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The LORD God speaks – Doctrine of the Bible – 3
GOD SPEAKS! And who heard Him? What did the LORD God say to a man? Where can we see what the LORD said when God speaks?

“And you said: ‘Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives.
Deuteronomy 5:24 NKJV– the man Moses to the leaders of Israel

What is the ONLY BOOK where one made in the image of God can discern the TRUE words of WHAT GOD HAS SAID?

The HOLY Bible

IF you missed Part 1 on Bible Doctrine, you may want to take a look now at some of the history of the Bible, scholarly research AND IMPORTANT Definitions.

A pre-requisite Part 1

The BIBLE is HOLY

Introduction to this post

Did God really say..? – DOCTRINE of the BIBLE – 2

What choice would YOU have made in Eden?

The Bible unveils the word and purposes of God.
- Some refuse to believe Scripture
- While others will never consider its truth.
It is written…
blueletterbible.org references

THE LORD GOD SPEAKS!

The Word of God, The Word of Man & The Work of the Holy Spirit

The entire Scripture of God is divided into two parts: commandments and promises.
Martin Luther

1. The Word of God

God is HOLY. The LORD God speaks, but to whom? The Word of God speaks to all creation and is revealed to man, in His own image the LORD created us.

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:27

The LORD God created us to:
- Love Him as God loves the world of His creation.
  - John 3:16
.. “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness..”
Genesis 1:26

Love Him with all your heart.

AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’
Mark 12:30 – answer of the Messiah Jesus to “What commandment is the foremost of all?”

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 10:12

Do what the LORD commands

J.I Packer points out in KNOWING GOD, four categories of God’s direct utterances to mankind (Adam & Eve):
1. command,
2. testimony,
3. prohibition with sanction appended,
4. and promise both favorable and unfavorable (blessing or curse).
The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
Out of the ground the LORD God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food..
Genesis 2:8-9a
- .. the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden,
- and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
but do what He would do; that is, to do good.

NOW where will we find the truth of good and evil?

Have we considered these truths from the Bible?

You are good and You do good;
Teach me Your statutes
Psalm 119:68

OR from the hissing of those who oppose the Lord?

Keeping in mind those categories just mentioned from ‘KNOWING GOD,’ may I again remind us and suggest the ONLY answer:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV

2. The Word of a Man of God

Moses recorded the LAW as SPOKEN by the LORD.

YOU may have imagined that the LORD spoke to you in Paradise or walked with you in your daily life. Before SIN, we knew what was good because God spoke to us face to face.

So how does a man know what God said now that man has been separated from the Holy Presence of the LORD?

וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֶֽהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶֽהְיֶה וַיֹּאמֶר כֹּה תֹאמַר לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶֽהְיֶה שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃

And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”;
and He said, “This is what you shall say
to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Exodus 3:14 – I AM – YHWH, rendered LORD, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be;
H834 matches the Hebrew אֲשֶׁר (‘ăšer), who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.:

Yᵊhōvâ (I AM THAT I AM) Y H W H the existing ONE whose NAME IS too Holy to be spoken – יְהֹוָה

Do you believe the Law of Moses?

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
John 5:46-47 NASB20 – a question of the Messiah Jesus

Authority of the Word after the Law

Besides Eden witnessed in the first book of Moses, I could also reintroduce you to the LORD in an awesome place above the heavens and earth in a place such as that revealed to the Apostle John by the risen and victorious Christ Jesus!

Witness from the Prophets like Elijah, Ezekiel and Daniel where the God brings created beings such as us, beneath the glorious Throne of the Almighty Lord God! And the LORD confirms His Word to men of flesh, Prophets who served Him faithfully on the earth.

Now Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and He let none of his words fail. .. And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, because the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
1 Samuel 3:19,21

David and others record personal conversations, leadings of the Lord and prayers and songs worshiping God.

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
2 Chronicles 3:1

On occasions before and after David and after the resurrection of Jesus, man has received the Words of God and recorded them in Scripture.

