(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) So we're continuing our study through the book of Kings, well the book of Kings, Chronicles through the Kings and we're going through the kings of Judah now. So we started with Rehoboam and we're now getting into Abijah, his son and just that chart there you can kind of really see from the dark blue that Abijah is not a big part of that whole timeline there, so it's only three years that he reigns and so he's during Jeroboam there but he's kind of at the end of Jeroboam's reign and then Asa is going to reign for 41 years after that, which you can kind of think about why that would be, it doesn't tell us how old Abijah was when he began to reign but we know that Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, he reign for 17 years so you can kind of think about the fact that Abijah was probably older, he probably wasn't like a 20 year old man or something like that when he began to reign so just kind of thinking about why it was only three years, stuff like that. But when you're looking at this, our scripture reading was 2 Chronicles 13, we have this good bit of information about Abijah but if you were looking in 1 Kings, go to 1 Kings chapter 15, it doesn't really tell us that much information, it actually just looks like he did evil on the side of the Lord and actually you don't see it said that way here about Abijah, it just basically talks about Abijah and then it just goes into how he went into this battle with Jeroboam so like I said, when you go into the Chronicles, it's going to give more insight on the Kings of Judah and a lot of times it's going to give you more so the good side of them whereas when you're in the Kings, it's more so like they did evil on the side of the Lord so same thing with Rehoboam, if you remember, Rehoboam, it just kind of showed us how he messed up and then basically showed how he did evil on the side of the Lord and then you had to go to Chronicles to see, okay, here's where they humbled themselves, here's where God gave them deliverance and all that stuff and so it's just interesting to see that but I do want you to see what it says about Abijah and how he had his faults so in this passage, when you're reading this, did you see anything that was really bad about Abijah? No, he trusted in the Lord, you know, and all Judah with them, they won this great victory but notice in 1 Kings chapter 15 and verse 1 there, it says, now in the 18th year, King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, reigned Abijah over Judah and remember that how long does Jeroboam reign for? 22 years so we see that he's pretty much going to be coming, he's going to be reigning until almost the end of Jeroboam's reign. Verse 2 there, it says, three years reigned him in Jeroboam and his mother's name was Mayacah, the daughter of Abishalom and he walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless, for David's sake, did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jeroboam to set up his son after him and to establish Jeroboam because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite and there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. Now the rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah and there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam and Abijam slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David and Asa's son reigned in his stead. So that's pretty much what 1 Kings talks about Abijah and Abijam it says here, it's just another way to say it. In the New Testament if you're reading the genealogy in Matthew it's Abiah right and so just different ways of saying the same name but you see here that it does mention that war between him and Jeroboam that he had that he warred against them but that's all that it tells you whereas all of chapter 13 is about that and what's going on there but the thing that we do see here that's not in 2 Chronicles is what it says about how he walked in the sins of his father but it doesn't say like he did evil on the side of the Lord either but it says he walked in the sins of his father and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father. You know that was said about Solomon as well meaning Solomon was very wise but it wasn't perfect meaning David he never strayed from the Lord like he committed adultery and he had Uriah killed which was wicked but he never made images and you know had these groves and all these different things so that's really when you say well what does it mean to be perfect in the eyes of the Lord he had no other gods before him right that's what it comes down to because it's not saying he never sinned because we know that's not true but that's the big thing that we see the difference between Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijah is the fact that they had these other gods eventually and that's where Solomon fell off right is where his wives you know basically caused him to make these groves and all these other images for these different gods and then Rehoboam fell into that and I just want you to see that that's what it's talking about because it says his father the sins of his father go to go back to chapter 14 so first Kings chapter 14 just so you can see what Rehoboam's sins were so you know that okay this is what Abijah you know held on to. What was Rehoboam's big fault remember it was that he didn't what prepare his heart the Lord and Abijah is kind of in the same boat but what we're going to see is that it's going to progressively get better it's kind of like David was really good and then Solomon started off good and then he kind of fell into that garbage with his strange wives getting him into this idolatry and then Rehoboam was still dealing with it but then he humbled himself right and then Abijah here he's kind of holding on to it but he's trusting in the Lord you know more and then Asa is going to be a really good king and then Jehoshaphat's going to be a really good king right so you kind of see how it went downhill went downhill and then the next generations are going back uphill because I would say Rehoboam's not a horrible king he messed up and I'd say Abijah's not a horrible king either and then Asa is going to be a great king and so is Jehoshaphat but they both messed up too you know it's not that they don't have their faults because Jehoshaphat definitely has his faults he's rebuked a couple times for helping out Israel when he shouldn't have done it okay and Josiah's going to be a great king at the very end of things but he messes up at the end of his life and does something he shouldn't do and so to be a good king or to be someone that you know that did good in the eyes of the Lord doesn't mean that you're perfect because obviously a lot of these kings mess up even though they're not that bad but when you read this you kind of think oh you know he's not that good of a king but I'd say this you know it when you read second chronicles it gives a lot better light of him as far as who he is and it really shows you why Asa ended up being a really good king when you read this story because his father wasn't a horrible person and so it was kind of like they were coming out of this rut and they were slowly coming out of it getting better and better and better as you go so same thing with going down into the rut it didn't start off it didn't just all of a sudden plummet with the next person right and so but in first king chapter 14 verse 21 it says and Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah Rehoboam was 40 and one years old when he began to reign he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there and his mother's name was Nehemiah and Ammonitis and Judah did evil on the side of the Lord now this is what's interesting about this is that it wasn't Rehoboam that like basically said I'm making you know like Jeroboam's like I'm gonna make these images and I'm gonna get everybody to follow this Judah did evil on the side of the Lord and basically Rehoboam allowed it does that make