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Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 201 and 202

Jul21

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

Day 201 – Reading – Hosea 1 – 7

Day 202 – Reading – Hosea 8 – 14

Read today’s Scriptures.  

Day 201, Hosea 1.

Hosea was a prophet in the time of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and good King Hezekiah in the south (and while evil King Jeroboam II reigned in the north).  Hosea means “salvation,” like Joshua and Yeshua.  Although he addressed both Israel and Judah, he referred to the king of Israel as “our king.”  Only he and Jonah were “writing prophets” from the northern kingdom.  He prophesied for 45 years and was a contemporary of Isaiah.

Hosea was instructed to marry a woman and experience her unfaithfulness, much as God with His beloved Israel, and then to show forgiving love.

  • The LORD:  “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom (unfaithfulness) and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom (unfaithfulness) by forsaking the LORD.

And so Hosea obeyed and married Gomer.  She bore a son.

  • And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.”

Then Gomer gave birth to a daughter.

  • The LORD said, “Call her name ‘No Mercy,’ for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel.”

When the daughter was weaned, Gomer had a second son.

  • The LORD said, “Call his name ‘Not My People,’ for you are not my people (Israel) and I am not your God.”

And yet God tells him of a time when Israel will be like the sand of the sea, and where it was said, “Not my people,” they shall be called “Children of the Living God.”

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Hosea 2.

God tells Hosea to “plead with the nation of Israel (also in language reflecting Gomer, Hosea’s wife), that she put away her whoring and adultery, lest “I make her like a wilderness, a parched land, and kill her with thirst.”

Israel went after her “lovers” (false gods), praising THEM for the food, drink, and clothing she had, angering God.

  • “She did not know that it was ‘I’ who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold… WHICH SHE USED FOR BAAL.”
  • “Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take my wool and my flax which were to cover her nakedness.  I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers.”
  • “I will punish her for when she went after her ‘lovers’ and forgot me,” declares the LORD.

Oh, but see the mercy and tenderness with which He will one day treat Israel!

  • “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And I will give her her vineyards and make a door of hope.”
  • And in that day, you will call me “My husband.”  I will betroth her to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth her to me in FAITHFULNESS.”
  • ‘And I will have mercy on “NO MERCY.”  And I will say to “NOT MY PEOPLE,” ‘You ARE my people.”

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Hosea 3.

  • The LORD:   “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, EVEN AS the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods. “

So Hosea bought Gomer back with 15 shekels of silver and some barley.  And he told her, “You must dwell as mine. You shall not play the whore or belong to another man.”

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Hosea 4.

Then, through Hosea, the LORD comes down hard on Israel, especially her priests.  “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  Because YOU have rejected knowledge, I reject YOU from being a priest to me.”

Then an entire section where God rants on His people for being unfaithful to husbands and to Him, worshiping idols with cult prostitutes.

“Though YOU play the whore, O Israel … let not JUDAH become guilty!”  (But alas, they follow Israel’s lead.)

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Hosea 5.

  • “Hear this, O priests!  Pay attention, O house of Israel!  Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you!  I will discipline ALL of them.”
  • “Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt:  JUDAH also shall stumble with them….”
  • “I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. 

God then issues a warning, “I will return again to MY PLACE until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.”

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Hosea 6.

The prophet writes Israel’s FUTURE words. – “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that He may heal us; he has struck us down, and He will bind us up. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD.

But until then, God sees their unfaithful ways.  “For I desire steadfast love and NOT sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than offerings.

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Hosea 7.

There seems to be no hope for Israel. Their judgment of doom is set. 

  • “Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!  Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!  I WOULD redeem them, but they speak lies against me.  They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds. They rebel against me.”      

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Day 202, Hosea 8.

Assyria, like a vulture, hovers over the house of Israel. 

God says, “I have spurned your calf, O Samaria.  For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

Israel… sows the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. 

Israel has forgotten his Maker….

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Hosea 9.

  • Hosea declares, “The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come: Israel shall know it.” 
  • “He will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.”
  • “Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird — no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! (Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.) Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till NONE is left.  Woe to them if I depart from them.  Yes, even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.”  
  • “My God will reject them because they have not listened to Him.“

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Hosea 10.

Prosperity resulted in spiritual corruption.

  • “Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. 
  • Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and destroy their pillars. 

The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for “the calf.”  The people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests, for it has departed from them.  THE THING itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the king. Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.

And Hosea cries out!

  • “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you.”

And then the solemn declaration:

  • “At dawn, the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.”

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Hosea 11.

This chapter shows Israel’s refusal of God, and God’s extreme LOVE FOR THEM. 

“When Israel was a child, I loved him… I taught him to walk, I took him up by his arms… I led him with cords of kindness and bands of love… I became to him as one who eases the yoke.. I bent down to him and fed him…

  • How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?  My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”

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Hosea 12.

In this chapter, the LORD reviews the history of Jacob/Israel from Rebekah’s womb till the time they came up from Egypt. 

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Hoshea 13.

The LORD relentlessly pours on words of judgment of the ungrateful and proud Israel.  They sinned more and more, making images for themselves and offered human sacrifices, and “kissed calves” (devotion to their idols).

“But I AM the LORD your God. You know no God but Me, and besides Me there is no Savior.”

“Samaria shall bear her guilt because she rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword.

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Hosea 14.

And in the final chapter, Hosea reveals God’s heart – a plea for Israel to return to their God.

His promise,

  • ‘I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. 

And Hosea adds his own epilogue. 

  • Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them … but transgressors stumble at them.

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Good words for us too – from Hosea’s closing epilogue, to God’s weeping heart over the sinner, to His offers of restoration. Don’t you just love Him so much!!  But also that sin is unfaithfulness to our God, and must be stopped or judged.

LORD, Help me to look in my own heart.  Are there idols there?  Do I depend on my own strength rather than Yours?  Do I praise others for what YOU do for me daily? Help me to be faithful!  Oh, turn my heart wholly towards You, O my God!  Thank you for your faithfulness, care and love for me!

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 198

Jul17

Day 198 – Reading – Isaiah 18 – 22

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

Isaiah 18.

Cush (Ethiopia), a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. (The Nile River and its tributaries extend south through Ethiopia.)  

At that time (Messiah’s Kingdom) tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide …. to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of hosts.”

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Isaiah 19.

