The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
2 Kings 18:1-8, 2 Chronicles 29-31, Psalm 48
Act 2: God’s Covenant People
Scene 7: Kings and Prophets: The southern kingdom as God’s people
Background Information: 2 Kings 18:1-8, 2 Chronicles 29-31, Psalm 48
Hezekiah was one of Judah’s greatest kings. He led the people in a national revival of faithfulness to God. He reinstituted the sacrifices and festivals that God had given Israel in the law. Before he could lead the people in worship to the true God, he first had to tear down the many pagan idols, altars, and temples that had covered the land. He even destroyed the bronze snake that Moses had made in the wilderness because the people had turned it into an idol. God had ordered this object to be fashioned so that if the people looked to it, they would be saved from the nightmarish judgment of poisonous snakes. Now, instead of reminding them of God’s judgment and his mercy found in repentance, they had made it into an idol. In Hezekiah’s time, the object was now nearly a thousand years old and was a symbol of forgotten faithfulness and evidence that the human heart is, at its core, an idol maker. Hezekiah was an idol breaker. He called the snake, Nehushtan, a word that meant “a bronze thing.” This was a show of contempt for a contemptuous idol. The snake was no mystical, magical object; it was simply that old bronze thing. He unceremoniously destroyed it. Before we can worship God in faith and faithfulness, we must first repent of our sins. Jesus said that just as the bronze snake was lifted up, so too, when he had been lifted up, he would bring salvation to those who believed in him. Then he gave us the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16. We can turn anything into an idol. Look at your own life: where have you fashioned even God’s good gifts into idols? Family, health, jobs, possessions, gifting, all these and more can become idols. We must continually turn from the idols we have made back to the Lord Jesus, whose death on the cross has saved us.
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Pray for Dave Haynes. He is hospitalized and fighting an infection. Ask God to heal his body. Pray that he would be encouraged.
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call someone now and tell them…
– What you are praying for.
– What stood out from God’s word today.