-Jeconiah:
He is also called Jehoiachin,
Coniah:.1Chronicles
3:16,; Jeremiah 22:24; 27:20;
37:1.
In the New Testament the spelling of his name is Jechonias:.Matthew
1:10-14.
He was son of Jehoiakim,
evil king of Judah:.2Kings
24:6.
Jeconiah's birth name was
Eliakim:.2Kings
23:34 "And Pharaoh
Nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah.(how
can he be the son of Josiah when he was the son of Jehoiakim?).king
in the room of Josiah his father and turned his name to Jehoiakim and took
Jehoahaz away and he came to Egypt and died there."
2Chronicles
36:4,5 "And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah
and Jerusalem and turned his name to Jehoiakim....Jehoiakim was twenty
and five years old when he began to reign...and he did that which was evil..."
2Chronicles
36:6 "Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar-II
king of Babylon and bound him in fetters,
to carry him to Babylon." 2Kings
24:10-12 "At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar-II king of Babylon
came up against Jerusalem and the city was besieged.
And
Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his
mother and his servants and his princes and his officers and the king of
Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign."
Jeconiah came to the throne
in B.C.E. 599. Some scholars
have said he was only eight years of age, but this is in error. He was
at the age of eighteen.(2Kings
24:8,9).and
was a man:.Jeremiah
22:28-30.
Jehoiachin/Jeconiah/Coniah
was an evil king:.2Chronicles
36:8 "Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which
he did and that which was found in him..."
He reigned only three months
and ten days:.2Chronicles
36:9.
Nebuchadnezzar-II
the king of Babylon took him into captivity in the first of three
captivities for the kingdom of Judah, this one taking him and many
others to Babylon:.Esther
2:6. Nebuchadnezzar-II put his brother Zedekiah
in as king over Judah.
Jerusalem,
the capital of this ancient kingdom of Judah, was an easy prey for Nebuchadnezzar-II
at this time, Judah
having been wasted for three or four years by Chaldean, Ammonite and Moabite
bands sent by Nebuchadnezzar:.2Kings
24:1-5.
Along with Jeconiah, Nebuchadnezzar
also carried off the treasures of Jeconiah's house.(2Kings
24:13)."as
God had spoken".to
Hezekiah
long before:.2Kings
20:16,17. The inhabitants carried off were the best not only in means
but in character."none
remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land".having
neither wealth nor skill to raise war and therefore giving Nebuchadnezzar
no fear of rebellion:.2Kings
24:14-16.
After Nebuchadnezzar's death
and thirty-six years of imprisonment, his successor Evil-merodach
set Jeconiah free and favored him:.2Kings
24:10-12; 2Kings
25:27-30; Jeremiah
52:31-34.
It's the
same story all throughout the Old Testament; keep God in your life
and things go well or leave God and things don't go well. This is so one
will wake up and the automatic
workings God set up in the multiverse can be a blessing, instead of
a
curse.
Jeconiah/Jehoiachin/Coniah/Eliakim
was succeeded by his uncle,
Mattaniah
Zedekiah.
-Jehoahaz:
11th king of Israel.
Also known by his birth name, Shallum. Reigned 17 years, approximately
B.C.E.
858 to 841.
2Kings
13:1,2 "In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah
king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu
began to reign over Israel in Samaria
and reigned seventeen years. And he did that which was evil in the sight
of the Lord and followed the sins of Jeroboam
I the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom."
Jehoahaz of Israel worshipped
the golden calves Jeroboam
I made and the groves.Ahab
made for idolatrous worship:.1Kings
16:33. The groves to Asherah.are
seen still standing in Samaria
from the time of Ahab.
Hazael of Syria
and his son Benhadad, as his commander
in chief, scourged
the people in Jehoahaz's realm:.2Kings
13:3-8. Because of his evilness and those of the people over which
he was king, Israel was invaded and reduced by the Syrians
under Hazael and Benhadad. King Jehoahaz humbled himself before God and
deliverance came by the hand of Joash his son and Jeroboam II:.2Kings
13:5.
