So-Called Contradictions
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I Kings 15:32, 33—Baasha. He reigned 24 years. This is an illustration of a man who is fighting a great big war nine years after he is dead. |
II Chronicles 16:1—He began to reign in the third year of Asa; he reigned 24 years; he died in the 27th year of Asa, but 9 years later he took up the fight with Asa. There hasn’t been a resurrection! It is just a matter of interpretation. It should read like this: “In the thirty-sixth year of the kingdom of Asa.” It takes you back to the beginning of this kingdom. |
II Ki 8:26 and II Chr 22:2: Here is something very, very interesting. This should make the enemies of the Scriptures clap their hands in glee. II Chronicles says, "Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem." But now if he had begun to reign when he was forty-two years old, it would have made that man two years older than his father. You can say this is a mistake of copyist, and remember, mistakes can be made by the copyists, but there are no ontradictions-NONE here!!!
God meant what He said in both references; don't forget the character of Kings and Chronicles. Kings is from the human standpoint and Chronicles is from the Divine standpoint. Mark Nansty says in his book, "The Romance of Bible Chronology", that a plain contradiction is given here, and yet, one is put there intentionally, on purpose, to prove a Divine truth. The solution is to look to the original Hebrew, and you can do that if you look at a concordance. You can look at the original Hebrew and trace it. Read carefully the context. Then Mr. Nansty goes on to give the proper translation of II Chronicles 22:2:
"A son of forty-two years was Ahaziah when he began to reign." If he were a son,of forty-two years, you will have to go back forty-two years to his father, Omri, King of Israel, the founder of a new dynasty and the beginning of a new family on the throne; the beginning of a new empire. "A son of forty-two years"-Listen, here is the trouble:
Here we have Omri, King of Israel, a wicked king. While Omri was reigning in Israel, there was a fellow named Ethbaal, a priest of Baal (that religion damned Israel, and a little later Judah entered into it). Omri had a son named Ahab. This priest of Baal, Ethbaal, had a daughter named Jezebel. She was one of the worst women who had ever lived. When Ahab was reigning in Israel, Jehoshaphat was reigning in Judah.
Ahab, the son of Omri, married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal. They had three children (Ahaziah, Jehoram, and one daughter, Athaliah). Athaliah was almost worse than Jezebel. Jehoshaphat had a number of children, and he was a good king. He went wrong because he got too friendly with this other family. He was so friendly that when he had a son he gave him the name of Jehoram. He also entered into a business alliance. He brought about a matrimonial alliance, and Jehoram (his son, who would follow him on the throne) was married to Athaliah.
The paganism that damned the Northern Kingdom was introduced by Jezebel, and Athaliah did the same thing in Judah.
Jehoram and Athaliah had a son whom they named Ahaziah. Now we have something interesting, and it is very interesting. The Book of Kings says Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign. Chronicles, giving God's view, says Ahaziah was a son of forty-two years, and that will take us back to the first year of Omri. Because of this alliance, God is going to disown this man as a son of David, and that is what He did.
We are told that Ahaziah walked in the ways of Ahab, and Ahab was the husband of Jezebel, who introduced Baal worship into the Northern Kingdom. Ahaziah (in the line of Judah) is living like the ungodly line of Israel. He was a descendant of David, but God disowned him and said that he was a son of Omri, and a son of forty-two years. He is a "son" of the house of Omri, not of David in God's recording. That is the way God wrote history, and when you study the Word of God you will have to take it from the viewpoint of the Old Testament History.
This is confirmed by Matthew in the genealogy; and there you will find that Solomon begat Reboam, and Reboam begat Abia, and Abia begat Asa, and Asa begat Jehoshaphat, etc. Ahaziah is disowned. It does not say he begat Ahaziah, but it takes us down to the fourth generation, Uzziah. That means that the Holy Spirit is repudiating that wicked branch in the house of David.Psalm 10:13-15--This is what took place. There are only fourteen generations in this line, not seventeen. Here are the facts. Modern critics say that the Bible must be interpreted like any other book, but the Word of God is not like any other book!
| KINGDOM OF ISRAEL | KINGDOM OF JUDAH Ahab, Jezebel |
| Ahaziah, Jehoram, Athaliah | Jehoram |
When Jehoram (who married Athaliah) came to be king, he slew all his brethren, and all that was left was his son, Ahaziah. Then Ahaziah became king, died, and his mother went out and slew all of Ahaziah's children (her own grandchildren) so that she could reign. She thought she had killed them all, but there was one little baby saved. The Lord would never have permitted her to kill them all, for He had covenanted with David that he would always have a son to sit upon his throne.
A princess married a priest, and when the grandmother went on the warpath, she took this child to the temple and hid the baby in the temple for six years. How could they hide a child that long? Why, because of the idolatry the temple was deserted and was the safest place to hide the child.
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