 Okay, we are all set. Let's begin with second chronicles today. Yesterday, we looked at first chronicles. We saw that chronicles tends to focus more on the religious history, whereas we had first kings and second kings and second Samuel, which dealt more with the political history. So there are many religious aspects that are emphasized in chronicles, which is what we noticed last time. We also saw that first chronicles was kind of similar to second Samuel, because he talked about David and his rule and all of that. On the other hand, second chronicles is more similar to the history of the Judah dynasty, which is basically first and second kings. So you have a repetition of first and second kings over here in our second chronicles. But there are details mentioned, historical facts mentioned, which probably were not mentioned in the other larger account. And of course, here we only have the history of the southern kingdom, the Judahite dynasty. Only they are mentioned over here. We don't really see any mention of the northern kingdom. Why? Mainly because they are, like we talked yesterday, this chronicles was being written for the people who have come back. And almost everyone was come back. They all belonged to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. So for them, their main interest would be the southern kingdom. They would not be that much concerned about the history of the northern kings. So in second chronicles, you mainly have a description of Solomon's rule and all the other kings who followed him, who belonged to the Davidic dynasty. So who would be our key personalities? We have Solomon and we have King of Sheba, who's mentioned. This, of course, Jehoshaphat, Uzayah, Hezekiah, Manasseh, who know, who repent, Josiah, all of these important kings are mentioned here in second chronicles. Coming to the structure of the book, we could maybe basically divide it into two main parts. Chapters one to nine talk about Solomon, his wisdom, the construction work that he did, all of that. Then chapters 10 to 36 gives us a history of the 20 kings who ruled in the southern dynasty. So there were a total of 20 kings, all of them descendants of David. And I think the next point is mentioned in your textbook where it talks about the spiritual reformations. I think it's there in your textbook where it talks about how there are one, two, three, four, five spiritual revivals that are discussed. Asas, the revival that takes place in the time of Asa, then you have Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah. During these kings, during the time of these kings, there was a spiritual reformation and revival because these kings were, they tried to improve the spiritual condition of the people. So we see some of those details. Coming very briefly to the dedication prayer that Solomon makes, when the temple is being dedicated, we didn't touch upon this when we were looking at our first kings and second kings. So just to very briefly touch upon that, in second chronicles, chapter seven versus 32 to 39, is where you have the portions that I'm trying to bring out. He, of course, begins the prayer by talking about how, Lord, you're too large, nothing, the earth cannot contain you. He has a doubt and he doesn't want to answer. Discuss later, no, please. I know it's just that it distracts me, that's all, sorry. Yeah, so he says, Lord, you are very great and even this little temple that we have constructed cannot contain you, but Lord, you have chosen to be among us and we are grateful to that. And so he prays and says, Lord, when we all cry out to you, when we turn towards this temple and we pray, please hear us, please answer our prayers. He prays those things. And then there are some other specific things also that he prays because you see this prayer is being prayed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so it's interesting to see what are the different specific things that he prays for. So one of the important things that he prays for is second chronicles, chapter seven was 32. Maybe we could have someone read out 32 and 30, maybe second chronicles seven versus 32 to 30. Great, then I got the wrong reference over here. Yeah. So chapter seven doesn't have any verses. So you mean I got this from first chronicles. See if you can get anything in, but first chronicles wouldn't make sense. Okay, could someone track down the Solomon's prayer of dedication? Is it not? Okay, second chronicles seven. And you're saying there is no verse 32 in chapter seven. Is it? So could we just look for the verses where he talks about the prayer for the foreigner and then after that, for those who are led into captivity, let me actually open my Bible. Others this will not get resolved. So, okay. Yeah, it looks like I've gone and put the wrong reference. All right, I'll just read out the verses. Though I seem to have my reference wrong. Okay, Solomon, this is what he prays in his prayer of dedication. Maybe it's taken from Kingston in that case. All right, this is the prayer that he prays. He says, as for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel, but has come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm when they come and pray toward this temple, then hear from heaven. Okay, so in his prayer of dedication that he is praying, he not only prays that the Lord would answer the prayers which they are offering as God's people, but he even includes the foreigner in his prayer. And he says, when they come from a distant land and they have come all the way over here to pray to Yahweh specifically because they have heard about the greatness of his name and his mighty hand. And so when they do that, he prays, he says, Lord, he says in verse 33 of, yeah. Thank you so much for that act of kindness. Second Chronicles chapter six is supposed to work. If yeah, second Chronicles chapter six verse 32. 