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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, Days 194 & 195

Jul14

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

Day 194 – Reading – 2 Chronicles 27 and Isaiah 9 – 12

Day 195 – Reading – Micah 1- 7

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

Day 194 – 2 Chronicles 27.

We step back from the prophets for a chapter in history, looking at the southern kingdom of Judah.  Uzziah has died, and his son Jotham, who has been managing things for his father since God gave Uzziah leprosy and they put him in isolation.  Now, Jotham becomes king in his own right. He was 25 and he reigned until he was 41.  He did what was RIGHT IN THE EYES OF THE LORD, as Uzziah had done in the early part of his reign. 

Jotham did a lot of building and fortifying of cities. He warred and won with the Ammonites and so received a lot of tribute from them for Judah.   Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.  

Jotham was buried in the City of David, and his son Ahaz reigned. Ahaz was a nasty, idol worshiping man, who even sacrificed his son to a pagan god.

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Isaiah 9.

These chapters in Isaiah alternate from predictions of TERROR by invasion, destruction, exile, and death … and the HOPE of the coming Messianic Kingdom.

So much is familiar here about the birth, ministry, and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  • Verses 9:1-2 are quoted in Matthew 4:12-16, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali is where Jesus’ primary ministry took place.
  • The people who walked in great darkness have seen a great light. John 3:19-21 and 8:12 reveal that Jesus is the light of the world. Follow Him and you’ll not walk in darkness.  However, some will HATE the light, while others love it.
  • Verse 9:6 are very familiar words to us at Christmas time.  “For unto us a child is born.” See Luke 2:11-12.  “…Unto us a Son is given.”  See John 3:16.  And then those beautiful titles for Jesus: “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  He was and IS all of these, THANK YOU, Jesus!

Isaiah’s prophecy foretells Jesus’ glorious reign on earth: with no end… on the throne of David… with justice and righteousness, and forevermore. 

No wonder the Jews and the disciples of Jesus’ earthly ministry expected him (If he was really the Messiah) to rise up in rebellion against Rome and rule on a throne.  From OUR view, we know there is a great “time valley” between the two “mountains” of his comings..  And this glorious kingdom is YET TO COME. 

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Isaiah 10.

The LORD continues with Woes to the arrogant and proud people of Israel, naming specific groups or sins, in the last part of chapter 9, 10, and into 11.  His response?  “For all this, His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.”

Then Isaiah predicts a horrific judgment on the arrogant Assyria (who had repented for a short time under Jonah).  They turned back to even MORE wicked ways only a generation later.  They were known for their barbaric cruelty.

BUT FIRST, God will use this cruel nation to judge Syria, Israel, and then Judah. 

THEN, “When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.”

The Assyrian Empire was massive. No wonder Israel felt so small and HOPELESS.  Here’s a map of the approx. 200 years of their rule.

Then Isaiah turns once again to HOPE. He prophesies of the “Remnant of Israel” and her survivors.  

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Isaiah 11.

Isaiah writes of the Righteous Reign of the BRANCH (or root of David). 

  • And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.   These are the qualifications that will enable Jesus the Messiah to rule justly.  (Also compare Revelations 1:4.)
  • Then Isaiah writes of the Idyllic  Millennium Reign, when: wolf & lamb, leopard & young goat, lion and calf, and cow & bear shall all graze together and lie down together in safety.  AND A LITTLE CHILD WILL LEAD THEM.   In fact, a nursing child will play with a cobra, a weaned child with an adder. (both deadly snakes) and they shall not be hurt.
  • Instead of a scarcity of the Word of God, “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the water covers the sea.
  • “In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the REMNANT that remains of His people, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath and from the Coastlands of the sea.”
  • “And he … will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

Oh, my, what a dream the people of God had to hide deep in their hearts, and collectively remember in that Day.

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Isaiah 12

And then the beautiful Psalm-like chapter. Can you hear Isaiah singing…..

"You will say in that day;
I will give thanks to You, O LORD,
for though You were angry with me,
Your anger turned away,
that You might comfort me.

Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,
and He has become my salvation.

With joy you will draw water 
from the wells of salvation.
And in that day, you will say;
Give thanks to the LORD,
call upon His name,
make know his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that His Name is exalted.

Sing praises to the LORD, 
for He has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."


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Day 195 – Micah 

Micah (Who is like God?) was a contemporary of Hosea and Isaiah, but he prophesied mainly to the southern kingdom of Judah. (The northern kingdom was about to fall to Assyria.)  God used him in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Like Amos, he was a “country” man from a small town near the Philistine border. 

His message was primarily to the princes and people of Jerusalem, condemning the social injustice and religious corruption he saw there. When Israel fell, northern refugees flooded into Judah, bringing their idol worship (Baals) with them. Micah  addresses this briefly, especially since King Ahaz was a part of it.

Like Isaiah, Micah prophesied horrific doom to Judah from the Assyrians and then the Babylonians.  But he alternates his dark messages with passages of HOPE for the coming Messiah-King and a restored Israel in the Millennial Kingdom.

 

 Micah 1 – 3.

Micah calls the world to witness what God is going to do in Israel and Judah.

Samaria (capital of Israel) will be made into “a heap.”  Then he bewails that Israel’s idolatry has come to Judah.  Now, “disaster has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.”

Micah condemns those who devise wickedness “on their beds” and then perform it in the morning … because it’s in their power to do so.  These rich and powerful “covet” fields and “seize” them (a reminder of King Ahab and the vineyard of Naboth?). They covet houses and take away a man’s house and “his inheritance,”  which was forbidden in the Law.

Micah tells them that it will happen TO THEM TOO in the time of disaster, when the LORD will “allot OUR fields to an apostate.”

Micah, in God’s name, rails against the heads and rulers of Jacob, for hating good and loving evil, committing horrendous injustice against the poor, which he pictures as butchering animals!

He also condemns the false prophets for misleading the people and prophesying “Peace.” They are led by greed, saying anything pleasing … for money.  God promises THEY will be struck blind for “blinding” the people with their lies.

  • Rulers detest justice and make crooked that which is straight.
  • Heads of the house of Jacob give judgment for a bribe.
  • Priests teach for a price
  • Prophets practice divination for money.

Therefore, Zion (Jerusalem) will be plowed as a field with nothing left but a heap of stones.

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Micah 4 – 5.

Micah also prophesies HOPE about what will come to pass “in the latter days.”

God will establish the “mountain of the House of the LORD, and people will flow to it and say …

  • “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
  • “They will beat swords into plows… neither shall they learn war anymore.
  • “They will sit every man under his vine and his fig tree, and no one will make them afraid....”

Then the prophecy that is still TWO HUNDRED YEARS OFF —

  • “Writhe and groan, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for NOW you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to BABYLON.  THERE you shall be rescued, THERE the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies!”

And then that prophecy we know so well….

  • “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from YOU shall come forth for me One who is to be Ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”    (See Matthew 2:6)
  • “And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the Name of the LORD his God. And He shall be their peace.“

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Micah 6 – 7

Another courtroom scene, with the LORD, the people, and the prophet speaking as the lawyer for God.

The LORD’s appeal.

  • “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!

The LORD reminds them of all the good things He has done for them, from deliverance from Egypt to help in conquering the Land.

MICAH, speaking for the people.

  • With what shall we come before the LORD?  With calves? Rams? Rivers of oil? Our firstborn?

MICAH speaking for God.

  • “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

And because they did NOT do the above, God would send judgment to them as punishment.  All the terrors that fell on their sister nation of Israel would be coming to them as well.  As they walked in the wicked ways of Omri and Ahab, so God will make them a desolation, a hissing, and a scorn.

The MICAH, sounding a bit like Isaiah here, cries, “WOE IS ME!”  for all the evil he sees in Judah.  But he gives his own testimony, “But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

Then the PEOPLE confess their sin and their faith in the LORD. 

They acknowledge the justice of God’s punishment.

And they look forward to His restoration. 

Then MICAH pleads to God.

  • “Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in days of old.

