Sun.’s Devo - God’s Examples

Read: 2 Kings 17:1-18:12; Acts 20:1-38; Psalm 148:1-14; Proverbs 18:6-7 Hoshea began to reign over Israel during Ahaz’s 12 year of reigning over Judah. Hosea was evil and worshipped idols so King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked Israel and forced them to pay heavy taxes to him. After a while, Hosea stopped paying the tribute and hired the king of Egypt to help him stand against Shalmaneser. When Shalmaneser found out what Israel had done, they attacked and besieged Samaria for three years. It finally fell to the Assyrians and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria. *** This was the result of Israel’s continual determination to worship idols and rebel against the Lord. He had sent many prophets to warn them to turn back to the Lord and only worship him but they had refused to repent. God swept the tribes of Israel from his presence and only the tribe of Judah remained in their land. But, the tribe of Judah didn’t worship the Lord with all their heart either and chose to worship idols. *** The king of Assyria sent his own people to live in Samaria. They didn’t worship the Lord so God sent lions to live among them and kill some of them. They sent word to the king to send someone to teach them how to worship the god of the Hebrews so the lions would stop killing them. He sent one of the priests he had exiled to return and teach them how to worship the Lord. *** He returned to teach them how to worship the Lord, but they just added him along with all their other gods. *** Meanwhile in Judah, Hezekiah had come to reign and he was a good king who honored God and obeyed his commands. He got rid of the pagan worship in his land. It was in the sixth year of his reign that Samaria fell to the Assyrians and their people were exiled to the cities of the Medes. *** In Acts, the incident of the silversmith’s and the leaders of the believers was over so Paul encouraged the church and left for Macedonia. He encouraged the churches around Macedonia, then went to Greece and spend three months. *** When he was about to go back to Syria he discovered a plan to kill him so he went through Macedonia instead. He stopped in Troas and stayed a week. The night before he was leaving he preached until midnight. A young man named Eutychus was sitting in on the window sill and fell asleep. He fell three stories and died. Paul went down and held him till he came back to life. They all went back upstairs and shared the Lord’s Supper. Then Paul left stopping at Assos, Mitylene and then to the land of Kios where they stoped at the island of Amos and on to Miletus. *** Paul wanted to get to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. He met with the elders of the church at Ephesus and gave them this message: it was necessary that Jews and Greeks repent from their sins and turned to God and put their trust in Jesus. He was compelled to return to Jerusalem where he knew he would face jail and suffering but he was to determined to finish the work God had for him. He told them it was the last time they would see him again but had lived his life as an example for them to follow. He never took money from them but worked for himself. He had lived a life poured out for the sake of the Gospel and he wanted them to do the same. *** Lord, thank you for the example of Paul’s life and the example of Hezekiah who both stood for truth even when it was dangerous to do so. They were both servants who poured out their lives for the sake of others. May we walk in their footsteps. Jesus, you were the greatest example of truth because you are truth.