Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning.
6/6/2025
Today'sPassage:2 Kings 19
BibleVerse:Israel after Solomon (22): Hezekiah defeats Assyria
"s soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah. 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.”
Then Isaiah sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel about the king of Assyria:
“By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
But I know your raging against me,
and your arrogance has come into my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah
shall again take root downward
and bear fruit upward.”
“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then the king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, his sons struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat.
"
Message:
Assyria was, perhaps, the first truly great empire of the Middle East. At the time of today's Scripture it has just wiped the bulk of the empire of Solomon and David from the face of the earth; the ten northern tribes of Israel have been transported and will spread over the entire western world, from Istanbul to Spain (and eventually North America). As we can see on an historical map, after the conquest of Israel, they went on to conquer another great empire, Egypt.
Emblem of Jerusalem
Emblem of Jerusalem
But they could not conquer little Judah, a vestigial kingdom; for God's promise to Abraham and David continued to abide. And Judah will continue to exist, although it will go through some painful changes, until God's ultimate plan is brought to fruition: to bring salvation to the entire earth through the final king from the House of David, namely, Jesus of Nazareth.
Hezekiah is a pious king who reigns at an opportune time, but Judah will not always be so lucky; and like Solomon himself, future kings will drift back into idol worship, endangering Judah's precarious existence.
The Bible really makes a major shift with the advent of Isaiah. He is very long-winded, and we will only sample his prophecy. His words in today's reading have been edited down to a fraction of the original — his full speech is found in 2 Kings 19. He and the other prophets of Judah will continue to spew forth harsh warnings for the Kingdom of Judah, whenever its rulers and people turn from Yahweh. (See chart.) But mixed in with the prophecy of Judah's destruction, the prophets will more and more begin to speak of a messiah, one who will come as the greatest of all kings.
Meditation
:
Prayer :
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen.
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