Wed.’s Devo - The Descendants of Judah, Simeon and Gad

Read: 1 Chronicles 4:5-5:17; Acts 25:1-27; Psalm 5:1-12; Proverbs 18:19 Today we begin by reading the other descendants of Judah. One of them was Jabez. His mother brought him to the earth in pain. Historians record that Jabez became a famous and just lawyer who wrote many patriotic works. He was so famous and loved that they named their town in honor of him. He prayed the prayer that has become famous in our day known was the Prayer of Jabez. His prayer is that God would bless him and make his reputation spread. Next we have the sons of Simeon who were wealthy farmers. They had wanted the land from the descendants of Ham when they came from Egypt because the land was so fertile. The Ruebenites were next. Rueben was first-born but lost his first-born status when he went into his father’s concubines dishonoring his father. The birthright went to Joseph who was Rachel’s first-born. The tribe of Gad settled next to Rueben. They lived in the land they had taken from the king of Basin. Joel was their leader. In Acts, Festus has become the new governor of Caesarea. He immediately took a trip to Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders who wanted Paul dead met with him about Paul. They saw this as their opportunity to end his life once again. They tried to persuade Festus to send Paul to Jerusalem. They planned to kill him on the way. Festus told them that he would listen to Paul’s defense when he got back to Caesarea and decide what to do. When he came home, he had Paul brought before him for questioning. He asked Paul if he was willing to go and stand trial in Jerusalem. Paul told him he wasn’t. He was innocent and he knew that Fetus knew it too. He appealed to Caesar. Days later King Agrippa came to visit Caesarea and discussed Paul’s case. King Agrippa was curious to meet Paul himself. Festus had arranged it for the next day. Festus knew Paul was innocent but wanted King Agrippa to help him word the letter he would send to Rome. Lord, thank you for your steadfast love. Thank you that you defend our innocence before the world.

Wed.’s Devo - The Descendants of Judah, Simeon and Gad

Read: 1 Chronicles 4:5-5:17; Acts 25:1-27; Psalm 5:1-12; Proverbs 18:19 Today we begin by reading the other descendants of Judah. One of them was Jabez. His mother brought him to the earth in pain. Historians record that Jabez became a famous and just lawyer who wrote many patriotic works. He was so famous and loved that they named their town in honor of him. He prayed the prayer that has become famous in our day known was the Prayer of Jabez. His prayer is that God would bless him and make his reputation spread. Next we have the sons of Simeon who were wealthy farmers. They had wanted the land from the descendants of Ham when they came from Egypt because the land was so fertile. The Ruebenites were next. Rueben was first-born but lost his first-born status when he went into his father’s concubines dishonoring his father. The birthright went to Joseph who was Rachel’s first-born. The tribe of Gad settled next to Rueben. They lived in the land they had taken from the king of Basin. Joel was their leader. In Acts, Festus has become the new governor of Caesarea. He immediately took a trip to Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders who wanted Paul dead met with him about Paul. They saw this as their opportunity to end his life once again. They tried to persuade Festus to send Paul to Jerusalem. They planned to kill him on the way. Festus told them that he would listen to Paul’s defense when he got back to Caesarea and decide what to do. When he came home, he had Paul brought before him for questioning. He asked Paul if he was willing to go and stand trial in Jerusalem. Paul told him he wasn’t. He was innocent and he knew that Fetus knew it too. He appealed to Caesar. Days later King Agrippa came to visit Caesarea and discussed Paul’s case. King Agrippa was curious to meet Paul himself. Festus had arranged it for the next day. Festus knew Paul was innocent but wanted King Agrippa to help him word the letter he would send to Rome. Lord, thank you for your steadfast love. Thank you that you defend our innocence before the world.

Tues.’s Devo - Our Posterity

Read: 1 Chronicles 2:18-4:4; Acts 24:1-27; Psalm 4:1-8; Proverbs 18:16-18 Judah’s grandson was Hezron who had three sons. Caleb was the third son. There are so many names but what stuck out to me in his line was that Hebron and Bethlehem were established in his family. Hebron means “communion” and Bethlehem means “house of bread.” David’s line was mentioned next. David had six sons born in Hebron where he reigned seven and a half years. He reigned 33 years in Jerusalem. So much about David represents Jesus. Jesus lived 33 years on the earth. The six sons David had in Hebron represent his communion with the Lord at that time. The meanings of their names describe his reign in Hebron. They read: He was a faithful judge who lived in peace with God. His Lord was Jehovah and he blessed the people. David had eleven sons in Jerusalem although only nine are mentioned. The other two could have died early in life. Solomon’s line was given down to the last king, Zedekiah. Jehoiachin was the king that was taken captive to Babylon. He and his sons were mentioned. They were taken to Babylon also. The sons were killed but the other kings had sons that perpetuated. In Acts, Paul’s accusers made it to Caesarea to testify against him. Felix is the governor listening to his case. Everything the Jews said about Paul was exaggerated and a lie. Paul gave his defense and his was the truth. He defends the law and Jesus the fulfillment of the law. Felix wanted to wait until Lysias, the army commander got to town to decide Paul’s fate. Paul was kept in custody until he returned. Paul was on house arrest which gave freedom to meet with his friends. Felix returned with his wife, Drusilla who was Jewish. They had many conversations with Paul about the law and his faith in Jesus. Felix hoped that Paul would bribe him to release him but when he didn’t, he kept Paul in prison. Two years passed and Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. Felix wanted to be able to show his face in public so he kept Paul in prison. Lord, may we realize the weight of our lives and how we carry on our line in the history of time. What we do is so important to our posterity.

