Archive | August 2025

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 219

Aug7

Day 219 – Reading – Jeremiah 1 – 3

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was a priest before he was a prophet, but God called him to that office. Jeremiah thought himself too young, and like Moses before him, said, “I do not know how to speak.”  His excuse was youth, whereas Moses’ was that he stuttered.  In both cases, the LORD overruled their objections. “I will be with you.”

Jeremiah’s ministry lasted for 50 years or more (through Judah’s last 5 kings). It began in the 13th year of King Josiah’s 31-year reign (before he began his reforms), and lasted beyond the fall of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah was first carried along into captivity to Egypt, and then, when Egypt fell, to Babylon.  His last words written were about the captive King of Judah, Jehoiachin, who was freed from a Babylonian prison after 31 years, and “every day of his life dined regularly at the king’s table, and got an allowance for his needs.“

Jeremiah would have been between 85 and 90 years old. (A tough old guy!)

Jeremiah prophesied about the coming invasion from Babylon, and pleaded for the people to turn from their wickedness and seek the LORD. He especially preached against sin, religious hypocrisy, adultery, and injustice to the poor and helpless.  And when invasion was inevitable, he begged the people to submit and not to resist the Babylonians, to prevent total destruction.

Jeremiah’s contemporaries were Zephaniah and Habakkuk, and later, Ezekiel and Daniel.

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Jeremiah 1.

Jeremiah’s story begins with God’s beautiful statement, “I knew you in the womb before you were born… and I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah’s response (like Moses) was, “Ah, Lord GOD! I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”

“Don’t be afraid. I am with you to deliver you,” declared the LORD. Then the LORD put out His hand and touched Jeremiah’s mouth, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.”

Okay, Jeremiah. No excuse now.

Then God gives Jeremiah a couple of “vision tests.”  “What do you see? (an almond branch).  What do you see now?” (a boiling pot). The new prophet passed the tests. 

And then, the LORD ordered, “Dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I commanded you. Don’t be dismayed by them. Behold, this day I make YOU, a “fortified city,” “an iron pillar,” and “bronze walls” against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, priests, and people. They will fight you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I AM with you.”

WOW! Jeremiah was “royally” armored and commissioned.

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Jeremiah 2.

Then comes Jeremiah’s first Word from the Lord to Jerusalem.  It starts with memories of love and devotion. 

  • “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness… Israel was holy to the LORD, the first fruits of the harvest.”
  • “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became … worthless.”
  • “I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things….  But when you came in, you defiled My land and made My heritage an abomination.
  • “The priests didn’t seek Me…. those who handled the law, did not know Me…. the shepherds transgressed against Me…. Therefore I will contend with you.”

(This reminds me of Revelation 2:4-5 when Ephesus “lost their first love” for God and He urged them to return.)

  • “My people have committed two evils.   1) They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and 2) they hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
  • “And now, what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? 

When they heard of Babylon, they sought help in Egypt and  Assyria.

  • You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were by Assyria.  From Egypt, too, you will come away with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will NOT prosper by them.”

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Jeremiah 3.

The LORD speaks a message against Israel (north) as well as Judah (south).  He speaks of their idolatry as adultery, a woman’s promiscuousness against her husband.   She is defiled by many lovers.  She has polluted the land with her vile whoredom.  

(Remember all those horrible kings in Israel. Not one was good. Remember the golden calves, the statues of Baal and Asherah, the pagan prophets.  This is how Israel in the north went crazy. This is what caused her ultimate demise.

And yet, the LORD proclaims to Israel,

  • “RETURN, faithless Israel. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful. I will not be angry forever, only acknowledge your guilt that you rebelled against the LORD your God, and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice.
  • “RETURN, O faithless children, for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city  and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” 

Then God says, through Jeremiah, that Israel’s sister Judah SAW Israel’s whoredom, “yet she did not fear, but went too, and played the whore. She did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense.”

“Faithless Israel” has shown herself more righteous than “treacherous Judah,” said the LORD.

In that “Day of the LORD,” when the Messiah will reign in Zion, God promises to give them GOOD shepherds, and they will multiply and increase. 

