The One Year Bible TLB (141 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord! How good it is to sing his praises! How delightful, and how right!
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He is rebuilding Jerusalem and bringing back the exiles.
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He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds.
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He counts the stars and calls them all by name.
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How great he is! His power is absolute! His understanding is unlimited.
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The Lord supports the humble, but brings the wicked into the dust.
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Sing out your thanks to him; sing praises to our God, accompanied by harps.
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He covers the heavens with clouds, sends down the showers, and makes the green grass grow in mountain pastures.
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He feeds the wild animals, and the young ravens cry to him for food.
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The speed of a horse is nothing to him. How puny in his sight is the strength of a man.
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But his joy is in those who reverence him, those who expect him to be loving and kind.
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Praise him, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
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For he has fortified your gates against all enemies and blessed your children.
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He sends peace across your nation and fills your barns with plenty of the finest wheat.
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He sends his orders to the world. How swiftly his word flies.
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He sends the snow in all its lovely whiteness, scatters the frost upon the ground,
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and hurls the hail upon the earth. Who can stand before his freezing cold?
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But then he calls for warmer weather, and the spring winds blow and all the river ice is broken.
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He has made known his laws and ceremonies of worship to Israel—
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something he has not done with any other nation; they have not known his commands.
Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord!
A wise man’s words express deep streams of thought.
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It is wrong for a judge to favor the wicked and condemn the innocent.
June 30New king of Israel: Hoshea
Father’s name: Elah
Length of reign: 9 years, in Samaria
Character of his reign: evil—but not as bad as some of the other kings of Israel
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Ahaz, who had been the king there for 12 years
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King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked and defeated King Hoshea, so Israel had to pay heavy annual taxes to Assyria.
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Then Hoshea conspired against the king of Assyria by asking King So of Egypt to help him shake free of Assyria’s power, but this treachery was discovered. At the same time he refused to pay the annual tribute to Assyria. So the king of Assyria put him in prison and in chains for his rebellion.
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Now the land of Israel was filled with Assyrian troops for three years besieging Samaria, the capital city of Israel.
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Finally, in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign, Samaria fell and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria. They were placed in colonies in the city of Halah and along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and among the cities of the Medes.
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This disaster came upon the nation of Israel because the people worshiped other gods, thus sinning against the Lord their God who had brought them safely out of their slavery in Egypt.
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They had followed the evil customs of the nations which the Lord had cast out from before them.
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The people of Israel had also secretly done many things that were wrong, and they had built altars to other gods throughout the land.
*
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They had placed obelisks and idols at the top of every hill and under every green tree;
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and they had burned incense to the gods of the very nations which the Lord had cleared out of the land when Israel came in. So the people of Israel had done many evil things, and the Lord was very angry.
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Yes, they worshiped idols, despite the Lord’s specific and repeated warnings.
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Again and again the Lord had sent prophets to warn both Israel and Judah to turn from their evil ways; he had warned them to obey his commandments which he had given to their ancestors through these prophets,
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but Israel wouldn’t listen. The people were as stubborn as their ancestors and refused to believe in the Lord their God.
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They rejected his laws and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and despised all his warnings. In their foolishness they worshiped heathen idols despite the Lord’s stern warnings.
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They defied all the commandments of the Lord their God and made two calves from molten gold. They made detestable, shameful idols and worshiped Baal and the sun, moon, and stars.
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They even burned their own sons and daughters to death on the altars of Molech; they consulted fortune-tellers and used magic and sold themselves to evil. So the Lord was very angry.
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He swept them from his sight until only the tribe of Judah remained in the land.
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But even Judah refused to obey the commandments of the Lord their God; they too walked in the same evil paths as Israel had.
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So the Lord rejected all the descendants of Jacob.
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He punished them by delivering them to their attackers until they were destroyed.
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For Israel split off from the kingdom of David and chose Jeroboam I (the son of Nebat) as its king. Then Jeroboam drew Israel away from following the Lord. He made them sin a great sin,
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and the people of Israel never quit doing the evil things that Jeroboam led them into,
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until the Lord finally swept them away, just as all his prophets had warned would happen. So Israel was carried off to the land of Assyria where they remain to this day.
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And the king of Assyria transported colonies of people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and resettled them in the cities of Samaria, replacing the people of Israel. So the Assyrians took over Samaria and the other cities of Israel.
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But since these Assyrian colonists did not worship the Lord when they first arrived, the Lord sent lions among them to kill some of them.
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Then they sent a message to the king of Assyria: “We colonists here in Israel don’t know the laws of the god of the land, and he has sent lions among us to destroy us because we have not worshiped him.”
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The king of Assyria then decreed that one of the exiled priests from Samaria should return to Israel and teach the new residents the laws of the god of the land. So one of them returned to Bethel and taught the colonists from Babylon how to worship the Lord.
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But these foreigners also worshiped their own gods. They placed them in the shrines on the hills near their cities.
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Those from Babylon worshiped idols of their god Succoth-benoth; those from Cuth worshiped their god Nergal; and the men of Hamath worshiped Ashima.
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The gods Nibhaz and Tartak were worshiped by the Avvites, and the people from Sephar even burned their own children on the altars of their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech.
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They also worshiped the Lord, and they appointed from among themselves priests to sacrifice to the Lord on the hilltop altars.
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But they continued to follow the religious customs of the nations from which they came.
