2 CHRONICLES 32:1 - 33:13
RESTING IN THE LORD'S FAITHFULNESS: Hezekiah had to encourage his troops because the Assyrians were crowding them and had a bad reputation for taking what they wanted and being cruel warriors. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, is a type of SATAN and his assault on the integrity of King Jesus. He told the Jewish troops not believe what their king said, that he was deceiving them, that no one had been able to rescue anyone from Sennacherib before this! Then he insulted God directly! God's answer? God killed so many Assyrians during the night that Sennacherib had to go home with his tail between his legs! Then his own children killed him! Hezekiah was later healed by God of a fatal disease, and got proud. BUT, he repented quickly and avoided the wrath of God. God was faithful because Hezekiah was faithful TO THE END. Hezekiah and his prophet, Isaiah, sat behind their wall, and trusted God to save them.
TRANSFORMATION OF THE TEMPLE TO A PAGAN SHRINE: Manasseh undid all of Hezekiah's good work, and even gave his own children as blood sacrifices. It says that he caused the children of Israel to do "worse than the heathen" When Manasseh wouldn't listen to God, God "spanked him" with the Assyrians, who bound him and carried him to Babylon. And believe it or not! He repented. God forgave him and returned him to Jerusalem!
RESPONSE: What could they have done that was "worse than the heathen"? I think that "church people" who look down their noses at ANYONE, are worse than heathen. That "church people" who are mean-spirited are worse than heathen. It's because we are sinning against the light. Aren't we turning God's Temple into a pagan shrine when we sin? When we hold thoughts that don't measure up to Philippians 4:8? I will be thinking about these verses all day.
ROMANS 15:23 - 16:7
LOOKING AHEAD: After writing this, Paul was headed for Jerusalem, where he was arrested and then brought to Rome. The prayers that Paul asked for in v. 40 may have prompted that "deliverance" and kept the Jews in Jerusalem from killing him! Paul eventually died in Rome, and probably never made it to Spain.
ABOUT PHOEBE: Phoebe was not a "deaconess", but a DEACON. The feminine term was not used until over 240 years later! She was probably a PASTOR and was traveling in Corinth, where she met Paul. She ministered to him there and may have even helped him out. There were many known female pastors as late as 100 AD, and Pliny wrote to Emperor Trajan about some of them. "Phoebe" means "luminous or light-bearer", and I think it is significant that she was trusted to carry the book of ROMANS to Rome.
RESPONSE: I get real disgusted with people who try to make the women of the Bible look second-class. They are no more second-class than are the Gentiles of the NT! Thank God for Gal 3:27-29, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." NO GENDER, NO RACE, NO CLASS SYSTEM.
PSALM 25:16-22
These are the words of a man helpless to save himself. BUT, even then, "troubles enlarge our spiritual horizons." We learn about God's character and trustworthiness in those times.
PROVERBS 20:16-18
RESPONSE: If I can get through a "crisis" with the right attitude, I find that NEXT TIME, it takes more pressure to rattle me, than it did last the last time. If, however, I back up spiritually so my FLESH gets what it wants, then the devil follows me back, and now I am touchy and short-tempered again!
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