In our study of the enmity between the serpent and his seed and the woman and her seed Gen 3:15; last time we saw that after God used Jehoida to place Joash the rightful heir on the throne that as long as Jehoida was alive Joash did what was right but after Jehoida's death Joash succumbed to peer pressure and reverted to idolatry.
He was like the lukewarm believers in our country who lean on others because they do not have persistent and consistent PVD and as a result inevitably make bad decisions from a position of weakness because they don't have the capacity to stay the course. This has resulted in the decline that will end with the destruction of the nation unless it is arrested by use of the reset clause of the four generation curse.
2Chron 7:14; If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
The unwillingness of Joash to condemn his cabinet and national leadership in their appeal to reintroduce idolatry to the client nation caused the nation to come into the crosshairs of divine justice. Heb 10:31; "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God"
We can see from this principle that the USA will not be able to retain its position as a client nation to God if it continues to reject the wisdom, counsel, and influence of the Word of God.
There are certain basic doctrines that all orthodox believers must subscribe to among them being the order code of the Ten Commandments followed by the establishment code clearly revealed in the Old and New Testaments.
Harbingers of additional reckonings upon America are found in the fact that the culture, the media, the academy, the arts, literature, entertainment, and most decisively, the government ridicule, besmirch, ignore, and chastise even the suggestion that biblical principles should be considered in the discussion, the rationales, and the decision-making of this nation and its people.
This would not be a violation of the "establishment" clause of the First Amendment.. It is the application of its "free exercise" clause. The nation may choose to reject Bible doctrine and establishment truth but does so at its peril. We may remain a nation without divine viewpoint but we cannot remain a client nation.
What was true for Judah will certainly be true for us. The Lord sends messengers to warn of such error and gives time for consideration and adjustment.
However, when the blind eye and deaf ear greet God's gracious warnings, then historical events begin to overwhelm the arrogant who assume they can manage the situations of life without reference to divine viewpoint or establishment truth.
In absence of a prophet, the events of 9/11/2001 and 9/15/2008- 3/5/2009 and their causes, conditions, successions, and relations have been our forewarning to this point
Joash, the officials, and the people were also privileged to have visits from several prophets. 2Chron 24:19; Yet God sent prophets to them ( Judah ) to bring them back to the Lord; though they ( the prophets ) testified against them, they would not listen.
After this God inspired one particular prophet to address the people. His name was Zechariah, who was the son of Jehoiada the high priest. 2Chron 24:20b; "Thus God has said, 'Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper Because you have forsaken ( through the apostasy of idolatry ) the Lord, He has also forsaken (removed divine protection from)* you.'"
v21 So they ( the people of Judah) conspired against him and at the command of King Joash they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord.
2Chron 24:22; Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Zechariah's father, Jehoiada, had shown him, but murdered his son. And as he died Zechariah said, "May the Lord see and avenge!"
One of the major duties of the prophet was to warn God's people that they have gone astray. This is one of the duties that has been passed from the prophets of Israel to Church Age pastor-teachers.
During the Church Age it is the duty of the pastor to analyze the Zeitgeist in which his ministry functions and to discern the spiritual implications. There are several factors that assist in the doctrinal analysis of the citizens' inventory of thought as it relates to Divine Establishment, the Gospel and Bible Doctrine including but not limited to:
What is their collective view toward freedom? Are the people willing to sacrifice freedom, which requires personal responsibility, in exchange for security, which transfers one's responsibilities over to others?
What is their collective view toward marriage? Are the people willing to compromise the monogamous relationship of one man with one woman in matrimony for the introduction of same-sex marriage, pre-marital live-in romances, and a multiplicity of sex partners in or outside of marriage?
What is their collective view toward the family? Are the people willing to accept the idea of a single-parent household as equal with that of a mother and father? Are they willing to accept the notion that homosexuals make good parents? Do they assume as normal a multiplicity of marriages with children of different parents being shuttled from one household to another?
And in the same vein, what is their collective view toward children in general? Are adults so afraid of being classified as mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, and politically incorrect that they are willing to allow the souls of their children to be molded on the potter's wheel of prevailing public opinion and the public lie.