Behold the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt (to execute judgment); and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

“I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers; and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king (Assyria) will rule over them,” declares the LORD GOD of hosts. 

‘And the river will be dry and parched, and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away…..

  • And the fishermen, who cast hooks and spread nets will mourn and lament…
  • The workers in combed flax and weavers of white cotton will be crushed and grieved….
  • And there will be nothing for Egypt to do.

Nevertheless, “in THAT Day” (Messiah’s Kingdom)….

  • “there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts…. 
  • And there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of Egypt…
  • And the LORD will make Himself known to the Egyptians…
  • And the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship….
  • They will return to the LORD and He will listen… and heal them.

IN THAT DAY, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria (through Israel), and the Egyptians will worship (the LORD) with the Assyrians. 

IN THAT DAY, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth whom the LORD has blessed.  “Blessed be EGYPT my people, and ASSYRIA the work of my hands, and ISRAEL, my inheritance.

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Isaiah 20.

But, BEFORE the Day of the LORD comes, Egypt and Ethiopia will be shamed and conquered by Assyria, and taken captive.

The LORD told Isaiah to strip off his clothes and sandals and walk about naked. WHAT??  Often the prophets of God did things to “symbolize” what they were also speaking.  This nakedness was to show the shame of Egypt and Ethiopia being conquered and taken away.

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Isaiah 21.

Then suddenly, we go past Babylon’s conquest of Jerusalem and captivity of the Jews, to a time IN PROPHECY, that Babylon itself will be conquered by the Medes 

Isaiah says, “A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys.  Go up, O Elam (Persia); lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she (Babylon) has caused I will bring to an end.

Then God reveals to Isaiah the wicked feast of Belshazzar (Daniel 5), “They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink…” when amid the celebration the call to fight the attacking enemy invading the city came. (Remember the writing on the wall?)

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon…”

Isaiah finishes the chapter with Oracles against other smaller nations.

Isaiah 22.

And then… Isaiah circles back to Israel, and JERUSALEM.  He portrays a picture of destruction (without a sword, for Babylon starved the people of Jerusalem) and of capture. But all the while Jerusalem is celebrating with wild parties.  THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN SACKCLOTH, REPENTING!!

Judah is shown trying to withstand the enemy by their own methods (which will surely fail) instead of looking to God for help.

The LORD:  Weep and mourn, shave your heads and wear sackcloth (evidence of repentance).

The people of JUDAH:  Joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, saying, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
The LORD:  Surely this iniquity will NOT BE ATONED FOR YOU until you die.”

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From Egypt and Cush in the south, to Assyria, to Babylon’s fall, and the refusal to repent in Jerusalem, Isaiah proclaims the truth of God, hard as it may be (or as embarrassing as when he’s naked). 

God had asked for a servant to proclaim His message, even they wouldn’t listen,  Isaiah had said, “Send ME!”  Now God was using this faithful prophet to predict His purposes. 

(And Isaiah would one day pay for his faithfulness with martyrdom.

He would be sawed in half by a wooden saw under wicked King Manasseh.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 197

Jul16

Day 197 – Reading – Isaiah 13 – 17

Read today’s Scriptures. 

Isaiah 13.

Isaiah’s prophecies of judgment now turn to the surrounding nations, particularly those that God used to discipline His own people.  Isaiah prophesies about Babylon, first as a great nation and then as having fallen to another.  He told about this 100+ years before Babylon became a world power.  Unbelievable as it was, they would overthrow the brutal and powerful Assyrian empire.  

Judgment was coming to them, by the Medes in a couple of centuries, and then in the end-times, when all the godly will rejoice that “Babylon the Great” has fallen forever.  Much of this passage is about when the Messiah comes. 

“I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.“

In verses 15-17, Isaiah turns to the immediate future, when the Medes will commit all kinds of atrocities on Babylon, which they had done in the past.  Infants killed, houses plundered, wives ravished, and the young men slaughtered without mercy.

“Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah.” 

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Isaiah 14.

A brief light begins this chapter, prophesying the release and return of the Jews to their land.

“The LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land….”

Then Isaiah switches from the upcoming physical Babylon to the future evil millennial nation, and the celebration of the Jews when Babylon the Great falls.

Then Isaiah turns toward Assyria in his prophecy.  Yes, he drew them to Israel to judge His people, but now THEY will be judged by God.

“As I have planned, so it shall be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.”

Next, in the year that the wicked King Ahaz of Judah dies, Isaiah prophesies against Philistia, another of Israel’s enemies.  

“Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.  Wail, O gate, cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!”

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Isaiah 15 and 16.

Isaiah’s following “oracle of doom” concerns Moab.

Isaiah prophesies of Moab being laid waste in the night, being undone, weeping, wailing, wearing sackcloth, and melting in tears.  They cry out, they tremble, they weep at the destruction that has come upon them.

Isaiah actually “cries out” in sympathy for Moab (verse 5) and his “inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab” (verse 11).  Wow!

“The LORD has spoken, saying, ‘In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, despite all his great multitude … those who remain will be very few and feeble.” (Assyria was not allowed to completely overrun Moab.)

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Isaiah 17.

Isaiah’s “oracle” now turns to Damascus (the capital of Syria). Its destruction by Assyria is addressed in this chapter.

Syria, which had joined with Israel (“Ephraim“) to resist Assyria, would fall as they did.  But a small remnant of Syria would remain. (The picture is of an olive tree harvested, with two or three fruit left on the top branches.)

God’s judgments are to awaken Ephraim to their failure to depend on the Lord. 

“For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger, though you make them grow on the day you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow … YET the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.”

Then Isaiah turns to the coming armies of Judah’s enemies and pronounces a “woe” on them. 

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God uses pagan armies to discipline his people, but THEY will then suffer and be defeated.  Everything and everyone are like instruments in God’s hands. He will bless and he will “spank” His people.  But for His OWN, all things work for their good and His glory!”

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 196

Jul15

Day 196 – Reading – 2 Chronicles 28 and 2 Kings 16 – 17

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

2 Chronicles 28 and 2 Kings 16.

Both chapters are about King Ahaz in Judah (south).  While the next-to-the-last king (Pekah) was reigning in Israel, Ahaz too the throne in Judah.  He was 20 and reigned for 16 years.  He DID NOT DO WHAT WAS RIGHT IN THE EYES OF HIS GOD, AS HIS “FATHER” DAVID HAD DONE.  Ahaz imitated the kings in the north. He even burned his sons as offerings like the nations God had helped them to drive out. 

