirit indeed is willing. But the flesh is weak.” This is not at all a philosophical saying but an absolute truth. It does not matter, how much we have been struggling with the flesh is as natural as breathing and sleeping. Our prime important quest for righteousness must be for holy living. If we meditate upon the life of Lot, we are in no way different from him. Lot was originally a righteous man. According to the statement of Peter Lot was vexed with the wicked life of people (for that man to dwell among the people of Sodom and Gomorah and heard their wicked conversation that vexed his pious soul day by day and also their unlawful and sinful deeds). Lot had really struggled a lot to overcome that dreadful society, but ended his righteous life in infamy.

Some people even though, they were born in good families, there is no guaranty that they would turn good in their life time inspite of their good starting. As we see in the Bible Lot also started his life with good family background; if we look at his genealogy. “Terah begat Abram, Nahor and Haran, and then Haran begat Lot”. From the three sons of Terah God had chosen Abram as a key person to be the father of a new people called Israelites in future. Though Lot was not the direct offspring of Abram, he could have the second place in the genealogy of Abram.

It is no doubt a gift of God, that Lot could have his way into the elite of Abram’s family. It is nothing but God’s grace. In the Bible in (genesis 12:28) we can find how Lot’s father died, and then how he became a dependant on Terah his grandfather and Abram his uncle. In the meantime, God asked Abram to have that heathen land ‘Ur’ the land of Chaldies and go to a distant place He would show, which was called “Canaan”, the land of milk and honey. Abram responded God’s call and started his journey with his father Terah wife Sarai

The Everlasting Kingdom of God and nephew Lot to the Promised Land. But on the way, they settled temporarily at a place called “Haran,” probably the city named after Lot’s father.

In the mean time Terah also died. It means Lot lost both his father and grand father which made him more miserable and finally Abram became his chosen relative and Lot could share the blessings of God that were showered on Abram’s family and his descendents in future. Lot by remaining closer to Abram, received abundant blessings and as a result, he became as rich as Abram. Because of great blessing both received, the place they were residing became too small for them and for their flock.

So, Abram thought of dividing the land as two parts for both of them and he did it. Then Abram asked Lot to take which ever part he liked. As a matter of fact, God gave more importance to Abram in all aspects from the beginning in the entire family for his faith and righteousness. With those noble qualities he became a patriarch of the family. Still he wanted to show his nobility to Lot by giving first preference to him for selecting the land. And Lot proved his selfishness by choosing the fertile land because of Jordan river. This act showed his ambition and corrupted attitude. The land Lot selected was the Eastern part and poor Lot did not know the ins and outs of that place. He understood only one thing that there was a green paradise before him. At that time, he did not remember the righteous God fearing and spiritual nature of his uncle. Lot finally gathered all his block and went towards east where he was going to stay in the midst of notorious people of Sodom. Lot, unfortunately did not know who were living in that city, what kind of people they were, but as per his destiny, he was going to dwell with his family among the people who possessed nothing but wickedness and committed great sin in the sight of God. Lot was going to reap a bitter fruit for his worldly ambition in course of time. Then in a short period of their stay a war broke out and the rulers of that region became restless. As recorded in the Bible this must be the first war. Four kings with their armies were on one side in the battle field and five kings with their armies including Sodom on the other. It was a bad luck for Lot because Sodom was on the losing side. The result of the war forced Lot to pay some penalty for his nations defeat. In addition to that the kings who won the battle took away all the belongings of the people of Sodom and Gomorah and also their food stuff. While returning they took Lot and his property along with them.

In such critical situation a man who escaped from the battlefield met Abram and addressed him “Abram the Hebrew” and told him what had

The Everlasting Kingdom of God happened to his nephew Lot. Here “Hebrew” means “stranger.” This news made him a hero to save his nephew from the clutches of his enemy and immediately he sprang into action. In his company there were 318 men well trained for emergency attack, who were used for such occasions only these faithful men walked 140 miles trek up to “Dan” and launched their attack against those victorious armies. And in the fighting the kings with their armies were miserably defeated by Abram and his men.

On the way home Abram happened to meet Melchezidec the high priest of the most high God. At that time he was called the king of Salem which later became Jerusalem historically. Abram received bread and wine and also blessings from Melchezidec since that time the defeated kings never tried to wag their tails before Abram, because he was a God’s man, and they realized their mistake in abducting his nephew Lot. Finally he was restored with all his belongings. With this incident we can understand the incredible relief and gratitude Lot must have had from his blessed uncle. But Lot’s reactions after the battle and the relief he felt were not recorded in the Bible.

Many years must have passed after this memorable incident and Abram became Abraham. Then one day, there came three strange visitors to Abraham’s house (tent) and one of them was God Himself and the other two were His angels. They came to him with two different messages. The first one was that Abraham and his wife Sarai would have a child in one year’s time. The second message was that they were going to destroy Sodom and Gomorah for their wickedness and immoral activities. Here the second point appeared to be unusual because nowhere in the Bible God consulted human beings like Abraham for implementing divine decisions and actions like destruction of Sodom and Gomorah.

Actually, there is no need of informing Abraham, about God’s plan of destruction except one reason that Lot was residing in one of the cities God wished to destroy. There is no doubt Abraham must have been afraid of any untoward thing happen to his relative Lot, but he became more compassionate about the sinful people of the two cities. And the two angels must be on their way to the cities to take action in time leaving God with Abraham. Then Abraham seized the opportunity and talked with God about the destiny of those two cities.

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

In a sanctified nature of courage and humility Abraham planned to save them who were doomed for their wickedness. So he said “Wilt thou also destroy righteous with the wicked?” Abraham was seriously thinking if there was any possibility to save at least some like Lot. Again Abraham asked God, “If there were at least 50 righteous men, would you spare the cities?” To that God replied “yes” The bargain continued and God listened to Abraham patiently and finally accepted the proposal that if He found at least 10 righteous men, He would spare both the cities.

