Kings and Prophets 12

[0:00] We thank you for this great day you've given us. We thank you for the sunshine. Father, we thank you for your love and for your grace that you love us so much that you would send your son to die on the cross to take away our sins upon himself.

[0:15] And Father, we thank you for that. We thank you for the opportunity to come this morning, Father, and to open up your word. And Father, we just pray that we'll learn from it and we'll take it into action in our lives.

[0:29] So, Father, we just thank you this morning. We just pray for Bruce and Marie this morning and for the care for him and just guide them in all that they do and give them peace.

[0:40] So, Father, we just thank you this morning. We praise you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay. Last week we ended up with the prophet Habakkuk and his conversation with God and the fact that he just didn't understand why God was going to put Israel through this, but God just talked to him and afterwards he had a peace of mind.

[1:06] And God said, just be patient and wait. And that's what sometimes, that's what he tells us. And we don't understand what's going on. We just need to be patient sometimes and wait.

[1:17] And usually we can figure it out because God will arrange it. So, this morning we're going to be dealing with the prophet Zephaniah.

[1:29] That's in the minor prophets. And we're going to probably be talking about the last three kings and we'll be finishing up.

[1:41] So, let's get started this morning. So, Zephaniah, the southern kingdom was complacent in their wicked ways. They not only suffered under wicked kings, they also suffered under the holy judgment of God.

[1:55] Zephaniah was God's method in bringing a stern warning of the day of the Lord. Near is a great day of the Lord of the day of wrath it is. Zephaniah 1, 14 and 15.

[2:07] He has also brought a message of hope when a nation would be restored. And we'll see that. In chapters 1 and 2, Zephaniah, 20 years prior to their captivity, foretells about the looming judgment that was awaiting Judah if they did not turn back to God.

[2:24] And that's exactly what all the minor prophets were doing at that time with all these kings. And you're seeing them all right here at the end coming on board. And he also predicted the doom of heathen nations around Israel, both immediately as we see the destruction of Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria in 612.

[2:45] And in the future, we'll also see some things that happen there to us in Assyria and of course Damascus and all those, several of those countries around there. Chapter 2 describes how he'll stretch out his hands against the countries to the west, the east, the south, and the north.

[3:03] Which is happening right now. Which is, today we see many things going on in the Middle East. And in Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Judah, or Jordan, all these countries.

[3:15] And we see it on the headlines every day of the problems over there in the Middle East. And now the United States has even gotten into it. And they're sending airstrikes against these, the people over there in Iraq and Iran.

[3:31] Right. It doesn't say how, it isn't like they're going to come out on top in this, in this chapter 2. It doesn't say how necessarily because we don't know how God works. I mean, he uses other countries like us, the United States.

[3:43] But they're going to come out on top in this thing. This prophecy is that's what it is. Exactly. You watch this fall out. We're living now where we can watch this thing and look at this scripture and see if it's going to be fulfilled the way he predicts it here.

[3:58] It's interesting. I mean, it's just like back then when they were seeing miracles. You know, did they believe them? Did it impact their lives and so forth? Well, here is something to impact our lives if it follows through and carries out the way it says here in chapter 2.

[4:15] Yeah. But we're seeing that happening right now. We are seeing it happen. It's a bad time for the Middle East and for the whole world at this point. And, you know, so many people is talking about, is this the time?

[4:30] Well, who knows? We know things are getting closer. But just the type of things we see and we also know that things are already in place. The nation of Israel is already back in their home country.

[4:44] That happened back in 1948. And it's just been a progressive thing going on. And, of course, Israel has grown. They became powerful. And they're powerful enough that they can handle their own problems if it needs be.

[4:58] And we're going to see later in the prophecies that they will exactly do that. They will control the people that come against them. But God will be more in control of that.

[5:09] So, yeah, there's a lot of things that's going on there in chapter 2. It's talking about all these countries on each side of Israel. And today we're seeing the same things. So prophecy is great.

