Welcome to year 2! 🥳

Congratulations! 🎊 🎉 You made it halfway.

As Bon Jovi said,

“Whoah… we’re halfway there…”

✊🏼😆 Whoah! Livin on a prayer!!

If you are still following this blog, all I can say is, all glory to God for the things that have helped you. Any nonsense is 100% me (and emoji guy).

🤨 Say what? What am I being blamed for?

Nothing. I take full responsibility. You have been a great help. Are you ready for another year?

🤨 Let’s do it!

If you’ve never read through the whole Bible before or maybe only once or twice, isn’t it WILD that we’re halfway through and we’re still WAY back in the early part of the Old Testament?! I remember how weird that was the first few times I read through. You kinda think of the OT has the first half and the NT as the second half. That’s not even close. We won’t hit the NT until the middle of summer this year. So the OT is MOST of the Bible. And even though the Old Covenant has been superseded by the New, we still need to know it.

“Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.” Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We’re about to get into the books of the prophets for the next 6 months. We’ve already encountered many prophets in the OT, starting with Moses. But the prophets we’ve read about since Moses didn’t write specific books; or if they did (Gad, Nathan, Iddo, Ahijah, Jasher) then we either don’t have them anymore or only fragments have been found.

The fantastic thing about reading the Bible chronologically is that you get the historical context for the prophets. And that helps a LOT.

So… year 2. With the Lord’s grace and help, here we go…

Oh… this is a long one.

The flight attendants will be coming through the cabin with some light refreshments in a moment… 🛫

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2 CHRONICLES 24

God bless good ol’ Jehoiada the Priest. He really functioned as the king of Israel. No wonder it was he who was buried with the kings of Israel and not Joash. As long as Jehoiada was alive to guide Joash and counsel him, the nation served Yahweh, fixed up the temple, and reestablished regular worship in the temple according to the direction set up by King David.

It’s very rare in scripture to see someone acting in the roles of both priest AND king.

• Adam & Eve in Eden
• Melchizedech
• David
• Jesus & his bride in Eden 2.0

It’s a short list.

But I think Jehoiada at least deserves a closer look as a possible key prophetic picture of Christ and His Bride; the fulfillment of the priest-king role.

Jehoiada was clearly the High Priest. But while Joash was young, Jehoiada made the royal decisions to execute Athaliah, tear down the temple of Baal, and restore order to the Temple of Yahweh. Jehoiada continued to lead the nation as Joash followed his counsel. He functioned as the king. And when he died, he was buried in the royal tombs with the kings of Judah – a privilege not even granted to all the actual descendants of David.

Let’s look at his name: Jehoiada

It’s a compound of Yeho (Yahweh/Yehovah/YHVH) + yada (to know).

Certainly, no one has ever had a closer relationship with YHVH than His Son, the Lord Jesus.

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭27‬ ‭LEB‬‬

The Son of God is truly Jehovah-known.

But look again at the stupendous thing that Jesus says! “…and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him.”

Jesus brings others into His most intimate relationship with the Father and they are invited to freely and fully share and participate in this Divine family circle; knowing the Father and being known by Him.

THAT. IS. STAGGERING.

This relationship of being known is the factor that determines whether a person has eternal life or not.

“And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Salvation is about being known by the LORD. It’s not any of this:

• Knowing church doctrine
• Church membership & attendance
• Being “a spiritual person”
• Being “a good person”
• Reading the Bible, biblical knowledge
• Praying prayers

Now, I happen to believe that if you are in the relationship of knowing and being known of the Father and the Son then you will desire to understand His Word and ways. You will want to fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. You will grow in spiritual sensitivity and bear the fruit of goodness. You will want to read the Bible (like you’re doing), and you will want to pray. And we should do all these things.

But they grow OUT OF the familial relationship. They cannot put you into it. You have to be born into this holy family. You can’t join it like the Lions Club. This is why regeneration through repentance and faith in Christ is addressed in terms of birth.

