Wednesday, July 21, 2010

July Twenty One


~Good Morning~
It is really July 30 and I am playing catch up. I had my quiet times, I just did not blog them. Some of the bullets may not have questions or comments to go with the scripture highlighted. This is because. I have no idea why I highlighted it. Very bad, I know!


21 And the Lord has spoken this word against him:
"The virgin daughter of Zion
      despises you and laughs at you.
   The daughter of Jerusalem
      shakes her head in derision as you flee.

 

 

 
Today's Scripture:
2 Kings 19
Hezekiah Seeks the Lord's Help
1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, "This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby. 4 But perhaps the Lord your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff,sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!"
5 After King Hezekiah's officials delivered the king's message to Isaiah, 6 the prophet replied, "Say to your master, 'This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king's messengers. 7 Listen! I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.'"
8 Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.
9 Soon afterward King Sennacherib received word that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem with this message:
10 "This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don't let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria. 11 You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you be any different? 12 Have the gods of other nations rescued them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? My predecessors destroyed them all! 13 What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"
14 After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord's Temple and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: "O Lord, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. 16 Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib's words of defiance against the living God.
17 "It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. 18 And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. 19 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God."
Isaiah 37:1-20
Isaiah 37
Hezekiah Seeks the Lord's Help
1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, "This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby. 4 But perhaps the Lord your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff,sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!"
5 After King Hezekiah's officials delivered the king's message to Isaiah, 6 the prophet replied, "Say to your master, 'This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king's messengers. 7 Listen! I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.'"
8 Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.
9 Soon afterward King Sennacherib received word that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem with this message:
10 "This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don't let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria. 11 You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you be any different? 12 Have the gods of other nations rescued them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? My predecessors destroyed them all! 13 What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"
14 After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord's Temple and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: 16 "O Lord of Heaven's Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. 17 Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib's words of defiance against the living God.
18 "It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. 19 And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. 20 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God."
2 Chronicles 32:9-19
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
9 While King Sennacherib of Assyria was still besieging the town of Lachish, he sent his officers to Jerusalem with this message for Hezekiah and all the people in the city:
10 "This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you think you can survive my siege of Jerusalem? 11 Hezekiah has said, 'The Lord our God will rescue us from the king of Assyria.' Surely Hezekiah is misleading you, sentencing you to death by famine and thirst! 12 Don't you realize that Hezekiah is the very person who destroyed all the Lord's shrines and altars? He commanded Judah and Jerusalem to worship only at the altar at the Temple and to offer sacrifices on it alone.
 13 "Surely you must realize what I and the other kings of Assyria before me have done to all the people of the earth! Were any of the gods of those nations able to rescue their people from my power? 14 Which of their gods was able to rescue its people from the destructive power of my predecessors? What makes you think your God can rescue you from me? 15 Don't let Hezekiah deceive you! Don't let him fool you like this! I say it again—no god of any nation or kingdom has ever yet been able to rescue his people from me or my ancestors. How much less will your God rescue you from my power!"
16 And Sennacherib's officers further mocked the Lord God and his servant Hezekiah, heaping insult upon insult. 17 The king also sent letters scorning the Lord, the God of Israel. He wrote, "Just as the gods of all the other nations failed to rescue their people from my power, so the God of Hezekiah will also fail." 18 The Assyrian officials who brought the letters shouted this in Hebrew to the people gathered on the walls of the city, trying to terrify them so it would be easier to capture the city. 19 These officers talked about the God of Jerusalem as though he were one of the pagan gods, made by human hands.
2 Kings 19:20-37
Isaiah Predicts Judah's Deliverance
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria21 And the Lord has spoken this word against him:
"The virgin daughter of Zion
      despises you and laughs at you.
   The daughter of Jerusalem
      shakes her head in derision as you flee.

