Tues.'s Devo - The Final Kings

Read: 2 Kings 23:31-25:30; Acts 22:17-23:10; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 18:13 In today's reading we learn about the lives of the last kings of Judah. They were all evil and received the punishment that God had long ago predicted would happen because they continued to rebel against him. Jehoahaz was the first king who was oppressed by Egypt and had to pay tribute to them. He was finally taken to Egypt as a prisoner. Pharoah Neco installed another of Josiah's sons named Eliakim as the king of Jerusalem. He changed his name to Jehoiakim. He was invaded by the Babylonians and made to pay tribute to them. WHen he died, his son, Jehoiachin became king. Nebuchadnezzar came up against Jerusalem and besieged it. Jehoiachin surrendered to the Babylonians. Jehoachin was taken captive to Babylon as well as all the officials and elite of Jerusalem. He stripped the Temple of all its remaining gold and took all the residents of Jerusalem captive. All the craftsmen and artisans and the best of the warriours were taken. The king of Bablon installed Mattaniah who was Jehoiachin's uncle as the next king. He changed his name to Zedekiah. He ruled in Jerusalem for 11 years. He rebelled against the king of Babylon which invoked the whole army of Babylon to come and beseige it. When the food was about gone, Zedikiah and a group of warrors tried to escape at night. They were overtaken by the Babylonian troops at Riblah. Zedekiah was given a trial and was made to watch his sons all killed then his own eyes were gouged out and he was taken in chains to Babylon. *** An official from Babylon came to Jerusalem and burned down the Temple and all the houses in Jerusalem. All the important buildings in the city were destroyed and the walls torn down on everry side. Exiles were taken to Babylon but the poorest were allowed to stay and care for the vineyards and fields. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah as governor over the people left in Judah. Gedaliah met with the army commanders and their men. He told them that if they served the king of Babylon all would go well fort ehm. But one of the army officers along with 10 of his men killed Gedaliah and all the Babylonians who were there in Mizpah. The people of Judah panicked and fled to Egypt in fear that the Babylonians would seek revenge. ** A new king took the throne in Babylon named Evil-merodach. He promoted Jehoiachin out of prison and gave him new clothes to wear and allowed him to dine with him at his table. *** One of Babylon's tactics was to rename the king a Babylonian name and destroy all the history of their kingdom. In this way they were stealing their identity and trying to erase their memories of the past. THis is still Satan's tactic today. He wants to steal our identity in Christ and make us feel helpless, hopeless, and a nobody. Jesus said that we are kings and priests and his special chosen ones. He gave us a name that no one can take away and and identity in him. We are born again into his family. *** In Acts, Paul was addressing the crowd who wanted to kill him and was intently listening until he got to the part about taking his message to the Gentiles, then they went into another tirade calling for Paul's death. The Roman officers took Paul inside and tied him down to whip him but Paul asked them if it was legal to whip a Roman citizen. They stopped immediately and were afraid when they found out he was a citizen by birth. Paul was brought the next day before the Jewish sanhedrin and questioned. When Paul realized they were made up of Pharisees and Saduccees, the riled them up by bringing up his belief in the resurrection. That was their main topic of divide. The Sadduccees didn't believe their was a resurrection and the Pharisees did. The crowd got so aggressive, the council leaders had to save Paul and take him back to the fortress.