I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am going to be on vacation starting tomorrow through August 10th.  I have read the passages and prepared my blog entries for each day.  While I am on vacation I will have limited access to the Internet, but I expect to be able to get these published each day.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 36-38.

Isaiah gives his account of the Assyrian invasion of Judah.    I want to look more closely at the initial statement of the Assyrians versus what they really thought.  When the Assyrian envoy first spoke to King Hezekiah’s delegation he gave lip service to God’s power.  He told them that the Assyrians had invaded Judah at God’s direction.  However, when Hezekiah’s envoys pushed back, the envoy revealed what the Assyrians really thought of God.  The Assyrians thought that God was just a made up idea like the gods of other nations.  They believed that because they had defeated many nations with various gods that God was powerless to stop them.  We see similar behavior often when we speak up for God’s will.  Those who oppose us will, at first, pretend to take God seriously and pay lip service to honoring Him.  They will make a case that God supports their cause.  Do not be fooled.  An examination of what they say in other contexts will soon reveal that they hold God, and those who serve Him, in contempt.