And – this is interesting, in the Kingdom of Messiah…

The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord will not come to mind,

or be remembered,

or missed;

and it shall not be made again.” 

WOW!

  • So, where is the Ark of the Covenant? 
  • NO, it’s not in some gigantic warehouse in Washington D. C. from an Indiana Jones movie. 
  • Did it get melted down and/or carried off to Babylon? 
  • Was it in that simple Temple that the returnees built? 
  • Was it in Herod’s rebuilt Temple in the days of Jesus?
  • Did it get destroyed (melted) when Titus destroyed the city in 70 A.D.? 
  • Some say that Jeremiah or another prophet hid or buried it so it couldn’t be taken to Babylon. 
  • If so, that’s a mighty good hiding job! 
  • Surely archeologists would have discovered it by now.

All we know is what Jeremiah recorded here, that in the Millennium, there will be NO ARK OF THE COVENANT, because Jerusalem, herself, shall be called the “throne of the LORD.”  

The Ark of the Covenant, “representing” the presence of God, will NOT be needed then, for God will be there, Himself, in person.

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 218

Aug6

Day 218 – Reading – Zephaniah 1 – 3.

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

 

Zephaniah 1-3.

Zephaniah prophesied “in the days of Josiah.” These were probably in the early years of the boy king’s reign, before the Book of the Law was found and Josiah began those massive reforms. Perhaps Zephaniah had an influence on those reforms.  He was a contemporary of Jeremiah.

Zephaniah was unique among the prophets in that he was a descendant of King Hezekiah (his great-grandfather). This may have given him more access to the royal court and more respect for his prophesies. 

Remember how the LORD told King Josiah that he would have PEACE in his day, but in no way was the wrath of God on Judah and Jerusalem to be abated.  It was still going to happen.  (After Josiah died, it came on rapidly.)

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Zephaniah 1..

NOTE: The prophesies of Zephaniah spoke of two judgments: first, the victory of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and second, the “great” Day of the LORD yet in the future. Zephaniah quotes God’s words.

  • “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth … I will sweep away man and beast … the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea … the rubble and the wicked … I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth.”  

Wow, that sounds like the flood, but we know it isn’t.  The message continues and is more specific.

  • “I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal … the idolatrous priests … those who bow down to the hosts of heaven … who swear by Milcom … and have turned back from following the LORD.

Then He lists those whom He will punish.

  • “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps. I will punish the men who are complacent and say, ‘The LORD will not do good or evil.'”

But the warning is –

  • The great day of the LORD is near; near and hastening fast!  A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, ruin and devastation, darkness and gloom, clouds and thick darkness, a day if trumpet blast and battle cry!”

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Zephaniah 2.

  • Then hope…
  • “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do His just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD>”

Zephaniah then list WOES on surrounding cities and countries:  the cities of Philistia, the inhabitants of the seacoasts, Moab, Ammon, Cush, Assyria (He will make Nineveh a desolation), 

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Zephaniah 3.

And then the LORD turns to His own people.

  • Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!”  (Jerusalem)  She does not trust in the LORD; she does not draw near to her God.  Her officials, judges, prophets, and priests “know no shame.”

But judgment is coming to them as it was with all the surrounding nations

Then Zephaniah’s prophesies turn to the blessings of RESTORATION for God’s people and the nations, after “that great and terrible “DAY OF THE LORD.”

  • ” … all the peoples will call upon the Name of the LORD and serve Him with one accord.
  • ” … for then I will remove from your midst your proud, haughty ones, and will leave a people humble and lowly … who see refuge in the name of the LORD.

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The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.

“Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel!  Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you;

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty One who will save;  He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing!

“I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,”  says the LORD.

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(The sin of the world today will also bring judgment, woe, and sorrow. The LORD will sweep it all away.  And He will make a new Heaven and Earth with holiness, joy, and peace.  And He will be the righteous King. And the people who love and serve Him here and now will join Him there and forever. Thank YOU, LORD!)

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 217

Aug5

Day 217 – Reading – 2 Kings 22-23, 2 Chronicles 34-35.

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

 

2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34.

Josiah.  Judah’s last good king.  And he was very good.

