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It's kind of a longer chapter. Let's dig right in here. Before we get started, let's put a book marker in 2 Chronicles 26. That's kind of a parallel passage with what we're reading tonight. We're still going to be starting in 2 Kings 15, but we're going to be flipping back and forth between here and 2 Chronicles 26. I'm going to start reading here verse number 1 where we just read verse 15. In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign. Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecaliah of Jerusalem. So he reigned a really long time, fifty-two years. Started when he was sixteen years old until he was sixty-eight years old. Verse 3, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Now, real quickly, turn to 2 Chronicles 26. I just want to show you verse number 5. I'm just going to briefly touch on something we've been seeing between both kingdoms of Israel. The kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah with their kings and kind of what's been a pattern of what we've seen happening. Look at verse number 5. This is again talking about Azariah. It says, and he sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of God and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. This is worded very similarly to, you remember when, what's his name, Joash was raised by the priest. Man, why has his name just forsaken me now? It's leaving me. When Joash was raised, all the days of the priest he did good. He did right as long as he had that help there and that guidance. When that was gone, he kind of started forsaking the Lord. We see that pattern and compare that with the pattern of Jehu. Jehu did good things and he was promised that his children were going to sit on the throne up to the fourth generation, but he didn't wholly follow the Lord and just kind of did what he was going to do. He did that which was right, but he didn't wholly follow the Lord. We see a similar pattern and what we see is the same thing of the way that the fathers are, the way that the previous kings were, is kind of the way that their sons are falling into that same pattern. The reason why I'm just bringing this up is because as parents, if you're not a parent now, or soon will be, or you are a parent now, we need to be careful that the things that we do are right and that we do choose to follow the Lord wholly because the things that we do wrong, and I know nobody's perfect, but you have to keep this in mind and remember this, that the areas that you fail in, more likely than not, your children are also going to be failing in the same exact area of their life. Whatever it is where your downfall is, so keep that in mind. I know that nobody's perfect, but when you start getting into something really bad, just remember that whatever it is where your shortcomings are, your downfalls are, your children are probably going to do the same thing and maybe even worse. The sins that you get involved in or your failures, but it's the same thing I believe also with a lot of your strengths. The children will take after their fathers, after their parents, very much so in their strengths as well as their weaknesses. Why? Because you're spending the most time with them and you're rearing them and training them and teaching them and not only are they listening to the things you tell them, they're actually paying a lot more attention to things that you do. And that's what sticks with them more than anything is seeing you, what you do. So you need to get it established, especially with younger children. If you haven't had children yet, get your act straight for when your children start to grow up and when they see you. It's one more level of accountability, thank God for children, to help you. Maybe you might get involved in some sin or something because you feel kind of weak in the flesh and it's just you and you feel like, well God might judge me, but if I deserve it I'll take it. I'm willing to go through it because God's gonna judge me. It's one thing to have that mindset of just being willing to accept, well whatever God's gonna do you know I deserve it and I'll go through it, but it's another thing to realize that you're gonna be impacting somebody else. And to look at your children and be like, no if I do this, now I'm bringing a lot more on them and I'm gonna be probably leading them this same way. Is this the way that I want my child to go? And that thought needs to be in your mind and you need to remember that very very carefully as you make your decisions in life that it's no longer just you. You've got to think about other people. And you know what, when you sin it's never just you. It never works out where it's only you that gets punished. Usually your sin will impact those around you. I mean that is common throughout Scripture. You see that all the time, the sins of one person. It's not that God's judging other people for your sin, but you bring your judgment upon others. It's like this collateral damage. And you need to be aware of that as well. But let's keep reading. We've already kind of covered that point a little bit in other chapters. Verse number four back in 2 Kings 15. Verse number four. Now Azariah's life is swept over really quickly in this chapter. And there's a lot of Kings that it talks about. And again there's a reason for that just like in the other ones. When you see these different accounts there's different points that are being brought up. And look at verse number four here in 2 Kings 15. Because it just got done in verse 3 saying he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all his father Amaziah had done. Save that the high places were not removed the people sacrificed and burned incense still on the high places. And the Lord smote the king so that he was a leper unto the day of his death and dwelt in a several house and Jotham the king's son was over the house judging the people of the land. Now notice in verse 3 it says he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He was one of these kings that's being recognized as overall he did right. Overall he was a pretty good king because he did right in the sight of the Lord. But the Lord still smote him with leprosy. We need to make sure that we're not living our