1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,800 S2 of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations with 2 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:14,880 your hosts, Ben and Spencer. Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through the powerful 3 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:20,800 lens of love. In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing fresh insights and 4 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:25,280 gaining deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith in practical ways. 5 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:31,360 So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the context of the Bible intersect 6 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:40,800 to transform our lives. We are back. Back in purple. Wait. Ready for another conversation. 7 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:45,040 I said back in purple because the frame of the video that we're doing is in purple, 8 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,880 but it occurred to me that when we actually put this on YouTube, it's not purple. No, 9 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:54,240 nothing's purple. I'll wear a purple shirt for you next time. Yeah. Yeah. We are talking, 10 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:59,760 not exactly sure how to say it, but it is actually an Egyptian Pharaoh. It's either Niko the second 11 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:05,200 or Neco the second. I'm going to go with Neco the second. And if it's wrong, deal with it. Yeah. 12 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:12,320 So some of you are like, who the what? When I said, when we said Neco the second, 13 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:17,680 now he is a Pharaoh that appeared during the late seventh century BC. 14 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:26,320 The Bible literally has three references to him. One is second Chronicles 35, 20 through 24. 15 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:35,600 The other is second Kings 23, 34. All right. And then the other is in Jeremiah. So those are the 16 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:41,520 references that we have for him. And there is literally just a handful of verses on this king. 17 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:45,440 Yeah, I'm going to read those real quick, actually, if you don't mind. Yeah. So this first thing in 18 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:51,840 second Kings, it says, while Josiah was king, Josiah, we'll talk about him. Pharaoh Neco, 19 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:57,360 king of Egypt, went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out 20 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,440 to meet him in the battle, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo. Josiah's servants brought 21 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:05,920 his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people 22 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:11,280 of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father. 23 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:16,560 Let's see. I think that was no three thirty five. Jehoahaz was twenty three years old when he became 24 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:22,160 king and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Hamado, daughter of Jeremiah. 25 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:26,720 She was from Libna. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done. 26 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:31,920 Pharaoh Neco put him in chains at Ribla in the land of Hamath that he might not reign in Jerusalem 27 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:36,720 and he imposed on Judah a levy of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 28 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:42,400 Pharaoh Neco made Elikim son of Josiah king in place of his father, Josiah, and changed Elikim's 29 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:49,600 name to Jehoahaz. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt and there he died. 30 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:54,640 Jehoahaz paid Pharaoh Neco the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land 31 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:59,840 and executed the silver, exacted the silver and gold from the people and the land according to 32 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:04,720 their assessments. Not a great story. No, not a great story. 33 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:10,400 And in the book of Jeremiah, this is it says concerning Egypt, a message about Egypt. This 34 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:14,480 is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah, the prophet concerning the nations concerning 35 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:18,960 Egypt. This is a message against the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was defeated 36 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:24,800 at Karmish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, 37 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:30,080 son of Josiah, king of Judah. Propel your shields, both large and small, and march out for battle. 38 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:34,880 Harness the horses, mount the steeds, take your positions with helmets on, polish your spears, 39 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:39,920 put on your armor. What do I see? They are terrified. They are retreating. Their warriors 40 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:44,480 are defeated. They flee in haste without looking back. And there is terror on their side. The 41 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:49,920 swift cannot flee nor the strong escape. In the north by the river Euphrates, they stumble and 42 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:55,440 fall. Who is this that rises like the Nile, like rivers of surging waters? Egypt rises like the 43 00:03:55,440 --> 00:04:00,240 Nile, like rivers of surging waters. She says, I will rise and cover the earth. I will destroy 44 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:05,280 cities and their people. Charge you horses, drive furiously you charioteers, march on