(Exiled), The Loss of a Kingdom

- Lessons the Hard Way

My father tells a story about a time when he and a friend of his were very young.

My grandfather had trained them on the responsible practice and uses guns.

My father said that what my grandfather emphasized greatly was “Never to point a gun at anyone, regardless of whether is is loaded or not.”

That’s good advice.

As a matter of fact, I remember vividly many times my father would go to lengths even to spank of whenever he caught on of us pointing our play guns at each other.

You know, like playing “cops and robbers or Cowboy’s & Indians”

And the reason why he was so adamant, and strict about that rule,

Was because on one occasion, when he was probably around 10-12 years old.

He had a very close friend were admiring my grandfather’s new hand gun.

When, he jokingly pointed the what he thought was unloaded, at his friend and pulled the trigger.

PAUSE

Yes, to his nightmarish reality, the gun went off.

Praise be to God however, that because he wasn’t truly pointing at him, the bullet whizzed past the friends ear.

The fright caused his young friend to pass out or faint from the shock falling face down on the floor in front of my father.

It took everyone a moment as you can understand to recover from the “What could’ve been” scenario.

It is safe to say that my father and his friend, (Whose friendship he lost that day), learned that life altering,

Life saving message, that day.

The boy’s mother would no longer allow them to be friends.

Crisis avoided.

Praise God, not everyone gets a second chance like that.

At least, my father learned from that lesson and it changed his life.

That’s what we would expect from lessons in life, correct?

To learn from them.

Just as my father was warned by his father multiple, and many times,

It took near catastrophe to get him to understand and obey

- King Manasseh

His experience reminds me of Evil king Manasseh of Judah.

At this point in Biblical history, Israel and their brothers in Judah are separated.

The kingdom of David and Solomon are divided,

Israel to the north, and Judah to the south.

But both have been sent multiple prophets warning them over and over again of the coming destruction if they didn’t change their disobedience.

They rejected all of the prophets that came crying in the streets, like Jeremiah, whom they called the weeping prophet, They reject Isaiah, and others.

And although both north and south disobeyed God’s Word and commands,

Let’s talk about one of the last kings of Judah, Manasseh’s and his experience first.

2 Kings 21:1–6 (CSB)

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and served them. 4 He built altars in the Lord’s temple, where the Lord had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put my name.” 5 He built altars to all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. 6 He sacrificed his son in the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a huge amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, angering him.

So he was an evil King, just about as evil as King Ahab.

Which is a sad contrast to Hezekiah his father who was probably one of the best kings.

We later see that God has had enough, and issues this proclamation through whom most believe was the prophet Isaiah among others.

Which is probably one of the reasons tradition holds, that Manasseh was the one who killed Isaiah by sawing him in two.

(https://ref.ly/logosres/tpc23?ref=Page.p+ii&off=2944)

2 Kings 21:13–15 (CSB)

13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have angered me from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until today.’ ”

God promises do away with them all, because they didn’t keep obedience to His Word.

Now, we have heard it before, “God says what He means, and means what He says” AMEN

Well, we learn in 2 Chronicles, that king Manasseh got a wake up call, and a taste of what was to come and unlike king Ahab, he repented.

2 Chronicles 33:10–13 (CSB)

10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they didn’t listen. 11 So he brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon. 12 When he was in distress, he sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. 13 He prayed to him, and the Lord was receptive to his prayer. He granted his request and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. So Manasseh came to know that the Lord is God.

The king of Assyria was probably Ashurbanipal but we aren’t sure.

- Off to Assyria

We do know he served Assyria as a vassal.

Assyria, in those times was named after the highest god in their pantheon, by the name of Ashur

(https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-student-manual-kings-malachi/enrichment-d?lang=eng)

This should have served as an effective preview of what was to come, but history tells us that although Manasseh repented,

And tried to right some of the wrongs he’d committed by tearing down the altars he’d built

And urged the people to worship only Yaweh,

But they didn’t obey and eventually joined the northern kingdom in the experience of being Exiled from their homeland.

When the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzer invaded Judah for the last time and destroyed the temple and left Jerusalem in shambles in around 586 B.C.

2 Kings 18:9–12 (CSB)

9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Assyria’s King Shalmaneser marched against Samaria and besieged it. 10 The Assyrians captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Israel’s King Hoshea, Samaria was captured. 11 The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and put them in Halah, along the Habor (Gozan’s river), and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did not listen to the Lord their God but violated his covenant—all he had commanded Moses the servant of the Lord. They did not listen, and they did not obey.

