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The princes of Judah then came to Joash, king of Israel, and persuaded him to leave
the house of the Lord God of their fathers and to turn to idols. God was angry with Judah
and Jerusalem and He sent prophets, but they refused to listen.
"And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which
stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the
commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord,
He hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones
at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord" (24: 20, 21).
II Chronicles 26: 19. Uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign and he
reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He
was very successful and "God helped him against the Philistines". A long list of his
achievements is given in chapter 16:, but he became proud and transgressed against the
Lord by going into the temple to burn incense. Azariah, the priest, followed Uzziah into
the temple accompanied by 80 other priests of the Lord, and they withstood the king,
saying that incense must only be offered by priests who were the sons of Aaron. The
king had trespassed. Uzziah was wroth and he held a censer in his hand to burn incense,
but as the king opposed the priests and was angry, leprosy rose up in his forehead. The
priests thrust him out of the temple, but when the king realized he was a leper he also
himself hastened to leave the temple.
Jeremiah 26: 21. Urijah was a prophet who prophesied against Jerusalem and
against the land of Israel in agreement with all the words of Jeremiah. When the king
heard what he had prophesied he sought to kill him. So Urijah fled to Egypt. The king
sent men to Egypt who brought Urijah back to the king, and he slew him with the sword.
Jeremiah 32: 3. The king of Babylon sent his army to besiege the city of
Jerusalem and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in
the house of the king of Judah. The prophet was shut up because he had said that the
Lord would give the city to the king of Babylon.
Matthew 14: 3. John the Baptist had told Herod that it was not lawful for him to
marry Herodias, so Herod put John in prison. He would have put him to death, but he
feared the people. John was executed later as Herod had promised the daughter of
Herodias a reward for her dancing according to her wish. She consulted her mother and
asked for the head of John the Baptist. The faithful witness of John the Baptist was
rejected, as was John himself.
So in all eleven cases we find a similar feature, that the word of God delivered by His
faithful servants was rejected, often in anger, and the prophet himself suffered rejection,
and sometimes prison, or even death.