Josiah DID what was right in the eyes of the LORD.  He WALKED in the ways of David, his father.  He DID NOT turn aside to the right or the left.  In the eighth year of his reign (at 16), he began to SEEK the God of David, his father. In the twelfth year of his reign (age 20), he began to PURGE and CLEANSE Judah and Jerusalem of all the idols. In the eighteenth year of his reign (age 26) he began to REPAIR the House of God.

Like I said, Josiah was a very good king. 

During the cleaning, the priest, Hilkiah, found the Book of the Law. (How long had it been buried under the trash and filth?)  It was brought and read to King Josiah by Shaphan, the secretary. (Most likely this was the book of Deuteronomy.)

When King Josiah heard the words of the Law … he TORE his clothes (in distress and grief). He COMMANDED the priest to go and INQUIRE of the LORD for him and all Judah, concerning the words of the Law he’d heard.

“For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled (poured out) on us, because our fathers have not kept (obeyed) the words of the LORD (this book), to do according to all that is written in it concerning us.”

They went to Huldah the prophetess, who lived in Jerusalem, and she gave them a word from God.

  • “Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the LORD. ‘I WILL bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king.  Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands … my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched!'”
  • “BUT to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, the God of Israel, say, ‘Because you hear was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me … I also have heard you.  Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave IN PEACE, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.”

Then King Josiah gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants, plus the priests and Levites.  And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found.

And Josiah STOOD and MADE A COVENANT before the LORD, to WALK after the LORD, and KEEP His commandments and testimonies and statutes with all his heart and soul, to PERFORM the words of the covenant that were written in the book. 

He made all who were present join in, and they did.  He took away all the abominations that belonged to the people of Israel and made all serve the LORD their God.  

All his days they did not turn away from following the LORD, the God of their Fathers.  WOW. Amen!

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2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 35.

 With renewed energy and purpose, King Josiah began to “clean house” in earnest.

  1. He found all the vessels made for Baal, Asherah, and the Hosts of Heaven that were in the temple, including in the Most Holy place … and burned them and threw the ashes in the Kidron fields.
  2. Then he deposed all the evil priests whom the kings before him had appointed. 
  3. He broke down the houses of prostitution used to worship the false gods. 
  4. He defiled Topeth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, SO NO ONE MIGHT BURN HIS SON OR DAUGHTER AS AN OFFERING TO MOLECH. —- (Topeth means “drum.”  Drums were beaten to drown out the screams and cries of the children being sacrificed!) 
  5. He removed and burned the golden statues of the horses and chariots of the sun, which the kings of Judah had dedicated and used to worship the sun. 
  6. He pulled down all the altars the former kings had made, broke them into pieces, and threw them in that valley of the dead.
  7. He defiled all the altars of Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom that Solomon built for his foreign wives.  He pulled them down and broke them into pieces, and then threw dead men’s bones on them.
  8. He tore down the altar at Bethel that Jeroboam had built (the golden calf), broke it apart, and burned it. 
  9. He went to Samaria (the capital of the old Northern Kingdom) and tore down all the shrines there, and sacrificed all the priests.

Then he returned to Jerusalem.  WHEW!

He called the Levites and told them to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD back into the Temple. 

(King Josiah’s father, Manasseh, had taken the Ark of the Covenant out to put in that carved image he’d made. After his repentance, he took out the idol and threw it in the valley. But the Ark had never been replaced. See 2 Chron. 33:7 & 15.)

Then King Josiah restored all the holy priests and Levites to their positions (listed in the documents written by David and Solomon), and told them to get ready to slaughter the Passover Lamb.  Then the king and all the people “kept the Passover to the Lord their God (and the feast of unleavened Bread), as was written in the Book of the Covenant.  No such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges or during the days of the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah. 

Oh, and Josiah put away (killed) the mediums and necromancers, and ALL the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and Jerusalem … that he might establish the Words of the Law that were written in the Book that was found in the house of the LORD.

BEFORE him, there was no king who turned to the LORD with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might … nor did any like him arise after him.

Judah got a reprieve. But the LORD’s great burning wrath did not turn away from Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had done (before repentance).  The LORD said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the House for which I said, ‘My name shall be there.'”