sense and it says and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed above all that their fathers had done for they also built them high places and images and groves on every high hill and under every green tree and there were also sodomites in the land and they did evil to all they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel so again when you're reading this about Rehoboam you don't see like Rehoboam one of the sodomites to be there Rehoboam you know made these groves no Judah was falling into this but he wasn't stopping it in Abijah he only arranged for three years but he basically just kind of kept that as the status quo does that make sense he kind of just you know it is what it is and he just kept it that way he didn't try to clean house Asa is gonna be different right spoiler Asa is gonna clean house and then you know what Jehoshaphat his son's gonna do he's gonna get rid of all the other stuff that Asa missed right and so but that's where his fault is Rehoboam's fault was he didn't prepare his heart for the Lord he wasn't ready you know he needed to you know settle in his heart that he's gonna follow God and basically take care of that when he got into that position and then Abijah just kind of just following suit following suit with his his father but we're gonna see that he really has a lot of faith in God and he really leads Judah into having a lot of faith in God and trusting in the Lord but we see here the going back to second chronicle chapter 13 so this is where this story picks up so in second chronicles it doesn't tell us all the information about how he wasn't perfect he didn't he wasn't perfect in the sight of the Lord doesn't tell us that he fell into you know he had the sins of his father it just straight up tells us all right he's in this battle and basically what I believe is going on here is that Jeroboam is coming out to try to take him out okay you can see this because we're gonna see that basically Abijah's gonna grandstand and give off a diatribe it's a new word I wanted to use it but basically I remember someone said that I'm like what in the world does that mean basically just means that you're getting up on like you know you're kind of making your case and like kind of soapboxing it if you will and he's going to basically get up on a soapbox and kind of proclaim you know like what are you doing and and kind of just ripping face into Jeroboam and so it's kind of very clear that Abijah is not going after Jeroboam Jeroboam is trying to come after him okay but notice that the forces that are here so this is a big battle okay in verse three there so second chronicles 13 verse three it says and Abijah set the battle on array with an army of valiant men of war even 400,000 chosen men Jeroboam also set the battle on array against him with 800,000 chosen men being mighty men of valor so get that picture Judah has 400,000 Israel has 800,000 so it's literally two to one of Israel's advantage okay as far as just manpower okay and so that's a huge force right 800,000 I mean that's a big force when you think about it and you think about like the children of Israel as a whole when they came out of the out of the wilderness do you remember what the number was of those that were ready to go forth the war and both numbers whether you're talking about the people that died in the wilderness or after it was around 600,000 so that was all of them that's Judah everybody but now we have this number and and you could definitely see you know like later on how those numbers fall and you can imagine why right remember we're going to get into cases where they like they had 7,000 men they're like what happened to everybody we find out what happened to a lot of them right because we're going to see that that number gets cut down hard as far as how many people of Israel is going to die here but when you look at this you kind of think man that's uh Israel's got the advantage here as far as what's going to happen because they have double the number and it even says that these are mighty men of valor so it's not that well you know Israel has 800,000 but they're kind of weaklings you know no they have mighty men of valor that's 800,000 and so huge army that's coming against them and this is where Abijah is going to start rebuking Jeroboam and northern Israel okay he's going to make his case that basically he's going to call them out for basically for forsaking the true God and going after you're making these these calves these idols and these other gods for them to worship and he's basically what what do you think you're doing because he's going to call them out and say you think you're going to take out all the sons of David when when God made this covenant with them or do you think you're going to take out those that are actually following the Lord and so this is a great grandstanding moment of Abijah here where he's putting his trust in the Lord and he's not weak he's not like you know is there something I can do is there some money I can give you right and he's trying to barter here he's got he doesn't have the advantage here but yet he's he's he's being very bold in his stance on what he's going to say here so I kind of just want to go through what he says here a little bit and there's something interesting that he says at the very beginning in verse four there it says and Abijah stood up upon Mount Zemarayim which is in Mount Ephraim and said hear me thou Jeroboam and all Israel I eat not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt now that's what he's going to be saying and he's going to go into more detail as far as what he means by that and all this other stuff and then going into who Jeroboam is and and all this but the thing that caught my eye and every time I read through here is this this phrase a covenant of salt have you ever thought about that as far as what that's talking about a covenant of salt because it's something that every time I read through this passage I'm like what does it what does he mean by covenant of salt now there's other places where it talks about salt being a covenant or a covenant of salt and so I kind of want I want to show you what I believe this is saying or what why he's saying it like that but go to Leviticus chapter 2 Leviticus chapter 2 a covenant of salt because you can definitely think about what salt represents you know what does it do what does it mean you know what does it mean to be a covenant of salt and to me this is like a phrase or this is a covenant like you would say like a covenant of blood right like I made a covenant with you we're like blood brothers you know like where you like cut your hand I've never done this but you know like when you know like the old thing where you cut your hand and you like shake your hand and you're like we're blood brothers now you know a covenant of blood you know and so I that's what I see with this is that when he's saying that covenant of salt he's saying that because he's stating what type of covenant it is okay the covenant he made with David and I'm just going to say it it's an eternal covenant that cannot be broken that's what I believe a covenant of salt is okay and I'm going to give you my reasons why it doesn't really matter if that's what that means because it is true that the covenant made with David is an eternal covenant that couldn't be broken but I believe that's why he's saying it's a covenant of salt go to Leviticus chapter 2 and verse 13 it says in every oblation of my of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt all the offerings were offered with salt okay now you can think about what the offerings meant what they represented obviously they were all picturing what Christ was going to do right as far as how he's going to pay for our sins and the covenant that he made as far as taking away our sins so that's what I believe it's talking about but to go further with it go to Numbers chapter 18 Numbers chapter 18 Numbers chapter 18 verse 19 just to show you another place where it mentions that