That was it for the wicked northern kingdom of Israel, they were carried away in “EXILE”

They were absorbed by the Assyrians, and those who were able to stay, married into the Assyrians and became the people of Samaria

Half breeds, of Jews and Assyrians.

These are who the Samarian peoples were of Jesus’ time.

So, Judah had to watch their brothers be carted off to strange lands,

You would think this was enough to teach them the lesson God wanted them to learn.

Obey or you will lose your kingdom.

If you obey, God will protect your kingdom as he did for the good obedient king Hezekiah.

- Hezekiah’s Prayer

Ten years later, Manasseh’s father, King Hezekiah, the good king was threatened by invasion of Assyria’s next king Sennacherib in around 701 B.C.

Manasseh’s father, King Hezekiah, went to the Lord prayer, basically saying, Lord, here’s what he said,

What are you going to do about it?

He also took and spread out the threatening letter from King Shalmaneser of Assyria, and pleaded before the Lord

for protection from this destruction.

You know, I often follow this example, by bringing our financial reports here to the altar and spreading it out to the Lord as well.

So, Anna First Baptist Church thanks you all for your loyal tithing and generous giving.

May God multiply your blessings, for your contributions help us to continue maintaining the building and services.

With the kingdom under threat of destruction from Assyria, who had just annihilated Israel, the northern kingdom,

- Judah Protected

God said, “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got this. Im going to send them packing.”

2 Kings 19:35–37 (CSB)

35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.

37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.

This was in response to prayers from a man who did what was right in the sight of the Lord.

God heard the petition on his heart, and God reacted by not only removing the enemy, but sending it back to where it came from.

Here was an enemy that had already decimated all of the nations around it,

Ten years earlier, it completely eradicated the northern kingdom by sending it into the pages of history.

But God put a hook in its nose, and turned them back to where they came from.

Brothers and sisters of Anna First Baptist Church,

When you are running the kingdom of your life and your house, and you are doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord, there is protection from the Lord.

Sometimes the protection is happening all around us and we don’t know it.

Do you know why?

Because you are being protected from it.

But sometimes, in life, we somehow find ourselves battling enemies from every front and we can’t figure out why.

When you go through times like that, I would ask

Are you doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord?

You see, we live in this world, but we aren’t supposed to be of this world.

In the flow of life it is easy to get caught up in following the leader of this world

Meaning, its easy to let your our guard down and began doing things like the world around us is doing

Just going on about our lives without considering if these things we do offend God,

Or if, whom we do them with offends God.

When we step out of the will of God, we also step outside of the protection of God.

And when we willfully step outside the will of God, not only does He remove His protection, but He sends destruction upon us.

- Why The Kingdom Fell

Please follow along in reading about the reason for the destruction of Israel

2 Kings 17:7–14(CSB)

8 They lived according to the customs of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites and according to what the kings of Israel did. 9 The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. They built high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 11 They burned incense there on all the high places just like the nations that the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did evil things, angering the Lord. 12 They served idols, although the Lord had told them, “You must not do this.” 13 Still, the Lord warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commands and statutes according to the whole law I commanded your ancestors and sent to you through my servants the prophets.”

So, it’s pretty detailed as to why Israel and Judah lost their kingdom.

Verse 8, They did what the people around them were doing,

Do we do that sometimes? Just go with the flow? Do we have that, Everybody else is doing it mentality?

Verse 9, Do we do secret things against the Lord?

That’s a good question. But it’s one that no one can answer but you! Remember, you can’t fool God.

Verse 10, Have you set up pillars or worldly standards by which you are gauging or judging yourselves?

Meaning, you have your own system of right and wrong your are following?

Verse 11, Are you supporting these Worldly pillars?

Financially, or encouragingly?

Verse 12, Do you serve idols?

Meaning, do you do things to continue benefiting from what ever it is you are doing? Do you prop them up?

If we learn anything from the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, its this:

If we don’t follow and obey the Lord’s Word,

- Can We Lose Our Kingdom?

We are at risk of losing our kingdom.

What Kingdom you ask?

The kingdom that was promised to us by receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior when He died for us in the cross.

That’s right.

Our kingdom is not of this world,

But if you step outside of the will of God, in rebellion to His Word,

you are not only at risk of destruction, but at risk of losing the kingdom completely and being carried away by

the evil kings of this world instead of being spared by the kingdom of heaven

What is hell after all?

If not, “Exile from the Kingdom of God.”

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