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And then…. after all that Josiah did, and at the end of his reign … Neco, the Pharaoh-King of Egypt, set out to fight against the King of Assyria.

REMEMBER – Egypt was SOUTH of Judah, and Assyria was NORTH.  That meant that Neco and his army had to “pass through some of the land of Israel to get to the new Assyrian capital of Carchemish.  It seems Neco had no beef with Josiah and told the Jewish king to just let his army pass through.  

BUT… Josiah FEARED that Egypt and Assyria would somehow form an alliance, like two sides of a hamburger bun, with Judah in the middle as the meat – ready to be chomped from either side.   So … without consulting God as his great-grandfather Hezekiah had done, Josiah decided to intercept the Egyptian forces and fight for Judah.  

BAD DECISION. 

Josiah (and army) met Neco on the plain of Megiddo (Jezreel).  Almost immediately, Josiah was wounded by an arrow, shot by Neco himself. (The Egyptian wanted to get to Carchemish without losing any of his men or armaments. Josiah was a “bee buzzing around his head,” and he swatted him.

“I am badly wounded,” cried Josiah. His servants put him in the king’s second chariot (perhaps the “ambulance” rig?), and took him back to Jerusalem, where this godly king died.

All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 

Jeremiah, the prophet, also uttered a lament for him.

Then the people of Judah took Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, and made him king in his father’s place.

He reigned THREE MONTHS. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. 

Pharaoh Neco, seeing an opportunity, captured Jehoahaz and put him in prison at his base north of Lebanon. Ultimately, he was taken to Egypt, where he died. Meanwhile, Neco laid a tribute on Judah of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold.  Neco made Eliakim, another of Josiah’s sons, king instead, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. 

King Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold to Neco. (He got the money from taxing his people, not from his own kingly storehouse.)

He reigned eleven years, and….. did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.  Another king came and took him away ….. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

The time had com…..   

(Thank you LORD, for Your patience and mercy.  We don’t deserve it. Thank you for delaying as long as you can for this world to bring wrath on us – because you “desire all to be saved.’  But eventually, the unrighteousness is full, and you WILL act. )

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 215 & 216

Aug4

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted together on Monday.

Day 215 – Reading – I2 Chronicles 32 – 33, 

Day 216 – Reading – Nahum 1 – 3

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Day 215 – 2 Chronicles 32.

This chapter repeats some of what we learned about this time from 2 Kings and Isaiah. 

After chapter 31 listed all the good things Hezekiah did in removing idolatry and his faithfulness to God, Sennacherib and his hordes invaded Judah.  (Was this a test from the LORD?  If so, Hezekiah passed with flying colors.)

At the (verbal and written) threats from the king of Assyria and his commander, itemizing how “weak” and “impotent” Israel’s God was compared to their great army, God showed them up. Hezekiah went to the LORD and prayed, and Isaiah encouraged him.  Then God acted. The whole Assyrian army was killed in one night, and the King went home (with “shame on his face”), only to be assassinated by his own sons.

Then chapter 32 reviews the grave illness of Hezekiah, his prayer, and God’s answer of 15 more years of life.  After this answer to prayer, it seems that Hezekiah’s heart became proud. (Of his wealth?  Of his amazing answers to prayer? Of his extreme wealth? )  Regardless, self-pride over something that GOD DID brought God’s wrath on him, in the foretelling of Jerusalem’s eventual destruction. However, Hezekiah humbled himself, and God’s wrath did not come during his lifetime.

This chapter also reviews his foolishness in revealing all his riches and military strength to an “envoy from Babylon.” 

The other accounts say they came because they heard of Hezekiah’s illness, but this account adds that they were sent to “inquire about the sign that had been done in the land.”  You know it, that reversing of the sundial ten degrees.   If the sun went back in Israel, so it did everywhere, including Babylon.  That “far away land” was known for its astronomers (just like at Jesus’ birth, when that special star appeared), and they came to investigate.