lives in a way where we think and you know and maybe it's true right you say well overall I'm doing a good job and then get lazy and then get slack and then just think well yeah at the end of the day you're gonna look at my life and if God let me say well you did that which is right and just kind of get into this state of minor mentality of thinking that well nothing bad's ever gonna happen to you then because overall I did that which was good. Overall Azariah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord as the Bible records but God smote him with leprosy and that's a very very serious affliction. I mean think about that it would be similar in some sense as just God just striking you with a really bad cancer. I mean when people were lepers you know they were they were put out from everyone else. You'd be very lonely yet that you had to move away from people because it was so contagious and just kind of live in a leper colony and it was it was a very very bad disease you know it's flesh kind of like a flesh eating disease almost that that was not pleasant at all to be suffering from. So this was a serious punishment that God inflicted on Azariah and we're gonna see the details of why he did that because we don't it doesn't cover that in 2 Kings 15 so we go back to 2 Chronicles 26 and just just keeping in mind that this is someone who is noted as hey he did that which is right in the sight of the Lord. You might be thinking hey I'm doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord you know overall if you judge my life you know none of us are perfect but I'm doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord. Don't let that just just permeate so much into your thinking that any you know whatever I do will be okay that it's just not a big deal. You know basically what we get accused of when when we teach salvation being by grace through faith oh so that means you could just go off and do whatever you want dude and God's just fine with that? No no because God isn't just fine with that. Now it doesn't make you unsaved because salvation is a free gift. God's not gonna send you to hell for sinning after you get saved but God is not just okay with you getting saved and is going off and living like the devil. Not at all and as we preach salvation by grace through faith and hammer home the freeness of the gift and how much God loves you now how awesome that is and how you can never lose that don't let that you know distract you or confuse you into thinking that well I'm saying so whatever when you go off and decide to get into sin because God still demands us to do what's right and to follow him with our whole heart otherwise there will be punishment that comes our way. Look at verse number 16 in 2nd Chronicles 26 it says but when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction could prior to that in 2nd Chronicles 26 was talking about how Azariah was doing so many great things and we already saw that he he was doing great in the days of Zechariah he had a good preacher he was listening to God he was doing great things but when he got strong when he was doing really well and everything was going good he got strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord is God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense now Azariah was of the tribe of Judah that's who these kings were in the lineage of King David in in Judah in Jerusalem it was not any of these kings jobs to go into the house of the Lord to go into the temple to do any type of service to the Lord because that was dedicated exclusively to the tribe of Levi and especially for the priests was even a subset of the tribe of Levi you had to be of the children of Aaron exclusively that's it and God was very serious about this saying these are the people that I've set aside there to do the work no one else was allowed to do that work it was strictly for them but as a riot got so lifted up with pride and things were going so well and everything was going great and he felt like he was this awesome leader right that he took on more than God had wanted him to take on but he thought he could do everything so he's saying you know what I'm gonna get in there and I'm gonna be yo who do you think you are yo doing these performing sacrifices for me I'm gonna go in there and do the sacrifices it says in Azariah the priest went in after him because he went in to burn incenses here I'll reread verse 16 but when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord's God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense and Azariah the priest went in after him and with him four score priests of the Lord that were valiant men now that's I didn't even have this in my notes but this is I mean think about that there's 80 priests go in with Azariah the priest to confront him say you you know these and these guys this is how a priest should be it says that were valiant men they weren't wimps they weren't sissies they weren't you even though this is the king going in there say no we're gonna confront him all 81 of us are gonna go in there and tell them hey you know they're strong men they're valiant men they're not someone that you could just push around these are priests of the Lord and it says in verse 18 and they withstood Azariah the king and said unto him it appertainteth not unto thee Azariah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the priests the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense go out of the sanctuary for thou has trespassed neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God so I like this because they're willing to withstand even the king in doing what's right in the house of God and saying no it's not your job and you know a lot of people these days to give it a little bit of relevance to things that had happened in our world today there's a lot of people that want to kind of ordain themselves to go off and just be some prophet of God to be some man of God and start their own churches of this do their own things and just bring this honor upon themselves of just saying well you guys are all doing this wrong I'm gonna go in what do I need you for I'm just gonna go and start a church and teach me what do I need to be ordained for well because it's not the way that God