These are issues that are specifically associated with the four divine institutions but the list could continue indefinitely. The people in the USA have lost the thought and as a result have become have become silly.
2Tim 3:6; KJV For of this sort (false teachers) are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts...
The word translated "silly women" is the Greek word "gynaikarion" means a foolish women. it is translated as a weak woman in the NASB, NIV and RSV and silly women in the ASV, NRSV, KJV, and NRSV.
It refers to some one who is gullible responder because of their lack of rational doctrinal thought. It perfectly describes the liberal politicians and the irrational liberal media who are Satan's indoctrinated sycophants, today's pied pipers who are piping for the progressive agenda that is being used to deceive the silly doctrineless people in this nation today
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary eleventh edition, defines "silly" as weak in intellect foolish; exhibiting or indicative of a lack of common sense or sound judgment as in very silly mistaken
It is silly to turn a blind eye toward sexual perversions, drug use, marital infidelity, and the devaluation of marriage. It is silly for adults to think it just fine for children to be reared, taught, led, counseled, and entertained by homosexuals.
These people are engaged in a behavior that is a gross sin that should be no more introduced to children than pornography, X-rated movies, and tours of bordellos.
Television programs, recorded music, video games, movies, books, and sex education classes in the schools indoctrinate children into a way of thinking that is destroying their souls.
Satan has engaged an all-out assault on all Americas, young and old. He has virtually won the battle for the minds and souls of those who populate this client nation and those who have not been converted are being neutralized by the legal precedent that is based on human and satanic viewpoint and codified into judicial "case law"
We see from this that there is nothing new under the sun Eccles 1:9;
Our next stop in the history of satanic attacks on the "seed of the woman" announced in Gen 3:15; is the Assyrian attack on Judah while Hezekiah was king. At the time Hezekiah who is in the line of the "seed of the woman" was childless.
Hezekiah succeeded his father Ahaz to the throne of Judah in 716 b.c. because of his NVD King Ahaz had made a number of poor foreign policy decisions regarding the powerful Assyrian Empire to the northeast.
Ahaz had allowed idolatry to gain a severe hold on the hearts of the people that had brought the nation to a low point spiritually and politically but his son Hezekiah was able to restore Judah to a biblically based lifestyle.
2Kings 18:1; Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.
v2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
v3 And he did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done.
2Kings 18:4; He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan ("a piece of bronze.").
2Kings 18:5; He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.
v6 For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him; but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
v7 And the Lord was with him; wherever he went he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.
We see here that at least initially Hesekiah was trusting God and seeking freedom rather than security. He had also reset the four generation curse with his PVD.
We need to get a fix on the time period involved and the various kings of Judah and Assyria that lead up to the confrontation between Hezekiah and Sennacherib in the year 701 b.c.
Kings of Assyria & Judah: 835-642 B.C.
KINGS OF ASSYRIA REIGN KINGS OF Judah REIGN
ADAD-NIRARI III 805-783 B.C. JOASH 835-796 B.C.
SHALMANESER IV 783-773 AMAZIAH 796-767
ASHUR-DAN 773-755 AZARIAH 767-740
ASHUR-NIRARI V 755-745 JOTHAM 740-732
TIGLATH-PILESER III 745-727 AHAZ 732-716
SHALMANESER V 727-722
SARGON II 722-705 HEZEKIAH 716-687
SENNACHERIB 705-681
ESARHADDON 681-669 MANASSEH 687-642
We see here that over the course of a little more than the 100 years between the reigns of Joash who we just studied about and Hezekiah the Assyrian Empire came to power.
In our study we will see how the Lord permitted Assyria to become a threat to Judah and a source of discipline for Hezekiah and we will also see how the Assyrian threat is also designed by Satan and his ambassador demons to target the "seed of the woman", the line of Christ.
The confrontation between Hezekiah and Sennacherib is considered so important that the Holy Spirit provides us with three major references to it: 2Kings 18:13; - 2Kings 20:21; 2Chron 32:1-33; and Isa 36:1- Isa 39:8.
A brief synopsis of the historical events that lead up to this confrontation is found in Background of the Assyrian Empire & Its Rulers by Charles Pfeiffer. "The Assyrian Threat." Chap. 50 in Old Testament History. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1973), pages 333-336: