King Josiah and Armageddon • King Josiah’s Reform | King Josiah’s Death at Megiddo | Revelation 19

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Do you ever find yourself searching for something bigger than you? For a community to be a part of? A place founded on truth and love. A place to worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Son of God. Welcome to Founded in Truth, where we're more than just a fellowship. We're a family. So welcome home. Shabbat shalom, everybody. It's so good to be back together this week. Oh yeah, good to be here. So I have this old iPad Pro or something. It's like seven years old or five years old. And I love it because it's massive, and I can put my outline on it, right, and pull it up and I get to see it.

But my son always enjoys playing on it throughout the week as well. And so here's the background screen. I don't know if you can see it. Some Minecraft-looking dragon thing. I don't know. It's funny when I turn this on to come up for a message. I have pictures. And then I go to see what types of programs are running in the background. Because on the Apple apps, you can see what's running in the background. And we have games. Just all these games. And I cleared this out before he played it last time. And there's like 20-something games open that he has been playing. Not one, not two, 20 games. And really, what it is, is the age of video games have changed.

When we were kids, or I say we were kids, I don't know, some of you don't know about that old Donkey Kong or Super Mario World. Some of you don't even know what NES is, much less Super NES. Anyway, you would have one game and you would play that game. And I cannot overemphasize the word play. We would play this game. Not hours, months, years. You would be working on it for weeks to make that last jump in Super Mario World across without hitting one of the guys. And I think games nowadays, they're shorter, they're smaller. Kids get bored of them easier and you can swap them out. And I just found that fascinating because we get so distracted.

It's so easy to get distracted when you're not trying to focus on what you have or what you intended on doing or the first game that you went in to play. And there's just so many distractions. And sometimes we do the same thing. I'm going to close all these things, probably won't make a difference, but whatever. We do the same thing, I think, when we come to the Word of God and we open up this beautiful story that tells us about God, but also invites us into it. And the biblical authors were smarter than us sometimes, I feel like, the way that they crafted these stories. And so when we turn into stories such as those listed in Samuel and Kings specifically, sometimes the authors are trying to portray stories in a way that are supposed to get us thinking about. But we miss it, right?

The Hidden Meaning in Kings

So King Solomon, 1 Kings chapters 3 through 10 specifically, is a story about King Solomon, and he prays for wisdom, but he doesn't want all the wealth and power and everything, but God gives him the wisdom, and he gives him the power and everything else as well. And then we see how King Solomon just does, he's described as doing all these great things, all of these big trophy moments, right? He secured the borders of Israel, and he created peace, which is good, but he also became an arms dealer, taking the tanks from Egypt and selling them to Anatolia and abroad. So profiting off of war, but that's okay. We don't need to worry about that.

He built his great mansion, even though he built it way bigger than the temple of God that he also built. But that's okay. He still built the temple, right? And he used slave labor to build the temple of Yahweh, the God that frees slaves. Oh, we're just, but it's a great build. We just ignore these little details. And when you actually realize what the biblical authors are doing, they're trying to bolster this up as this is how the world sees all the things that King Solomon did. These great and mighty things. And yet, none of them are indicative of a king of integrity. A king that's actually looking to bring forth the blessing of Abraham to all nations.

It says that the silver was so great in Jerusalem, it was as common as trees, right? And the annual amount of gold that King Solomon came in every single year was 666 talents. Just little clues where the story isn't being told the way it's being presented, right? It's like that old movie with Bruce Willis in it, right? And his little kid or whatnot. And the whole movie, you think the story is about something until the last five minutes. And then it's really, oh wait, the whole story is about something else.

Kings, first and second Kings, the way the Kings are presented is so beautiful, right? And if you can't tell, I'm excited about today. So let's just get into it.

Hezekiah and the Kings of Judah

We are continuing our journey, speaking about some of the kings in the books of Chronicles and Kings. And we've spoken about Hezekiah, Hezekiah, this great king, how his leadership and experience compelled him to set up amazing and strategic defenses around Jerusalem as a way to endure or sway the oncoming siege of the Assyrian army. A huge wall was built around the residential area of the city, which we can go to Jerusalem today and see it, or parts of it that we've excavated. It's called the Broad Wall. And it was over 20 feet wide and 20 feet tall. And this was to, of course, protect the weak side of Jerusalem, but also the inhabitants that had come down from the north after the Assyrians invaded up there and resided there.

He also tunneled through over a quarter mile of solid rock to reroute the water system from the Gihon Spring. That way, the water would come out inside the city walls, which is great, right? If you're going to endure siege, it'd be great to have some water. Pretty smart. And he puts the city's remaining wealth into weaponry, defenses, creating a mighty army to defend Jerusalem. And kings and the author of Chronicles praise him for these things. These are the great things that King Hezekiah did. These were his life achievements. And then, as you remember, we turn to Isaiah, where his pursuits and the pursuits of all of the leadership of Jerusalem during this time were found lacking.

Isaiah has this accusation that he slings at the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the leadership, and he says, you did all these things. All of these great things and all God wanted from you was to humble yourself. That's all God wanted. God wanted you to humble yourself and cry out. You built this wall at the expense of people's homes that you built it on top of. Your military budget was more focused on you retaining power than it was focused on what is good for the people and you being a king of justice and righteousness. And in the end, not one siege machine even hit your mighty walls. Your wall did not deflect one spear or arrow from the Assyrians.

The water tunnel is inside the city now, making it more accessible for some of the residents. But you did not reroute the water system, a huge endeavor for the sake of the people. You just wanted to starve the Assyrians outside the walls. You have all these weapons, all these war machines, and not one of them was fired. Why? Because God struck the Assyrians and all God wanted you to do in the first place was trust him. Despite how scared you were, despite how much you felt like you had to do something else, despite how hopeless your situation was, despite how dumb it might look to do nothing and depend on the Lord, humble yourself and trust in God in the midst of this violence in Judah.

But you didn't. This was the accusation from the prophet Isaiah. And we also learned about Elijah's challenge to the Israelites in Mount Carmel. How long will you waver between two opinions? How long will you hop between two crutches, right? How long will you mix your allegiance in Yahweh with the allegiance of Jezebel and her national politics? How long? We see Judah mixed so much of their faith and allegiance with Yahweh because they couldn't stand not looking like everyone else around them. So they gave God a wife, Asherah. And placed her images in the holiest of holies. Not just in the temple in Jerusalem, but in all the other temples they created in Judah.

I know that one that we found that we were speaking about last week. Remember it had the two incense altars in the holiest of holies. One for Yahweh and one for Asherah. So many lessons. Hard lessons that constantly cause us to reflect and reevaluate who we serve. And how we serve them. And why we serve them that way. We spoke a little bit about Ahab, the king of the northern kingdom. His wife was Jezebel, and he was considered the worst, most wicked king in all of Israel. He promoted this mixed worship. He was greedy, selfish. He was power hungry. And Ahab actually created an allegiance with the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat.

It's kind of a neat thing that's going on when you're reading the account. You're like, whoa, the kings are actually allied. Like the king of the north and the king of the south are actually joining forces. It's kind of neat. I mean, maybe God can make something beautiful out of this. I don't know. Could they be united again? Sadly, no. They were united, but not to pursue the mission that God had Israel on. Not to pursue living as God's images into the world. No, they were united as allies in war, in violence, in grasping of power, bloodshed, corporate empire building. And they went to war with Aram or the king of Aram. And in this climactic battle against the king of Aram, who Ahab had peace with, Ahab told Jehoshaphat this thing in 1 Kings chapter 22.

Ahab's Fall

And it says this. So Ahab, king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went to Ramoth in Gilead. King Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, hey, I will go into battle, but I will wear other clothes so that no one will recognize me. I'm going to dress in a disguise. But you wear your royal clothes, right? It's one of those moments where you see what's going on here. He doesn't, we do. You wear your royal clothes into battle. And so they go into battle. And of course, the king of Aram does what? He says, listen, all you guys, all the charioteers, every one of the archers, go after the king, right? Go after, don't even worry about anyone else. Don't even worry about anyone.

Go after the king. So who do they see wearing the royal clothes? Not Ahab. They start chasing Jehoshaphat down. Oh my goodness, what's happening to me? They realize that Jehoshaphat is not the king, so they stop. But then it says this in verse 34, by chance. I love the biblical. And by chance, this random arrow flew out of nowhere and hit Ahab, the king of Israel, between the pieces of his armor. And he was placed on his chariot. He screamed out, hey guys, I'm wounded. And he's placed on the chariot and he's taken away to watch the rest of the battle. And he dies. He dies. What a way for the worst and most wicked king in the biblical narrative to go, right?