designed it as aryah had this mentality of you know well I'm gonna go in and burn incense because what do I need you for well what do you need to them for is because that's what God put into place there and it's the same thing in churches God ordained for there to be elders leaders within church and there's an established you know hierarchy within the local church that's just it's the way God made it maybe you could you could like it you could not like it it doesn't matter it's the way it is and if someone were to come into this church and say no you sit down I'm gonna just do the preaching now and I'm gonna do everything here well guess what I'm gonna be withstanding I mean I bet there'd probably be a few more people they're gonna stand up and withstand as well and say no that's not your job you sit down it's not going to be respected now again we're gonna we will follow the way that the Bible outlines for you know it's not that no one else can preach or whatever but when it comes to running running things here it's just gonna be the way that the Bible outlines for it so it's the same thing that's going on here actually there's even more restrictions on who was able to perform the work with the priests and stuff so this was a big deal but Isaiah was just lifted up with pride and was thinking too highly of himself but the priests come in they withstand them and they they try to set them straight verse 19 says then Isaiah was wroth and had a censer in his hand to burn incense and while he was wroth with the priests the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar so he gets really angry he doesn't take the rebuke well at all of them coming in and saying look it's not your job to be burning incense and you're not God is not being honored right now by you coming in and burning this incense this is our job and he gets angry with them and while he's you know raging and angry with them all of a sudden leprosy starts to come out in his skin verse 20 and Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence yay himself hated also to go out because the Lord had smitten him so they all see what's going on here and Azariah see what's going on and they're like yeah get out of here you know and he's and he's not fighting him he's like yeah I'm getting out of here because he's starting to get freaked out too that now all of a sudden he's got all this leprosy creeping up on him verse 21 and says and Aziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death that was a very very serious sin from the commission but what's the big deal he was just offering incense he was just trying to serve the Lord it was a big deal because he was completely transgressing the Lord like you know people have this idea that well as long as I want to do you know as long as I love God no matter what I do it'll be just fine by God that is not true it's not true there's so many places in Scripture that prove that that's not true God want you to be obedient to the way that he said he wants things to be done going all the way back to Cain and Abel I mean the beginning you you could see this concept in Genesis chapter number three I mean you just go way back or four whatever chapter I think it's there may be chapter four but regardless okay within the first five chapters of the book of Genesis you're gonna see God saying no my sacrifice needs to be a blood sacrifice you need to offer us an animal it's not going to be the the works of your own hands and Cain didn't like that and then you find with Uzzah putting his hand on the Ark of the Covenant God smote him dead why because he's not supposed to touch it doesn't matter that was gonna hit the ground he's not supposed to touch well it doesn't matter that it wasn't supposed to ground he shouldn't have you know they should have never been carrying on a cart to begin with that was their original problem they should have been carrying it to make sure it wasn't gonna fall without touching it with their hands so you know and you could go we could go on and on and on and on you know all the stories where God is bringing Swift punishment on people for doing things not the way that he said that they were to be done and people being real flippant about the way they want to serve God we can't be flippant like as I or lifted up with pride because that was King Azariah's major problem is that he thought too much of himself and didn't thought that he can you know he was too special for God's rules oh well surely God was talking about everybody else but but of course I mean come on I'm the king and look at all look at all the good stuff I've done already how could I not have the honor of being able to offer incense unto the Lord that was his attitude and God smote him and struck him with leprosy to bring him down to bring him low bring him down a notch because that and that is a perfect judgment of the Lord to do that when someone's lived up with pride because being having to live then it says here was in a several house right he had to go and just and just live in a really really really humble place with a bunch of people who've been afflicted by leprosy and you can't really have the same interaction with people anymore and and he wasn't even you know he even had his his son then it says in Joth of his son was over the king's house judging the people of the land he couldn't even perform all of his kingly duties even though he was technically still the king his son had to go in and start ruling and doing the things that the king was supposed to be doing because Azariah was a leper now you'll notice here in Second Chronicles 26 it uses the name Uzziah. Uzziah is the same as Azariah you see this multiple times in other chapters we brought it up with other people's names but just so you don't get confused it is Uzziah and I think one of the reason well I mean maybe maybe not I don't know if this is one of the reasons or not but there was also an Azariah you see in verse 20 Azariah the chief priest so there was an Azariah that was a chief priest there's Azariah the king so he's referred to in Second Chronicles 26 as Uzziah he's also referred as Uzziah a little bit later in Second Chronicles 15 but one of the reasons I want to make a point of that and one of the thing that's really interesting too