II KINGS & I CHRONICLES

Today is Sunday!!  I love to go to church on Sunday!  I teach at 10:00am and then get to preach God's Word at 11:00am and again at 6:00pm.  I get to meet and greet God's people and I love them and love church.  I'm happy when I go to church.  I hope you get to go this morning yourself! I read in II Kings and I Chronicles this morning as I went through 20 chapters of the Bible.  Yesterday we saw that Jehoshaphat joined with ungodly king several times until he finally said no.  Well, apparently he began a trend by his actions.  In II Kings 16, we have the King of Israel, Pekah, join with the king of Syria, Rezin, to fight the king of Judah.  The king of Judah, Ahaz, asked the king of Assyria, Tiglath-pileaser to help him out if the nation was their servant.  Well, that is how it worked out, and the King of Assyria conquered Israel and Syria, but the price was servitude for the king of Judah and his people.  The moral of the story is "don't make ungodly alliances"!! In II Kings 17:27, the king of Assyria, orders one of the captured priest of Israel to go back to Israel and teach them about the LORD God of Israel.  Amazing!!  A heathen king telling the land to learn about their God.  BUT, we see that the Israelites who were following so many idols and strange gods, made the lowest of men they could find to be the priest according to verse 32 of the same chapter.  How wicked! Hezekiah made an alliance with the king of Assyria, and because of that had to pay tribute each year to him.  To get the gold and silver, he raided the temple and took the gold and silver and gave it to the king of Assyria.  So many times, it was Judah's own king that gave the gold and silver away and desecrated the temple. I FOUND THE BOOK- In II Kings 22:8, Hilkiah the priest, found the Word of God in the temple as they were cleaning it out.  If you read that chapter, it is amazing the difference the Word of God makes in the kingdom.  It still will today!! JOSIAH- In II Kings 23:23-25, we see that Josiah turned his heart to the Lord and the Bible records, that "no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses:  neither after him arose there any like him."  Wow!  What a godly man who stood for the LORD.  We should do the same with our lives. CHRONICLES-  Chapter one starts off with Adam and gives the genealogies of the children of Israel.  Having done that in chapter one, the next chapters will deal with each of the twelve tribes and how they were born and of whom.  An interesting fact I hadn't noticed before was in chapter two, verse 15-17.  David had two sisters:  Zeruiah and Abigail.  Zeruiah, had sons: Abishai, Joab, and Asahel.  (This was David's general, Joab, and his two brothers, and one of them was a mighty men, Abishai.)  Asahel was killed by Amasa, and later Joab killed him!  Now the other sister, Abigail, had a son named Amasa.  So you see they were each David's nephews and they fought against each other and even killed one another.  It was a family feud!!  Are we surprised to hear that families still have feuds today among themselves?  This should not be however! Well, I've got to go to church!  I get to go!  I've looking forward to it.  Have a blessed day!! Dr. Mike Mutchler, Pastor