Do you believe these men to whom God speaks?

3. Breathed out by the Holy Spirit

And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep..

וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃
Bereishit (Genesis) 1:2 Masoretic text
- The earth was a formless, desolate emptiness, complete darkness, a deep void lifeless and separate from God.
- And the SPRIRT OF GOD — the Other and ONLY LIFE separated from lifelessness and nothingness — Created!
  - the Spirit רוּחַ
  - of ‘ĕlōhîm אֱלֹהִים
  - moved רָחַף
God is HOLY! (Other.. Separate from HIS creation, even man.)

SO HOW does the Lord God communicate with MAN?

The Holy Spirit

THE LORD GOD IS OTHER!

(God is not a man. Unlike man He was not created — GOD IS that HE IS.
- Not like man and beast, not like plant or planet, not like the heavens which were void or the earth which was not yet.
“God is not a man, that He would lie,
Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good
Numbers 23:19

God Speaks. A Man hears.

Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.”
Genesis 6:3 – Moses records God’s words – בְּרֵאשִׁית

And since the days of Moses, the Holy Spirit of God commands certain men to record God’s HOLY WORD as SCRIPTURE.

(Write it down and tell other men what GOD HAS SAID.)

Spirit-filled men

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took away some of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Yet they did not do it again
Numbers 11:25 – the LORD gives the Holy Spirit to 70 elders of the Hebrews

Scripture records when God speaks to a Man given the Holy Spirit

Scripture reveals the words of the LORD which He spoke to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Bible. Joshua, various Judges and scribes, David and various kings, several prophets before Christ and Apostles after our Lord Jesus Christ ALL confirm the spoken and written HOLY Word of God we collectively refer to as The HOLY BIBLE.

“I and the Father are one.”
gospel of John 10:30

Jesus Christ — He Himself Other — testifies by the Holy Spirit to the truth of Scripture with the Authority of God the Father in ways no man could.

Gospel of Luke 3:

21 Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,

and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.”

SUMMARY: GOD SPEAKS

Therefore, the DOCTRINE of the THE HOLY BIBLE teaches that SCRIPTURE IS:
1. The Word of God
2. Written by a Man of God and
3. Breathed out by the Holy Spirit of God
All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness
2 Timothy 3:16

DOCTRINE is teaching (for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness IF we choose its Truth.) Where will you find absolute truth, if not in the Holy Bible?

How much of the BIBLE must we believe?
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We will begin to address this in my next post on DOCTRINE.
To be continued..
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Please COMMENT or ask your question about this Doctrine.

Thank you, dear saint of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Roger
July 17, 2021
You Will Not Be Led -2- Lot’s Wife
WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?!

As the world reports with great frequency, something BIG just happened (somewhere); and now you ask (if again threat of impending doom is not dire), “What does this have to do with Lot’s wife?”

If kings or enemies have caused it, let’s quickly CONVICT them so they cannot do this to US again.

And if ‘mother nature’ reeks unpredicted peril to our precious environment of sin, let’s legislate change (to keep things the same).
Lot’s wife

Do we even know her name?

No, only the caution (and we don’t know much about that).

Do you know who Lot is?

Perhaps, but not fully.

How about their home town: do you know where they lived?

Not really. (I think they had to leave suddenly, but I don’t know how they got there or where they went when they left.
Kings, alliances, wars & ordinary men

“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end.
Mark 13:7 NASB

Powerful and ambitious men and kings frequently impact the everyday lives of those in their path. This warning of Jesus about WHEN the end will come is given millennia beyond the times of Abraham and Lot.

Even now as in every age we see kings and wars affect the outcomes of life, even for men of faith like Abraham, Moses or David.

Sojourners in the lands of kings

כִּֽי־גֵרִים אֲנַחְנוּ לְפָנֶיךָ וְתוֹשָׁבִים כְּכָל־אֲבֹתֵינוּ כַּצֵּל יָמֵינוּ עַל־הָאָרֶץ וְאֵין מִקְוֶֽה׃
“For we are sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.
1 Chronicles 29:15 WLC, NASB – words of the shepherd king, David

Who was Lot? (& where is he from?)