Then the repentant PEOPLE praise the LORD’s grace and mercy.

  • “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?
  • “He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love (mercy).  He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot.
  • “YOU will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea, You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from days of old.”

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(**** O LORD, I love this prayer and confession of the people. They know they have sinned, and finally, after Your chastisement, they acknowledge their sin.  They turn to you, confess, and trust in your faithfulness and the promises in Your Word.  LORD, let this be our story too)

 

 

 

 

 







			


	



			
				


	

		
Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 193


					
Jul12
			


	

		
Day 193 – Reading – Amos 6 – 9




Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?


Amos 6.


Amos cries “WOE” to the rich and fat who have a life of ease; those who lie on ivory beds and stretch themselves out on couches, eating the tenderest of lamb and veal. Those who sit around strumming harps and singing lovely songs, while drinking wine … from bowls, and are perfumed with the finest oils and ointments.  THEY WILL BE THE FIRST TO GO INTO EXILE!


“Behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD, the God of hosts; “and they shall oppress you from ‘the north clear to the south.'”


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Amos 7.


Amos next tells about FIVE VISIONS from the LORD.


    

  • 1.  God prepares LOCUSTS to destroy the latter growth of grass, the people’s portion, after the king has taken his part. They will all be wiped out, and Amos intercedes for them, “O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!“  And the Lord relents, for the remnant’s sake.
    • 

  • 2.  Next. God calls a judgment of FIRE to eat up the ‘great deep’ and all the land to produce a devastating drought.  Again, Amos intercedes for them, “O Lord GOD, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” The Lord relents.
    • 

  • 3.  God showed Amos a vision of God himself with a PLUMB LINE, measuring Israel. “I will never again pass through my people, Israel. The high places will be made desolate, the sanctuaries laid waste, and I’ll raise a sword over the house of Jeroboam II.”
    • 



The priest at Bethel (where one of the golden calves is set up) complains about Amos to King Jeroboam. “The land is not able to bear all his words!”  


The priest told Amos to go away, to the land of Judah, and prophesy there.  He was never again to come to Bethel, for it was “the king’s sanctuary.”  HA!


Amos whipped right back, “The LORD took me from following the flock and TOLD me to go, prophesy to Israel.  Now hear THIS! 


    

  • Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be divided up, and you, yourself, will die in an unclean land, and … Israel shall surely go into exile away from this land!’
    • 



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Amos 8.


    

  • 4.  The LORD then shows Amos a BASKET OF RIPE FRUIT.  Then God show him that Israel is ripe for judgment. “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. The songs of the Temple shall become wailings in that day.  So many dead bodies!  They are thrown everywhere!  “Silence!”
    • 

  • Then the LORD lists their sins: False worship, waiting impatiently till they can again go and indulge in rich food and rip off the poor with false balances, and buy them for slaves.. “Surely, I will NEVER forget your deeds. O you proud of Jacob!”
    • 

  • “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD God, “when I will send a famine on the land — not a famine of bread or a thirst for water but of HEARING THE WORDS OF THE LORD; They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the Word of the LORD … BUT THEY SHALL NOT FIND IT!”
    • 



Whoa!


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Amos 9.


And then the 5th vision…


    

  • 5.  God is standing beside the altar at Bethel. “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people. And those who are left of them, I will kill with the sword; NOT ONE of them shall flee away; NOT ONE of them shall escape.
    • 

  • …..”And if they dig into Sheol….  if they climb up to heaven…. if they hide themselves on Carmel…. if they hide at the bottom of the sea….  I will find them and take them and kill them.”
    • 

  • ….. “EXCEPT … I will not UTTERLY destroy the house of Jacob, “declares the LORD.”
    • 



And then God gives Amos a wonderful picture of the Restoration of Israel in the Millennial Kingdom, when the Messiah will reign.


    

  • “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and in habit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.  I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out ot the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God. 
    • 



 


(This is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, and will occur when Jesus Christ is reigning on earth in the thousand years of promise.  Israel will be “shaken by a sieve throughout the nations,” but only the “chaff” will be punished.  Israel won’t return to the land, as the southern kingdom of Judah does 70 years after exile to Babylon.  But the righteous remnant of Israel and Judah will live under Christ’s reign for one thousand years.  And Abraham will be satisfied.)