And it’s not just a NT concept…

“But with respect to Zion it shall be said, “Each one was born in her,” for the Most High himself will establish her. Yahweh will record in writing the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭87‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭LEB‬‬

We recently read about the “baptism” of Naaman. His leprosy (the picture of sin from Leviticus 14) was removed and what was his flesh made like?

“…and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭5‬:‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

It’s a picture of the carnal (fleshly) nature being changed. Reborn as a little child.

What do people have to become like to see the Kingdom of God?

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Ok… Back to Jehoiada…

The other major thing about him as a figure of Great High Priest-King (and His Bride!) is that Jehoiada is buried as a king with the king. He is buried with royal honors with King David, the ancestor and archetypal figure of Jesus.

In his burial AS a king, Jehoiada the Priest is a picture of our Great High Priest-King who would die and be buried in a rich-man’s tomb.

But Jehoiada was also buried WITH the king, just like the Bride of Christ, His co-regent.

“having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;”
‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

That’s not something that preachers just say before a baptism. It’s REAL! IF the person is acting in genuine faith. Without faith, works are dead and baptism is just getting wet.

Jehoiada = known of God, priest-king, reigned with the king, buried with the king.

And who betrayed Jehoiada and killed Zechariah the prophesying-priest-son of Jehoiada?

Joash. (whose name means YHVH-fired)

The little boy he had rescued from certain death and had raised as his own son forgot all of that kindness. As soon as Jehoiada was gone along with his righteous influence, Joash turned away from Yahweh and when Zechariah confronted him as a prophet-priest with the Word of Yahweh, Joash has him killed.

It REALLY makes these texts come to mind…

“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.”
‭‭2 Thessalonians‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭12‬:‭17‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭11‬:‭3‬, ‭7‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

“When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony. They shouted to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters—their fellow servants of Jesus who were to be martyred—had joined them.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Now, this is the kind of thing we do not get dogmatic about. I’m not saying [hard core] that Joash’s killing of Zechariah is a symbol of the current and future persecution of the saints or a prophetic picture of the 2 Witnesses of Revelation. But it sure is compelling to me. And since we’ve come this far, I might as well point out another potential Joash/antichrist parallel.

• Joash was very involved in the repair of the Temple- particularly the funding.
  • Another antichrist figure, Judas, also handled the money and appeared to be concerned about charity.
  • I do not think that the antichrist of Revelation will begin as an obvious diabolical character. I suspect he will either arise from within the Church or appear to be very friendly towards Christians. At first. He may even direct funds toward Christian or charitable causes.
  • If Christians identify with Jehoiada (and perhaps also Zechariah) in this narrative, then the people who are in our own faith-family circle may be the ones to keep an eye on.
  • The state (represented by king Joash) persecuted the prophet-priest of God (Zechariah). Typical.
  • “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword. ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household!”
    ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭10‬:‭34‬-‭36‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Ok. I think we’ve explored enough rabbit holes for the moment. Let’s look at what followed the death of Joash…

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2 KINGS 14

Amaziah the son of Joash has pretty good record. He executed his father’s killers but not their children. That seems like the only decent option to us, but in the ancient world vengeance often stretched to include the whole family.

They certainly weren’t paying attention to the Law which placed limits on how much you could punish an offender. It was “an eye for an eye,” not “the lives of all your family for one life.”

But Amaziah DID honor the Law.

Why is it when things are going so well that we have to create problems?

Amaziah picked a completely unnecessary fight with the northern kingdom of Israel. All those recently replaced gold and silver utensils and treasures of the Temple were plundered and a huge section of Jerusalem’s magnificent wall was torn down.

And just as Joash was assassinated by a conspiracy, so was Amaziah his son.

What a mess for Amaziah’s 16-year-old son, Uzziah, to inherit as a young king.

🤓 Ooo looky! Prophets!