you warriors, 45 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:12,160 men of Kush and put and who carries shields, men of Lydia who draw the bow. But on that day 46 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:16,800 belongs, but that day belongs to the Lord, the Lord Almighty, a day of vengeance and for 47 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:23,280 vengeance of his foes. And then the other account that we have is second chronicle of the 48 00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:30,160 other account that we have is second Chronicles 35, 20 through 24. Now this is going to sound a 49 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:33,280 little bit like the king's account because we're written from two different perspectives, 50 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:38,960 two different perspectives. After all of this Josiah, um, when Josiah had the temple, uh, 51 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:43,600 blow blow. Let me try that again. After all of this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, 52 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:50,400 Neco, king of Egypt, went up to fight, uh, Kermish, um, the Kermish and the Euphrates. 53 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:54,080 Josiah marched to meet him in battle, but Neco sent messages to him saying, 54 00:04:54,640 --> 00:05:03,760 uh, what coral is there king, king of Judah, uh, between you and me, it is not you. I am attacking 55 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:12,560 at this time, but the house of which I am at war, God told me to hurry and to stop and stop opposing. 56 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:22,080 So stop opposing God who is with me. He or who is stop opposing God who is with me or he will 57 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:29,280 destroy you. Really interesting, right? Neco is trying to twist the words, twist the words of the 58 00:05:29,280 --> 00:05:36,640 Lord here. Okay. Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but distinguished himself. Uh, but 59 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:41,360 yeah, distinguished, yeah, distinguished himself to engage in battle. He who would not listen to 60 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:47,360 Neco said Neco had said to God's command, but went to fight him at the plane of Magidil. 61 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:57,040 Uh, and archers shot King Josiah and, and he told his officers, take him away. I am badly wounded. 62 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:02,880 So they took him out of, out of the chariot and put him in another chariot and brought him to 63 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:08,640 Jerusalem where he died. He was buried in a tomb by his ancestors and all of Judah and Jerusalem 64 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:15,360 mourned for him. So the interesting thing about the account in the Bible is that, uh, one Neco 65 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:20,960 seems to think that he's being called by God to do these things. And to be fair, he might have 66 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:26,640 because Jerusalem was, or, uh, Israel was in a firm state of rebellion. Um, we'll talk about 67 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:32,240 Josiah because Josiah is the exception to the rule at this point, but, uh, it also does seem 68 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:37,840 like he feels bad about killing Josiah because the other guy steps in his king and he's like, no, 69 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:42,400 no, no, no. Puts them in chains and then puts the son of Josiah on the throne. Yeah. And you need 70 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:46,960 to, you need to understand a kind of Egyptian culture a little bit in the history of Egypt on 71 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:52,160 this. Cause Egypt essentially had three different ages and there's different sub ages fit that fit 72 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:57,440 within that. Right. Ages. Are you talking about ages like, uh, like timeframes, timeframes. Yeah. 73 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:01,600 I'm just making sure people are aware of timeframes. So like they had the, they had their early stage, 74 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:05,680 which was like a lot of people refer to it as the age of the pyramids. It's the age of wealth, 75 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:12,320 the age of power, prosperity. Uh, and then they had the shift in this middle timeframe and Necho, 76 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:17,200 he comes in towards the middle to the end of that middle timeframe. Uh, but they had the shift in 77 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:21,280 this middle timeframe where they actually went from worshiping multiple gods to, I think it was 78 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:26,960 Pharaoh Osiris was like, we're going to worship one God, which is the son God. And, and there was 79 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:32,960 actually rebellion and push against that. And so one of the things about, uh, Necho, if you look at 80 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:39,440 historical counts, this whole thing was bringing glory back to Egypt, right? Like restoring Egypt 81 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:45,200 essentially to its glory days. Right. And, and when you get to the third age of Egypt, they try to 82 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,520 shift back to that, but then they do this blending of cultures towards, towards the end of that, 83 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:55,360 which you see with, uh, in Alexandria and stuff like that. Um, now if there's an Egypt, 84 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:59,920 Egyptologist listening to this and they're like, you mess it up on so many levels, just email us. 85 00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:06,560 We'll apologize. Yeah. Email us and then explain what we should have said. Yes. Yeah. So understanding 86 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:12,480 that you have, you have Necho who is going to battle, not necessarily with Israel at the time, 87 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:19,920 