this covenant of salt and that's you ever have those phrases where you're reading through it you're just like what does that mean what does it mean by that and you're just constantly thinking about it and this is just my interpretation of what I think it's talking about okay so but in Numbers chapter 18 verse 19 it says all the heave offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord have I given thee and thy sons and thy daughters with thee by a statute forever it is a covenant of salt forever because the Lord unto thee or before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee so I believe what he's saying here is when he's basically talking about this covenant of salt he's reiterating that it's a statute forever it's a covenant of salt forever and what he's getting across here is that this covenant cannot be broken and so when he's when he's rebuking Jeroboam he's basically saying listen he made this covenant with David and it's a covenant of salt meaning it's not going to be broken okay and you can think about this with eternal security right when you got saved that's not a covenant that can be broken right see the old testament was not a covenant as far as like you know it was a it was an eternal covenant meaning that if they would have kept it but as a conditional covenant that meaning that it could be taken away okay whereas the new testament can't be taken away it's an everlasting covenant that the only way for the the new testament to fail is if Jesus fails so good luck with that right because Jesus is not going to fail right he's the high priest of it he's the king he's the mediator for that covenant to fail means he has to so it's impossible right and that's what's going to get I'm going to get into what I mean by what he brings up as far as being a covenant of salt but go to mark chapter 9 first of all to show you another place and why I believe it's talking when it says covenant of salt I believe it's basically saying it's an everlasting covenant it's just another way of saying it okay it's a covenant that cannot be done away with it's an everlasting covenant that's being made it's kind of like the covenant that's made with Abraham that's an everlasting covenant okay unto Abraham and his seed where the promise is made obviously to Christ that's why I'm going to show you here that what he's talking about is the fact that Christ is going to come through the sons of David it's going to be Christ is of the seed of David and that cannot be broken and it wasn't broken and so that covenant was going to happen and he's basically saying you you think you're going to destroy all the sons of David when God said you know like you can imagine the reasoning though right if God said that Christ was going to come out of David's seed but you're going to destroy all of David's seed good luck with that right and so that's why he has the confidence right you have this confidence kind of like you know if God told you that there's no way you're going to die right if he came down and said listen there's going to be some really hard times they're coming ahead but there's zero chance you will not die do you know how much confidence you should have going into that right to know like yeah I'm I'm untouchable and that's where Abijah's stating here he's basically saying we're untouchable because there's no way you can decimate our whole lineage because of the promise that he made that of his seed would Christ would come through that but think about this too because notice this in Mark chapter 9 you may again I'm I I always kind of look at these things I'm like what is this talking about exactly you know why is it saying it this way but I believe what the aspect of the salt is showing the the eternal aspect of it okay so in Mark 9 verse 47 verse 47 it says and if thine eye offend thee pluck it out it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched now let me ask you a question right now when this when it's going through this whole synopsis what's the big picture that you see there that hell doesn't end where the worm dieth not and fire is not quenched then it says for every one shall be salted with fire and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt so what's the what's the the impression that you're getting is that it's talking about the the eternal aspect of hell right then it goes on to talk about if salt has lots of savor but think about this when when you're dealing with that aspect of salt losing its savior you're talking you're dealing with the fact that you had the new man but you're walking in the old right you're not walking in the new man you're not walking as the salt of the earth or the light of the world it's there it's not like it's gone away right but that shows you what the inside your new man is eternal and nothing can change that right the eternal security of the believer but that shows you also that hell is eternal because it's salted with salt meaning that that goes on forever okay now go to psalm 89 because i'm going to show you exactly what i believe he means by this when he says that the kingdom over israel was given to david forever even to him and to his sons by covenant of salt isaiah or i'm sorry uh psalm 89 and uh this is a great eternal security passage by the way too in the old testament is psalm 89 but in psalm 89 verse 28 and i know this is a detour because you're like i thought we were talking about abijah but it's something that he brings up right he's bringing this up and i think that this really gives you a picture of why he had that much confidence going into this battle and if you really would look at the bible as far as the confidence that you have that god will protect his own and especially those that are serving him how much more you wouldn't worry about stuff and i'm listen i'm in there with you okay meaning that we can all have anxiety we could all worry about things and worry about whether god's going to protect us but if you really think about the promises that he gives us you should be like abijah saying i don't care if it's four against one you know like four to one or two to one or whatever it is you know we're going to trust in the lord because of the promises that he's given to us over the rest of the world okay and either way if we die well we have eternity and we have everlasting life to look forward to right so it's not you know for to me to live is christ and to die is gain and so if i live in the flesh is the fruit of my labor for what i should choose i what not for if i uh you know and it goes on i'm in straight betwixt two uh and i haven't desired the part to be with christ which is far better so you know it's a win-win when you look at that but isaiah 89 or i'm sorry isaiah i keep saying isaiah there's not 89 chapters in isaiah but psalm 89 and verse 28 it says my mercy will i keep for him forever or forever more now this is talking about david in context you can go and read this whole psalm but for sake of time i don't read the whole psalm uh so we're talking about david it says i'll keep for him forevermore and my covenant shall stand fast with him his seed also will i make to endure forever and is thrown as the days of heaven if his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will i visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will will i not utterly take away from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail does this sound a little different than the old testament you remember it why was the old testament taken away because they didn't keep it they didn't keep the covenant and i regarded them not set the lord he found fault with them but with this covenant that he made with david and this also pictures salvation this also pictures the new testament by the way but that yet you're gonna have uh chastisement he's gonna visit you with the rod but it says nevertheless my loving kindness will i not utterly take away from him so this is what we believe as far as eternal security the lord loveth to me chastenest and discouraged