30, yeah, 32. And then 33 he says, then hear from heaven your dwelling place, do whatever the foreigner asks of you so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you. Okay, so he says, even though they are outsiders, because they have believed in your great name because they have come over here to see your work, do what they are asking of you. And this is something that would have really touched God's heart because later on, if you remember, in our New Testament, the Lord Jesus is very angry when the space which has been reserved for the Gentiles is being used as a marketplace. And he says, this is a house of prayer. This is a place where people come from distant lands to pray to the living God to have their needs met. And instead of allowing these people to come and stand over here after traveling such a long distance and placing their petitions before God, instead of allowing them to do that, you turn this into a marketplace and you have no respect for these people who have come from such a great distance to place their faith in the living God. So for God, this was very, very important. And so we have that aspect of God's heart being brought out in these verses. And then later on when we move to verses 36 to 39, it talks about how he says, Lord, please continue to hear us and answer us, even when we have sinned so badly that we are led away into captivity. Okay, so maybe we could just read verses 38 and 39 if someone could read out, please. Okay, so again over here, he's talking about many, many years from the time of his rule, when people would have gone into sin to such an extent that God's punishment would come upon them and they would be taken away as captive. And he says, Lord, when they're living in that land out there in the land of captivity and they repent of their attitude and they turn towards your temple and they pray, hear them. And he says, please forgive your people who have sinned against you. So all these things that are coming out of his mouth in his prayer, they are under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It's not just a random prayer, but he's talking about things which are dear to the heart of God. So you could actually go through this prayer of dedication in detail during your quiet time, during your devotions and look at how he prays, what points he prays for because all of those prayer points are points which God really cared about and God wanted to answer those prayer points because when Solomon finishes praying, this is what happens. And I think now we have come to 2nd Chronicles, chapter seven versus one to three. So sorry for that for wasting time. So coming into 2nd Chronicles, chapter seven versus one to three, Solomon finishes praying and this is how the Lord confirms that he has approved of the prayer and now he wants to fulfill what has been prayed for. And so you have fire coming down from heaven and the burnt offering which has been placed before the Lord, it gets burnt on its own. So nobody lights the fire, God himself lights the fire from above and confirms that this prayer is in line with his will and he will indeed glorify himself through this temple. And it goes on to say that the glory of the Lord filled the temple to such an extent that nobody could even go inside and everyone just kneels down on the pavement with their faces to the ground and they worship him. So this is one important thing that maybe we should remember from 2nd Chronicles. Another nice thing that we see in 2nd Chronicles is to be found in chapter 11. I really hope I got my reference right this time. 2nd Chronicles 11, 13 to 17, if someone could please read out because it talks about people who love the Lord and look at the decision that they are taking for the Lord. Okay, so those who are online can just follow in your Bibles. 2nd Chronicles chapter 11, 13 to 17. Yeah, I think that should be enough up to 16. So we looked in Kings at how Jeroboam decides to set up an alternate mode of worship so that people will no longer come to Jerusalem and get influenced by Jerusalem. And so all the priests and Levites who are there in the Northern Kingdom are kind of out of work because up to now they used to minister to Yahweh but now this Jeroboam no longer needs them because he has come up with a pagan form of worship and he has appointed his own people who will be willing to participate in that kind of a worship. So he has a new set of high priests and priests. And so these people, they could have continued staying over there because you see the land which was allotted for their families was out there in the Northern Kingdom. If they leave that and come over here there's nothing much for them over here in the Southern Kingdom but it says so beautifully over here in verse 14. The Levites even abandoned their pasture lands and property and came to Judah because you see they wanted to serve the living God. They were willing to give up everything and come over here and whatever people are willing to give them out of mercy and kindness they're willing to accept that and live with their entire families. It's not just one man coming down over here they're coming down with their entire household knowing that here there is no land allotted for them that shows the level of their commitment. Because today we are, we believers are supposed to be a kingdom of priests. So this is the attitude that we should have. Way for us, it is important. The first priority is to honor God and serve him and if material benefits come along fine but if there are no benefits even then are we willing to take a stand and say, yes, I will go to wherever I have to go and I will do whatever is required because I'd rather be over