For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Everyone likes to hear the latest rumours. We want to think that we are in the know. The problem is that we often forget that the rumours we heard are just that, rumours. We come to believe that they are true, even though we have heard no facts to back them up. When we hear rumours and gossip, let us make sure we remember that they may not be true, or may even be outright lies.

    Another psalm of praise. The psalmist tells the faithful to rejoice that God delights in them. Let us execute the tasks which God has given us.

    As Paul traveled to Jerusalem he met with various groups of believers along the way. At each placed he stopped, one or more people were led by the Holy Spirit to urge Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, Paul was determined to complete his trip. Paul told the believers who urged him not to go that he was not only willing to be jailed for Christ but he was willing to die for Him. In making that statement Paul gave an example that all Christians should follow. Are you willing to be jailed for following Jesus? Are you willing to die in order to remain faithful to Him?
    As I have read this passage over, it seems to me that Paul was given the choice of avoiding being a martyr. I was going to write that the Holy Spirit was urging Paul to not go to Jerusalem. However, when I started to write that I realized that Paul was given the choice. I believe that if Paul had chosen not to go to Jerusalem, God had plans for him that did not involve him being a martyr. On the other hand, by going to Jerusalem knowing what he was going to face, Paul gave heart to many Christians, both in his time and later, who were facing persecution which they could not/can not avoid.

    This story is one of those which tells us a lot about God’s control of history. The officials of Assyria were sure of their power, and their ability to conquer Jerusalem. They declared that God would not be able to protect Jerusalem any more than the gods of other nations had protected them. Looking at this story from a secular perspective, there was nothing which could prevent the Assyrians from besieging Jerusalem until it was forced to surrender, or fell because its soldiers were no longer able to man the walls. Sennacherib’s will was supreme. No army, no power could prevent him from doing as he wished. He and his officials declared this to Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem.
    Hezekiah responded by doing what people of faith should always do when someone tells them such things. He turned to God in prayer and asked, “Do You hear this God? I call on You to answer this slander, because I know that Sennacherib is NOT sovereign. You, and You alone, are sovereign.” To which God replied, “I will answer Sennacherib and we will see who is truly sovereign. He will not conquer Jerusalem, he will not even besiege it. He will turn for home, where he will be killed.”
    That night, 185,000 of Sennacherib’s soldiers died and Sennacherib broke camp to return to Nineveh. While worshiping in the temple to the god of Nineveh, Sennacherib was killed. Yes, Hezekiah and the Kingdom of Judah could not stand against the military might of the Assyrians, but God is not limited by the limits of this earth. Those who declare themselves sovereign will discover, to their regret, that only God is sovereign. When we look at world history we see nation after nation and army after army which were unbeatable and against which no force on earth could stand. Yet, time and again, they fall before the might of God. Time and again they discover that they are not sovereign after all.

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    We all like to hear rumors. They make us feel like we are more important than we are because we know “inside information”. The problem with rumors is that we allow them to colour our judgement without knowing if they are true. Sometimes we form an opinion about someone based on a false rumor and forget why we thought as we did. When we learn that the rumor was false, we do not always correct our opinion of the person. We should be careful not to trust rumors before they are confirmed.

    Let us sing praises to the Lord. Other psalms tell us to praise God before all people. This one reminds us not to forget to sing God’s praises among the faithful. Sometimes we need reminders that God has done great things for others. Let us never forget to tell those around us what God has done for us. The psalmist tells the faithful to have the praises of God in their mouth and a sharp, double-edged(NIV) sword in their hands. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword. Let us keep that in mind and arm ourselves with the word of God so that we may present His will to all we meet.

    Time after time as Paul journeyed to Jerusalem the Holy Spirit sent people to prophesy to him that he would suffer if he completed his journey. Luke tells us that they urged him not to go to Jerusalem at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We know that Paul refused to listen to these promptings. He accepted that the prophecies of what would happen to him in Jerusalem were true, but he was determined to go to Jerusalem. Luke, the writer, seems to believe that the Holy Spirit was sending these prophecies as a message to Paul to not go to Jerusalem, but Paul believed that the Spirit was calling him to go to Jerusalem and accept what would happen when he got there.
    I have come to believe that Luke was correct, the Spirit was sending the prophecies to convince Paul to turn aside from Jerusalem. However, there are times when God will call us to a course of action which will include consequences we will not enjoy. Paul’s steadfastness in his determination to go to Jerusalem should be a model to us. When the Spirit calls us to a course of action we should not allow the knowledge that it will lead to persecution dissuade us from following that course. And perhaps Paul was correct in his understanding because the Spirit certainly made use of Paul’s subsequent imprisonment to further the spread of the Gospel.

    Sennacherib, the king of Assyria invaded Judah and sent a force to besiege Jerusalem. Then he demonstrated his arrogance, his hubris. First he sent his field commander to demand Jerusalem’s surrender. The field commander declared for all to hear that the people of Jerusalem should not rely on God to rescue them because God was not powerful enough to do so. Then, when Sennacherib was forced to withdraw his army to face the armies of Ethiopia (Cush), he sent a letter to Hezekiah repeated the assertion that God was not powerful enough to stand against the Assyrian army. Both times, King Hezekiah took those words to God and asked God what His answer was. In both cases, God told Hezekiah, through the prophet Isaiah not to worry, He was indeed powerful enough to stop the armies of Assyria and they would not enter Jerusalem.
    Time and again throughout history powerful leaders have claimed that God could not stop them (usually because they did not believe in God). For example, Stalin famously dismissed the Catholic Church (and all of Christianity) by asking, “How many divisions does the Pope have?” Yet it was another Pope who played an instrumental role in bringing down the empire which Stalin had built. God will not be mocked and those who believe they are more powerful than He will learn that they are wrong.