is that this is also now starting the same time frame that the prophet Isaiah is preaching so when you you know we get through all these books of the Kings and everything else if you want to know where different places fit in to the Bible it's it's it's interesting as we go through these stories now to realize hey this is actually now the time frame where Isaiah the Prophet is prophesying his thing so when you see all these prophecies coming from Isaiah and we're going to actually turn if you would to Isaiah because that's that's the next place we're going to turn to turn if you would do Isaiah chapter 1 real quick but the the major prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel they all have their time frames and basically going in that order to Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel of when they were alive and preaching starting here with Isaiah going all the way through then between those three into them being carried away and getting captive into Babylon so when you see some of the things going on in Kings and Chronicles you could compare that with what is being preached in Isaiah and in Jeremiah you know and these are these other prophets and then the minor prophets too because most of them will tell you what time frame they're around based on who was the king at that time and as a at chapter 1 verse 1 says the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz which he saw concerning Judah in Jerusalem in the days of Isaiah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah so during those four reigns that's when Isaiah was was preaching and prophesying and this is now Isaiah who were reading about here or Azariah as we saw in second Kings 15 it's the same person flip over to chapter 5 in Isaiah now the reason why I'm making a point of this is because we saw from 2nd Chronicles 26 that as I had a problem with pride and that's why God smote him with leprosy now we're going to look at Isaiah chapter 5 which is still during this time frame because in chapter 6 you'll see in Isaiah that that's when Isaiah dies it's referenced in Isaiah so we know that in chapter 5 when he's preaching that this is during Isaiah's time so I'm gonna just we're gonna look at a few passages here of what Isaiah is preaching during the reign of Isaiah who had a pride problem now most of the early chapters of Isaiah are really prophetic about you know near and long term events a lot of them are referring to you know the Millennial Kingdom or the times of the rapture and things like that you'll see a lot of that being covered in the first few chapters however we also have to remember that they're still being pre even though there's a lot of prophetic events being prophesied he's still also preaching to that time to the people then right so it's there's always like these these multiple references and dual meanings where he's getting across a point pertinent for the people then as well as revealing information about what's going to happen in the latter days it's just kind of the way that the that the prophets are used by God to get everything across so look at verse 11 of Isaiah chapter 5 Bible says woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue until night till wine inflame them in the harp and the vial the tabaret and pipe and wine are in their feasts but they regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge and their honorable man are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst therefore hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pump and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it and the mean man shall be brought down and the mighty man shall be humbled and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled but the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness so what we're seeing here we started off with you know the wine and people getting drunk and we know that people who are getting drunk are often times get lifted up with pride but then he's also talking about people the other people are going into captivity it says you know they have their harp their vial a tabaret their pipe their wine their feasts but they regard not the work of the Lord and in many cases they'll see him here you know they're they're talking about the Lord and and they think they have God but they're not doing the way that God said to do to have things be done right they're claiming the word of the Lord they're claiming God but they're not doing things the way that he said to be done just like Isaiah was doing he was you know he he wanted to serve the Lord but not the way that God said to do it and therefore is therefore health and larger self now this is speaking more to just than just the king obviously because this is talking about the whole people in the land being you know therefore they're brought into captivity it's it's more than just one King being a problem here but it refers to the judgment that's coming like verse 15 the mean man shall be brought down the mighty man shall be humbled and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled but the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness jump down to verse number 20 the Bible says woe unto them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight does this sound like the king wise in his own eyes prudent in his own size I know better than you I don't need you priests tell me what I can and can't do in the house of God I'll go and do these things I'm wise in my own eyes this is prudent in my own sight I can do this verse 22 woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him therefore is the fire devourer at the stubble and the flame consume at the chaff so their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust because they have cast away the law the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel this is prophesying them being judged being taken into captivity and all of these reasons why but remember that this is still pretty early on and it's it's quite a ways away from when they actually are going to be taken captive by Babylon and it also remember there is a string of Kings that the Bible says did right in the sight of the Lord there's multiple Kings of Judah that are doing right and this prophecy in Isaiah 5 is coming against Judah and