Today our
passages are 2 Kings 23:31–25:30; Acts 22:17–23:10; Psalm 2:1-12; and
Proverbs 18:13. The readings
are from The
Message by Eugene H.
Peterson. If you find these
readings helpful, please consider sending an offering directly to Cove
Presbyterian Church, 3404 Main Street, Weirton, West Virginia or through
PayPal.
2 Kings 23:31-25:30 (The Message)
Jehoahaz of Judah
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to rule. He was king in Jerusalem for a mere three months. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah. She came from Libnah.
32 In God's opinion, he was an evil king,
reverting to the evil ways of his ancestors.
33-34 Pharaoh Neco captured
Jehoahaz at Riblah in the country of Hamath and put him in chains, preventing
him from ruling in Jerusalem. He demanded that Judah pay tribute of nearly four
tons of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold. Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim
son of Josiah the successor to Josiah, but changed his name to Jehoiakim.
Jehoahaz was carted off to Egypt and eventually died there.
35 Meanwhile Jehoiakim, like a
good puppet, dutifully paid out the silver and gold demanded by Pharaoh. He
scraped up the money by gouging the people, making everyone pay an assessed tax.
Jehoiakim of Judah
36-37 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to rule; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah. She had come from Rumah. In God's opinion he was an evil king, picking up on the evil ways of his ancestors.2 Kings 24
1 It was during his reign that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the country. Jehoiakim became his puppet. But after three years he had had enough and revolted.
2-4 God dispatched a succession of raiding
bands against him: Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite. The strategy was
to destroy Judah. Through the preaching of his servants and prophets, God had said he would do this, and now
he was doing it. None of this was by chance—it was God's judgment as he turned his back on
Judah because of the enormity of the sins of Manasseh—Manasseh, the killer-king,
who made the Jerusalem streets flow with the innocent blood of his victims.
God wasn't about to overlook such
crimes.
5-6 The rest of the life and
times of Jehoiakim is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
Jehoiakim died and was buried with his ancestors. His son Jehoiachin became the
next king.
7 The threat from Egypt was now
over—no more invasions by the king of Egypt—for by this time the king of Babylon
had captured all the land between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River,
land formerly controlled by the king of Egypt.
Jehoiachin of Judah
8-9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king. His rule in Jerusalem lasted only three months. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. In God's opinion he also was an evil king, no different from his father.
10-12 The next thing to happen
was that the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and
put it under siege. While his officers were laying siege to the city,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon paid a personal visit. And Jehoiachin king of
Judah, along with his mother, officers, advisors, and government leaders,
surrendered.
12-14 In the eighth year of his
reign Jehoiachin was taken prisoner by the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar
emptied the treasuries of both The Temple of God and the royal palace and confiscated
all the gold furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for The Temple of
God. This should have been no
surprise—God had said it would
happen. And then he emptied Jerusalem of people—all its leaders and soldiers,
all its craftsmen and artisans. He took them into exile, something like ten
thousand of them! The only ones he left were the very poor.
15-16 He took Jehoiachin into
exile to Babylon. With him he took the king's mother, his wives, his chief
officers, the community leaders, anyone who was anybody—in round numbers, seven
thousand soldiers plus another thousand or so craftsmen and artisans, all herded
off into exile in Babylon.
17 Then the king of Babylon made
Jehoiachin's uncle, Mattaniah, his puppet king, but changed his name to
Zedekiah.
Zedekiah of Judah
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah.
19 As far as God was concerned Zedekiah was just one
more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim.
20 The source of all this doom to
Jerusalem and Judah was God's
anger— God turned his back on them
as an act of judgment. And then Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon.
