THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act II Conquest and Kings,  Scene 7
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

                                                                          Scene 7

2          3          4          1

VOICE THREE:        (FACE AUDIENCE)  King Jotham’s entire life was lived in the 

                                  shadow of his very successful father.  Out of his sixteen years as                                   king, all but four of them were in co-regency with his father.

VOICE FOUR:          His building projects were all continuations of ventures his father                                   had started.

VOICE TWO:           His victory over the Ammonites provided for a continuation of                                                                 tribute collections his father had already conducted in Ammon.

VOICE ONE:             Nothing Jotham accomplished ever looked like much in light of the

                                   golden age of Judah presided over by his illustrious ancestor.  He                                    despaired of ever measuring up to his father’s expectations or ever                                    filling his over-sized shoes.

VOICE THREE:        But there was one area in which Jotham was not like his father.  He                                   did not repeat his father’s sin.

VOICE FOUR:          Jotham did not enter the temple of the Lord.

VOICE ONE:             That doesn’t mean he didn’t worship.

VOICE TWO:           It means he didn’t try to do what God had commanded the priests  

                                  to do.  He didn’t usurp authority which did not belong to him.   He                                   didn’t repeat the sins of his fathers.

VOICE FOUR:          He may not have been a great king in the eyes of men, but he was a  

                                  success with God.

VOICE ONE:             (TURN TOWARD AUDIENCE)  The next king, Ahaz, repeated 

                                   the sins of his fathers and invented many more of his own. 

VOICE THREE:        He worshipped Baal and Molech instead of God.

VOICE TWO:           (TURN TOWARD AUDIENCE)  He depended on alliances with  

                                  Assyria for protection rather than seeking help from the Almighty.

VOICE FOUR:          (TURN TOWARD AUDIENCE)  In bitterness against the God  

                                   whom he had rejected he nailed shut the doors of the temple and 

                                   built altars in every corner of Jerusalem.

VOICE THREE:        He got his way, but in sixteen years he destroyed all the political,  

                                  religious and economic prosperity it had taken Uzziah and Jotham                                   sixty years to build.

VOICE TWO:           To the best of our knowledge, Ahaz only did one thing in his entire

                                  life that benefited anyone.  He married a wife who raised their son                                   to fear God.

VOICE ONE:           Who knows what abuse Abijah suffered, living in the palace with a 

                                 man like Ahaz.  But through it all she persevered and in spite of 

                                 the worst Ahaz could do, God gave the nation a godly king by the                                  name of Hezekiah.

VOICE FOUR:          (KNEEL)  Revival!

VOICE TWO:            (STAND)  Hezekiah’s first act as king was to open the doors of the  

                                   temple and restore the priests and Levites to their God-given tasks                                    of worship.

VOICE FOUR:          Revival!

VOICE ONE:             (STAND)  The entire nation was called together to celebrate  

                                   Passover, something no king had done since the days of David and                                    Solomon.

VOICE FOUR:          Revival!

VOICE THREE:        (STAND)  The army received instructions to destroy all idol  

                                 groves and high places and false altars throughout the entire land, 

                                 even up into the land of the northern kingdom.

VOICE FOUR:          Revival!

VOICE ONE:            The king modeled what it meant to give freely to God, and when                                   the people responded the storehouses in the temple overflowed

                                  with the tithes and offerings brought by a grateful nation.

VOICE FOUR:          Revival!

VOICE THREE:        Sennacherib, king of Assyria, laid siege to Jerusalem and King 

                                  Hezekiah asked God to fight the battle for them.  The mighty  

                                  Assyrian army went to bed one night and those who managed to                                   get up the next morning found 185,000 of their fellow soldiers had                                   mysteriously died in their sleep.  The rest of them packed up and                                   went home.

VOICE FOUR:          Revival!

VOICE ONE:             (SIT)  Revival in the nation.   But not in the home.

