and then so in second kings uh chapter number 24 uh there's a couple things going on here um take
a little bit uh really just to address one thing here and that's really the issue of
uh this this well i i don't want to get too far ahead of myself let me just stick to my
notes here and just get right into it but if you notice there in verse one a second of
kings 24 it says in verse one in his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up and
Jehoiakim became a servant so we're talking about Jehoiakim and if you remember real quick
you know we're going through the succession of kings uh leading up until the end here
with Zedekiah and then you've got of course Jehoiakim coming on the scene here he kind of
comes on the scene at the end of chapter 23 last week you know he's a descendant of Josiah
you have Jehoahaz you have Jehoiakim and then we have Jehoiakim okay so you have these
different guys coming in really quick in the succession here and the first thing i want to
point out here kind of lay a little bit of groundwork if is if you look there in verse five
it says and now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all they did are they not written in the book
of the chronicles of the kings of judah and that phrase there you know is it not written in
the book of the chronicles of the kings of judah is it not written the book of the
chronicles you know you'll see that throughout these the book of second kings you'll see that
again in the books of chronicles you'll see that phrase where he's saying hey is it not
written in such and such a book you know it's not written in the book of jasher and here's
the thing though if you would go to second chronicles chapter number 36 and bookmark it
we're going to spend a little bit of time in second chronicles tonight too is that when you
read that you might think oh this is referring to the book of chronicles when i
don't believe it actually is i believe it's referring to other texts that the author of
second kings was referring to and proof of that is that you know it says there and i'll just
read to you again in verse five now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim right and all that he
did are they not written the book of the chronicles of kings of judah so you're expecting when you go
over to second chronicles 36 to read a bunch of new stuff but when you actually get there
you'll find it's a lot of the same information there's not a bunch of these rest of the acts
that he did first one it says in the people Atlantic Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made
a king and his father's stead in Jerusalem and Jehoahaz was 20 and three years old when he
began to reign and he ran three months in Jerusalem and the king of Egypt put him down
at Jerusalem and condemned the land and hundred talents of silver in a town of gold
and the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother came over Judah and Jerusalem and turned his name
into Jehoiakim so we're talking with the same guy and Nico took Jehoahaz his brother and
carried him into Egypt Jehoiakim was 20 and five years old when he began to reign and he
reigned 11 years in Jerusalem and that which is evil in the sight of the lord against him
came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him the fetters and carried him to Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the lord to Babylon and put
them in his temple at Babylon now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which
he did are they not and now just found in him behold they are written in the book of the kings
of Israel and Judah and Jehoiakim his son reign in the stead so that's really what
second chronicles covers for us you know we read that in second kings hey the rest of
his acts and all that he did are they not recorded in the book of chronicles so when you
turn to chronicles you say oh we're gonna get all this new information when you actually
go there there's really not anything new I mean we just read it that's pretty much it you
don't you don't get all this other information and this is important to understand okay and I'll
explain why in a minute but there's no new information here okay so that's why it leads
me to believe that when it says that hey is it not written the book of the chronicles of
the kings it's actually referring to a separate set of records that the author of second kings
had available to them okay another proof of this would be second chronicles chapter 36 where
you are in verse 8 it says the books of the kings of Israel and Judah okay so it's kind of
maybe it's referring back to where we are tonight or maybe it's referring to that same
volume that they had okay so we have to remember is that you know what we have in the
word of God is what's been especially specifically here in second kings and in second chronicles
is really just a distilled you know recording of all these other chronicles that were available
okay there was probably a lot more like the chronicles of the kings of Judah were probably
much more detailed it probably might even got into like a daily type of thing where every
day these scribes are writing down what happened to recording every small details of
these kings okay because remember in second kings you're getting you know you're getting all of
these kings just back to back to back you're covering hundreds of years right and it's all
apparently coming from one guy and people will debate about who the author of second king is
you know there's a theory out there that it was Jeremiah I'm not really sure you know to me it
really doesn't matter you know does it change anything if you know who the author is because
ultimately the author is God right you know there's other theories about second chronicles now
without getting deep into the weeds here we do know that second kings it just makes sense
that it was written leading up to or right you know right at the Babylonian captivity right
because all of those details are there and then when you get into second chronicles we
know that we're dealing with you know it's being written from the perspective of looking back