there and have less financial gain than be over here and just continue to enjoy and not fulfill God's purposes. So for them their priorities were so important and they set an example for the rest of the people. So when you have this large number of people maybe hundreds of priests and Levites taking their families and moving to the Southern kingdom the rest of the people who are watching they think, oh look at them they have left their land and they have gone over there. Maybe we too should follow their example and then you have this lovely verse over here in verse 16 where it says, those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the Lord they decide that they too will move to the South. So we see a beautiful act of devotion and commitment and not show exactly what happened to those families but God would have blessed their descendants because of this act of loyalty that they have shown to the Lord the Lord would have blessed those families and the descendants of those families. So we see that admirable thing over here. So while there are some very nice things happening in the Second Chronicles account we also see some negative painful things and maybe we should dwell upon one of those for the simple reason that, you know we cannot really get through Kings and Chronicles without at least talking a little bit about Ahab he's one of the main villains and we would have to kind of look at a little bit at his story. So we have Jehoshaphat of Judah, a godly king who makes a very ungodly decision. He decides to get into a partnership with Ahab. Now those details are not mentioned over here in our Chronicles but later on there are details mentioned in Chronicles and the background of that you will find in First and Second Kings. So we would kind of have to touch upon that background to get a clearer picture of what is happening over here in Second Chronicles. So Jehoshaphat, a godly king decides to enter into a ungodly partnership with Ahab of Northern Israel. And so he goes to Ahab and you know you have that at the end of I think it was Second Kings was it First Kings where it talks about no it has to be Second Kings where it talks about how they both get into a partnership and they try to go and fight a battle to get back Ramoth Gilead I think and then it does not work and Ahab in fact gets killed over there. So anyway the point is that Jehoshaphat tries to enter into an ungodly partnership with Ahab and Ahab suggests and says we should strengthen this partnership with a marriage alliance. And so Jehoshaphat the godly king of Judah he has many sons and the crown prince the one who is going to be ascending the throne after him that would be Jehoram. So Jehoram is one of the important sons that Jehoshaphat has has and he has one more son Jehu. This son Jehu he decides to leave the southern kingdom he decides to go to the northern kingdom and start serving Ahab as one of his commanders in his army. So these are the two important characters that you need to know about. Jehoshaphat has two main important sons Jehoram the crown prince and the other son is Jehu who is not the crown prince but he makes a choice to leave his father's kingdom go to Ahab's kingdom and start serving as a commander in Ahab's army. So when Ahab suggests a marriage alliance Jehoshaphat in his foolishness decides to give his crown prince his son in marriage to a daughter of Ahab and Jezibel. Now Ahab and Jezibel being the kind of characters that they are you can just imagine what kind of a person their daughter is quite a scary character named Atalaya. So Jehoram marries Atalaya and Atalaya moves into the southern kingdom and they have a child the son that they give birth to is somebody named Ahazaya. So when after Jehoram dies the person who comes to the throne of Judah is Ahazaya Ahazaya being the son of Atalaya and Jehoram. Now in the northern kingdom you have another son of Ahab Jo Ram who comes to the throne. So here in the south you have Ahazaya and there in the north you have Jo Ram who has a sense. Now coming back to the other son that we talked about Jehu. This is the word of the Lord which comes to Jehu. Jehu is not a good person, not a godly person. He is involved in idol worship but God chooses to use him. And so Elisha comes to Jehu and he says, you know, if you are willing to bring God's judgment upon the house of Ahab and wipe out all of his descendants then God says that he will make you the king in northern Israel itself. So Jehu is very attracted by the offer and so he decides that he will bring judgment upon Ahab's family. So the first thing which he does is he kills Jo Ram who is the king in Israel and then he goes to Judah where you have Ahazaya on the throne and Ahazaya is also killed. So Jehu kills the two, he kills the northern king and he kills the southern king and Jezebel is still alive. So the next step is for him to go and deal with Jezebel. And so in second kings you have that story, second kings chapter nine where it talks about how Jehu goes to Jezebel's palace and she's watching over there from the window from an upstairs window. Even as he arrives and she calls down to him and she speaks very angrily and the people who are supposed to be attending to her, her attendants, the eunuchs who are supposed to be her servants, her attenders, they hate her so much that they voluntarily throw her out of the window and she falls down to the ground below and she is killed. And before they can collect her body the dogs eat her flesh just as God had prophesied. So we see that terrible story enacted. And so the northern kingdom, Joram has been murdered and in the southern kingdom, Ahazaya has been murdered. Is mother Atalaya, instead of feeling very sad that her son has been murdered? What does she do? She thinks, okay, let's