“He sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.” 

The King of Syria and King Pekah of Israel (former enemies) got together and came against Judah. Together, this force killed hundreds of thousands of Judahites and carried many away captive, and took a lot of spoil. 

But Obed, a prophet of the LORD, was in Samaria and went out to meet the returning army.   

  • “Because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven. And NOW you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, AS YOUR SLAVES. Have you not sins of your own against the LORD your God?”
  • “Now hear me and SEND BACK THE CAPTIVES FROM YOUR RELATIVES WHOM YOU HAVE TAKEN, for fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.”  And certain of the chief men of Israel agreed with Obed.

Along with the people of Israel, the Edomites and Philistines invaded and defeated Judah. (The Lord was humbling them because of evil King Ahaz.)

So…. instead of repenting and asking God for help, King Ahaz sent to the King of Assyria for help!!!  Are you kidding?  That would be like the U.S. sending and asking the terror group, Hamas, for help with a few raids. You can tell how far away from God he was.

Ahaz took the silver and gold he found in the house of the LORD and i the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it as a present to the King of Assyria.   The Assyrian King listened to Ahaz (and had plans of his own), so he marched to Damascus, killed King Rezin, and took captives. (A nice deal!)

But…. the insane Judean King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian king.  And there, King Ahaz SAW the pagan altar that was there.  He decided THAT god must be powerful to have defeated him, so he sent “a model” to Uriah the priest, with all the details.  And Uriah built the altar before Ahaz got back from Damascus. 

The great Bronze Altar, which was before the Temple of the LORD, was removed, and this pagan altar was put in its place!!!!!!!  Ahaz commanded Uriah to burn offerings on it morning and night, and throw on it all the blood of the sacrifices.  (Ahaz claimed that the god of Damascus was more powerful than the LORD. After all, it had defeated him!)

Ahaz also desecrated the other items outside the Temple. And he cut the vessels into pieces, and shut the doors of the temple. And in every city of Judah, he made offerings to other gods … PROVOKING TO ANGER THE LORD, THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS.   (NO WONDER God destroyed Jerusalem and took the people into captivity!)

And Ahaz died (thank God!) and his son, Hezekiah, reigned in his place. King Hezekiah DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD! 

(How he could have been a godly son and escaped the vile acts of his father was only by the protection of God!)

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2 Kings 17.

Meanwhile, up north, the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pilser, came and captured most of the northern area of Israel.  Hoshea (not the prophet) made a conspiracy against King Pekah (inspired by the Assyrian?), and killed him. Hoshea reigned in his place.  Hoshea was the LAST king of Israel.  He reigned nine years and was EVIL in God’s sight.

The NEXT king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, came against him and made him pay tribute. But Hoshea sent to the Egyptian Pharaoh and offered the tribute money, if he’d come and fight the Assyrian king.

REALLY??? Was Hoshea nuts?

Shalmaneser learned of it and threw the king into prison. Then he came south and besieged Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. After three years he captured it and carried the Israelites to Assyria. He spread them out in the cities of the Medes, even as far as Susa, where the book of Esther is set.. 

They never returned to the promised land.

God did what He said in Deuteronomy 28.   God’s word is absolutely true, whether for blessing or curse.

Israel’s epitaph:

“This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt … and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. And the people of Israel did SECRETLY against the LORD their God things that were not right…. and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, ‘You shall not do this.'”

“YET the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants, the prophets.’

  • “But they would not listen…
  • “They despised His statutes and His covenant…
  • “They went after false idols…
  • “They abandoned the commandments of the LORD their God….
  • (They) made images and worshiped the host of heaven…
  • They burned their sons and daughters as offerings..
  • They used divinations and omens…

“Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight. NONE was left but the tribe of JUDAH only.

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The Assyrians sent other peoples they’d conquered to the land of Israel, to settle in it and keep it from going wild. And to pay him tribute.  These “other” people did not fear the LORD, so He sent LIONS  among them to kill some of them. (Don’t you see that the “land” is precious to God as well?)

The king of Assyria sent back one priest from Samaria (corrupt), to teach these “foreign” peoples the “law of the god of the land.” He settled in Bethel and taught that they should fear the LORD.

But all these people from other nations served their own gods along with the LORD.   AND NOW THE PROMISED LAND WAS ONCE AGAIN FILLED WITH FOREIGN NATIONS!

All Joshua’s work was undone. 

 “So these nations feared the LORD AND also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children, as the fathers did.”

They became the hated Samarians of Jesus’ time, mixing Judaism with paganism.

NOTE:  Knowing this, now read the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.  John 4:1-42.

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 192

Jul11

Day 192 – Reading – Amos 1 – 5

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

Amos 1.

Amos was a contemporary of Jonah, Isaiah, and Hosea.  Even though he was from the southern kingdom of Judah, he mainly prophesied to the dying northern kingdom of Israel and a few surrounding peoples. (He was a shepherd and an orchard keeper (figs). He prophesied two years before “a memorable earthquake!” Whoa! One did happen in 755 B.C.

Amos’s two main “prophecy arrows” were against Israel’s hypocrisy in worship and their lack of justice toward the most vulnerable (the poor, widows, orphans) because of greed.  He aimed them at the wicked Jeroboam II.

Amos begins by prophesying against the surrounding nations.

  • Damascus (capital of Syria).  Because of their cruel advances on the northern parts of Israel, he sends destruction on King Hazael and Ben-Hadad. 
  • Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron (Philistia).  Because they delivered the people up to Edom.
  • Tyre (north of Israel). Because they also delivered the people up to Edom.
  • Edom (south and east of the Dead Sea). He warred against and betrayed “his brother,” Israel.
  • Ammonites (east of Jericho and the Jordan River). They brutally attacked  Israel at Gilead.
  • (And in Amos, chapter 2). Moab (east of the Dead Sea, bordering Edom). They were extremely brutal in war.

(Notice that Assyria is not mentioned.  They are the people who will eventually come, brutally attack, destroy, and carry captive the northern kingdom of Israel.  They seem subdued at this time of Amos.  Perhaps because of their repentance after the preaching of Jonah!)  WOW!

