Despising His Words:

A Liturgical message of 2 Kings chapter 25…

Wherein we will be looking at the end of the life of Zedekiah and his sons, as well as the country and house which he ruled over the land and house of Judah. We will be considering the prophetic warning of GOD in this message as it applies to a heart, mind and soul that has not humbled themselves to the Word of the LORD YHWH. We will consider the importance and the gift of having divine revelation, the Word of God as contained in the holy Scripture, as well we will consider the importance of the lesson the histories of our people Israel can teach us in terms of the Justice of God, His Righteousness in punishing evil in whatsoever way He had deemed fit, as well as our responsibility before Him to confess our sin and unrighteousness in humility before utterance of his Holy Law.  

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Delivered on 5-8-2022 / grego. 9-4-2022

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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com

Despising His Words

(Liturgical message from 2 Kings 25:8)

2Ki_25:1  And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.
2Ki 25:2  And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
2Ki 25:3  And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
2Ki 25:4  And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.
2Ki 25:5  And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.
2Ki 25:6  So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.
2Ki 25:7  And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.
2Ki 25:8  And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:
2Ki 25:9  And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.
2Ki 25:10  And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.
2Ki 25:11  Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.
2Ki 25:12  But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

2Ch 36:11  Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:12  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD.
2Ch 36:13  And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.
2Ch 36:14  Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:15  And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:

2Ch_36:16  But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised H959 his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

Example of despising

Gen_25:34  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised H959 his birthright.

Gen 25:34 in LXX

Brenton:
“…so Esau slighted his birthright.”

ABP
“And Esau treated as worthless the rights of the first-born.”

To despise has  a fairly straight forward meaning, but there is an interconnection I’d like toy to consider in the life of Esau, Esau truly was the first born and the Law of God gave him a ‘right’ that made him responsible before God and his father Isaac to perform in faith in a particular way, but due to his lack of faith as we both see in Genesis and are told of by the book of Hebrews, Esau “sought carefully with tears” what he lost but these tears were not tears of faith but tears faithlessness, they were not tears of humility before God, but of pride having been wounded.
Esau despised his rights given him by his birth so much that hunger could stop his faith unlike Abraham or Jacob for that matter, whatever Esau had in his tears was so much lesser than what Jacob had in his desire to be counted as first born that Jacob is counted the heir by his lack of despising the Word, and that was a humility of obedience to his father and mother that had it interconnection in His faith in his father’s God.

As Christians we are called “first-fruits unto Gd”… Like the first born; and we are also said to be of the “Church of the first-born”, and my question in contemplating today’s liturgical remembrance and with the descriptor of despisal from the life of Esau is this:
” If you call yourself a Christian, and therefore are claiming to be in the Church of the First-born, and are therefore a type of first-born unto God, being in His Church, do you humble yourself at His Word? That is, are you humbled at the hearing of the revelation and oracles of God, at the Law of God particularly? at the examples of His Law in the histories of Israel as recorded by the Holy Prophets, and in the examples of its learning in the books of Wisdom? As well, now that we have a completed canon, are you humbled by the Word of the LORD or are you in despisal of it by slighting its use and counting worthless it’s application by the life we live as Christians?”

An Example of despising the Law as God’s Word

Num_15:29  Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.
Num 15:30  But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Num 15:31  Because he hath despised H959 the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.

Paul tells us this of the Scripture which he possessed in their unfinished form writing in the 1st century

Rom_15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

It is important ot meditate with me on the meaning of these words:

written Scripture is

• for our learning
• that we through patience
• that we through comfort
• that we might have hope.

The Holy Spirit is the comforter, and the Spirit of truth that helps all our infirmities and brings us hope in his ghostly of guest-ly divine person as an indwelling Spirit, and when we read anything written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that Paraclete and Heavenly guest or ghost identified with His own Words and gives us all these aids heretofore mentioned, because by humility to the word and the not despising of the Word we are witness that we are Christs, and have those rights Esau despised as a type of the ‘First-born’.

The book of 2 timothy tells us that:

2Ti_3:15  ….the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

That is that every word of God when mixed with faith in Christ it has the ability to profit us

in doctrine– that is to give us learning specificly a platform for learning, and a continuation of learning.

for reproof– that is like a child is reproved, told they are wrong
this leads to correction– another function of Scripture
And this Scriptural doctrine that corrects and reproves by doctrine is able to instruct in righteousness.

Righteousness is Justice, not just definitive spiritual justification which is primarily given by Grace, but that which the law teaches us in our evaluation of life as it is weighed so to speak in the balances of our doctrine, this is our world view whereby we judge the world.

How we conduct our selves as justified persons, how do we know what is truly Good before God and in His sight?

All of this is given by scripture such as 2 Kings 25, as says the Prophet and Chronicler of Israel

That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 

Good works- are synonymous with another phrase we use often “God’s law“, we could just as well say ‘Good law‘ or we could say God’s works– no matter how you mix it up it the concept we are to conceive of is those things the LORD God has approved to be good for men to work in on earth while he lives and moves and has being.

It is the Law of God that is the fundamental institution of the whole council of God, which we call God’s word.

When the good or evil is to be determined it is to the Word of God we Go, and we qualify our syndereses (so to speak) by the Law’s of God, yes there is an innate law in the heart of man that knows the feeling of good and evil, but this feeling being so corrupted from the fall as well as from callousing, it takes very little consideration of a young toddle’s violent action with his or her teeth or blows to achieve an object for us to consider that a true deficiency is brought into the world with man simply by birth, and while we can agree that even the mature Gentile separated from God’s law has a knowledge of good and evil written on his or her heart, that vague outline is in true need of absolute definition from the Word and Law of God as it is revealed and written for our learning in all these ways, but this takes a humbled heart, mind and soul, and a refusal to despise the word of God and it’s correction and reproof of our life.