King Josiah: The Righteous Opposite

And if Ahab was the worst, most wicked king in the biblical narrative of Israel or Judah, then there has to be an opposite somewhere, right? There has to be someone at the other end of the spectrum. And who might that be? King Josiah of Judah, the most righteous king of Judah or of all of Israel, you could say. Now, Josiah reigned for 31 years of his life. And during his reign, Judah was immersed with the same type of mixture that Elijah condemned in the northern kingdom. Idolatry, mixed cultic rites. The people had no idea who their God even was. But Josiah, at a young age, had a burning in his heart to turn the nation back to God.

Destroying the Idols

In 2 Chronicles 34, it speaks of him pursuing the destruction of all of the idols, all of the false altars in Judah, all of the high places that we discussed last week. These were all destroyed because that was Josiah's pursuit. To retire the altars, he took the bones of the priests and burned them on all of these altars that were scattered around Israel. Why would you burn bones, human bones on the altars? Well, what does that do to the altar? Even if it is a pagan altar, you have contaminated it. It's done. You can't touch it with anything now. He has eliminated all of the altars in Judah and focused everyone back to the one in Jerusalem. Josiah went on to make repairs to the temple, get it to a place where it is ready to be worshiped in again like it once was. And he called all the people to point their attention back to this temple.

The Book of the Law Discovered

And while they were working on the temple, while they had all the construction workers in there, making it all up, repairing everything, something was found. A scroll, a book of the law. And this book of the law was brought to Josiah and it was read out loud to him. What is this book of the law? It had been lost apparently, whatever it was. But when Josiah heard the words, he tore his clothing and he wept. Could this be true? This scroll that we've never seen before.

Unbeknownst to us, what is this thing? Could this actually be a book of the law from God? Could it be true? Because our people have not been allegiant to the law of God all these generations. And all those kings before me have never done that either. They have not obeyed God.

Consulting the Prophetess Huldah

So Josiah tells the secretary and some others, he says, listen, take this book of the law to the prophet of Yahweh, Huldah. She will tell you about the words in this book. She will tell you if this is truly the law of Yahweh. The most righteous king in Israel submits to the authority of this female prophet that goes by the name Huldah. Now, we don't know much about Huldah, but in 2 Chronicles , this is what it says about her. It says, Huldah, who was the wife of Shalom, son of Tachzkat, the son of Harash, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in that new neighborhood, the new quarter. In both Kings and Chronicles, it seems that there was not a reason for the authors to elaborate who this esteemed woman was. She seems well known enough to the original audience that they understood exactly who she was. She was a prophet of Yahweh who resides in Jerusalem.

Huldah's Prophecy

And she doesn't really give great news when they bring her this book. She goes on to say, listen, this is what the Lord says. Go back and tell the king this. I'm going to bring disaster on Judah. All those curses that you read in this book, they are going to be poured out due to the idolatry and the betrayal and the worship of God that you guys have continued to do for this long. There's no turning back. There's no way. It's coming. The people chased nationalism, which was the accusation against Hezekiah and all of Jerusalem's inhabitants. They became prideful in being the big bag Jerusalem with their weapons and defenses and celebrated their pride and opposition to other nations, according to Isaiah.

They compromised true worship to Yahweh alone with other gods. God is not enough for this situation. We need to prepare. God is not powerful enough to defeat our enemies, so we need to rely on our own power, our own violence. We always tend to supplement with other gods when those things happen. Judah quite simply reformed who God was and to who they wanted him to be. And so they will endure the curses is what Huldah is declaring.

Josiah's Personal Mercy

But, she says, because you, King Josiah, tore your clothing and wept when you heard the words of the Lord in this book, because your heart was actually responsive to my words that you read, because you pursued me, I have made myself known to you. And even though God speaks through the prophet, I'm not going to stop these curses. I will gather you to your ancestors and you will die peacefully and you won't see all of these horrible things that are going to happen. I mean, I guess at this point you take what you can get. That sounds like a pretty good deal. I'll die peacefully at an old age. It's great.