We don’t have any authentic information, how many years must have elapsed between Lot and Abraham’s separation and when this chapter began. Anyway the two angels came to the cities, Sodom and Gomorah, in the evening time, and Lot was already there at the gate of the and greeted them. During the days of the Bible, it is said the judges used to sit at the city gates to show themselves and Lot must have done the same at that time. So, as soon as, he saw the two angels entering the city premises, he whole heartedly invited them to his house. But initially, they did not accept his invitation and said they would remain in the street only. Lot continued his invitation because he wanted to honour them by washing their feet, and keeping them in his house that night perhaps, he did not understand they were angels sent by God on some important work.

Lot must be under the impression that those two persons were only his fellow Sodomities. There was still some righteousness in Lot and due to that he was able to treat and honour the God’s people (the angels). So far we have studied only about the people of Sodom and Gomorah who were most wicked and committed great sin. Now we are going to see them in their true colours in wickedness. As Lot went on requesting them to go to his house, they finally accepted his invitation and about to enter the house. Immediately this news about the strange guests spread like wild fire in the city.

As a result, both young and oldmen surrounded the house of Lot and demanded that the strange guests must be brought out of the house to have sex with them. This kind of inhuman behaviour indicated their true nature and severity of wickedness. At the same time, we can estimate in what kind of society Lot was dwelling with his two innocent daughters. The despicable actions of those people were more than enough proof to justify God’s wrath and the punishment He was going to grant them. They forgot completely about the

The Everlasting Kingdom of God true sense of morality honour and decency. They embraced immorality and unpardonable wickedness.

When Lot saw the wicked men were going towards his house he immediately rushed and closed the door. Then he spoke with them in a humble way, if any proof is needed to expose the corruption of Lot’s righteousness let us study his shocking counter offer to such immoral and notorious sinners of Sodom. He politely told them “Behold now I have two daughters who did not know man so far and if you really wanted I will bring them for your immoral activity.” He requested the public not to think of any evil towards the strangers. But Lot did not understand those two were powerful angels who could defend themselves from any type of danger.

Even then we have to meditate upon one technical point. Lot did not mind to offer his daughters for adulterous actively in order to save the sanctity of the angels from the sinful men. In this context two contradictory ideas would come to our minds. Lot who lived with Abraham previously would never have continued that kind of thinking, at the same time Lot after he became an honoured citizen of Sodom, lost a great deal of his righteous reasoning.

Surprisingly the Sodomites became more violent against Lot. They threatened him by saying that they were planning to do more harm to him than to the angels. Then one of the angel’s came to the door, where Lot was holding and pushed his hand out and immediately inflicted the vicious crowed with blindness. And because of that they felt very difficult to locate the door. All the sodomites were simply wondered at this miracle done by one of the angels. The blind men tried to find out the angel who made them blind but in vain.

The threatening nature of sodomites came to an end, as the angels were going to be in action. Before they started their work they talked with Lot. They said “Hast thou there any beside? Sons-in-law thy sons and thy daughters and whatever thou hast in the city bring them out of this place”. The angles wanted to save the family members of Lot. It is because of the blessings God had showered upon him as he was the relative of Abraham. The relatives of Lot were also offered the same treatment as long as they had connections with him. They would be shown grace and mercy and permitted to flee from the wrath of God.

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

Lot at once went into the house and summoned his sons-in-law. At this stage we as readers might get one doubt whether Lot’s daughters were married already or simply engaged at that time. Whatever might be the situation Lot humbly requested them to leave that city with him at once. But the people were joking at Lot. Anyway this episode appeared to be tragic on two levels.

It appeared the response of the sons-in-law to the call of Lot was only out of ignorance of them about the God of Lot as they were heathens. As we know the God of Lot always expects righteousness and holiness from his children whereas those sodomites were completely different from the society of Lot. Those sodomites were mostly connected to homosexuality. Unfortunately or fortunately Lot could not become a direct witness for his sons-in-law to understand his God. So, this difference clearly showed to the dual personality of Lot by saying that he put one foot in this world affairs and the other in heaven. There is no doubt that we can find many dual personalities among modern Christians like Lot.

At last the morning came and the wrath of God was going to be poured upon the two cities. But Lot’s family members were not ready to leave that place and flee because they were accustomed to comfortable life style which was not allowing them to leave that place in spite of impending doom a of head. The angels understood the pulse of Lot’s family members. The angels caught hold, the hands of Lot, his wife and two daughters and dragged them by force out of the city. Finally the family members were given one remarkable command by the angels look not behind thee……. lest thou be consumed. The wrath of angry God was the most fearful thing men can never imagine its severity. That terrible wrath was finally poured down and there is no question of escaping by anybody. Then God sent continuous rain of brimstone and fire from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorah. We have to remember one thing here that it was not some violent thunderstorm that we get now and then that might stop after some time or pass to another region. It was the wrath of God descending from heaven only with some purpose of destroying the heathens and their polluted cities. So, it would continue till the consummation of the last human being is done.

God completely destroyed the two cities the plain the inhabitants of the cities and all that grew on earth without any consideration. So, the judgement of God at any time is inescapable. The most surprising thing was that nothing

The Everlasting Kingdom of God survived, whether it was man, or animal or plants on the surface of that entire area. According to historical information the rain of brimstone and fire flew down and settled in the “Dead Sea” which is near by the two cities, because it is about twelve hundred feet below the sea level. Lot and his two daughters simply obeyed the command of the angels not to look back, but the matriarch of the family (Lots wife) was not as obedient and loyal as her husband.

She looked back out of curiosity and became “a pillar of salt” God gave his judgement for her disloyalty. At this stage the readers may get a genuine doubt regarding her turning back. Whether Lots wife had a quick glance, at the burning city Sodom and received instant judgement from God for disobeying His command of her curiosity prompted her to know what was going on at her back. Whatever might be the motive behind this episode she looked back against the command of the angel and became a “pillar of salt.” She did not care for the words of God because she already became a part and parcel of that polluted society. Her own selfish choice made her disobey God and perished in the corrupted life of her fellow citizens.

