Hezekiah’s Great Passover.

Reading: 2 Chronicles 29-30.

Daily-Devotion:

Hezekiah succeeded his father Ahaz, who had been a wicked king but his son did what was right in the sight of the LORD as David had done.

Ahaz had let the Temple go into ruin. Hezekiah began in the first month of his reign to repair it. He assembled the priests and Levites, told them to sanctify themselves and to sanctify the Temple. It takes Holy people to sanctify a Holy Place.

Hezekiah said to them, “It is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so His fierce anger may turn away from us. The LORD has chosen you to minister to Him and make offerings to Him.”

They began immediately to purify themselves and to cleanse the Temple. The priests went into the sanctuary, brought all the unclean things Ahaz had left in it to the outer courts, and the Levites carried them to the Wadi Kidron. They began on the first day of the first month and completed the purification on the sixteenth.

Hezekiah then brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sacrifice to the LORD. The goats were sacrificed as a sin offering to atone for all Israel.

Levites were stationed in the Temple with cymbals, harps, and lyres according to the commandment of David, Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the Prophet – for the commandment was from the LORD. The Levites stood with David’s instruments, and the Priests used their trumpets. Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offerings should begin; when the offerings began, the song to the LORD began also. The whole assembly worshipped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

They sang praises to the LORD with gladness and bowed down to worship. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people; for the thing had come about suddenly.

Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah that they should come to the Temple to keep the Passover to the LORD. This Passover was to be on the fifteenth day of the second month of Hezekiah’s reign, for they had passed the fifteenth day of the first month, which was the original law. This was in keeping with what Moses had done when some were unclean and wanted to have Passover. He asked the LORD, and he said do it the next month.

From Beer-Sheba to Dan, all of Israel was invited to come to Jerusalem for the Passover. Hezekiah wrote, “O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so He may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your ancestors, who were faithless to their God.”

The couriers went throughout Israel but the people laughed at them. Only a few from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulon humbled themselves to come to Jerusalem. Judah, on the other hand, had one heart to do what the King commanded by the word of the LORD. They removed all the altars that Ahaz had built in Jerusalem, altars made to the gods of the Canaanites. They threw all of them into the Wadi Kidron.

They continued to purify themselves, but some arrived for Passover who had no time for personal purification. Many who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulon had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed.

Hezekiah prayed for them, “LORD, pardon all who set their hearts to seek You, even though they are not in accordance with the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.” The LORD heard this prayer and healed the people.

They kept this Passover for seven days, and then the whole assembly agreed to keep it for another seven days, which they did with gladness. King Hezekiah gave the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep. The officials gave another thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep.

There was great joy in Jerusalem. Since the time of Solomon, there had been nothing like this. The priests and Levites stood and blessed the people; their voice was heard; their prayer came to His Holy Dwelling in Heaven.

This Passover is an example for us. Sometimes it is expedient to do things not specifically said in Scripture. When those times come, God looks at our hearts and heals us as well – if our hearts are pure.

Reading: 2 Chronicles 8-9.

Daily-Devotion:

The five chapters between Chapter Nine and Chapter Fourteen saw division of Israel from Judah and Benjamin. Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite took ten tribes from Rehoboam, son of Solmon. Jeroboam asked for relief from the hardships imposed by Solomon. Rehoboam asked for three days to consider; first he asked the older men, who said give Israel relief, and they will serve you faithfully; then he asked the men of his own age, and they said tell them your father beat them with rods, but you will beat them with scorpions. He did not ask God. He took the young men’s advice to Jeroboam, which led to the division of Israel from Judah. There was war continually between Jeroboam and the house of David.  Rehoboam reigned seventeen years. His son, Abijah, reigned three years, and was succeeded by his son, Asa.

Asa was a good king, for he did what was right in the sight of the LORD. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, broke down the pillars, and sacred poles. He commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their ancestors and to keep the law. He had no war in those years.