Canonizing Scripture

This book of the law stirred King Josiah. So he took it to Huldah, the prophetess of God, and she confirmed that this was from God. You are reading the account of this woman prophet being the first person to canonize the Bible. I think that's pretty cool. I don't know. The assumption is that this book, mentioned in the narrative, is the book of Deuteronomy, give or take. Just FYI, some background. That's the assumption. The Mishnah, as well as Josephus, records a gate in the city of Jerusalem was named after her. It's called the Huldah Gates or Huldah Gate or Gates. And I think we have a picture. Do we have a picture of today's?

What's the picture I put up there? So here, okay, well, that's a model. So this is at the Israel Museum. If you come to the tour of Israel with us next year, we'll get to go see this. So it's a scale model of first century Jerusalem. Super cool. But those four doors there at the south side of the Temple Mount were called the Gates of Huldah. And that little building in front of them, on that little porch there, the thing with the roof, pointy roof, that's where she was buried. That was allegedly her tomb. The tomb of Huldah the prophet actually had this dedicated area there. Do we have another photo right after this one?

Maybe? No? No? Nope? All right. Well, we'll save that one for soon. So yeah, you can still see the gates, the Huldah Gate there beside the southern steps. But of course, the same thing. You can see the remnant of those that we still have there today, which is pretty neat. You can go up and touch them.

Josiah's Covenant Renewal

Upon hearing the words of Huldah, King Josiah went up to the temple with all of Judah and he read aloud this book of the covenant. He read it to everybody. And there was a recommitment of the inhabitants of Judah that took place. There was a renewing of the covenant and the promise and the loyalty to God there. And it says this in 1 Chronicles . The good king of Israel renewed the covenant. And that generation of people pledged their lives to serving God, and they did not waver from it their entire lives. That's a significant act from a leader of Judah.

Josiah then goes on, and I'm building him up here. I wonder why. Josiah then goes on to have a Passover, a national Passover, like had never been held before since the time of Samuel. Remember, Hezekiah had this big Passover. This was bigger than that. It cast a shadow even on that Passover. The good king was calling Israel back to God, the righteous king, the just king, Josiah.

The Crisis with Pharaoh Necho

But then Necho, the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, who he was at peace with, went up to give assistance and aid to the Assyrians. Lots of strategy. The game, what is it in a video game? The game Risk, all of that in Kings and Chronicles. So you have the Pharaoh who was at peace with Judah, but was also an ally with Assyria, which was Judah's kind of ex-enemy, still enemy. But Assyria was crumbling. It was falling apart at this point, making the way for Babylon to begin moving in here soon. And the Pharaoh of Egypt is going up to aid Assyria. Cool. We don't have a lot of details, but this triggered the good King Josiah. Triggered him. And so it seems that Josiah did not like that the Pharaoh of Egypt, Necho, was going to help one of his enemies.

Josiah's Choice

And so what do you think Josiah chose to do? The righteous king of Israel, Judah, goes to fight the king of Egypt, a king he's at peace with. 2 Chronicles 35, 20. Listen to the language from this point forward. This is what the author is building up, and it's amazing. After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order—all right, finished doing all the good stuff. Necho, king of Egypt, went up to fight on the Euphrates and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle. But Necho sent messengers to him saying, what quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? We're buddies. Kind of—we're not at war.

It is not you I'm attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry, by the way, so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he's going to destroy you. Why are you even getting involved, Josiah? This is none of your business. It does not involve you. Why are you coming to fight me? You're in the world. Go away. Listen, you know what else? God has told me to hurry, and you're keeping me from the divine appointment that he's called me to. Your God told me that I'm in a hurry, and here you are making me slow down. Stop opposing God, Josiah. God is with me, and if you stand in my way, your God's going to destroy you.

So what does Josiah do? 2 Chronicles 34, 22. King Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but he disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Necho had said at God's command, but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo. He disguised himself for battle. Who else did that? Ahab. It's the same thing that Ahab did, the worst king of all Israel. So the worst and the best of kings of Israel and Judah are now responding the same way. They are at peace, but feel compelled to break peace for their own perception and pursuits. What do you think happened next? 2 Chronicles 34, verse 23 says, Our archer shot King Josiah and he told the officers, take me away.

