I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for over a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. 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. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Today’s passage tells us that God had finally had enough of the sins of the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and sent Assyria to sweep them away into exile. Despite repeatedly sending them prophets telling them to turn away from their sinful ways, they continued to worship other gods. They went so far as to sacrifice their own sons and daughters to these other gods. “They consulted fortune-tellers and practiced sorcery and sold themselves to evil, arousing the Lord’s anger.” This passage sounds like an indictment of most countries of the world today. In the countries that comprise Western Civilization, we sacrifice our children on the altar of convenience and abort them before they are born. In the Islamic countries they encourage their children to become suicidal jihadists and sacrifice them that way. There may be countries in the world today which are not sacrificing their children on the altars of the gods they worship, but I am not familiar with them.
After the Assyrians took the Israelites captive, they settled other peoples in the land of Israel. However, lions preyed upon these new settlers. When word reached the King of Assyria about the depredation of the lions, he sent back a priest of the Lord to teach the new people in the land to worship the Lord. The new people in the land worshiped the Lord, but they also continued to offer sacrifices and worship the gods of their ancestors. They would not follow God’s command to worship only Him.
Six years before the King of Assyria overthrew the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Hezekiah became king in Judah. We are told that he did right in the sight of the Lord. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord and we are told that there was no king like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after. Hezekiah destroyed all of the places in Judah where people worshiped idols. He removed the high places, destroyed the sacred pillars (which were part of Baal worship) and burned the Asherah poles. He even broke apart the bronze snake which Moses had made because the people were worshiping it in place of God. As a result of his dedication to serving the Lord, Hezekiah was successful in all that he did.
In today’s passage we have a contrast between people who failed to obey the Lord and a man who led his people in strong dedication to follow the Lord. Those who worshiped the Lord and were faithful to Him were blessed, those who did not suffered. David is often viewed as the king of Israel whom we should most admire. I do not wish to diminish our view of David, but I believe that Hezekiah represents a model we should more closely follow. He led his people back to serving God and, unlike David, got rid of the high places where the people mixed worship of God with idolatry.
When the uproar in Ephesus died down, Paul went to Macedonia and traveled through it and then down into Greece. He was preparing to travel by ship from Greece back to Syria when he learned that some Jews were plotting to kill him (or have him killed). So, instead of taking ship from Greece, Paul traveled back through Macedonia and took ship from Macedonia. He stopped in Troas, where he was joined by Luke and some others (or possibly the others sailed first and Paul traveled with Luke). From Troas, Paul sailed on to Miletus where he sent for the elders of the church in Ephesus to join him.
Paul told the elders from Ephesus that they would not see him again as in every city prophets were telling him that he would face jail and suffering when he came to Jerusalem. He warned the elders to feed and guide the God’s flock. They were to be on guard against false teachers who would arise and attempt to gain a following with false teachings. They should remember Paul’s teaching and example. How he worked hard so as to have the means to meet his own needs and provide help to those in need.
Another psalm of praise. Some days these are hard to write anything about. Today is one of those days. I will encourage you to read the psalm and let its sentiment sweep over your soul. I will pull out this phrase for special focus:
for he issued his command, and they came into being.
Even if you can think of no other reason to praise God, you should praise Him because He is the reason that you came into being. If you do not know why that should lead you to praise Him, remember that He did not create you on a whim. He created each and every one of us to accomplish a purpose. We may not know what that purpose is, but if we strive to be faithful to God, we will fulfill that purpose in a way which will bring us joy.
Unlike yesterday, today’s proverb is clear to me. When I regularly find myself in quarrels it is time to examine what I say. The cause is usually because I am saying foolish things and asking for trouble by doing so. When we say and do foolish things, we will get caught out by our own words.