Really, like Abraham, Lot was a shepherd sojourner a long way from home (back in kingdoms of the eastern kings near Haran and river Euphrates) now traveling in a land of western kings near the Jordan (or southern kings like those along the Nile).
- Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there. – Genesis 11:31
- Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. – Genesis 12:4b-5
- So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him.. Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. – Genesis 13:1,5
Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.
Genesis 13:10 – Lot separates from Abram

Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. – Genesis 13:12

(Of course, shepherds follow sheep to places of pasture.)

Ordinary men near cities of kings

By grace of the Lord God, Abraham and Lot, shepherds called into other lands were leaders of men (although not kings of cities as were the men with whom they kept covenants to live nearby).
- Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. And the land could not support both of them while living together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.. Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time. – Genesis 13:5-6,7b
- When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in his house, numbering 318, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
These are not poor men, but ambitions merchants of wool trading with men of other leaders(i.e. kings of nearby cities) to support their own wives, children and servants, men protecting their households – tents, at times – and goods (the sheep of their pastures).

Are we not ordinary men caught up in the struggles of the powerful men of the world struggling for advantage against each other, even though the Lord is our Shepherd?
Roger @talk of Jesus {dot}.com

The Alliances of War

Genesis 14:

And it came to pass.. That these made war..

We need not get into the details of who were the ‘democrats’ or ‘republicans,’ so to speak, among these big city kings opposed to each other.

The outcome will later prove to be the end for Lot’s wife and a blot on Lot’s legacy which lingers for all time as a warning to any dwelling too near the city of destruction destined by sin. (Read it for yourself, if you’d like.)

Brief highlights:
- Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations VS.
- Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (Zoar).
- The battle takes place in the Siddim Valley, near the Salt Sea.
10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them. But those who survived fled to the hill country. 11 Then they took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply, and departed.

Captured, then rescued

The kings where Lot and his family lived lost the war and all of them (including the wives of the men, riches and sheep) became the spoils of war to the winning kings.

BUT, Abraham hears of it and saves not only Lot, but many others.

16 He brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the other people.

17 Then after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

(After its rescue, it seems the city of Sodom has a new king.) An important communion of the victorious kings takes place here when Abraham returns. Our focus today, however, is only on Sodom.

18 וּמַלְכִּי־צֶ֙דֶק֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ שָׁלֵ֔ם הוֹצִ֖יא לֶ֣חֶם וָיָ֑יִן וְה֥וּא כֹהֵ֖ן לְאֵ֥ל עֶלְיֽוֹן׃

Avram gave him a tenth of everything.

It is Abraham, the victorious shepherd (though not a king) who with the help of the Lord returns from battle with the spoils of victory.

21 The king of S’dom said to Avram, “Give me the people, and keep the goods for yourself.” But Avram answered the king of S’dom,

“I have raised my hand in an oath to Adonai, El ‘Elyon, maker of heaven and earth, that I will not take so much as a thread or a sandal thong of anything that is yours..

Therefore, Lot, his wife and daughters and servants were returned to the land near Sodom, where they moved within the walls of the wicked city of the land they entered as sojourners.

Messengers of Mamre

18:1 וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהוָ֔ה בְּאֵלֹנֵ֖י מַמְרֵ֑א וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃

22 The men turned away from there and went toward S’dom, but Avraham remained standing before Adonai.
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To be continued...
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March 1, 2021
Josiah – a Good King also Dies
We recently observed one of the falls of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah. Now we look further back in time to the king who almost restored Israel before its fall, King Josiah of Judah.

Scripture summarizes the reins of so many kings, ‘He did evil in the sight of the Lord,’ but Josiah was not one of these.

Looking back

As our dreams die with a leader in whom we had placed our hope we ask, ‘where did we go wrong?’