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Amos 2.

And then Amos aims his scathing prophecy at JUDAH!  God has four things against them, and “will not revoke the punishment!”

  • They have rejected the law of the LORD.
  • They have not kept His statutes.
  • Their lies led them astray.
  • They walked in the evil ways in which their fathers walked.

And so FIRE will come on them as well and shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

And finally, to ISRAEL, in the center of the Bull’s Eye, is judged. 

(NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A MAP of the area at that time, mark the countries and cities mentioned in these chapters. See how they spiral in and end, right smack dab on Israel in the center.)

  • They sell righteous people for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the afflicted.
  • They engage in uncontrolled sexual passion; a man and his father with the same girl … so that God’s Holy Name is profaned.
  • They take the pledges and fines from the poor and use them for themselves…even in God’s house.

Amos reminds them how God fought for them, protected them, brought them out of Egypt to possess the “promised” land, and raised up some of them to be prophets and Nazirites.

  • But they made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

And so god will weaken them and press them down so they cannot fight or escape “in that day” of judgment.

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Amos 3.

“Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel….”  

Whoa!  Can you just hear that echoing voice of God? I would be terrified!!

“YOU ONLY have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Then in verses 3-8, God gives a series of questions to show that – as some things are certain in nature – surely NOTHING happens in Israel that is outside God’s sovereignty.  And God makes it VERY CLEAR what is going to happen.

“An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”

And then God gives a vivid and horrible description of the small remnant left in Israel after the Assyrian invasion.  “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion… two legs or a piece of an ear… so shall the people of Samaria be rescued….”  YIKES!

And on to the details!  “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord God, the God of hosts, ON THE DAY that I punish Israel for his transgressions… I will punish the altars of Bethel…  I will strike the winter house (Jezreel) along with the summer house (Samaria), and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses … shall come to an end.”

NOTE that verse 7 of that chapter says, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.”  Even in His wrath, God is merciful; He warns, warns, and warns again.  PEOPLE!!! Hear and repent!

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Amos 4.

See how the LORD speaks to the women of Samaria who lived luxuriously. “You cows of Bashan, who oppress the poor and crush the needy; who say to your husbands, ‘Bring me something to drink.'”

“The LORD has sworn by His holiness that they shall take you away … with hooks, even the last of you with fish hooks!”  Yikes.

Then God condemns them for their hypocrisy in worship – doing it all “just to be seen,” as the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. 

Then God lists all the things He did to WARN THEM and bring them back to Himself.

  • I gave you a lack of bread, YET you did not return to me.
  • I withheld the rain … YET you did not return to me.
  • I struck your gardens, vineyards, and orchards with blight and mildew and locusts, YET you did not return to me.
  • I sent pestilence among you, and killed your young men with the sword, YET you did not return to me.
  • I overthrew some of you, and I plucked you out of the burning fire, YET you did not return to me.

“THEREFORE, thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you … PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD, O ISRAEL!”

WOW.

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Amos 5.

This chapter is a LAMENTATION for Israel, as if she were a virgin who just died, and this is the funeral procession.   And His sorrowful Call to them, over and over…

  • Seek me and live…
  • Seek the LORD and live…
  • Seek good, and not evil, that you may live…
  • Hate evil, and love good…
  • Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

“Take up the images you have made for yourselves… and I will send you into exile BEYOND Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.”

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God judges the heathen nations, but the greater judgment is for His own people – those he loved and rescued, and taught, and helped. 

It reminds me of 1 Peter 4:17-18 – “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God. ‘If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?'”

**** O LORD, may I always hear and yield to your call!  Please soften my heart to love and obey you supremely. Thank You for all the good and merciful ways you love me.

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 191

Jul10

Day 191 – Reading – Isaiah 5 – 8

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see anything you love in these chapters?

Isaiah 5.

The parable of the vineyard (5:1-7).  I can never read these verses without “hearing” the song that the Christian organization, JEWS FOR JESUS, sang so many years ago.

https://www.invubu.com/music/show/song/Liberated-Wailing-Wall/Vineyard-Song.html

Here is the last stanza of their song:

O, you who seek the Lord today
The lesson still holds true.
For what he sought of Israel
He still requires of you.
O, walk with Him in righteousness
And be a fruitful vine.
And press your life into His hands
That He might drink the wine.

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Anyway, Isaiah said it first, a song he wrote to the Lord, his “beloved.”  It’s a sad song, but it portrays Israel and Judah in that day. God did EVERYTHING for His Chosen Nation, including giving them this land forever. But they (like we all do) turned away from Him.  And the consequences?  They would be removed from that “very fertile land.” 

The LORD looked for justice and righteousness… but found in His people only bloodshed and iniquity. 

Jesus, the true vine, promises good and abundant fruit from us, His Chosen, when we abide in Him. (John 15:1-11)

Isaiah 5:8-30 tells of the consequences of Israel’s “rejecting the law of the LORD of hosts, and despising the Word of the Holy One of Israel.”  (Six woes)  And the LORD was “angry with his people. He stretched out His hand and struck them.”   

Isaiah says that God will “whistle for the nations far away … and quickly, speedily they will come.”  The picture is of a strong and well-equipped army.  “Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and NONE CAN RESCUE.“

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Isaiah 6.

This chapter shows the original calling of Isaiah, before he began to prophesy. He received the prophecies of the first five chapters AFTER this astonishing event.  He describes it here to authenticate what he’s written.  ‘Here’s how it happened, folks. Here’s how God called me…..’

  • “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train (hem) of his robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim.” 
  • “And one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’
  • “And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
  • “And I said, ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
  • “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he TOUCHED my mouth and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
  • “And I heard the voice of the LORD saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
  • “Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.”

Then God gave Isaiah his ‘marching orders.’  He was to go to the people of Israel and give them the warnings and predictions God would tell him.  They would not hear, their eyes would be blind, their hearts would be without understanding.  But still, Isaiah was to TELL THEM.

“How long, O Lord?” Isaiah asked.  God told him, “Until the cities lie waste and empty and the LORD removes the people far away, and the land is burned.”   

But God promised that a “holy seed” or remnant, WOULD hear and believe.

*** (WOW, what an experience!  Isaiah was changed.  And he went out to prophesy. (Go through the first chapters again, with this image in your mind.)

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Isaiah 7.

