Ronald L. Dart continues his detailed walk through the divided kingdom of Israel, showing how the slow abandonment of God’s revealed form of worship led to rising violence, political instability, and national collapse. From King Amaziah’s early obedience and later arrogance, to the long reign and tragic fall of Uzziah, the program tracks how high places, idolatry, and moral compromise quietly reshaped the nation.
As Dart moves through the violent succession of Israel’s later kings—Jeroboam II, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah—the pattern becomes unmistakable: altered worship leads to broken morality, which leads to assassination, cruelty, and loss of freedom.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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It was 126 years after the death of Solomon, after the division of the kingdom of Israel into two houses, the house of Israel and the house of Judah. A man named Amaziah came to the throne to rule for 29 years. Now, to give you a feeling for the passage of time, if you count forward from the Declaration of Independence, which was a similar sort of division between us and Great Britain, just like it happened between the house of Israel and the house of Judah. That 126 years would bring you to 1902, just to give you a feeling for the passage of time. The comparable time period for his reign was 1902 to 1931. If you will use Usher’s chronology, that’s the year 849 B.C. Amaziah, according to 2 Kings 14, did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not quite like David his father. He did do all the stuff that Joash, his father, did. Now note, he doesn’t hearken back to Solomon to look for the example that he failed to lead up to. He goes to David. Now we all know what a rounder David was at times. We know that he was a bloody man. We know that he had a man killed after he had committed adultery with his wife. We know all this stuff. So what does it mean when we look back to David as a kind of archetype? Well, the key element with David is that while he did sin and was chastised for it, David never allowed idolatry to flourish, and he never served any other god. Thus, when David went astray, when he sinned, the way back to God, the way to forgiveness and restoration was always open to him. However, this king Amaziah did not take away the high places. As yet, the people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places. The high places had been important centers of worship for the Canaanites, but they had been mostly destroyed as Israel entered the land. So you’ll understand what’s involved with this. Reading from the Holman Bible Dictionary by an article by Gary Smith, who said, “…the average high place would have had an altar, a carved wooden pole that depicted the female goddess of fertility, the Asherah, a stone pillar symbolizing the male deity, other idols, and some kind of building. At these places of worship the people sacrificed animals.” At some high places, children were sacrificed, according to Jeremiah. They burned incense to their gods. They prayed. They ate sacrificial meals. They were involved with male and female cultic prostitutes. Although most of the high places were part of the worship of Baal, the Ammonite god of Molech, the Moabite god Chemosh, were also worshipped at similar high places. Scripture speaks negatively, and that puts it mildly, about these heathen places of worship. Still, they played a central role in the lives of most of the people who lived in Palestine before the land was defeated by Joshua. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of high places at Megiddo, Gezer, and numerous other sites. Now, I don’t know why the Bible isn’t more explicit about what went on at these sites. We know what went on from archaeology, but perhaps it was because they knew that these scriptures would be read by or read to children, that they did not go all the way down the line telling you what happened there. This was much more than burning a little incense. It was the involvement with male and female prostitutes in these sites. And if history was followed, many of these children were temple slaves. That is, they were sold into temple prostitution while they were still children, little girls and little boys. Now, you have to know this in order to understand the fury that God had with people for what they did in these places and why he was so angry about it. In some cases, children were sacrificed outright. Well, it came to pass as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in Amaziah’s hand, He slew his servants who had slain the king, his father. Well, that makes sense. That’s a lot of justice involved in that. The children of the murderers he did not slay. He didn’t do it because of what’s written in the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. You’ll find that law in Deuteronomy 24. Verse 16, so here’s a case where a king at least knows the law and is at least allowing the law to direct his reign in part. Well, he got busy and slew the Edomites down in the Valley of Salt, 10,000 men. He took Sila by war and changed the name of it to Joktil. Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let’s look one another in the face. You know, early success in war can breed a lot of complacency. You can just get a little bit too cocky. And after Amaziah had done that, he got a little big for his britches. And he decided, I know what I’ll do. I’ll just take over the northern tribes as well, and we’ll put an end to all this division that’s been all these years. Well, he forgot that the division that took place took place at the hand of God. It was done for a purpose. So anyway, Jehoash responded to him. He says, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son to wife. And there passed by a wild beast in Lebanon and trod down the thistle. Now you have smitten Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Take pride in that and stay home. Why should you meddle to your hurt that you should fall, even you and Judah with you? The image he draws is fascinating. He says, here is this little old thistle on the ground, and it’s trying to negotiate with a great cedar tree. And while the negotiations are going on, an animal comes along and stomps the thistle into the ground. He says, you know, you’re not big enough for this. Okay, you whipped the Edomites, but you’ve got to bear in mind they were Edomites. So go away. Go home. Stay home. But Amaziah wouldn’t listen. And some people, when they get the bit between their teeth, aren’t going to listen. So Jehoash the king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah king of Israel looked one another in the face at Beth Shemesh. And Judah was put to the worst before Israel, and they fled, ran every man to his tent. And Jehoash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, didn’t kill him, just captured him, He also then came to Jerusalem. He broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, about 400 cubits of this thing. He took all the gold, all the silver, all the vessels that were found in the house of the Lord, all the treasuries. He took some hostages also and returned to Samaria. I guess he left Amaziah behind. The rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, his might, how he fought with Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles, the kings of Israel? He was quite a fellow. Well, Jehoash slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. Jeroboam, his son, reigned in his stead. Now we’ve come to year 135. It’s been 135 years since Solomon died. We are somewhere by comparison in our own era from the Declaration of Independence to the date in question, 1911. If you’re looking at Usher’s chronology, it’s 840 B.C., Well, Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived after the death of Jehoaz, king of Israel, 15 more years. The rest of the acts of Amaziah, well, they also are written in the books of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. However, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he ran for his life to Lachish. They sent after him to Lachish and slew him there. And they brought him back on horses. Kind of an interesting thought. Why bother mentioning how you brought him back? Well, horses in those days were weapons of war. There’s no record of a horse being used in any way, shape, form, or fashion for agriculture. They were like tanks. And so by bringing him back on horses, there is the symbol of his warfare. And one rather thinks that perhaps it was his arrogance, perhaps it was his foolishness, his stupidity, that finally the people of Jerusalem had had enough of Amaziah. So they brought him home and buried him in Jerusalem in the city of his fathers. And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. This, by the way, is the king known also as King Uzziah. It’s important to know they did not kill Amaziah’s sons. Amaziah’s belligerence finally became more than the people were willing to bear. And so, they cut it off. Stay with me. I’ll be right back after this important message. But grab a pencil and a piece of paper. I want to give you a number and an address.
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When Amaziah had been on the throne for 15 years, a new king comes on the throne in the house of Israel. His name is Jeroboam. He’s the son of Joash. We’re looking at Jeroboam II one more time. He had a long reign. He started in the year 150 of the divided kingdom, ran to the year 201. since Solomon’s death. That would be from 825 B.C. to 784 B.C. And if we continue our comparison to our own time, that’s like the time between, if we start counting with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, these are the years between 1926 and 1967, just to give you a feel for how long this kingdom had been there. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. Again and again this formula comes back, and it’s important. What Jeroboam did was to set up alternate centers of worship, sort of like high places in the north. He changed the festivals. He changed the Sabbath. He changed the whole nine yards of these people and cut them off from God to prevent them from going back to Jerusalem, to prevent their hearts from turning back to God, and from, of course, uniting the kingdom again and killing him. He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the Sea of the Plain. According to the word of the Lord God of Israel that he spoke by his servant, Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was of Gath-Hefer. Yeah, this is the same Jonah we read about who was swallowed by the great fish. That’s another story for another day. But Jonah was around. He was a prophet. He was giving God’s word to people before he ever encountered that fish. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel. It was very bitter. There was not any shut up or left or any helper for Israel. And the Lord said he did not want to blot out the name of Israel under heaven. So he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, whom he really didn’t like very much. It was the little people, I think, that God was concerned about. The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, all that he did, and his might, how he warred, how he recovered Damascus, would you believe, and Hamath, which belongs to Judah, for Israel. Isn’t all this written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel, and Zechariah his son reigned in his stead. Now we’ve come to year 201. It’s been 201 years when he dies since the death of Solomon and the division of the kingdom. We’re about 784 B.C. Now the scene shifts back to Judah, and it ratchets back just a little bit in time. In the 27th year of Jeroboam—this is 2 Kings 15— In the seventh year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Azariah, the son of Amaziah, the king of Judah, began to reign. So Amaziah is dead. Uzziah, or Azariah, he uses both names, begins to reign. The boy was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem. Now, this is fascinating because you get the feeling that the elders in Jerusalem decided that his dad had just gone way too far, had cost a lot of lives, cost a lot of property, a lot of treasure, and they didn’t want to have it anymore. And here’s this boy, 16 years old, good kid. So they dispose of his father, put the boy in at 16 years old while he is still pliable and can be trained. And they produced out of this a pretty good king, starting with age 16. It begins in 164 years after the death of Solomon, which would kind of work out to be along about 1940 by the comparison that we’re drawing. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done, except for one thing. These blasted high places were not taken away. People still sacrificed, still burned incense on the high places. Now, this is the period of time in which the prophet Amos begins to work. You might make a little note for yourself. This is a good time to stop and read what Amos had to say. It’s a short book, and you fit him into this, this time period, and the things he had to say. Well, the Lord smote the king, so he was a leper to the day of his death. It’s a sad thing to have happen to a man like Uzziah. It just began raining at 16. We don’t know at what age he became a leper. But he dwelt in a several house, and Jotham, the king’s son, took over as regent, judging the people in the land. Now, this is one of those areas where if you’re trying to do your own independent chronology of this, you’re going to get a little confused. You’ll have to work pretty hard at it to sort out the details, because it will give you lengths of reigns of the kings that overlap due to the fact that Uzziah had not died. Jotham, his son, was regent during this time. Well, the rest of the acts of Azariah and all he did, they’re written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. So Azariah, also known as Uzziah, slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David. Jotham, his son, reigned in his stead. Now the scene shifts back to Samaria. This going back and forth has got to be confusing to most readers, but you have to work your way through it. The story now begins to tighten like a noose around the necks of the kings of Israel. In the 38th year of Azariah, the king of Judah, did Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam II, reign over Israel and Samaria for six months. Six months. We are again about the year 2002 since the death of Solomon. 773 B.C. If you go back to our little model of starting with the Declaration of Independence and our separation from the Crown of England, all the way forward, the same time would bring us to 1978. Starting to creep up on us, isn’t it? The prophet Hosea begins to work in the house of Israel about this time. Now we have the second writing prophet coming on the scene. He’s followed closely by Isaiah, who’s prophesying in Judah at this time. And I need to remind you of something. Prophets don’t come on the scene when everything is going well and people are doing the right thing. I can’t think of a single time in the Bible where God had to send a prophet to tell people, hey, you people are doing okay. No. When they were keeping the law, when they were doing what they’re supposed to do, he didn’t figure they needed a pat on the head for that. They were only doing what was required and what was good for them. The only time he ever sent a prophet was when things were going south. Zechariah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just like his fathers. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. We’re back to that again. that he changed the worship of God and took God out of the people’s lives. Six months into his reign, Shalom, the son of Jabesh, conspired against him and killed him before the people and slew him and reigned in his stead. The rest of the Acts of Zacharias, behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel. You know, the thing that you see happening here is the level of violence just keeps on rising higher and higher. Remember the old song, it’s knee-deep, high and rising. Well, this one is getting up toward the neck now. Of the last five kings of Israel, if memory serves, four of them were assassinated. No one was dying in his bed in these days. Stay with me. There’s more of the story.
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I’ll be right back after this message. For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Kings No.
