Mon.’s Devo - The Clash of Kingdoms

Read: 2 Kings 15:1-16:20; Acts 19:13-41; Psalm 147:1-20; Proverbs 18:4-5 Today we read about the rise and fall of the kings of Israel and Judah. Amos prophesied in Israel that Jeroboam, the king of Israel would die by the sword. Amaziah, the priest at Beth-el told Amos to go to Judah and prophesy there. Because they refused to heed his words, Amos called forth a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord in Israel. In Judah: Isaiah, Hosea, and Zechariah all prophesied calling Judah to repent. Uzziah was the king for 52 years while in Israel, the kingdom was changing rapidly and so many reigned: Jeroboam, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah, which were all descendants of Jehu. Then Shallum assassinated Zechariah in public becoming the king for a month. He was assassinated by Menahem who was a ruthless ruler who practiced idolatry. He was invaded by King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria. Menahem took all the money he could muster to pay the Assyrians off. When Menahem died, his son, Pekahiah became king. He reigned the last two years of Uzziah’s rule in Judah. Pekahiah was also evil. Pekah usurped his throne and ruled two years. He was evil also. During his reign, King Tiglath-pileser attacked and captured much of Israel’s land. Hosea assassinated Pekah and began to rule Israel. At that time in Judah, Uzziah had died and his son, Jotham began to reign. He was a good king like his father even though they both did not destroy the pagan worship in their land. During his reign, God sent Israel and the king of Aram to attack Judah. Jotham died, and his son, Ahaz became king of Judah. He led his land into horrible idolatry like Israel. The kings of Israel and Aram attacked Jerusalem. King Ahaz of Judah sent every piece of metal he could find in his kingdom to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria to come and rescue him from the armies of Aram and Israel. When King Ahaz met with the king of Assyria in his capital of Damascus, he saw his altar to his god and sent a drawing back to Judah of the altar. He had one made identical to it and got rid of God’s altar. He also took the bowl where the priests washed, off the backs of the oxen and put it on a stone. (In other words, he desecrated the altar of God and made it into a pagan altar and the priest Uriah went along with it. The king, himself offered burnt offerings on this new altar and did the office of the priest. He reigned in Jerusalem 16 years and when he died, Hezekiah became the next king. Thank God - he will be a good king! In Acts, it sounds like the streets of America. When the disciples started messing with Satan’s kingdom, he became enraged and began his counter-attack. First, the sorcerers tried to use Jesus name for their own benefit, but they realized quickly that Satan would not defend them if they used Jesus’ name and Jesus wouldn’t either since they were using it wrongly. The fear of the Lord fell on the people. In Ephesus, the silversmiths were losing money because Paul preached that their idols were in vain. This seriously hurt the idol-making business so the businessmen stirred up a riot in the streets. Many didn’t even know what it was all about, they just found themselves in the middle of the chaos. That was what it was - utter chaos. Paul’s friends had to keep Paul from entering the place they were rioting to save his life. This is what is happening now. The kingdom of darkness is being exposed and it is trying to stir up division, anarchy and violence because his goal is to kill, steal and destroy. But, be of good cheer because God has come to bring life, restoration and restitution. Lord, help us to see with your eyes. Give us the ability to see what you are doing and how this is fitting right into your plans to restore our nation back to you.