Thurs.'s Devo - The Kings

Read: 2 Kings 15:1-16:20; Acts 19:13-41; Psalm 147:1-20; Proverbs 18:4-5 Today's Old Testament scriptures read like the Cliff Notes of a soap opera. True to the prophecy given to Jehu, four of his descendents became kings of Israel. All four of them were evil. Jehoahaz reigned 17 years, Jehoash 16 years, Jeroboam 2 reigned 41 years and Zachariah 38 years. Zachariah was assassinated by Shallum in a public place. His name means "restitution". Shallum only reigned one month before he was a assassinated by Menahem. Menahem killed the population of a whole town becsue they refused to surrender to him. *** Menahem ruled 10 yuears and during his reign King Tiglath-Pileser from Assyria invaded the land. He charged Menahem 37 tons of silver. Menahem got the money to pay the tribute by making the rich pay 50 pieces of silver each. Menahem's son, Pekahiah ruled next and was also evil. He was assassinated by his own army officer, Pekah. Pekah was also evil. *** Meanwhile in Judah, Joash reigned for 40 years and pleased the Lord. He was succeeded by his son Amaziah who was also good and reigned 29 years. The next king was Uzziah who reigned 52 years and was good. At the end of his reign he got leprosy and his son, Jotham had to completed his rule. Jotham was also good like his father. Jotham was succededed by his son, Ahaz. *** Back in Israel, Pekah was attacked by Tiglath-pileser and and lost much land. All of Namhptali was taken captive. Pekah and King Rezin of Aran conspired together to attack Jerusalem while Ahaz was king of Judah. They attacked and recovered the town of Elath. Ahaz of Judah, sent messengers to Tiglath-Pilester promising to sered him if her would come help him agant Israsel and Aram. He paid Tiglath-Pilester gold and silver he took from the Temple. Tiglath-Pilester came and attacked Damascus, the capital of Aram, and carried its people into captivity and killed King Rezin. *** King Ahaz went to Damascus to thank Tiglath-Pilester and took note of the pagan altar there. He had a picture drawn with its demensions and took it back to Israel and had one made to replace the bronze one in the Temple. He said he would use the bronze one for his personal use but told the priests to use the new one for the nation. When King Ahaz died, his son Hezekiah became king of Judah. *** In Acts, the truth of the Gospel and the power of the resurrection was reeking habit in the realm of pwoer and pocketbooks. In Ephesis, several exhorcists decided to hyjack Jesus' name and use it in their incantations. It back-fired on them and they fled naked. The whole town heard about it and the fear of Jesus name and the fear of God fell on the people. *** The Gospel hit the pocketbook of Demetrius who was a silversmith. He mad much money selling silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. He called a meeting of the other businessmen who made money off the worship of Artemis and it ended in a riot. It took the mayor to calm them down. Demetrius was told that this was no way to get his problem solved. - he needed to make formal charges in court. The mayor told them to dispense and not draw the attention of the Roman government. He dismissed them and they went home. *** The truth always riles up demons but Jesus didn't allow them to get the attention. He was always telling them to be quiet and we don't need to tolerate them either. *** Lord, we say, "peace be still" to the storms in our nation. We call the chaos to cease and the truth to be exposed and brought to justice.