The Vision (6.26.20): Hope, when all hope seems lost

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 25.

And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison (2 Kings 25:27).

Last Sunday we completed a 51-part expositional sermon series through 1-2 Kings (for the 1 Kings series look here and for the 2 Kings series here).

2 Kings ends in chapter 25 with the devastating fall of Judah and Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the exile in Babylon. The conclusion is bleak, even though God’s judgement of Judah was just.

The gloomy chapter concludes, however, in vv. 27-30 by noting that when a new king took the throne in Babylon he “lifted up the head” of Judah’s exiled King Jehoiachin. He even spoke kindly to the Jewish king and set his throne above the thrones of the other conquered and exiled kings (v. 28). He changed his prison garments and gave him to eat bread continually (v. 29), and he also gave him a good allowance (v. 30).

This ending has been variously interpreted. Some have seen it as a final tragic insult, but others (and I think this more likely) see it as a sign of hope.

Just as God was with Joseph even when he was sold into slavery by his brothers and cast into prison by Potiphar, so God would be with Judah.

Just as God was with Sampson, even after his hair was cut, his strength lost, and his eyes gouged out, and yet we read, “Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he as shaven” (Judges 16:22).

So, the LORD would continue to be with the people of Judah in exile. The exile would be the worst of times, but it would also be the best of times. The people would understand that God was with them even in their chastisement, even in their failure and suffering. They would understand that their God was not just the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the God of the nations.

Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah was that a rod would come forth from “the stem” of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). To get the rod or shoot, Judah had to be cut down to a stump.

What lessons do we learn from 2 Kings 25?

First, we are taught here to fear the wrath of God. We deserve what Judah got, and we would receive it had not Christ interposed his precious blood (Romans 5:9: “we shall be saved from wrath through him”).

Second, we should understand how the Lord sovereignly uses the circumstances and powers of this world as instruments in his hand to bring about his greater purposes. Ours is not to know every detail but to trust with childlike faith. As the old hymn puts it, “What’er my God ordains it right.”

Third, we reminded that even when all hope seems lost, there is still hope for all those who place their faith in Christ. We can look to his blameless life, death, burial and resurrection. The rod has come from the stem of Jesse, and he will come again, and he will set all things right!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (6.12.20): When Reformation Fails

Image: Rose, North Garden, Virginia, June 2020

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 23:

2 Kings 23:27 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.

2 Kings 23:1-24 describes the unprecedented efforts at spiritual reformation in Judah brought about by godly King Josiah. These reforms involved not only the removal of what was wicked (like the “high places”) but the restoration of what was right (like the celebration of the Passover). True revival involves both mortification (removing the evil) and vivification (including the right).

In the end, however, the historian must report that Josiah’s reformation failed. The announcement begins with these jarring words: “Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his wrath….” (v. 26). Judah would be destroyed and carried off into exile (see v. 27).

Even the godliness of Josiah, great as it was, could not, in this instance, overcome the wrath that had been stored up against Judah. Dale Ralph Davis observes: “It is very sobering: there is such a thing as the hot heat of Yahweh’s anger that no amount of repentance or reform can dampen or douse” (2 Kings, 330). Davis then adds another intriguing observation: “But Josiah’s is a faithfulness that does not confuse obedience with pragmatism and so pushes on, not because it will change anything but simply because God demands it” (2 Kings, 330).

We are reminded that pragmatism is not the reason to be faithful. We may never be able to bring revival to our land, but that is no reason for the church to cease to be faithful. We live a faithful life not for what we can get or accomplish, but because the Lord is worthy of our obedience.

We can also be thankful that though there was no hope for faithless Judah who would be defeated by the Babylonians and carried away into exile, there is always hope for faithless and sinful men. In the last moments of his life, the thief on the cross heard Christ say, “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). I was born in South Carolina where the state motto is the Latin dictum dum spiro, spero, “while I breathe, I hope.” If you are alive, there is still hope for you in Christ.

Josiah was not able to bring ultimate revival to Judah. He could not overcome their sin, as earnest and faithful as his efforts at reformation were. But we have one who is greater than Josiah, and who can bring salvation and reformation to sinful men. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (6.5.20): Learning from Josiah

Image: Fishing at sunset on the sound side of Topsail Island, North Carolina, June 2020.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 22.

And [Josiah] did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his Father, and turned not aside to the right hand or the left (2 Kings 22:2).