Zedekiah’s and Judah’s utter failure at humility though they has the revelation of God given to them.

2 Kings and 2 Chronicles 36 has this ability in it like all other scripture, I’d stand upon the fact that 1 sentence in context of scripture can do all this and lead a man to a further state of perfection more thoroughly furnished  ” unto all good works.”

When we look at the condition of Judah and Jerusalem in the days of its destruction there is all this blessedness available to these people. They of Judah, that is the technical people called “Jews” in our KJV, they are really as we would now understand it “Judeans” all dwellers of the Land of Judah and committed to the doctrines which are to come by the Scriptures and these have the testimony of God’s word kept up by the priests and princes, and these have the temple of God in Jerusalem the holy city. These people, these Jews are by and large mostly the descendants of Judah and Benjamin and Levi- the 3 tribes of the S. Kingdom of the people of Israel. These people the Apostle Paul says

Rom_3:1  What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
Rom 3:2  Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

In other word these people in the days of Jeremiah had the Scriptures up to date, the oracles of God, the ability to access the revelation of Almighty God YHWH the Eternal One, to know His Law Gen-duet, his History thus far from Joshua to Samuel and the books of the kings and Chronicles that came before this last chapter of the books of history, these people had the ability to know the Good works of God as God revealed them to Moses, the ability to see the wilderness struggles of Israel with idolatry and rebellion, self-will and sin. These could even read and know the historical faults and failures in the days of Joshua with the blessings of Heaven as well recorded; these could read the Judges and know of the deeds of their wicked fathers and the fathers of the 10 tribes now banished as well these could read of the victory and blessings of the Lord upon Israel as a nation.

So let me update the text to a present application Mr. and MRS Christian:

What advantage then hath the Christian? or what profit is there of knowledge of the Covenant of Grace& Redemption in Jesus?
Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles and words of God.

Does that humble you? Do you identify even with the words of condemnation which we read of Zedekiah in the most barbarous and savage way which the LORD GOD prepared for him by the wickedness of the Chaldeans and Babylonians? Is God justified in this action in your heart, mind and soul? or is your humility lacking as it is reckoned “Evil” before the LORD God not saying, “Thou art righteous, the just and the justifier…“?

If the 3 tribes of the house of Judah: Judah, Benjamin and Levi, the Jews had an advantage in the covenant and word of God how much more do we have it in having the Covenant and word of God completed and up to date, finished?
Does this humble us or do we despise His word?

Paul says to the Romans:

Rom 3:1  What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
Rom 3:2  Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

These had the “holy scripture able to make one wise unto salvation, these has the inspiration of God, profitable doctrine, profitable reproof, profitable correction, profitable instruction in righteousness:
To be the men of God perfected thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” So, says the apostle

And yet what does the Apostle say of them and of those same 3 tribes called Jews in his day?

Rom_3:3  For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Rom_3:4  God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Paul is quoting

Psa 51:4  Against thee only have I sinned, and done evil before thee: that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Geneva commentary says this:
(e) When you give sentence against sinners, they must confess you to be just, and themselves sinners.

This though the men and women of Judah had access to, they did not do. They did not regard God to be the only source of truth as revealed in His inspiration and they did not regard themselves as Liars: thus, they were not believers and they were not justified in justifying God and saying amen to the oracles He had committed to them, and they were not able to overcome by the justification of God through those oracles revealed to them when they were judged as a people, even another time in the last destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, aa worse and more server punishment than in the days of Jeramiah by far.

Simple put, A people who have the written word, a people who practice the word on their flesh in works like God ordained circumcision, have a profit  given to them “Chiefly in EVERY WAY”.

Yet just because a people have the word and practice its works in a bodily way that is accepted by the culture and society one lives in or in a church setting does not mean one believes.
And because God Gave the bible, the holy scripture to his people of promise and they are yet faithless by and large, the question is

“shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?”

His answer is

Rom 3:4  God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Rom 3:5  But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
Rom 3:6  God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

He is saying that by the oracle of God, ‘unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God’,
Not that God is unrighteous to inflict wrath or vengeance on us, but that this is how God he judges the world, and that this judgment in record or oracle continues to teach us the judgment of God upon unrighteousness. That God gives His Word for all the reason expressed and the Word is refused to be used for the purpose He in his compassion, His mercy, grace and providence gave it for.
That they my judge themselves at fault before God like those before them and rather “Justify God as the Just and only Justifier” that they might be chief in the knowledge which those oracles contain having the word mixed with faith, a faith that comes from Christ.

The question I think is rather, what advantage waits me chiefly by talking hold of the oracles of God and the good works which he has prepared for us if we can do so by faith? Justifying him even when we are judged that we might overcome in him being justified?

This conviction to justify God and to do so by justifying his Word which he has given us is very much the key to overcoming, and therefore to be an ‘overcomer’.
Believing in God through his word is unto salvation, and believing in God’s word is also the establishment of all of those inspired principles offered to us by the Holy Spirit, yes, their job is to reprove us correct us by the Spiritual doctrine we are given there by yet it is to the end that we might be instructed in righteousness:

Rom_3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 3:24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Rom 3:26  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Rom 3:27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

This law of Faith teaches us some great advantages ‘free justification by grace’, grace being the redemption found in Jesus, Jesus’ blood being the covering or propitiation of our sins that are past because God has been patient with us, God has taught us, and God has comforted us in hope.