The Ethiopian King, Zerah, came against him with an army of a million men and 300 chariots. Asa went out to meet him, and as they faced each other, King Asa cried to the LORD. “Help us, O LORD, for we rely on you. In Your name we have come against this multitude. Let no mortal prevail against You!” So, the LORD defeated the Ethiopians; they fled from Judah. Asa pursued them; the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive.

In those days it was not safe for anyone to go or come, for great disturbances afflicted all the lands – nation against nation and city against city – for God troubled them with every sort of distress. The prophet said, “Take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.” Asa did as the prophet said and put away the idols from all of Judah, Benjamin, and the towns of Ephraim he had captured.

Great numbers had deserted Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon to reside in Judah, for they saw the LORD was with Asa. Asa gathered these and all Judah and Benjamin at Jerusalem in his fifteenth year as King. They sacrificed to the LORD and entered a covenant to seek the LORD with their whole heart. 

Asa even removed his mother, Maacah, from being Queen Mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah. Asa had this image cut down, crushed, and burned. And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.

Then Bashah, King of Israel, came against Judah and took Ramah (the home of Samuel) to prevent anyone from going out or coming into the territory of King Asa. Then Asa made his first big mistake. He bribed the King of Syria, Benhadad, to break his alliance with Bashah and help him. He trusted Benhadad instead of calling on the Lord.

The seer, Hanani, came to King Asa, and said to him, “Because you relied on the King of Syria and not on the LORD the army of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians a huge army with chariots and cavalry? Yet because you relied on the LORD, He gave them into your hand. You have done foolishly in this. From now on, you will have wars.” Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison in stocks.

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet, even in his disease he did not seek the LORD but sought help from physicians. He died in the forty-first year of his reign.

Asa’s son, Jehosaphat, succeeded him and strengthened himself against Israel. The LORD was with Jehosaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father; he did not seek the Baals but sought the God of his father and walked in His commandments.

Reading: 2 Chronicles 8-9.

Daily-Devotion:

In Solomon’s first twenty years, he built the Temple and his own house. It took him 7 ½ years to build the Temple; he built his own house in 13 years, spending 5 ½ years more on his house than on the Temple of the LORD.

After the first twenty years, he continued to build – fortified cities with walls and gates, storage towns, towns for his chariots, towns for his cavalry, and whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem. He conscripted the aliens left in the land for forced labor. Israelites were soldiers and officers, not laborers.

Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh (his wife) out of the City of David to a house he built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not lie in the house of King David, for the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.” In her house, he built shrines to her Egyptian gods.

Solomon offered sacrifices to the LORD at the Temple altar – the daily sacrifices, the Sabbath sacrifices, the new moon sacrifices, the Passover and festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks, and the festival of tabernacles or booths.

He maintained David’s arrangement for the rotating service of the priests and Levites, who were responsible for the Praise Music in the Temple. Gatekeepers were also rotated as David had arranged.

Then Solomon went to Ezion-Geber on the shore of the Red Sea, in the western arm of the Gulf of Akaba. This was in Edom, which David had conquered and added to Israel’s territory. There Hiram, the Tyrian King, sent him ships and servants familiar with the sea. They went to Ophir with the servants of Solomon and brought back 450 Talents of Gold of Ophir to King Solomon. This voyage was repeated every three years, and the weight of gold was 666 talents, besides what the traders and merchants brought.

The kings of Arabia and governors of the land brought gold and silver to Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba, who had a reputation for wisdom in Arabia, heard of Solomon’s fame. She came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. She brought a large retinue with camels bearing spices and much gold and precious stones.

When she came to Solomon, she discussed with him all on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing Solomon could not explain. When she saw his wisdom, the Temple he built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, the attendance of his servants, their clothing, and the burnt offerings he made at the Temple, there was no more spirit left in her.

She said to Solomon, “The report was true that I heard in my land of your accomplishments and wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and saw it. Not even half the greatness of your wisdom had been told to me; you far surpass the report I heard. Happy are your people! Happy are your servants who attend to you. Blessed be the LORD your God who set you on His throne as King. God loved Israel, so He made you king over them to execute justice and righteousness.”