Mon.’s Devo - The Lineage of Christ

Read: 1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17; Acts 23:11-35; Psalm 3:1-8; Provers 18:14-15 The Chronicles were written by the priests and highlight the kings of Judah since the priests lived in Judah under the authority of the kings of Judah. The Chronicles of the Kings were probably written by Ezra after the exile was over and they were under Persian rule. It starts with Judah’s spiritual heritage beginning with Adam. Notice that Cain is not mentioned since he was not from the seed of Adam but from Lucifer. Seth was the replacement of Abel who gave the perfect sacrifice just like the Body of Christ replaced Christ (became his presence on the earth…Christ in us). A better way of saying that is that we took up where Christ left off just as Seth took up where Abel left off. If you take the names Adam to Noah and look up their meanings you will get this: Jesus set man as the praise of God on the earth. A deceiver shot the dart (lie) that initiated death - where they would rest. His sons began a name of tumult that would expand on the earth thus perpetuating the cycle of sin. We see that Ham which means “tumult” had a son named Cush which means “black”. His son was Nimrod which means “we will rebel”. He became a champion of evil and hunted men for sport. From this line came the Philistines who were enemies of the Israelites. Man was once again on a collision course to hell until God chose Abram and built up a family line through him. He redeemed them through circumcision. Even Abraham missed God’s perfect will and had Ishmael but he was not the promised son. Abraham repented and God blessed he and Sarah with Isaac. Isaac had Jacob, who had the twelve tribes of Israel and through Abraham’s seed, the whole earth is blessed. Ishmael’s line is important because he carries the seed of Abraham. After the sons of Israel were named the account begins with the line of Judah since that line will be the line of salvation. It started out pretty shakily with God killing Judah’s first two sons because they were so evil. Tamar had to trick her father-in-law into doing the right thing and had Perez and Zerah. Perez’s line carried the seed of Christ. His twin brother, Zerah, produced Achan who was killed when he took plunder from the battle of Jericho. From Perez’s line came Salmon, who had Boaz who with Ruth would have Obed. Obed had Jesse who had David. Jessie had other sons and daughters and one of his daughters named Abigail married an Ishmaelite and had a son named Amasa. Amasa would become David’s commander of his army instead of Joab. Joab would kill Amasa out of jealousy. In Acts, God appeared to Paul and told him that he was to be his witness to Rome like he was to Jerusalem. That had to be not so good news since there were men in Jerusalem who had bound themselves with an oath not to drink or eat until they had killed Paul. Paul’s nephew heard of the plan and told the Roman officers. The Roman commander ordered 470 trained soldiers to sneak Paul out of the city at night and take him safely to Governor Felix. He sent a letter with the soldiers who took Paul. It explained Paul’s dilemma and defended Paul’s innocence. They got Paul safely to Caesarea where his case would be heard when his accusers arrived. Don’t you know they were surprised to see that Paul had made it safely there! Lord, I love how you outsmart your enemies. We have nothing to fear against Satan because he has no power over you. Thank you for giving us salvation through Abraham.

