Thurs.’s Devo- God is Faithful to his Word

Read: 2 Kings 23:31-25:30; Acts 22:17-23:10; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 18:13
I want to give us a quick recap: when Hezakiah was on his 15 year extension plan, he had pridefully showed the officers of Babylon every treasure in his kingdom. God promised that because he did this, the Babylonians would come back one day and take it all. All of his sons would be made eunuchs in the Babylonian court. His son, Manasseh had been one of Judah’s most wicked kings and enticed Judah to commit idolatry. God promised to wipe Jerusalem and turn it upside down. But, then Judah was given a most righteous king: Josiah who did away with all the idolatry in the land and brought the people back to the Lord. Josiah was killed by the king of Egypt in Megiddo. Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz reigned but he did not follow the Lord. Jehoahaz only reigned three months, when the king of Egypt took Jehoahaz to Egypt he was put in prison where he died. Next, the king of Babylon made Jehoiakim rule over Judah and be subject to him. He did evil in God’s perspective. After three years, Jehoakim rebelled against the king of Babylon, so God sent the Chaldeans, the Syrians, the Moabites and the Ammonites against Judah to destroy it. The words of the prophets were becoming true.
Jehoiakim died and his son, Jehoiachin ruled. After ruling for 3 months, the king of Babylon came to besiege Jerusalem. After 8 years of the siege, Jehoiachin and his family and his officers surrendered to Nebechadnezzar. They were carried to Babylon along with anything and anyone worth taking. Jehoaichin was enprisoned for 37 years. The rest of the people remained under the rule of a man named Mattaniah which the Babylonians changed to Zedikiah. Zedikiah was evil and rebelled against the king of Babylon. Nebechadnezzar came back and besieged Jerusalem again for 2 years. When they ran out of food, Zedikiah and his men tried to escape. They were captured and Zedikiah was made to watch his sons all murdered then his eyes were taken out. His last memories would be the death of his own sons that he was responsible for letting die. The Babylonians then returned to Jerusalem and burned it down. They left the poor to work in the fields and Gedaliah was made their rulers. The Chaldeans came and killed Gedaliah and the rest of the people were taken to Egypt.
For some reason, after 37 years, Jehoaichin found favor and was released from prison in Babylon and made to rule with the king, Evil-merodach.
In Acts, Paul was warned in a trance to get out of Jerusalem because they would not be able to receive his testimony. He was arrested and bound with the strap of a whip. When Paul questioned the guard about scoring a Roman citizen the guard was afraid. He asked Paul how much he had paid for his citizenship and Paul said, nothing, he was born a citizen. This frightened the citizen-bought guard and he made sure Paul was treated well.
The next day, Paul was brought before the chief priests and all their council. Paul perceived that there were both Sadducees and Pharisees so he brought up the fact that he was arrested over his stance about resurrection. The Sadducees were violently opposed to the doctrine of resurrection and of angels. The Pharisees believed in both so it caused a great dissension and they had to rescue Paul and brought him into the castle.
Lord, help us to see the rewards of following you and shun any idyllic worship we may unknowingly participate in. We pray to be trees of righteousness planted by the rivers of your stream.