2 Kings 22 describes the rise of godly Josiah as king of Judah. The key event of this rule was the discovery, in the temple, of the book of the law, which had been suppressed, perhaps by his father Manasseh. When Josiah heard this word read, he “rent his clothes” in repentance (v. 11). Huldah prophesied that the Lord saw that Josiah’s heart was “tender” and that he humbled himself before him (v. 19).

Here a few a few points of spiritual application we can draw from this chapter:

First, we can aspire to live as Josiah did. Will it be said of us that we did what was right in the sight of the LORD, that we walked in the way of Son of David, that we turned not aside to the right or the left?

Second, we can learn how God preserves his Word. There were those in that day who had tried to suppress God’s Word. Paul noted in Romans 1:18 that ungodly men “hold [suppress] the truth in unrighteousness.” God’s Word and his truth, however, is like a beach ball. The more you try to push it under the surface, the more it keeps popping up!

Christ taught in Matthew 5:18: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

Third, we are reminded of the power of the intake of God’s Word. We need to hear it read, preached, and taught.

Fourth, we are exhorted to respond to God’s Word as did Josiah, to have a tender heart and conscience, to rend, as it were, our garments before him and humble ourselves before him.

Josiah was indeed a great king, but we have a greater king. Josiah would die in peace, not seeing the destruction of Jerusalem. Christ would have the temple of his body crucified on the cross for us, so that we might have peace with God. Let us then look to him and live.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.29.20): Look at Manasseh, and then look to Christ

Image: CRBC Meeting House, Louisa, Virginia, May 2020.

Note: Devotional is taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 21:

But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel (2 Kings 21:9).

2 Kings 21 is a sad and discouraging chapter. So much potential, so much spiritual promise seems wasted by Manasseh. All the great gains of godly king Hezekiah were rolled back and thrown aside. The result for Judah was national disaster, defeat, and exile.

So, this account is placed before us a warning. We are not to be like Manasseh.

We are not to reverse all the reforms won by our spiritual fathers.

We are not to raise up high places and idols.

We are not to import into the worship of God pagan and foreign practices.

We are not to pass our sons through the fire.

We are not to traffic in the occult or try to turn the faith into some manipulative and pragmatic scheme to get what we want in this life.

May it not be said of us, as it was of Judah when they ignored God’s Word in favor of the folly of Manasseh: “But they hearkened not” (v. 9).

Let us not use our influence upon other to seduce them to do that which is evil, as Christ taught in Matthew 18:6: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

There is one final thing to be said about Manasseh that is not recorded in 2 Kings 21. It is found in 2 Chronicles 33 (see especially vv. 11-17). It describes how at one point during his rule, Manasseh was taken captive by the Assyrians, and in his “affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers” (v. 12). It relays that he prayed to God and intreated him, so that the LORD heard Manasseh and allowed him to be brought back to Jerusalem (v. 13). It adds: “Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was his God” (v. 13). It even says that Manasseh tried in his last days to take away the pagan practices, but the people continued to sacrifice in the high places (v. 17).

The Chronicler seems to take this as a genuine conversion.

The historian of 2 Kings, however, wanted to make sure we heard the warning. There were things that Manasseh could not undo once they had been done. He and the nation deserved judgment that would make the ear tingle (v. 12). He had been measured and found crooked (v. 13a). He was like a dish wiped and set aside (v. 13b).

In the portrait of Manasseh’s sin, we are reminded that this is what we are like apart from Christ. The rap sheet has been dropped to the floor, and it is filled with our misdeeds. But there is one who is a friend of sinners. There is one who was commended toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, he died for us (Rom 5:8). It is Christ, the righteous plumb line, who knew no sin, who laid down his life a ransom for many, who was buried, who was raised again the third day, who appeared for 40 days to his disciples, and who ascended to be seated at the right hand of the Father in glory. The one of whom Paul wrote in Hebrews 10:37: “For yet a little while, and he will come and will not tarry.”

Let us look at Manasseh, and then look to Christ.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.22.20): Set thine house in order

Image: Rhododendron, North Garden, Virginia, May 2020

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 20.

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 (2 Kings 20:1).

Notice the ominous beginning: “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death” (v. 1a). We are told later that he had a boil (v. 7). An abscess or infection could, no doubt, be lethal in those days.

There is a sense, however, in which all of us have a sickness unto death. The old saying is that there are only two things certain in life, death and taxes. The mortality rate for healing evangelists is 100%. The great faith healer Oral Roberts, the “godfather of the charismatic movement” died on December 15, 2009. The apostle Paul said, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27).

