I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. 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.
King Hezekiah became very sick. Isaiah the prophet came to him and told him that the Lord said for him to put his affairs in order, he was not going to recover from this illness. Hezekiah turned to the wall and prayed to the Lord desperately. As Isaiah was leaving the palace, God sent him a message that He would heal Hezekiah and allow Hezekiah to live fifteen more years. Isaiah had Hezekiah’s servants make an ointment from figs and spread it on Hezekiah’s boils. While the fig ointment was being prepared, Hezekiah asked Isaiah for a sign that he will get better. Isaiah offered for the shadow of the sundial to move forward or backward ten steps. Hezekiah asked for it to move back ten steps and it does.
Soon after Hezekiah gets better, the king of Babylon sent Hezekiah messengers with letters and a gift, having heard of Hezekiah’s illness. Hezekiah showed the messengers all of his treasuries and armories. Shortly after they left Isaiah asked Hezekiah who they were and what they saw. Hezekiah told him they were from Babylon and that they saw everything. Isaiah told Hezekiah that the Babylonians would come and take all of the treasures from Jerusalem and carry some of his sons into captivity. Hezekiah thought that Isaiah’s prophecy was good, since it meant that there would be peace and security for his lifetime. This always truck me as being a little bit selfish on Hezekiah’s part.
After Hezekiah’s death, his son Manasseh took the throne. Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king. The passage tells us that Manasseh did much that was evil in God’s sight. The passage goes into detail as to what Manasseh did. He rebuilt the shrines in the high places that Hezekiah had destroyed. He set up altars to Baal and an Asherah pole. He worshiped “all the powers of heaven” and built altars to them in the Temple itself. The passage tells us that he sacrificed his own son in the fires and practiced sorcery and divination. Finally the passage tells us that Manasseh killed so many innocent people that Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other with the blood of the innocent.
Manasseh was succeeded by his son Amon, who followed his evil behavior. Amon only ruled two years before he was assassinated by his own officials. The people rose up and killed those who had conspired to assassinate Amon and put his son, Josiah, on the throne. Josiah was eight years old when he was put on the throne. We are told that he followed the example of David and did what was right in the sight of the Lord.
On his second day in Jerusalem, Paul met with James and the elders of the Jerusalem church and gave a detailed account of what had happened in his ministry. The elders of the church told Paul that there are many Jewish believers in Jerusalem who follow the Law of Moses seriously. Those believers had heard that Paul is teaching Jews who live among the Gentiles not to follow the Law. They asked Paul to accompany four men who have completed a vow to the Temple for their purification ceremony. This would show everyone that Paul followed Jewish law. Paul took this advice.
Paul accompanies the men each day, but one day when the seven days were almost completed some Jews from Asia saw Paul in the Temple. They grabbed Paul and stirred up the crowd against him by claiming that Paul had brought Gentiles into the Temple (they had seen Paul with a Gentile in the city earlier in the day and assumed that he had brought him with him). These accusations started a riot and the crowd tried to kill Paul. When the commander of the Roman troops in Jerusalem became aware of the riot, he called out the Roman troops and rushed to where the crowd was gathered. When the crowd saw the Roman soldiers coming, they stopped beating Paul and turned him over to the Romans.
When I was very young, the Mennonite Church categorically rejected the use of instruments in worship services. There were reasons for this. It was partly because “high church” denominations used the organ to cover the fact that few of the congregants sang. It was partly because most musical instruments were associated with places and activities which were sinful (the activities were sinful, the places were where those activities often took place). This psalm shows that they were wrong. Just because people use something in sinful activities does not mean that it is sinful to use that something. As a matter of fact, it is important that we reclaim these things to glorify God. I will make the psalmist’s closing thought my own:
The first of today’s two proverbs is one that I struggle with. I am lazy and this proverb, and other verses, tell us that laziness is sinful. My wife, and a couple of other friends, always tell me that I am not really lazy, that I “work smarter, not harder” and this is partially true. I learned as a child that if I did a task halfway, I would just have to do it over. Unfortunately, I also learned that sometimes if I put off a task long enough I could avoid doing it altogether. I still struggle with putting things off that I should do immediately.
The second proverb tells us that if we trust in the name of the Lord, we will be safe. That running to the Lord when danger threatens is a sure-fire way to be secure. God will take care of those who trust Him.