add to this whole murder story. She decides to kill all of the sons of Ahazaya, her grandchildren. And of course, the other concubines and their children of course would have been involved. But the thing is among the people that she murders they would have been even her own grandchildren. She wipes out all of them because she thinks now was a chance for me to sit on the throne. Now that my son is dead, I can sit on the throne. Such an evil human being. So she kills her own grandchildren and she rises to the throne but she has a daughter, Ahazaya's sister who somehow has not been influenced by all the evil in the family because she marries a godly priest. And so when she sees the murders which are taking place Atalaya has ordered that all the sons of Ahazaya should be murdered. She tries to save the last child which is still a one year old baby at that time. So she quickly takes hold of one year old Josiah and she hides him in the temple. The temple at that time was like a huge temple complex because you would have of course the main courtyard and then you have the holy place and the most holy place. But around that you would have all these storerooms where you have the grain offerings being stored. You would have some quarters where you have the priests actually living over there the ones who are looking after then you would have a place where you would have the guards who are guarding they would be staying over there in the guard rooms. So you have an entire large complex built around the main temple. So somewhere in that temple complex this baby is hidden and that is where Josiah grows up. So basically this sister, her name is Jehoshabiyah. My pronunciation is bad but she's a good woman. She and her husband they bring up this little boy and finally when he is six years old they decide to formally anoint him as the king. And so in second chronicles 23 Jehoyadah he calls all the captains of the army and he calls the important Levites and priests and he tells them, you know what this one descendant of a Haziah who is still alive and he has to be now placed on the throne. Will you support me? If I try to coordinate him as king will you support me and help me in doing this? And they all agree they give in fact they give their word in second chronicles chapter 23 verse, great, perfect. I have not written down the verse. Verse one and two, yes. The soldiers and the people agreed under oath to provide protection and support. And so with the support of the armed guard they coordinate this young child as the next king. And Atalaya when she hears all the celebration going on she quickly comes running over there to the temple and she is horrified to see that this child is not dead and he has been appointed as the new king and then Jehoyadah gives a command and says, you know, drag her out and execute her. So they drag her out from there and they execute her near the horse gate on the palace grounds. All that is found in second chronicles chapter 23. And then Jehoyadah asks the king that little six year old and all the people to formally enter into a covenant with the living God and say, we are no longer going to be worshiping the Baals because that's the specialty of Ahab and this entire family. They're all into Baal worship. And so now they make a formal covenant before God and say no longer will we be worshiping the Baals but we will once again serve the living God. And so the people they go into the temple of Baal they kill the chief priest over there and they all rededicate themselves to serving the living God. And that is when Jehoyadah, he does a lot of repair work on the temple. Okay, so the lot of repair work is done to improve the condition of the temple because over the years, nobody has even bothered to take care of the temple of God. And so all of that is done. And the sad thing is that once Jehoyadah grows old and he dies and he's no longer there to advise Josiah, Josiah in his stupidity and his foolishness and his sinfulness, he goes back into idol worship. It's such a sad thing. I mean, imagine his life was saved in such a miraculous way. He was placed on the throne in such a dramatic manner. He lived under a godly stepfather who looked after him brought him up with so much for him. And now sadly, he goes back into idol worship and then one of the sons of Jehoyadah, Zechariah. So basically Zechariah and Josiah would have grown up together because after all Jehoyadah and his wife brought up this boy. So he would have known Zechariah personally and Zechariah rises up and he says, what you have done is not agreeable. The Lord does not approve and the Lord will punish you. So in second Chronicles chapter 24, verse, maybe you can actually read out this particular passage. Second Chronicles chapter 24, verses 20 to 25, if someone could read out please. Yeah, yeah, let's, it's all right. So we see basically that even after all the love that Jehoyadah has received is not grateful. And so he murders Zechariah right there in the courtyard of the Lord, even as Zechariah is delivering the prophecy and saying, you know, the Lord will punish you because you have gone into idolatry. He is, they plot against him and they murder him there in the courtyard. And even as Zechariah is dying, he says, may the Lord see this and call you to account with the Lord, judge you for what you have done. And so just as Zechariah has cried out and made this pronouncement, later on you have the army, the Aramean army coming over there and Jeho and Joash is very badly wounded in the battle. That would be in verse 25. Yeah, second Chronicles chapter 24, verse 25 is very badly wounded in the battle, is brought back home in a wounded condition. And as he's lying over there helpless, he is assassinated, he's killed. And that's the end