Then she gave the King 120 talents of gold, very many spices, and precious stones. There were no spices such as those she gave to King Solomon. Meanwhile, Solomon granted the Queen every desire she expressed, well beyond what she had brought to him. Then she returned to her land with her servants.

All the kings of the earth came to Solomon to hear the wisdom God had given him. Every one of them brought a present – objects of gold, silver, garments, weaponry, spices, horses, and mules, year by year.

Solomon also made a great ivory throne, overlaid with pure gold. The throne had six steps and a footstool of gold, which were attached to the throne. On each side of the seat were arm rests and two lions standing beside the arm rests; twelve lions were standing, one on each end of a step on the sex steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom.

Solomon made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedar as plentiful as the sycamore trees of the Shephelah.

The rest of the acts of Solomon are written in the history of the prophet Nathan, in the prophecy of Ahijah, and the visions of the seer Iddo concerning Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. He slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of his father David; his son Rehoboam succeeded him.

Reading: 2 Chronicles 6-7.

Daily-Devotion:

At the end of Chapter Five, the Temple was filled with the cloud of the glory of the LORD so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

Then Solomon said, “The Lord said He would reside in thick darkness. I have built You an exalted house, a place for You to reside forever.”

Then the King turned around and blessed the assembly of Israel while they stood. He blessed the LORD who had fulfilled what He had said He would do for David.

He has chosen Jerusalem for His home, and He chose David to be over His people. Solomon said, “My father David had it in mind to build a house for the LORD. But the LORD said you shall not build the Temple, but Your son shall build it for Me.” The LORD has now fulfilled His promise to David, for I sit on the throne of Israel and have built this house for the LORD.

Solomon stood on a platform before the people. Then, he knelt on his knees spreading his hands toward heaven he said, “O LORD God, there is no God like You in heaven or on earth. But will God reside with mortals on earth? Even heaven and highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house I have built?”

He continued by asking God to let His eyes always be open toward this house and hear prayers Your servants pray towards it. If someone sins against another; or when Your people sin and are defeated by their enemies, pray toward this House, hear their prayer.

He said, “When there is no rain because they have sinned and there is famine in the land, if there is a plague, blight, locust, or caterpillar; if enemies besiege any settlements; whatever suffering, or sickness there is; whatever prayer or plea from any person or all Israel, when they pray toward this house may You hear and forgive.

Likewise, when foreigners come from distant lands because of Your great name, when they pray toward this house, may you hear from heaven, and do whatever they ask of you.

If Your people do battle against their enemies, and they pray to you toward this city and house, then hear their prayer, and maintain their cause.

“Now, O LORD, go to your resting place. Let Your priests be clothed with salvation, let Your faithful rejoice in Your goodness. Remember Your steadfast love for Your servant David.”

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices. The glory of God filled the Temple, and the priests could not enter because of the glory of the LORD.

The King and all the people offered sacrifices to the LORD. Solomon offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So, they dedicated the Temple. The priests stood at their posts; also Levites also had instruments David made for giving thanks to the LORD whenever he offered praises to God, and the priests sounded trumpets.

Solomon held the festival for seven days. On the eighth day, they had a solemn assembly, for they observed the dedication for seven days and the festival seven days. He sent the people home joyfully and in good spirits because of the goodness of the LORD.

As you read, notice God’s second appearance to Solomon. He said He heard their prayer and that He would answer prayers. As for Solomon, there was an IF. IF he walked in God’s ways, he would always have a descendant on the throne. But IF he turned from God’s ways, God said He would pluck him from the land.

In these chapters we see Israel’s joyful worship of God – but there is also a threat of their rebellion against the LORD, just as in the wilderness under Moses, a rebellion keeping them from entering the land because of disobedience and unbelief.

Also, Solomon’s prayer included foreigners who would come to pray. In Jesus’s day, foreigners were banished to the outer court of the Temple because for them to come closer, in the mind of Israel, would defile the Temple.

What a difference from the open invitation to foreigners by Solomon in his prayer and God’s response!

