Mon.’s Devo -Israel and Judah

Read: 2 Kings 17:1-18:12, Acts 20:1-38, Ps. 148:1-14, Pr. 18:6-7 It’s easy to get lost in the annuls of the kings so here are a few tips. Samaria is the capital of Israel where Jerusalem is the capital of Judah. Most of the kings of Israel are bad. Judah has more good kings than Israel. When Israel is out of their land, God’s timetable stops for them. It had stopped for centuries until 1948 when Israel once again became a nation and the timetable started again. Every time Israel or Judah sinned, God sent them prophets to warn them to turn back to God. Israel’s sins began with the two golden calves that Jeroboam made and they went down hill from there. The king of Assyria displaced many of the Israelites and put people from five different nations in Samaria in their place. God sent lions to punish them. The Assyrian king put a priest in Samaria to teach them God’s ways since this was God’s capital. The people chose to follow after their own gods and brought in brothels (the meaning of Succoth-benoth), gods of wrath, gods of perversity, etc. It says several times that they feared the Lord, and served their gods. That’s an oxymoron. I would have to say we do that in our nation. We fear God enough to attend church or say we fear Him, but many choose to serve other gods like video games, material status, popularity, knowledge, their children, etc. Finally, in chapter 18 we get a good king of Judah named Hezekiah. God blesses Judah during his reign, but in Israel, Samaria is being besieged and finally taken for their refusal to repent. In Acts, Paul is determined to go to Jerusalem even though he knows that persecution awaits him. He does not love his life but has laid it down for the glory of God. Lord, today we give you praise!