from the Babylonian captivity okay so you have these two different authors and they're looking
at the same events from two different periods in time okay they're kind of looking you know
from you know before and after the Babylonian captivity all right so that's important to
keep in mind here because we're going to get into something tonight about you know this
apparent discrepancy or this error that some people would say is found here in this chapter
and it's not it's not an error what it really is it's just two different authors
looking at the same event and describing it in different ways okay so you know that's why
I'm kind of laying this groundwork here about second chronicles you know being or second kings
rather referring to this book of chronicles being other than you know the book of chronicles that
we have it's this other volume okay so we have this the bible what we have really is just kind
of a cliff notes of these books it's a condensed version that's giving us you know the the things
that that god wanted us to have not to have every single little thing that every king did okay
and it's all being written after the fact after you know the facts that have spanned centuries
okay so it's condensed right but does that make it any less inspired right we believe that the
king james bible the and the underlying hebrew and greek packs you know these are the
inspired word of god okay that we have a we have a an inerrant inspired and preserved word of god
in the king james bible right that's what we believe okay and we believe that because the
you know the authors you know the bible says flat out that they were under the inspiration
of the holy spirit and if you would go to second peter chapter number one second peter
chapter number one we probably all know this but our mind you second timothy chapter three
bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration right and it's of god and it's
profitable for doctrine for correction for instruction of righteousness that the man of
god may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works second timothy three tells us that
the bible is inspired right it's god breathed it came from god and that's important because
because why that we so that we can be thoroughly furnished unto all good works
look if we have an in if we have a bible that has errors in it then it kind of opens up the
gate for people to say well what is right and what is wrong you know then other people can
decide well this is an error and this isn't an error you know it's important that we as god's
people have a perfect word of god you know god had to preserve that for us so that we
could be thoroughly furnished unto all good works so we could build our found you know build
our house upon the rock of christ sings right so that we can have the foundation upon which
our faith rests and the ultimate lesson tonight that i want people to walk away with
is that that is the mentality you have to come to the bible with okay we have to come to
the bible with the belief that it is the word of god that it's perfect that it's inerrant
that there are no contradictions in the word of god and when you run across a supposed
contradiction you know your knee-jerk reaction shouldn't be to you know have your you know
throw your faith off you know or or doubt the word of god when we come up against hard things
in the word of god that's just time for us to dig in to study and try to show ourselves
approved unto god a workman that needeth not to be ashamed that's what i love about the
bible it's not color by numbers it's not a doctor sues book it's not easy it's challenging
god wants to challenge us god wants to stretch us okay so when we come in against these hard things
we have to make sure that we're coming from the place where we believe what the bible says
about itself that it is the perfect and preserved word of god look at in second peter
chapter number one verse 19 we have also a more sure word of prophecy where until you do well
that you take heat into a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day
star arise in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private
interpretation okay for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of
god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost okay the bible is telling us that holy men of god
spake as they were moved by the holy ghost that's how we got the word of god
that's how we have a prophecy a word of god that is of no private interpretation they didn't
just write down whatever they felt they didn't just write down what they thought god was trying
to get across the bible says that they spake as they were moved by the holy ghost as they were
inspired by the holy ghost god worked through them okay so that's what we mean by when we
say we believe in the inspiration of the bible okay and the preservation of the bible you say
well how do you know you have a perfect word of god in the in the english in the king
james english bible because this bible says exactly what the underlying creek and hebrew
texts say okay people who speak greek people who speak hebrew fluently and can understand it
if they have any integrity and honesty are going to walk away and say it says exactly what the
hebrew is saying it's saying exactly what the greek is saying okay it's a perfect interpretation
it's a perfect translation okay based upon an inspired word of god so we have the inspired
word of god we have the preserved word of god in the king james bible now let me just make
something kind of clear here because sometimes people can get confused and there's some different
teachings out there about when it comes to this topic of inspiration okay people will say
things like you know well when you say inspiration when he was in when they were inspired these
holy men of god and the apostles and others that wrote the new testament you know did
they slip into some kind of a trance some people get this idea that god just took over
right but they were still autonomous in their ability to to write and put their own
you know a take on things or or put their own you know put their own uh you know their own