of that man. So Joash, even though he could have had a very different story, he makes a wrong choice. So which means as long as Jehoyadah was alive, he was listening to good advice, but in his heart of hearts, maybe there was no real commitment, no real change. Now, watch out, this can happen to us. As long as there's a godly influence upon us, as long as we are here in the Bible college, as long as we have teachers talking to us, influencing us, speaking words into us, we stay strong. But are we really building ourselves up in the inner man, in our own personal walk with God, if that is not happening, once you go away from the Bible college and no longer have these influences, from the outside holding you up, you may not have the strength on the inside to continue standing, you may get easily led away. So it is good to be in a godly atmosphere where you are being built up, where you're constantly being reminded of the things of God. And when you look at the love and the devotion that all these people are under whom you are, you look at their love and the devotion, you catch their passion, you catch that enthusiasm and your own fire. But if you have not done your own building up on the inside, building your personal relationship with him, once you go out of that atmosphere, all that passion, all that enthusiasm, it's no longer there. There's nothing from outside, stirring you up. Now, are you carrying the fire on the inside? If it is there, then it doesn't matter how it is on the outside, you will continue to be on fire. But if on the inside, you have not built yourself up, you will fizzle out, and there's a great danger that can happen to us. So we need to be very careful that we will not end up as Joe Ashes in our, in our own personal lives. As I have been talking about these things, if I have made any mistake in mixing up Joe Ash and Josiah's name, very, very sorry for sometimes when I'm talking, I don't know what I'm saying. So, okay, Joe Ash is the one that we were talking about now. Now we come to the other guy, the good person, okay, Josiah, the good, the good king, the one who we know does not get into murder and all of that. So this Josiah is somebody who comes later on. During the time of Hezekiah is when the Northern Kingdom is finally taken away by the Assyrians, okay? So the Assyrians, they come and they conquer Northern Israel, they take away the people, all the 10 tribes, they take them away as captives. When does all of that happen? It happens when Hezekiah is ruling in the South. So during that time is when the Assyrian army comes and invades. So after Hezekiah, you have Manasseh, the really, really terrible king, the one who would take all his sons to the, what is that, to the valley of Ben Hinnom. Yeah, that is basically where he would use to take his children and sacrifice them over there to the pagan gods, one of the most evil kings. And then, you know, we talked about how he repents, a genuine repentance. So Hezekiah's son would be Manasseh and Manasseh's son, Amon continues to be evil, but Amon's son, Josiah, he chooses to be a godly king. So basically that's how the lineage comes. You have Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, who repents, but his son, Amon does not repent. However, after Amon is assassinated is eight-year-old son because the father gets assassinated. They put the eight-year-old boy on the throne. How old would an eight-year-old boy be? I mean, in our current terms, eight-year-old would be like what, third standard. So you basically have a third standard kid sitting on the throne, but this is no ordinary eighth, third standard kid because we see in 2 Chronicles, chapter 34, in the eighth year of his reign. So if he came to the throne at the age of eight, then maybe that would make it 16 years, is it? In the eighth year of his reign, he began to seek the God of his father, David. So from a young age, he begins to seek the Lord. He builds himself up on the inside. Joash didn't have any strength on the inside. He was just being influenced from outside, but on the inside, no personal strong relationship with Yahweh. On the other hand, here you have a young man, Josiah, who has taken the effort to seek the God of his father, David says over here. So he is on the inside, he is strong. He has built himself up. And in the 12th year of his rule, he decides to get rid of any of the idol worships, places which are still there. And so he goes through his land and he takes down, he tears down all of those Asherah poles and all of those idols. And not only that, he also goes into the Northern Israelite territory because anyway, now technically that territory has come to them because now no longer do you have a Northern King over there. So you have basically some people who have been set up over there by the Assyrians to take care of the admin and all of that. But he sends people even into the Northern Kingdom, you know, Josiah sends people into the Northern Kingdom to tear down the temples even over there because his desire is not only to bring about a revival here in Judah itself, he even wants to bring about a revival in the Northern land also. So that is what we see in Second Chronicles chapter 34, verse six, where it says in the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon as far as Naftali and in the ruins around them, he tears down all the altars. So here is a man who really wants to bring about a revival and renewal. And then in the 18th year of his rule, that is when he begins to do further repair work and reconstruction work on the temple. So while that repair work is going on, they find a book of the law of the Lord. That is in verse 14. Maybe we could read out Second Chronicles chapter 34 versus 14, 15. Yeah, maybe 14 and 15 if you could read