And now we see the armies that the LORD “whistled for.”  

In the days of Judah’s King Ahaz (grandson of Uzziah),  the kings of Syria and Israel (north) came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it.  When King Ahaz and the people heard they were coming, their hearts “shook as trees in the wind.”  So God sent Isaiah to meet King Ahaz at a specific location and to tell him…

  • “Be careful. Be quiet. Do not fear. Do not let your heart be faint because of these two ‘smoldering stumps of firebrands’ because they have devised evil against Judah.
  • “It will not stand. It shall not come to pass. Soon, Israel would cease to be a people, and Syria would be conquered by Assyria.

Then the LORD gave King Ahaz a choice to trust Him or not. 

He even told Ahaz to “ask for a sign to prove it was true … a GREAT sign (deep as the grave or high as heaven).”  But King Ahaz was afraid to “put the LORD to a test.”   (EVEN THOUGH THE LORD TOLD HIM TO!!!)

You can feel God’s exasperation when he says, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary GOD also???  Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.”

Does that sound familiar?  You’ve read it in Matthew 1:22-23.

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name, Immanuel.   Then the prophecy gets more specific for King Ahaz.  Before a son born in nine months can distinguish between evil and good… the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. They will meet their doom at the hands of the King of Assyria.”  Whew! Good news, right?

(Not so reassuring was that the LORD would also bring the Assyrians against Judah. It would be the beginning of the end for them as well.  Babylon would eventually lead them into captivity.)

And the LORD would whistle for “the fly” (Egypt, known for flies) and “the bee” (Assyria, known for beekeeping).  These insects represented the armies of these countries, which would overrun Judah.

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Isaiah 8.

Then another strange prophecy that would foretell the Assyrian invasion.  Isaiah and his wife would get pregnant and have a son. They would name the boy, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.  Yep, you got that right. (Would you call him “Baz” for short?)  The words mean, “the spoil speeds, the prey hastens,” and they are a prophecy to Israel.

BUT, because King Ahaz called for help from Assyria against the nearer enemies, and didn’t call on God, that far enemy would rise like a massive flash flood and overwhelm them too … to their necks.

(***** Imagine if all these scary predictions were leveled at our own country.  Would the words sink in and be believed?  Would we turn from our wicked ways and seek “the gently flowing waters of Shiloah” (the Lord)?)

God gave a message to Isaiah and warned him not to walk in the way of the people, “Do not fear what they fear or dread what they dread. But the LORD of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary … and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and … taken.”

Whoa.

Isaiah answered. “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Israel, and I will hope in Him.”

I agree with Isaiah. Wait for HIM, Hope in HIM!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 190

Jul9

Day 190 – Reading – Isaiah 1 – 4

Read today’s Scriptures.  

Isaiah prophesied to Judah and their corrupt leaders in Jerusalem for over 40 years, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.  He warned that the devastation and exile they saw happening in the northern kingdom would come upon them too, if they didn’t repent of their rebellion, idolatry, and injustice.  He also prophesied about a coming king (branch) from David’s line.

The book is divided into three general sections.

  • 1-39 – Points to the sin and fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, and what is coming for Judah. God will send the nations to conquer the southern kingdom, and Jerusalem will fall. Her people will go into exile in Babylon. (This happens 100 years later)  A thin thread of HOPE also runs through these chapters, of the New Jerusalem, a godly remnant, and a Righteous Ruler.
  • 40-55 – Reveals the coming Messiah (700 years later), and His role as the slain Lamb of God.
  • 56-66 – Tells more fully of the final judgment and restoration; the new heaven and earth, and the righteous rule of the Messiah.

Much of Isaiah is written in the form of beautiful poetry.  Maybe, like me, you’ve learned to sing some of his words!

Isaiah 1.

The first “vision” of Isaiah is a courtroom scene.  The LORD is the plaintiff and Israel, the defendant. Instead of responding to the care and love of “the Holy One of Israel,” they rebelled and disobeyed his law.  If God’s grace had not intervened and left a few survivors, Judah and Jerusalem would have been destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah.

The LORD hates hypocrisy, especial in His worship. “He’s had enough of their burnt offerings, He doesn’t delight in the blood of bulls or lambs.”   He wants them to first “Wash themselves, remove their evil deeds, learn to do good, seek justice for the orphan and widow!”

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.  IF YOU ARE WILLING AND OBEDIENT, you will eat of the good of the land, BUT IF YOU REFUSE AND REBEL, you shall be eaten by the sword….”

Isaiah then tells of God’s plans to “turn His hand against you, and smelt away your dross with lye, and remove all your alloy. Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness, a faithful city.”  

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Isaiah 2

God encourages His people first, with a glimpse of Jerusalem’s (Zion) future exaltation “in the latter days.” It will be the “highest” of mountains.”  “All nations shall flow to it.”  “Many will come to the house of God, that He may teach them His ways so they can walk in His paths.”

“For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

And the prophet pleads, “O HOUSE OF JACOB, COME, LET US WALK IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORD.”

Then Isaiah returns to his rebuke of their sin, telling them why the LORD has rejected them: greed, fortune-tellers from the East, their lofty pride and haughty looks, and exalting idols made with their own hands.

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Isaiah 3.

The judgment of Jerusalem and Judah continues. 

Warning:  the LORD GOD is taking away support and supply from Jerusalem and Judah – bread, water, all leadership, military help, the soldier, judge, prophet, diviner, elder, counselor, the skillful magician, and the expert in charms. 

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen – BECAUSE their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying HIS GLORIOUS PRESENCE.  They have brought evil on themselves.

And then Isaiah predicts the horrors that will come when Jerusalem is taken captive.  All the lovely things they have flaunted will be gone, with rottenness, death, and mourning in their place.

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Isaiah 4.

But … hope, too! 

“In that day, the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.”

“And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion….”

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(Ah, LORD, thank you for the HOPE you give us in Jesus, the Messiah. Sin consumes our world now, and even permeates our own lives like Israel of old.  PRAISE YOU, for washing our scarlet and crimson-red sins away with the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who was crucified as punishment for our iniquity.  THANK YOU for making us (in your sight) white as wool and pristine as snow! We fall on our knees, no, our faces, and worship You!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 189

Jul8

Day 189 – Reading – 2 Kings 15, and 2 Chronicles 26

Read today’s scriptures. Refer to “Kings” chart to keep the names straight!