Jerusalem specifically this preaching was given as a warning God sends his prophets to warn the people now we could look at this today in the United States of America and these things that he's bringing up and you read the whole chapter we're done with chapter 5 or Isaiah but you could read all these things that are going on and the pride and the loftiness and the drunkenness and all the things are going on it's like hey he is giving them warning you know we need to be taking heat and taking warning of this stuff too because there's no reason why God is going to spare us from judgment when he didn't spare his own people it's still plenty of time before Judah's gonna be taken captive but the messages are coming the messages are important even though it's the time like I said you have multiple kings doing right inside of the Lord this is a time when God sent Isaiah and other prophets to give their warning he's giving them enough space to repent he's giving them enough time and telling them hey this is what's gonna happen this is what's gonna happen because God loves them he wants them to hear this but when things are going well it's easier to get lifted up with pride than when things are not going well and it's harder to receive these messages and for people to see that there's a problem as I couldn't see he was blinded by his own pride things were going well for him that's why he was lifted up with pride everything's going great he's in his strength he's in his prime man we're going out to war we're beating people we're doing all these great works the lands in peace or whatever you know everything is going really well and and he's attributing that to himself as opposed to attributing that to God and gets lifted up in himself lifted up in his own good works and his own good deeds and and blinds himself and pride goeth before destruction and then he was afflicted and we we need to take to heart all this stuff that's being preached in Isaiah and and all throughout the Bible all throughout God's Word all the warnings that we receive don't let yourself get get lifted up in yourself thinking that oh you know I'm God's great gift to this earth to this world to this kingdom that's how Isaiah was seeing himself that he was God's gift to those people that's why he was bold enough to go in to a place that he had no business being and offer up his incense unto God let's go back to second Kings chapter 15 because like I said second Kings 15 I mean we are we already read all the verses the first five verses that we get pretty much about Azariah verse 6 says and the rest of the acts of Azariah and all that he did are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah so Azariah slept with his fathers and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David and Jotham his son reigned in his stead in the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord as his fathers had done he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin and Shalom the son of Jabesh conspired against him and smote him before the people and slew him and reign in his said and we're seeing now multiple people being you know assassinated and the kingdom is not secure you know after Jehu's sons you know that that fourth generation they're done now it's now you've got people fighting for the throne again and going to start off with the one being conspired against and then you got the conspirators being put to death and someone else going in their place and it's a lot of turmoil and and these are all wicked men it's no coincidence that you have all these conspirators being done you know all these conspiracies to kill the man in charge by a bunch of wicked people there's a bunch of wicked people trying to get into the throne because they want that power they want that authority they want that wealth they want everything that goes along with being the king verse 11 and the rest of the acts of Zachariah behold they were written in the books of the Chronicles of Kings of Israel this was the word of the Lord which he spake unto Jehu saying thy sons shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation and so it came to pass that was his last son to sit on the throne he only lasted six months verse 13 Shalom the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah and he reigned a full month in Samaria a full month not a half a month he reigned a full month that was his reign for a Menahem the son of Gadai went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria and smote Shalom the son of Jabesh in Samaria and slew him and reign in his stead and this is again we're starting to see these people you notice how the conspirators don't usually last very long I mean it's typically the case what's happening is God's will is being carried out and I believe that with with a lot of people God bringing judgment on wicked kings and people who shouldn't be in power but it's often carried out by wicked men God uses wicked men all the time to carry out his will to perform what he wants to have done in these kingdoms and to bring judgment upon people God doesn't have to only use righteous people for his will to be done and that's that's a people are really will will get screwed up on that too of saying you know well how could oh like like people who were complaining about the the thing that happened Orlando remember the shooting when when all the homos got got killed and that gay nightclub that that sodomite nightclub and you know a lot of Christians are saying well God brought his judgment down you know we're not we're not saying that taking the law on your own hands starting to you know mow down people is what you're supposed to do right but it is still the judgment of God I mean I believe that was a judgment of God that's what I believe that's my personal belief is that you know good did God he was a wicked person to do yeah I mean the guy was a Muslim or whatever you know I mean he was he had his own problems he was a wicked man he wasn't righteous but still the judgment came down upon that place and God uses wicked people to bring in general God uses wicked people to assassinate these other you know these other kings or whatever because they're they're just so wicked God wants them out and and and he lifts up who he will and he brings