The Lord’s minister, the prophet Isaiah, came to the king and said to him, “Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die and not live” (v. 1b). This was God’s word, and it is always fulfilled. Many have their lives taken swiftly from them. They leave the house one day and never return. There is an accident or the heart fails and their deaths come unexpectedly. I remember years ago a minister acquaintance then the “ancient” age, from my 30 something perspective, of 52 years of age, thin as a rail and seemingly healthy as a horse, went out for a run on Sunday morning before church and died of a massive heart attack. Others have time to anticipate that which is to come. I remember my father being told by the cancer doctor he had four months to live and, sure enough, nearly four months to the day he passed from this life to the next. It is interesting to ponder which way we’d prefer, but we have no say in the matter. Isaiah’s word came not from doctors, who are not always right (as they had happened to be in the case of my father), but from the LORD.

Whatever prospects we face in life and the circumstances, God’s word to Hezekiah could well be his word to us: “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” This is what God is saying through his word today to each one of us today.

What is out of order? What needs to be corrected? What needs to be removed? What needs to be added? What must happen for you to set your house in order?

Then, having set our house in order, let us live, without worry of death, for Christ, the one who had a truly “perfect heart” (cf. 2 Kings 20:3), who lived a sinless life for us, who died on the cross for sinners, and who was raised for our justification.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.15.20): Hezekiah's Model Prayer

 Image: Leatherleaf  Mahonia, Albemarle County, Virginia, May 2020.

Note: This devotion is taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 19.

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 (2 Kings 19:15).

2 Kings 19 describes a great season of distress in Judah, as they were surrounded by the Assyrians. Godly king Hezekiah declared, “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy” (v. 3).

Having received a threatening letter from the Assyrians, Hezekiah went into the temple and “spread it before the LORD” (v. 14). He then offered a prayer (vv. 15-19), which we might well call Hezekiah’s model prayer. It was composed of three parts:

First, he acknowledged and praised God for who he is (v. 15).

The point: Authentic prayer begins with worship.

Some of you know the acronym for prayer ACTS (Adoration*Confession*Thanksgiving*Supplication), where the A stands for adoration. Hezekiah’s prayer does not precisely follow that acronym (prayer does not need to follow a cookie cutter form), but it does begin with A, adoration.

Think of when Christ taught his disciples to pray, and he told them to begin, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” Matt 6:9). His model prayer also began with adoration.

Hezekiah praised God as being the covenant God of Israel: “O LORD God of Israel.”

He praised the exaltedness of God and the sovereignty of God: “which dwellest between the cherubims.”

He acknowledged the reality of the one true God: “thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth.”

He praised God as the Creator: “thou hast made heaven and earth.”

Second, he called upon the Lord to hear his prayer and to consider his situation (vv. 16-18):

Notice that Hezekiah called upon the Lord to bow down his ear and open his eyes (v. 16). Two things here need to be remembered:

First: The language is anthropomorphic. God does not have ears or eyes. “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24). This is language of accommodation to our needs.

Second: God is omniscient. He knows these things. But God is also pleased to have his children cry out to him, and to rehearse these things to him.

Third, he offered his supplication (request) (v. 19):

His request is a striking, straightforward plea for temporal salvation: “save thou us out of his hand.” And notice the reason is not to preserve Judah or Hezekiah, but to preserve the Lord’s own honor among the kingdoms of the earth: “that all the kingdoms of the earth many know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only” (v. 19b). The best reason for the Lord to hear and answer our prayers is not rooted in our merit but in God’s own glory.

Let us read and consider Hezekiah’s model prayer, as we also continue to learn how to pray.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.8.20): Hezekiah clave to the LORD

Image: Rhododendron, North Garden, Virginia, May 2020

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 18. 

He removed the high places…. He trusted in the LORD God of Israel…. For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him…. (2 Kings 18:4-6).

In 2 Kings 18, King Hezekiah provides a godly model for the Lord’s people. It is said of him that “he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD” (v. 2).

In vv. 4, 5, 6, the inspired historian provides a series of three description of the godly actions and behaviors of Hezekiah:

First, he did not tolerate idolatry (v. 4):

The first thing we read is that he removed the high places! If you’ve been following 1-2 Kings you know meaningful this is. The high places were a violation of the Regulative Principle of worship, and he did away with them.

He “brake the images,” since they violated the second commandment. He cut down the “groves” (Asherah).

