What Does It Mean to Truly Repent?: 2 Chronicles 12:1-12

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible guys. It's good to be here. It is. And it's Friday, Friday, Friday Friday. There should be some Friday Yeah, TJF. There you go. And by the way, TGIF's restaurants right. Neverthless, Yeah, TGFs. Yeah, they want out a business run here? Yeah. Yeah. Are you sad about that? Yes? And no I didn't necessarily love them. There was a time they were pretty good. Yeah, but honestly they started mailing it in. I'm always sad whenever a business goes under me too, Yeah, me too. I'm not a fan of it. But I'm happy about Friday, yes, and I'm happy about twenty twenty five. Right. By the way, I just saw you know what's the movie by Marvel the Girl missus Marvel, Captain Marvel. I can't believe that I had trouble remember that. I just watched it yesterday, And I remember when she comes from outer space and she crashes through the Blockbuster and then she says, where's your equipment? And then they said, right, over there, and it's radio Shack. Do you remember this. Movie, Captain Marvel? Vaguely anyway, So it's back in the eighties and so but they legitimately built a Blockbuster to look like a Blockbuster, and then a radio shack they put their regular sign up there. But everybod when I saw both of those things, I was like, oh, I felt sad. Well, twenty twenty four has passed, Yes, just like Blockbuster. Correct, and we're in twenty twenty five, good transition, just like Netflix. And it says, here's our segment for today. We are just over a week into twenty twenty five. For today's draft, lets let's talk about some of your favorite moments that happened in twenty twenty four. Your rock paper sisors find out who its first draft pick. Ok do three moments each? So you ready yes? One two shoot? It's supposed to be one three yeah, yeah, my bad. Let's try to get ready. One two three shoot. We both did paper yep one two three shoot both paper again? One two three shoot. We did turns in a row. Okay, I'm about to concede. One two three shoot Ah, rock over scissors, I got youay, Okay, so uh We're supposed to do a it's really weird and funny. Yeah, so supposed to pick our three favorite moments, yeah twenty okay, so one of my favorite moments of twenty twenty four, Bonnie bought a house while I was in Jordan. Yes, right, And I think I've told that before. It was funny. We've been looking at houses for a while. A number of years ago. We chose not to buy a dream house opportunity so that we could give to a big project at Heritage. And then I said, you know, I believe God's going to bless us. It took a while, right, but the home we moved into is far greater than the house that we were going to buy back then, and so God blessed us in great ways. But I think my favorite moment was what the day we took possession of it. I took her to the front door and I carried it across the threshold. Oh nic yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah nice. So that was kind of fun. It was neat that because it was a bigger deal to her. I would sleep in a camper in the back parking lot church. It doesn't matter to me that much, but for her, it was a big deal, and so to be able to carry across the threshold and say, hey, this is a gift to you. That's really neat. Can your back handle carrying another human? Oh? Yeah, yeah, look at me, Look at me. I'm a I'm a specimen, all right. So I'm going to go with something personal as well. It's not as big of a moment as perhaps making a big purchase like that. However, well, the moment was about carrying my wife across the threshold. Nice gift. Nice, that's the moment, I see. Yeah, so within mind. Similar then I was out of the country and I missed my son's birthday. Now my son's older, it's not like I have to be in the country for his birthday, right he's twenty six years old. But I felt bad nonetheless being out of the country for his birthday, and so we wanted to surprise him, and so we flew in Sarah, who lives in Florida, his sister, and she pulled off a radical surprise and so the video. I still go back and watch the video when he turns the corner and sees her there, because she was so clever. She was on the phone with him earlier that day and she's actually talking to him from the house, and so in his mind she's in Florida because she always calls him on her drive back from work. They talk all the time, and so she did the routine call, and if she didn't do that, he would get suspicious. So he's thinking, oh, I just got phone with Sarah. She's driving home from her work and she told him that. Then he comes to the house and there she is. So it was as Yeah, that is a good moment. I think. My next favorite moment for the year was. Heritage Church. We were part of seeing six hundred and fifteen baptisms. Yes, people get baptized this year. But we