down who he will Bible says that God could use wicked men to get to get his work done it doesn't just always have to be some you know someone who's holy and righteous are the only people that God's going to use to to get to get done what he wants done in this earth so just don't don't be deceived by that verse number 15 let's keep reading here and the rest of the acts of Shalom and his conspiracy which he made behold they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel I guess I'm a conspiracy theorist because I believe that conspiracies actually happen right but I mean these days that term is taboo or looked down upon oh you're conspiracy there well conspiracies happen they're real I don't think every single event that happens is a conspiracy but to put a bad term as you're calling someone a conspiracy theorist conspiracies are real they happen all the time especially among wicked people in high places it's not as a surprise they're gonna have a lot of conspiracies going on with people who just want to have more power and want to rule over a bunch of people of course you're gonna have conspiracies now oftentimes they fail but oftentimes they succeed too we see here a bunch of a bunch of people in the role of King we're being killed because other men were making conspiracies against them to kill him so whatever verse 16 then Menehem smote Tipsa and all that were therein and the coasts thereof from Tirzah because they opened not to him therefore he smote it and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up I mean look look at how wicked these people are this is one of those conspirators you saying well you're not opening up to me I'm we're gonna kill you and then they're just they're ripping up women with children like they're causing their their children I mean it's just it's I'm not even go into detail about that because that's there's enough detail right there how wicked is that this is the the type of people you have trying to become King they're stepping into that position that's how far down Israel has gotten in in their sin and in their wickedness verse 17 in the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah King of Judah began Menehem the son of Gadai to reign over Israel and reign ten years in Samaria and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin and Pol the king of Assyria came against the land and Menehem gave Pol a thousand talents of silver that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand so you have all of this back and forth going on and people being killed and this guy Menehem wants to secure the kingdom right so because there's there's been all these attempts made and people being killed he knows that someone else is probably trying to get him in his life taken so they could be king so he when Assyria comes to battle he wants to make sure that he has the people under his control and he doesn't lose his kingship so he gives you know the the extortion money the thousand talents of silver for them not to invade and not to attack and he could really secure the kingdom but look at this it says a verse 20 it says him and and so that he would it says that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand so he's working with this with this wicked king of Assyria that came against them now he said well I'm gonna give you a thousand talents of silver now help me out to make sure that I remain king in this land here I'll give you some money right I'll pay your bribe money now help me stay in charge here help me be a boss kind of like how the way the mob operates right like they'll they'll help you they'll come against you and say hey we'll burn your business down if you don't pay us our money right we'll destroy you but when you start paying them then you say hey I'm gonna pay you now help me stay in business against these other people that want me out of business and they say okay yeah as long as you keep the money rolling in we'll offer our protection services right so and that's that's essentially what was happening here but look at verse number 20 it says a man am exacted the money of Israel even of all the mighty men of wealth so it's not like man am gave him a thousand of talents of his own silver he's okay well I'm gonna give you a thousand talents of silver and he taxes the rich is what he does because it says it says man am exacted the money of Israel so he took the money from Israel even of all the mighty men of wealth of each man 50 shekels of silver to give to the king of Assyria so the king of Assyria turned back and stayed not there in the land then this is what wicked governments and wicked rulers do he was interested in securing his own power he cared about himself he didn't care about the people he didn't care about what was right or wrong he cared about him being king and to do so he taxed the rich to pay off some other wicked country and they say okay I want to be in power and you're gonna pay for it and we're gonna give this money to this wicked king of Assyria I don't want to be under a ruler like that but you know what that's how so many governments operate when especially when they just ignore God's Word and they don't care about what the Bible says it's all about them and you get the the lowest and basest of men who aspire to be ruling and reigning over people verse number 21 let's keep reading here and the rest of the acts of man am and all that he did are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel and man am slept with his fathers and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead in the 50th year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of man am began to reign over Israel and Samaria and reigned two years and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel the sin now you can't get away from this how many times you see Jeroboam the son of Nebat coming up over and over and over and over and over again it's been a long time since Jeroboam the son of Nebat was even around but look at the impact that his sin was what do you do oh he just made a couple of golden calf he has made a couple of idols not that big of a deal yeah it was a big deal it plagued it plagued the nation of Israel like for their entire existence after that from from the moment they were split from Judah it