Isaiah scolded Hezekiah for showing off all he had, and told him what he had revealed would be taken away by that very country (about 100 years later), Jerusalem would be destroyed, and his son’s taken captive.  Hezekiah, like us, shrugged and said, “Well, at least not in MY time…”

At Hezekiah’s death, those 15 years later, “all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor.”  Then his son Manasseh, who was conceived and born in those very 15 years, became king, and a very wicked one at that.

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2 Chronicles 33.

This whole chapter is about Manasseh, who reigned in Jerusalem 55 years, and the horrible evil he did for most of them.  He reversed all the good that his father, Hezekiah, had done (So he KNEW what was right! What got into him???), and restored all the idolatrous places for pagan worship, EVEN IN THE TEMPLE of the LORD GOD, and caused the people to stray into more evil than had King Ahab in the north.  

He went farther into devilish evil that had existed before Hezekiah. He sacrificed his sons on the burning altar of Molech, as had his grandfather, Ahaz.  And in direct violation of God’s law, Manasseh used fortunetellers, omens, sorcery, mediums, and necromancers to divine truth and direction.  (Not like Hezekiah, who went before God in the Temple for help and to pray for direction.) 

God warned Manasseh through his prophets about the coming fierce judgment for Judah and Jerusalem and the people, but he and the people “paid no attention.”  Tradition says Manasseh killed Isaiah, the prophet of God, by torture (maybe because he didn’t want to hear those awful coming events.).

As a foretaste, the LORD brought upon them commanders of another king of Assyria (Ashurbanipal), who captured Manasseh “with hooks!” and put him on trial in their vassal city of Babylon.  There, a miracle happened!!

In distress, Manasseh “entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.”

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT???

OH, THE MERCY AND FORGIVENESS OF GOD!!

GOD HEARS AND ANSWERS THOSE OF A BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART – even the most wicked!

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NOTE: (This reminds me of the story of the “Amazing Grace” songwriter, John Newton. He learned about the things of God from his mom at an early age, but then strayed into all kinds of cruelty and debauchery for most of his life. But at an older age, with death by shipwreck facing him, he turned and cried to God.  And God saved him.  Later he wrote, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!”)

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Manasseh went home and “took away the foreign gods and the idol from the temple, and all the altars he had built in Jerusalem. He restored the altar of God and offered sacrifices of peace and thanksgiving. He commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.”

(NOTE: It’s mentioned in this chapter that Manasseh’s prayer was recorded in “the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah” and “the Chronicles of the Seers (or Prophets).” Hmmm, I’d love to read those, but God determined it wasn’t necessary to preserve them for us.)

Eventually, this converted sinner king died, and his son, Amon, reigned.  This man was not affected by his father’s conversion.  He learned early the horrible practices of Idolatry and again sacrificed to idols and images.   He “incurred more and more guilt.”  And eventually, his servants killed him in his house.

Then the people of the land (Jerusalem’s leaders) killed Amon’s assassins and installed the very young Josiah (8 years old) as king in his place.

(Sneak preview:  Josiah did what was RIGHT in the eyes of the Lord…)

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DAY 216 – Nahum 1-3 

Not much is known about the prophet Nahum (meaning “comfort”). He was from Elkosh, but that is an unknown place. (It could have been Al Qosh in northern Iraq, meaning he was a descendant of one of the early Jewish captives of Assyria. He could have been from Capernaum (“Town of Nahum”) in the northern kingdom, or even from southern Judah. (see Nahum 1:15).  We don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter.)

He prophesied a message against Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, probably before the death of King Ashurbanipal. (Remember him? He was the king who captured Manasseh “with hooks” and took him to Babylon for trial?)  Assyria had recovered from the defeat (and embarrassment) of Sennacherib.  Now, the great Assyrian Empire spread from Babylon to Egypt.

This was probably 100 years after Jonah preached to Nineveh, and they repented. Now they have returned to idolatry and violence, at the height of their power. 

Think of Nahum as a “sequel to Jonah.”

Nahum predicted the FULFILLMENT of the judgment that Jonah SO wanted.

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Nahum 1.

Verses 1-2, and 6 describe the LORD towards his enemies, the guilty.