I'm badly wounded. So they took him out of his chariot and put him on another chariot and brought him to Jerusalem where he died. He disguised himself, went to war with the king he was at peace with. An archer shot him. He screams out that he's wounded. He's loaded on a chariot and then he dies. Just like Ahab. But wait. Holder the prophet, when she spoke, she said God said that Josiah would die peacefully at an old age. Yes, the word of the Lord. Until Josiah grasped for power like the world does and left his seat of humility focusing on justice and righteousness. Now he pursues war and power at the sacrifice of peace just like Ahab did.

And he did not die in peace at his old age. He died with an arrow over a battle that he never should have been involved in.

A Reflection of Ahab

The king that embodies righteousness, goodness, justice, committed to God, almost made it. But in the end, he made himself a reflection of the most unrighteous and wicked king in the Bible. And where did he die? Where did the battle take place? Megiddo. Megiddo is a town located in what we would call the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. A very strategic city that connects the roadway from Egypt up to Assyria. Let's see, we went there recently. I think I have some photos. So here's the main gate of what we've excavated of the Israelite era of Megiddo. It's called Tel Megiddo because it's this hill that is made up of multiple cities that were built on top of each other over the eras, all the way from the Bronze Age.

Just multiple cities that rose and fallen and more cities were built on top. So you have this hill from the Israelite era. And here's the view of the Valley of Megiddo or the Jezreel Valley, northern Israel, from the top of Megiddo. Gorgeous, isn't it? Gorgeous. Amazing, amazing view. The city is very old. Megiddo. Many battles took place here. We read about Joshua defeating the king of Megiddo. We have Deborah and Barak fought against the armies, the Canaanite armies of Caesarea at Mount Tabor in the valley of Megiddo, not too far from here. Megiddo and the vast valley around it between the mountains—it's a place of rich and violent history.

For hundreds of years, it was the key location where armies from Egypt and the south and different empires from the north would meet and fight and wage war. This is because, of course, Megiddo sits at the entrance of this vast valley. It's one of the few flat areas in the region where you could field a large army if you wanted to. Prime location for fighting.

Megiddo and Armageddon

It's theorized that King David conquered the city, building a new one on top of it, which we see referenced in 1 Kings. It's also referenced during Solomon's reign as being a key strategic placement. This area is where Gideon led his army against the Amalekites and the Midianites. It's also the valley where King Saul fought the Philistines. And you can see Mount Gilboa from the top of Megiddo where King Saul died. And this valley is where Jehu slaughtered the dynasties of Omri. And now in this story, in this place where the symbol of the most righteous king of Judah was defeated by Egypt—Megiddo. Megiddo is where we get the word Armageddon, Armageddo.

It's a transliteration of the Hebrew phrase, the hill or the hills of Megiddo. Armageddon, Armageddo. And we find this word Armageddon in one place in the Bible. Guess where? Revelation, of course. Revelation chapter 16, verse 16. It says, Then they gathered the kings together to the place that is in Hebrew called Armageddon. The only place in the New Testament where this word Armageddon appears. And during this vision in chapter 16, John is describing the sixth bowl of wrath being poured out. And along with it comes these fantastical visions of dragons and evil frogs coming out of their mouths. Come on, Revelation is awesome.

So Revelation is a genre of literature known as apocalyptic literature. It's an ancient form of literature, and it's filled with explosive metaphoric imagery. Everything in the book has an alternative meaning that is much deeper than what's on the surface, but the explosive detail on the surface just draws you in. So you have these two dragons, and then all of a sudden, all these evil frogs just start coming out of their mouths and flying all over the place, right? What in the world is this vision? Imagine how John feels. What in the world is this vision? And the frogs are demonic. They're spirits.

And these frogs go to the kings of the world and they whisper in their ears, let's go fight. Let's use your power to dominate. Let's crush the weak around you. You are the greatest and most powerful. See, John was from Bethsaida, which is north of the Sea of Galilee. It's in the neighborhood, right? Northern Israel, the Galilee area. It's in the neighborhood of Megiddo. He grew up traveling around, visiting, and playing in the Valley of Megiddo, the Jezreel Valley. I like to think that, though we don't read about it in the Bible, John might have even picked up a stick a time or two in the valley and played Saul against the Philistines, or Deborah, the leader and judge of Israel, against the Canaanites, or maybe even Josiah against the Egyptians.