2Kings
13:9 "And Jehoahaz
slept with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria and
Joash
his son reigned in his stead."
-Jehoahaz:
a king of Judah.
His birth name was Shallum, meaning 'retribution':.Jeremiah
22:11 "For thus says the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah
king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth
out of this place. He shall not return thither
any more." 1Chronicles 3:15
"And the sons of Josiah were, the firstborn Johanan, the second
Jehoiakim,
the third Zedekiah,
the fourth Shallum.(Shallum
was aka this Jehoahaz
here)."
Jehoahaz/Shallum was third
son and successor of
Josiah
king of Judah, B.C.E. 609:.2Kings
23:30.
Jehoahaz's son was Jehoash/Joash:.2Chronicles
25:23 "And Joash the king of Israel took Amaziah
king of Judah, the son of.Joash,
the son of Jehoahaz..."
2Kings
23:31,32 "Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to
reign and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was
Hamutal,
the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the
sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done."
Jehoahaz reigned about three
months in Jerusalem, before being deposed
and replaced by his brother Jehoiakim/Eliakim.
Jehoahaz's policy was anti-egyptian therefor
Pharaoh-nechoh, at that time at.Riblah.(a
city of ancient Syria,
in the country of Hamath, at the north-east extremity of Canaan:.Numbers
34:11), sent an army against Jerusalem,
which at once yielded and Jehoahaz's people had taxes imposed upon and
he lost his kingship, being carried into captivity by Pharaoh-nechoh, king
of Egypt:.2Kings
23:34;
2Chronicles 36:5,6.
There he remained a captive
till his death and was the first king of Judah that died in exile.
-Jehoiakim:.2Kings
23:34 "And Pharaoh-nechoh
made Eliakim.(the
name Jehoiakim was given at birth, but his later name was Eliakim).the
son of Josiah
king in the room of Josiah his father and turned his name to Jehoiakim
and took Jehoahaz.(brother
of Jehoiakim/Eliakim who was also called Jehoahaz).away
and he came to Egypt and died there.".2Chronicles
36:1-4.
Jehoiakim was unkind,
arrogant,
pigheaded
and just plain evil.
Eliakim assumed the crown
under after Jehoahaz. He did not imitate the example of his father Josiah
who was a good king.
The name Jehoiakim means
'he whom Jehovah.(God).has
set up'. He was the second son of Josiah and eighteenth king of Judah over
which he ruled for eleven years B.C.E.
610-599:.2Kings
23:36,37 "Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to
reign and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was
Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. And he did that which was
evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers.(the
evil ones in his ancestry).had
done."
The evil Jehoiakim replaced
his evil brother Jehoahaz
on the throne after his brother was taken away to Egypt where he died.
He then was taken into captivity
by Nebuchadnezzar-II, king
of Babylon:.2Chronicles
36:5.6.
Jeremiah's prophecies were
read in B.C.E. 605 to the
court of the temple by.Baruch,
faithful friend and secretary
of
Jeremiah, who
had written down, from the lips of Jeremiah, all the divine messages to
that
prophet.
Baruch had read these to the people and again to certain princes.
These last took the book
and soon made known its contents to king Jehoiakim,
who impiously
destroyed it. Baruch wrote it down a second time as before, with some additions:.Jeremiah
36:1-32.
International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia:."The
high character of Baruch and the important part he played in the life and
work of Jeremiah induced later generations still further to enhance his
reputation and a large number of spurious
writings passed under his name, among them the following:.the
Apocalypse
of Baruch, the Book of Baruch, the Rest of the Words of Baruch,
the Gnostic Book of Baruch, the Latin Book of Baruch, composed
originally in Latin, a Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, belonging to
the 2nd century of our era, another Book of Baruch belonging to
the 4th or 5th century.".In
addition there were other
spurious books based on the.Bible.