Just at that time Abraham heard the commotion and witnessed the pathetic scene from a distance. It appeared to him as a horrible destruction of both men and cities. We can imagine only how Abraham must have shed tears at the desolate condition of the cities. Because he himself tried his best to convince God to save those two cities. The story of Lot remained in the Bible as one of the examples for God’s anger at the wickedness of the people of Sodom and Gomorah. When God got angry at the wickedness of people during the time of Noah, he destroyed them with flood. And when God got angry at the wickedness of the people of Sodom and Gomorah He destroyed them with brimstone and fire.

In this context we are reminded of the mercy of God towards the family of Lot because he was the close relative of Abraham. And it came to pass-when God destroyed both Sodom and Gomorah he remembered Abraham and sent Lot’s family from out of the cursed place in order to save them. One of the hardest passages in the Bible is the tragic culmination of Lot’s living in that cursed and wicked society.

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah, Lot had to live with his two daughters in a town of “Zoar” temporarily because that was also in the hit list of God for its immoral activities. Therefore, Lot was afraid of that place for

The Everlasting Kingdom of God dwelling with his young daughters. Having understood the worse conditions of ‘Zoar’ also, he had decided to flee from that place to the mountains and take shelter in a cave.

Lot’s family was then completely isolated from the polluted society. They became pained and desperate, when they thought of their future family legacy their future lack of family descendants forced the two sisters to hatch master plan; but a crooked plan as they were living in an isolated place. They understood that no man would come to such a lonely place, either to marry them or to live with them in future. So, they decided to make a future plan by themselves and for themselves. Then one day the elder daughter took her younger sister to a lonely place and told her come, let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father” (Genesis 19-32).

This illicit plan of the two sisters was no doubt inhuman and diabolical in nature and only animals will do such things as they cannot distinguish between good and bad. If we meditate upon this particular point for a while it appears that their intention was only for the continuation of the seed or genealogy of their father but no sexual thirst. But such unnatural and abnormal things would happen freely in Sodom and Gomorah. We can also guess to certain extent that the way of life in those cities must have influenced them as they lived with those people for some years. Their way of life no doubt caused these two sisters to come to that decision of sleeping with their father as such things were common among Sodomites.

Making plans is quite different from implementing them. As far as the daughters were concerned here there was no such problem to put their plan into action, and let us see how they could succeed in their master plan. “And they made their father drink wine that night and the first born went in and lay with her father and he perceived not.” When she lay down nor when she arose (genesis 19 : 33). Generally taking a bit of wine at dinner time in some families is common and may be a custom also. But in the case of Lot, drinking wine at that time appeared to be more than normal which caused him to be abnormal and unable to remember what he did really at that time.

With this incident, we can presume that Lot was in the habit of taking excessive quantity of alcohol, at certain times. The most important thing in the plan of elder daughter was to make her father drink heavily, so that the sisters would be successful in their plan. And they succeeded wonderfully and put

The Everlasting Kingdom of God their plan into action in the same night just after a few hours of their plan. We can also guess that while living a comfortable life in Sodom Lot also must have definitely allowed that strange behaviour of the people to get a foot hold into his household. The elder sister who had already done her part to preserve the seed of her father, urged the younger sister to do the same. She too followed the same procedure and became successful. The result of that remarkable incident was that both became pregnant by their father. At this juncture we are not aware of the reaction of Lot when he came to know that he made his own daughters pregnants by his beastly behaviour.

The scriptures also did not record any details regarding the feelings and humiliation experienced by Lot during that critical times. He came to know he was responsible for that beastly act of making his daughters pregnants. Let us recollect the whole story again how Lot started his journey from ‘Ur’ the land of Chaldies who were with his uncle Abraham who was destined to be called the father of divinely chosen nation (Israel). But the destiny of Lot was different. He preferred to live with heathens knowingly or unknowingly even after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah. His decision to live with heathens came from within.

The two sons that Lot fathered through his two daughters became fathers to two different tribes called the “Moabites” and the “Ammonites” who later became founders of two heathen nations and who finally remained as the deadliest enemies to God chosen people Israelites according to Biblical history. After studying the life of Lot a different picture would come to our minds. And we may get the same picture when we look into the description of Apostle Peter about Lot. He was disgusted with the filthy conversation and immoral conduct of the wicked men. For Lot being relative to the righteous man Abraham dwelling among such men by seeing and hearing their nature of talk, all those things, vexed his righteous soul day by day with their unlawful deeds. It was like the life of Samson. Who found a place in the “Hall of faith.” The readers may search to find out something in the life of Lot. In this condition what apostle peter wanted to say is that, Lot in his heart of hearts was a man who loved God and accepted Him as a creator of the universe. But to his bad luck he was placed in the society that made his righteous living into immoral living and the same society not only polluted Lot, but also his two innocent daughters.

Finally Lot became a slave to the bad conditions like social, moral and cultural activities of that wicked heathen society. In the same way, we can find

The Everlasting Kingdom of God now a days many Christian friends walking in the foot prints of our Lot without any priority or realization and repentance for their wrong doings knowingly or unknowingly. It will be a shocking news sometimes whenever we hear about some pastors or church elders if they walk in a wrong track and degrade themselves morally. It is quite but natural, we are often discouraged and dejected in our moral failures. But we have to realize one thing in our real life that whatever we love to do in this world must be acceptable to God Almighty. Then only we can be successful in our life.

In our hearts we know that we love to do what is right in the sight of God and aim at that only to please Him. But very often we find ourselves going into the pressureof the society and become slaves to its conditions. It is a fact, as man struggles within himself to do or not to do certain things. In the same way all the believers must have to struggle and experience in their life time.