[5:22] It talks about what God has planned. And we don't know the timing of it. But we can count on it. Chapter 3 in Zephaniah, God demonstrates how he will give the sinner what they do not deserve.

[5:36] And that is, of course, mercy. And his people, the nation of Israel, they've just gone and they've came and they've gone and they came back to God.

[5:47] And chapter 3 promises that mercy will be there for them if they come back to him. Zephaniah 3.19 Behold, at the time I will deal with all of them that afflict thee.

[5:59] I will save that which is lame and gather not that which is driven away. I will make them a praise and a name whose shame hath been on all the earth. And verse 20, At that time I will bring you in and at that time I will gather you.

[6:14] For I will make you a name and praise among the peoples of the earth when I bring back your captivity before your eyes, saith Jehovah. So we have a great, great father, a great Lord, and he's going to take care of the nation of Israel.

[6:30] And he just tells the nation of Israel to wait and be patient. And sometimes we can look today and we even think, does Israel even care?

[6:42] You know? And they may not, but they're going to in the end. Yeah, Joe? If you look at the start of chapter 3 in Zephaniah, why did God bring them out victorious in this war that's going on now?

[6:56] They're going to be victorious. He's trying to bring them back to it to make them believe in him, to turn to him. I'm the one that preserves you. I'm the one that allowed you to come through this. Now, turn to me.

[7:07] Zephaniah is saying in chapter 3, turn to me. It's right when we start. Because this war of all these nations they just defeated around like it's going on now, they're going to come out on top. Hey, how do you think you've come out on top?

[7:20] It's because of me. And he says that in the first two or three verses of chapter 3 there. And of course we know, you know, they didn't, you know, they didn't see it. But that's what God's been going to do to them for ever since they started, you know.

[7:35] And they haven't come back. They will, of course, we know at that end time, chapter 3, that we just read, they will finally come to him. Yep, exactly. And that's what all the prophets are about.

[7:46] And that's to tell the people that you've fallen away and God will be with you. Just come back. And it was a hard message. A lot of them suffered from it.

[7:58] And we'll see some of that is like Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. But we'll get to him later on. But now the last three kings, Jehoiakim is the 18th king.

[8:11] And we now are going to see the first invasion and the start of the captivity of Judah here in 2 Kings chapter 22, verse 36 is where it starts.

[8:23] 2 Kings 23, verse 36. Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.

[8:38] He did evil on the side of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came up and Jericho became his servant for three years.

[8:50] Then he turned and rebelled against him. The Lord sent against him the hands of the Chaldeans, the bands of the Armenians, bands of Moabites, and the bands of Amorites.

[9:01] So he sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken through his servants and his prophets. It's during this time that some were being taken captive away, including Daniel and some of his companions.

[9:15] In this first captivity, if you see Daniel, we don't have to turn here, but Daniel chapter 1, verse 1 says, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

[9:34] Daniel 1, 2, The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, to his hands along with some of the vessels of his house of God, and he brought them to the land of Shemir, to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his God.

[9:49] So we see that in this king, we see the verse taking away of the captives. In chapter 24, verse 6, So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers and Jehoiachin, his son, became his place.

[10:09] Some of these names, they're something, aren't they? In the fourth year, Jehoiakim, the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord's name, and this is seen in Jeremiah 36, 2, that scroll and write in all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel, concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations from the day I first spoke to you from the days of Jehoiach even to this day.

[10:36] In Jeremiah 36, 23, when the officials had read three or four columns of this that Jeremiah wrote down, he cut it with scribes and ice and threw it into the fire until all the scroll was consumed.

[10:51] Now God talked to Jeremiah, he told him what to write, he wrote it down, he presented it before the king, what did they do? They didn't listen and they even became very upset and they took the scrolls and they tore them up and threw them into the fire.

[11:10] in Jeremiah 36, 40, he writes the scrolls again, he chastised and finally threw them into prison. So, he brought the word of God to them, they threw it, they burned it up and turned it into fire.