22 "Whom have you been defying and ridiculing?
      Against whom did you raise your voice?
   At whom did you look with such haughty eyes?
      It was the Holy One of Israel!
 23 By your messengers you have defied the Lord.
      You have said, 'With my many chariots
   I have conquered the highest mountains—
      yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon.
   I have cut down its tallest cedars
      and its finest cypress trees.
   I have reached its farthest corners
      and explored its deepest forests.
 24 I have dug wells in many foreign lands
      and refreshed myself with their water.
   With the sole of my foot
      I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!'
25 "But have you not heard?
      I decided this long ago.
   Long ago I planned it,
      and now I am making it happen.
   I planned for you to crush fortified cities
      into heaps of rubble.
 26 That is why their people have so little power
      and are so frightened and confused.
   They are as weak as grass,
      as easily trampled as tender green shoots.
   They are like grass sprouting on a housetop,
      scorched before it can grow lush and tall.
27 "But I know you well—
      where you stay
   and when you come and go.
      I know the way you have raged against me.
 28 And because of your raging against me
      and your arrogance, which I have heard for myself,
   I will put my hook in your nose
      and my bit in your mouth.
   I will make you return
      by the same road on which you came."
29 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Here is the proof that what I say is true:
"This year you will eat only what grows up by itself,
      and next year you will eat what springs up from that.
   But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them;
      you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.
 30 And you who are left in Judah,
      who have escaped the ravages of the siege,
   will put roots down in your own soil
      and will grow up and flourish.
 31 For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem,
      a group of survivors from Mount Zion.
   The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies
      will make this happen!
32 "And this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
"His armies will not enter Jerusalem.
      They will not even shoot an arrow at it.
   They will not march outside its gates with their shields
      nor build banks of earth against its walls.
 33 The king will return to his own country
      by the same road on which he came.
   He will not enter this city,
      says the Lord.
 34 For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David,
      I will defend this city and protect it."
35 That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrianswoke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. 36 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.
37 One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.
Isaiah 37:21-38
Isaiah Predicts Judah's Deliverance
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you prayed about King Sennacherib of Assyria, 22 the Lord has spoken this word against him:
"The virgin daughter of Zion
      despises you and laughs at you.
   The daughter of Jerusalem
      shakes her head in derision as you flee.
23 "Whom have you been defying and ridiculing?
      Against whom did you raise your voice?
   At whom did you look with such haughty eyes?
      It was the Holy One of Israel!
 24 By your messengers you have defied the Lord.
      You have said, 'With my many chariots
   I have conquered the highest mountains—
      yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon.
   I have cut down its tallest cedars
      and its finest cypress trees.
   I have reached its farthest heights
      and explored its deepest forests.
 25 I have dug wells in many foreign lands
      and refreshed myself with their water.
   With the sole of my foot,
      I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!'
26 "But have you not heard?
      I decided this long ago.
   Long ago I planned it,
      and now I am making it happen.
   I planned for you to crush fortified cities
      into heaps of rubble.
 27 That is why their people have so little power
      and are so frightened and confused.
   They are as weak as grass,
      as easily trampled as tender green shoots.
   They are like grass sprouting on a housetop,
      scorched before it can grow lush and tall.
28 "But I know you well—
      where you stay
   and when you come and go.
      I know the way you have raged against me.
 29 And because of your raging against me
      and your arrogance, which I have heard for myself,
   I will put my hook in your nose
      and my bit in your mouth.
   I will make you return
      by the same road on which you came."
30 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Here is the proof that what I say is true:
"This year you will eat only what grows up by itself,
      and next year you will eat what springs up from that.
   But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them;
      you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.
 31 And you who are left in Judah,
      who have escaped the ravages of the siege,
   will put roots down in your own soil
      and grow up and flourish.
 32 For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem,
      a group of survivors from Mount Zion.
   The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's Armies
      will make this happen!
33 "And this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
"'His armies will not enter Jerusalem.
      They will not even shoot an arrow at it.
   They will not march outside its gates with their shields
      nor build banks of earth against its walls.
 34 The king will return to his own country
      by the same road on which he came.
   He will not enter this city,'
      says the Lord.
 35 'For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David,
      I will defend this city and protect it.'"
36 That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrianswoke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. 37 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.
38 One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.
2 Chronicles 32:20-23
20 Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to God in heaven. 21 And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its commanders and officers. So Sennacherib was forced to return home in disgrace to his own land. And when he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons killed him there with a sword.
22 That is how the Lord rescued Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from King Sennacherib of Assyria and from all the others who threatened them. So there was peace throughout the land. 23 From then on King Hezekiah became highly respected among all the surrounding nations, and many gifts for the Lord arrived at Jerusalem, with valuable presents for King Hezekiah, too.

 

 


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