Daily Bible Devotionals

“Hilkiah the high priest told Shaphan the court secretary, ‘I have found the book of the law in the Lord’s temple,’ and he gave the book to Shaphan, who read it.  Then Shaphan the court secretary went to the king and reported, ‘Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the temple and have put it into the hand of those doing the work—those who oversee the Lord’s temple.’ Then Shaphan the court secretary told the king, ‘Hilkiah the priest has given me a book,’ and Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.  When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then he commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and the king’s servant Asaiah: ‘Go and inquire of the Lord for me, the people, and all Judah about the instruction in this book that has been found.  For great is the Lord’s wrath that is kindled against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book in order to do everything written about us.’”  2 Kings 22:8-13 (HCSB)

If ever there was a message that pinpointed our generation, this is it!  It is a clarion call for us to return to a comprehensive knowledge of God’s Word and for national reform to begin with the people of God in the house of the Lord, Bibles in hand!  

It is also a perfect example of how God accomplishes His will while mankind retains his freedom to choose.  Remember, just two chapters ago, Hezekiah was pleading for his life, and the Lord gave him fifteen extra years.  But in those fifteen years, his son, Manasseh, was born.  Manasseh is listed as the most evil king in the history of Judah.  Not only did Manasseh practice idolatry, but he also brought it into the Lord’s temple.

“Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem.  His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal.  He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them. He built altars in the Lord’s temple, where the Lord had said, ‘Jerusalem is where I will put My name.’ He built altars to the whole heavenly host in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists.  He did a great amount of evil in the Lord’s sight, provoking Him.” 2 Kings 21:1-6 (HCSB)

After Manasseh died, his son Amon ruled for only two years.  As evil as his father, Amon was murdered by his subjects.  By God’s grace, Amon’s son Josiah was only eight years old (too young to be affected by his father’s idolatrous worldview) when he began to reign.  Guided by righteous priests, Josiah received God’s Word as a child, believing it by faith.  As he was clearing out his grandfather’s idols from the temple, his workmen found the Bible again!  Oh, that churches in America would have the same experience and that we would purge worldliness from among us and rediscover God’s Word so that revival would, once again, sweep across our nation!

“Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem.  His mother’s name was Hephzibah.  He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal.  He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them.”  2 Kings 21:1-3 (HCSB)

As we learned in 2 Kings, chapter 20, Manasseh was never God’s plan.  God planned to end Hezekiah’s life three years before Manasseh was born.  But when Isaiah informed Hezekiah of God’s plan, Hezekiah prayed that his life would be prolonged.  

“Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Please Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases You.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.  Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears.  Look, I will heal you.  On the third day from now you will go up to the Lord’s temple. I will add 15 years to your life.  I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria.  I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”  2 Kings 20:2-6 (HCSB)

Notice how Hezekiah’s plea hinted at the idea that God owed Hezekiah something more than a life cut short, based on Hezekiah’s performance as a religious reformer and his wholehearted personal faithfulness.  We must never forget that we owe EVERYTHING to God, yet He owes us nothing.  It is not as if He has acquired some indebtedness to us per our personal spiritual merit.  We are nothing without Him!    

At the height of his reforms, Hezekiah led a campaign throughout his kingdom to tear down the “high places,” those places of pagan worship that the people of Israel had erected.  It seemed unfathomable to him that God would stop the progress.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Proverbs 14:12 (HCSB)

In the words of country singer Garth Brooks, sometimes God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.  In His wisdom, God had chosen to take Hezekiah from the land of the living.  And in His wisdom, God chose to answer Hezekiah’s prayer and leave him on the earth for fifteen more years.  It is not as though Hezekiah’s prayer rendered God powerless to say no.  And only God knows why He decided to respond to Hezekiah’s request, knowing full well what those fifteen years would mean to Judah’s long-term well-being.  But at the very least, we can draw this application as a stern reminder: Always entreat the Lord, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…” (Matthew 6:10)

“Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: The time will certainly come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.  Some of your descendants who come from you will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.  Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,’ for he thought: Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?” 2 Kings 20:16-19 (HCSB)

2 Kings, chapter 20 begins with somber news and heartfelt prayer.  The unhappy information involves Isaiah’s message from God to Hezekiah: Get your affairs in order because you are going to die.  It is the conversation nobody wants to have with their pastor, that as he was praying, God told him to tell you that your life will expire very soon.  Scripture does not mention any sin in Hezekiah’s life.  All we know of him from Scripture so far is that Hezekiah was a great reformer.  So, we feel sad for the king, empathize with him, and root for him, even against God’s Word.