  • “The LORD is a JEALOUS and AVENGING God, the LORD is AVENGING and WRATHFUL; the LORD takes VENGEANCE on His adversaries and keeps WRATH for his  enemies.
  • “The LORD is low to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.”
  • “Who can stand before His INDIGNATION? who can endure the heat of his ANGER?

Specific prophecies against Nineveh.

  • “With an overflowing flood, He will make a complete end of the adversaries. (Nineveh’s walls reached 100 feet high.  The moat surrounding the city was 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep.  The “overflowing flood” that God brought was when the Tigris River flooded, joined the moat waters to destroy enough of the walls of Nineveh to let the Babylonians through.)
  • “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. (As the LORD cut down the 185,000 soldiers encircling Jerusalem in one night, so shall he do to Nineveh.)

But to those who put their hope in the LORD … “He is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in Him.”

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Nahum 2.

This is a vivid picture of the destruction of Nineveh. (Jonah would have LOVED this!)

  • “The SCATTERER has come up against you.”  Assyria made a practice of scattering it’s captives throughout its empire. Now it would happen to them.
  • “The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet…” Shields were covered with hide, dyed red to absorb flaming arrows and mask the sight of blood.
  • “Chariots come with flashing metal, they race madly, rush to and from through the streets; they gleam like torches…  Polished metal on the chariots would catch the sun and flash like lightning.
  • And the conquerors raise a siege tower, while the waters of the flooding Tigris river and moat “melt the palace away.”  “Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.”
  • “Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble.”
  • “Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of precious things.”  Assyria plundered other nations, including Israel. Now it was there turn.

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Nahum 3.

Nahum continues on with the gruesome details of the end of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.

  • “Woe to the bloody city.”  
  • “The crack of the whip… the rumble of the wheel… galloping horse and bounding chariot.  Horsemen charging, flashing sword, glittering spear… 
  • Try to picture or imagine the carnage of the city of Nineveh.  “A HOST of slain, HEAPS of corpses, dead bodies WITHOUT END… They stumble over the bodies!  Your shepherds are ASLEEP, O king of Assyria; your nobles SLUMBER. Your people are SCATTERED on the mountains with none to gather them (THEIR BODIES). 

 

And “all who hear the news about you clap their hands over you.”

Yes, Jonah is clapping his hands, no doubt.

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 214

Aug2

Day 214 – Reading – 2 Kings 20 – 21.

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

2 Kings 20.

This chapter is a repeat from Isaiah 38. It retells Hezekiah’s illness and his prayer for recovery. God allows him another 15 years of life, but he “blows it” in several ways.

  1. When visitors from Babylon come with letters and a present for Hezekiah’s good health, the king lavishly welcomes them and shows them all the riches of his kingdom and all the arms of his military.  Isaiah admonishes him and tells the king that the Babylonians will one day come, take all those treasures, destroy Jerusalem, and take his descendants captive.  “Ah, well,’ said Hezekiah. “At least it won’t happen in MY time.”
  2. The other way that Hezekiah “blew it” in those extra 15 years was to have a son, Manasseh.  This son became the king after him (as we’ll see in 2 Kings 21) and was VERY EVIL, worse than Ahab.   Just think….  if Hezekiah had died when the LORD first said … would a more godly son have inherited the throne?  But ALL is according to God’s sovereign will.

Does this mean we shouldn’t pray for healing for ourselves or others?  No.  James 5:13-15 says —

  • “Is anyone among you suffering?  Let him pray.  Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick.”

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.2 Kings 21.

Hezekiah’s 12-YEAR-OLD SON, MANASSEH, became king after Hezekiah died. (Did he not have other children??)  Manasseh was born in those last EXTRA 15 years of the king’s life.  Hmmm.

Manasseh reigned a LONG time – 55 years.  

  • “He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel (Canaanites).
  • ‘He rebuilt the high places that his father had destroyed.
  • “He erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done.
  • “He worshiped all the host of heaven (moon, sun, stars) and served them.
  • “He built altars in the house of the LORD (the Temple) where the LORD had put His name.
  • “He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
  • He burned his son as an offering.
  • He used fortune-telling and omens, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers.
  • “He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
  • “The carved image of Asherah that he had made, he set IN the house of the LORD, where God had chosen to put His Name. 
  • “Manasseh led Israel astray to do MORE EVIL than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.”

