Mon.’s Devo - God’s Kingdom is Advancing

Read: 2 Kings 10:32-12:21; Acts 18:1-22; Psalm 145:1-21; Provers 18:1 At the end of Jehu’s reign, God began to cut down the size of Israel’s territory. King Hazael of Aram conquered the land of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh east of the Jordan. Jehu had reigned over Israel for 28 years. When King Ahaziah of Judah was killed by Jehu, his mother, Athaliah became the queen and ruled Judah. She tried to kill the rest of the royal family but Jehosheba, Ahaziah’s sister hid Ahaziah’s infant son, Joash. He spend his first 7 years hiding in the Temple with the priests. Jehoida, the priest raised Joash and when he was 7, he organized a coup to take over the throne from Athaliah and give it to Joash. He summoned the commanders, the mercenaries, and palace guards and made them swear allegiance to the Temple and to God. Then he divided them into three groups and put them at the three gates of the Temple. Jehoiada brought out Joash and placed the crown on his head. He presented him with a copy of God’s laws and anointed him and proclaimed him king. Everyone shouted, “Long live the king.” Athalia heard the noise and ran to the Temple to see what was going on. When she realized what was happening the tore her clothes and shouted, “Treason!” Jehoiada had Athalia taken away from the Temple to the palace where she would be killed. If anyone tried to help her, they were to be killed also. All his life, Joash did what was pleasing to the Lord because he obeyed Jehoiada, the priest. He did not destroy the pagan shrines and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there. King Joash did a campaign to repair the Temple. It got off to a rocky start but finally, the money allocated to repairing the Temple did go to repairing it. Joash was assassinated by his own trusted advisors. His son Amaziah became king. In Acts, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. He met a couple who were Jewish exiles from Italy named Aquilla and Priscilla. Each Sabbath, Paul went to the Temple to teach the people about Christ. Many opposed what he was saying and finally Paul told them he was going to the Gentiles. He went to a Gentile named Titius Justus who was a Gentile who lived next door to the synagogue in Corinth. There were many believers in Corinth. Paul had a dream and an angel told him not to be afraid to preach the truth because many in this city were His people. Paul stayed there for a year and a half teaching them the word of God. When a new governor came to power, some of the Jewish opposers of Paul brought him to court. They accused him of persuading the people to worship God in ways that were contrary to their law. The new governor, Gallio, refused to listen to their case and threw them out of his courtroom. The dissenters in the crowd grabbed the leader of the synagogue and beat him right there in the courtroom. Gallio ignored them. Paul stayed in Corinth for a while longer, then left to go to Cenchrea. He took Priscilla and Aquilla with him. He preached along the way to Jerusalem then came back to Antioch. When Satan sees he is losing he becomes very stirred up. He stirs up his followers to do crazy things. We are seeing that in our day. The spiritual warfare is so strong because we are taking Satan’s territory and he is not going down without a fight. We just need to remember that we are not fighting flesh and blood but powers and principalities and wickedness in high places. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Lord, may we be dressed in your armor and wield the Sword of the Spirit to win your battles for Your name sake.