did a big event in the summer at a big outdoor amphitheater and we had one big service. It was thousands and thousands of people there and we baptized. Do you remember how many people we baptist? Oh, it was one hundred, it was it was like two, two hundred and fifteen something like that. It was hundreds of people got baptized on that one day. And I saw whole families making public professions of faith that day. That was a high water moment. Yeah, And I was going to mention that we also launched a campus. Yeah yeah, in twenty twenty four our church. Well that was going to be my next thing, so it yeah, okay, go ahead. We went to a third location, and. So now our church has three opportunities to go to, you know, three different areas. It was really cool and it was a phenomenal launch. Great launch. I mean they launched with almost eleven hundred people on the first weekend yep. For Christmas they just had thirteen hundred people. It's really a phenomenal launch. Just one of the best, one of the best launches I've heard of this year, quite honestly. Yeah, this year for sure. Yeah, so just really phenomenal. Yeah, so you stole that one from me, I would say the other one. Then, I did a lot of interesting travel this year, a couple of different I have a pretty extensive bucket list. I think we've talked about this before. It's expanded by the way. I'm up over one hundred items on my bucket list. But I did a couple of bucket list places. But one of the big ones for me, and it had a whole bunch of minor bucket list items underneath it was I always wanted to take Bonnie to Germany to visit her family there. Oh yeah, because she has almost no family living anymore, but she has a couple of cousins that live in Germany and that's where her family's from. They're all from Germany, and so I was able to take her to Germany and then we ran down through Austria and then ended up in Venice, and that was to be able to take her on that trip was a huge blessing and high water everything was a wonder and it was amazing. We did all the castles and all the stuff you're supposed to do on those trips. In Salzburg, we did all the Mozart stuff and Vienna, all those things went to the palaces. But to be able to do it, I did it with miles I've been saving up from all these work trips I've been taken, so a good jillion miles we cashed in in order to do it. So it wasn't It was a very expensive trip, but it didn't cost us hardly anything. But she just had a blast on that trip. So I guess two of the big things this year for me was being able to give Bonnie some dreams. So that's cool. At that stage in life. Yeah, that's he deserves it. Yeah, and then my third one is going to be we for the very first time, I was a part of organizing and executing a five k race and our church had over four hundred and fifty runners who actually worked hard and raised over one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. To be able to launch, to be able to begin working towards the special project in. The Dominican Republic for an organization called Transform one, which focuses on rescuing children from sex trafficking. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. To buy is to buy some land to build a t R one center and more importantly plant a church. And it also could even hopefully eventually though it's a feeding center as well, but also eventually maybe even double as a safehouse. So anyway, there's a lot of plans and that was. Working together and took a big step forward heading in that in the direction of getting that done. So really phenomenal. Yeah, that was you should be really proud of that. That was a huge success. So that's good. Hey, well twenty twenty four is pretty good. Yes, year, for sure, I'm glad we didn't do this for like twenty twenty. That was a rough year for me or some of the others. But twenty. Yeah, but hey, twenty twenty four was pretty good. Ye Wait, twenty twenty lasted until twenty twenty one. Yeah, I think it was like a six year year. Dude. It was, man, it was it was. It really was rough. Anyways, why did we bring that up. We shouldn't have gotten such a downer. Twenty twenty four was a good year for us. It was good good year. Yeah, Okay, So talking about a good year, that is not what Judah is experiencing in this next passage. Judah was more like twenty. Twenty twenty for them. Yeah, they're they're not. There's the transition. So in Second Chronicles, chapter twelve says, when ray Bohm was firmly established and strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and all Israel followed him in his sin because they were unfaithful to the Lord. King she Shak of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Raebaum's reign. He came with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horses, and a countless army of foot soldiers, including Libyans, Sukites, and