Lot also struggled with the same type of problems about 4,000 years ago in the Bible. Still we have to accept Lot as a righteous man. It is quite appropriate to quote the words of Apostle Paul in this context. He said “For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one (Jesus) shall many be made righteous (Romans 5: 19) so to say, we are also as righteous as Lot living with the corrupted people of the world. Let us try to learn some lessons as God intended for us from the great people like Lot, Samson and David from the Bible.

May God bless all the readers and help them to live up to the righteous standard of living. God has freely and graciously established a glorious life for us and in adverse conditions. We must flee away from such things of immediately. Let us, not become victims to evil temptations in our day to day life. Amen. CHAPTER -3

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

DAVIDIC DYNASTIC RULERS PART – 1

The Temple of our Lord was not like the common shrine. It was more than that. It was meant for the worship of our God as it was a Holy place of the Lord. So, it was called by the devotees “The House of God.” According to scriptures our God has about 80 names like “EL EL YON” (Hebrew), which means (the most High God). This God wished to stay with His chosen people, Israelites. Therefore, He asked Moses to build a ‘Trisham’ (Hebrew) which means tabernacle a Mobile Temple, when they were in Senai mountain wilderness. After about 480 years of this tabernacle the first immovable temple was built by king Solomon on Mount Zion, one of the mountain ranges of Mount Morea. He spent money lavishly and took seven years for completing the House of God the Temple of Jerusalem.

But king Solomon sinned against God though he was abundantly blessed. The punishment for his sin was division of his empire into two parts, the northern kingdom of Judah with Jerusalem as its capital and the southern kingdom of Israel with Samaria as its capital. After his death Rehoboam became the king of Judah and with him started Davidic dynastic rule.

FIRST KING - REHOBOAM: After he became the king he also followed his father in idol worship and walked against God. So in the fifth year of his reign God put him in the hands of an Egyptian king, Sheshak as a punishment. He attacked Jerusalem, destroyed the city and the Temple partially and went away with gold and silver. Then after sometime the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar was used by God as an instrument to punish Jews and he attacked Judah in three stages, in 606 B.C. 593 B.C. and 586 B.C. In his third attack the king almost razed the city and the Temple. He made Jerusalem a desolate place. Apart from that he took many Jews as captives to Babylon. The exiled Jews experienced hardship for seventy years as proclaimed by God. Later some of them under the leadership of Zerubbabel, who was appointed as the governor of Judah by king Cyrus, returned to Jerusalem with about 43,630 people. As soon as they returned Zerubbabel and Joshua tried to rebuild the Temple.

My prime aim of writing this article is to bring to lime light the chronological history of the first Temple of king Solomon during the reign of Davidic rulers who were from “Davidic royal dynasty.” Only these rulers would have that authority because of the covenant God made with David that only

The Everlasting Kingdom of God his descendants should rule His chosen people Israel. As all those rulers were the lineage of David the Messiah should be the descendant of David.

King Solomon, at later part of his life, turned away his heart from the true God in spite of the blessings he received. He turned toward heathen gods because of his too many heathen wives. He built shrines to please them at the end of mount of Olives and at Baalbeck and later the same mountain was called “The place of corruption.”

In such a condition Rehoboam became the first king of Judah of Davidic dynastic rule at the age of 41. He ruled for seventeen years. The Holy Temple of God remained in Jerusalem, the capital city of Judahn empire and Jeroboam after he became the king of Israel, did not allow his people to go to Jerusalem for any annual functions or meetings at the Holy Temple. He stopped them forever and built two shrines and kept two golden calves one in Bethel and the other in Dan for idol worship. Jeroboam practised aposotatic worship system to his people in order to prevent them from going to pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The archeological remains of the Northern Temple of Jeroboam are in existence even today at the sight of “Tel Dan.”

King Jeroboam also created replacement sacrifices during the holy days and established regular priesthood at the high places for the demons. The worship of “Yehweh” was nothing but for him a perverted one and no way comparable to the true and living God. Faithful devotees, priest and levities of the Lord who were in Israel left their homes and properties and returned to Judah to serve and worship the true God. This brief information would be enough to give the idea that the Temples of Jeroboam were only perverted replacement of the true worship of our God. As a matter of fact, -

1.Our true and living God does not want to be worshipped as an image.

2.There was only divinely authorized Temple on Mount Zion which God chose

eternally.

sacrifices and offerings.

Rehoboam and Judah served the Lord only for three years and the kingdom was in progress during that time. But from the fourth year of his regime Rehoboam forsook God. The result was God imposed immediate punishment in the fifth year by inviting Egyptian king Sheshak who came with the force of 60000 horsemen, 1200 chariots and a large number of infantry. He

The Everlasting Kingdom of God crushed 15 noted cities of Judah but did not make much loss to Jerusalem and the Temple. His attack was primarily on economic basis. King Solomon used to receive massive wealth via Maris trade route and with the war this was taken away by king Sheshak.

This was the pitiable condition of Jerusalem and the Temple during the reign of king Rehoboam. At that time prophet Shamoiah rebuked Judha’s royal house. He clearly pointed out that invasion of Sheshak over Judah was due to the abandonment of the Lord by Jews and now God abandoned them and then put them in the hands of Sheshak. The words of prophet softened the hearts of Jews. They became humble before God and He saved them and Jerusalem. The Temple remained for 35 years without its wealth. King Solomon tutored his sons about godly wisdom. In the same way Rehoboam tutored his sons the spiritual principles that “righteousness exalteth the nation but sin is a reproveth to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34) The judgment of God came upon the nation because Judah’s with king Rehoboam ignored to follow His righteousness. The positive and negative explanation of this truth has been experienced at many stages throughout Judah’s history.

