King James Bible Study: Cleaved To Christ
For: Sunday May 08, 2011
Chapters: II Kings 18-20
Click Here to Read Them or Go to: http://imfollowingjesus.com/bible-may-8
Details of Today's Reading: The reign and spiritual revival of Hezekiah over Judah, their victory over the Philistines, Hezekiah’s message to Isaiah, his prayer and the answer given through Isaiah, Hezekiah’s illness, recovery, and Hezekiah's error in showing the ambassadors from Babylon all his treasures.

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“And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” - Genesis 2:22-24.

Salvation is a picture of a marriage between a man and woman, the second a person asks Jesus Christ to save them they leave the world, cleave to Christ, and become one flesh. The key to developing our relationship with God, just like in a marriage, is communication, talking to one another, submitting to one another, and trusting one another. The more we communicate with each other the more barriers we break down, the more barriers we break down the more joyful it becomes.

For the first time since King David passed we learn of Hezekiah, the one and only king after David that walked in all the ways of the Lord as David did.

“Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.” - II Kings 18:2-6.

Hezekiah destroyed all the images that people were bowing down to and worshiping, he even destroyed the statute Moses made because they were worshiping it. Today, there are many, many images and statues,used to worship it and not God. These too need to be broken down and destroyed, I love the statute of Mary, but every time I see it I know it is an idol and how many people actually bow down to her as if she were a god. Mary was just like you and I, she was a sinner, she just found favor with God and that is why she was chosen to carry Jesus. “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:” - Luke 1”30-32.

Hezekiah's spiritual reformation was followed by a radical reorganization of the entire administration of both the secular and religious affairs of the kingdom. Hezekiah trusted in God with every thing, but was put to the test and failed when he was confronted by Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. There was an agreement that was made by his father, king Ahaz, to pay him silver and gold, in exchange for their freedom. Hezekiah refused to submit to this, but after Sennacherib threatened Hezekiah he gave in to his demands. Instead of seeking God for guidance Hezekiah gave all the treasures in the House of the Lord to Sennacherib to keep him from attacking Jerusalem.

“And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.” - II Kings 18:14-16.

Hezekiah's mistake, he had not communication from God, unless we communicate with God we leave ourselves to our own reasoning, which quite often is filled with fear and emotions that keep us from making the right decisions. That is why we need to be in constant communication with God. When we learn to become completely dependent upon Him that is when we can ask Him for anything and He will bless us with it. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” - James 1:5,6.

Now, once Hezekiah came to his senses he went into the House of the Lord and prayed, as he was praying the people of Assyria were conspiring against Hezekiah.

“Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria...Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?..And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth...Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.” - II Kings 19:10,12,15,19.

Rabshakeh did not realize that all those nations that were destroyed upon putting their faith in their false gods that Jerusalem's God was the one and only living God. God did answer Hezekiah's prayer and spared Jerusalem at least during the rest of Hezekiah's reign. They can mock you, they can ignore, deny, or curse God, but none of that will ever change the fact that you are one of God's children, His very own and because you are His own there is nothing He will not do for you.

“As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:36-39.

Shortly after their victory, Hezekiah became very ill and was on the verge of death, the prophet Isaiah came to meet with him and told him to be prepared to die. Hezekiah was not ready to die, so he turned to God in prayer.

“In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.” - II Kings 20:1-3.

Hezekiah does not speak to God as if He needed to be reminded of the things that he had done, but he asks Him to remember him. He humbly, earnestly, cried before his God and because of that prayer God added fifteen more years on to Hezekiah's life. Perhaps prayer is one of the best preparations for death, because by it we give us the strength and grace we need from God, to enable us to finish what we need to do before He takes us home. Now, we really do not know what hour God decides to take one of His children home, but at times, God will use near death situations like these to remind us that we have left the world and are cleaved together as one with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ. “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit...Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” - I John 4:12,13, 15.


Jesus Revealed: Today Jesus is revealed through Hezekiah who removed all the idols out of Jerusalem. Jesus destroyed everything evil in the Temple. “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” - Matthew 21:12,13.

God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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