He even “brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made” (for the background see Numbers 21). Christ taught: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). The Israelites of old had taken something good from the past and made it a relic, an object of religious devotion. They burned incense to it (v. 4b). Hezekiah, however, called it what it was: Nehushtan, meaning “a piece of brass.”

Second, he trusted in the LORD God of Israel (v. 5):

His trust was not in himself. Not in his army. Not in his people. Not in his family. Not in his clergy. Not in his allies (Egypt).

It was his forebear King Solomon who wrote, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Hezekiah was a man of faith.

Third, it says in v. 6 that Hezekiah “clave to the LORD and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments….”

I like that image of cleaving. The same verb is used here as in Genesis 2:24 which speak of a man leaving his father and mother and “cleaving” to his wife. Here it speaks of Hezekiah as a man leaving the world and cleaving unto the LORD and unto his Word. He was not merely a hearer of the word, but he was a doer of the word, as James will put it.

Let us, like Hezekiah, flee idolatry, trust in Christ, and cleave to the Lord and his Word.

Hezekiah was a godly man, but let us remember that from the line of David would come the greatest of men, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Above all, let us admire, follow, and imitate him.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (5.1.20): The LORD removed Israel out of his sight

Image: Lily pond, off the Billy Goat Trail, Great Falls Park, Montgomery, Maryland, April 2020.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 17.

Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight (2 Kings 17:18a).

2 Kings 17 is a key chapter in 1-2 Kings, as it describes the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel at the hand of the Assyrians and the origin of the “Samaritans” who will figure so prominently in Christ’s ministry. What spiritual truths can we gleam from 2 Kings 17?

First, beneath the outward historical and political events of this world, there is the unseen hand of God.

The Lord brings judgment on men and nations that spurn his commands and reject his ways.

Notice how much of the judgment upon Israel came about because of his false worship, its rejection of the Regulative Principle. Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary on 2 Kings 17 writes: “So pagan religion creates what it likes; biblical faith receives what is revealed. Pagan worship is based on what they prefer; Biblicists must worship based on what God reveals” (2 Kings, 259).

We need to add here a note of caution. 2 Kings 17 is an inspired account. The historian was moved by the Holy Spirit. The explanation here is infallibly true. The historian was not providing an opinion but the Word of God.

Our evaluations of circumstances are not like that, and so we cannot speak with that kind of authority. Therefore, we need to have a much greater degree or caution and humility.

Why had the LORD allowed this virus pandemic and the reactions of the nations of the world and the political and economic uncertainty that has come about? Is it to chasten our nation? Is it to chasten the church?

We need to be careful about declaring what cannot be declared with authority. When Job questioned God’s sovereignty in his suffering the Lord answered him from the whirlwind, and Job replied, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth” (Job 40:4).

Our task is not to know the reasons behind every circumstance but to be faithful in the midst of every circumstance.

Second, even in God’s crushing judgment there is evidence of his coming mercy.

I see that in the formation of the Samaritans. Israel was taken out of God’s sight as a nation, but we might also say that to some degree they remained in this new religiously and spiritually confused people the “Samaritans.”

When Christ comes he will tell a parable about the good Samaritan, using him as an example of one who loved his neighbor as himself (Luke 10).

He talked to the Samaritan woman at the well and told her he could give her “living water” adding, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst” (John 4:14a).

After his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, Acts 8 records how the evangelist Philip “went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them” (v. 5), adding that when they believed the things that Philip preached “they were baptized both men and women” (v. 12).

2 Kings 17 is a crushing account of God’s judgment, but it is not the end of the story. Through Christ, the grace of God will, in due time, be extended even to Samaritans.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.24.20): And Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 16.

And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead (2 Kings 16:20).

2 Kings 16 describes the reign of wicked king Ahaz in Judah, who “walked in the ways of the kings of Israel” and even “made his son pass through the fire” (v. 3). Ahaz was a descendent of David and Solomon. He had been given great spiritual benefits and blessings, but he threw it all away.

What are the wages of sin (Rom 6:23)? Death. In the end, he went the way of all flesh and slept with his fathers (v. 20a).

What a depressing chapter! There does not seem to be one redeeming feature in this entire passage.

I want to suggest to you, however, there is one tiny sliver of hope in the very last line of this chapter. It is as though we were lost in a dark cave and saw a little pin prick of light ahead in the distance.

The chapter ends in v. 20b: “and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.” Just as sometimes wicked men come from godly parents, sometimes godly men come from wicked parents.