SECOND KING – ABIJAM: The second king in the order was Abijam. He was also called Abijah or Abia who ruled Judah just for three years. His mother was the grand daughter of David’s rebellious son, Absalom’s daughter Tamar. Absalom’s daughter encouraged idolatry and influenced negative spiritual approach on her son. So he too abandoned God and walked on the footprints of his father. Still, God was kind toward him and postponed His judgment to see if there was any possibility of repentance in him because of David. At that time, Judah and Israel were already different countries. They developed enemity between themselves and also indulged in wars. Abijam went to war against Israel with 400,000 army where as Jeroboam with 800,000. Before the war started Abijam addressed Israel. He insulted them by saying that they had abandoned the Lords Temple by embracing the golden calves but the Judahs had faithfully continued Temple worship. So “God Himself is with us and our captain.” (2 Chronicles 13:12)

He, at last, asked Israel to stop rebellion and reconcile with God and with Judah. The words of Abijam did not change the minds of Israelites. So when the war was about to be commenced a group of Temple priests sounded the battle alarm with their Temple ram horn trumpets and finally got a remarkable victory because they depended upon God only. Jeroboam’s power was totally

The Everlasting Kingdom of God damaged and about 500,000 men were killed in the battle. The outcome of the war was that Judah could have control over Ephraim, the Southern part of Israel kingdom for many years. It is not the size of the army that brings the victory over the enemy but it is the efficiency of the captain and in this case God Himself played the role of a captain to the army of Abijam.

THIRD KING - ASa: The third king of Davidic dynastic rule was ASa. He was the son of Abijam. He ruled Judah for 41 years. He was a righteous king. In the Bible also it is said briefly “and ASa did that which was right in the eyes of Lord as did David his father.” (1 kings 15:11). ASa in his early days prayed to God and God miraculously delivered Judah from Ethiopea’s one million men invasion. After the wonderful victory, prophet Azariah met ASa and promised him “The Lord is with you and ye be with Him and if ye seek Him He will be found of you but if you forsake Him He will forsake you.” (2 chronicles 15:2).

ASa became obedient and followed the prophet. He brought total spiritual reformation in the kingdom of Judah. He cleaned the land from Sodomites who promoted perversion and paganism. He removed the images which were installed and patronized by his father and grandfather. ASa also removed his grandmothers image as a queen who was the wife of Rehoboam for her idolatry. He transferred all the treasures from the royal palace to the Temple of God that came as gifts of God. Some of them were his own and some others belonged to his fathers. He renovated the spiritual system in the Temple. These wonderful changes he made brought peace and prosperity to his nation and also the spiritual reforms he did brought many Israelites into his fold. All these radical changes he made in his kingdom and among the Jewish people, caused hostility in Israelites as they forgot their living God and became idol worshippers.

This situation came after many years of perfect calmness. At that time “Bausha” was the king of Israel kingdom. He entered into the Southern territory of Judah kingdom and began to fortify. His main purpose was to stop any pilgrimage of his people to the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. He even kept some army men on the borders to prevent his people from entering into Judah, especially on religious matters, which caused a threat to Judah and the people.

As time passed, ASa became a changed man. He lost faith in God. He became proud of himself and did not want to depend upon God for anything. In desperation he confiscated treasures of the Temple and the royal palace. He gave them to the king of Syria for his help and friendship. God watched all that and sent the prophet “Hanani” to ASa to remind him that he forgot God and

The Everlasting Kingdom of God depended upon the army of Syria to deal with his problems. He became adamant to the warning of the prophet and imprisoned him immediately. God judged Asa for his arrogancy and gifted him with a fatal disease to his legs. Again instead of praying to God for his healing, he looked for a physician. Finally, he became unrighteous and ended his life miserably.

FOURTH KING - JEHOSAPAT: The fourth king was Jehosapat. He ruled Judah for 25 years. He was no doubt a righteous man, but allowed idolatrous high priests to live with people. He wiped out some of the pagan worship but not completely. The king loved God very much and gave many valuable things to the Temple. Religious reformation was his top priority. He realized that his people did not know much about the worship of God. So, in the third year of his reign, sent his princes, priests and Levites throughout the country to teach the law of God to his people from the Temple scroll of Deuteronomy.

But he lost all his reputation by one foolish act. He compromised with Ahab the heathen king of Northern kingdom of Israel through marriage between his eldest son and Ahab’s daughter Athaliah. This marriage alliance between his son and the heathen woman Athaliahcaused a spiritual devastation which continued for some decades. Ahab forced Jehosapatto support him in war against Syria which occupied Israelites city “Romath gilead” but he said he would consult his God. Then Ahab brought some false prophets who wrongly prophesized great victory Jehosopat did not have faith in Ahab’s prophets and he found another true prophet of God who gave correct judgment against wicked people like Ahab who died miserably in the battle as the prophet anticipated.

In the later years, desert tribes like Moabites and Ammonites invaded Southern Judah. The king immediately ordered for fasting and gathered all people in the Temple of God. The king invoked the dedication prayer of the forefathers like Solomon and God replied with a message of comfort. “Be not afraid for the battle is not yours but God’s.” (1 Chronicle 20:15). Jehosopat and other bowed down their heads before the stone pavement and worshipped the Lord. The king marched to the battlefield led by the Levite choir singing parties to the Lord and the Lord confused the enemy. They destroyed themselves and the Judahn army returned home with great victory followed by the Temple music.

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

The Jewish people then understood that their God was the true captain of all battles.

FIFTH KING - JEHORAM: After this incident the eldest son of Jehosopat and son-in-law of Ahab called Jehoram became the fifth king of Judah. Then he took some immediate steps for the betterment of his kingdom but his wife was a heathen woman. She influenced him and changed him toward heathen gods like Baal the favorite of his wife Athaliah. He built many high places in Judah. Still God did not punish him because of His covenant with David.

This sudden change in the character of Jehoram made the prophet Elijah of Northern kingdom to send a written message of prophecy. It is the Lord of David prompted a judgment upon Jehoram because of his idolatry and murders. As a result, Jehoram’s wives and sons would be killed except the lost son. Jehoram had to be smitten by an incurable bowel disease that finally took away his life. The prophecy of Elijah was fulfilled and after his death he was not honored with state burial in Royal Tombs.