[11:24] Jeremiah left, Jeremiah rewrote the words, brought it back to the king and he threw them away again and at this point they were so upset with Jeremiah that they threw him into prison and he was treated pretty harshly during that time.

[11:39] So, Jehoiachem reigned 19 years. The second division of his captivity of Judah starts at this point.

[11:51] 2 Kings 24, 8, Jehoiachem was 18 years old and he began to reign. He did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah according to all his fathers had done.

[12:02] At the time that his servants of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up to Jerusalem and the city was besieged. 24, 11, and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came into the city with his servants and were besieging it.

[12:17] And Jehoiachem, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon. He and his mother and his servants and princes and his officers and the king of Babylon took them in the eighth year of his reign.

[12:30] He carried out all the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king's house and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon, the king of Israel, had made in the temple of Jehovah as Jehovah had said.

[12:44] So now they're coming in. They're getting into the temple. They're starting to take the gold and a lot of the things that was there during the reign of Solomon and David probably.

[12:56] This temple was a great grand place and now it's going to start being destroyed. in verse 14 of chapter 24 and he carried away all Jerusalem and all the princes and all the mighty men of valor even 10,000 captives and all the craftsmen and all the smiths none remained save the poor sort of the people of the land.

[13:18] So Nebuchadnezzar is coming in and he's taking Jerusalem and Judah and he's going to take them into captivity. So this is the second part of the captivity and he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon and the king's mother and the king's wives and his officers and the chief men of the land carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

[13:41] Among these was the prophet Ezekiel Ezekiel 1.1 Now it came to pass in the thirteenth year as I was among the captivities that the heavens were opened and I saw this vision of God.

[13:56] 1.2 in the fifth day of the month which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity Ezekiel spent his early years in Jerusalem until he was taken with the hostages into captivity.

[14:09] Ezekiel spent his early years in his ministry who was kept before the exiles and he was there to show them the sins that they had been committing and the fact that they did not turn to God so his main ministry was to those that had been taken to tell them this is what is happening and this is what happened to us.

[14:30] So 2 Kings 24.16 And all the men of might even 7,000 and the craftsmen and the spits of thousands all them strong and apt for war even the king of Babylon brought Capdeb to Babylon and the king of Babylon made Matanathiah Jehoiachin's father's brother king and his dad and he changed his name to Zedekiah So Zedekiah now is going to be the last king for the nation of Israel or for Judah He's the 20th king the third invasion of captivity and the end of the southern tribe of Israel As a puppet ruler King Zedekiah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to maintain control over Judah however he was weak and indecisive leader and often ignored the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah Now during this time

[15:31] Jeremiah was beaten thrown into jail for proclaiming God's words and they just did not treat him good at all and that's why he was called a weeping prophet because everything he tried they refused and he usually paid for it So 2 Kings 25 verse 8 Now in the fifth month of the seventh day of the month which was his 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar a servant the king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and he burnt the houses of Jehovah and the king's houses and all the houses of Jerusalem even every great house burnt he with fire can you imagine he'd just come in and destroyed everything that was there and all the armies of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem all about Jerusalem had protected by walls now the walls being teared down and the residue of the people that were left in the city and those that fell away that fell to the king of Babylon and the residue of the multitude the captain of the guard carry away a captive verse 12 but the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and husbands and the pillars of the brass were in the house of Jehovah and the bases and the brazen seats that were in the house of Jehovah did the

[16:57] Chaldeans break and they took them away verse 15 and the fire pans and the bases that was of the gold and the gold which was in silver and the silver the captain of the guard took away two pillars the one sea and the one base which Solomon had made to the house of Jehovah the brass of all these vessels were without weight and the captain of the guard took the chief priests and the keepers with the threshold verse 19 and out of the city he took an officer that was sent over the men of war and five men of them that saw the king's face who were found in the city and the scribe the captain of the host who mustered the people of the land and the three score men of the people of the land that were found in the city and the Nebuchadnezzar and the guard took them captive to Babylon and the king of Babylon smocked them and put them to death so Judah was carried away captive and to his land those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to