Reading: 2 Chronicles 1-2.

Daily-Devotion:

“Solomon son of David established himself in his kingdom; the LORD his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.”

Solomon gathered all Israel, the commanders of thousands and hundreds, the judges, the leaders of all Israel, and the heads of families. Then the whole assembly went up to Gibeon. The tabernacle built by Moses in the wilderness was there. It had the bronze altar where they inquired of the LORD, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

However, after the ark of the covenant of God was returned to Israel by the Philistines, David eventually brought it to Jerusalem from Kiriath-jearim to a tent David prepared for it.

That night, God came to Solomon in a dream and said “Ask what I shall give you.”

Solomon said, “Give me wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of Yours.”

This pleased God, who said to Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honor, the life of your enemies, or long life for yourself, I will grant you wisdom and knowledge. I will also give you riches and honor such as not kings had before you, and none after you shall have the like.”

Solomon gathered chariots and horses, stationed them in chariot cities, with the king in Jerusalem. He had 14 hundred chariots and 12 thousand horses, purchased from Egypt, though Moses had ruled that a king should not have many horses or go to Egypt to acquire more horses.

Solomon prepared to build the Temple for the Lord and a house for himself. He conscripted 70 thousand laborers, 80 thousand stonecutters, and 3,600 to oversee them. These were taken from the aliens living in Israel, remnants of the nations Joshua and David had defeated with the help of the LORD.

Solomon also made an alliance with King Huram (or Hiram) of Tyre, who cut cedar, brought the logs to the Mediterranean, and rafted it down to Joppa where the Israelites would bring the logs to Jerusalem to put into the Temple. Huram also sent Huran-Abi, a son of a Danite mother and Tyrian father. He was able to work in gold,  silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen He could also execute and design all sorts of engraving.

Solomon provided food for both his and Huram’s workers and began to build the Temple on the 2^nd day of the 2^nd month of the 4^th year of Solomon’s reign.

This was in the 480^th year after Israel came out of Egypt. This date is important because many ‘scholars’ want to date the Exodus in the 1200’s B.C. Solomon’s 4^th year is known to have been about 960 B.C. Adding 480 years to this gives a date of 1440 B.C. for the Exodus, or 400+ years earlier than the ‘scholars’ want to allow. Israel was in Egypt 430 years. Jacob was 130 years old when he came into Egypt. Issac was 60 when Jacob was born. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. Adding these together we find Isaac was born 2160 B.C. and Abraham was born 100 years before that or about 2260 B.C. It is strange that they allow billions of years for evolution but shorten the known history of the Bible following the flood and tower of Babal.

David Prepares Solomon to Build the Temple.

Reading: 1 Chronicles 28-29

Daily-Devotion:

In 1 Chronicles 28, David assembles the officials of the tribes, his own officials who served him, the commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, the stewards of all the King’s property and cattle, and his sons and mighty warriors.

At this assembly, he told them about his plans to build a Temple as a house of rest for the ark of the covenant, for the footstool of our God. But God said, “You shall not build a house for My Name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood.”

The LORD God chose David and his house to be king over Israel forever. Of all David’s sons, He chose Solomon to sit on the throne and to build the Temple, “And I will be a father to Him, and he will be my son. I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues resolute in keeping my commandments as he is today.” He is to search out all the commands of God; that he would leave this land for an inheritance for all Israel.

Then David said to Solomon, “Know God and serve Him with single mind and willing heart; for He knows every mind and understands every plan and thought. If you seek Him, you will find Him; if you forsake Him, He will abandon you forever.”

David added, “The LORD has chosen you to build a house as the Sanctuary; be strong and act.”

Then David gave Solomon the plans he had for the Temple and its service. “All this in writing at the LORD’s direction, He made clear to me – the plan of all the work.”

David added, “Be strong, courageous, and act. For my God is with you.” Also, every volunteer who has skill for any kind of service will be at Solomon’s command.