every son whom we receive it notice in verse 34 my covenant will i not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips once have i sworn by my holiness that i will not lie unto david his seed shall endure forever and is thrown as the sun before me that's what abi just clinging to right there because imagine jarrah bones like we're going to completely take you out right completely take out the seed of david take out the throne and then you got this promise right here saying there's no way now you say well is the throne there anymore you know the throne of david is not there anymore and we'll go to psalm 132 psalm 132 and this is what it really comes down to is that yeah it is and jesus is sitting on it he's the root and the offspring of david and the bright morning star he is the king of kings he is the one that was promised to be of the seat he's that branch he's the son he's the uh the the stem of jesse he's the seat of david and he is that promise which was to come and so back in that day if you were in the you know david's you know that that whole lineage of david you you could take it to the bank there's no way that you would all be completely taken out because throughout these kings do you see something that's common that basically they would take out a king and what would they do destroy everybody that's associated with that seed now in some cases god told him to do it and said hey ahab's house take them all out and we'll see that atheliah is going to try to do it but guess what that promise sticks true even in that case that joe ash was saved out of that okay now uh in psalm 132 in verse 11 it says the lord has sworn in truth unto david he will not turn from it of the fruit of thy body will i sit upon thy throne who's talking there god thy throne oh god is forever and ever scepter of rices is the scepter of thy kingdom who did he says unto the son he said thy throne oh god is forever and ever and he is the seed of david he's the seed of abraham that's how the whole new testament even starts is to state that that he's the seed of david the seed of abraham and it it it's very clear that he swore he swore that unto david and and the new testament says that you know speaking of the patriarch david and it talks about that of the fruit of his loins that christ would sit upon his throne okay and go to jeremiah 33 15 jeremiah 33 15 we see this mentioned in another place as well anyway what i want you to see here is that this promise that that he made to david about that there was there would never be a case of someone not sitting on his throne came true because it's a covenant an assault and by the way it's impossible for this to not be true and now you can definitely see how it's it's very much set in stone now right there's no worrying about it now the lord jesus christ is sitting on that throne try to take him off that and so we we know that that's the case but i think people miss this mark because especially when you get into new testament this dispensational zionism garbage where they're just like well god's not done with the jews and all these promises these promises were about christ you need to stop listening to your christ rejecting rabbis and all these commentaries that you're looking into and ci scofield and john nelson darby you need to get your head into the actual bible and see that these things were filled in christ and that they rejected that and the kingdom god was taken away from them and so this promise is not to the jews this was to christ who already came who's sitting at the right hand of the father and is on his throne right now now in uh in jeremiah 33 and verse 15 because anybody that teaches zionism or dispensation you know like that type of stuff they always go to the old testament and look at these promises right they never look in the new testament show me the new testament like all the jews are going to get coming back and all this stuff no in the new testament called the son of god of satan and the enemies of the gospel that's what the new testament says but they always get to the old and they say well you know back here it says that he promised to bring him back into the land yeah he did that later on read further and you'll see that yeah that happened when they came back out of babylon okay and they're always trying to pull these promises out of the old testament and they're trying to they're trying to shoot it forward like thousands of years after it was already completed okay but in jeremiah 33 and verse 15 it says this it says in those days and at that time well i caused the branch of righteousness to grow up unto david and he will execute judgment and righteousness in the land in those days shall juda be saved and jerusalem shall dwell safety safely and this is the name wherewith she she shall be called the lord our righteousness talking about jerusalem right just so that doesn't get confusing right the she is talking about the city okay uh but it says for thus saith the lord david shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of israel neither shall the priests the levites want the man before me to offer burnt offerings and to kindle meat offerings and to do sacrifices continually that's interesting why because jesus is the priest after the order of malchizedek he's the high priest after the order of malchizedek the priesthood being changed there's no more need for listen you say well you know the levites aren't doing it anymore that's broken no because the new testament's in place and jesus is that high priest and there's no more need for these sacrifices and also by the way he's the king of sitting on the throne of david right he's the seed but he's also the he's the the root and the offspring of david because he's the son of god and so you can definitely see how you know what's abijah talking about here that's what he's talking about he's talking about that promise and he you know whether he understands that christ is going to be on that throne it doesn't really matter because god kept that promise that there's going to be the seed of david sitting on that throne or there's going to never be wanting a king and jesus just happens to be the one that finally takes that spot that's never going to end okay and uh you can think about this too uh hebrew chapter 13 hebrew chapter 13 talking about jesus in verse 20 hebrews 13 verse 20 and this last thing i'm going to talk about this but i just i just always look at that by a covenant of salt and just think about what is that talking about what does he mean by that and i believe what he's saying is that that covenant's everlasting can't be broken god won't change his mind on that it's never gonna so salvation being saved by grace through faith that's a covenant of salt i believe that that is something that's not going to change okay it's not a conditional covenant based off of it's a conditional covenant on the fact that you believed and you got saved okay that's the only condition you have to be but it's not conditional on you keeping the commandments okay and the condition is that jesus had to die for our sins you know and guess what he he he succeeded in that and hebrew chapter 13 verse 20 it says now the god of peace that brought again from the the dead our lord jesus our lord jesus that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through jesus christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen so this is the only place you actually see everlasting covenant and what do you think that's talking about the blood of the everlasting covenant and the whole book of hebrews what do you think that's talking about it's talking about the new testament my friends and and obviously when you think of like abraham's covenant what was that talking about christ coming and so these covenants of salt that i'll call them of david the covenant that christ would come through the seed of david the covenant that it would come through abraham and the covenant that he would be the king that would sit upon the throne of david and you