Old Testament reading 2 Chronicles 25-26
Amaziah “did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart.” Like his father before him, Amaziah got off to a great start in his reign, but he later forsook the Lord. He appears to be a man of measured emotions, as his first act of rule was to execute those who murdered his father, but he did not extend his wrath upon the children of the perpetrators, in keeping with Deuteronomy 24:16. He was also willing to suffer financial loss that he might please God (25:6-10). Of interest to me was Amaziah’s apostasy regarding the gods of Seir. Having already defeated them with God’s help, he took their gods as his own. A prophet of God was sent to him saying, “Why have you sought the gods of the people which could not rescue them from your own hand?” The king insulted the prophet saying, ‘Did I hire you as my counselor? Be quiet before something bad happens to you.’ Filled with an inflated sense of pride, Amaziah “meets his Waterloo” when he picks a fight with Joash, king of Israel, who had warned him to stay at home and enjoy the spoils of his victory (25:19).
New Testament reading: Hebrews 1-7
“He’s no angel.” While the general use of this phrase implies that an individual is of less than stellar character, the Holy Spirit uses this thought to exalt Jesus. Throughout chapters 1-2 we see repeated comparisons between the Lord Jesus and angelic beings. In Hebrews 1:4 Jesus is said to be “so much better than the angels, as he by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” Then in the next verse He is again separated apart from and above the angels, as no angel was ever identified as a Son of God as was Jesus. Hebrews 1:7-9 identifies the angels as ministering spirits, servants, but comes right out and calls Jesus God (cf John 1:1). This text in particular is problematic to Jehovah Witnesses, who believe Jesus is not Divine in the normal sense, but is Michael the archangel promoted to Deity. Verse 10 calls Him Lord and the architect of the Creation. Verses 11-12 speak of the temporal nature of the Creation while identifying Jesus as “the same” (i.e., unchanging, cf Heb 13:8). Finally, in 1:13-14, we again see Jesus juxtaposed in contrast to the angels, who are again identified as ministers to man while Jesus sits on the right hand of the throne of God.
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