[18:01] Babylon and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the king of Persia verse 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its Sabbath all the days of desolation he kept Sabbath until 70 years were complete Jeremiah 40 explains that Nebuchadnezzar releases him from prison and he had the option to go to Babylon or to stay in Judah and he continued his ministry there in Judah until a rebel band of the Jews took him to Egypt as captive and there he was stoned to death in Egypt and that's how Jeremiah finally met his death after all the years of trying to prophesize and tell the nation so Judea is led into captivity the first invasion we saw and they took

[19:04] Daniel and his friends the second invasion we saw in which the king of Joherakim and a thousand people were ten thousand were taken and the third invasion where the whole nation was taken captive and taken to Babylon now we see that in chapter 36 22 and that's where the end of all the kings take place there's a tree that goes out from Cyrus after defeating the king of Babylon so we see now that the Babylonians had all this power that they were taking over all these things but we're going to see that they start losing power also and we're going to see that the Cyrus and the Persians are going to start coming in and taking care of things also so this is kind of a prophecy of what we're talking about there in chapter two of that prophet that says all the tribes south north and east of

[20:06] Israel things are going to start happening and we can see that some of this was going on at that point so now the first year of Cyrus king of Persia the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and he put it also in writing saying verse 23 thus says Cyrus king of Persia all the kingdoms of the earth have Jehovah the God of the heaven given me and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem wow does God take care of his people which is in Judah whosoever there is among you of all his people Jehovah his God be with him and let him go up so the last two verses leads us to the continuing historical account of the book of Ezra in about 538

[21:07] BC king Cyrus of Persia proclaimed that the god's temple in Jerusalem was to be rebuilt and the first group of volunteers left Babylon and fled by Zerubbiel and they go back into Israel again back into Jerusalem and they start rebuilding the temple and we see that going on now they soon meet up with the opposition from political enemies and eventually had to stop work and after about 10 years the project resumed and was finally completed in about year 516 BC now the prophet Haggai was also called by God to encourage the people to finish the construction of the temple in Jerusalem the construction had ceased because of the opposition and later on Ezra was granted permission by the next king Anatexeris to lead another group of exiles backs he found the temple nearly restored to glory but soon realized that the worship life of the remnant needed repairing so he was gone back and his main function was to get with the people and try to get them back into the worship that was necessary to be there in the temple so a lot of things was going on at this point

[22:32] Ezra along with Zebra and Nehemiah brought groups of people back into the holy city but as the other two focused mainly on rebuilding the temple and the city walls Ezra had a heart to restore the worship life of the people now we're going to get back and go to the book of Jeremiah we're not going to completely read everything here because the book of Jeremiah is one of the great prophets he had a large book just like Isaiah and Daniel so we cannot get into those books and do much but we can just do a little summary of them its purpose was to warn of the destruction that they were about to face and urge Judah to return and submit to God just like every other prophet Jeremiah warned of the destruction that he would pour out on Judah at one point God says I will not listen when they call to me because of the disaster that they have created chapters 11 through 28

[23:37] Jeremiah warned of the destruction that would be poured upon Judah chapters 29 to 38 Jeremiah writes about the new covenant and the hope that God would bring when he delivers them from the captivity so the whole book of Jeremiah deals with the fact that first he warns the nation and then he tells them that God is going to bring them back and that's exactly what we see in future years is what happens King Zedekiah that's the last king who did not heed this warning throws Jeremiah into prison and then into the cistern nevertheless Jeremiah warned that the king would fall into the hands of the king of Babylon so again all the things that was going on the kings and the the the what do I want to say the things that they threw up on Jeremiah as far as prisons and cisterns and everything else that they did to him chapter 39 to 52