but he is, he is allied with Babylon and he is going to battle and he is wanting to restore, 88 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:25,440 uh, what Egypt used to be. Okay. So let's pause there for a second because we need to remind 89 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:30,560 people where Israel is. It's in the smack dab center of the world. So if you want to trade 90 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:34,560 anywhere, you gotta go through Israel. You gotta go through Israel. So if you're Egypt and you're 91 00:08:34,560 --> 00:08:39,920 wanting to reestablish your power, what do you have to control trade routes, trade routes? So that's 92 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:44,480 why Necho is coming into Israel is because you got to control the trade routes. And he's like, 93 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:50,000 listen, I'm, I don't, I'm not here to fight you. I just going to be mine. Right. Because one of the 94 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,600 things that Egypt has is like, yes, they have horses and cattle and all those things, but why 95 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:57,360 do they have those things? Because the Nile always floods and they have tons of farming land in the 96 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:02,080 Nile. Yeah. Right. So if there's a place that has food, which by the way, whenever there's a famine 97 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:07,360 in Egypt, that's not good, right? In the Bible means that there's a pretty bad famine. Well, 98 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:13,600 that's the, that's the core to the core of Egypt's wealth. It's, it's actually not silver and gold. 99 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:19,680 They do have a lot of that, but it's actually food. Yeah, exactly. Well, they're food, they trade, 100 00:09:19,680 --> 00:09:23,600 and then they have a lot of silver and gold because of that. Yeah. Right. And of course, then, of 101 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:27,360 course you would have lots of horses and goats and all these different animals, because you actually 102 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:34,880 have feed to be able to like raise them. Yeah. Right. Uh, you have chickens. Yeah. You got to 103 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:39,360 feed them a lot. Those, those guys eat a ton. And the more chickens you have, the more you got to be 104 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:44,240 able to feed them. If you don't have enough food, the chickens start dying or they start like 105 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:48,560 killing each other, eating each other because they started eating each other. Yeah. Yeah. And so like, 106 00:09:48,560 --> 00:09:53,440 why does Egypt always have horses and all these, because they got food. A lot of these places, 107 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:56,400 they don't have food in that kind of quantity. Well, if you look at the history of Egypt, 108 00:09:56,400 --> 00:10:01,760 whenever they did have a downturn, they bounced back from that pretty quickly because they had, 109 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:06,160 because they were able to with the, with the food, abundant food resource. One is, and it's not just 110 00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:11,280 food. They had, they have an abundance of types of food too. Like it wasn't just, you know, grain. 111 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,800 Yeah. They have fruits and they have vegetables and they have all sorts of things that are being 112 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:20,560 grown in Egypt. Yeah. So you have this restoration of power that, that, uh, Neco is trying to 113 00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:25,600 accomplish here. Uh, Egypt has been on this downward turn for a little bit and he's trying 114 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:30,480 to bring them back into a place where he's, where he's like, we're going to be a powerhouse nation 115 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:36,480 once again. Okay. Um, Oh, go ahead. You're going to say something. I was going to just, no, I was 116 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:40,960 going to go, um, yeah, one of the, one of the other, like there's other external accounts from 117 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:45,520 the Bible that actually talk about Neco the second. So like other historical places. So we talked 118 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:51,600 about this guy last year, last week, uh, Herodotus is a Greek historian. Uh, he actually mentions 119 00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:56,880 Neco in its military campaign, but he specifically talks about his involvement in the battle of, uh, 120 00:10:56,880 --> 00:11:01,520 Kekomish. And there's a lot of, in the Egyptian records, various inscriptions records describe 121 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:06,320 Neco the seconds reign, including his military and building projects such as he worked on a 122 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:12,320 canal that connected the Nile to the Red Sea. Big deal. Right. Um, and then there is also talk about 123 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:16,960 him in the Babylonian Chronicles as well. So Neco is not only found in the Bible, he's found in other 124 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:24,240 places in history as well. He's a real guy. Yeah. Right. He, yeah, he's a real guy. Um, so he, 125 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:31,920 he made this mistake though, of allying with the Babylonians, right. Which at the time, let's, 126 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:36,720 let's give credit where credit's due. That seems like a decent plan, right? Like we want to become 127 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:41,120 a powerhouse nation again. Let's, but we're not there. Let's ally with the powerhouse nation. 128 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:47,360 Right. Right. And what this, what this Alliance does is this puts Israel in a very tricky spot 129 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:51,360 because they have the Babylonians on one side powerhouse nation, and then they have Egypt rising 130 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:55,920 again on the other side of them. And not too long ago, they've been dealing with the Assyrians. 