After three years of subjection
to Babylon,
Jehoiakim withheld his tribute
and threw off the yoke.
He had hoped to make himself independent, but Nebuchadnezzar-II
sent bands of Chaldeans,
Syrians
and Ammonites, to chastise
his rebellious vassal:.2Kings
24:1,2.
2Chronicles
36:8-10 "Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations
which he did and that which was found in him, behold, they are written
in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin
his son reigned in his stead. Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began
to reign and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem and he did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. And when the year was expired,
king Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the goodly vessels
of the house of the Lord and made Zedekiah
his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem."
2Kings
24:6 "So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers and Jehoiachin his son reigned
in his stead."
-Jehoram/Joram:
7th king of.Israel.
He was called either
name:.2Chronicles
22:5. He was son of Ahab
& the bitch
Jezebel and successor
to his older brother
Ahaziah:.2Kings
8:16-18.
He reigned in place of Ahaziah
who fell from the second story of his home patio and later died, having
no son:.2Kings
1:17.
Jehoram reigned 12 years,
from B.C.E. 896 to 884. He
fell into Jeroboam's sin of worshipping God under the calf
symbol, which every Israelite king regarded as a political necessity,
but he was not into his father's and mother’s Baal.idolatry;
he removed the statue
of Baal:.2Kings
3:1-3.
At this time in the history
of Israel and Judah there was a close alliance
begun by Ahab his father with Jehoshaphat
king of Judah and continued by himself.
Jehoram/Joram's first work
was to reduce subjection to the Moabites,
who had asserted their independence in the reign of his brother Ahaziah.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah and his ally
the king of Edom, assisted him
in this.
Elisha
the prophet went forth with the confederated
army.(2Kings
3:5-9).and
at the solicitation
of Jehoshaphat encouraged the army with the assurance from the Lord of
a speedy victory. The Moabites under Mesha their king were utterly routed
and their cities destroyed. At Kirharaseth Mesha made a final stand. The
Israelites refrained from pressing their victory further than here and
returned to their own land. And why did they do that?.2Kings
3:1-27.
Elisha afterwards again befriended
Jehoram when a war broke out between the Syrians
and Israel and in a remarkable way brought that war to a bloodless close:.2Kings
6:21-23.
Jehoram was wounded in a
later battle with the Syrians at Ramah and obliged to return to Jezreel:.2Kings
8:28,29; 9:14,15.
Jehoram was later pierced
by an arrow from Jehu's
bow on the piece of ground at Jezreel which Ahab had taken from Naboth
and there he died:.2Kings
9:21-28. His body was thrown into the field of Naboth at Jezreel and
with him perished any progeny
of Ahab:.1Kings
21:17-29.
Soon after, the Jehoram/Joram's
army revolted from their allegiance to Jehoram and proclaimed their leader
to be Jehu,
making him king of Israel:.2Kings
9:1-3.
In the New Testament, written
in Greek, he is called Ozias:.Matthew
1:8,9.
-Jehoram/Joram:.2Kings
8:16 "And in the fifth year of Joram
the son of Ahab
king of Israel, Jehoshaphat
being then king of Judah, Jehoram.(this
Jehoram, also called Joram, so Jehoram/Joram, king of Judah).the
son of Jehoshaphat king of.Judah.began
to reign."
2Chronicles
21:1,2 "Now Jehoshaphat
slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David.
And Jehoram his son reigned in his stead. And he had brethren the sons
of Jehoshaphat, Azariah and Jehiel and Zechariah and Azariah and Michael
and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat..."
2Kings
8:17 "Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign and he
reigned eight years in Jerusalem."
2Kings
8:18 "And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house
of Ahab, for
the daughter of Ahab
was his wife. And he did
evil in the sight of the Lord."
Jehoram/Joram was king of
Judah, the eldest son and successor of Jehoshaphat
on the throne of Judah:.2Kings
8:24.
He reigned rom B.C.E.