2 Kings 15.

In the middle of Jeroboam II’s reign in Israel (north), Azariah/Uzziah became king in Judah (south).  (We will call him Uzziah, because that how Isaiah refers to him.)

  • He was 16 when he began to reign.
  • He reigned 52 years.
  • He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD (until right at the very end).   (Verse 5 says that the LORD touched him with leprosy at the end of his life.  Don’t worry, we will read the details in 2 Chronicles!)

At the end of Uzziah’s life and after after he died, his son Jotham reigned in his place. (More in 2 Chronicles.)

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Meanwhile in Israel (north), Jeroboam II died and his son Zechariah became king … for six months.  Shallum (the son of nobody” according to the Assyrians), killed Zechariah and took his crown. 

And that was THE END OF THE PROMISE THAT GOD GAVE TO JEHU FOR HIS HUMOUNGUS BLOODY WORK OF ANNILIATING THE HOUSE OF AHAB. (Read 2 Kings 10:30 for that promise that 4 of his sons would reign as king).

Shallum (Mr. Nobody) reigned for ONE MONTH.  Menahem, the military commander under Zechariah, came and killed Shallum, and took the crown of Israel. (This guy did some horrible things because some cities did not accept him. Menachem reigned ten years.

During his reign, Pul, the new, evil, and growing in power, king of Assyria (form Nineveh – remember Jonah?) came down on Israel.  Menachem assessed 50 talents of silver from all the rich men and gave it to Pul, and the King of Assyria went home …… for a time. 

After ten years, Menachem’s son, Pekahiah became king. (Uzziah was still king in Judah to the south).

Pekahiah reigned two years.  Pekah (no not his son, but the son of his army captain), along with 50 men conspired against king Pekahiah and killed him in Samaria, in the citadel of the king’s house. 

And so, Pekah became king in Israel in the last year of Judah’s king (Uzziah)’s reign.  Pekah reigned twenty years, and did evil in God’s sight.  During his 20-year reign, another King of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser, stronger and crueler than Pul, came and captured a northern chunk of Israel, including all of the territory of Naphtali, Gilead, and Galilee.   He carried all the people there away into captivity … they did not return.  

Then the Assyrian king made this area into three provinces of Assyria.  The Assyrian king was probably involved in the conspiracy of Hoshea that ended in Pekah’s death.

Israel’s LAST KING, Hoshea, killed Pekah and became king in his place. HIS DAYS WERE NUMBERED!  

We will see the sad final end of Hoshea and ISRAEL, in our study NEXT TUESDAY.

Meanwhile, back to the South………

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2 Chronicles 26.

Ah, the beginning of the mostly good King Uzziah, crowed by the people of Judah at age 16, he — 

  • “set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah (an unknown prophet) who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.”
  • God helped him in the war against the Philistines, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites.
  • His fame spread even to the border of Egypt because he became very strong.
  • He built and fortified towers in Jerusalem and in the wilderness.
  • He built cisterns for his many herds.
  • He had a huge army, fit for war, and made shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and slings for them.
  • He made “engines” invented by skillful men to be on the towers to shoot arrows and great stones.
  • He became STRONG.

BUT … WHEN he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.  (He was unfaithful to the LORD his God  and “entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.”)   WHAT!!!

Oh, such a warning to me and to you!

Of course, the priests stopped him before he could do it, but he had the censor IN HIS HAND!  

(Oh, my goodness, remember Aaron’s sons who tried to do that?  A blast of fire from God’s holiness consumed them!!)

The priests – all eighty of them – managed to get King Uzziah OUT of the Temple. But the KING WAS VERY ANGRY and struggled.  And the LORD struck him with LEPROSY.  The priests could see it on his forehead, but it could have been elsewhere too.

And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death. He lived in a separate house and was excluded from the House of the LORD.  (Oh, my! and after all the good he did!)

His son, Jotham took over governing the people.  When Uzziah died he was buried outside the city in the field belonging to the kings.  And Jotham then reigned as king.

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Isaiah prophesied during the time of Uzziah, Jotham, (and Ahaz and Hezekiah), kings of Judah. Isaiah 1:1

He had an amazing vision, recorded in chapter 6.  Isaiah 6:1 – “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His GLORY filled the temple………..”  WOW! 

We will see what Isaiah’s reaction was to this – so different from Uzziah’s pride.

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 187 & 188

Jul7

Day 187 – Reading – 2 Kings 14, and 2 Chronicles 25

Day 188 – Reading Jonah 1 – 4

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

2 Kings 14 & 2 Chronicles 25.

These two chapters essentially tell the same story, but with a few different details.  It’s a bit confusing because BOTH the King of Israel and the King of Judah are named Joash! It would be like the President of the United States and the President of Russia BOTH named Trump.  Can you imagine the confusion in the press!!

Then, the southern kingdom of Judah’s King Joash was assassinated by his own servants, and his son, Amaziah, succeeded him as king.  Amaziah was a semi-good king, at least at first, doing what was “mostly right in the sight of the LORD,” but not quite as well as David.  The first thing Amaziah did was to kill the servants who had killed his father, Joash. (Remember, Joash killed Zechariah, the priest, the son of the priest who’d raised him. Two servants then conspired to kill  him.) Now the new king killed those servants. What a chain of cruelty and death! Will it stop there?

Amaziah mustered an army in Judah (along with 100K paid mercenaries from Israel) to fight against the men of Mt. Seir (Edom).  But God told him NOT to use soldiers from Israel.  God was NOT with them, but God WOULD help Judah alone to defeat Edom.  Amaziah sent the Israeli soldiers home (which made them mad), and went on to defeat Edom.

But, those 100K mercenaries, angry at not being able to go to war (and get loot), attacked and looted cities in Judah and Jerusalem!!

And then, Amaziah came back with – get this – some idols of the Edomites. And he started worshiping THEM!!  Can you believe it??  God sent a prophet to reprimand the king, but Amaziah made him stop.

Feeling emboldened, Amaziah sent to Israel and challenged King Joash of Israel to fight him. WHAT??  King Joash told King Amaziah to “Stay home, you little weed (thistle)!”  But Amaziah would not listen.  Why?  GOD HAD ORDAINED HIS DOWNFALL because of the idols from Edom.