plagued their land all the days because even the kings that did do right during this time at all none of them got rid of those idols none of them got rid of it they stood verse 25 let's keep reading here but Pekah the son of Remaliah a captain of his conspired against another conspiracy being made and smote him in Samaria in the palace of the king's house with Argob and Aria and with him fifty men of the Gileadites and he killed him and reigned in his room so this is the the captain of you know of the army one of the captain's one of the men of war that was fighting for him turns against him and he decides that he's going to be king so he kills Pekahiah and then verse 26 says and the rest of the acts of Pekahiah and all that he did you know they're written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel in the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel and Samaria and reigned 20 years so this is also just a notice it's in the 52nd year of Azariah and as I only reigned for 52 years so this is like the last year now we're gonna have two kings being brand new at the role of being king you have Pekah the son of Remaliah and an Azariah son are also going to be taking their office at like the same time verse 28 and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam wow that's a surprise huh departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin in the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria and took I John and Abel-Bathmaica and Genoa and Kadesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee all the land of Naphtali and carried them captive to Assyria and Osheah the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and smote him and slew him and reign in his stead in the 20th year of Jotham the son of Uzziah and the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did behold they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel in the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem his mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done how be it the high places were not removed the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places he built the higher gate of the house of the Lord what is it about these these high places and groves and idols and stuff that that just sits for so long even with people that that are you know people who do right in the sight of God we need to be careful of this and i've already preached on this in a previous week but just it's worth bringing up again i think about the high places as being something that's one has been there traditionally something that was set up before you were there so a lot of times people have a tendency to think well that's not my i mean i didn't set that up that's not my problem i didn't do that so you don't want to take care of it and make things right and that could be one of the one of the reasons why so many people just never dealt with it never took care of it or they might be thinking well it's such a part of our tradition that these things have been here a lot of people are gonna be mad about it regardless we can't have these things in our life that for whatever reason we're just gonna allow we know that they're wrong but we're gonna allow them to stand because they've been there for a long time or because people might get upset if i remove them i think in many places this is something like a television set can be like a high place in a home and just in someone's house right obviously this is talking about in the whole land and be a place where people want to worship but just something that people will can know hey there's a lot of wickedness that comes from this i don't think this is right but i mean we spend a lot of money on it or we've had it for a long time or other people in the house might freak out if i get rid of it you know whatever the case may be and they choose well we'll just ignore that and that's going to be you know you can do right in the sight of the lord but then like like god just continues to bring up but they didn't get rid of this they didn't get rid of this they didn't get rid of this and it'll be a thorn in your flesh it'll be a thorn in your children's flesh it'll be a thorn in their children because the longer you allow wickedness or sin that's crept in to stay and to sit around it it's gonna be more embedded just in your whole family to come and in generations to come you've allowed this to come in now it's going to continue and continue and continue and the longer it goes the harder it's going to be for people to just get that out and to get things right so you need to make sure that you're taking the step and say i don't care we're going to do what's right and we're going to follow the lord with our whole heart and just clean house and whatever that may be i mean this is one example right there's there's so many things that you could probably think of and it's good to just from periodically from time to time go through your own home literally go through your home and look for things that how did this even get here how you know whatever i mean you could have little idols yourself i mean people have idols and little buddhas and you know and engraving images and stuff and it's kind of like where did this come from oh i don't know someone gave it to us and we just didn't do anything with it or whatever like i mean you could have booze sitting around whatever whatever it's good to just take stock go through the house and be like you know what i want to be right in the eyes of the lord and whatever it is that i think might be offensive or might be this high place or might be a place that's going to cause sin we're just going to get rid of it because we don't need it and we're just going to do that and doing that from time to time because look i things just creep in and it's hard to even understand where they come from sometimes and you're just stuck with stuff like where was that i didn't even know i had that or one time i had you know and do i think this is some major problem no but it's just indicative of how things can happen in my old house we had i had all these cups so these plastic cups you accumulate from different places or whatever and i had these cups for years and years and years because i don't throw anything away so like i