accents so to speak they can their own personality kind of comes through in the scriptures
you'll you'll notice that when you read through john and mark and luke and matthew when you
read through the writings of paul and others they all kind of have their own tone but it's
still inspired it's still the holy spirit that's moving through them so it's not like god just
took over and you know it's not what they call a mechanical dictation okay it wasn't that dynamic
inspiration it's what we call a confluent inspiration we believe that it was a confluency
that they were merging and working together okay that that god was using them and they were
moved by the holy ghost but it wasn't just this you know mechanical thing where they had no
control over what they were writing okay and again that that plays into what we're reading tonight
because you're going to see that you know there's the same events are described
in second kings 24 and second chronicles 36 and the same events are described in a slightly
different way right why is that it's because one's inspired what isn't is it because there's
an error in the scripture no it's because we believe in confluent inspiration where people
are working under the inspiration of the holy ghost it's it's and you say how does that work
it's well you know it's kind of a mystery it's kind of like the virgin birth isn't it
the virgin birth was man you know it was uh you know the virgin mary and god you know
she was overshadowed by the holy spirit you know and she was with child right we can't really
explain that you know but it wasn't it's kind of like that it's a mysterious thing inspiration okay
let me move along here so again we're just going to point out a few just really one thing
here in second chronicles and second kings i just want to establish here first of all that
second kings and chronicles have been written by different authors at different times but both
are under the inspiration of the holy spirit so we know that we have preserved word of god
okay now it's important to understand that when you consider the supposed contradiction okay
and that would be jehoiakin's age right jehoiakin's age now if you notice there again keep something
in second chronicles 36 if you look again at second chronicles 24 in verse 8 it says that
jehoiakin was eight years old when he began to reign so he's eight years old okay but now
if you look at second chronicles 36 verse 9 it says that jehoiakin was uh oh excuse me i
got it i got it backwards i think second chronicles 36
yeah he was eight years old in second chronicles 36
and then if you look over in second chronicles excuse me second kings 24
in verse 8 excuse me jehoiakin was 18 years old so i just had those two mixed up so again
second kings 24 in verse 8 it says that jehoiakin was 18 years old when he began to reign
and he reigned in jerusalem 13 months and his daughter's name was nahushta the daughter
of el nathan of jerusalem now if you go over to second chronicles chapter 36 verse 8
it says again that jehoiakin was eight years old when he began to reign so what's going on
here right and again people and i understand what people maybe when they first notice that
then they read that they're kind of like well wait a minute what's going on here they're
a little confused but again this is why we have to understand that the bible is inspired
and we have to come from that place of faith and belief in the word of god that is without error
because if you're instantly coming from the place of oh this is this is there's uh some
kind of discrepancy here we don't have the preserved word of god you know that can be
a stumbling block to your faith okay and when you come to it from a place of faith then
you can go okay i know the bible is perfect how do i how does the bible explain itself
here and it's actually not that complicated it's actually a very practical down to earth
it's it just requires us doing a little bit of thinking here
and i think the best way to explain this is it's simply a matter of how these two authors
of second chronicles and second kings were observing the same event which is the co-regency
of jehoiakin and jehoiakin okay meaning when i say co-regency meaning that they were
reigning together for a certain length of time that they were both reigning and you say well is
that possible well we see it in other places in scripture it's something that happens
for example if you just look here in in second kings 24 itself again notice in verse
eight jehoiachin was 18 years old when he began to reign and he reigned in jerusalem three
months and his mother's name was nahushta the daughter of elnathan of jerusalem and then he
jumped down to verse 12 and jehoiachin the king of judah went out to the king of babylon he and
his mother and his servants and his princes and his officers and the king of babylon took him in
the eighth year of his reign so it's jehoiachin it says there was reigned three months right
and it says the same thing in second chronicles 36 three months and 10 days okay but then in
the text itself it's saying they took him in the eighth year of his reign well how can you
have an eighth year if you only reign three months right again i know it can be a little
confusing but when you understand the idea that it's a co-regency okay that jehoiachin
and jehoiachin were reigning at the same time that they were kind of sharing the throne so to
speak and you say why is that well you know we see other ones other co-regencies where it
was due to health issues you know or it could have been some kind of a political maneuver
or it could have been who knows what if you know this but it's not uncommon this isn't
something that is uh you know just a spoof okay another example of this would be in second kings
chapter number eight if you want to go back to second kings chapter number eight with aaziah
okay we have another one of these you know kind of just seems to be like a discrepancy here
and it says and second kings eight verse 25 and the 12th year of joram the son of
aahad king of israel did aaziah the son of jehoram king of judah begin to reign