2 Kings 25
1-7 The revolt dates from the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah's reign. Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem immediately with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege mounds around it. The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the eleventh year of Zedekiah). By the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn't so much as a crumb of bread for anyone. Then there was a breakthrough. At night, under cover of darkness, the entire army escaped through an opening in the wall (it was the gate between the two walls above the King's Garden). They slipped through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the Jordan on the Arabah Valley road. But the Babylonians were in pursuit of the king and they caught up with him in the Plains of Jericho. By then Zedekiah's army had deserted and was scattered. The Babylonians took Zedekiah prisoner and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah, then tried and sentenced him on the spot. Zedekiah's sons were executed right before his eyes; the summary murder of his sons was the last thing he saw, for they then blinded him. Securely handcuffed, he was hauled off to Babylon.
8-12 In the nineteenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, on the seventh day of the fifth month,
Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon's chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned
The Temple of God to the ground,
went on to the royal palace, and then finished off the city—burned the whole
place down. He put the Babylonian troops he had with him to work knocking down
the city walls. Finally, he rounded up everyone left in the city, including
those who had earlier deserted to the king of Babylon, and took them off into
exile. He left a few poor dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was
left of the fields.
13-15 The Babylonians broke up
the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the huge bronze basin (the Sea)
that were in The Temple of God and
hauled the bronze off to Babylon. They also took the various bronze-crafted
liturgical accessories used in the services of Temple worship, as well as the
gold and silver censers and sprinkling bowls. The king's deputy didn't miss a
thing—he took every scrap of precious metal he could find.
16-17 The amount of bronze they
got from the two pillars, the Sea, and all the washstands that Solomon had made
for The Temple of God was
enormous—they couldn't weigh it all! Each pillar stood twenty-seven feet high,
plus another four and a half feet for an ornate capital of bronze filigree and
decorative fruit.
18-21 The king's deputy took a
number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate
priest, three wardens, the chief remaining army officer, five of the king's
counselors, the accountant, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and sixty
men of standing from among the people. Nebuzaradan the king's deputy marched
them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah. And there at Riblah, in the land
of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood.
Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.
22-23 Regarding the common people
who were left behind in Judah, this: Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed
Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as their governor. When veteran army
officers among the people heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah,
they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Among them were Ishmael son of Nethaniah,
Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the
son of the Maacathite, and some of their followers.
24 Gedaliah assured the officers
and their men, giving them his word, "Don't be afraid of the Babylonian
officials. Go back to your farms and families and respect the king of Babylon.
Trust me, everything is going to be all right."
25 Some time later—it was in the
seventh month—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama (he had royal blood
in him), came back with ten men and killed Gedaliah, the traitor Jews, and the
Babylonian officials who were stationed at Mizpah—a bloody massacre.
26 But then, afraid of what the
Babylonians would do, they all took off for Egypt, leaders and people, small and
great.
27-30 When Jehoiachin king of
Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven years, Evil-Merodach became king in
Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison. This release took place on the
twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. The king treated him most courteously
and gave him preferential treatment beyond anything experienced by the other
political prisoners held in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and for
the rest of his life ate his meals in company with the king. The king provided
everything he needed to live comfortably.
Acts 22:17-23:10 (The Message)
17-18"Well, it happened just as
Ananias said. After I was back in Jerusalem and praying one day in the Temple,
lost in the presence of God, I saw him, saw God's Righteous Innocent, and heard
him say to me, 'Hurry up! Get out of here as quickly as you can. None of the
Jews here in Jerusalem are going to accept what you say about me.'
19-20"At first I objected: 'Who
has better credentials? They all know how obsessed I was with hunting out those
who believed in you, beating them up in the meeting places and throwing them in
jail. And when your witness Stephen was murdered, I was right there, holding the
coats of the murderers and cheering them on. And now they see me totally
converted. What better qualification could I have?'
21"But he said, 'Don't argue.
Go. I'm sending you on a long journey to outsider non-Jews.'"
A Roman Citizen
22-25The people in the crowd had listened attentively up to this point, but now they broke loose, shouting out, "Kill him! He's an insect! Stomp on him!" They shook their fists. They filled the air with curses. That's when the captain intervened and ordered Paul taken into the barracks. By now the captain was thoroughly exasperated. He decided to interrogate Paul under torture in order to get to the bottom of this, to find out what he had done that provoked this outraged violence. As they spread-eagled him with thongs, getting him ready for the whip, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is this legal: torturing a Roman citizen without a fair trial?"