SIXTH KING – AHAZIAH: He was the youngest son of Jehoram and Athaliah. The other brothers, according to prophecy, were already killed by foreign invaders. Ahaziah gave gifts to the Temple treasury because it was a customary by Judah’s king’s but he did that only for political advantage. As usual he also became faithless in the living God of Judah since his mother trained him like that. So, he followed his mother and did evil in the sight of God. Ahaziah ruled only for one year before he was killed. He made a tragic alliance with his uncle Joram, king of Israel for his own down fall in war against Syria.

Ahaziah happened to visit his uncle Joram who was recovering from the injuries after the war. “Jehu’ the military general seized this opportunity. He was anointed as the king of Israel secretly. Joram and Ahaziah went to Jehu on their royal chariot to greet him for his able guidance in the war. But Jehu killed Joram with an arrow and his loyalists persued Ahaziah and mortally wounded him. At last Ahaziah also died at the fortress of Megido and he was buried in Jerusalem. Jehu had a strong lurking desire to eliminate all the family members of Ahab. But he could assassinate only forty two of them among the killed there were some relatives of Ahaziah also.

SEVENTH KING – ATHALIAH : After the death of Ahaziah his mother, Athaliah became the queen of Judah as the seventh ruler. We read already that she was born to Ahab, the most wicked king of Israel. As soon as she occupied

The Everlasting Kingdom of God the throne, she recollected how her son was killed. She took revenge and killed all the princes of Davidic dynasty. However, her grandson ‘Joash’ escaped her slaughter and he was the only survival of Davidic throne. The aunt of Joash his fathers sister with the cooperation of the high priest Jehoiada saved him by keeping secretly in the Temple for one year.

The high priest planned after six years to overthrow Athaliah and reinstate Davidic ruler. He confidently arranged five efficient military generals of Judah’s to gather Levites and tribal leaders to the Temple. Then the priests armed the Levites and some soldiers to stand as the bodyguards to the youngest prince. With all the formalities the caronation function of the king took place at the king’s platform by the side of bronze altar. The high priest Jehoiada put the crown on the head of seven year old king Joash and gave him the Deuteronomy scroll from the “Holy of Holies” as a testimony to God’s law.

While the sons of the high priest were anointing Joash, the Temple trumpets sounded and others shouted “God save the king.” Athaliah happened to hear all that and immediately attacked them with her supporters but in vain. She was caught, brought outside the Temple and killed. The people then destroyed the Temple of Baal which was built by Athaliah in honor of her father Ahab. They also killed Mattan the priest of Baalim. Everything was done correctly in the sight of God and the Almighty God must have rejoiced at the great task of restoring Davidic rule again. Athaliah actually planned to establish her family rule of heathens. She hated the Lord. Her crooked plan was to discontinue Davidic dynastic rule and close the Holy Temple and it brought her downfall. God gave her a great gift for her cunning nature the gift of death and total destruction of Baal Temple.

EIGHTH KING - JOASH: He was the son of Ahaziah and the eighth king of Judah. He was also called Jehoash. He ruled for 40 years with the influence of Jehoiada the high priest. Joash walked with God and did some reforms in Judah. During his time the Temple was in a poor condition, which needed urgent repairs. It was desecrated by Athaliah and her sons. They had broken the House of God and stripped off its dedicated things and kept them in the Temple of Baal. Joash felt extremely sorry for that unhappy situation and commanded Jehoiada to send Levites all over the nation to collect half shekel as Temple annual tax according to the law of Moses.

The Levites could not come in time with their collections. So, Joash ordered to keep a box in the Temple for some freewill offerings. Since it was for

The Everlasting Kingdom of God the purpose of God the amount they received was more than enough not only for Temple repair but also to purchase some gold and silver vessels for the Temple. As a matter of fact, Jehoiada played an important role to reestablish Davidic dynastic rule and to renovate the Holy Temple. He was actually uncle to Joash. He lived for 130 years. When he died he was given the highest honor of burial in the royal tombs.

Joash remained righteous and followed God as long as the high priest lived. After his death Joash was influenced by his heathen wives who left the House of the Lord of their forefathers and began to serve groves and idols. Jehoiada’s son Zecharias became the priest after his father. He was also a good prophet. He prophesized against Joash apostasy for telling the truth Joash mercilessly killed Zecharias and other sons of his and uncle priest Jehoiada. The death of Zecharias took place on the Temple premises by means of stones. Jesus Christ also commented at this gruesome murder by saying “From the blood of Abel and to the blood of Zecharias which perished between the altar and the Temple verily I say unto you shall be required of this generation.” (Luke 11:21).

According to the saying, “What we sow we reap.” The judgment came upon Joash at once from foreign invaders like Syrians. A small company of Syrian soldiers attacked Jerusalem and killed many Judah’s and their leaders. Joash understood the situation and in his desperate position sent most of the Temple’s treasure to the king of Syria. Then he fell ill seriously. While he was recovering his own servants killed him on his bed in the palace. He was just 47 years old at that time. But he was not buried in the royal tombs. All those happenings and calamities were the result of divine retribution for Joash’s murder of Zecharias the prophet and the priest.

NINETH KING - AMAJIAH was the nineth king of Judah. He occupied the throne at the age of 25. Soon after he became the king the first step he took was he killed all the people who were responsible for the death of his father Joash. He followed the righteous way of life in the beginning like previous kings but not wholeheartedly. He increased military strength to 300,000 soldiers. In addition to that, he hired an extra 100,000 Israelite mercenaries to support him in wars with the Edomities. When Amaziah was about to display his army a prophet of God came to him. He warned the king that he would be defeated if he used the idolatrous Israelites in the war. He honored the prophet’s words and stopped the Israelites but allowed them to keep the contract price in silver.