two and 20 years old was aaziah when he began to reign and he reigned one year in jerusalem
and his mother's name was athaliah the daughter of amorite king of israel okay so it says there
that he reigned two and 21 years old right but if i'll just read to you from second chronicles
22 it says that he was 40 and two years old when he began to reign when aaziah began to
reign so there again there's this 20-year discrepancy and you say well what's going on here
was he 22 when he began to reign or was he 42 when he began to reign okay which one was it
well again one's being written second kings one's being written in second chronicles which are
separated by many years okay and two different authors that are seeing the same events
and and retelling them in their own way because again the holy the inspiration the
scripture the holy spirit is not this mechanical dictation okay it's confluent
meaning that the authors are still putting their you know i don't want to say their two cents
but their their perception comes through okay so that's how you end up with things like this
that's what i believe well really what's going on again here in second kings is simply
a co-regency you know he's reigning alongside of joran and there's more to this story too that
really kind of warrants its whole sermon and you know it's a much deeper study that i would
probably have to take more time to really flesh out than i have honestly it's it's because
when you when you get into it you find out that that aaziah isn't the biological son
and he's not including the geologies it's part of a conspiracy so it's there's a lot of things
going on there people have objections but at the end of the day all it really all that's really
going on here is you have a co-regency in second kings chapter number eight you have
another co-regency reign between two kings father and son and second chronicles 24 or
excuse me second kings 24 and you know there's even another example we could think of probably
with king david and king solomon obviously their reigns didn't really overlap that long but
i won't take the time to go there if you go back you know if you read first kings chapter one you
would notice that david is declaring solomon king and he is called king and he is crowned
king while david is still alive on the earth you know i believe he died shortly thereafter
it's at the very end they're kind of putting the the pressure on david to name him as king
because they know he doesn't have much time left and there's this rebellion taking place
but essentially you have solomon being called king while king david is still there and then
in second kings chapter number two and then it says and then after he passed then you know
solomon sat upon his father's throne he sought upon throne of david okay so this idea of
co-regencies this isn't some you know we're not reaching for this this is something you see
in scripture and it's a very uh you know practical uh explanation for this another example
would be azariah and his son jotham in second kings 15 okay and i'll just remind you of
second kings chapter number 15 it says in the lord smote the king azariah so that he was a
leper until the day of his death and he dwelt in a several house and jotham the king's son
was over the house judging the people of the land so why azariah has this leprosy and is
sealed away in this house his son jotham is reigning in his dead it's a co-regency okay so
you see these things happening throughout scripture so when you come up against this supposed
contradiction in second kings 24 and second chronicles 36 there's an explanation and the
explanation is not oh it's a scribal error the explanation is not that it was uh it translated
wrong that's not the explanation because we already know that we have a perfect and inspired
word of god okay so that's when you come from that place then you can start to think these
things through and notice other examples in scripture and just use common sense and just kind of
figure this out that it's just talking about the fact that these two men shared the same throne
that they reigned at the same time in the same kingdom it's not that hard to figure out you
know a great illustration of this would be the example of a pastor and then like a co-pastor
okay let's say you know lord willing that i live to the ripe old age of 80 right you're probably
you know the church isn't going to wait till i'm dead to probably find a new pastor that
probably wouldn't be very smart you know a lot of times the church is getting that position
it's not good you know if we're thinking ahead we'd say hey you know you know assuming i'm
pastor right then say pastor corbin you know you're kind of getting up there you're not the
spring chicken you used to be we should you know probably start thinking about finding another
guy to take the place you know start me let's just for a number's sake make it easy let's
just say at about 70 years old it's probably gonna be much sooner than that by the way
and probably be you know hopefully i'm preaching wrong beyond that but let's just say for
number's sake okay just to make it easy nice round number 70 the church comes and says hey you know
you're 70 it's a miracle you made it this far to begin with you know truly god's hand is upon
you right but we don't know it could be you know any day now i could go any day the doctor
says you know at 70 years old let's find somebody right so then we then let's say we
ordain another pastor right of this church and he's 40 years old right let's say he's 40 years
old and i'm at 70 then let's say you know i go home to be at the lord 10 years later
i mean you know i die and go to be the lord i said those last 10 years co-pastoring with
this other young man it's taken over it's going to be you know would you say he's taken over
when i die yeah but would you say but when would you say he became the pastor of the church
some people say oh you became the pastor when we ordained you 10 years ago when you were 40
you know when brother wrestle was still around that's when you became the pastor some people