In Chapter 29, David said to the whole assembly, “Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the work is great; the Temple will not be for mortals but for the LORD God.” The Rabbis taught that Solomon was 18 years old when he became King.

David had accumulated much material for the Temple, and he told the assembly, “I have treasure of my own, and because of my devotion to the House of my God, I give it to the House of my God.” His personal gift was three thousand talents of gold of Ophir+ and seven thousand talents of refined silver. Then he asked, “Who will offer willingly,  

David’s example of personal sacrifice brought an outpouring of gifts from the people assembled. They gave more than five thousand talents of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. Those who had precious stones gave them. “The people rejoiced because these had given willingly to the LORD; David also rejoiced greatly.”

It has been my experience that when leaders lead with their giving, the people led also give generously. When I was an elder at the Northeast CoC near Detroit, our custom was that each of the elders and deacons would write on a piece of paper what his intended giving would be for the year. Someone would add all up, and when the budget was presented to the church, they would be informed of this total. Each of them was also asked to make a non-binding commitment to their giving. In my time there, our budget was always met and usually exceeded.

In the later part of Chapter 29, David praises God before the whole assembly. “O LORD, Yours’s are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and majesty; all that is in heaven and on earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, and You are exalted above all. Riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. You hold power and might; it is in Your hand to make great. Now we thank you and praise Your Name.

“Who am I and what is my people that we should make this freewill  offering? O LORD, all we have provided for building You a House comes from You and is all Your own.”

Truly, when we give, we return to God what is His, for He owns the universe and the earth. But in giving, we are blessed by God. It is like parents being blessed by gifts made by their children.

Reading: 1 Chronicles 28-29

Daily-Devotion:

In 1 Chronicles 28, David assembles the officials of the tribes, his own officials who served him, the commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, the stewards of all the King’s property and cattle, and his sons and mighty warriors.

At this assembly, he told them about his plans to build a Temple as a house of rest for the ark of the covenant, for the footstool of our God. But God said, “You shall not build a house for My Name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood.”

The LORD God chose David and his house to be king over Israel forever. Of all David’s sons, He chose Solomon to sit on the throne and to build the Temple, “And I will be a father to Him, and he will be my son. I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues resolute in keeping my commandments as he is today.” He is to search out all the commands of God; that he would leave this land for an inheritance for all Israel.

Then David said to Solomon, “Know God and serve Him with single mind and willing heart; for He knows every mind and understands every plan and thought. If you seek Him, you will find Him; if you forsake Him, He will abandon you forever.”

David added, “The LORD has chosen you to build a house as the Sanctuary; be strong and act.”

Then David gave Solomon the plans he had for the Temple and its service. “All this in writing at the LORD’s direction, He made clear to me – the plan of all the work.”

David added, “Be strong, courageous, and act. For my God is with you.” Also, every volunteer who has skill for any kind of service will be at Solomon’s command.

In Chapter 29, David said to the whole assembly, “Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the work is great; the Temple will not be for mortals but for the LORD God.” The Rabbis taught that Solomon was 18 years old when he became King.

David had accumulated much material for the Temple, and he told the assembly, “I have treasure of my own, and because of my devotion to the House of my God, I give it to the House of my God.” His personal gift was three thousand talents of gold of Ophir+ and seven thousand talents of refined silver. Then he asked, “Who will offer willingly,  

David’s example of personal sacrifice brought an outpouring of gifts from the people assembled. They gave more than five thousand talents of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. Those who had precious stones gave them. “The people rejoiced because these had given willingly to the LORD; David also rejoiced greatly.”

It has been my experience that when leaders lead with their giving, the people led also give generously. When I was an elder at the Northeast CoC near Detroit, our custom was that each of the elders and deacons would write on a piece of paper what his intended giving would be for the year. Someone would add all up, and when the budget was presented to the church, they would be informed of this total. Each of them was also asked to make a non-binding commitment to their giving. In my time there, our budget was always met, and usually exceeded.

In the later part of Chapter 29, David praises God before the whole assembly. “O LORD, Yours are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and majesty; all that is in heaven and on earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, and You are exalted above all. Riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. You hold power and might; it is in Your hand to make great. Now we thank you and praise Your Name.