say well they're all kind of the same yeah to a certain extent right because one was made to abraham and then one was made to david right and then then you think about how he promises this new covenant you know that as far as the comforter coming and all this other stuff it's all very much linked but those covenants aren't like the old covenant you know where he said hey you'll be my peculiar people or peculiar treasure if you keep my laws if you keep my covenant right so it's a different type of covenant and i believe that's what he's saying here so anyway i just wanted to hit on that so we're gonna be here for a while now i'm just kidding you know there's certain things that you see in a passage where you're just like that's that's an interesting statement and i just you know that's personally what i believe it's talking about and why it's saying it's a covenant of salt so going on from there uh abijah is still calling out jeroboam and we kind of went into this when we were dealing with rheoboam by going verse six there it says yet jeroboam son nebeth the servant of solomon the son of david is risen up and hath rebelled against his lord and there are gathered unto him vain men the children of belial and have strengthened themselves against rheoboam the son of solomon when rheoboam was young and tender hearted and could not withstand them so abijah knows what happened with rheoboam and if you think about it he probably wasn't a child when his father rheoboam was reigning right who knows how old you know because if rheoboam was 41 you know he could have been when i say a child i mean like he wasn't like a baby or a toddler or something like that he could have been like a teenager he could have been like 20 you never know like how old he was when this happened but all that say is that he's kind of recollecting what happened with his father with jeroboam and these these children of belial but notice what it says in verse eight here it says and now you think to withstand the kingdom of the lord in the hand of the sons of david so remember that's what he's saying this is a covenant of salt you can't break this you know he's basically calling him out and it's saying you're trying to withstand and this is why i believe that this is not something where abijah is trying to go after jeroboam right it's basically jeroboam is coming after him and he's saying you're trying to withstand the kingdom of the lord in the hands the hand of the sons of david and it says ye be a great multitude and there are with you golden calves which jeroboam made you for gods and have have ye not cast out the priests of the lord the sons of aaron and the levites and have made you priest after the manner of the nations of the other lands so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams the same may be a priest of them that are no gods so he's calling him out saying listen you made these two calves and also you got rid of all the priests that they're the sons of aaron and so he's he's calling him out saying listen you're coming against the sons of david and especially it's the sons of david which god had made a covenant with salt that basically cried christ is going to come through his seed and all this and then uh notice in verse 10 there he's going to point out that judah has not forsaken the lord but northern israel has okay so in verse 10 there it says but as for us the lord is our god and we have not forsaken him and the priests which minister unto the lord are the sons of aaron and the levites wait upon their business and they burn unto the lord every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense the showbread also set there are set set they in order upon the pure table and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof to burn every evening for we keep the charge of the lord our god but ye have forsaken him and behold god himself is with us for our captain and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you oh children of israel fight ye not against the lord god of your fathers for ye shall not prosper that sounds like a good king right there not just that he has boldness and he's got courage but he's trusting in the lord he's got a good point okay and there's there's a lot of things you can take away from this first of all notice what he says he says in verse 10 but as for us the lord is our god and we have not forsaken him and then he goes into why they haven't forsaken him or what's the what's the proof that you haven't forsaken him because we have priests that minister unto the lord and we do burnt offerings and we do burnt sacrifices every day every evening does judaism right now do any of this i know i know i'm picking on them but how much i mean i i didn't i didn't even think about this but i'm just thinking in my head you know what about judaism is following the lord at all according to byja they've forsaken the lord because they don't do these oblations they don't do any of this stuff and we know that that's done away with but listen if you're going to hold to the fact that hey the old testament is the torah and all this stuff is supposedly what you say is you know bible and god's word then why aren't you doing that and the bible is saying you're forsaking god because you're not doing that so even by the standards of saying you're i'm a part of that first covenant i'm a part of that covenant that god made with eight with moses then why aren't you doing any of it and abijah is calling you know what i i see abijah here calling out the jews it's kind of like you know where where uh uh jesus is saying that jonah and his generation and Nineveh is going to stand up in judgment against you i can almost say like abijah is going to come up here and sin or jarabome because he's the one being called out right jarabome's the one that's being called out and someone's like jarabome and all his generation is going to call out this generation because they forsook they're forsaking the lord right now and obviously we know that it's because they don't believe on the lord jesus christ who is a liar but he's denied that jesus christ he's anti-christ not the father and the son but just over and over again who can read through the old testament and think that the jews are actually following god's word now a lot of people just don't read through the old testament right they don't read it at all so they're just ignorant but people that want to hold to this zionism doctrine where are you finding this at like i said they're usually going to the old testament just show me here how the jews are god's chosen people right now if they're forsaking god and so but notice that he says it says fight ye not against the lord god of your fathers for you shall not prosper so this is a great passage i mean when you're reading through the kings you kind of think of abijah and you're not really thinking of it being him being this great king or someone to think back to you think of like you think of hezekiah right you think of uh jehoshaphat you think of asa you think of josiah you even think of jihu right but have you ever thought of abijah and his zeal for the lord and abijah and his his trust in the lord to basically call out jeroboam who has two to one against him and says listen we haven't forsaken the lord you have and don't fight against us because you're not going to prosper in the boldness that he has so uh and so and this is just a little story here so that's you know one of the reasons i want to go through the book of kings is because some of the stuff you may not have really looked that far into me included and some of these things that we go through i've never really thought about abijah as being like this really cool king that had a lot of trust in the lord but notice it goes on here and it talks about this ambushment okay so not only does he have double the army against him now we have jeroboam who's basically going to come on both front and back to him so basically on all sides you got an army against you so this is definitely not a good