When we hear Hezekiah’s heartfelt prayer, we hope God will grant his plea.  There is something in our expectation that really wants to know that God is kind and that He would reconsider His plans for our lives to be more favorable to us if we would only ask Him.  Indeed, we claim God’s Word with respect to such prayers:

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.  The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” James 5:16 (HCSB)

Could there (at times) be a difference between our sincere, heartfelt urgent requests and God’s will?  As is often the case with God’s leading of His children, God only gives the command (get your affairs in order), and He does not say why He is commanding us.  Our response to God’s lordship should involve our obedience, not questioning His wisdom.

“But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God?  Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Romans 9:20 (HCSB)

When we doubt (or even refuse) God’s choices for our lives, we open ourselves to uncertain (and often tragic) outcomes.  We will never know how the kingdom of Judah would have fared if Hezekiah had not questioned God’s choice to take him from the land of the living.  But Scripture is very clear about two major events that occurred during those 15 extra years (given to Hezekiah) that ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem.  1) Manasseh, Israel’s most wickedly idolatrous king, was born during those 15 extra years.  2) Babylonian emissaries went home and told of the great riches stored in Jerusalem.  All that happened because the king would not surrender to the Lord’s plan.  Have you surrendered to God’s Lordship?  Who else might be affected by your refusal to submit to the Lord?

When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the Lord’s temple. Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They said to him, ‘This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. Perhaps YHWH your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke him for the words that YHWH your God has heard.  Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’”  2 Kings 19:1-4 (HCSB)

Hezekiah was a man who was focused on reforming the spiritual integrity of God’s people.  We must remember that the events we are reading about today happened in the era of Jewish history when the kingdom was divided.  Ten Northern tribes of the Jewish Kingdom split off, refusing to worship in Jerusalem.  In Scripture, they are referred to as “Israel  .”The remaining two tribes, Judah & Benjamin (plus various individuals who left the other tribes to worship the Lord in Jerusalem), formed what is known as the Southern Kingdom, or “Judah  .”Because the Northern Kingdom went straightway into idolatry, its decline was relatively swift.  Assyria eventually conquered Israel and drove them from the Promised Land.  Only Judah remained in the land, but there was a problem.  Judah had also begun adopting paganism to their daily routine and worship.  Notice Hezekiah’s efforts to ensure Judah did not follow the same judgment as Israel.

“He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestor David had done. He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles.  He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for the Israelites burned incense to it up to that time.  He called it Nehushtan. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him. He remained faithful to Yahweh and did not turn from following Him but kept the commands the Lord had commanded Moses.  The Lord was with him, and wherever he went he prospered.  He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.  He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.” 2 Kings 18:3-8 (HCSB)

Even after all of Hezekiah’s efforts of reform, Assyria’s army was now poised to attack Jerusalem.  How discouraging, after all that Hezekiah did to drive paganism from Judah, the pagan Assyrians might yet destroy them.  Hezekiah’s response: seek the Lord through Isaiah the prophet.  When our “faith tank” is empty, and we seem entirely out of zeal and strength, it is comforting to know that the zeal of the Lord never fails!  It is His strength we must rely upon to deliver us and to fulfill His Word.

“For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem and survivors, from Mount Zion.  The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.” 2 Kings 19:31. (HCSB)

Grab your Bible & experience the Groundworks Ministries Podcast as Steve Wiggins leads us through the full chapter of 2 Kings 17. Click the links below to watch or listen now!

“Then the Rabshakeh said to them, ‘Say now to Hezekiah, “Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: ‘What confidence is this in which you trust? You speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words.  And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? Now look!  You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it.  So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”’?  2 Kings 18:19-22 (NKJV)

I sincerely miss those days in my early 20s when I was young in my faith.  I took the Bible at face value and boldly and unashamedly set to live out God’s Word.  I took risks based on faith, and the Lord proved Himself faithful.  As He was faithful to reveal His Word to me, I was faithful to trust His Word by obeying it, and in turn, He would bring to pass the things He led me to accomplish.  So, my faith grew.  I remember one time when car expenses had drained my bank account.  I went to the mailbox to find a letter from a friend in another city who felt the Lord had led them to write me a random bank check that turned out to be exactly what my expenses were for the rest of the month!  