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21.
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Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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King Uzziah had been reigning for 30 years down in Judah. Shalom, the son of Jabesh, began to reign in Israel, and he reigned a full month. I can’t help but feel that whoever wrote this down in the first place must have had his tongue in his cheek at this point. He didn’t say he reigned a month. He said he reigned a whole month. And I gather at this time in that kingdom, that was really kind of impressive. For Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah, came to Samaria, and smote Shalom, the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him and reigned in his stead. You know, you’ve got to think about this a little bit. Here is a nation whose initial sin, the sin that keeps being repeated again and again and again all through here, was to change the form of the worship of God. I want you to think about that. There is a designated form of worship that’s designed to keep people aware of who their God is, even keep them aware of who He is by name. Why is this important? Because if you don’t look to that God as the revealer of all knowledge, the revealer of law, of right and wrong conduct, you completely lose any standards for moral behavior. And where does that go? Well, it goes to the mountaintops, to the groves, to sacrificing your own children, to whatever kind of God there is around. Perhaps it leads to burning your children on an altar. Perhaps it involves selling your children to be prostitutes, little boys and little girls. Maybe it goes there. And one thing we know for sure, in the process of time, it leads inexorably to violence. The rest of the acts of Shalom and his conspiracy which he made, well, they’re written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. Israel has entered into perhaps the most violent and bloody phase of its history. having separated themselves from God, they were on a moral toboggan slide to oblivion. Then Menahem spoke Tiphshah, all that were there, the coast thereof from Tirzah, because they wouldn’t open the gates to him. So he smote it, and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up. The cruelty, the violence, goes way beyond anything I can get my mind around. I hope it stays that way for a while longer. But there are so many times I feel like we’re walking down the same road. We have abandoned the form of the worship of God. We have begun to abandon the morals of God. We won’t allow public prayer to God. We won’t allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed in our courthouses. And one wonders, we’re killing children. Oh, sure. I mean, you have to understand that abortion is the death of a child who would be born It is the death of a human life, and when people are practicing partial birth abortion, when part of the little rascal is out of the womb, not all of him, and part of him is still inside, they kill that child at that point. It was Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who called it infanticide. How did we get here? Well, we got here traveling down the same road that this northern house of Israel traveled all those years after they cut themselves off from the worship of God. It took them a little longer than it’s been for us from 1776, but they went that way. In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah, began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel. He reigned ten years. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And guess what? He did not depart all his days from the sins of who? Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. Now here comes, pull the king of Assyria against the land. And Menahem gave him a thousand talents of silver. He exacted money out of Israel of all the mighty men of Israel. Each man 50 shekels of silver to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and didn’t stay in the land. He was bought off because they no longer had what it took to fight for their freedom. The rest of the acts of Menahem and all he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Menahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead. Now just to remember where we are. This is 214 years after the death of Solomon and the divided kingdom. The year is 761 B.C. And if we count forward from the Declaration of Independence, we have come to 1990. In the 50th year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekahiah began to reign over Israel and Samaria, and he lasted two years. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He departed not from the sins of, guess who? Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. This just gets being drummed home again and again and again. And what was it? They abandoned the correct, revealed form of worship of God. Pekah, the son of Remaliah, a captive of his, conspired against him and smote him in Samaria in the palace of the king’s house with Argab and Ariah and with him 50 men of the Gileadites. They killed him and took over the throne. Violence and assassination rules in Samaria in this age. I believe, if memory serves, four of the last five kings of Israel died by assassination. The rest of the acts of Pekahiah, all that he did, they’re written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. In the 52nd year of Azariah, the king of Israel, Pekah, the son of Remaliah, began to reign in Samaria and reigned for 20 years. And guess what he did? He did what was evil on the side of the Lord. He departed not from the sins of who? Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who sinned and made Israel to sin. In the days of Pekah, the king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, came and took several cities that were there, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. Do I need to tell you what happened to Pika?
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Maybe next time. I’m Ronald Dart. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
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