[24:45] Jeremiah records the events of the fall of Jerusalem as many prophets had already announced this completes the exile both the kings of the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom and the whole nation of Israel is in captivity another one of the major prophets was Ezekiel and he was one of the captives that was taken there in the second captivity the book of Ezekiel was written to announce judgment upon Judah to allow them the one last chance to repent it was also foretold of the coming deliverance of God's nation from captivity chapters 1 through 3 God commissions his servant Ezekiel he receives visions and his messages is to comfort God's sinful people I am sending you to the sons of Israel to rebellious people who have rebelled against me they are and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day so he gives them the doom the prophecy of doom and then later on he also gives them the prophecy of coming back so in

[26:02] Ezra chapter 37 and again he said to me prophesy over these bones and say to them oh dry bones hear the word of the Lord and verse 5 thus says the Lord God to these bones behold I will cause breath to enter you that you may came to life a spiritual renewal of the nation Ezra 37 21 say to them thus says the Lord God behold I will take the sons of Israel from the nations where they have gone and I will gather them from every side and bring them back to their home own land and we see this will happen also and of course in today's time we know that that started back in 1948 when they were given the opportunity to have the nation of Israel as a state again so we see the prophecies there in Ezekiel some of the prophecies there in Ezekiel have very complicated prophecies that sometimes are hard to understand of course we don't have time to get into those today but we also see some of those in the prophet

[27:10] Daniel wrote around 530 BC his writings records the events of Babylon captivity to which Daniel was a servant it also describes the apolicic visions given by God and the events and plans of everyone's future in the future key personalities of this book includes Daniel Nebuchadnezzar Shadrach Medigo and Mashiach and Abednego and the king Dazarus the purpose of this book is to provide a historical account on how the Lord God protected and provided for his faithful followers while he was in captivity it also includes a version of the future redemption and hope so in chapters 1 through 6 Daniel writes about his own life in captivity he was selected to work with the Babylonians by King Nebuchadnezzar Daniel and his friends made bold and tough decedians and several times displayed their integrity to stand for godliness instead of culture so and we know the studies that we've done on

[28:22] Daniel how they did that you know they went into captivity their main purpose was to do what they were told but to keep the Lord the God into their life and that's exactly what they did they said we will do what you want us to do but we will do it the way God wants us to do that and of course we know with the food and everything how they refused to eat when they finally gave them the food that they eat because they said they couldn't do all the jobs with the type food they were eating they let them finally do that and they could do all the chores and they just started coming up and the king heard about it and all the things that was there and then they had divisions for the king that he went through and Daniel was able to interpret those dreams and also of course a lot of the people was against them and when they seen them in their own place worshiped

[29:24] God so they had them thrown into the lion's den and we know what happened there into the fiery pit and all the things that went along with Daniel yeah Joe many theologians think and I tend to agree with it Daniel was such a good for the Lord that even a real evil man like Nebuchadnezzar were likely to see him in heaven because of the witness of Daniel the Bible means that Nebuchadnezzar believed in his God but his problem was like most of a lot of people you know they believe in God and follow God but they tend to go back to those old gods the ones they had before and that's what Nebuchadnezzar kept doing he'd go back to those other gods but it looks like he was on the tip of things believing in Daniel our God and so a lot of people think that he was converted that he will be in heaven when we go up there yeah good possibility because

[30:31] Daniel as you go through Daniel you see the conversations that Daniel and the king had and yeah okay chapter 7 contained the visions of Daniel received from God and the events that are involved in his prophetic ministry a portion of these includes the results of the earthly kingdom that he lived in they also mentioned the coming Bizziah and the apocalyptic events to come as for me I hear but could not understand so I said my Lord what will be the outcome of these events and he said go your way Daniel for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end of time what do you think he meant by that they're sealed up until the end of time everything is going to become open to us at the end of the time isn't it everything for the nation of