Ethiopians. She Shak conquered Judah's fortified towns and then advanced to attack Jerusalem. The prophet Shemaiah then met with Raye Boham and Judah's leaders, who had all fled to Jerusalem because of she Shak. Shemaiah told them, this is what the Lord says. You've abandoned me, so I'm abandoning you to she Shak. Then the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, the Lord is right in doing this to us. When the King, when the Lord saw their change of heart, he gave this message to Shemaiah. Since the people have humbled themselves, I will not completely destroy them and will soon give them some relief. I will not use Sheeshak to par out my anger on Jerusalem, but they will become his subjects, so they will know the difference between serving me and serving earthly rulers. So King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem. He ransacked the treasuries of the Lord's temple and the royal palace. He stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. King Raaboham later replaced them with bronze shields as substitutes, and he entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard, who protected the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the temple of the Lord, the guards would also take the shields and then return them to the guardroom. Because Rayebaouam humbled himself, the Lord's anger was turned away. He did not destroy him completely. There were still some good things in the land of Judah. So two different So. Rae Bolm is a different king from Jerobom, yes, right, So Reeboam is is Solomon's son, Yes, still running the bottom half, yes, of the kingdom, right, dah dah. And investment, that's correct. So anyways, I just wanted to step yeah. And so yesterday what we did was we looked at punishment judgment that was passed on Jerabom. Who commands the northern half. And then and by the way, uh you see that that what's the major difference between uh, you know, you know, repentance repentance. Yeah, the big the big difference is. When we change our mind, it causes God to changes. Right, And and rey Boam actually agrees and understands, and you know, he says, yeah, it was right for God to do this because we we we we know we disobeyed. I know what I've done wrong. And uh, I'm not mad at God. I'm not angry at God because this is what's right. We deserve this. So because of that, God then changes his mind and he gives him, you know, mercy and repentance or rather restoration. And it's a really it's a really cool thing to see the humility that rey Boam has and because of that he's able to maintain pain some of his influence. Yea, so he he is. So in this passage it references Israel, but it's talking about Judah, right, right, And which is very confusing, by the way. Yes, sometimes so they don't refer to the Northern Kingdom as Israel, right they do? Oh they do, they do? They don't Judah right, right, So in this situation, oh yeah, it's only just a few years in and and so in this passage it refers to it as Israel, but it's Judah, Okay. So later on I never even thought about this until it's just this moment. So later on the Northern Kingdom gets referred to as Israel, yes, and then the southern kingdom is Judah. So the way the way to summarize it for centuries was Israel and Judah I meaning northern south. Yes, but in this particular passage references it is references Judah is Israel. Yeah, holy, con so holy. Because it said and all Israel followed him in his sin right right, and it. Was ju Judah by Julia. Yeah. So it's really a phenomenal because in the first few years of Rae Baoham's reign, he followed God, he did the right thing, and Judah prospered and Israel struggled right the ten tribes. But then. In this prosperity, for some dumb reason, ray Baoam starts going the wrong direction. Yeah, are you serious, dude, You do the right thing. You see the prosperity in your kingdom and the devastation in the kingdom north of you because the rebelling ants God. Now you're going to go ahead and go against God too. Only took him five years, Yeah, exactly, because it says in the fifth year, right. So God sends she shak from he's one of the pharaohs. Now, Egypt is not as strong at this point as it had been when it was at its peak. Right, So other kingdoms are much stronger. The Babylonian Kingdom is starting to rise at this point, but you know, still Egypt is a force, right, and so so she Shack decides is going to come up. Now, what's really interesting is in Karnak, the Temple of Karnak in what is now modern day Luxor, that's old Thebes, and there's a relief of him carving about how he ransacked so many cities in Israel, in Judah, and he went as far north as the bottom part of the Sea of Galilee. And so I've been in the temple in Karnak, and it's just really amazing that. Again, it reminds you this book, compared to all the