today's bible verse's via Bible gateway

today's bible verse's via Bible gateway

today's reading: Isaiah 37-38, Colossians 3

View today's reading online: http://click.lists.biblegateway.com/?qs=69cf0f5730b7ad305e3290b03a29167faab37837fe32ad0c28fb8c854d1fa373

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Today's Old Testament reading: Isaiah 37-38
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And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

Continue reading online: http://click.lists.biblegateway.com/?qs=69cf0f5730b7ad309047d3f4d6c63fd708930c54e64f9e0bbe4e6e3fce1fbef1

Ok but you cannot read these verse without going  back because this is basically just cutting right into the middle of the story.

Isaiah 36: So the is this King of Assyria named 

Sennacherib, and he is basically the "big dawg" he's taking over cities left and right and no one can stop him.  

The dialog in verses 4 -10, 13-14, 18-20  show that he is quite a cocky man he challenges King Hezekiah and our God... " 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? ⁵ You say you have strategy and military strength—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? ⁶ Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man's hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. ⁷ And if you say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God"-isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar"?

 ⁸ " 'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! ⁹ How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ¹⁰ Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD ? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.' "

 ¹³ Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴ This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! ¹⁵ Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, 'The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'

 ¹⁸ "Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, 'The LORD will deliver us.' Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? ²⁰ Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"

Now back to the original text Isaiah 37 

Hezekiah was obviously in distress about the situation..so he puts on his sakcloth and goes to the temple of the Lord of guidance. He sent his messengers to go see the prophet Isaiah basically I said says..don't worry I God has your back don't let this jerk scare you.

verse 5-7:  ⁵ When King Hezekiah's officials came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. ⁷ Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.' "

 Also we see again in 37:9 The King of Assyria gets just a tiny bit cocky AGAIN!!!  ⁹ Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite ^[a] king of Egypt , was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: ¹⁰ "Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, 'Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.' ¹¹ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? ¹² Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?"

Next in verses 14-19 we see Hezekiah prayer, this beautiful example of prayer through the storm is like something you would think to find in psalm by the troubled king David..But this is not David its Hezekiah and this is his prayer......¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD : ¹⁶ "O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.

 ¹⁸ "It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. ¹⁹ They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. ²⁰ Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God. ^[b] "

 AMEN

I love seeing these men of God, these Kings bowing down before the Almighty God<---MESSAGE!!!!

Verses 21-38 Shows what happens when you blaspheme God and go against his ppl

READ HERE: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2037:21-38&version=NIV

Isaiah 38-Hezekiah illness

verse 2-7 show Hezekiah praying and God answering.... ² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, ³ "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

 ⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: ⁵ "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

 ⁷ " 'This is the LORD's sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: ⁸ I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.' " So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

Upon his recovery Hezekiah wrote a short memoir if you will about how great God is and how much he has done for him. 

READ HERE: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2038:9-21&version=NIV