 


 


 





			


	



			
				


	

		
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.


.


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!


.


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.


.


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.”


.


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.


.


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.“


.


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.)


.


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.


.


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.”  


.


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.


.


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.


.


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….”


.


(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.)


.


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………


.


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.


.


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 180 & 181


					
Jun30
			


	

		


Sundays and Mondays studies are posted together on Mondays


Day 180. Reading 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18




Day 181.  Reading 2 Chronicles 19 – 23








Read Today’s Scriptures.


What insight or comfort do you receive?


 


Day 180 – 1 Kings 22.


After that ill-advised truce between King Ahab’s Israel (north) and King Ben-Hadad’s Syria (farther north), there were three years without war. Each country was trading in the other’s bazaars.  


But, there was a sore spot between the two kings. It was the town of Ramoth-Gilead.  Officially, it was in Israel’s territory, way east, across the Jordan River and right up next to Syria. (See map on yesterday’s post.) Syria was gradually “taking” the town, and Ahab didn’t like it.


So… when King Jehoshaphat of Judah (south) came to visit Ahab, Ahab asked him if he would go with him and battle for it and try to settle the dispute with Syria.


“Sure,” Jehoshaphat said. “My people are yours and my horses are yours. But … hey, let’s inquire of the the LORD first.”


King Ahab gathered his 400 prophets and inquired if they should go up against Syria at Ramoth-Gilead.


They ALL said, “Go up, for the LORD will give it into your hand.”


This seemed a little fishy to King Jehoshaphat, and he asked if there was ANOTHER prophet of the LORD that they could ask.


King Ahab grumbled, but finally said, yes, there was ONE, but Ahab didn’t like him because he ALWAYS prophesied against him.  Jehoshaphat pressed him, and Micaiah was called.  After a bit of messing around this real prophet of God said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd.“


“SEE!!! I told you.  He never says anything nice about me!” bemoaned Ahab.  And Ahab promptly put Micaiah in prison with meager food rations.


But, the Word of the LORD which Micaiah spoke came true.  The two Jewish kings went up to battle with the king of Syria, who had told his men to “fight with neither small or great, but with the King of Israel (Ahab) only.”


King Jehoshaphat (Judah) rode out in his chariot in regal clothing and a crown on his head.  But wily King Ahab disguised himself as a lowly soldier.  The Syrians of course, went after Jehoshaphat, who cried out to the LORD for help.  When the Syrian captains saw that he was not King Ahab they turned away.  


Then ,,, a random soldier drew his bow and randomly shot an arrow into the air.  “Oops!” That deadly missile flew right to the disguised King Ahab and entered his body through the crack separating his breastplate from his chain mail.  A scream.  And, “TURN AROUND AND CARRY ME OUT OF THE BATTLE FOR … I … AM … WOUNDED!  And troops fled every man to his city.


In the evening, King Ahab died.  His blood flowed into the bottom of the chariot. His body was brought to Samaria and buried.  


“And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs liked up his blood.”  Just as Elijah had prophesied.


Ahaziah, his son reigned in his place. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father, King Ahab, and in the way of his mother, Queen Jezebel. He served Baal and worshiped the pagan gods. He provoked the LORD, the God of Israel to anger in every way that his father did.


.


Meanwhile, in the south, King Jehoshaphat continued to reign over Judah. (We’ll learn some good things about him tomorrow from 2 Chronicles 19-23.  He continued to clean up the pagan worship that his father King Asa had begun.)


Jehoshaphat eventually died and HIS son, Jehoram reigned in his place. Jehoram was exceedingly wicked, and you will find out why (below) and how (tomorrow’s reading).  


.


2 Chronicles 18.


Here are a few interesting details on the story above about King Ahab in the north, and King Jehoshaphat in the south going to battle together for Ramoth-Gilead.


