Day 214, August 2: Bible reading & prayer
2 Kings 20-21 (chronological); Psalms 68-69, Romans 3 (OT/NT)
We are in the era of the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel, as recounted in 1 & 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Yesterday, we finished Isaiah. There are books of the Bible that are admittedly easier to understand and love, and there are books that require perseverance and we admittedly struggle through. The book of Isaiah has been a struggle for me that has required much discipline, but discipline bears fruit and I have come to love it. You might find what I learned about the book of Isaiah helpful.
Today we return to the historic narrative of the events of Isaiah’s era. Remember he prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Kings 20 is similar to what Isaiah recorded in Chapters 38 and 39, which we read on Day 206, when King Hezekiah became ill and this king who had lived so righteously ended his life pridefully and selfishly, and the Lord revealed that the kingdom of Judah would be exiled to Babylon. 2 Kings 21 introduces us to Hezekiah’s descendants who reigned after him: Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah.
Reminder of historical background: as a consequence for Solomon’s disobedience, ten tribes were torn from the Kingdom of Judah, under Solomon’s son Rehoboam, and given to Jeroboam, to form the Kingdom of Israel. Judah’s kings, influenced by the legacy of faithful David, vary between good and evil. Israel’s kings, influenced by the legacy of rebellious Jeroboam, go from bad to worse, and, during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah, the kingdom of Israel was exiled to Assyria as a consequence for their idolatrous sin under the reign of their last King Hoshea. The books of the Kings cover both kingdoms, while the Chronicles tend to focus on the kingdom of Judah. I’ve attempted to summarize relevant details in the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel.
An overview of our yearly Bible reading plan, with all summaries so far, can be found here. My appeal for the resolution to read your Bibles is here.
August 2 chronological reading: 2 Kings 20-21
2 Kings 20
v1-7 “In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.”’ Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, ‘Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, ‘I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”’ Then Isaiah said, ‘Take a cake of figs.’ And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
v8-11 “Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD the third day?’ Isaiah said, ‘This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?’ So Hezekiah answered, ‘It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.’ Isaiah the prophet cried to the LORD, and He brought the shadow on the stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
v12-15 “At that time Berodach-baladan a son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all his treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and the house of his armor and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, ‘What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?’ And Hezekiah said, ‘They have come from a far country, from Babylon.’ He said, ‘What have they seen in your house?’ So Hezekiah answered, ‘They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.’
v16-19 “Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the LORD. “Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,” says the LORD. “Some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away; and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.”’ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.’ For he thought, ‘Is it not so, if there will be peace and truth in my days?’
v20-21 “Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son became king in his place.”
2 Kings 21
v1-9 “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put My name.’ For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger. Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever. And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.’ But they did not listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel.
v10-15 “Now the LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, ‘Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.”’
v16-18 “Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.
v19-26 “Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. For he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them. So he forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house. Then the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place. Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? He was buried in his grave in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.”
August 2 OT/NT readings: Psalms 68-69, Romans 3
We are reading Psalms in the Old Testament reading plan. In this document, I list the Psalms in order of appearance, followed by author (if known), context of the Psalm’s writing (description of context that appear in the Biblical text before some Psalms are quoted), and the Old Testament reading it appears after. Here is that information for today’s Psalms:
Psalm 68, appears as 62nd/150 Psalms, authored by David, after David brought the ark to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:11-6, 1 Chronicles 13-16), Day 125
Psalm 69, appears as 82nd/150 Psalms, authored by David, after his defeat of the Arameans and the Ammonites (2 Samuel 10, 1 Chronicles 19), Day 132
We are reading Paul’s letter to the Romans, which he wrote at the end of his third missionary journey, before his arrest in Jerusalem. This letter is rich in deep theological teaching, which I attempt to summarize here.
Paul taught in Romans 1 that creation gives evidence for God so that those who don’t believe have no excuse. Since these unbelievers fail to acknowledge, honor, or give thanks to God, who has made Himself evident, God gives them over to their lusts, which leaves them vulnerable to His wrath. In our reading yesterday, in Romans 2, Paul asserted that passing judgment on others demonstrates agreement with the Law of God, which means we risk judgment if we do not follow it ourselves. He confirms that there will be a day “of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation.” He reassured that Gentiles (those who are not Jews) are not judged if they are ignorant of the Law of God as revealed to the Jews, because God’s law is written on our hearts, as evidenced by our conscience which either accuses or defends our actions. All of us, Jews and Gentiles, dishonor God if we claim to be righteous but continue to sin. “[H}e is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
Romans 3
v1-4 “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written,
'THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS,
AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.’
v5-8 “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), ‘Let us do evil that good may come’? Their condemnation is just.
v9-18 “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,
‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.’
‘THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,’
‘THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS’;
‘WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS’;
‘THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,
DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,
AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN’.
‘THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.’
v19-20 “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
v21-26 “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
v27-30 “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.
v31 “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”
Dear Lord,
He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger.
Help us to remember our evil deeds are an offense to You. Help us to desire not to do anything to offend You.
by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified
through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Help us to understand the Law teaches us that we are sinners in need of a Savior.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
"Help us to understand the Law teaches us that we are sinners in need of a Savior." Amen . Thank you Dr. Milhoan. Peace.