Sat.’s Devo - Righteousness Reigns

Read: 2 Kings 20:1-22:2; Acts 21:18-36; Psalm 150:1-6; Proverbs 18:9-10 Hezekiah became deathly sick and Isaiah was sent to tell him to set his affairs in order. Hezekiah cried out to the Lord and reminded him all he had done for him. Before Isaiah could leave the palace, God told him to turn around and go back to Hezekiah with a new message. God had heard his prayer and would heal him in three days. He would extend his life another 15 years. He would rescue him and Jerusalem from the Assyrians for His name sake and the sake of David. Isaiah told Hezekiah to make an ointment from figs and spread it over his boil and it would be healed. Hezekiah asked for a sign to prove what he was saying. Isaiah asked if he wanted the sundial to go forward 10 steps or back. Hezekiah said “back” and it did. Time was altered forever. I read of a famous mathematician who was an atheist but his desire was to calculate how old the earth was. He was missing a few hours and minutes in his study. A friend told him about the story of Joshua when the sun stayed shining so he could fight and about this particular story. These stories added the exact time he was missing and he became a believer. Satan always has to mess things up. He sent ambassadors from Babylon to give Hezekiah a gift and congratulate him from getting well. When they left ,God sent Isaiah to Hezekiah. He asked Hezekiah what he had shown them and Hezekiah said everything he had. God said they would come and take it one day - everything. His own sons would become eunuchs in Babylon. Hezekiah was just glad it wouldn’t happen in his day. In his last 15 years he had a son named Manasseh who he would pass the kingdom to. Hezekiah didn’t live out his last days for the Lord and his son wasn’t taught to lead the nation in righteousness. When Hezekiah died, Manasseh became one of the most evil kings yet. He rebuilt the pagan shrines his dad had torn down. He raised up every kind of altar to false gods and was more heathen than the heathen. God swore to wipe his name off the face of the earth. He had murdered so many innocent people that it polluted Jerusalem. He was not buried in the city of David, but the garden of Uzza. His son, Amon became king but he was assassinated by his own officials. The people of the land rose up and killed his assassins and made Amon’s son, Josiah king. Josiah was only 8 years old at the time, but he was a good king who pleased the Lord like David. In Acts, Paul finally reached Jerusalem. He met with the church there and gave them a detailed account of all he had seen God do while on his journeys. There had been such a division about the law. Now that Gentiles were coming to the Lord, the Jews were confused about whether to still hold to the law of Moses or not. Paul taught that the law was good and that they should follow both. To prove it he participated in a Jewish purification ceremony for some Jews. It was to last seven days but before it was over, some of the Jews from Asia came and stirred up a riot against Paul. They accused Paul of teaching people to not follow the law. They falsely accused him of taking Gentiles into the Temple. During the riot, they drug Paul out of the Temple and tried to kill him. Roman officers came and put a stop to what was happening. The soldiers had to lift Paul to their shoulders to keep the crowd from killing him. As we see in our day, the truth makes evil-hearted people very angry and they do violent things to protect what they deem as truth. But, truth always prevails. Lord, thank you for raising up your standard in the land. May your standard be lifted up over America and may we stop the killing of innocent people.