say well you didn't really become the pastor until you know brother wrestle died and you
were the only man left right so you can kind of you know and it's kind of hard to explain
all this thing in a way that's makes sense to the way you know our minds work today in 2023
america but that's kind of how you know remember we're reading a book that's thousands of years
old that comes from a different culture where they might have done things a little differently
you know to say the least including the way they perceive time and and describe time and
things like that you know we could look at that pastor and say hey you know you started reigning
you started as pastor he's reigning you know he's ruling over the flock you became the pastor
you know at 40 no you became pastor at 50 who's right who's wrong well they're both right
right because technically it's true he became pastor at 40 but then you know he became the
pastor at 50 right so you can i think that's kind of what's going on here with these co-regencies
when you have these kind of hey did he start reigning when he was 42 years old or did he
start raining when he's 22 years old in the case of you know aaziah well it's both okay
you know he he was reigning with his father and then you know from second chronicles he's
saying no he started reigning you know when his father passed away and he was the only guy left
so these are you know i'm just trying to explain this tonight and i know it's it's kind of
a drier subject but you know these are the kind of little things that people can get hung up on
and really it could even be a stumbling block for some people or a lot of times it's just
things that people are curious about people just notice those things you know they you know
i i was certainly curious about it when i came across it you know i wanted an explanation
the other thing that uh you know to kind of back this up a little bit more too
is that when you look at the fact that jehoyakins age from 8 to 18 is 10 years right
that discrepancy there is a 10-year period you know one says he started reigning at 18
second kings and second chronicles says he started reigning at eight years old so 10 years
but how long did his father jehoyakim reign for he reigned for 10 right or excuse me he
reigned for 11 so you have an 11-year reign and a 10-year discrepancy so-called between these ages
so it kind of seems like you know that those two numbers work together
right and this kind of comes down to you know how again how time is being perceived if it would
kind of work out so if he started reigning you know his rate his father's reign lasts 11 years
and then he starts reigning at 18 years old that's a 10-year time span right that kind of
covers the length of his father's reign does that make sense and someone can look at that
well but the discrepancy then again is that it says he reigned for 11 years and then we're
talking about a 10-year period yeah but how do you define 11 years how you define 10 years
you know the way we all do it is we would start counting from zero right you would say
you know it's the reign started a year zero a year went by and that was one right and
then another year went by and that was two right like for example you would say you know
i'm 42 years old okay my birthday was in december happens every year that way
you know i was 42 years old you know i turned 42 years old 42 years but i'm in my 43rd year
so if i died you say yeah he died when he was 42 years old but i'm actually older than 42 right
at what point are you going to say i'm 43 now we are going to wait till my birthday
but what if i died one month before my birthday well he was only 42
yeah but i was closer to being 43 years old than i was 42 so it's just you know and again this
concept is hard for us because we're it's so ingrained in us the way we count years it's
hard for me to even kind of i know i got it in my head but sometimes it's kind of hard to
articulate this but you know i think that's kind of what's going on there with this
10-year or 11-year reign and this 10-year age and discrepancy i believe they kind of match
up right because you know you have one would say well you know it was 10 years
or excuse me it was 11 years that his father reigned but you know maybe it was actually he
only rained 10 years of so many months you know and so they would kind of work out with
that age discrepancy with jahoykin okay so hopefully this is making sense for you folks
tonight you know it's just a matter of how things are perceived when it comes to that 10
and 11 number okay how how do you count things it's kind of like it's a rounding off
right you might they might have just rounded off when they said he rained 11 years you know they
might have rounded down when they said you know when it comes down well he was 18 and he
was eight they might have rounded those numbers instead of getting into the exact you know no he
was this many and this many months right you know we stopped counting weeks ages and we
start counting people's age and weeks when they're when they're young right i know some
moms will be like well she you know my baby's 30 you know 36 weeks old you know it's like
stop saying that he's three years old okay excuse me not three years old but you see what i'm
saying like it's this it's this uh you know when you're counting in years you know people
are going to round they're just going to round up round down so it's just like the rounding
the way the authors rounded off the numbers that's where you have that
slight change between 10 and 11 right but it all you know that's kind of a minor point you know
because of the fact that we already established we can already see examples of co-regency you
know the real big glaring thing that jumps out at people is hey one says eight years old one
says 18 years old what's going on there you know it's a co-regency the proof of that is is
it's an 11-year it's 11-year reign with his father and you know it's about a 10-year difference
between 8 and 18 when it comes to that one year it's just about rounding off numbers that's what