892-884, four years with his father and then four years alone. He was an
evil king, married to the evil
Athaliah,
daughter of
Ahab
and
Jezebel, whose influence did much to render
his reign a curse to the land. He slew his own brothers and seized their
possessions:.2Chonicles
21:4. He didn't follow the good ways of his father Jehoshaphat:.2Chronicles
21:12-20.
However,
Jehoram/Joram's daughter Jehosheba
was married to the high priest Jehoiada,
who both were high quality persons. So we have bad dad and mother but good
daughter.
Jehoram/Joram also introduced
Phoenician
idols and their worship into Judah. The divine wrath was shown in leaving
him unaided under a successful revolt of the Edomites.(descendants
of Esau).and
repeated invasions of the Philistines.and
Arabians. His country, the city and his own household were ravaged, his
body was afflicted with a frightful dysenteric.illness
and after death a burial in the royal sepulchres
was denied him:.2Kings
8:24.
In the beginning of the reigns
of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, an attempt was made to end the old feud between
Israel and Judah. At the suggestion of Ahab, the two kingdoms, for the
first time, joined forces against the common foe from the North, the Syrians.
To seal the alliance, Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel and Ahab, was married
to Jehoram, evil son of the good king Jehoshaphat.
After Jehoram/Joram's death,
his younger son Ahaziah.became
king.
-Jehoshaphat:
Son of the good spiritually inclined Asa
and his wife Azubah. Jehoshaphat began to reign as the 4th king of Judah
at the age of 35. The first three years he reigned with his father who
was incapacitated
due to a disease in his feet. Then he reigned for 22 years on his own,
beginning at B.C.E. 914,
25 years in all:.1Kings
15:24 "And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers
in the city of David his forefather
and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead."
He was one of the best kings
of Judah:.2Chronicles
22:9 "... Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart..."
His mother was Azubah, the
daughter of Shilhi, of whom nothing further is known. Jehoshaphat's son
was Jehoram/Joram.
He walked in the good ways
of his father Asa and forefather David.
He took away the
high places and groves out of Judah:.2Chronicles
17:3-6; 19:1-4. He
left the high places where the people used in worship
of the true God, because as yet the people had not prepared their hearts
unto the God of their fathers:.2Chronicles
20:33.
All that depended on him
he did, but the people could not yet rise up to his spirituality so as
to worship God without any visible altar, so
the one at Jerusalem was left. To remedy the ignorance of the people regarding
the book of the
law, in the third year of his reign he sent a commission
of five princes, nine Levites
and two priests to go through the cities of Judah, teaching them in it.
It was a model for rulers as to national education:.Deuteronomy
11:19-21.
He fought a battle with the
Syrian king Benhadad.
The
whole thing was quite humorous.
Jehoshaphat of Judah failed
in a commercial enterprise of building ships even with some help offered
by another king of Israel,
Ahaziah.
After the first build of ships that were wrecked, Jehoshaphat tried again.
A new fleet was fitted out without any cooperation from Ahaziah the king
of Israel. It was successful, but the trade expected to be carried on them
never took place. Why wasn't the venture
successful and what brought Jehoshaphat to the point of not wanting to
try again and having had enough of this venture?.1Kings
22:48,49;
2Chronicles
20:35-37.
God had given Jehoshaphat
peace in the kingdom and he was greatly respected. The Philistines
and the Arabians even
brought him presents. He increased in riches and was strengthened greatly.
His heart was good. He relied on God as best he knew how. He had sent Levites
and priests throughout all Judah, to teach the people about God.
He erred
also. He made alliance
with idolatrous
Israel and in allowing his son to marry Athaliah
the corrupt daughter of
Ahab
and Jezebel. He erred again in going with Ahab to
war and nearly lost his life, but God delivered him.
He was rebuked
by Jehu the seer
for this. Then he set his heart to bring all his people to again learn
about the Lord:.2Chronicles
19:1-4. Under Jehoahaz there was government that cared deeply for people:.2Chronicles
19:4-8.