It would be easy enough to place blame on one administration as we so often accuse, but in fact we cause failure by our own disobedience in every generation. Many who take credit for success have no right to defer blame for failure. Nevertheless, let’s take a quick look at a few kings of Judah.

Fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC

“For because of the anger of the LORD this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, that He finally cast them out from His presence.”
2 Kings 24:20

Jerusalem was under siege for many long months as the food ran out and disease and starvation spread throughout the city. On July 10, 586 B.C. The Babylonian forces of king Nebuchadnezzar broke through the northern wall of Jerusalem.

The fall of Israel and Judah began with their division at Solomon’s death many years earlier. Many kings did evil, yet listen to this high praise for King Hezekiah of Judah, a predecessor of Josiah.

Hezekiah

2 Kings 18:

Hezekiah relied on the LORD God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.
2 Kings 18:5 CSB

The Book of Kings was written after the Beginning of the Captivity in Babylon Observe also the historical view of Israel, compared to Hezekiah’s leading of Judah as the author records events of both kingdoms.

Hezekiah rebelled against the king of Assyria… (early 700’s B.C.)

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.

Three years later Shalmaneser captured Samaria.

11 The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria… 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.

Not so unlike the later deportation of the residents of Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon.

Hezekiah reigned over Judah for nearly three decades as a good King. Except for sixteen years under his immediate predecessor, Ahaz, Judah had prospered under good kings for nearly two centuries.

This would not be the case for Josiah’s two predecessors, who succeeded Hezekiah and did evil in the sight of the Lord for fifty-seven years.

Josiah

We turn now not only to Josiah, a king of Judah who did many good things, but also to the perspective of the Chronicles, written after the Return from Babylon and Persia. You may read a similar account of Josiah’s reign beginning in 2 Kings 22.

The common people killed all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.
2Chr 33:25

2 Chronicles 34

… He did what was right in the Lord’s sight and walked in the ways of his ancestor David; he did not turn aside to the right or the left.

… and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places… 6 He did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali… 8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, in order to cleanse the land and the temple, Josiah sent [officials] to repair the temple of the Lord his God.

… the priest Hilkiah found the book of the law of the Lord written by the hand of Moses.

15 Consequently, Hilkiah told the court secretary Shaphan, “I have found the book of the law in the Lord’s temple,” and he gave the book to Shaphan. 16 Shaphan took the book to the king…

This significant event, result of Josiah’s desire to restore the Temple, shows us at least two important facts. The Torah in the Temple was preserved in the hand of Moses. And secondly, the Law of Moses had not been read or observed in previous administrations of kings who did evil in the sight of the LORD.

National Repentance

19 When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes.

Josiah demonstrates leadership in bowing down to the Lord, by repenting on behalf of Judah and Israel for their continual disobedience to the Lord God. He had not intentionally sinned, but the Law had no longer governed the actions of the governed.

21 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for those remaining in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that was found.

For great is the Lord’s wrath that is poured out on us because our ancestors have not kept the word of the Lord in order to do everything written in this book.”
2 Chronicles 34:21b

Do our national leaders consider the wrath of the Lord when our laws overturn God’s rule?

Consequence to disobedience

Josiah had done good, but it was not enough to save his nation from punishment. The Law of the Lord and its punishment would prevail.

24 ‘This is what the Lord says:

I am about to bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, fulfilling all the curses written in the book that they read in the presence of the king of Judah, 25 because they have abandoned me…

26 Say this to the king of Judah [Josiah] who sent you to inquire of the Lord: ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says:

As for the words that you heard, 27 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before me, and you tore your clothes and wept before me, I myself have heard’—this is the Lord’s declaration. 28 ‘I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace.

Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place and on its inhabitants.’”

The Lord’s Covenant Confirmed

Josiah, knowing that Jerusalem will fall in a later generation, reaffirms the people’s oath to the Lord and His Law.