i believe is going on here okay and again i know this is kind of dry and and i'm it's
hopefully i'm not making it more confusing for you but i'm trying to explain this because
you know if you were just to go on google let's say and look this up and go on some
board somewhere we're gonna have somebody explain this to you they you know what the first thing
they're gonna tell you it was a scribal error you know the king you don't have the preserved
word of god it's a it's an error in the translation clearly the scribes got it wrong
you know and that doesn't even just thinking about that logic it doesn't make a lot of sense
right because you're talking about scribes a group of people who are dedicated to copying
out the word of god correctly you know people that that's what that's what they're there to do
if they make a mistake they start all over like they and it's multiple people that are looking
over these things right and then they'll say oh it's a problem the translation but the the
problem with that is is that the king james just says exactly what the hebrew that was
one of the rules of the translators they weren't allowed to correct anything that they
thought might have been wrong because there was nothing wrong they had to write what it says
they had to make that translation perfect they couldn't put their own twist on things or
change things they had to write you know what it says okay now obviously you know it gets
when it gets into translation some things don't translate word for word from one language into
another they had to do that but you know you can't say when people say oh it's a problem with
the king james and they say oh one says eight years old one says 18 years old there's a
problem with the king james what they really mean you know when they say that is that there's
a problem with the the hebrew because the king james says what the hebrew says
when they you know when they say oh what's going on with azariah's reign was it you know what's
this 20-year discrepancy here there's a problem with the king james what they really mean what
they're really saying whether they realize it or not is that there's a problem with the underlying
hebrew text because the king james says what the hebrew says okay and again how do i know
that because people many people many scholarly people who could speak these languages fluently
will tell you that they have integrity you know i'm sorry i'm not going to take you know all
of the the many many many many hours it's going to take to learn i'm not going to learn hebrew
just to find out that i'm right about that okay and one i don't even have to because i already
believe by faith that this is the word of god you know i don't need to have someone who
speaks hebrew come along and say don't worry it says the same thing that it says in hebrew
i'm glad there's people out there that can confirm that but you know what i i already believe
that i already believe this is the word of god because of what the bible says about itself
where we read in second timothy where we read at second peter but the bible said you know i
believe what it says in psalms chapter chapter 12 that you know the words of the lord are pure
words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times thou shalt keep them o lord
thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever i believe that that we have a preserved
word of god you know i'm just trying to explain this tonight just for anyone one really who's
curious or two just maybe somebody would kind of get tripped up on that okay there's no reason to
trip up on this there's an explanation for it it's just a matter of rounding it's amount of
way things are being counted you know another example of this would be uh you know where i'm
from in northern michigan there was the park place hotel it was the tallest building
in the city it was 13 stories okay and i worked there as a banquet uh cook i won't say chef i was
a prep cook in the banquet department they had this big kitchen people get married go out there
and then they do events on the 13th floor and you could see forever from the 13th floor right
and i would go up there and you know i was wearing those stupid tall hats you know and i
had the the whole get up and i would slice roast beef for people and put it on their plate
right but in that elevator you know in the main lobby when you walked in
you know when you looked at the numbers you know typically like if you were to go in any hotel
today and you were to go and look at the numbers you know the floor that you're on when
you walk into the building what floor is that it's the first floor right isn't that what
most people say but in the park place hotel the first floor was the second story
and it wasn't because they were confused it's because the floor that you were standing on
when you walked in a lobby was the ground floor so you see how that's just a different
way of looking at it just that they wouldn't say oh this is the first floor they say no this
is the ground floor the first floor is the is the second story you'd say no that's the second
floor who's right who's wrong you decide right technically they both are you know and i've
been told that's how they do it over in europe in places like germany the first you know
the second story is the first floor the ground floor is not the first floor it's the ground
floor you're on the ground now you're on the first floor right so you can see how even today
we count things people even in different cultures today count things differently they'll
round something up they'll round something down so why would it be any different you know
there's no new thing under the sun you know people are just the same today as they were
back then when they were writing second kings people are just the same back then when
they're writing second chronicles as they were today someone's writing the word of god they're
you know they're writing it out they're describing this and they're just rounding up they're just
rounding up a lot you know 10 10 years and so many months they're rounding it down
you know where it was 10 years and so many months and they rounded up to 11.