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

Amaziah got wonderful victory over the Edomities. But the grumbling Israelites ransacked murdered and spoiled the unprotected cities of Judah while returning to their places. Later Amaziah became a changed man like other kings after he got victory. He proved his ungratefulness toward God who really protected him. He brought back the idols to Jerusalem and began to worship. Then God warned Amaziah through prophet to repent for his foolishness. He paid a deaf ear to the warning and continued his way of life. He abandoned God and the Temple. Just at that time, he declared a war against Israel and he was utterly defeated as he openly ignored God. After the war Israel king Jehoash forced Amaziah to open the gates of Jerusalem. He plundered the city looted the Temple of its gold and silver and went to Samaria.

TENTH KING – UZZIAH: He was the tenth king of Judah. He was also called Azariah. He became the king when he was 17 years old. He ruled for 52 years the longest period of all Judean kings. He lived as a righteous man but did not remove the high places. He sincerely worked for the unity of nation for strength and prosperity. God allowed his progress as long as he did not forget God. He made some wonderful changes in his kingdom. He increased military in all angles for the betterment of the nation.

But he committed one unpardonable sin. It was in connection with the Temple. He lifted his eyes in pride because of the prosperity of the nation and on the day of the feast he went into the Holy of Holies to burn the incense at the golden altar before the veil. All that service was supposed to be done by the priests only. While he was doing that the high priest along with 80 other priests objected and humbly, requesting the king not to commit sin. But Uzziah became adamant and threatened them that he would kill all.

God judged him immediately and struck him with leprosy on his forehead. Since then he never entered the Temple of God. He lived in a house outside the city. Then his son Jotham ruled the country as a primary head. When he died he was buried in the palace garden but not in the royal tombs of Davidic ancestors. Uzziah’s tomb inscription was discovered in 1931 in a Russian orthodox convent on the Mount of Olives. We can see that stone even today in Israel’s museum in the following words. “To this place the remains of Uzziah king of Judah were placed. Do not disturb.” During the reign of Jehosopat a massive earthquake occurred (Amos 1:1) which must have caused a heavy damage even to the Temple. But one of the commentators namely Josephus linked the time of that earthquake to Uzziah’s entry into the Temple “A great earthquake shook

The Everlasting Kingdom of God the sun shone through it and fell upon the king’s face so much that the leprosy came upon his forehead immediately and before the city at a place called ‘Eroze’ half of the mountain was broken off the rest on the west and moved itself four furlongs and stood still at the last mountain (antiquities 9.10.14). The earthquake of Uzziah’s days was so severe that the future earthquake which will split the Mount of Olives at the Messiah’s return is linked to it.

At that time prophet Isaiah was there. He started his ministry at the end of the reign of Uzziah. Prophet Isaiah happened to become a number of royal family and so he was authorized to write the biography of Uzziah. During the year of Uzziah’s death Isaiah received a vision in the Temple. He saw the Lord high and lifted up sitting on His throne and surrounded by Seraphim angels who cried out Holy Holy Holy.

ELEVENTH KING – JOTHAM: He was the son of Uzziah who ruled Judah for seventeen years in Jerusalem. Prior to that he ruled with his father Uzziah jointly for thirteen years because his father was suffering from leprosy and he was not allowed to come out to the public. After he became a full fledged king he took up the work of national fortification which was unfinished by his father and strengthened the wall of Jerusalem that defended the “Ophel” area which was just South of the Temple. In addition to that he built cities on the mountains of Judah and the fortress castles and towns.

He waged wars with Ammonites when they rebelled. He defeated them and brought Ammon into the domain of Judah. A signet ring that belonged to Jotham was unearthed in Eilat in 1941 which indicated how that Southern coast was so important during the reign of Jotham. In his developing program he gave top priority to the House of the Lord. He took necessary steps for its strong defense. Josephus the historiam said that Jotham had taken special care for the foundations of cloisters which means part of cathedral covenant or monastery in the Temple (antiquities 1.11.1).

TWELTH KING - AHAZ: He was the son of Jotham, the twelth king of Judah. He proved himself as the most wicked king. He sinned like other Israel kings by serving Phoenician false god Baal. It is said, this king sacrificed his own children in the valley called Him-nan. He spread the worship of Baal, Morach and many other idols in Judah like a deadly cancer. He built many pagan altars in Jerusalem in all cities of Judah. In such conditions Israel and Syria joined together and revolted against Assyria. They requested the cooperation of Ahaz also but he refused their request. His negative answer forced Israel to declare

The Everlasting Kingdom of God war against Judah. Israel’s master plan was to wipe out Davidic dynastic rule and install some puppet government. This news caused Davidic family and Ahaz feel much and he made sacrifices to appease Syrian gods.

In such a critical situation, prophet Isaiah brought a message from God to Ahaz stating that Israel and Syria alliance would not occupy Judah and Jerusalem. But there was a clear warning from God to Ahaz “if ye will not believe sincerely ye shall not be established.” (Isaiah 7:9) Unfortunately his pride made him blind to the warning of God. So the royal house bluntly rejected the Word of God and looked for the confirmation from someone. Anyway, Ahaz for his foolishness and stupidity received correct judgment from God for his supporting heathen gods. The result of war was horrible. Many of his officials were killed. The important trade revenue and the regional influence were grabbed. His son, the future king, along with the chief of the staff and the prime minister were also killed. Syria captured the Southern port city of Eilat. In the East the Edomites took away many Judahn’s as captives.

In the west the philistines seized the lower hill country and cut off trade route. They also occupied Mediterranean port cities. Judah’s war causalities were most alarming. Israel killed about 120,000 soldiers in one day battle and took about 200,000 civilians as captives. Israel and Syria seized Jerusalem but they could not take it at the end as it was the city of God. Like Israel Syria also took many Jewish people as captives.