out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we basically see that they discover a copy, a written copy which has come down from Moses times. And now the Shaffan, the scribe, he reads out what is there in the book of the law. He reads it out to Josiah. And when Josiah hears about it, it says in verse 19, when the king heard the words of the law, he tore his robes because in his heart, whatever he little bit he knew, he was developing his relationship with God. He wanted to be sincere and faithful. He even tore down all the temples which were there, which were dedicated to the Asheras and the Baals and all of that. But he didn't really have the written word of God. So now he gets to know that there is a scroll in which all the details are given about how they should be living. And when he reads that, he thinks, oh my goodness, I've done so much, but what I have done is not enough. There are so many commandments that I have not even kept. He is so horrified. He says he tears his robes and he immediately sends a messenger to the prophetess Hulda to find out what is God going to say about this. And Hulda, this is the prophecy that she gives in verses 23, 24, maybe we could read out verses 24 to 27. Yes, so the Lord says, because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard of what he spoke against this place, therefore the Lord says, you will not, during your time, all of this judgment will not take place. It will happen later. So Josiah, from the beginning, he shows a heart that is responsive and he humbles himself before God. So when correction comes to us, when God points out something in us that he is not pleased with, when he points out our defects in our sins, do we choose to be responsive and humble ourselves and admit and say, yes, Lord, this particular thing which you are pointing out is wrong. It is sinful in your eyes. So that is a response which really pleases God. He wants a heart which will say, admit and say, yes, what you are saying is correct and what I am doing is definitely sinful. So Josiah takes up that attitude and so God says, I will not allow the judgment to come during your time, but it will take place later. Anyone wants to say anything, ask any questions? No, Francis is definitely has no questions. No, he's like very determining, no, so yeah. Okay, so I'll just talk about the three stages in which Nebuchadnezzar takes away the captives. So it happens in three batches. Now, this may be in your textbook. I'm not sure, probably is there in your textbook. So in the first 605 BC is when he takes away the first batch of people. So at that time you have Jehoiachim being taken away and even Daniel and his friends are all taken during the first batch. Second batch is 597 BC when you have Jehoiachim being taken away. And at that time you have Ezekiel also being led away. The third batch, the final batch is something which the people bring upon their own heads because Zedekiah has been appointed and he has been told to kindly be loyal and listen to what the king is saying. And even Jeremiah tells him, please follow the orders have been given by Nebuchadnezzar because God is bringing this punishment upon your head and you better accept it because of the way you people have lived, the choices you have made, God is not bringing judgment. So don't try to avoid the judgment, accept it and allow yourself to be submissive to Nebuchadnezzar. But what does Zedekiah do? He says, no, no, no, I want to make a partnership with Egypt. And so when Nebuchadnezzar gets to know that these people are making a partnership with Egypt, he comes, he destroys the city, he destroys the temple and he takes away whoever is left. And as they are, and some of them try to escape and run off to Egypt, those who are trying to run away to Egypt, they also drag Jeremiah along with them. So in fact, Jeremiah dies in Egypt, not in his own land. So all of those things take place. So these are some of the, so over the last few weeks, from the time we started Samuel, I tried to bring out the main historical stories that we should be aware of. Now there are many, many other stories as well, but I tried to bring out the main important ones that generally people who say that they are Bible college students are familiar with. So these are the main stories. So now beyond that, in your own time, if you can go through these books and become familiar with the rest of the stories, that would be good. Because why it says in 2 Timothy 316, why have all these stories been put over there? Not for entertainment, but to correct us, to rebuke us, to inspire us, to teach us. And so we need to learn. All right. So there are no questions. And in that case, we'll just close with the word of prayer. Lord, we just thank you so much for all these historical records that you have recorded for us, so that we can learn from them. And we pray, oh Lord, that we would be like Josiah, who built himself in the inner man. He strengthened himself in the Lord. He did not even have the written word, oh Lord, but at his own level, he tried to reach out to you. And I pray Lord that we would have the same attitude as Josiah. Let us not be shallow like Joash, who as long as things were good and godly around him, the atmosphere was godly, he chose to be godly. But the minute that atmosphere went away, there was nothing on the inside and he drifted away. Lord, I pray that we would not be like that. So help us a lot to be like Josiah, rather than Joash. Thank you Lord, that you're working in each of our lives and using all of these lessons to talk to us, remind us of your truths and build us up on the inside. Thank you Lord for this. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you so much. And those of you online, thank you so much for paying attention.