other religions, is rooted deeply in real places, real times, and is extraordinarily accurate, even in the minor things. I mean, dude, this is twelve verses. That's all twelve verses, right, And we move on. And then God in the middle of this changes his mind and goes, you know what, you're going to serve she Shak for a while, but I'm not going to let him wipe you out because they repent in the moment. So it reminds us again that these are did in real places, real people, and that the Bible is accurate in the things that it chooses to represent for us. And so then there were some other rocks that were found, and this is in the notes. There were some other reliefs that were found that actually where he spells out all of the things that he had done all the cities. I think the note is for seco Chritiens twelve to two. A record of this invasion has been founded on an Egyptian stone that says she Shack's army penetrated as far north as the Sea Galilee in northern Kingdom. Egypt was not yet the world was not still the world power to once been. She Shack wanted to restore his nation to its former greatness. He was not strong enough to conquer both Israel and Judah, but he managed to strike key cities and Judah in an effort to regain control of the trade routes and strike tear among the people. So he didn't rule over Israel at this point, but he did control the trade routes, which for the Israelites that was the same they were serving at this point, they're having to pay tolls, they're having to pay taxes on the trade routes as a result of the fact that he defeated them. So God backed off. They repented, and God said, Okay, there's still consequences you sin. But I'm not going to let him wipe you out. And so he held him off. And by the way, that was a reference to Second Chronicles twelve two. Yes you read, yes, you said Corinthians. Oh yeah, Les, yeah, yeah. And by the way, there's a little photo of she shacks bracelets. Is that what that is? Yeah, looked like some kind of arm Yeah, arm things. That's pretty well, which again, you know, it's just further proof, right that there's evidence that we uncover that ties the Bible into history. Yeah. Oh, it's interesting in that whole segment there, so it talks about Karnak. Yeah, but then it also says some of the names in Egyptian script correspondent names that originated in the Hebrew language two dozen can be identified with certainty. Two dozen of the cities that he wipes out can be identified with certainty in Karnak, and affording valuable outside confirmation of Biblical geography and history, and then it says, pictured are two golden bracelets that belonged to she Shak. That's that's the pictures inside there. Yeah, so I didn't realize that. It says additional evidence of she Shack's raid into Palestine was found at Megiddo, where fragments of a triumphal stella were erected by the Pharaoh. Right, So, Mgiddo is there near the sea, the Dead Sea, and there's a fortress there that Yeah, did you did you ever? Did you guys get to go to. Megiddo when you were there in Israel? Okay, So that's amazing. It's just really cool. Now, it wasn't just like the reference of the idea, but he named a dozen specific cities that are also mentioned in the Bible. Yeah that, Hey, I took these, And then he erected his own little kind of Hey, look what I did in Megiddo. It's and then he told the exact same story in Karnak. So you've got three different places where it's archaeology has proven this story to be true. It's a pretty obscure little story to be right right by the way. When I went to Israel in two thousand and nine, that's how long ago that was. We were only there for twelve days. We worked for between you know, between travel. Travel doesn't count, right, So we literally worked for every day at a vacation Bible school in a Muslim city in the middle in the middle of Palestine, in the very center. Of Palaceine West Bank, in the West Bank. And we did that and we only had two days of touring. We only went and saw biblical sites for two days, so we did not have the opportunities that you guys had when you went and and so yeah, we saw some things, but it wasn't. Nearly what we wanted to see, right. And by the way, let's talk about repentance just for a minute. You know, it's interesting. But I just came across this, you know, you know, we're coming up on this series overcoming. Yeah in you know, by the time this errors will have been a couple messages into it. But so I'm sitting there reading the different stories about what it means to get past your past. Right, So I'm. Thinking, okay, that's the title of the of the first week of twenty twenty five is getting past your past and trying to overcome your past. And I was coming across all these different stories, and what I noticed is is even somebody like Manassa, you know the story of