situation for abijah and judah but in verse 13 there says but a jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them so they were before judah and the ambushment was behind them so just imagine that they're kind of facing the army but then jeroboam sent a lot of his army behind them and basically outflank them you know and bringing this ambushment to where they're having to fight on two fronts and that's never a good situation if anybody's ever studied like world war ii that was what a lot of the battles had to do with is making sure that you didn't have to fight on two fronts right and so that's why that's why uh you know germany wanted to get in with japan because if they had to go against america or they had to go against russia they'd have a two-front battle against them and all these different things right and that's why germany ended up getting taken because russia ended up being you know teaming up with us and then you had a two-front war against germany and it's actually the russian army the red army that actually went in and took out berlin and so anyway not to get into the history on that but all i'm saying is that that's not a good situation to be in an army is being taken by two sides and so um but notice in verse 14 there says and when judah looked back behold the battle was before and behind and they cried unto the lord and the priest sounded with the trumpets now what's interesting about this passage is that's what they said they were going to do right he says it says in verse 12 there it says his high his priest with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you okay so he's basically saying we're going to sound the trumpets what's interesting about this is that this is mentioned in the law to do and this is the only place that i can think of that it's actually recorded that it's actually been done okay go to uh numbers chapter 10 number chapter 10 so it's always interesting to find that right you read through the law and it says to do this at certain times and and then you kind of wonder was this ever done right we went through that whole thing with like recovery for women and you think of leviticus chapter 12 you're like was this ever done it's like well then you see mary doing it when she gave birth to jesus and it's like oh yeah that's where they did it at least she did it right and then you think of these other passages where you're like well did they ever do that did they ever do the year of jubilee did they ever do this stuff and uh this is actually a case where they looked at the law and said this is what we're gonna do we're gonna do exactly what god told us to do in this situation notice numbers chapter 10 verse 9 it says and if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets and you shall be remembered before the lord your god and you shall be saved from your enemies and this is actually saying that the priests are supposed to do this okay this is this is explicit demand our command basically saying hey if if if if armies are coming against you blow those trumpets and god will save you out of their hand and they took god up on that and you know we're going to see that the lord does deliver them right we already read the chapters we already know that he does but this is this is interesting because when we deal with end times prophecy we have what's called the feast of trumpets okay and i've already kind of hit on this with the feast of the lord but what did the feast of trumpets represent the tribulation right the tribulation of the great tribulation that we're going to go through and the blowing of trumpets because the blowing of trumpets started at the what this the first day of the seventh month and then on the tenth day was the year jubilee which at the end of every or at every 50 years and the on the day of atonement in the year jubilee you'd have a trumpet that sounds and that's where i believe you get the last trump like when it says at the last trump uh you know the the dead in christ shall rise and so you can definitely link this to to the end times prophecy with abijah and how what did he have and he's talking about with jeroboam and the sons of what belial and what is a link to the sons of belial but those that take the mark of the beast right those that are twice dead plucked up by the roots the fact that we're what being prevailed against meaning that we're not we're not supposed to win that battle right it says he's going to make war with the saints and shall prevail against them and then we see this army that's coming up from the front and from the back they're getting ambushed and all hope is lost until they blow the trumpets and that's where god comes in and you can think about this because matthew what happens when when jesus comes in the clouds matthew 24 you don't have to turn there matthew 24 31 it says and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other and what happens the same day that we're taking up with him and into the clouds but he rains fire down on the earth and takes out our enemies and when you look at luke chapter 21 and verse 28 it says and when these things begin to come in the past then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh so you can see a stark parallel to what happens with abijah and so i see that i see this but do you see abijah's confidence that's the same confidence we need to have if lord willing or you know we're in that great tribulation we need to be thinking about this hey we have a covenant of salt we're saved we have eternal security and god said that he's going to take care of us you know it says this is the patience of the saints and he talks about not one hair of your head is going to perish and listen if i deliver this to christ the diet is the gain you know it doesn't really matter what happens to me but listen you know god is going to rescue us out of that no matter what if you make it through that then we're going to lift up our heads and our redemption draw at nigh and it's just interesting because the one place that that story's mentioned because some people say well aren't the species of trumpets you know the trumpets blowing isn't that with god's blowing the trumpets but you got to think about this people always reap what they sow isn't it and like i said he's going to recompense tribulation to them that trouble us so i don't think it's a i don't think it's a coincidence that god's blowing trumpets back at them right meaning that he's using trumpets to signify hey you you put my my people through tribulation and we're killing them it's coming back on you now it's your turn okay but but i do think that that's an interesting correlation between end times and like i said people will say well the trumpets i think that's talking about the seven trumpets of god and all that but when you see trumpets mentioned in the old testament because it says the feast of trumpets the only places that you see like trumpets plural mentioned blowing because they have a trumpet they'll blow for different assemblies and stuff like that but when trumpets plural when it says trumpets that's where you see it in number chapter 10 and you see it right here with abijah and what do you see you see them about to be taken out by their enemies and god rescuing them out of that so to me i i i just believe him i believe him more so now you know just looking at this story i believe that to be the case before this but now it's kind of like well that's what it said in numbers this is where it actually took place and now let's look at the context of what's going on in that whole story and it looks like the great tribulation to me and so anyway i just thought that was interesting with that aspect of it but we see that juda is going to be delivered by god notice in verse 15 there it says then the men of juda gave a shout and as the men of juda shouted it came to pass that god smote cherubim and all israel before abijah and juda notice who smote who smote him god and you think about like the anti-christ who's going to smite the anti-christ and the beast the lord jesus christ with the sword the two-edged sword that's proceeded out of his mouth and he's gonna they're gonna be cast in the lake of fire and all his armies with them right and uh but going on there in verse uh verse 16 it says and the children of israel fled before juda and god god delivered them into their hand and abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter so there fell down slain of israel 500,000 chosen men 500,000 they killed 100,000 more than what they had 500,000 so that they went from 800,000 500,000 they killed a quarter million people by the way this is a long time ago okay think about this back in jesus day there wasn't a billion people on the earth it was like a hundred million in jesus day this is before that the population back then was a lot less than it is now and a lot less than jesus day okay which also shows you that to think that we've been around for like a million years i i forget what they say is it 500,000 i forget what they say like humans have been around according to science right do you realize what the population should be if that were the case right but you know what makes more sense is that around 4,000 years ago or somewhere around there there was a flood and went down to eight people because it's not a linear like straight line increase it's like it's it's what you would call an exponential function meaning that it's going like this and then it's going like this because i remember when it was just seven billion people in my lifetime now it's almost eight right i'm not that old okay but all that to say is that it's increasing exponentially and to say that that was like that far back is ridiculous but just think about that in context as far as how many people there are were in the world back then that's a huge number half a million people that's huge and so but uh but he delivered them into the hand you say well i thought you know you're linking this to the antichrist and stuff yeah we're going to come on white horses with two edged swords in our hands by the way too so yeah we're going to do some do some business with that whole thing too because it's his armies and all that now um in verse 18 there says thus thus the children of israel were brought under at that time and the children of judah prevailed because they relied upon the lord god of their fathers so why did they prevail they relied on god and god delivered them you think about this for whosoever shall call upon a name the lord shall be delivered in context what are you dealing with there what they do here they cried out obviously so all that are saved are going to be delivered from this meaning that when jesus comes in the clouds all those that are saved will be caught up in the clouds and they will be delivered you know from that um but in going on in verse 19 it says and abijah pursued after jeroboam and took cities from him bethel with the towns thereof and jesh jeshanna with the towns thereof and ephrin with their with the towns thereof now notice bethel bethel is an important place that's the house of god right that's the place where jacob saw the ladder with the angels ascending and descending bethel is where one of the places where one of the calves were right so he basically took over one of the towns where they had one of the calves right um and then it goes on it says neither did jeroboam recover strength again in the days of abijah and the lord struck him and he died notice that jeroboam was literally taken out by god and you know before going through this passage before studying this out i never saw this correlation with end times isn't it amazing how the bible was that deep like how like who would have thought second chronicles abijah going to war with jeroboam would have any correlation with end times prophecy but there it is you're like you're just obsessed with it okay well i like it i mean but but honestly when i was going through this i'm just going to be honest with you the covenant of salt was really what i wanted to bring up that's what i thought was interesting and going through this you know when i was and the part about end times was kind of just the side note but as i'm reading through this honestly i just keep seeing more and more of this the the correlation between that and all that stuff there and and so uh going through these studies and going through this type of stuff it just strengthens my faith in the bible and just how perfect it is how much how much there is to learn about it and when people are like i don't know what to preach you know that i've already preached it all there's this uh brother dave knows what i'm talking about is it uh something kruger what's the name of that thing the that that what is it yeah it's like daning kruger daning kruger basically it's a it's a confidence to experience curve okay and what this is is meaning that let's say you have someone you ever run into that person that thinks they know everything about how to do a job and they know zilch okay they're like i oh man i could just run this place like a top and just you know i could do everything the way that it should be done and they know nothing they're an idiot right and it shows this curve and it kind of starts off like high like the confidence levels up here but the experience is like zero right confidence is up here but it shows as you get experience they call it the valley of despair because what it means is that as you get experience you realize you don't know anything and then you're down here at this confidence level of like nothing because you're like oh okay i don't know anything i need to learn a lot and then it it just creeps up as you get more experience as far as the confidence level and so when it comes to people that think they know the bible it's literally that right and when i first got saved i was kind of like that i was like i already know that the gospels i'm gonna jump in the axe you know this is naive like you're just confident about something you don't know anything about all right you don't have any and but then you start reading you're like oh man i don't know anything you know i need to just be quiet keep my mouth shut and just start reading some more right but anybody that's been you know in a job when you get out of college you know my confidence was like down here i'm like i need help someone hold my hand through this i don't want to make these decisions i'm going to mess up right but as you get more experience you start getting that confidence and now it's like oh i know what i'm doing you have that confidence of okay done so many times i know this works this is going to work you know all this stuff and when it comes to reading the bible i see that the more you read especially at the very beginning the more you realize that there's so much you don't know and what happens in you know in in the new ib specifically is that a lot of people are spoon-fed doctrine okay which is i'm not saying it's a bad thing to a certain extent meaning that it's nice that you can just be like here's the good stuff catch up okay here's the problem people don't catch up they take it and they think oh i know it all now they didn't do the work to get it they didn't figure it out themselves they didn't study it to see if it's actually right and it's all this basically i i think i know everything because pastor anderson said so but that's the only reason they even know it's right because pastor anderson said so or you know even if they say pastor robinson said so or whatever no you need to learn it for yourself and even as a pastor and i'm not that old and i've only been passionate for two years i am still being amazed at what i don't know and what i i never saw before and so even in the book of chronicles you know it just these stories are amazing but i just wanted to end with this as far as just trusting in the lord go to uh second chronicles second chronicles chapter eight or chapter i'm sorry second corinthians second corinthians chapter four second corinthians chapter four and