131 00:11:55,920 --> 00:12:02,800 Yes. Right. So, uh, Israel's still bouncing back from this Assyrian fight. Um, if you actually, 132 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:07,200 if you actually look at the, we'll get into Josiah a little bit more in a minute, but if you 133 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:14,720 actually look at Josiah's story, he inherited a kingdom that was not following the Lord and Lord 134 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:20,320 had already declared punishment on them. And, but, but Josiah said, no, we are not following the ways 135 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:24,560 of the Lord. And he turned that around. They still suffered the punishment because Lord already 136 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:32,160 declared that. Right. Um, and so, so you have this nation where the Lord's declared punishment form. 137 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:37,600 We have two power, then you have Babylonia on one side, Egypt on the other side, and Egypt's trying 138 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:44,720 to come in, take over trade routes so that they can rival Babylon in the near future. Anytime you 139 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:50,000 hear Babylon, uh, we should go back to last week when we talked about Genesis Nimrod in Genesis 10 140 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:56,480 founds two cities, Babel, Nineveh, Assyrian and Babylonians. Right. So a lot of times when you 141 00:12:56,480 --> 00:13:01,680 hear these, these names showing up in the Bible, you should think rebellious or, uh, not, not 142 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:08,080 necessarily a great group of people. Yeah. Right. And, um, and so, uh, you're kind of like stuck 143 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:13,760 between a rock and a hard place as, as Israel, but I actually think that's a really good place to pause 144 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:20,000 and actually talk about Josiah. Right. So Josiah, um, Josiah is the king of Judah. He's the guy that 145 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:27,200 actually dies in the skirmish with Neco. Right. Um, but in when he was eight years old, now I want 146 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:32,000 you to think about what you're doing when you were eight. I was still rolling around outside in mud 147 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:38,880 and, you know, like just trying to have fun. Oh man. I would love to hear your mom's reaction to 148 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:43,680 her hearing you say that just now. She's probably like, yep, that's right. Yeah. I, I grew up on a 149 00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:50,400 400 acre camp. So he is, uh, you can read about this in second Kings 22. Um, it's, it says that 150 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:56,560 he had eight years old. He becomes king after the assassination of his father, Amman, man, that's, 151 00:13:56,560 --> 00:14:01,040 that's tough. Right. So eight years old, your dad's been assassinated and now you're king. 152 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:06,400 Right. So he sends to the throne. And, uh, one of the things that immediately starts happening is 153 00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:12,480 he starts, um, major religious reforms to restore the temple to Yahweh, to get back to God. He's 154 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:18,400 purging, uh, idolatry and he's repairing the temple. And, uh, while they're repairing the temple, 155 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:24,000 they find the book of the law likely Deuteronomy, but, um, like just by, by some of the things that 156 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:28,160 they actually mentioned in the text that it's probably Deuteronomy is what they found. Cause 157 00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:33,920 once again, we don't, I, those of you that are on us on video, you see this, like this is a Bible 158 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:39,600 that we have 66 books in, but when they had like books, they had scrolls that had like parts of 159 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:45,760 each book or sometimes the entire book. Yeah. Right. Because paper was a, uh, as a value, 160 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:50,560 value commodity. So they found a scroll. They probably found one of the books of Torah. Right. 161 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:55,280 And, uh, based on that, they, they think that he probably found Deuteronomy and they start reading 162 00:14:55,280 --> 00:15:01,520 it and he's like, Oh, we haven't been doing any of this stuff. Right. He's like, ah, we have not 163 00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:06,480 been doing good. So eight, you know, he's, he's leading, he's like, you know what? We're going to 164 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:12,800 fix it. So go and knock out the high places, uh, go take down the Asherah poles and he renews the 165 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:16,800 covenant with God, leading his people to a commitment of following the law. Uh, and then 166 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:23,360 he reinstated, this is a really cool thing. He reinstated the celebration of Passover, right? 167 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:28,800 Recognizing that, uh, like this, the story of being brought out of Egypt, right? Again, like that 168 00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:36,720 remembering where you come from. And, uh, one of my favorite part about Josiah is, uh, prior to him 169 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:40,800 becoming King prior to his birth, God had finally said, when it says, when you're reading second 170 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:44,640 Kings, it's like this King did evil inside of the Lord. This King did evil inside of the Lord. This 171 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:48,320 King did evil inside of the Lord. And it happens over and over and over again. God goes, all right, 172 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:55,760 we're done. Like we're going to, we're going to change this. And then Josiah shows up and he is 173 00:15:55,760 --> 00:16:00,800 a man, uh, who just responds to seeing the word of God in his life. Like God's, I said, Hey, 174 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:04,560 destruction is coming. This, this, this country is getting over there and you're going to captivity. 