Jehoshaphat had GREAT RICHES and honor.  He – STUPIDLY!!! – made a marriage alliance with king Ahab.  (Ah ha! … now we see why the southern king was willing to go to war with Ahab against the Syrians.)  Jehoshaphat had arranged for his son, Jehoram, to marry Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab & Jezebel.


And the fall out of this union nearly wiped out the godly line of David through whom the Messiah Jesus would come!!! We’ll see that tomorrow.


.


###


.


Day 181 – 2 Chronicles 19.


When King Jehoshaphat returned to Judah after that narrow escape with the Syrians and the death of Ahab, he was met by Hanani, a prophet of God, for a thorough scolding. 


“Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD?”  (Yes, it did seem strange that he would help the wicked King Ahab fight the Syrians … until we learned that his son had married Ahab’s daughter.  There was a political obligation there.)


Hanani told the king of Judah that he SHOULD be punished … but that, “some” good had been found in him. He’d gotten rid of the pagan Asherah poles, and … MORE IMPORTANTLY, Jehoshaphat had “set his heart to seek the LORD.”  After that …


    

  • He went out to the people in his land and “brought them back to the LORD, the God of their Fathers”.
    • 

  • He appointed judges in all the fortified cities and reminded them that the LORD was watching them. They should make sure there was no injustice or bribery.
    • 

  • He appointed special Levites in Jerusalem to decide disputed cases.
    • 



.


2 Chronicles 20.


And then, a threat of war came to Judah (south). The descendants of Israel’s old relatives: (Moab & Ammon, both from Abraham’s nephew Lot) and Edom (descended from Jacob’s twin, Esau) joined together. They came around the south end of the Dead Sea, with the plan to de-throne Jehoshaphat.


Thankfully, the king did not call on the wicked kings in the north to help him, but “set his face to seek the LORD.” He proclaimed a fast for all his people. And prayed this prayer;


    

  • “O LORD, God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven?  You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand You.  Did You not, our God, drive out the in habitants of this land before Your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, Your friend?
    • 

  • “And they have lived in it, and have built in it a sanctuary for Your Name, saying, “If disaster comes upon us (the sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine), we will stand before this house and before You (for Your Name is in this house) and cry out to you in our affliction, You will hear and save!
    • 

  • “And now behold, the men of AMMON, MOAB, and MOUNT SEIR, whom Your would not let Israel invade when we came up from Egypt – Behold, they “reward us” by coming to drive us out of Your possession.
    • 

  • “O our God, will you not execute judgment on them?  For WE ARE POWERLESS AGAINST THIS GREAT HORDE that is coming against us. “WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO!  But our eyes are on You.”
    • 



**** (Oh, my goodness, what a prayer!  What if WE should pray this way, with such dependence on God!  What if modern Israel would pray this way, in total dependance on the LORD, their God! How would YOU respond, O LORD our God?)


As all Israel, with the little children and women, stood before the LORD, the Spirit of the LORD came on Jahazel, a descendent of Asaph, the Levite. And he said,


    

  • “LISTEN, all Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem, and king Jehoshaphat. Thus says the LORD. “Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, FOR THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS BUT GOD’S.”
    • 

  • “Tomorrow go down against them.  YOU WILL NOT NEED TO FIGHT IN THIS BATTLE.  Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD, on YOUR behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.
    • 

  • “DO NOT BE AFRAID AND DO NOT BE DISMAYED.  Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you!”
    • 



Jehoshaphat, all Judah and Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping Him. They praised the LORD, the God of Israel with a very loud voice.


And they arose early in the morning and went out to meet the horde. Jehoshaphat stood and encouraged them. “Hear me, Judah and Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, an you will be established. Believe the prophet and you will succeed.


AND THEN … Jehoshaphat appointed singers to sing and praise the LORD, as the went before the army.


“Give thanks to the LORD, FOR His steadfast love endures forever.”


And when they BEGAN to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, so that they were routed.  They each destroyed one another!!!!!  Dead bodies all around. None escaped.


WOW!