Sun.’s Devo - Changing Kings

Read: 2 Kings 23:31-25:30; Acts 22:17-23:10; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 18:13 God had promised to destroy Jerusalem after Josiah’s death and now we read how this came true. Josiah had died in battle against King Neco of Egypt. Jehoahaz his son reigned only 3 months when Neco put him in prison in Hamath (which is in Syria). Neco demanded that Judah pay 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold. Neco put Eliakim (one of Josiah’s sons) as the ruler of Judah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim had to impose an income tax on the people in order to pay Neco. Jehoiakim ruled for 11 years. He was evil like his brother. During his 11 year reign, King Neuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Judah and Jehoiakim surrendered to him and had to pay him tribute also. He refused to pay it after three years so the Lord sent the Babylonians, Arameans, Moabites and the Ammonites against Judah to destroy it. This all happened because of the sins of Manasseh and all his murders (mainly innocent children). Jehoiakim died at the early age of 36 and his son Jehoiachin became the king. Jehoiachin was only 18. He did evil also. Nebuchadnezzar had captured most of Egypt so Neco didn’t venture out of his country after that. Nebuchadnezzar then came for Jerusalem and besieged it. Nebuchadnezzar stripped and pillaged everything that was of any worth from the Temple. He even took the pillars down and carried them to Babylon. Jehoiachin and his leaders surrendered and were taken prisoner to Babylon. He exiled 7,000 of the best troops and 1,000 craftsmen. Nebuchadnezzar only left the weak and poor to stay in Jerusalem. He assigned Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle as the next king but changed his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah ruled 11 years but did evil and rebelled against eh king of Babylon. So Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem to beseige it for 2 years. When all the food was gone Zedekiah and a group of soldiers devised a plan to escape through a broken down section of the wall at night. They were chased by the Babylonian troops and captured. Zedekiah was taken to Babylon where he was judged, had to watch his sons killed and then had his eyes gouged out. Nebuchadnezzar had the Temple, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem destroyed then he had the wall torn down. I read that there was gold in the mortar of the wall so he had them take every stone apart to get the gold out of the mortar. They took all the other bronze, gold and silver that was left to Babylon. The high priest, his assistant and the three chief gatekeepers were taken prisoner to Babylon where they were tried and put to death. The people of Judah were sent tinto exile from their land. Gedaliah was appointed governor of the people left in Judah. All of Judah met Gedaliah in Mizpeh to hear his leadership plan. He told them that as long as they did what the king of Babylon wanted, they could live their lives in peace. But one of the royal family, Ishmael, formed a coup and went to Mizpeh and killed Gediliah and all the Babylonian soldiers. The people ran in panic of Babylon’s response. In Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar was replaced by Evil-merodach. Jehoiachin, who was in prison there, found favor with Evil-merodach and was promoted to eat with the king. He was given new clothes and didn’t have to wear the clothes of the prison. Well, that was enough to make your head spin! The kings changed like diapers on newborn all because of their sins of idolatry. In Acts, Paul was giving his testimony to the mob of people. They listened in silence until he got to the part about God sending him to the Gentiles. When he said the word, ‘Gentile’ the place erupted. The commander brought Paul in and strapped him down to whip him. He ordered him to confess to why the crowd had become so furious. Paul asked him if it was legal to whip a Roman citizen before he was tried. When the commander found out he was a Roman citizen by birth he quickly released him to prison to await his trial. The next day the leading priests were brought before the Jewish high council to find out what was going on with Paul and the crowd. Paul began that he had lived before God his whole life with a clear conscience. Ananias ordered Paul slapped. Paul was incensed and called him a corrupt hypocrite. He apologized when they told him he was the high priest. Paul saw that half the council was Pharisees and half was Sadducees, so he brought up the matter of resurrection since he knew that was their main dissension. It caused such a division that the soldiers had to rescue Paul and have him taken back to prison. Paul had to be laughing on the inside. Lord, help us to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves. Give us strategy during these days we are living in and an answer to every person. May your Kingdom come.

Sat.’s Devo - Cleansing the Land of Idolatry

Josiah became king when he was 8 so 18 years later he started restoring the Temple. He would have been 26 years old. He took the money that the gatekeepers collected every Sabbath and gave it to the construction supervisors and trusted them to do their job without any accountability. He said that they were honest and trustworthy men. In the restoration, the high priest found a copy of the law and gave it to Josiah’s court secretary to read. He read what it said, and took it to Josiah. When Josiah read it he tore his clothes in despair as he realized all the things that had been done for years in Judah were blasphemous to God and he would have to punish them. He was probably reading Dueteronomy 28-30 about the curses and the blessings. They were definitely doing what would give them the curses. They went to the prophet Huldah to ask her what God would say to them. She sent back word that God was indeed very angry because they had rebelled against him and he would destroy Jerusalem but it would not happen in Josiah’s time because he had repented. Josiah called all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to the Temple where he read to them the entire Book of the Covenant. He pledged to obey the Lord and keep His commands with his whole heart and soul. The people agreed also. Then they started a huge campaign to cleanse the land of idolatry. They got rid of the prophets of Baal and all worship of Baal and Asherah and the powers of the heavens taking everything used in these practices down to the Kidron Valley and burning them. Josiah also tore down the pagan shrines throughout his land. He defiled the altar of Topheth in the valley of Ben-Hinnon so no one could offer their children in the fire to Molech. He destroyed the horse statutes and the chariots that former kings had used in worshipping the sun. They tore down the altars Manasseh had built in the courtyards of the Lord’s Temple. He desecrated the shrine east of Jerusalem and south of the Mount of Corruption where King Solomon had built shrines for Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Molech. He tore down the altar at Bethel, the golden calf that Jeroboam had built then Josiah ordered that the bones of the tombs by this altar to be brought out and burned on the altar at Bethel to desecrate it. There was a monument that caught Josiah’s attention and when he asked about it, he found that it was the grave of the prophet that had prophesied this very day 326 years before (I Kings 13:2). The had even called Josiah by name. Josiah told his men to leave his tomb and not take his bones. Josiah cleaned out the idolatry out of Samaria also and executed the priest of the pagan shrines on their own altars. He then ordered the nation to celebrate the Passover like God had set it up to be celebrated. Josiah even got rid of all the psychics and household gods and every evil practice in his nation. Never before had a king turned to the Lord with all his heart like Josiah and there has never been one since. Even so, God did not repent of his curse on Jerusalem and the Temple because of the evil things Manasseh had done. The king of Egypt and the king of Assyria joined together to fight against Israel. They met at Megiddo where Josiah was killed. His son, Jehoahaz was made king. In Acts, Paul asked the commander who had rescued him from the mob if he could talk to the people. He talked to the commander in Greek, then addressed the people in Aramaic. He also knew Hebrew. Paul was a very smart man. The commander let him speak. The people were hushed and quietly listened while he told his testimony. He told them of his education and devout study of the Law of God. He told them of his zeal to kill Christians, but then how God revealed himself in a bright light that kept him blind for three days. He told of how Ananias came and prayed for him to see and told him that he was to preach the Good News to everyone. Then he told them to get up and be baptized and have their sins washed away in Jesus name. Lord, thank you for people like Josiah who was such an example of a godly leader. Raise up godly leaders to lead our nations who need no accountability because they are honest and trust in you. May we rid our lives of all ungodliness like Josiah rid his nation of sin.

Fri.’s Devo - God is Our God

Read: 2 Kings 20:1-22:2; Acts 21:18-36; Psalm 150:1-6; Proverbs 18:9-10 Hezekiah, the king of Judah became fatally ill so God sent Isaiah to tell him to set his house in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah had no heir at that time. He cried out to the Lord for mercy and reminded God how loyal he had been. God sent Isaiah back to tell him that He had heard his prayer and was granting him 15 more years. Hezekiah asked Isaiah for a sign that what he was saying was true. Isaiah told him to pick whether he wanted the sundial to go forward ten steps or backward. Hezekiah chose backward, so time went back 10 hours. The king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan sent a gift to celebrate Hezekiah’s recovery. Merodach-baladan means “I am not a lord; Baal is lord.” Hezekiah showed them everything in his treasury and palace. When they left, Isaiah came to visit to ask what he showed them. Hezekiah told him everything and Isaiah’s response was that they would one day come and take it all. Even his sons would be taken and make into eunuchs in Babylon’s palace. Then we see Hezekiah’s real heart. He said it was good became at least it wouldn’t happen in his life time. How sad. We live our lives for eternity and what we will pass on to the next generation, not just for our lifespan. Hezekiah hadn’t prepared for his future. In the next fifteen years that the Lord gave him, he had an heir named Manasseh. Manasseh was 13 when he died and he did evil. He reintroduced pagan worship and the worship of Baal and Asherah. He sacrificed his own son in the fire and practiced sorcery and divination and consulted mediums and psychics. He profaned the Temple with his idolatry. He murdered innocent people and caused the people of Judah to commit sin and evil. When Manasseh died, his son Amon ruled. His own officials killed him in his palace and his son Josiah became king. Josiah was only eight when he became king and did what was pleasing to the Lord. He is one of the only kings who was likened to David. In Acts. Paul met with the elders in the Jerusalem church and told them all the news of their mission trip. They told Paul how the people had been told that he was teaching Jews to turn from following the laws of Moses. So to clear things up, they suggested that Paul come with them to the Temple to participate in a Jewish ceremony of purification where some men were completing their Nazarite vow. The last thing they had to do was to shave their heads. If everyone saw Paul shave their heads they would know that Paul believed in following the law. Paul agreed to do this but when he got to the Temple the next day there was an angry mob waiting for him. It grew into a riot and Paul was thrown out of the Temple. They were about to kill him when the Roman officers showed up. They arrested Paul and asked the crowd what he was guilty of. The crowd were so out of control, the soldiers couldn’t get an answer out of them they could understand. The soldiers had to lift Paul above their heads to rescue him from the crowd. Lord, confusion seems to be the order of the day when you are doing something new. Help us to navigate the transition of our day with grace and wisdom.