[31:34] Israel they're going to start understanding everything for the all the events that's going on will be understood good we were a secret that God held until his time yeah so a lot of the things that of course Daniel prophesized on we're not going to have to worry about but so Daniel was taking my king Nebuchadnezzar into captivity Daniel and his friends appointing his leaders over the nation and after interpreting their dreams Daniel was condemned with his friends and sent to a fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar frees them and all when he sees that the angel in the furnace protecting them from the flames now I don't know how you could do anything but believe if you see three men walk into a fiery furnace and you see them walking around and you see an angel in there how could you not believe of course we know that Nebuchadnezzar believed because he had them brought out he interprets the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar his madness he interprets rotting on the wall

[32:52] Daniel was thrown into the lion's den by the new king and Daniel was restored and his and has a vision of the four beasts and the seventy weeks of the year and of course that talks about the end days Joe that's why it makes the bible so believable so true because he predicted all the kingdoms that were coming down the line like in our history most of us have all studied some history at least in high school the Greek empire the Roman empire that was all predicted back then by him you know reading his never together it all came about it all came about just like he said I mean if you can't believe this word when you see something predicted and it comes true it's true nothing like that that's why that Zephaniah that prophecy about the war that's going on right now yeah yeah well the whole book the whole book is laid out in a fantastic way it shows history all the way through and that's a lot of people they read the Bible but all they read is the

[34:22] Gospels and man if you just read the Gospels you're missing so much of God's word and the history of God and what he did with a chosen nation and what now he's doing with a I guess the secret part of his thing and that's for the Gentile nations because Israel never stood up and took apart so he put them on hold and now of course the life that we live and the fact that all we have to do is believe where before God had laid out the requirements and now all we have to do is just believe that Jesus Christ died on that cross for me and accept him into our life and we have that new eternal life there are three minor prophets wrote after Judah returned after the exile the book of Zechariah post return the purpose of this book is that Zechariah wrote to encourage the remnant who had recently returned from exile their faith in God was weak and they were not motivated to rebuild a temple they needed to learn and conform to the law of

[35:36] God again so even after being in captivity they came back and they still they still just don't understand completely so that's what the prophet Zechariah his prophet was for and of course the last prophet of the Bible in the last book of the Old Testament is Malachi post return to Judah the people's enthusiasm had wore off and they again backslid in their worship of the true God oh can that be prophecy I am sending my messenger and he will clear the way before me and he was talking about John the Baptist so again all this stuff that was happening through the kings and all the prophets they were sent into captivity and they came back and now again we have the the post prophets come in because the people still will not take God at his word and that's then we have what the Old

[36:43] Testament spanned 1500 years the period of the kings in writing prophets spanned from 1050 to 432 600 years of that 1500 years the kings only ruled into 586 and that's when the captivity came in whereas the prophets continued to preach and write to the needs of the nation of Israel for another 150 years you know God was with these people he tried to stay with them he warned them given them prophets he gave them kings that was not God's idea the nation said give me a king so he gave them kings and all that for not because they came down to where they were held captive and even that did not take care of it so the Old Testament closes with after Malachi's prophecy and some call the next 400 years the silent years and that's only because there's nothing written until we get to the Roman

[37:49] Empire and that's of course that starts the what most call the New Testament and I'm not sure whether it's exactly the start of the New Testament or it's later on during Paul's ministry that we get the newness or the new right so during those 400 years that's I don't think it's silent because there are history and other recordings out there that Judah continues to be led by other nations like Persia Alexander the Great Egypt and the Maccabees and of course Rome so we know God is still dealing with the nation of Israel although other people are leading him now because of their unbelief and during the 400 years we see different Jewish religious groups come about like the Pharisees the Sadducees and the scribes and when we get into the New Testament of course the birth of John the Baptist and the coming of

[38:51] Jesus onto the scene and of course we know that Jesus came in he lived his life and eventually he gave his life for us that we could become his sons the Lord's sons and all we have to do is believe upon Jesus and use him as a gateway to God because God looks at us just like he looks at Jesus Christ and the fact that he came and he raised him to his right hand and we also will be raised and what a glorious truth that is Joe yeah he deals with us now individually not as a nation but individually correct and that's the key you know this prophecy thing there's no mention of the United States now you wonder well why I mean we're the powerful country here in this world why are we not disregard in there think about this the statement that a nation divided falls and what are we more right now becoming a nation divided divided