Jehoshaphat and the people came to take the spoil and found GREAT NUMBERS of goods, clothing, precious things – which they took for themselves until they could carry no more.


They returned to Jerusalem with GREAT JOY for the LORD had made them rejoice over their enemies. 


And the fear of God came on all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel.  So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet … for his God gave him rest all around.


.


At the end of his life, King Jehoshaphat joined in a venture to build a shipping fleet to Tarshish – with Israel’s wicked King Ahaziah (north).  But God destroyed all the ships because of this ungodly alignment.


Eventually Jehoshaphat died and was buried in the City of David (the southern part of Jerusalem, below the Temple Mount and palace).


.


2 Chronicles 21.


Jehoshaphat’s first-born son, Jehoram (the one he’d arranged a marriage with wicked Ahab/Jezebel’s daughter, Athaliah), ascended the throne.  HE WAS NOTHING LIKE HIS GODLY FATHER!  Immediately, he killed all his brothers, six in all, plus some of the princes of Israel (north), to assure his place in the kingdom.  (These men, were the lineage of “the house of David” through whom God had promised the reigning Messiah. Jehoram killed them all!) 


And yet God did not destroy him, even though he did what was totally evil in His sight, for God was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the Covenant He’d made with David. God had promised “a lamp to him and to his sons forever.”  But what about this totally evil man of darkness???


Do not fear. God is Sovereign over all.


But meanwhile Jehoram grew worse. He made high places for pagan worship. He led Judah into whoredom and made them go astray.


Elijah the prophet sent him a letter from the north. “Because you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel (north) and have enticed Judah into whoredom, and killed your brothers, I, the LORD, will bring a great plague on your people, children, wives, possessions and YOU YOURSELF will have a severe sickness of your bowels, until them come out of your body.”


WHOA! (Leave it to Elijah to terrify!)


God stirred up the Philistines against Jehoram, and the Arabians, and they came and invaded Judah and carried away Jehoram’s possessions, his sons, and his wives. (Only Jehoahaz, his youngest son remained.)


Then God struck him with that dreaded bowel disease, an incurable disease.  In two years’ time all his bowels came out and Jehoram died IN GREAT AGONY. 


No one regretted his departure. He was buried in the city of David, BUT NOT IN THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS.


.


2 Chronicles 22.


So, Ahaziah/Jehoahaz, Jehoram’s youngest son reigned. He walked in the ways of his grandfather, King Ahab (north), for his mother was his counselor in doing wickedness. 


God ordained his downfall through His appointed Jehu, whom God had appointed to destroy the house of Ahab. (Remember, that was one responsibility the old prophet, Elijah had, to anoint Jehu.)  And Jehu did that – he killed Ahaziah/Jehoahaz and all the remaining princes of Ahab.


Now, there was no one able to rule the Kingdom of Judah.  


Why?  Because the wicked mother (daughter of Ahab) destroyed all the royal family of Judah. She proclaimed herself queen – but nobody took her reign seriously.


WAS JUDAH WIPED OUT?


WAS THERE TO BE NO SEED OF DAVID LEFT TO COME AS MESSIAH?


WHAT ABOUT GOD’S PROMISES?


But … there was a woman named Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, and the wife of the priest, Jehoiada.  She went into the “nursery” and carried away the very youngest son of the king, less than 1-year-old Josiah, AND HID HIM FROM HIS WICKED GRANDMOTHER. 


Josiah, the SEED OF DAVID, the “lamp of Israel,” lay hidden in a cradle. He stayed with the godly couple for six years, while Athaliah “reigned” over the land.   


****(Doesn’t this remind you of how God kept the baby Jesus safe from King Herod when he sent Joseph and Mary to Egypt?)


.


2 Chronicles 23.


Finally the time had come.


Josiah was seven years old.


He’d been trained by the priest, who now took courage.


Jehoida gathered the commanders of the army. They went through Judah and gathered the Levites from all their cities, as well as the fathers of the houses of Israel.


Jehoida showed them the boy-king, Josiah and said, “Behold, the king’s son! Let him reign as the LORD spoke concerning the sons of David.”


