Sun.’s Devo - Breaking Down Walls

Read: 1 Kings 14:1-15:24; Acts 10:1-23; Psalm 133:1-3; Proverbs 17:7-8 It is good to know that the Kings were written by the prophets and emphasize the Kings of Israel, where the Chronicles were written by the priests and emphasized the kings of Judah. *** Israel’s king was Jeroboam. Jeroboam’s son became very sick so Jeroboam sent his wife, disguised to the prophet Ahijah. He had been the one who had prophesied him becoming king. She was to ask him if his son would recover. God told the now blind Ahijah about the rouse and he called Jeroboam’s wife out, then told her what would happen. Her son would die when she walked back into the house. God was not happy with how Jeroboam had gone after every false god but Him, the only true God. God was going to bring his dynasty to an end and destroy all his male descendants starting with the one that was sick. He would be the only one to get a proper burial. *** God would raise up a king who would destroy his family. The whole nation of Israel would be uprooted and scattered beyond the Euphrates River because of the Asherah poles they had set up. *** Everything happened as Ahijah had said and when Jeroboam died after reigning 22 years, his son Nadab became king of Israel. *** Meanwhile in Judah, Rehoboam’s reign was not a godly one either. He had built pagan shrines and set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles everywhere in Judah. *** In his fifth year, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took everything of worth in the Temple. He took the gold shields which Rehoboam replaced with bronze ones. He had them protect him every time he went into the Temple. There was constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Rehoboam died after reigning 17 years. His son Abijam became the next king and only reigned three years. He participated in the same evil practices that Rehoboam had. When he died, Asa his son became the next king. *** Asa was a good king and followed after the Lord like David. He got rid of the pagan shrines and displaced his grandmother from being the queen mother because she worshiped Asherah and caused Judah to sin. He cut down her obscene Asherah pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley. He gave to the Temple all the gold and silver his father had dedicated to the Lord. *** War continued between Israel and Judah. King Baasha was now king of Israel who fortified Ramah which was the gateway from Israel to Judah. His plan was to make it impossible for someone in Israel to go to Judah. Asa took all the silver and gold left in the Temple and sent it to Ben-hadad the king of Aram. He asked him to break his covenant of peace with Israel and join his side against them. Ben-hadad agreed and began attacking the towns of Israel. Baasha then stopped his building project in Ramah and Asa took the building supplies for himself and used them to fortify Geba instead. *** Asa should have relied on the Lord to protect them and not Ben-hadad so in his old age, he became diseased in his feet. When he died, his son Jehoshaphat became king. *** In Acts, God wanted to knock down some walls of prejudice and racial tension. He sent a Roman officer name Cornelius to Peter, a Jewish believer. The walls of political and racial difference needed to fall in the heart of Cornelius. For Peter, it was a religious wall of prejudice that needed to come down. Both were shown by signs and wonders that God was breaking down these walls of separation so the gospel could spread throughout the world. Both men yielded to the Holy Spirit. *** Lord, may we yield to the Spirit and let him have his way in our lives. Break down the walls we have allowed to be built in our lives. Most of us don’t even know they are there. May we be made aware and allow you to dissolve them with love.