I don't know. Over time, it's likely that the eschatology formed around this valley, this place. This place where so many Israelite battles had taken place with the nations of the world. Climaxing with the battle where the most righteous and good king was defeated on these grounds.

When God's Wrath Is Unleashed

Perhaps this is where the eschatological battle will take place. The final battle between good and evil as described in Revelation. And in this battle, someday, good will not be lying on the ground dead with an arrow in them. Someday, good will finally overcome evil. Finally, one day. And so John, in his vision, describes such a thing. And in Revelation 16, this day is described as the great day of God Almighty. What makes this conflict so great? Well, what's accomplished in it? In John's vision, this is God's means of dealing with evil by means of evil. In Revelation, a repeating theme is hope, as we discussed when we went through it just a few months ago.

It's a letter of hope and a subversive calling to resist the politics of the beast. But we have this repeating theme of hope in the face of these evil kingdoms that are in the world, these empires slaughtering and killing God's people. And after all this time, all these generations and ages of evil manifesting itself through empires grasping at power—just as Daniel 7 illustrates—these empires lift themselves up by slaughtering the people of God and others. Now they will come face to face in battle with themselves in the valley of Megiddo. That's the case of the sixth bowl. These frog spirits come out and they gather them all together to battle.

Violence, greed, power. And the vision is that one day, evil represented in this way will not be able to help itself from turning on itself. If you ever notice, that's how God unleashes his wrath throughout the scriptures. The cup of judgment of God is described as this foaming, bubbly cup, this big goblet, right? That's just foaming with this high gravity alcoholic beverage on the inside. And it's one of those things where your flesh knows that it's nasty, but you also want it. You want it. And that's how Israel is portrayed—just wanting to partake of this cup. Because when God's wrath is unleashed, it's usually the evil, sin, and transgressions that Israel has done, turning back in on itself. The evil that they had done to get to the place of political power—they entered the chessboard and were matched with Assyria and Babylon when they could have just trusted in God and not tried to be like the nations.

But instead they choose to drink of the cup because in their hearts and their flesh, that's truly what we want sometimes. And the same thing goes with the grasp of power and how empires take it. There's no way that practicing empire building through evil and violence and war and exploitation, manipulation and power is ever going to produce righteousness and justice and peace. It can only produce the same thing that it is. Remember what Yeshua says: if you live by the ideals and the power of the sword, then nothing else will come of it except for the sword. This is how you will die. You will not have everlasting life with a sword. You will experience the same thing that you deal. The thing that gives you power will be the thing that kills you.

The Way of the Sword

And Revelation 16 depicts these nations battling each other and slaughtering each other, and them destroying themselves is the great and almighty day of the Lord because it's God's victory poured out. But there's also a new lens that is portrayed in Revelation 19 and 20 where another aspect of this battle is played out. And all of the nations are gathered up to come against this rider on a white horse, the Lamb of God, justice and truth. And the vision describes evil battling against this rider and this camp of saints behind him, respectively. And in the battle of Revelation 19 to 15, victory is won not by swords or spears or arrows or shields or tanks or guns.

No, victory is won because of a sword that comes out of the mouth of the rider on the horse. All this rider must do is speak the word of truth that is embodied in his person as the Lamb of God. Indeed, before the battle ever commences between the nations and this rider, John has already described the champion of the battle as being one who is already soaked in blood. This rider on a white horse comes into play, and before he even engages in battle, he's already covered in blood, his own blood. Because that's the victory of the Lamb.

Victory Without Weapons

The battle here, depending on how you read Revelation, is the same as those in Revelation 6, 11, and 20. But that's the thing. The same blood that was spilt that inaugurated the kingship of Yeshua in Revelation 5 is the same blood here. In the vision of Armageddon, John is presenting such a different picture of what we would even want to see.

All of the blood and the guts that have been spilled in this valley. All the battles, the fighting. Not just in the biblical narrative. Many other battles took place in this valley. The Greeks fought here. The Romans fought here. The Crusaders all fought here. Napoleon Bonaparte fought in this valley. The Mongols, the French, the Ottomans all battled here. The British, the Australians, the Germans, the Arabs, and Israelis have all spilled blood in this valley.