I remember the first time, though, when I really felt I needed provision from the Lord, but it did not come in the time frame in which I expected it.  I got so despondent.  I was depressed, actually.  It was as if I had forgotten all the faithful things the Lord had done.  I began to doubt if any of those earlier situations were truly from the Lord or whether I had just imagined it all along.  That was the beginning of a process where I came to realize that God was building my faith to trust Him in bigger things for longer periods of time.  

Hezekiah must have felt that way, as the army of Assyria was at his gates.  Where had the God of the reforms retreated, the God who allowed Hezekiah to tear down the former high places?  It is hard for us when God seems silent.  And we must learn to trust in the One who says He will never leave of forsake us.  (Deuteronomy 31:6-8; Hebrews 13:5)   So, what was the testimony of Hezekiah when the Assyrian army came knocking?  He feared Assyria more than the Lord!  And his fear rose to the point of stripping gold and silver from the house of the Lord to pay the Assyrian king to leave.  (2 Kings 18:14-16)

But what was the testimony that the Lord wanted to hear from Hezekiah?  Notice the question the Assyrian Rabshakeh asked: “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?” (2 Kings 18:22)   Why would he assume that the God of Israel would be angry with Hezekiah for tearing down idols?  Because of the false testimony of the Israelite priests from Samaria.  (2 Kings 17:24-29)   God allowed the Assyrian army to stand at the gate of Jerusalem so the king of Judah could testify on behalf of the true God of Israel!  How do you respond when He brings opportunities for you to testify?

‍

“Then King Ahaz cut off the frames of the water carts and removed the bronze basin from each of them.  He took the reservoir from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement.  To satisfy the king of Assyria, he removed from the Lord’s temple the Sabbath canopy they had built in the palace, and he closed the outer entrance for the king.”  2 Kings 16:17-18 (HCSB)

What lessons should we learn from this account of Ahaz’s new measures?  First, the king’s innovations imply that he felt there was a deficiency in orthodox worship.  Ahaz apparently thought temple worship could be improved and that an upgrade was in order.  Ahaz wanted to be more than a king.  He wanted to be a priest as well.  Perhaps, he felt some worldly artistic influence should kick off his priestly inauguration.

But whenever we supplement or “enrich” worship, we imply that worship, as God directs, is somehow deficient.  One wonders if our post-modern church culture now runs the same danger.  In principle, our worship is the same as Biblical Judah’s: Prayer and Praise based on Atonement (Jesus’ sacrifice).  That doesn’t mean our worship can’t have a creative variety or that it must be necessarily tedious.  But why do we keep toying with worship, thinking that we have to soup it up with a boundless pursuit of production?  It is evident that many leaders within the Church hold to the idea that Jesus and the Bible are simply no longer enough to captivate people’s attention.

Evil is helped by weakness as much as by wickedness.  Whatever Ahaz commands, Uriah does.  Obviously, Uriah had much to lose should he refuse to go along with Ahaz’s liturgical renovations.  Some of us know what that is like.  Some know what it is to leave a congregation because they could not continue with a pastor (or a denomination) who refuses to be grounded in the foundation of Scripture.

It can feel like your security has been kicked in the solar plexus (for you professional wrestling fans), but the way of peace, “Uriah-style,” never leads to righteousness.  It merely cooperates with wickedness.  Often, God calls leaders to conflict rather than cooperation.  OFTEN TIMES.  Beware of the congregation that advertises “unconditional acceptance” over adherence to God’s Word.  Beware of those who pride themselves in making the congregation a comfortable place at the risk of diluting the confrontational nature of Gospel truth.

Resist the urge to pray for compromised peace when God calls for an uncompromising spiritual battle!  There is no victory without one side completely surrendering to the other.  And we serve the King of Kings, Lord of Lords!  Compromise does not bring peace, only a temporary ceasefire.  In the Middle East, “peace” means “reload.”  We are called to live victoriously.  (1 John 5:4-5)  That should be our attitude – not because we crave conflict, but because we fear spinelessness that concedes to other men’s faithlessness and sin.