He died at the age of sixty
years:.1Kings
22:50.
-Jehu:
10th King of Israel, the son of a man named Jehoshaphat who was not a king:.2Kings
9:2. Not to be confused with the prophet
Jehu.
Jehu reigned 28 years, B.C.E.
884 to 856. Jehu was formerly
a general in Jehoram/Joram's
army:.2Kings
10:36.
Jehu's son was Jehoahaz:.2Kings
14:8 "Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash,
the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look
one another in the face."
Both Jehu and Hazael,
king of Syria were used by God as 'cleansers' to rid
the country of those steeped
in the teachings and worshiping
of Baal:.1Kings
19:15-18; 2Kings 9:1-13; 10:11,32.
Jehu went after Jehoram/Joram
of Israel as Jehoram/Joram was of the house of wicked Ahab:.2Kings
9:14-28. He also got rid of Ahab's evil wife Jezebel:.2Kings
9:30-37.
But Jehu, though through
most of his reign was all for God, ended up not too
good:.2Kings
10:29-31. David's son Solomon
ended the same. Nevertheless,
God appreciated what was done by Jehu in accordance with what God told
Elijah to tell Jehu to do, so God said to him that his children to the
fourth generation should sit upon the throne:.2Kings
10:30.
Jehu dies and his son begins
his reign:.2Kings
10:34,35.
-Jehu:
The son of Hanani, a prophet,
sent with messages from God to Baasha
king of Israel and many years afterwards, to Jehoshaphat
king of Judah:.1Kings
16:1-7; 2Chronicles 19:1-3;
20:34.
-Jerusalem:
The word 'Jerusalem' means 'teaching of peace', 'city of peace', which
it has hardly been since its inception,
but it will be:.Revelation
21:2.
In B.C.E.
587/586 the physical Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar
II and its inhabitants taken into captivity. The captivity ended in
538, with the taking over of Babylon, thanks to the Persian king,
Cyrus
II. He allowed those of the tribe
of Judah to return to the physical Jerusalem under Zerubbabel.
Jerusalem's people in history,
have been in and out of captivities:.2Chronicles
36:10. So has Israel from which the tribe of Judah
split from. The worst sacking
of Jerusalem came in 70
A.D.
In ancient times physical
Jerusalem was called the city
of David and Zion,
Samaria.and
Tirzah.(1Kings
16:23).
Samaria
also applied to the country of the inhabitants
of Israel.
Outside the gate of the city
of Jerusalem is where Emmanuel
was crucified:.John
19:17; Hebrews 13:11-13.
In the New Testament, Jerusalem
has a spiritual meaning, applicable
today:.John
4:23,24; 8:23; 1Corinthians
15:44-50;
Galatians 4:26; Colossians
3:1,2; Hebrews 12:22; 1Peter
3:4; Revelation 3:12;
11:8;
21:2;
Philippians
3:3 "For we...worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Emmanuel and have no confidence in the flesh."
And then, what about the
warning about armies surrounding Jerusalem. Could this mean also a spiritual
Jerusalem?.Revelation
19:19; Ephesians 6:12.
What did the world learn
from this horrible massacre
in 70 A.D.?.1Corinthians
10:11. Not much as it was heading that way once more. But that's a
destructive timeline,
one that is automatically placed by one's thinking.(*).
Good
stuff comes when one thinks good. Parts of the Bible were removed
long ago by the Vatican.(Satan
and his minions.always.keeping
truth from you), so that you would
only
know about the destructive timeline in the book called Revelation.
These missing parts are now being revealed so you can read which ones are
so far, here.
-Jezebel:.(comprised
with.Easton's
Bible Dictionary)
This was the first time that
a king of Israel.(Ahab).had
allied
himself by marriage with a heathen
princess and the alliance was in this case of a peculiarly
disastrous kind. Jezebel has stamped her name on history as the representative
of all those who design crafty,
malicious,
revengeful
and cruel ways.