The Valley of Battles

And depending on your eschatology, the battle of Armageddon has been ranging on from before John ever penned his vision. All the nations have not stopped with grasping at power and shedding blood. And we would expect that the rider on the white horse, when he returns in this climactic vision in Revelation 19, he's going to fight just like Napoleon did, just like the Greeks did. He's going to fight just like the French did, just like the Israelis do – just with a bigger sword to stab and cut people in half. Because that is what the frogs tell the kings of the world they need to do to win. That's what the demons of Revelation speak into the ears of the kings of the earth.

This is how you conquer and win. But here the Lamb of God, the rider of the horse, Yeshua, never brings a sword. The only sword that goes forth is the one from his mouth. And he shows up in battle already covered in the blood that has already been spilt. He shows up and he says, No more lies, no more deceit, no more destruction, no more cruelty, no more harm that the Satan's frog demons inspire the kings of the earth to inflict on each other, on the world and its people. No, they meet their match once and for all.

Evil Defeats Itself

Just like the four horsemen in Revelation, God allows evil to flex its muscle, knowing it will always turn on itself. John's vision depicts Rome as well as future manifestations of the great harlot empire run by the beast that lures all nations under her thumb. But in Revelation 17, something happens. All of those nations participating in this corporate ladder of power and war and violence, they turn on her. Evil turns on her, and they destroy her. Evil turns in on itself, and that's how the woman, the harlot city, the great city, dies from her own evil that she put out. Reminds me of Gideon when he leads a small army after God reduced it to 300.

Lord, give me some faith like Gideon, right? And it says that God delivered the Midianites into their hands, not with swords, not with spears. They had trumpets and torches inside of clay jars. Don't get me wrong. Trumpets are pretty cool. If you get the wrong trofar that hasn't been sealed, it'll stink enough to drive an army away. That's all they had. They had trumpets and torches in jars. And when they blew their trumpets in the night and they smashed their jars, every Midianite put their sword against one another. And in the fluster and confusion, they fled. The enemy turned on itself.

The Kingdom's Way of War

We are always tempted, just like Ahab, just like Josiah, to do battle in this world the way that the world tells us. And that can either look like warfare, guns, cruelty, manipulation, death, violence, or it can look like scorn, bitterness, unforgiveness, backbiting, and gossip. It's not fair, though. You deserve to mock them back. You deserve to hurt them like they hurt you. You deserve to get your pound of flesh. It's not fair that you don't get to do the same thing back. This is what the evil frog demons in Revelation sound like. This is what they say. This is what they tell the kings of the nations.

But Yeshua says, you can either destroy your enemy or you can destroy evil. But you cannot do both. You cannot do both. This was the downfall of Josiah. He saw the opportunity to show and boister his own power, which, in every instance, in every scenario, always minimizes the power of God being shown forth. And in doing so, he became nothing more than an echo of the most wicked king ever to live in Israel's history, an echo of Ahab in his death. And I believe that was the intention of the authors who penned Kings. I believe that's why they use the same wordage to make that connection as a lesson. These are the events that happened, but it's also part of the grand narrative. And the Bible is inviting us to read it as such.

Leave It Here

And so I don't know where you're at today, but the lessons here from these kings are obvious. How will things end? When will the evil stop? When a new humanity stands up and lives out what it means to be God's image to the world, to reflect God's goodness and mercy and grace. Not only that, but to reflect God's willingness to sacrifice so that all would be saved. That's what Yeshua said. And so we're called to walk after that example, the example that Yeshua taught us. And most of us have likely never been in warfare and combat, violence. So reading these stories, it's hard to hit home, but Yeshua redefines it all, and he puts it in a new perspective.

And he says, listen, that bitterness in your heart, the way that you think about that other person as if they were dead, you have become the murderer. You have become the one that still produces the evil. You have become the one that listens to the frog voices. When you exploit another human being and you minimize them from an actual person, an image bearer of God, into an object just so that you can perversely manipulate them in your mind, you have committed adultery. This is not something that exists within the kingdom reign of God. You can't have that because that is a product of evil. Destroy evil.