26When the centurion heard that,
he went directly to the captain. "Do you realize what you've done? This man is a
Roman citizen!"
27The captain came back and took
charge. "Is what I hear right? You're a Roman citizen?"
Paul said, "I certainly am."
28The captain was impressed. "I
paid a huge sum for my citizenship. How much did it cost you?"
"Nothing," said Paul. "It cost me nothing. I was free from the day of my
birth."
29That put a stop to the
interrogation. And it put the fear of God into the captain. He had put a Roman
citizen in chains and come within a whisker of putting him under torture!
30The next day, determined to
get to the root of the trouble and know for sure what was behind the Jewish
accusation, the captain released Paul and ordered a meeting of the high priests
and the High Council to see what they could make of it. Paul was led in and took
his place before them.
Acts 23
Before the High Council
1-3Paul surveyed the members of the council with a steady gaze, and then said his piece: "Friends, I've lived with a clear conscience before God all my life, up to this very moment." That set the Chief Priest Ananias off. He ordered his aides to slap Paul in the face. Paul shot back, "God will slap you down! What a fake you are! You sit there and judge me by the Law and then break the Law by ordering me slapped around!"
4The aides were scandalized:
"How dare you talk to God's Chief Priest like that!"
5Paul acted surprised. "How was
I to know he was Chief Priest? He doesn't act like a Chief Priest. You're right,
the Scripture does say, 'Don't speak abusively to a ruler of the people.'
Sorry."
6Paul, knowing some of the
council was made up of Sadducees and others of Pharisees and how they hated each
other, decided to exploit their antagonism: "Friends, I am a stalwart Pharisee
from a long line of Pharisees. It's because of my Pharisee convictions—the hope
and resurrection of the dead—that I've been hauled into this court."
7-9The moment he said this, the
council split right down the middle, Pharisees and Sadducees going at each other
in heated argument. Sadducees have nothing to do with a resurrection or angels
or even a spirit. If they can't see it, they don't believe it. Pharisees believe
it all. And so a huge and noisy quarrel broke out. Then some of the religion
scholars on the Pharisee side shouted down the others: "We don't find anything
wrong with this man! And what if a spirit has spoken to him? Or maybe an angel?
What if it turns out we're fighting against God?"
10That was fuel on the fire. The
quarrel flamed up and became so violent the captain was afraid they would tear
Paul apart, limb from limb. He ordered the soldiers to get him out of there and
escort him back to the safety of the barracks.
Psalm 2:1-12 (The Message)
Psalm 2
Earth-leaders push for position,
Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks,
The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers:
"Let's get free of God!
Cast loose from Messiah!"
Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing.
At first he's amused at their presumption;
Then he gets good and angry.
Furiously, he shuts them up:
"Don't you know there's a King in Zion? A coronation banquet
Is spread for him on the holy summit."
7-9 Let me tell you what God said next.
He said, "You're my son,
And today is your birthday.
What do you want? Name it:
Nations as a present? continents as a prize?
You can command them all to dance for you,
Or throw them out with tomorrow's trash."
10-12 So, rebel-kings, use your heads;
Upstart-judges, learn your lesson:
Worship God in adoring embrace,
Celebrate in trembling awe. Kiss Messiah!
Your very lives are in danger, you know;
His anger is about to explode,
But if you make a run for God—you won't regret it!
A David Psalm, When He Escaped
for His Life from Absalom, His SonProverbs 18:13 (The Message)
13 Answering before listening
is both stupid and rude.
Verse of the Day
“The LORD blesses each nation that worships only him. He blesses his chosen
ones.” - Psalm 33:12
Today's passage is from the Contemporary English Version.
Thought for the Day
English writer, drama and literary critic,
painter, social commentator, and philosopher, William Hazlitt wrote,
“The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of
ourselves.”
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