175 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:07,760 I've got to make sure you learn your lesson so that you can be my people the way I need you to 176 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:14,560 be my people. Yeah. But then Josiah comes and he's so obedient that God actually says to him, he says, 177 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:23,280 because of you, like destruction is coming, right? But because of you, it's not going to come until 178 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:31,760 you're no longer here, which he then continued to reign for 40 years, right? Cause of one person's 179 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:36,160 faithfulness. Now, granny is a King. I understand like he influences all the things, but because of 180 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:42,080 one person's faithfulness, the entire country is, is given a reprieve. Yeah. Well, and yes, 181 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:47,440 he was a King, but he ascended to the throne at eight and the purging was one of the first things 182 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:52,160 he did. Right. So when you talk about that, oftentimes when we read stories like this, like, 183 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:57,840 Oh, this King. And we think of like a older, more mature fellow. I was like, no, he was most likely 184 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:03,040 doing this in his early teen years. Yeah. Like cleaning up the temple and purging. And like, 185 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:08,640 there had to be a chunk of Israel who just wasn't taking him seriously. Right. Right. Cause they're 186 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:14,880 like, Oh, there's a little boy King right here type thing. And so, and then he continues. Well, 187 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:18,880 he's King for now, but let's see if he gets assassinated. Right. Exactly. Cause that's what 188 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:28,320 just happened. And, and so you have this young man who is bringing reform and he's doing that 189 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:34,320 from a young age. He's not doing that from his thirties, forties. He's doing that from 10, 15 190 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:40,400 years old. And God, like he says, listen, it's still going to happen, but yeah, because of your 191 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:45,680 faithfulness, it's not happening in your life. Yeah. And you just, you just wonder, like, I 192 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:48,880 almost feel like when I read things like that in the texts, there's this invitation from God that he 193 00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:54,560 says, what about the rest of you? Cause you can't tell me if all of Israel had turned out in sack 194 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:59,040 cloth and ashes going back to last week with Senecra, right? That they all turn out in sack 195 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:02,960 cloth and ashes and are like, we're going to serve God. We're going to be faithful. We're going to be 196 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:06,080 generous. We're going to care for the poor. We're going to love the people around us. We're going 197 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:13,600 to put a Torah on display. Yeah. That God doesn't say, all right, let's do this. Right. 198 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:20,080 But that doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. No, not yet. Anyways. So, so this is a story. This is the 199 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:25,840 setup. This is where we're at two rising powers, a boy King in the middle. It's probably not the 200 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:30,880 best term, but you know, like a child King in the middle, right? Boy King. Yeah. Yeah. He's 201 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:38,880 at best probably doesn't know what he's doing. And then finds the word of the Lord starts following 202 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:45,200 after God's heart. And the Lord says, okay, it's not going to happen in your lifetime. Okay. And 203 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:49,440 so you look at these stories and so then you have Egypt wanting to take over these trade routes. 204 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:54,080 They've allied themselves with Babylon. The other name that's mentioned as far as a non-Jewish 205 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:59,760 King in the story is Nebuchadnezzar. So this will also tell you that this is roughly the time of 206 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:06,320 Daniel that this is happening because Nebuchadnezzar, which we're going to talk about him 207 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:11,040 another week. Yeah, maybe next week. Maybe next week, but we're going to talk, but Nebuchadnezzar 208 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:17,840 is a whole nother awesome story. But Nebuchadnezzar and in his time as King in Babylon, he was not 209 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:24,560 known. He was known for being arrogant and prideful, right? Like you like the Babylonian 210 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:30,240 hanging gardens were known as one of the wonders of the world, right? This King that was out in 211 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:35,680 the desert, but he had these lush hanging rooftop gardens. And so this is the story of 212 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:42,960 Nebuchadnezzar. So these are the powers that you have to be. And when you're talking about 213 