“Who am I and what is my people that we should make this freewill offering? O LORD, all we have provided for building You a House comes from You and is all Your own.” Truly, when we give, we return to God what is His, for He owns the universe and the earth. But in giving, we are blessed by God. It is like parents being blessed by gifts made by their children.

Reading: 1 Chronicles 21-22

Daily-Devotion:

Satan is always picking at God’s people. He incited David to count all the people of Israel, wanting to know how many people were in his kingdom. He instructed Joab, the commander of the army, to head up this census.

Joab did not think this was a good idea. He said if the LORD were to increase his people a hundredfold all of them would be the servants of my Lord the King. Why, then, should my Lord require this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel? But David’s word prevailed against Joab.

Joab gave the numbers he had counted. All Israel had 1,100,000 men who could draw the sword and Judah had 470,000 men who drew the sword.

God was displeased, and he struck Israel. David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this. I pray You, take away the guilt of Your servant; I have acted foolishly.”

God sent Gad, the Prophet, to go to David: “Thus says the LORD: Three things I offer you; choose one of them, so I may do it to you. Take your choice: three years of famine; or three months of devastation by your foes; or three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence on the land.”

David chose three days of pestilence rather than three years of famine or three months of what his enemies would do.  He said, “Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercy is very great, but let me not fall into human hands.”

So, the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel; seventy thousand persons fell in Israel. God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but He relented and said to the destroyer, “Enough! Stay your hand!” The angel of the LORD was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.

David saw the angel of the Lord between heaven and earth with a sword stretched over Jerusalem. He and the elders fell on their faces. David said to God, “It is I who sinned and did wickedly. But these people, what have they done? Let Your hand be against, but do not let Your people be plagued.”

David was told to erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan. He came to Ornan, saying, “Give me your threshing floor – at its full price – that the plague may be averted.” Ornan offered to give him the threshing floor. David said, “No, I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” He paid 600 shekels of gold for the place for an altar.

David built the altar and presented burnt offerings on it. He called upon the LORD, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar. Then David said, “Here shall be the house of the LORD God and here the altar of burnt offering for the LORD.”

Ornan’s threshing floor was on Mount Moriah where God had sent Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, but stayed his hand when he had his knife at Isaac’s throat. Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket and sacrificed the ram instead.

David then prepared what Solomon would need to build the Temple to the LORD on that spot. He found stonecutters to prepare dressed stones and provided great stores of iron for nails and clamps, as well as bronze in quantities beyond weighing. Cedar logs came from the Sidonians and Tyrians. David said, “With great pains I have provided for the Temple 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver for the Temple of the LORD.” (A talent is a weight of about 75 pounds.)

He added, “To what I have provided, you must add more. You have an abundance of workers; stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of artisans skilled in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Now begin the work, and the LORD be with you.” David commanded the leaders of Israel to help Solomon saying, “Is not the LORD your God with you? Has He not given you peace on every side? For He has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD and His people. Now set mind and heart to seek the LORD your God. Go build the Temple so the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy vessels may be brought into a house built for the LORD.”

2023/12/21 2 Timothy – A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ

Daily-Devo: Note: I’ve been sick since last Friday. That, plus computer problems, is why I haven’t been posting. I hope to catch up by hitting highlights of 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy is Paul’s last epistle. In Chapter 4:6-8, he wrote, “The time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but to all who have loved His appearing.”

In Chapter 1:4-7 Paul wrote, “As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power, love, and self-control.”

We do not know what spiritual gift Paul gave to Timothy. He is charged to fan that gift into a burning flame and is warned not to be ashamed of the testimony about Jesus, nor of Paul himself, but to share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

In Chapter 2:1-2, Paul writes, “You, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Faithful men are entrusted with what Timothy has learned from Paul are able to teach others.

