Reading from Thursday, July 1

Good morrow. It's America weekend.

Also, last night's post marked the half way point for this blog!  Six months in the books, yo.

Let's read the Bible.

Reading from July 1
2 Kings 18:13-19:37
The war with Assyria.

In this section the king of Assyria is threatening a complete hostile takeover of Jerusalem. I just figure out that Jerusalem is in Judah, not Israel during this time - in case you missed that too. So Hezekiah, the king of Judah, keeps telling his people not to worry and that "The LORD will deliver us". The king of Assyria tells everyone not to believe Hezekiah. He says "look at all the other nations my army has destroyed. Have any of their gods delivered them?" So all the people of Judah began to get very panicky.

Hezekiah prays to God for Judah's deliverance from Assyria and God answers him through the prophet Isaiah in a beautifully paced and delivered message. He says that he planned long ago for Judah to win this battle, and now it is setting into motion. So that night an "angel of the LORD" swept through the Assyrian camp and 185,000 soldiers were killed. When the rest of the soldiers woke up they found only dead bodies so they had to retreat.

A couple of interesting things to point out in this story.

1) The plan.I am often debating with myself on the idea of God being all knowing. My theory is this: He has plans and paths for each of us to take. Individually and as larger groups. If we follow his ways and obey his laws, we will see those plans come to fruition, and it's my belief that those paths are the very best one could choose (or accept) in his or her life. However, if we deviate from the path, if we disobey God or live outside of his boundaries, then not even God knows what will happen to us. We are left to the will of the wind of the world.

I think this scene lends some validity to that theory. Hezekiah was a good king for Judah and it says that he obeyed all the laws of Moses and the elders so he was on the right path, both individually and representing his nation. So God was able to carry out his plan for him which he had set up so long ago.

2) The angel of the LORD that is mentioned is likely the same entity that killed the first born children of Egypt during the plagues. We see this "angel" a few times in the Bible and it seems like its sole purpose is to kill things in their sleep. That's pretty scary that something like that comes from God.

Acts 21:1-17
A few chapters ago, Acts switched from third person to first person. There is a member of Paul's party who seems to be writing this book as they go along, almost like a journal. So there is this constant reference to "we".But it's really cool to read, it is in fact almost like picking up someone's journal and reading it with little details about the people that stayed with with the things they saw and experienced. I did something similar when I was on tour with my band and that's the constant image I get from these journeys of Paul. They are on a tour, and for me there's nothing cooler.

In this section the group of "we" are making their way back to Jerusalem based on Paul's feeling that he must go there. There seems to be a lot of trepidation on the part of his disciples to let him go there. They fear that he will be killed but Paul continues to insist and they just give up and say "The LORD's will be done..."

I guess sometimes when you are trying so hard to influence or change a situation but you can't, you just have to say "Thy will be done." Maybe there are some things in this life that absolutely have to happen to each of us, and while we can deviate widely from the path God has laid out for us, there are key moments that we cannot change no matter how far we are from God. Maybe those are the points where God is trying to check back in with us and get us back to him. Hmm...interesting thought...

Psalm 149:1-9
See this just makes me upset:

 ⁵ Let the saints rejoice in this honor
       and sing for joy on their beds.
 ⁶ May the praise of God be in their mouths
       and a double-edged sword in their hands,
 ⁷ to inflict vengeance on the nations
       and punishment on the peoples,

It's all about praising God, but for what end? To kill everyone around them and gain more land. People are awful. 

Proverbs 18:8
 ⁸ The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
       they go down to a man's inmost parts.

Oh my. That is graphic!