“In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, became king. He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem.  His mother’s name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done, except that the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. Then the Lord struck the king, so that he was a leper until the day of his death; so he dwelt in an isolated house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the royal house, judging the people of the land.” 2 Kings 15:1-5 (NKJV)

Today’s chapter lists various kings in the divided Hebrew kingdom.  (The Divided Kingdom consisted of two sub-kingdoms: Israel and Judah.)  The leaders of both Israel and Judah varied in their devotion to the Lord.  

It is hard not to focus on the kings of Israel.  The man who was mainly responsible for the divided kingdom, Jeroboam, led 10 of the 12 tribes straightway into idolatry, forbidding them to worship the Lord in Jerusalem.  So, idolatry was the norm for Israel.  Because of their idolatry, the rulers of Israel only reigned for a few years each.  (One of them only reigned for a month!)  They seem to be absent of vision and a moral code.  Doesn’t it remind us of the world today, with its driven “dog-eat-dog/every-man-for-himself” attitude?  There is nothing attractive about Israel that makes the onlooker want to emulate them.  We would rather avoid them!

In contrast, Judah’s kings typically reign longer, and their kingdoms are more stable.  Notice that there are five kings of Israel for the two kings of Judah.  Why?  Because Judah sought after the Lord.  At least, their kings did.  Notice how the kings of Judah are listed as having done “right in the eyes of the Lord.”  Lest we beatify Judah’s kings in contrast to Israel’s kings, we have the Lord’s charge against them: “Nevertheless, the high places were not removed.” Hence, while Judah’s kings were more stable, they both suffered difficulty: one from Leprosy and the other from terrorism.

“In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.  His mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However, the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.  He built the Upper Gate of the house of the Lord. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In those days the Lord began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.” 2 Kings 15:32-37 (NKJV)

Let today’s passage remind us that we are not measured by how we fare against other men.  We are measured by God’s standard, the Bible.

“In the fifteenth year of Judah’s King Amaziah son of Joash, Jeroboam II son of Jehoash became king of Israel in Samaria and reigned 41 years.  He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.  He did not turn away from all the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.  He restored Israel’s border from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word the Lord, the God of Israel, had spoken through His servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher.  For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter.  There was no one to help Israel, neither bond nor free.  However, the Lord had not said He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so He delivered them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.”  2 Kings 14:23-27 (HCSB)

Asthma nearly killed Theodore Roosevelt as a small boy.  One night he had a horrible asthma attack and his father made him smoke a cigar.  Apparently, cigars were on the list of proposed “antidotes” back in those days.  Today, we would never consider cigars could cure asthma.  In the same way, we are puzzled over today’s passage.  Jeroboam II did evil in the Lord’s eyes, yet this king restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath all the way to the Sea of the Arabah.

Evil and success are as strange a combination as asthma and cigars.  Why is the Lord allowing this to go on?  Why doesn’t He bring Jeroboam’s reign down in an "iron-rod" style disaster?  Why is it that Israel still worships calves, and times were never better?  There is wickedness in the high places, and at the same time, there is military expansion and a booming economy.  You’re free to your own political opinions, but the whole thing reminds me of the United States under the Bill Clinton presidency: openly godless scandals at the executive level and high approval ratings with a balanced budget.

Why are things this way?  Because of the Word of the Lord.  God had spoken through the prophet Jonah’s prediction of this massive military recovery of Israel.  However, behind this mysterious “Word from the Lord” stands His warm compassion, and this compassion drove His Word.  The Lord is the same Exodus-Era God, Who sees the affliction of His people.  Israel might be on the verge of being wiped out, but (for now) the Lord is still reluctant to take them there.

So we know Jeroboam’s success was not an indicator of the Lord’s favor but only His pity.  This idea is a little unnerving because the text says to us (whether nations or individuals): Do not mistake the Lord’s patience for His pleasure.  

In fact, the Bible values all human achievement and grandeur that does not bow the knee to the Lord as wasted.  Paul called his good works (apart from Jesus) “filthy rags.”  This point, of course, strikes not only at deviant kings but also at those who claim to minister and serve in Jesus’ name but who too easily become engrossed with their performance or career success.