She is the first great instigator
of
persecution against the saints
of God.
What
did God think of Jezebel?
Guided by no principle, restrained
by no fear of either God or man, passionate in her selfish attachment to
her heathen.(not
acknowledging God as Supreme Being).worship,
she spared no pains to maintain idolatry
around her in all its splendor. Four hundred and fifty prophets
ministered under her care to Baal,
besides four hundred prophets of the groves.(places
of
idolatrous.worship),
which ate at her table:.1Kings
18:19. The idolatry, too, was of the most debased
and sensual kind, like those of the dark side today as reported by Janet
Ossebaard.
Her conduct was in many respects
very disastrous to the kingdom both of Israel
and Judah:.1Kings
21:1-29.
At length she came to an
untimely end. As Jehu rode into the gates of Jezreel, she looked out at
the window of the palace and said "Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?".
Such 'a smart ass' woman she was.
He looked up and called to
her chamberlains, who instantly threw her from the window, so that she
was dashed in pieces on the street and his horses trod her under their
feet.
She was immediately consumed
by the dogs of the street, according to the word of Elijah
the Tishbite.(American
Tract Society Bible Dictionary: From 'Tishbe' in the tribe of Naphtali,
where Elijah was born, 1Kings 17:1;
2Kings
9:7-37
and from Easton's
Revised Bible Dictionary: Tishbite denotes
that Elijah's birthplace was Tishbi, a place in Upper Galilee, as mentioned
in the apocryphal
book of Tobit, from which for some reason he
migrated into Gilead. Josephus,
the great Roman era
historian (Antiquities of the Jews, 8:13,2) however, supposes that
Tishbi was some place in the land of Gilead. It has been identified by
some with el-Ishtib, a place 22 miles due south of the Sea of Galilee (maps),
among the mountains of Gilead:.1Kings
21:19.
-John
The Baptizer:.Luke
1:7-25 "And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren and
they both were now well stricken in years...And there appeared unto him
an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But
the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard
and your wife Elisabeth shall bear you a son and you shall call his name
John. And you shall have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his
birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither
wine nor strong drink.(John
may have been what's called a Nazarite
from his birth, that is one under a Nazarite vow).and
he shall be filled
with the Holy Ghost, even from
his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to
the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power
of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient
to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am
an old man and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering
said unto him, I am Gabriel, that
stands in the presence of God and am sent to speak unto you and to show
you these glad tidings. And, behold, you shalt be dumb and not able to
speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because you believed
not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season...And after those
days his wife Elisabeth conceived and hid herself five months, saying,
Thus has the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to
take away my reproach among men."
Comprised
from.Easton's
Bible Dictionary: John had the Holy
Spirit from birth.
This
John, called John the baptizer was the 'forerunner
of our Lord':.Matthew
3:1-6. His father, Zacharias, was a priest of the course of Abia.(Luke
1:5).and
his mother, Elisabeth, was of the daughters of Aaron:.Luke
1:5. The mission of John was the subject of prophecy:.Matthew
3:3;
Isaiah 40:3; Malachi
3:1.
His birth, which took place
six months before that of Emmanuel, was foretold by the angel Gabriel:.Luke
1:5-25. Zacharias, deprived of the power of speech as a token of God's
truth and a reproof of his own incredulity
with reference to the birth of his son, had the power of speech restored
to him on the occasion of his son's circumcision:.Luke
1:64. At this time in the New
Testament, the Old
Testament.Mosaic
Law was still in effect until Emmanuel's
death and resurrection and so circumcision was still in practice.
After this no more is recorded
of him for thirty years than what is mentioned in Luke
1:80. He spent his early years in the mountainous tract of Judah lying
between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea:.Matthew
3:1-15.
At length he came forth into
public life and great multitudes from."every
quarter".were
attracted to him. The sum of his preaching was the necessity of repentance:.Matthew
21:32. He denounced
the Sadducees
and Pharisees
as a."generation
of vipers".and
warned them of the folly
of trusting to external privileges:.Luke
3:8.