had a lot of cups from bars right and like advertising beer and whatever else on them well because for a long time i was in the world and that's what i did you know i mean i didn't i didn't have a problem with that even though i was living in sin so i had all these things but then later you know i'm getting right with god i'm going to church and everything else those cups i've had them forever so like i don't even like when i see them i don't see what's on them it's just another cup if you know what i'm saying like it's it's just become just so regular it's not even a thought and then someone else came on i remember that this actually happened someone else came over and they're like brother dave you what are you doing with it you know with this beer i'm like oh yeah i don't know what am i doing what am i doing with that yeah i should just get rid of that i might have even been using it as like a pen holder or something you know what i mean like you just use cups to but things like that can creep in and i shouldn't i mean it shouldn't be advertising alcohol and booze when i when i don't drink and i'm against it now and just have that being displayed you know in my own house now is it some major thing just in and of itself no but it could have influence on other people i mean my kids can be growing up and looking at this stuff and not maybe even knowing exactly what it is and then seeing it later and be like oh yeah that's familiar to me i know that was in our house dad allowed it so it must not have been that bad because we know that dad doesn't allow bad things in the house and this is where you can get into trouble so these little things can get can creep in that's you know and that's just one example i'm sure you can think about others good idea to get that stuff out and not allow those you know the the so-called high places or whatever that's in your life to remain and just just clean houses just get right and just keep resetting ourselves because they they creep in from all different sources so let's keep going i forgot where i was now um how be it the high places were not removed that's probably where i was verse number 35 verse number 36 now the rest of the acts of jotham and all that he did are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of judah in those days the lord began to send against judah reason the king of syria and pika the son of remeliah and jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of david his father and as his son his son reynolds said i just want to point this out notice the proximity of the bible stating that the high places were not removed and then god bringing judgment it happened at the beginning of this chapter and it happened also so like right here at the end verse 36 says now the re or um verse 35 was how be it the high places were not removed and then in verse 37 in those days the lord began to send against judah and bringing judgment the lord began to send against judah right he's bringing judgment of other people invading them and at the beginning of the chapter it was verse four save that the high places were not removed and people sacrificed and burned incense still on the high places and then verse five and the lord smote the king so that he was a leper this goes back to what i was saying about there being a point to not getting all of the details sometimes on people's lives and there being a connection drawn on the lack of information to something else so we saw with ezeriah yeah he did right and then god smote him with leprosy you know in these high places it just so happens that that's mentioned now why is that mentioned nevertheless the high places are still there we know that they're still there they were there from the person before and we're going to be there for the person after him but it's mentioned right here he did that was right to tell the lord but he didn't remove the high places and then he's played with leprosy his son did that which was right in the sight of the lord but didn't remove the high places oh and by the way now they're being invaded by another country now they're being judged by god it's there for a reason it's you know the the synopsis is there drawing the point to you can be a christian you could be saved you could even be considered someone does right in the sight of the lord but you're not above judgment from god and we need to be serious in our service in in the way that we live to make sure that we are walking as closely as we possibly can the lord and not letting anything any root of bitterness or any sin take hold in our life that we're not willing to just get rid of it get out of it let's just do what's right let's let's get those stinking high places gone they've been around for way too long and they've been causing nothing but problems ever since let's just clean house that's why i love josiah josiah was one of those kings and he was like one of the last i mean you're like almost one of the last kings before they get taken captive i can't wait till we get to josiah because i mean he was just like i mean he's cleaning house up and down like man there's all this stuff i can't believe the state we're in i can't believe you know like people have let it gotten this bad and and everything that he sees he's just trying to do his best to clean up so um i'm looking forward to that but that's the attitude that we ought to have let's bow our heads have a word of prayer dear lord we thank you so much for these great stories in the bible and i pray to please help us to gain all the wisdom and knowledge that we need that we can apply in our lives that we could use to make proper decisions dear lord i pray to please open up our eyes to these to the high places in our life lord help us to identify them that that they wouldn't be hidden because they've been around for so long that we don't just overlook things that are a problem that things that you don't like and that and that will make you angry and will bring judgment upon us lord help us to identify all these things and that we can be right with you and give us the the strength and the right spirit to to only care about doing what's right in your eyes and not um about keeping some old things around just because they're traditions lord and it's in jesus name we pray amen