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Monday, March 3, 2014

MY NEW WEBSITE IS WORKING

Please follow this link to see today's BIBLE PASSAGE: http://www.bargainomics.com/apps/blog/

NOTE: There have been a few problems with the new website. By FRIDAY, MARCH 14, it will be updated with all the Bible passages that I have been unable to post over the past week.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

FINAL POST

WITHIN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, I WILL NO LONGER BE POSTING ON THIS BLOG. I HAVE A NEW WEBSITE www.Bargainomics.com IN PROCESS THAT WILL INCLUDE THIS Bible Study. WHEN YOU NO LONGER SEE THE BIBLE STUDY HERE, GO TO THE WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE Bible Study TAB. PLEASE VISIT DAILY TO SEE EACH DAY'S Bible Study. MY WEBSITE INCLUDES OTHER PAGES WITH BARGAINS AND MORE. BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU!

SUNDAY'S BARGAINOMICS BIBLE PASSAGE

Sennacherib and his men have insulted the Lord, saying “‘no god of any nation or kingdom has ever yet been able to rescue his people from me or my ancestors. How much less will your God rescue you from my power!’ These officers talked about the God of Jerusalem as though he were one of the pagan gods, made by human hands” (II Chronicles 32:15b, 19, NLT). And the Lord had heard enough.

Hezekiah, the prophet Isaiah, and certainly all the people had cried to God to rescue them and the Lord had heard and would answer. In Second Chronicles 32, we read a brief summary of how the Lord intervened on His people’s behalf, but in Second Kings 19, we get a much bigger picture, including a long message delivered by Isaiah to Hezekiah:

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria. And the Lord has spoken this word against him: ‘Whom have you been defying and ridiculing? Against whom did you raise your voice? At whom did you look with such haughty eyes? It was the Holy One of Israel!

But have you not heard? I decided this long ago. Long ago I planned it, and now I am making it happen. I planned for you to crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble.

I know the way you have raged against Me. And because of your raging against Me and your arrogance, which I have heard for Myself, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth. I will make you return by the same road on which you came.’

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘And this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: ‘His armies will not enter Jerusalem. They will not even shoot an arrow at it. They will not march outside its gates with their shields nor build banks of earth against its walls. The king will return to his own country by the same road on which he came. He will not enter this city, says the Lord. For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David, I will defend this city and protect it.’

That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.

One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria”
(II Kings 19:20b-21a, 22, 25b, 27b-29a, 32-37).

“But have you not heard? I decided this long ago. Long ago I planned it, and now I am making it happen. I planned for you to crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble.” Sennacherib had no power whatsoever except that which the Lord had allowed him.

“I know the way you have raged against Me.”
The people of Judah didn’t lay a hand on Sennacherib. The Lord simply allowed Sennacherib’s own evil lifestyle to catch up with him so that his own sons murdered him as he knelt before a useless idol in worship.

Never seek revenge against your enemies; wait on the Lord. “If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people.” (Charles Spurgeon)

Copyright © 2013
Judy Woodward Bates

Saturday, March 1, 2014

FINAL POST

WITHIN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, I WILL NO LONGER BE POSTING ON THIS BLOG. I HAVE A NEW WEBSITE www.Bargainomics.com IN PROCESS THAT WILL INCLUDE THIS Bible Study. WHEN YOU NO LONGER SEE THE BIBLE STUDY HERE, GO TO THE WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE Bible Study TAB. PLEASE VISIT DAILY TO SEE EACH DAY'S Bible Study. MY WEBSITE INCLUDES OTHER PAGES WITH BARGAINS AND MORE. BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU!

SATURDAY'S BARGAINOMICS BIBLE PASSAGE

Sennacherib and the army of Assyria marched into Judah and laid siege to town after town. Hezekiah knew Sennacherib was headed for Jerusalem, so he began preparing their defenses. Then “he appointed military officers over the people and assembled them before him in the square at the city gate. Then Hezekiah encouraged them by saying: ‘Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side! He may have a great army, but they are merely men. We have the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles for us!’” (II Chronicles 32:6-8a, NLT).

Meanwhile Sennacherib had sent this message: “What are you trusting in that makes you think you can survive my siege of Jerusalem? Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you! Don’t let him fool you like this! I say it again – no god of any nation or kingdom has ever yet been able to rescue his people from me or my ancestors. How much less will your God rescue you from my power!’

And Sennacherib’s officers further mocked the Lord God and his servant Hezekiah, heaping insult upon insult. The king also sent letters scorning the Lord, the God of Israel. He wrote, ‘Just as the gods of all the other nations failed to rescue their people from my power, so the God of Hezekiah will also fail.’ The Assyrian officials who brought the letters shouted this in Hebrew to the people gathered on the walls of the city, trying to terrify them so it would be easier to capture the city. These officers talked about the God of Jerusalem as though he were one of the pagan gods, made by human hands’”
(II Chronicles 32:10b, 15-19).

“These officers talked about the God of Jerusalem as though he were one of the pagan gods, made by human hands” and thought they could get away with it! But Hezekiah knew exactly what to do.

“After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: ‘O Lord, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.

It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all – only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God’”
(II Kings 19:14-19).

Look back at Hezekiah’s speech to the people: “We have the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles for us!” And that’s precisely what Jehovah did – He fought for Jerusalem.

Child of God, you have the entire army of heaven on your side. When the going gets tough, don’t panic; hit your knees. Call out to the Great and Mighty Lord God Almighty. “He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us again. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us” (II Corinthians 1:10, NIV).

Copyright © 2013
Judy Woodward Bates