Ahaz now became bankrupt. He strooped down to the level of searching for a small change of money. He desperately stripped off all the gold and silver from the Temple of God and gave it to the king of Assyria to support him against Syria and Israel. He introduced idolatrous altar into the Holy Temple and proclaimed that all the sacrifices must be done on that altar only. Ahaz did everything against God and finally he closed the Temple building. With this hasty step, the national worship was stopped. The menorah was no longer lit, the shrew bread no longer displayed and the incense no longer burnt in the Temple.

In 721 B.C. the Assyrians defeated Israel two years before the death of Ahaz and much of the population was deported to different parts of the country. Then regarding Ahaz he provoked God throughout his reign and made Him angry. When he died he was not buried in the royal tombs. He did not repent till his death and that was the tragic end of king Ahaz.

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

THIRTEENTH KING - HEZEKIAH: He became the thirteenth king of Judah. He was 24 years old and ruled for 29 years. An astonishing “clay bulla” or seal for official documents was discovered which bore Hezekiah’s royal seal with the following words “Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah”. He loved God and lived according to His will. He used to say “Jehoweh is my strength”, and scriptures also provided an amazing commentary about him. “He trusted in the Lord God of Israel.” So that after him there was none like him among all kings of Judah because he clave unto the Lord and departed not from following Him.” (2 kings 18: 5-6).

King Hezekiah’s first act was to reestablish God’s Temple with all requirements which his father took away including priesthood. His apostatic father heavily damaged the sanctity of the Temple. So the king appointed priests and Levites for the purification of the Temple and it was done on time. He reinstated everything that was stopped by his father and then he thought about the spiritual condition of his people and how they forgot the God of their forefathers.

They turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord. He restarted the “Passover” feast which brought sweeping revival. The king invited all including Israelites to that function. It was a unique celebration never seen either before or after king Solomon’s dedication of the Temple. Their humble prayer came upon God’s Holy Temple. Hezekiah used all his efforts for the abolition of all kinds of idolatry. He destroyed all the Temples and images built for the Phoenician god Baal and the wooden poles used for the worship of goddess Acherah. He destroyed the bronze serpent of Moses that was venerated by all people with incense. The total destruction of the high places was the greatest reform in his kingdom. He believed in God firmly for the security of his nation. So, “he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not.” He took some preventive measures for the safety and security of his nation. As he expected attack from Assyria at anytime he improved military in all angles. He took utmost care for the fortress cities and for the Jewish capital city Jerusalem.

There are two wonderful projects of Hezekiah that we can see them in Jerusalem even today, of course, as archeological ruins. They are the broad wall and tunnel. The broad wall was the new city wall Hezekiah built on the West and North of Jerusalem to enclose the strong Western hill. The length of that wall was more than a mile and it helped the enlargement of that city 500 %. Scripture also referred to it as broad wall. The width of that wall was about

The Everlasting Kingdom of God 23 feet thick and the height of it 27 feet so that it would withstand any hard bombardment by Assyrians or any enemy. The water supply to West town area was his next major problem. He solved that also by bringing water from “Gihan spring”, through the tunnel and it was named after him as “Hezekiah’s tunnel.” The water of that spring was also released for the “pool of siloam.” This Hezekiah’s tunnel could be seen today as one of the wonders of water engineering system of ancient world. The construction of this tunnel must have taken place about 2700 years ago. It was also the time of prophet Isaiah and the tunnel was almost in good condition even today.

Prophet Isaiah spoke about urgent preparation for water supply in Jerusalem and building of wall. “Ye have seen also the breaches in the city of David but there are many and yet gathered together the waters of lower pool. And yet have numbered the houses of Jerusalem and the houses ye broken

th down to fortify the wall.” When Hezekiah was in the 14 year of his reign as he anticipated the Assyrians attacked Judah and its fortified cities. Their plan was to seize Jerusalem but he reacted at once and sent some ambassadors to Assyria with some message to avert the devastation of the Holy city. The king of Assyria mocked at Hezekiah by saying that Assyrian god was greater and more powerful than Judah’s God but Hezekiah encouraged his people not to be disheartened at his foolish remarks. He consoled them and said the king of Assyria depended upon men’s strength where as the strength of Jews was God Himself and this God Almighty would fight any battle on their behalf. Then the king put the letter before God which was sent by Assyrian king and God answered through prophet Isaiah. Therefore saith the Lord concerning the Assyrian king “He shall not come to the city nor shoot an arrow there nor come before it with shield nor cast a bank against it for I will defend this city for mine own sake and for my servant David sake.”

Finally, it was not the massive wall that saved Jerusalem from Assyrian attack but the humble prayer of Hezekiah. The Lord protected and delivered Judah as He promised. The destroying angel of God struck down 850,00 enemy soldiers with plague. The Assyrian army terribly afraid of the position and withdrew from Judah. Just at that time Hezekiah fell ill and on the point of death. He humbly prayed to God and cried bitterly. God heard his humble prayer and extended his life for 15 years more. This unimaginable achievement and the miracle of God boosted the image of Hezekiah around the countries. The king of Babylon sent his envoys with gifts to congratulate him on his miraculous recovery.

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

The kings envoys were well treated. At this stage, Hezekiah did one foolish thing. He felt proud of his wealth and showed all that to those envoys. Prophet Isaiah came to know that and rebuked the king. He foretold that the Babylonian king one day would invade Judah and take away all he laid up in store. The Lord anyway honored Hezekiah in his death with a burial in the royal tombs.

FOURTEENTH KING – MANAS’SEH: He was the fourteenth king and son of Hezekiah. He ruled for 45 years. He was called the most unscrupulous king of all Judean kings. He totally reversed the spiritual system introduced by his righteous father. He committed more evils than all kings of Judah. His wickedness was more than even heathen Canaanites and all his acts were mentioned in the scripture. They are

1.Manas’seh rebuilt cultic centers which were destroyed by his father.

2.He built altars for Baal and goddess Acherah.

3.He worshipped the sun, moon and stars. He built altars for them in both

the courts of the Holy Temple.

↑ Back to top