so then when you kind of understand that that you have this 10 year reign you know 10 11
year reign whichever one you want to call it the bible calls it 11 and this 10 year
discrepancy it lines up doesn't it and then you can see how Jehoiachin could be led away in the
eighth year of his reign even though he only technically didn't technically but it says that
he reigned for three months so there's things in there that kind of make you scratch your head
but you just have to look at it through the lens of you know your own just understanding of
how people's minds work you understand how people round things up round things down
and it's it you know it's no different back then as it was today okay
so that's all it is it's not a mistranslation you know it's not a because again the king james
says the same thing as the hebrew and look that says a lot about somebody when that's their
first go-to you know when you go read some answer somewhere online you talk to somebody
you talk to somebody and they say oh it's it's mistranslation oh it's the scribal error you
know that says a lot about that person that's saying it doesn't it it says that they don't
believe in the inspiration of the holy spirit they don't believe in the inspiration of the
word of god they don't believe in a preserved bible they don't believe it i mean how could
you say that how could you sit there and say the bible has errors in it and then turn around
and say in the same breath that you believe that it's the word of god you know you you must
have a very weak god this is what's you know this is what's always just bothered my mind
about people who who scoff at or gawk at the idea that we would believe that this book is
preserved you say well who did that well god did it i mean and i it's always this bottom
it's like don't you believe that god is powerful don't you think that god has the ability to get
black ink on white pages and bind it together he's saying well yeah but you know that was so
long ago those things were written so many things so many they've been copied out so many
times obviously things could have gone wrong actually you know to me that just is is a
greater testament to the power of god that god down through millennia has managed to preserve
his word perfectly and intact every jot and every tittle you know jesus said heaven and earth
shall pass away but my words shall not pass away he said think that i've come to destroy the law
and the prophets i came not to destroy but to fulfill for verily i say unto you till heaven and
earth pass one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass the law till all be fulfilled either you
believe that or you don't you know and say and saying well eight and 18 is an error that's
more than a jot or a tittle passing from the law my friend that if that was an error that
would be a pretty big error wouldn't it but jesus said not one jot or tittle is going to
is going to go not one of it heaven and earth shall pass before my words shall pass
we have the preserved word of god so when somebody comes along and says oh that's an error
in your king james whether they realize it or not they're saying that's an error in the
underlying hebrew text that's an error in underlying greek text they're saying that that's
an error in the word of god and that god is somehow incapable that god is inept that god
is weak too weak oh but they'll sit there in the same breath and say oh yeah well we agree
with you that you know god created everything in you know six days and the seventh day he
rested we agree with you that you know he just spoke the universe into existence
but oh oh oh preserve the word of god well you know again let's not get carried away here
right you know either you believe that god can do what he says he did in preserving
the word of god or you don't believe it and when people come along and say that's an error
that's a scribal error that's a mistranslation that says a lot about them and what they
believe about god what they believe about the god of the bible okay we believe that god's word
is inerrant that it is the plenary inspired word of god meaning plenary meaning it's all
inspired and it's all inspired equally not some parts are more inspired than others and we don't
believe you know we in in in the in this mechanical dictation theory but we also don't
believe that the people who wrote the word of god the holy men of god that spake is they're
moved by the holy ghost that they just kind of got the idea of what god was trying to get across
that they were just kind of inspired and you know they just got the meaning of what god wanted
expressed you know we believe that they worked together confluently it was a it was a working
of man and god to get us the word of god and there's you know that's a whole other subject
that i have preached and has been preached and continue with continually will be preached
as needed the inspiration and preservation of the bible it's a core doctrine folks it's it's
the basis of our faith is the word of god and there's an attack today to take the word of god
out from under your feet you know and if the foundation's being destroyed what can the
righteous do well the answer is nothing jesus said without me you can do nothing you know the
word without christ who is the word of god we can do nothing without the word of god we have
nothing to stand on nothing to put our faith on you might as well go ahead and just you know
go believe what they're teaching down at some university somewhere believe what they're teaching