Then Jehoida revealed his carefully-though-out plan.  All the Levites and priests who had come off duty were divided into thirds and placed around the House of the Lord at the gates. “NO ONE MAY ENTER EXCEPT THE MINISTERING PRIESTS.” 


“Surround the king, each with his weapon in his hand.  Anyone approaching shall be killed.  Be with the king at all times.”


THEN, he brought out Josiah, the king’s son and placed the crown on his head.  “Long live the king!”


.


YIKES!  When Queen Athaliah heard the noise, she went to see what was happening and saw the young king. 


She tore her clothes and cried, “TREASON! TREASON!”


Jehoida commanded the captains to seize her. “Take her out of the court of the House of the Lord, and kill her!”  They led her through the horse gate of the king’s house and… did the deed.  The end of that wicked Ahab/Jezebel line … except for Josiah, whom the LORD had chosen to carry David’s seed.  WHEW!


.


Jehoida made a covenant between himself, the people, and the young king, that they ‘should be the LORD’s people.   He saw to it that the altars and images of Baal were destroyed. He reinstituted the sacrifices and offerings that Moses wrote about in the LAW.


Then he took the young boy king from the house of the LORD to the king’s house.  They set him on the ROYAL THRONE.  All the people rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been killed.


.


****(WOW. What a long tale of evil and good.  God is ALWAYS in control. HE is sovereign. He will fight for His people.  He will see that not a word of his prophecy EVER fails. His covenants are sure. HE IS GOD, and KING, and the LORD of Hosts forever and ever. Glory be to His name!)


 




 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 





			


	



			
				


	

		
Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 179


					
Jun28
			


	

		
Day 179.  Reading 1 Kings 20-21








 


Read today’s Scriptures.




1 Kings 20….


…tells a surprisingly good story about the wicked King Ahab.  Until the last part, that is.


We see King Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, again in this chapter. (Syria is the country just north-east of Israel, with Damascus as the capital.) (This map also shows the two places Elijah stayed during the drought, and Mt. Carmel, where the great “showdown” happened. Samaria is the capital of Israel, where Ahab lives.) 



 


 


Remember, in Chapter 15, King Asa (south) had paid Ben-Hadad a large amount of gold and silver from the temple, to harass King Basha (north) so he’d stop fortifying the border. The Syrian King had agreed. Now, it seems, Ben-Hadad was sure King Ahab could also be easily defeated.


“Hey, King Ahab, give me your silver and gold and the best of your wives and children.” 


“Okay, sure,” said Ahab.


Then Ben-Hadad got greedy. “I will send my servants to you tomorrow, and they will search your house and take whatever pleases them.”


“Um, no! The gold and silver and best wives and kids I will do, but NOT THAT,” sent back King Ahab.


“Okay, then. It’s war!”


“Make my day!” replied Ahab.


Now, here is the strange part.  A prophet of God came to Ahab and told him that he would get the victory, “So you will know that I am the LORD.”  Ahab got some military instructions from the prophet, and at noon they went out to confront King Ben-Hadad’s army.


The Syrian king was drunk, however, and commanded, “If they come in peace, TAKE THEM ALIVE!  But if they come out for war …. TAKE THEM ALIVE!”  (Huh?)


Ben-Hadad didn’t have the chance to do either, because King Ahab struck his forces a “very great blow!” The Syrians fled and Ben-hadad escaped on a horse.


The prophet of God told King Ahab to rest up, for in the Spring the king of Syria would be back.  (Now, the Syrians believed that Israel’s God was only a god of the hills. That’s why they were defeated.  Next time they would bring lots of chariots and fight on the plains.  The Jewish God would be defeated there.)


Oh, Syria.  You’ve a lot to learn!!


So, in the spring Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to fight against Israel … in the plains. The army of Israel that encamped before them was as “two little flocks of goats” compared to the Syrians who filled the country.  (Hahaha. Oh, Ben-Hadad, did you never hear of David and Goliath??)


The prophet of God came to Ahab and said, “BECAUSE the Syrians claim the LORD is only a god of the hills, I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and YOU SHALL KNOW that I am the LORD.”