He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s temple. 31 Then the king stood at his post and made a covenant in the Lord’s presence to follow the Lord and to keep his commands, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul in order to carry out the words of the covenant written in this book.

פֶּסַח

peçach, peh’-sakh, passover

35 וַיַּ֨עַשׂ יֹאשִׁיָּ֧הוּ בִֽירוּשָׁלִַ֛ם פֶּ֖סַח לַיהוָ֑ה וַיִּשְׁחֲט֣וּ הַפֶּ֔סַח בְּאַרְבָּעָ֥ה עָשָׂ֖ר לַחֹ֥דֶשׁ הָרִאשֽׁוֹן׃

Josiah observed the Lord’s Passover and slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 Chronicles 35:1 CSB [Hebrew text of WLC above]

According to definition of peçach or passover from Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon: “a sparing, immunity from penalty and calamity, hence —

(1) a sacrifice offered on account of the sparing of the people, the pascal lamb, of which it is said, “this is the sacrifice of sparing unto Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians. Hence, to kill the pascal lamb… to eat the passover… to prepare the sacrifice of passover.

(2) the day of the passover the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, which was followed by seven days of the feast of the unleavened bread

Josiah offers a passover lamb to the Lord.

Spare us from the penalty we deserve. Accept our sacrifice as immunity from this penalty and calamity which is to come upon us.

11 וַֽיִּשְׁחֲט֖וּ הַפָּ֑סַח וַיִּזְרְק֤וּ הַכֹּהֲנִים֙ מִיָּדָ֔ם וְהַלְוִיִּ֖ם מַפְשִׁיטִֽים׃

11 Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs, and while the Levites were skinning the animals, the priests splattered the blood they had been given.

Josiah Killed

Will the Lord spare you? (For you have trespassed his Law.)

Though Josiah reformed Judah and a faithful remnant of Israel, he died as victim of a battle with an enemy.

It was about 610 years Before Christ, two dozen years before the fall of Jerusalem and nearly a century before the rebuilding of the second Temple by Zerubbabel and others.

2 Chronicles 35:20-27

20 After all this that Josiah had prepared for the temple, King Neco of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him.

21 But Neco sent messengers to him, saying,

“What is the issue between you and me, king of Judah? I have not come against you today but I am fighting another dynasty…

Jerusalem, Judah and Israel lie between the powers of the African continent to the south and west, and Asia to the north and east. Their kings could be either strategic allies or become annexed as subjugated states.

King Josiah goes out to fight, realizing the potential threat of the powerful king of Egypt. Judah certainly would not want to be once again enslaved by the powerful Egyptians. Yet hear King Neco’s plea not to oppose him against the powerful Assyrians.

“… God told me to hurry. Stop opposing God who is with me; don’t make him destroy you!”

22 But Josiah did not turn away from him; instead, in order to fight with him he disguised himself.

To be clear, the Egyptian King is invoking the Name of ‘elohiym. אֱלֹהִים

Josiah, rather than leading his troops against Neco, disguises himself as an ordinary battlefield soldier.

He did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, but went to the Valley of Megiddo to fight. 23 The archers shot King Josiah…

An Ordinary Death

24 So his servants took him out of the war chariot, carried him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem. Then he died, and they buried him in the tomb of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

2Ki 22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem… 3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent the court secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the LORD’s temple… When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes… 2Ki 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the LORD’s Passover was observed in Jerusalem.

From Megiddo his servants carried his dead body in a chariot, brought him into Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.
2Ki 23:30

Josiah was killed in battle at the age of about thirty-eight or thirty-nine, about six hundred years Before Christ. Jerusalem and Judah would fall in defeat just a generation later than Josiah and again just two generations after Christ.

A not so ordinary passover

“…this is the sacrifice of sparing unto Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians.

Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
Luke 23:8 CSB

“You’re not considering that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.”
Caiaphas, HIgh Priest of Israel

In our next look at the Passover we will examine the Pascal Lamb, sacrificed for us.
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To be continued... [Festival of the Passover]
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April 12, 2019