Whoa!  What a horrible leader!  And the 55 years must have dragged on and on….

How did the LORD respond?  He sent a message through His prophets….

“BECAUSE Manasseh, king of Judah, has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols …..

  • “I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.
  • “I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plub like of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a  dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
  • “I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies.
  • “They will become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies…. BECAUSE they have done what is evil in my sight and provoked me to anger … since I brought them out of Egypt.

MORE than all the evil idolatry that Manasseh instigated, he “shed so much innocent blood that Jerusalem was filled from one end to another.”  (The blood of child sacrifice, persecution of the weak, and martyrdom of  God’s prophets.) 

+++++++++++++++ NOTE:  Both Jewish and Christian tradition reports that Manasseh had Isaiah (the great prophet of God, whom we just read) sawn in two inside a hollow log.  WHOA!!!  (See Hebrews 11:37.) ++++++++++++++++++++++++

We’ll be reading more about Manasseh tomorrow in 2 Chronicles – an astonishing fact about him will be revealed – so stay tuned.    Meanwhile, this wicked king died, and his son (ONE THAT ESCAPED SACRIFICE) reigned as king.  

That son, Amon, reigned TWO YEARS.  He did EVIL  (no surprise) in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh had done.  He walked in all the way his father walked and served the idols his father had served and worshipped. HE ABANDONED THE LORD, THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS.

But his servants conspired against him and killed him in his own house.

Then, the people of the land killed all those conspirators and made his son, Josiah, king in his place.  (YAY!)

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So, until next time, SERVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART!  

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 213

Aug1

A NEW MONTH!

Day 213 – Reading – Isaiah 64 – 66.

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Isaiah 64.

We finish the wonderful and challenging book of Isaiah today. 

Isaiah continues to pray for mercy.  Remember, his prophecy is of Israel in exile, while they have not actually been captured yet. He is looking toward those dreadful times. “Oh, do the things You used to do!” he prays. 

  • When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God beside you, who acts for those who wait for him.
  • You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways.”

But God’s people turned from him, and Isaiah mourns.

  • We sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
  • We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
  • There is no one who calls upon your Name, who rouses himself to take hold of you;  for you have hidden your face from us, ad made us to melt in the hand of our iniquities.
  • O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. 
  • BE NOT SO TERRIBLY ANGRY, O LORD, and remember not iniquity forever.

Can you hear Isaiah pleading for the people and for what they lost because of their sin?

  • Please look, we are all your people.
  • Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness,
  • JERUSALEM is a desolation.
  • OUR HOLY AND BEAUTIFUL HOUSE, where our fathers praised You, has been burned by fire….

And a desperate cry…

  • Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

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Isaiah 65.

The LORD answers, repeating His warnings of judgment.  It’s harsh, but oh, did Israel deserve it.

  • “I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ to a nation that was NOT called by My name. 
  • I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; 
  • …a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks;
  • …who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places;
  • …who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
  • …who say, ‘Keep to Yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for You.’
  • THESE ARE SMOKE IN MY NOSTRILS….

How, oh how, and a chosen people treat their God in such evil ways.  (Indeed, how can we do it??)  But then God shows mercy on a remnant, a small “cluster.”

  • I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall posses it and my servants shall dwell there.

And even greater and more wondrous!

  • Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind….. I create Jerusalem to be a joy…. I will rejoice in Jerusalem…. no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. 

And Isaiah goes on to describe more of the wonderful things of the Messiah’s Kingdom on earth.

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Isaiah 66.

The LORD reminds Isaiah and Israel (and us), that He is not looking for a Temple made of stone to dwell in, but a heart, a special kind of heart.   

  • This is the one to whom I will look (with favor); he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

David knew this as well, as he cried, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”   And, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

And Isaiah continues with the final judgment and wrath of God on an unbelieving, grossly sinning people.  “For behold, the LORD will come in fire… to render His anger in fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.  for I know their works and their thoughts and the time is coming.”

And then to the remnant of Israel, the survivors, “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.”

Halleluia!