DAY 143
Old Testament reading: 2 Kings 17-18
The northern kingdom is no more. 2 Kings 17 records Israel’s final days as God sent them away into captivity never to be restored as a physical nation. The first half of chapter 17 records in detail Israel’s manifold transgressions. The writer wanted to document God’s longsuffering in the face of Israel’s rejection for all to understand. Jehovah is not some capricious deity looking for some reason, any reason, to exercise His authority over mankind. He is not given to the excesses of instability. Rather, He is a loving Father, a Father who loves His children, and He only removes them from His sight as a final measure. One still cannot escape the final word concerning Israel, how she “walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until He removed Israel from His sight” (vv 22-23). The latter half of chapter 17 speaks of how the king of Assyria “seeded” Samaria with people from other nations. God was not finished dealing with these, sending lions to kill them because they did not fear the Lord. After these received instruction on how to serve the one true God, verse 33 says, “They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods.” Doesn’t that sound like a lot of us today? Much could be said of chapter 18, but we’ll comment when we read this same account in 2 Chronicles 32.
New Testament reading: Romans 1-3
The first three chapters of Romans might be summed with the words of Romans 3:10, “There is none righteous, no not one,” or verse 23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Paul begins with the sins of the Gentiles, describing in detail the vile abomination of homosexual behavior, which is always an affront to God. He moves on to the hypocrisy of the Jews, another sin of Divine distaste (cf Matt 23). Then chapter three is a catch all for sin and the price paid for the same. Romans 1:11 reminds us of how spiritual gifts were passed on in the first century. Namely, through the laying on of apostolic hands (1:11, cf Acts 8:17-18). Also of note is Paul’s statement that he himself would be encouraged by their faith as they were by his (1:12). The road of encouragement is a two way street. The mature may also be encouraged by the younger.
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