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:50,720 Egypt wanting to restore who they were, the one thing that actually caused their initial downfall 214 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:59,840 was the Exodus. So Israel leaving was one thing that actually caused their wealth to downfall 215 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:07,360 their workforce. Their slave labor went away. And so you have this King being like, no, I want to 216 00:20:07,360 --> 00:20:12,960 bring us back to those glory days. So part of me wonders, and there's nothing in a text on this, 217 00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:17,760 and I don't have any historical account on this, but part of me wonders like was Necho thinking of, 218 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:22,880 man, I want to bring the Israelites back into slavery to show that our gods are as powerful 219 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:28,320 as their God. Right. That is by the way, that is like not textual analysis, but more of just like, 220 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:34,400 like, that's not textual analysis at all. Personal, personal thoughts and insights. 221 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:38,960 Yeah. But I think there's applicable life lessons in right. Right. We're, we're oftentimes we can 222 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:44,960 be like, we're going to put our quote unquote gods up on the same level as God and say these things 223 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:50,960 are just as important. Right. We absolutely do that. Yeah. And it's always, it's always in this 224 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:56,560 place of like priorities and like where you place God in your life that leads to a lot of downfall. 225 00:20:56,560 --> 00:21:00,400 Yeah. Cause he, cause if you read the story, especially the second Chronicles account, 226 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:07,280 Necho is actually acknowledging the existence of the Israel God. He's actually trying to twist, 227 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:12,160 twist the words of God around and say, and actually, no, God wants me to come in and take 228 00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:16,640 over these trade routes. Right. He's trying to speak a language to Israel that says, no, 229 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:23,600 God wants me to do this. Right. So he's acknowledging the existence of, of the Israelite God of Yahweh, 230 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,800 but he's also trying to bring them back to the glory days. And he's trying to say, Hey, okay. 231 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:32,560 I, your God is powerful, but our gods are just as powerful. Right. I think it's, I think it's 232 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:39,920 interesting that, so that Josiah reinstituted observation of the Passover, right. Passover, 233 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:50,240 celebrating the Exodus of what Egypt, Egypt, where God, sorry, where God through the 10 plagues, 234 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:55,200 he is actually pronouncing judgment on the gods of Egypt. Right. And now you got Necho coming back 235 00:21:55,200 --> 00:22:01,760 to this King who's now reinstituted this remembrance of Egypt saying like, Hey, our gods are something 236 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:09,440 to you. Maybe invite him to a Passover dinner. You might remind him of the story. Right. Yeah. 237 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:15,120 And contextually for Egypt, Egypt's coming out of this phase where they actually had a Pharaoh, 238 00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:19,200 Osiris, a number of Pharaohs ago, who instituted that they're only going to worship the sun god. 239 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:23,920 And, uh, and Egypt's actually coming out of this phase and going back to their multi-god worship. 240 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:29,040 And so you, then you have Necho coming into Egypt saying like, by the way, our gods are just as great 241 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:36,400 as yours. And, uh, yeah, it's not working out that way. And what happens to Necho at the end of the 242 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:44,560 story is that he actually is driven out of the land by Nebuchadnezzar. Right. You have Necho coming 243 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:48,240 into Israel saying, our gods are just as good as your God. Our culture is just as good as your 244 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:52,480 culture. And part of me wonders, and like, this is a little hyperbole, this is a little speculation. 245 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:56,480 So please do not take this as theological doctrine. Part of me wonders if God was like, 246 00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:02,480 yeah, no, this is my land. Sorry. Get out. Yeah. And uses Nebuchadnezzar to make that happen. 247 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:06,320 Well, this, this also comes back to there's, there's a prophecy in the book of Daniel, 248 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:10,000 which by the way, it's happening around this time, right? Where there's like this, this, uh, 249 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,200 tower with like multiple different types of metal. Right. Yeah. And it's like, 250 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,800 different types of metal. Right. Yeah. It's getting crushed and then crushed and then crushed. 