VOICE TWO:           (SIT)  Hezekiah's son Manasseh’s fifty-two years on the throne were as 

                                  wicked as his father’s had been righteous.  Everything his father  

                                  had done he reversed.

VOICE THREE:        (SIT)  The altars his father had torn down, he restored.

VOICE FOUR:          (SIT)  The abominations his father than outlawed, he legalized.

VOICE ONE:             The familiar spirits his father had shunned, he courted.

VOICE TWO:            The descendents of the kings of Assyria his father had destroyed 

                                   with the help of God placed Manasseh in chains and carried him                                    off to Babylon. 

VOICE THREE:        There, in prison, he humbled himself before the God of his fathers                                   and prayed.  To the amazement of all who lived in Babylon, their                                   pagan ruler released King Manasseh from prison, sent him back to                                   Jerusalem and restored him to his throne.

VOICE FOUR:          Then Manasseh knew that the Lord, He, and He alone, was God.

VOICE ONE:             His son Amon refused to learn the same lesson.

VOICE TWO:          Two years of his wickedness was all the people could stand.  His  

                                 servants killed him in his own bed.

VOICE THREE:        Josiah succeeded Amon on the throne at age eight.

VOICE FOUR:        (STAND)  At sixteen he came to know the Lord.

VOICE TWO:          (STAND)  Once again the land was purged of idol worship.

VOICE THREE:        (STAND)  Once again the temple was repaired.

VOICE ONE:             (STAND)  Once again a young king tried to obey the voice of God 

                                   based on tradition and custom and word of mouth.  But all that was

                                   about to change.

VOICE TWO:         When the king entered the chamber that day his gaze was directed

                                to a long table which held some of the oldest looking scrolls he had                                 ever seen.  They were covered with layers of dust and looked so  

                                fragile he was afraid to touch them.  They seemed ready to  

                                crumble into small fragments if they were even so much as moved.

VOICE FOUR:        (CROSS DOWN LEFT)  Are they really the lost books of Moses?                                  The ones no one has seen since the days of my great-grandfather  

                                Hezekiah?

VOICE THREE:        The high priest Hilkiah nodded solemnly, tears streaming from his  

                                  eyes.  We are convinced already.  There can be no doubt that we                                   have recovered the holy books given by God Himself.

VOICE ONE:            The revival under good King Josiah rivaled that of the days of his  

                                  ancestor Hezekiah.  But there was one major difference.  The  

                                  people did everything the king asked them to do, but their hearts                                   remained far from God.  They still worshipped their idols on their                                   rooftops, in their groves and on every high hill.

VOICE TWO:             God preserved the nation a few more years for the sake of King

                                    Josiah, but the handwriting was on the wall.

VOICE THREE:        (CROSS DOWN RIGHT)  King Jehoahaz reigned only three

                                  months before the Pharoah  carried him captive into Egypt.

1                                            2

3                                                                      4

VOICE FOUR:          Jehoiakim managed eleven years of political intrigue before it  

                                  caught up with him and he wore chains on the long journey to  

                                  Babylon.

VOICE ONE:             His son, Jehoiachin lasted the sum total of three months and ten  

                                   days before joining his father in captivity.

VOICE TWO:            King Zedekiah, who by this time was nothing more than a puppet  

                                   king, under the governance of the Babylonian empire made the                                    mistake of trying to play the Egyptian Pharoah off against  

                                   Nebuchadnezzar.

VOICE THREE:        Three years of siege around the city of Jerusalem produced a

                                  misery from famine never before experienced by the people of  

                                  God.  The king finally decided he could stand it no longer and he                                    tried to break through the siege along with his family.

VOICE FOUR:          When the Babylonians captured them, they killed his sons while he

                                   watched, and then put out his eyes so that the last thing he would                                    ever see was the death of his own children.  Then they put him in                                    chains and carried him off to Babylon.

VOICE ONE:             It was a high price to pay for forsaking God.