March 31, 2025, 2 Kings 21:1-9 21  Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.   2  And he did what was evil in the sight of the  Lord , according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the  Lord  drove out before the people of Israel.   3  For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.   4  And he built altars in the house of the  Lord , of which the  Lord  had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.”   5  And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the  Lord .   6  And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt...

March 30, 2025, 2 Kings 20:12-21 12  At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.  13  And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.  14  Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.”  15  He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.” 16  Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the  Lord :  17  Behold, the days a...

March 29, 2025, 2 Kings 20:1-11 20  In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the  Lord , ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’”  2  Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the  Lord , saying,  3  “Now, O  Lord , please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.  4  And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the  Lord  came to him:  5  “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the  Lord , the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the  Lord ,  6  ...

March 28, 2025, 2 Kings 19:20-37 20  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the  Lord , the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.  21  This is the word that the  Lord  has spoken concerning him: “She despises you, she scorns you—      the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you—      the daughter of Jerusalem. 22  “Whom have you mocked and reviled?      Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights?      Against the Holy One of Israel! 23  By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,      and you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains,      to the far recesses of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars,      i...

March 27, 2025, 2 Kings 19:14-19 14  Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the  Lord  and spread it before the  Lord .  15  And Hezekiah prayed before the  Lord  and said: “O  Lord , the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.  16  Incline your ear, O  Lord , and hear; open your eyes, O  Lord , and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.  17  Truly, O  Lord , the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands  18  and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.  19  So now, O  Lord  our God, save us, please, from his hand, that ...

March 26, 2025, 2 Kings 19:8-13 8  The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that the king had left Lachish.  9  Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,  10  “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.  11  Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?  12  Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?  13  Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the ki...

March 25, 2025, 2 Kings 19:1-7 19  As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the  Lord .  2  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.  3  They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.  4  It may be that the  Lord  your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the  Lord  your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”  5  When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,  6  Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thu...

March 24, 2025, 2 Kings 18:13-37 13  In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.  14  And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.  15  And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the  Lord  and in the treasuries of the king's house.  16  At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the  Lord  and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.  17  And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they w...

March 23, 2025, 2 Kings 18:9-12 9  In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it,  10  and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.  11  The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,  12  because they did not obey the voice of the  Lord  their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the  Lord  commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed. Again we see lack of obedience has caused the Israelites to continue to suffer. God calls us to be obedient. They neither listened nor obeyed. Where are you and I in our obedience to God? I would like to think I don’t strug...

March 22, 2025, 2 Kings 18:1-8 18  In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.  2  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.  3  And he did what was right in the eyes of the  Lord , according to all that David his father had done.  4  He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).  5  He trusted in the  Lord , the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.  6  For he held fast to the  Lord . He did not depart from following him, but kept the...

March 21, 2025, 2 Kings 17:29-41 29  But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived.  30  The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,  31  and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.  32  They also feared the  Lord  and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.  33  So they feared the  Lord  but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. 34  To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the  Lord , and they do not follow...

March 20, 2025, 2 Kings 17:24-28 24  And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.  25  And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the  Lord . Therefore the  Lord  sent lions among them, which killed some of them.  26  So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.”  27  Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.”  28  So one of the prie...

March 19, 2025, 2 Kings 17:17-23 19  Judah also did not keep the commandments of the  Lord  their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced.  20  And the  Lord  rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight. 21  When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the  Lord  and made them commit great sin.  22  The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them,  23  until the  Lord  removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day. Why would God eventually remove his people from their land and ultimately from His sight? I do not have an answer to that qu...

March 18, 2025, 2 Kings 17:7-18 7  And 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 from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods  8  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.  9  And the people of Israel did secretly against the  Lord  their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.  10  They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,  11  and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the  Lord  carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the  Lord  to anger,  12...

March 17, 2025, 2 Kings 17:1-6 17  In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years.  2  And he did what was evil in the sight of the  Lord , yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.  3  Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.  4  But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.  5  Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it. 6  In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan...

March 16, 2025, 2 Kings 16:1-20 16  In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.  2  Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the  Lord  his God, as his father David had done,  3  but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the  Lord  drove out before the people of Israel.  4  And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. 5  Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him.  6  At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men o...

  March 15, 2025, 2 Kings 15:32-38 32  In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, began to reign.  33  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.  34  And he did what was right in the eyes of the  Lord , according to all that his father Uzziah had done.  35  Nevertheless, the high places were not removed. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the  Lord .  36  Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?  37  In those days the  Lord  began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.  38  Jotham slept with his fathers and wa...

March 14, 2025, 2 Kings 15:27-31 27  In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twenty years.  28  And he did what was evil in the sight of the  Lord . He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 29  In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria.  30  Then Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and struck him down and put him to death and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.  31  Now the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. We con...