I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     King Hoshea becomes the last king of Israel. The passage tells us that he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as badly as his predecessors. Hoshea’s reign ended when King Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded and took the people of Israel into exile. King Shalmaneser then settled the peoples of other lands in the land of Israel. The passage tells us that the people of Israel were taken into exile because time and again they chose not to follow God’s commands. The Bible is clear that when a people follow God’s commands they prosper, when they do not, they suffer. This is not about what the laws are, but about the actions that the people choose to take. The more the people of a nation follow the path of righteousness the more that nation will do well. Even if the people just pay lip service to righteous behavior the nation will do better than if the people hold up immorality and dishonesty as their aspirations. We get a little of this idea in the passage’s description of what happened to the people who the Assyrians settled in the land. We are told that God sent lions among them to kill them because they did not worship Him. This led the king of Assyria to have a priest of God sent back to the land of Israel to teach the foreigners now living there how to worship God.
     Meanwhile, we are told that Hezekiah succeeded his father Ahaz on the throne of Judah. The author has high praise for Hezekiah. Hezekiah did what was pleasing to God, living up to the standard of King David. We are told that Hezekiah trusted the Lord and remained faithful in everything. He destroyed all elements of idol worship in the land of Judah. He smashed the sacred pillars dedicated to Baal and cut down the Asherah poles. He got rid of the shrines on the high places where the people worshiped God alongside pagan gods. He even destroyed the bronze serpent that Moses had made because the people had begun worshiping it.

     As Paul prepares to return to Syria, he learns of a plot by some Jews to kill him so he chooses to return by a different route. He travels to Troas, where he speaks to the believers through the night. About midnight, a young man who was sitting on the window sill fell asleep and fell out of the window onto the street below, a three story fall. Luke tells us that he fell to his death. Paul is the first one to get to him and and he tells everyone that the young man is alive. The young man was taken home unhurt. They return upstairs and Paul continues talking until dawn.
     Paul continues on his journey to Jerusalem. He decides not to stop in Ephesus, or any place else in Asia Minor, and sends for the elders of the Church in Ephesus to meet him on the island of Miletus. Luke records Paul’s farewell speech to the elders of Ephesus. Paul summarizes the Gospel as repenting from sin and turning to God and having faith in Jesus. He goes on to describe his motivation in preaching the Gospel, that if anyone suffers eternal death, it will not be his fault, he has done his best to convey the salvation message to everyone he can reach. We should all be so motivated to reach the lost. Paul concludes by telling them that they should follow his example of working hard so as to be able to help those in need.

     The psalmist calls on every created thing to praise the Lord. This psalm calls us all to praise the Lord for all that is. Let us praise the Lord while we have breath. Let us praise the Lord for the time He has given us with our loved ones.

     If you often find yourself in trouble with others, perhaps you should give more thought to what you say. A repeating theme of these proverbs is that foolishness is often revealed through what we say. A first step to becoming wise is to not say everything that comes to your mind.