251 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:22,080 And if you know the history of what's going on during this time, you're like, well, the Assyrians 252 00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:25,840 tried to come in, you know, and Senekeh Rebbe was like, oh, I'm going to go and do this. 253 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:30,320 And then, Nope, God knocked them out. And then the Egyptians come in. They're like, well, we're 254 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:36,560 going to take over the trade routes. Nope. They get driven out by the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar. 255 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:42,080 Nebuchadnezzar is then deposed by Darius. Darius is then taken over by the Persians, 256 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:48,800 who is King Ossowar is right. And, um, also known as, um, what was his name? Xerxes. Yep. 257 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:54,800 And, uh, and so like you keep, you keep hearing these, like, like it's nation after nation is 258 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:59,120 like, oh, we're, we're bigger, we're stronger, we're on unsustainable all the way to the eventually 259 00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:04,160 you have this nation by the name of Rome that is like nothing anybody had ever seen. Yeah. 260 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:13,360 And then they're toppled by a rabbi who dies on a cross. And I just love the way that God does these 261 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:18,880 things in the, in the world, right? Because the invitation of these Kings is always like accumulate 262 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:24,960 power, go and control the places. And God says, plant yourself in the center of all the conflict 263 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:33,840 and be the story. Yeah. Remember where I brought you from. Plant yourself in the middle of chaos. 264 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:40,720 So by the way, where is this real again? Cross over the world. Right. Right. God put, 265 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:45,760 God put his nation in the center of everything to where if Babylon wanted to trade with Egypt, 266 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:52,000 they had to go through Israel. Right. Same with Syria. So on and so forth. Like the whole known 267 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:56,240 world had to go through Israel at that time. Uh, it's part, it's actually part of the reason why 268 00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:03,760 Rome was like, we have to take this over, right? In their expansion. So planning yourself in the 269 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:09,280 middle of everything that's going on so that you can be a light to those around you, because here's 270 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:16,080 reality. It will, it will change your community. By the way, if you think this is like, we're, 271 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:20,480 we're overheating this. I want to read you something from the, the sermon on the Mount from Jesus, 272 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:25,600 after he's gone through the Beatitudes and he says, um, like blessed are this supposed to be 273 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:30,080 this blessedness, right? He says this to his, to his disciples and everybody listening, 274 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:38,720 you are the salt of the earth. Right. Where does it all get put in the dish? Right. If salt loses 275 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,400 the saltiness, how can it be made salt again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown 276 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:47,920 out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be 277 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,640 hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it in the stand and 278 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:57,520 it gives light to everyone in the house in the same way. Let your light shine before others that they 279 00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:04,240 may see your good days and glorify your father in heaven. It sounds a lot like I'm going to put you 280 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:10,080 at the crossroads of the world and call you to live a different way. Yeah. And you're going to 281 00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:14,640 have Assyrians and you're going to have Egyptians and you're going to have Babylonians and you're 282 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:19,040 going to have Romans and you're going to have Greeks that are all going to come up and rise up 283 00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:25,200 and be like our way of life is the best and you can't stand against us. And yet here we are 284 00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,600 thousands of years later. And what nation is still standing? 285 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:37,520 Israel. Now, do those people live into the covenant? There's a conversation about that. 286 00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,920 But God says, I want you to go be in the crossroads of the world and put his different 287 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:46,400 story on display. And so then I think the challenge for us, Gentile followers of Jesus 288 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:52,160 and Jewish followers of Jesus, 100 percent. Right. How do we go stand in the crossroads of our world 289 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:59,040 and live in such a way that we're light on a hill that's not hidden, that we're salt and light to 290 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:06,640 a world that desperately needs preservation and illumination? Yeah. I love that part in the 291 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:11,840 Sermon on the Mount because especially the light of the world, because I've always read it a little 292 00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:17,200 tongue in cheek a little bit because it's Jesus is saying this and people listening, they're probably 293 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:23,120 like, there's probably a mix between like, oh, that's really profound. And like, yeah, no, 294 00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:28,640 Doug, you don't hide a light underneath the right. Right. Like you have Christ in you. 295 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:35,200 So when you go into a dark place in the world, that light is supposed to illuminate that dark 296 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:40,400 place. I had a conversation with a friend of mine who used to work in prisons. Right. And he was 297 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:44,720 just talking about how prisons are very depressing and dark and full of, you know, just tons of stuff. 