the public school system because you know that's as much an act of faith over there as
it is that we have here okay so you have to come to the word of god you know yeah he that
cometh to god must believe that he is and he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him
okay and if we come to the word of god saying lord you know open mine eyes thy might behold
wondrous things that like god will you know give us understanding in this area you know
we come into hard things like this we'll ask god if any of you lack wisdom let him ask god
which giveth an all men liberty and it shall be given it say lord i'm having a hard time
understanding what's going on here you know god could give us and help us and and and and
guide us and god you know this is again is why it's important to be in church because god
has given us you know what prophets and teachers god has given us those things for the perfecting
of the saints till we all come you know in the unity of faith right god has given us teachers
god has given us uh you know prophets god has given us preachers you know for the edifying
of the body of christ you know the important thing to come to church so you could hear
teachings on this now i doubt you're going to catch a teaching uh explaining you know
the difference in and jehoi can's age between second chronicles 24 and second chronicles 30
or second kings 24 and second chronicles 36 on you know some channel somewhere on tv
it's probably not going to be out there you know it's not going to be out there you're not
going to just run into that you're going to have to come to a place where people are
concerned with the things of the word of god that people want to teach and understand the
things of god to hear those things right again it's a wednesday it's a thursday night
bible study here okay that's what we do on thursday nights we study these things out okay
and again there's a lot of other things i could appreciate this chapter about you know sin and
what it does to you and i feel like i've kind of been ringing that bell through this whole
book you know that sin because i mean that's kind of what's going on in the rest of the
chapter right the the king of babylon comes and carries everybody off zadakiah set up and then
it's just you know it's just the death throes of judah that's it before they go into complete
captivity right but there's this other little thing in here that we need to pay attention to
this other little detail that people might trip on you know you might might not have noticed it
here though they didn't get the second chronicles 36 and say wait a minute
when i read that back there was a different age right that's why we have to explain these
things so again hopefully i did a a good enough job tonight to kind of put that at rest in
your minds if it was there or satisfy your curiosity if you had it and ultimately you know
the application i want you to walk away tonight is that again things like this and the word of
god they might not be the most exciting thing to preach about but they're these are the type of
things that will stretch us intellectually these are things that will make us have to work
harder to understand things and again as i said at the beginning the sermon that's what i love
about the bible and it's not just you know pop on pop it's not you know one fish two flesh
green fish blue fish right it's it's it's a great work of literature it's beautiful but there's also
things in there that challenge us that make us put on our thinking caps and dig into it and
try to understand things that god doesn't just spoon feed everything to us obviously there's the
milk of the word of god that we need to grow thereby but then there there is also the meat of
the word of god you know that those which had those that have their uh senses exercised can digest
you know we want to exercise ourselves in these things and the meat of the word of god
bite into these things understand these things you know and walk away hopefully with a greater
appreciation of the inspiration of god that you know that's what i walked away with after
studying this out is a deeper you know appreciation and understanding of what it means
that the bible is inspired because again you have these two different authors talking about
the same event describing it in a slightly different way neither one's wrong they're both right
you know but it just shows that god isn't just taking over them and making them right exactly
what needs to be written it's not mechanical the inspiration is still them allowing the the
the personality of the author to come through okay their perception you know the bible is
a is a great book you know the bible says the law of the lord is perfect converting the
soul the statue of the lords are right making wise the simple the bible will make you a
smarter person you know how so right is it going to make you be able to be you know some
great success on the stock market or something like that is it going to give you the
inside track on trading or something that's going to make you good with numbers
probably not you know but what it is going to do is it's going to make you think critically
it's going to make you step back and think objectively and not be so reactionary when you
read things you know step back and think more critically that's one way the bible will make
you a wiser make a simple person wise make them more discerning make them think the bible is going
to stretch us if we read it if we let it challenge us you know it will make us a wiser
person through these things let's go ahead and pray