But as the teaching continued through the years, it got watered down in its message. By the end of the 1^st century, changes in theology were taking place – in church governance and in the rise of Gnosticism. Even in Paul’s later days, Hymenaeus and Philetus swerved from the truth of the gospel, saying the resurrection was past, upsetting the faith of some.

In Chapter 3, after beginning this chapter will a dirge of difficulties, for people will become lovers of self and money, but not lovers of God. Paul commended Timothy for following Paul’s teaching, conduct, aim in life, faith, patience, love – and steadfastness through his persecutions, observing that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted.”

Paul ended Chapter 3 by encouraging Timothy, “Continue in the things you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” To this, he adds that all Scripture is given by God’s inspiration and is profitable for teaching, reproving, correction and for training in righteousness – that the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work.

In this, Paul was sending Timothy back to his roots. This is what would keep the message fresh and truthful. At the beginning of Chapter 4, Paul gave Timothy a “Charge in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reproved, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for them teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

What a charge to Paul’s protégé! Yet, this is the very thing the church needs in its evangelists and ministry. This is a charge to hold people accountable to the God of Heaven and Earth.

Let’s not preach a watered-down message but stand firm in the ancient paths.

Reading: Job 38-40:5 – The Lord Answers Job

Daily-Devo 

“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.” The whirlwind had been developing as Elihu, an angry young man who waited to speak after Job and the others had all they had to say. He was angry at the three friends because they found no answer, though they had declared Job to be in the wrong [chapter 32]. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God. He rebuked Job [chapter 33], proclaims God’s justice [chapter 34], condemns self-righteousness [chapter 35], and exalts God’s goodness [chapters 36-37]. As the storm developed, the tornado came nearer, and God’s voice thundered above it. 

Chapter 38: God says, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you, and you shall declare to me.  

• Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you understand.  
• Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang and all the heavenly being shouted for joy?  
• Have you commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place? 
•  Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?  
• Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?  
• Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this. 
• Where is the dwelling of light? 
• Where is the place of darkness? Surely you know, for you were born then. 
• What is the way to the place where light is distributed? 
• Who controls the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt? 
• Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? 
• Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth? 
• Can you lift your voice to the clouds so a flood of waters may cover you? 
• Can you send lightnings, so they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? 
• Who has put wisdom and given understanding to the mind? 
• Can you hunt the prey for the lion or satisfy the appetite of young lions in their den? 

Chapter 39: Animal life.  

• Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Or the calving of the deer? 
• Who let the wild ass go free? It ranges the mountains as its pasture. 
• Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will it spend the night in your crib? Do you have faith it will bring your grain to your threshing floor? 
• The ostrich leaves its eggs on the earth to be warmed on the ground where they may be stepped on, but the mother gives no care for its young. God made her forget wisdom. But when it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider. 
• Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars? Is it at your command that the  eagle soars up and makes its nest on high? From there it spies its prey; its eyes see it from far away. 

Chapter 40: And the Lord said to Job, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Anyone who argues with God must respond.”  

Then Job answered the LORD, “I am of small account; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but will proceed no farther.“

When God questioned Job about his control of the universe, beginning with creation and going on to the animal life, He paused in his questioning to let Job respond. Jobs response was to put his hand over his mouth and say no more. But God is not through with him. He has a couple of chapters in which He will ask Job harder questions that have to do with God Himself, and two creatures in more detail – Behemoth and Leviathan – known to us as the Hippopotamus and the Crocodile.  

After this, Job answers God with great humility. These questions, in our scientific age, are still difficult to answer.

How would you respond to these questions? 

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Pray for Yourself: 

Father, I pray, thankful that God does not give us a test like He gave Job. If I had to pass a test of any of these questions I would likely fail. Thank You Lord, that Jesus is our Savior. In His name I pray, AMEN! 

My Prayer for You (and for me): 

Father, my prayer for all who may read these words of Yours is that we all may humbly approach You with gratitude that these are not questions that affect our relationship with you. Though many may scoff at You, we honor You and Your Son whom You gave us to be our Savior, and He died to save us from our sins, a gift of love for our sake. Thank you, our God for this gift. In His name we pray, AMEN!