298 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,840 And he's like, he's like, yeah, I just don't know if I want to work there anymore. I was like, 299 00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:52,160 do you know that you may be the only Jesus that people see for the entire time they're incarcerated? 300 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:58,240 And he was like, and so then we like talk like a couple of weeks later and he's like, he's like, 301 00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:02,240 it's crazy because I like I've been praying and asking God to just like use me just with my 302 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:07,680 presence because he's only able to do so much as a yeah, as a as a officer. Right. Yeah. 303 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:14,640 But he's like, he's like, I never realized that just me physically being there brings the presence 304 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:21,200 of God into those places. Yeah. And I feel like sometimes we, we discount how much our presence 305 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:25,440 makes a difference. Yeah. Not because of us, but because of who's great inside of us. 306 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:33,680 Yep. Kings and kingdoms, man. Yep. So if there's any takeaway from today, 307 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:39,280 put yourself in the crossroads, right? And see what the Lord does. Second thing I would say 308 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:44,880 is don't be like the Kings of the outside and try to push your way into some place. You're not 309 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:51,440 supposed to be. Right. Because let's just be real. That never ends well. When you try to force 310 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:57,280 yourself into a place you're not supposed to be, just be where you need to be, be the light of 311 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:03,280 Jesus and see what happens. If you're listening and you have thoughts on the last few Kings, 312 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:06,800 we've talked about, please continue to send those to us at love and context at gmail.com. 313 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:11,520 Yeah. We would love to integrate those into our conversation. They may not show up in this series 314 00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:15,520 just because of the recording schedule, but we would love to talk about it at a future date. 315 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:20,160 We are not talking about every foreign King in the Bible, right? There's a lot of them. There's 316 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:25,200 a lot of them. We've selected a few that we thought were significant. And we're going to 317 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,640 do that. We thought were significant. And those are the ones we're talking about. So if there's 318 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:33,040 other ones that you're like, Hey, I would really love to hear about Keisha, blah, blah, blah, blah, 319 00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,920 blah, blah, you know, cause that's definitely a real, you have to pronounce it correctly. 320 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:41,440 If you want to talk about it. Yeah. Um, uh, that was my attributes faster. Nick trying to pronounce 321 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:45,120 Hebrew names right there. Oh, Hey, you know what? Actually I do have one little random tip for 322 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:50,560 people before we go. Did you know that Cleopatra is closer to today's date than she was to the 323 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:56,000 creation of the pyramids? That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. That is crazy. That is a, that is a crazy 324 00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,760 fact, isn't it? So I was reading that just the other day when I was scrolling through something 325 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:03,200 now, somebody can totally fact check me on a, but that totally sounds right. It sounds, 326 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:08,160 no, that sounds about right. Yeah. Cause she was around Christ time when that happened. 327 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:15,200 Whereas the pyramids are like 3000 BC. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. So if you have, if you have a 328 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,160 Kings, uh, in the Bible that you want us to talk about, let us know. Yeah. 329 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:20,400 Otherwise we'll catch you next time. Yep. 330 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:26,960 And that's a wrap for today's episode of love and context. We hope you enjoyed this engaging 331 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:31,360 conversation and gain valuable insights into the powerful message of love within the Bible. 332 00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,680 We'd love to hear from you and continue the conversation. Connect with us by sending us 333 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:42,080 your questions, thoughts, and suggestions to love and context at gmail.com. We greatly appreciate 334 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:48,000 your feedback and ideas for future episodes. Stay connected with us on social media for updates, 335 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,160 behind the scenes content, and additional resources. You can find us on Instagram, 336 00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:56,800 tick tock, YouTube, and Facebook at love and context. Don't forget to hit that follow button 337 00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:01,360 to stay up to date with the latest episodes and join our growing community. Thank you for being 338 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:06,880 part of the love and context family. Remember love is at the heart of it all until next time. 339 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:18,400 Keep seeking wisdom, embracing love, and living out your faith in the context of today's world.