Destroy bitterness. Destroy the pursuit to reign and exploit over others and manipulate others with power. Destroy the pursuit of wanting to take something from everybody else in the world and learn how to give it. Learn how to give like Yeshua. And that's a hard thing. That's a hard thing. And so if you're here today struggling with wanting to kill someone, please leave it here. But also with unforgiveness. Also with carrying that burden of bitterness and hatred around. That spirit of never wanting to give mercy. Never wanting to view a situation or scenario through the lens of grace. Never wanting to fully embody the spirit of love that Yeshua so radically presented.

Because if the world tells you not to do it because it's dumb and it's foolish, that's what Paul says the world would say about the gospel message. And so fight. Not to kill your enemies, but to destroy evil. Always and all you do. Amen.

Standing and Concluding

Please stand as we conclude with worship. During this time, guys, it's just an opportunity for you to worship, to sing, to praise God that you're here with fellowship on Shabbat, but it's also a time where you can engage in prayer, meditation. You can sit, you can stand. And if you need prayer today for anything, anything, guys, we have a prayer team on either side of the stage that'll be here. I invite you to come up and take advantage of that as we lift you up in prayer. And if there is something that you need to leave here today, guys, what a fantastic opportunity. Alvino Marqueno, our father, our king, we thank you for this opportunity to search your holy word, to learn about the human kings of Israel and Judah and the lessons that they left behind.

Father, we thank you for the grace and the hope and the mercy that you gave to us as an example for us to give to others. And we ask in the name of Yeshua, the true king, that you would give us the strength to always do that as a first response in every situation and every person that we meet. In Yeshua's name we pray. Amen. For all eternity, we say, may the God of patience and encouragement grant you to be like-minded with one another in the manner of Messiah, so that together with one voice you glorify the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua, Messiah. And may the Lord bless you and may he keep you.

And may the Lord make his face to shine upon you. And may he be gracious unto you. And may the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his peace and shalom. Abba, we bless you, we thank you, we praise you for this beautiful day that you have made. We delight in your Shabbat. We thank you for this gift of community and fellowship where we come together as one, as one body, worshiping one God. Echad, we worship you. We praise you.

We Ask for Your Unity

We ask for your unity, Father, that can only come from you. We ask for unity in your body, not just this body, but all across as one body in Messiah. Father, I pray that all the distractions and all the divisions would cease. Lord, that we would come together as one, worshiping you in spirit and in truth. And that you would build up your body, all together. All people that profess you, Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus the King, we come together as one, that we would build each other up and not tear each other down, that we would build your kingdom here on earth just as it is in heaven. And you would use us, Father, to love one another, love our neighbor as ourselves, love our Elohim with all our heart and our soul, our mind and our strength. Use us each in our every circumstance and every situation in our workplace, wherever we're at. Help us to build the kingdom, the kingdom of Yah, the kingdom of Yahweh here on earth just as it is in heaven.

Change Our Mindset

Change our mindset. Work in our homes. Work in our lives. Work in our community, Father. Bring shalom in our home. Bring peace in our home. We love you so much and we bless you. We praise you. We thank you for this place that we get to come together, corporately worshiping you and praising you. May we continue to pray for one another. May we continue to lift each other up. May we continue to help each other, Father, with the burdens that we're facing. May we continue to show that love that can only come from you. Hallelujah. We bless you and we praise you. We say Shabbat Shalom. Hallelujah. Shalom.

Partnership and Mission

We pray this message has blessed and encouraged you and your relationship with God. And we hope that it has made the Bible more beautiful and more powerful in its impact in your life. Founded in Truth Fellowship exists to build a community that bears the image of God and lives the redeemed life only Yeshua gives. If this message has blessed you, or if you see God working in and through this ministry, we invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us so that the message of Yeshua and the truth of God's word continues to reach all nations. If you would like to take part in this mission, then you can do so at foundinintruth.com slash give, or you can scan the QR code on the screen.

These offerings go toward providing resources for both our local fellowship as well as our online ministry, but also our many outreach ministries, including our foster care and adoption ministry, local charity outreach ministry, our international online children's ministry, and any future ministries that the Lord would allow us to walk through and walk in to impact the world around us with His love and blessings. The bold proclamation of the gospel of King Yeshua. We thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you next time. Shalom.