As a preacher, John was
eminently
practical and discriminating.
Self love and covetousness
were the prevalent
causes of inequities of the people at large, as they also are today. On
them, therefore, he enjoined charity.(old
English word for love).and
consideration
for others. The publicans
he cautioned against extortion, the soldiers against crime and plunder.
His doctrine
and manner of
life roused the
entire south of Palestine.and
the people from all parts flocked to the place where he was, on the banks
of the Jordan. There he baptized thousands unto
repentance.
The fame of John reached
the ears of Emmanuel in Nazareth.(Matthew
3:5).and
he came from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized of John, because it became
him to."fulfil
all righteousness":.Matthew
3:15.
John's special office ceased
with the baptism of Emmanuel, who must now."increase":.John
3:30. He continued, however, for a while to bear testimony to the Messiahship
of Emmanuel. He pointed him out to his disciples, saying."Behold
the Lamb of God".
John the Baptist's.(as
he was called).public
ministry was suddenly brought to a close by his being cast into prison
by Herod Antipas the
tetrarch.(this
Herod Antipas {Luke 3:1} was one of
the three sons {Herod Antipas, Herod Philip and Herod Archelaus and there
were other
Herods} of Herod the Great,
a Roman king of Judea B.C.E.
73 to 4 A.D.),
whom he had reproved
for having taken to himself the wife of his half brother Herod Philip.
Her name was
Herodias,
an evil woman:
Luke 3:19,20. Reproving
Herod Antipas was not a wise move. Why?.
John the Baptist was like
Stephen. Perhaps he said what he should not have said, as it did no
good at all and got him killed. He was shut up in the castle of Machaerus,
a fortress on the southern extremity of Peraea, 9 miles east of the Dead
Sea and here he was beheaded because of this bad woman named Herodias
and her daughter Salome.(not
the
good woman named Salome who was sister to Emmanuel's mother Mary).
This Salome was later married to her father's.(Herod
Antipas).half-brother
Herod Philip from whom Herodias, her mother, left to marry Herod Antipas.
What a mishmash
when one's guidance is evilness.
The disciples of Emmanuel,
having consigned
the headless body of John the Baptist to the grave, went and told Emmanuel
all that had occurred:.Matthew
14:3-12; Mark 6:17-28.
John the Baptist's death
occurred apparently just before the third Passover
of our
Lord's
ministry. Our Lord himself testified regarding him that he was a."burning
and a shining light":.John
5:35.
-Joshua:.Comprised
from Easton's
Bible Dictionary: Joshua means 'God is his help'. Joshua was the
son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, the successor of Moses
as the leader of the ancient Israelites.
He is called Jehoshua.(actually
'Iesous' as there was no letter 'J' in the alphabet until so
much later).in
Numbers
13:16 and Emmanuel in
Acts 7:45,
Hebrews
4:8.
He was born in Egypt and
was probably of the age of Caleb, with whom he is generally associated.
He shared in all the events of the
Exodus and held the place of commander of the host of the Israelites
at their great battle against the Amalekites
in Rephidim. He became a minister or servant of Moses and accompanied him
part of the way when he ascended Mount
Sinai to receive the two tables:.Exodus
32:15,16. He was also one of the twelve who were sent on by Moses to
explore the land of Canaan Numbers
13:16,17 and only he and Caleb gave an encouraging report. Under the
direction of God, Moses, before his death, invested Joshua in a public
and solemn manner with authority over the people as his successor:.Deuteronomy
31:23.
-Jotham:
12th king of Judah B.C.E.
758-742; son and successor of Uzziah. He appears to have been for some
years regent
before the death of Uzziah his leprous
father Uzziah,
but ascended
the throne at the age of twenty-five years and reigned sixteen years. He
was a king who delighted having God in his heart and therefor being wise,
had a prosperous reign:.2Kings
15:32-34; 2Chronicles 27:6.