Manassa, So it says like he did more wickedness than anybody, and he spent his entire life just to be the most wicked person that you could possibly even imagine. And then God sends this huge judgment on him, and then what happens is Vanassa completely repents and he says, I'm so sorry God, and then God eventually restores him as king. And it's this unbelievable thing of like what why would God ever do that? And it's because his repentance was absolutely one percent And it's the same as Jonah and Nineveh. Chart started thinking about that. I started thinking about, like, you know, this, this the city that was so wicked that it was known throughout the land to be the most blasphemous and ungodly city. And then here comes Jonah who doesn't want you know, He's like, they don't even deserve the message of God's love and repentance, and he doesn't don't deserve a chance. And what he does is he brings the message and then the entire kingdom from the king, all the way down to the animals fast and they completely repent, and then God spares the city. And so here we see, you know, two different kings on two different days. One of them is just going to get wiped out because God gives him a chance and he doesn't even respond with any type of remorse. He rejects God. He doesn't recognize God's authority, and he's gonna get wiped out. Here we have jeraboem, No, we have a rare boem. And what does that say? He says, guess what, guys, this is fair, This is fair. We deserve this punishment. God is God, we are not. Whatever's going to happen, let God be just. And then God recognizes this, and what does he do. He gives his favor back. And so it's like even in the Old Testament, you know, where God's execution is just you know, just sort of always, you know, justly played out. We have to recognize that God, God wants our repentance. You know when you mentioned Manassa. Manassa, his repentance was so complete and public and thorough right, and God basically totally restored him. David's repentance was so public right when David had sinned because his sin was public right, and his repentance was so open and so total and complete, and he owned it all these kinds of things. Whereas you see with him, I hate to throw rocks at this guy, but you see with Jerebouham, she Shak comes in and takes all of the gold out of the temple. I'm sorry, Shack comes in and takes all the gold, including all of those fancy shields that Solomon had made, and so in order to keep up appearances, he makes a bunch of bronze bronze ones. Yeah, brass or bronze whatever, Yeah, bronze shields. And there's still this sense of not the overall fall on my face in front of my people and repent. It's more of a this is fair, God's wiping us out because you know, we did kind of mess around a little bit, right, So it doesn't feel like it's the same level of repentance. I think that you can have levels of repentance. You can acknowledge that God is right and not want to get right as opposed to David clearly wanted to get right with God, Manassa clearly wanted to get rid of God, and so you know what happens for all the rest of Boheam's life. Uh, it's NonStop war and subjection to the kings all around him. And then he dies. This is the last story. The last story about Ray Bauham is he puts up fake shields where the good ones used to be. Right, He's still trying to keep up appearances. There's still this internal pride in him as opposed to this absolute total repentance and humility. He humbled himself for enough to say, oh, God's fair, but he doesn't humble himself enough, like like like I see David or Manassa doing total fallow my face, God, anything you do is right, and I was totally wrong. What I don't see is you know, him saying we were wrong? Ass He says, the Lord's. Right, right, right, you know what I'm saying. And so then he can kind of has this keeping up the appearances thing. And and you know, when God's no longer the note in the life, have can you study bye? When God is no longer central in our lives, we might find ourselves maintaining the appearance of a good Christian life. And you see a little bit of that in him. The last thing written about him is he kind of puts up fake shields, right, And it makes me sad for him because I think he had an opportunity maybe to protect his people even more, delivers people more, and he just kind of acknowledged God's fair but doesn't really go God's the most important thing to me, and I'm willing to God. I'll do whatever it takes to make things right. Whereas you see that with Manassa, you see that especially with David and some of the others, And yeah, that's great, So we shouldn't try to keep up appearances. We should fall on our face completely surrender. Yeah, yep, that's a great, great way to end our week and hopefully we will see you next week and next time on the Bibble guys,