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And this is still going on among them today—they follow their former practices instead of truly worshiping the Lord or obeying the laws he gave to the descendants of Jacob (whose name was later changed to Israel).
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For the Lord had made a contract with them—that they were never to worship or make sacrifices to any heathen gods. They were to worship only the Lord who had brought them out of the land of Egypt with such tremendous miracles and power.
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The descendants of Jacob were to obey all of God’s laws and
never
worship other gods.
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For God had said,
“You must never forget the covenant I made with you; never worship other gods.
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You must worship only the Lord; he will save you from all your enemies.”
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But Israel didn’t listen, and the people continued to worship other gods.
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These colonists from Babylon worshiped the Lord, yes—but they also worshiped their idols. And to this day their descendants do the same thing.
18:
1-3
New king of Judah: Hezekiah
Father’s name: Ahaz
His age at the beginning of his reign: 25 years old
Length of reign: 29 years, in Jerusalem
Mother’s name: Abi (daughter of Zechariah)
Character of his reign: good (similar to that of his ancestor David)
Reigning in Israel at that time: King Hoshea (son of Elah), who had been the king there for 3 years
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He removed the shrines on the hills, broke down the obelisks, knocked down the shameful idols of Asherah, and broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because the people of Israel had begun to worship it by burning incense to it; even though, as King Hezekiah
*
pointed out to them, it was merely a piece of bronze.
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He trusted very strongly in the Lord God of Israel. In fact, none of the kings before or after him were as close to God as he was.
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For he followed the Lord in everything, and carefully obeyed all of God’s commands to Moses.
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So the Lord was with him and prospered everything he did. Then he rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to pay tribute any longer.
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He also conquered the Philistines as far distant as Gaza and its suburbs, destroying cities both large and small.
*
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It was during the fourth year of his reign (which was the seventh year of the reign of King Hoshea in Israel) that King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked Israel and began a siege on the city of Samaria.
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Three years later (during the sixth year of the reign of King Hezekiah and the ninth year of the reign of King Hoshea of Israel) Samaria fell.
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It was at that time that the king of Assyria transported the Israelis to Assyria and put them in colonies in the city of Halath and along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
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For they had refused to listen to the Lord their God or to do what he wanted them to do. Instead, they had transgressed his covenant and disobeyed all the laws given to them by Moses the servant of the Lord.
When it was all over, Paul sent for the disciples, preached a farewell message to them, said good-bye and left for Greece,
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preaching to the believers along the way in all the cities he passed through.
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He was in Greece three months and was preparing to sail for Syria when he discovered a plot by the Jews against his life, so he decided to go north to Macedonia first.
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Several men were traveling with him, going as far as Turkey;
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they were Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus; Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica; Gaius, from Derbe; and Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus, who were returning to their homes in Turkey,
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and had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.
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As soon as the Passover ceremonies ended, we boarded ship at Philippi in northern Greece and five days later arrived in Troas, Turkey, where we stayed a week.
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On Sunday
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we gathered for a Communion service, with Paul preaching. And since he was leaving the next day, he talked until midnight!
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The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps;
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and as Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, went fast asleep and fell three stories to his death below.
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Paul went down and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s all right!” And he was! What a wave of awesome joy swept through the crowd! They all went back upstairs and ate the Lord’s Supper together; then Paul preached another long sermon—so it was dawn when he finally left them!
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Paul was going by land to Assos, and we went on ahead by ship.
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He joined us there and we sailed together to Mitylene;
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the next day we passed Chios; the next, we touched at Samos; and a day later we arrived at Miletus.
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Paul had decided against stopping at Ephesus this time, as he was hurrying to get to Jerusalem, if possible, for the celebration of Pentecost.
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But when we landed at Miletus, he sent a message to the elders of the church at Ephesus asking them to come down to the boat to meet him.
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When they arrived he told them, “You men know that from the day I set foot in Turkey until now
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I have done the Lord’s work humbly—yes, and with tears—and have faced grave danger from the plots of the Jews against my life.
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Yet I never shrank from telling you the truth, either publicly or in your homes.
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I have had one message for Jews and Gentiles alike—the necessity of turning from sin to God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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“And now I am going to Jerusalem, drawn there irresistibly by the Holy Spirit,
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not knowing what awaits me,
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except that the Holy Spirit has told me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
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But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.
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“And now I know that none of you among whom I went about teaching the Kingdom will ever see me again.
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Let me say plainly that no man’s blood can be laid at my door,
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for I didn’t shrink from declaring all God’s message to you.
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“And now beware! Be sure that you feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his blood—for the Holy Spirit is holding you responsible as overseers.
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I know full well that after I leave you, false teachers, like vicious wolves, will appear among you, not sparing the flock.
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Some of you yourselves will distort the truth in order to draw a following.
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Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watchcare over you night and day and my many tears for you.
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“And now I entrust you to God and his care and to his wonderful words that are able to build your faith and give you all the inheritance of those who are set apart for himself.
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“I have never been hungry for money or fine clothing—
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you know that these hands of mine worked to pay my own way and even to supply the needs of those who were with me.
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And I was a constant example to you in helping the poor; for I remembered the words of the Lord Jesus,
‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
”
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When he had finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them,
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and they wept aloud as they embraced him in farewell,
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sorrowing most of all because he said that he would never see them again. Then they accompanied him down to the ship.