[40:04] I mean it's in the news now all the time we are divided and that's probably only going to get worse until we're going to fall the United States as we know it now is going to fall not even be a player in the end times which Daniel and then Revelations talk about we're not even going to be a player the European countries are still going to be there are 10 European countries that make up the Roman they're going to be a player there but the United States is not even going to be a player you can see it coming on with what's going on in our country right now it's easy to understand it is our country is facing a lot of troubles and more troubles are on the way yes and we don't know what's going to happen on the end days we definitely don't know what's going to happen with our country I mean it's been a leader all the for years ever since it was established and I think the main reason for that was why because when they came to this country they believed in God and the government was started for those who believed in God even though some take it out of the textbooks that is the history of this country is that they believed in God and now we're getting further and further away what countries would be blessed

[41:30] Abraham what countries would be blessed those that supported Israel would be blessed the United States has been their number one person to support them to bless them up until now you notice there's a lot of the United States that no longer blesses Israel and supports Israel so okay is God going to bless us continue to bless us like he has I don't think so I don't think so yeah that's future we'll see what we'll see what brings us about we see that on a daily basis Roger one of the things that stood out to me in this study we read about these kings and so many of them did evil inside of the Lord but back in Deuteronomy God said look once you're established in the land you're going to want a king and he told him some specifics.

[42:31] He said, your king shouldn't be multiplying wives and gold and horses for himself, but he also told him what he should be doing.

[42:44] And it's a lesson for me, I think, not that I have to copy the scripture, but God told him in Deuteronomy chapter 17, God said, look, the king, his first order of business is to take the scroll of the law and write for himself his own copy.

[43:07] He's supposed to copy that scroll for himself, and he's supposed to read it every day. That would help me avoid a lot of problems if I paid attention to God's word.

[43:20] Yeah, on a daily basis. Amen. And a good example of that is, you know, the scrolls and everything, they were lost.

[43:32] The king Josiah, they found the scrolls and they brought them to him, and at that point he read it to the people, and it affected him, and it also affected the people. But unless you stay with those scrolls, and just like us today, unless we stay in this Bible, it falls away, doesn't it?

[43:52] It falls away, and it can fall away very quickly. And use it for every aspect of your life. Yeah. Every aspect of your life, whatever it is.

[44:03] You base it on this and follow this. You know, there's men out there, you know, great men out there that have these great ideas about this, and this is the way it's just to work.

[44:14] No, no, no, no. The best, the ideas of how things make work is right here. The answer is right there. You don't have to wait and place out. The answer is in the Word of God. And this study is all this part of the kings, all the kings that were written about.

[44:31] So all 2 Kings, and from there all the way to the rest of the Bible, is all contained in this time period. And sometimes new people, they start studying the Word of God.

[44:43] They get very confused because of all the stuff that looks like it's going on. And really, it's all compartmentized because all the prophets were there during the time of the kings, and all this stuff was going on at the same time.

[44:57] So really, we're just talking about a period of 600 years that all this stuff that was written, but when you see the Bible, when you see all the books, it kind of gets confusing, and you wonder, wow, how am I ever going to get a handle on this?

[45:11] And I hope that I was able to bring that about during this study, and that was the purpose for it. So any other questions before we close? All right.

[45:24] We'll see you next week. And next week, we're going to be doing what? We're going to start on a video series. Les Felder.

[45:35] Les Felder. Les Felder. We'll start a video series, I think, next week. And I think it's going to be on just a part of Acts, right? Which should be interesting.

[45:46] Les has had a great ministry, still has a great ministry, and it's still going today on TV, on radio. You can get it on the Internet. Still buy the books and the CDs.

[45:59] So we'll see you next week. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.