the idea that we need to trust in god we need to be like abijah that says you will not prosper we have god on our side you've forsaken him and you think about the world that's always coming after us and they're playing this moral you know moral card against us saying like oh we're wicked because we're against abortion we're wicked because we're against the sodomites we're wicked because of this or that no you're wicked you've forsaken god we have god on our side and if god before us who can be against us and that's the attitude we need to have and we need to remember that that hey we have god on our sides that created them and he can snuff them out like that he could take them out just like he takes jarabome out and it's easy to forget that it's easy not to have that confidence but this is a great story to see someone that stood up and had that confidence the more you go through persecution and tribulation the more you really respect these guys because before you go through it you kind of look at it and be like oh of course that's what you're supposed to do get in the situation have 800 000 people coming against you when you only have 400 000 then see where you stand see how confident you are then you know you can say all day long well you know this is what i would say if if they they they press me on it well get the camera in your face and get the persecution get the the people coming after your job get the people that are trying to take you down get the death threats and then tell me how you take it and hopefully you take it well and hopefully you stand up for the lord but that's when it becomes real and so that's where you need to look at these guys and say i'm going to be like that guy but you need to prepare your heart and so in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 8 just thinking about spiritual battles here it says we are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the body of the dying of the lord jesus that the life also of jesus might be made manifest in our body and that's the idea you think about the apostle paul you think about the apostles in general how they were a spectacle into the world as he would say meaning that they were constantly dealing with persecution and they basically had trouble on every side and they were like that abijah and the children of juda or the the the army of juda that's basically getting ambushed from behind and they're going against the force in front of them that they can't take out either but they trusted in the lord and they blew the trumpets of you know to the lord and cried out to him for help and god will hear it they all they will they've godly in christ jesus suffer persecution but he's also very merciful and a mighty strong hand for those that trust in him so yes we will have persecution but i almost feel sorry for the people that try to bring persecution against us because imagine coming after god's people and i'm talking about good real god's people i'm talking people that love the lord jesus christ with sincerity the rest of the rest of them be anathema maranatha but um and in your homework i don't know what my time is because we kind of started like here but uh psalm 31 is a good passage to look at um i'll read a little bit of it psalm 31 and verse 12 it says i i i am forgotten as a dead man out of mind i am like a broken vessel if i have heard the the slander of many fear was on every side while they took counsel together against me they devised to take away my life but i trusted in thee oh lord i said thou art my god my times are in thy hand deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me make thy face to shine upon thy servants save me for thy mercy's sake let me not be ashamed oh lord for i have called upon thee let the wicked be ashamed and let them be silent in the grave i'm just gonna go ahead and read it let the lying lips be put the silence which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous oh how great is thy goodness which thou has laid up up for them that fear thee which which which thou has wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues blessed be the lord for he has showed me his marvelous kindness in a strong city for i said in my haste i am cut off from before thine eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when i cried unto thee oh love the lord all ye his saints for the lord preserve it the faithful and plentifully rewarded the proud doer be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart all ye that hope in the lord see those those passages really ring true when you go through tribulations and persecutions and you know what christians you know that don't live for the lord and then are afraid of persecutions and afraid of what people are going to say to them afraid of you know all these tribulations all that stuff they'll never know what it feels like to have god come out for you to have god because you can think about like that passage in uh numbers right where he says you know when the armies are coming against you blow that blow those trumpets and i will save you they could have done that many times in other passages but they never did it and then abijah does it and they know what it feels like to be completely outmatched and about to be completely annihilated and god takes them out because they trusted in the lord and so people that don't live for god people that that are afraid to people that are too lazy you know all those different things they'll never know what it's like they'll never know what it's like to trust in the lord and to see him come through with that and so uh you know it's it's going to be their loss you know and those that are saved they're they're still saved you know what i mean it's not like they're not going to go to heaven but i'd rather i'd rather have those cases where god is is fighting all my case i want to be able to look back and be like i remember when god took care of that problem i remember when god did that and that's why you know you say well you know it's kind of scary going to tribulation yeah but how amazing would it be to be in that time and to look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draw with nine when that trumpet sounds when everybody's against you and everybody's trying to kill you and then your savior comes in the clouds saves you out of it and then takes them out and to be those people that are standing there when that happens so you know amazing passage again we see with abijah uh with uh it says in verse 21 just to kind of end up with abijah here he married 14 wives so he's toning it down a little bit so we see that solomon he did have 700 wives oh we get that mixed up solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines very much a thousand and then rio boom had many wives as well he toned it down from that by just going down further okay so we're getting a little better here but abijah wax mighty and married 14 wives and we get 20 and two sons and 16 daughters and the rest of the acts of abijah and his ways and his sayings are written in the story of the prophet ido think about this he only reigned for three years but man that's amazing story isn't it as far as him trusting in the lord and so uh abijah abijah the son of rio bomb and then his son's going to do great things for the lord so um but you can imagine that aces looking back at this do you want to know why asa was a good man why he was a good king i think this had something to do with it so let's end with a word of prayer i didn't call the lord we thank you for today thank you for all the souls that were saved and lord just prayed you'd be with us throughout the rest of this week and lord just help us to bring glory to your name we just thank you for your word and just how deep it is and just how true and consistent and lord just help us to learn it ultimately lord that we can use it and use it for your glory to see more people saved to have that strength that courage when the time comes and lord we just love you and pray all this in jesus christ name