The two kings, with their armies, fought at Beth-Shemesh in Judah’s territory, and Judah was defeated.  The southern army ran away, and King Amaziah was captured. The northern king then went to Jerusalem and seized all the gold, silver, and all the vessels that were in the Temple and the king’s own house, and even broke down part of Jerusalem’s wall!  He took hostages (but left King Amaziah there) and returned to Samaria, with a smug smirk on his lips. Thistle indeed!

Amaziah lived 15 more years, but a conspiracy against him made him flee to Lachish (a fortified city about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem). But the angry people went after him and killed him there.  The people then put his son, the sixteen-year-old Azariah, in his place as king.  (Azariah did right in God’s sight and reigned 52 years!)

Meanwhile, back in Israel, King Joash also died and was buried in Samaria.  His son Jeroboam II succeeded him.  Unsurprisingly, he did what was “EVIL in the sight of the LORD.”

Now, here is an interesting fact.  The LORD used Jeroboam to “restore some of the borders of Israel, east of the Jordan River.  Why?  “The LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, none to help Israel. The LORD had not said that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam.”  WHAT MERCY!

And, according to (2 Kings 14:25), who told Jeroboam to go and do that? 

NONE OTHER THAN THE PROPHET OF GOD — JONAH!!   

But we are much more familiar with the prophet’s other story.

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Jonah 1 – 4.

We’ve all heard about “Jonah and the whale” from Sunday School stories and children’s books. Those stories usually tell how Jonah was thrown overboard in a storm and was swallowed by a whale. Then God made the critter spit him out on the shore three days later, after he prayed.

All true.

But much more.

First, his name means “Dove.”  Today, we would think of “peace,” or someone who is anti-war.  Well, Jonah WAS a rebel, for sure, but not anti-war.  Earlier, God had used Jonah to encourage Jeroboam II to push back against the Syrians, which he did, and gained back almost as much land for Israel as in the days of David and Solomon. 

But the Syrians had grown weak.  Soon, a greater, fiercer, and crueler nation would swallow them up, and then look toward Israel.  Who? The Assyrians. Whereas Syria’s capital was Damascus, the capital of Assyria was Nineveh, WAY to the North-East, over 500 miles away.

“Go to that wicked city, Nineveh, and tell them to repent,” God told Jonah.

“No way!” said the prophet of God, who was all for defeating Israel’s enemies.  Jonah promptly went down to Joppa and bought a ticket on a boat to Tarshish. (Modern Spain, which is WAY to the West.) 

  • Verse 3 states twice that Jonah was “fleeing the presence of the LORD.”  Is that possible?  We may think so, but remember God is “omnipresent,” which means everywhere at once. 
  • Check out Psalm 139:7-10, where David asks the question, “Where shall I flee from Your presence?  Heaven? You are there. The grave? You are there. The uttermost parts of the sea?  Even there, Your hand shall hold me.”  I guess Jonah never read that psalm.

The boat sailed. Jonah went below deck for a nap. God “HURLED” a great wind on the sea, which whipped up into a horrible tempest!  The ship started to break up!  The sailors were terrified and began to pray to their god (Poseidon?).  They hurled the cargo into the sea (There goes their profit!)  Then, at his request, they hurled the prophet into the sea as well.

(Jonah had told them the true God of Heaven was angry with him. They got REALLY afraid – that’s why they obeyed and tossed him overboard.)

Immediately, no wind and placid seas.

That terrified the sailors even more, and they WORSHIPPED the LORD.  (A foretaste of Nineveh?)

Down, down, down went Jonah. Right into the mouth of a great fish that God had prepared. (Like Moby Dick??)

AND JONAH PRAYED TO THE LORD FROM THE BELLY OF THE FISH!

Not exactly repentance, but an acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty.  The “vow” in verse 9 could have been a vow to carry out God’s call to preach in Nineveh.

And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited (Yuck!) Jonah on dry land.  “Terra firma, Hooray!”  Good to be there.  Then…

Again came God’s message, “Go to Nineveh. Call out against it with the message I will give you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I KNOW, God.”

So, after a “swish-off” in the Mediterranean, Jonah set off, Eastward.

How long it took him, we don’t know.  Did he catch a ride with a caravan, or hot-foot it all the way?  Regardless, Jonah finally arrived at that great city (in modern-day Iraq).  The city was HUGE!  It would take a person THREE DAYS to walk across it. (Like Los Angeles??)

Jonah went halfway in and cried, “IN 40 DAYS, NINEVEH WILL BE OVERTHROWN!” And then he left, went outside the city to a hill, and sat down to watch the “holy fireworks.”

They didn’t come.

Instead, the whole city repented. (FROM ONE 7-WORD SERMON!!)  The people believed God. They put on sackcloth in mourning for their sin, the king too, and all his court.

He proclaimed a fast from all food and water (for the animals as well!) and told the people to “Call out mightily to God. Turn everyone from his evil ways and the violence he’s done. For who knows?  God may turn and relent from His fierce anger, and we may not perish.”

And when God saw their hearts, He relented of the disaster that He said he would do to them.  (At least for a while.)

Not what Jonah imagined, or wanted. He was furious! 

  • “SEE!!!  This is what I said would happen when I was back home!
  • This is why I fled to Tarshish! 
  • I KNEW You were a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, and relenting from disaster!    (He was quoting Psalm 103, now, so I guess he did read God’s word.)

JONAH SHOULD HAVE BEEN THANKFUL that God was merciful… a God of second chances. Or else, he might have still been in that fish’s belly, rotting away!

  • Oh, please just kill me, for that is better than living (and seeing this!)

It got very hot.  Jonah put up a lean-to to shade himself while he watched. And the good and kind LORD caused a vine to grow up over the lean-to, which added more shade and a sweet fragrance.

Nice. 

Jonah settled back.

Then the good and kind LORD caused a worm to kill the plant.  And the next day, a scorching east wind blew, and the sun beat down. 

Jonah was angry that the plant died.  “It’s better for me to die than to live,” he moaned.

“You are angry and pity a vine that you did not plant or cause to grow, that came into being in a night and  perished in a night?”

“YES!“

And the good and kind LORD said, “And should I not pity Nineveh, a great city, in which there are more than 120K small children?”

No answer.

Silence.

