Thoughts from my personal time with God.
About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and said to him, “The Lord tells you that you are to put everything in order, because you will not recover. Get ready to die.”
One (very last) task to take care of… I’ll need to start thinking of this.…
Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah…
Two heavyweights at a critical moment! What a blessing.
You sent… You boasted… you cut down… you reached… You boasted…
SELF. May it be entirely different with me, Father. May I be forever humble before you.
…“Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out.”
…Don’t listen to Hezekiah. The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines…— until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own… it is a land of olives, olive oil, and honey. …Don’t let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the Lord will rescue you.
2 Kings 18:31 – 19:19 Read More »
The Assyrian emperor took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners… Samaria fell because the Israelites did not obey the Lord their God, but broke the covenant he had made with them…
As promised as part of the covenant (Deuteronomy 28:36-37). Such formulas no longer apply; the “because” is much more elusive…
…In the third year of the siege Samaria fell; this was the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign and the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign.
…the Lord had separated Israel from Judah…
It was indeed the Lord’s doing (1 Kings 11:9-13). It didn’t turn out to be the hoped for liberation (1 Kings 12:16). The consequences of sin…
…The emperor of Assyria took people from the cities of Babylon, Cuth, Ivvah, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the exiled Israelites.
2 Kings 17:21 – 18:8 Read More »
…Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for nine years. He sinned against the Lord, but not as much as the kings who had ruled Israel before him.
The first positive thing said about one of the Israelite kings – and the last. May your evaluation of me be absolute, Lord (2 Kings 18:3).…
…Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah… He even sacrificed his own son as a burnt offering to idols… King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel attacked Jerusalem and besieged it, but could not defeat Ahaz. …Ahaz took the silver and gold from the Temple and the palace treasury, and sent it as a present to the emperor. Tiglath
Shallum… became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for one month. Menahem… assassinated Shallum, and succeeded him as king. …Menahem was on his way from Tirzah, he completely destroyed the city of Tappuah, its inhabitants, and the surrounding territory, because the city did not surrender to him. He even ripped open the bellies of all the pregnant women.
How barberic!…
2 Kings 15:13 – 38 Read More »
…Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah… and… killed ten thousand Edomite soldiers in Salt Valley; he captured the city of Sela in battle and called it Joktheel, the name it still has.
The lense through which men evaluate events. How you think differently, Lord (Isaiah 55:8-9; Hebrews 11).
…Amaziah’s army was defeated, and all his soldiers fled to their homes.
2 Kings 14:1 – 15:12 Read More »
…Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel… Like King Jeroboam before him, he sinned against the Lord and led Israel into sin…
All the kings of Israel were judged harshly due to the false religion that Jeroboam had put in place. They may well have thought that God would judge them favorably – which makes me wonder how I will be judged?…