And the people of Israel struck down of the Syrians 100K foot soldiers in one day.  When the rest fled to a town, the wall fell on them and 27K more were killed.  Ben-Hadad hid deep in the town and sent a message to King Ahab, “Please let me live.“


AND HERE IS WHERE KING AHAB WENT WRONG.  God had “devoted the Syrian king to destruction,” meaning he was to be killed.  But King Ahab thought it would be cool not to kill him.


“He’s alive? He’s “my brother!” he said.


“Yes! Your brother, Ben-Hadad!”


“Go, bring him out.”


When the Syrian king was brought out, King Ahab invited him up into his own chariot. And the two kings made a trade deal between their countries. And …. Ahab let him go.


LATER…


The prophet of God came to King Ahab with a bit of play-acting, but then told him.  “Because you have let go the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore YOUR life shall be for HIS life, and YOUR people for HIS people.”  Dire news indeed.  Instead of the Syrians and their king under this law, now Ahab and Israel would be “devoted to destruction.”


Ahab, went home, vexed and sullen.  


.


1 Kings 21.


King Ahab’s boredom caused him to sin.  He saw a lovely vineyard that he coveted for himself. It belonged to another, but he WANTED it, and the obsession grew. 


 (Oh, my goodness, this reminds me of our favorite King David.  


Idleness is a TERRIBLE sin. 


It leads to much worse sin. 


Desire and lust and a flame in the belly, which James 1:14-15  says leads to death.


Watch out for it!!)


Ahab at first proposed to Naboth, the vineyard’s owner, that he give it to the king, in exchange for a “better vineyard.”  Or… he could sell it to Ahab, who would give him the vineyard’s value in money.” 


Reasonable, right?  NOT!


What Ahab neglected to realize in his coveting, is that the men of Israel had their land as a divine allotment from God.  They were not to sell/give it to someone outside their tribe.  He said “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”


Ahab “lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.”  


Really??  What a spoiled-brat!!


Enter his wicked wife, Jezebel.  “Hey, Hubby.  What’s wrong?”


“Naboth won’t give me his vineyard!”


“ARE YOU NOT THE KING OF ISRAEL!” she said.  “Get up, eat some bread, be happy!  I’ll get the vineyard for you!’


And the wicked Jezebel set into motion her wicked plan.  She defamed Naboth before of the town council, and tricked them into condemning the innocent vineyard owner. They killed him and sent a sweet note to the Queen.


“Naboth has been stoned. He is dead.”


And so, she skipped into King Ahab’s room with the news, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard for Naboth is not alive, but dead.”   And quickly, without any questions, Ahab got dressed and went down and took possession of it.


Sick!  And after all God had done for the king!


And God sent His top man, Elijah, to condemn the king.  “Arise, Elijah, go down and meet Ahab king of Israel in the vineyard of Naboth.


With this gruesome prophecy.


    

  • “Thus says the LORD: ‘In the place where dogs liked up the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick up YOUR blood.”
    • 



“Oh, my enemy!  You have found me!” said Ahab to Elijah.


And the LORD’s message continued.


    

  • “I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD. 
    • 

  • I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab EVERY MALE, bond or free in Israel.   
    • 

  • And….. of Jezebel, the dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel. 
    • 

  • Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city, the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the country the birds of the heavens shall eat.”   
    • 



(And oh, wow, you will read about this happening in 2 Kings 9:10, 30-37.)


(“There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.  He acted very abominably in going after idols.”)


And here’s another VERY INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT. Ahab tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. (This was not his usual pouting.)  In the Old Testament, this is a sign of REPENTANCE.  Was it sincere? 


God saw this evil, weak, man’s heart. “Because he has humbled himself before me,” said the LORD. “I will not bring this disaster in his days, but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster on his house.”


.


(Wow. There is hope for you and me.  God sees a person’s heart. He knows if repentance is real. He knows if we truly will humble ourselves before Him.  O, my heart, fall on your knees before the all wise, living God. He is merciful to save.)