About 40 years later, the NEXT generation of Assyrians reverted to their evil, violent ways. They came down on Israel, destroyed the kings, and carried the people away into captivity, never to return. 

End of the northern kingdom. 

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(**** Ah, LORD, You are faithful to save, when people turn their hearts from sin and trust in You…. at the preaching of Your Word.  

"For the scripture says, Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. 
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. 
For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on ALL who call on Him. 
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent?"
Romans 10:11-15.






			


	



			
				


	

		
Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 186


					
Jul5
			


	

		
Day 186 – Reading – 2 Kings 12 – 13, and 2 Chronicles 24




Read today’s Scriptures. 


Don’t be confused by all the similar names. Try to be consistent looking for the phrases:


“He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD,”


and “He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.”


Right through here the names of the kings in Israel (north) and Judah (south) get a bit confusing for they are the same, and a few have the same or opposite “nicknames.”  Here’s the chart again. 




NOTE in Judah, after Jehoshaphat, there is Jehoram (Joram), another Ahaziah, Athaliah (the queen), Joash (Jehoash), and Amaziah.


NOTE in Israel, after Ahab, there is Ahaziah, another Joram (Jehoram), Jehu, Jehoahaz, another Jehoash (Joash).


Seriously, as you are reading, if you don’t mind marking your Bible, highlight or underline the northern king’s names in blue, and the southern kings’ names in red. (or other colors).


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2 Kings 12.


This chapter continues what we learned in 2 Chronicles 23-24.  Even though the new king in Judah is called Jehoash here, we read about him as Joash, saved from his murdering grandmother, hidden away by the priest, Jehoida, until he was seven, and then crowned the king. His wicked “nana” was also killed that day.  We also read of the reforms the boy (under the priest’s tutelage) made, including repairing the Temple.


Now we see him calling again for the three types of offering that support the temple. 


    

  • The 1/2 shekel per man whenever a census was taken,
    • 

  • the payments of vows,
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  • and voluntary offerings.
    • 



King Joash/Jehoash called for these offering.  After some years, when they did NOT come in, he had a special “offering box” made.  It was a reminder for the people to give.  When it was full, the priest would count and bag it and GIVE IT TO WORKMEN (carpenters, builders, masons and stonecutters) who were doing the repair.  (No “hanky-panky” in changing so many hands.


He reigned 40 years. Towards the end, Hazael (whom Elisha had anointed King of Syria) came and took Gath from the Philistines.  Now Gath was a mere 20-25 miles west of Jerusalem. And when Joash saw that the Syrian king meant to attack and take Jerusalem, he took all the sacred gifts, and his own gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the Temple and the king’s house … and sent it to Hazael. 


Pleased, Hazael “went away from Jerusalem.”  (Too bad he did not pray for help from God!!)


************** And then – sheesh – two of Joash’s servants KILLED the king.  He was buried in the city of David, and his son Amaziah reigned.


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2 Kings 13.


Meanwhile back up in the North, while Joash had been reigning, Jehoahaz (son of Jehu) began to reign. (17 years, evil)


Having left Jerusalem alone, the Syrian king, Hazael, and later his son Ben-Hadad III, continually harassed the northern kingdom, taking small bites of land/cities.  King Jehoahaz’s army was whittled down to 50 horsemen, ten chariots, and 10K foot soldiers.


BUT NOTICE!!!  This wicked king “sought the favor of the LORD, and the LORD listened to him, for He saw how oppressed they were.”  (God is so gracious and merciful!  He gave them “a savior” so the people could escape from the hand of the Syrians, and live in their homes.)


NOTE: This “savior” whom God gave to Israel is not named. But there are three choices.


    

  • 1. The Assyrian king, who attacked the Syrians from behind and forced them to turn from Israel.
    • 

  • 2. Elisha, the prophet, who continued his “secret” leadership in revealing where the Syrians would strike next.
    • 

  • or 3. Jeroboam II, the man who would be king after Jehoahaz, who fought the Syrians back. 
    • 



Take your pick.


Jehoahaz died and was buried in Samaria. 


His son Jehoash/Joash began to reign in ISRAEL. (Joash, king of JUDAH was still on the throne in the south.  Two kings named Joash: north & south!)


This new king “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” 


Elisha, the prophet of God be came deathly ill.  King Jehoash/Joash went to him and wept.  HE KNEW the northern kingdom was lost without this godly prophet.  


He cried out to Elisha, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”  (Remember there were only 10 chariots and 50 horsemen!).  He was asking for military help!!


Elisha had King Jehoash/Joash shoot an arrow out the window, prophesying a victory over Syria.


Elisha then had the King strike the ground with his quiver of arrows. the king struck three times.


“Oh, no!!” said Elisha. “You should have struck 5-6 times then you would have totally defeated them.  Now it’s only three times, and they will come back and get you.


AND ELISHA DIED. They buried him, but it seems they forgot to fill in the grave. A band of Moabites came by, one of them died, and they threw him in the grave. HE BOUNCED BACK OUT ALIVE, AFTER TOUCHING ELISHA’S BONES. Elisha’s double portion of God’s power continued even after his death!


What??? 


The Syrian king, Hazael died and Ben-Hadad III reigned. Israel fought with him and took back the cities that were taken in war. THREE TIMES Israel defeated them. 


Jehoash/Joash reigned 16 years and died, and was buried in Samaria.


..


Jeroboam II became king in the NORTH.


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2 Chronicles 24.


Okay…. were you curious at how quickly Judah’s king Joash was suddenly killed by two servants, after getting on with repairing the Temple??


I was!


Now, in Chronicles, we see the details.  King Joash had an about face, and TURNED AWAY FROM GOD, after his mentor and surrogate father, Jehoiada, the priest died.  Like Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, Joash then listened to the advice of the young princes of Judah.  He abandoned the Temple AND SERVED IDOLS! What?


Zechariah, the new priest and son of Jehoiada, called Joash out and said God would forsake HIM. Joash didn’t like that and commanded that the priest be STONED!!


The Syrians came again and took all those princes captive, and injured King Joash severely.  IT WAS THEN, THAT THOSE TWO SERVANTS CONSPIRED TO KILL KING JOASH – BECAUSE HE HAD THE PRIEST, ZACHARIAH STONED.


Okay then.  That makes sense.  Good for them!


Amaziah, the king’s son reigned instead in JUDAH.