Hezekiah would be a godly king. Look ahead to 18:3 where it says Hezekiah “did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David did.” Hezekiah would not be perfectly righteous, but he would be better than Ahaz. Dale Ralph Davis observed: “How merciful that [the LORD] usually does not give us Ahaz-upon-Ahaz” (2 Kings, 240). God was not through with the people of God. Wicked king Ahaz was not going to snuff out the lamp that God had given to David. Hezekiah was coming!

There is no evidence of any hope for Ahaz, but there was for Israel. Hezekiah was coming. But, in the end, Hezekiah was not the real hope. The real hope, the real sliver of light was the Messiah who would come from the line of David. It is going to get even worse for Judah in days to come, but the light is still going to come.

Isaiah will prophesy of Christ: “The people that have walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). And Christ, when he came, declared: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

It was dark in Ahaz’s day, but Christ was coming. It is sometimes dark in our days, but Christ has come. He is present with us now by the Spirit. And he will one day come again. That is our hope.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.10.20): Living in Unsettled Times

Image: Empty hand soap shelves at Kroger, Barracks Rd. Shopping Center, Charlottesville, Virginia, April 2020

Note: Devotion take from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 15.

2 Kings 15 describes the unsettled times that fell upon Israel during its last days as a nation (see vv. 8-31). In the course of but a few decades, no less than six kings sat on the throne of Israel. One (Zachariah) reigned but six months (2 Kings 15:8) and another (Shallum) but a month (v. 13). Four of the six kings of this time were conspired against and assassinated.

These unsettled times did not fall upon Israel for no reason whatsoever. They came about because of Israel’s sin and because of the just wrath of God. He brought temporal pain for their spiritual gain. Psalm 11:3 says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?” No doubt, many of the godly were dismayed.

There is, however, an unstated but controlling thought that underlies the whole of this chapter. Though the times are unsettled, God’s Word is settled, God’s character is settled, God’s plans and his purposes are settled, and, indeed, God himself is settled. All the turmoil in the world does not change for one second that God is.

James 1:17 says that with the Lord there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

Even in all this confusion and despair God’s plan was being worked out. As I read the history of these kings, I could not help but think of Christ, the King of kings, betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, abandoned by everyone, crucified among thieves, coming to his own but his own receiving him not (John 1:11).

Nevertheless, God’s perfect plan was being worked out. In Luke 24, the beloved physician tells us that some of Christ’s disciples fled Jerusalem for Emmaus after his death. They thought the unsettling crucifixion was the end of the road for their hopes for Jesus. When the risen Jesus met them on the road, they did not recognize him, complaining, “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel” (v. 21).

Christ then said to them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (v. 25). He then “expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (v. 27).

The point we can take from both 2 Kings 15 and Luke 24: In the midst of all the unsettled times, God was working out his purposes and revealing the glory of his Son.

Is he not still doing that even today?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Image: Azalea bush, North Garden, Virginia, April 2020

The Vision (4.3.20): For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel

Image: CRBCers participating in last Sunday's livestream.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 14.

For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel (2 Kings 14:26).

Most Bible readers will not testify that 2 Kings 14 has the most stirring of spiritual content. There are a few gems in this chapter, however, that will richly reward those who find these truths and meditate upon them.

One key theme found here is the compassion of the LORD for his people. It begins to be articulated most clearly in v. 26a: “For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter.” The historian then adds that there was not “any helper for Israel” (v. 26b).

In v. 27, the historian continues: “The LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven.” This recalls the time during the Exodus when Israel worshipped the golden calf, and Moses intervened for them (cf. Exod 32:31-33).

But at the time of 2 Kings 14 Israel had no Moses, and they had no godly king like David. They had no helper, and yet the Lord condescended to save them even by means of the ungodly king Jeroboam (v. 27b).

I read one commentator on 2 Kings who said that it seems all through 2 Kings, it is as though the Lord is “looking for another David” to help his people in their spiritual oppression (Davis, 2 Kings, 208).

Consider how that search was only fully satisfied in the Father sending forth his own dear Son. Consider what a greater thing that the Lord has now done through Christ. He has looked upon our precarious state, our bitter affliction in sin, and saw that we had no one to help us. And he sent not another Moses, godly as he was, and certainly not another Jeroboam, ungodly as he was, but he sent to us the best of the best, the purest of the pure, the most righteous of the righteous, even our Lord Jesus Christ to take on flesh, to live a sinless life, to lay down that life on the cross, a ransom for many, to be gloriously raised from the dead, to appear to his disciples, to ascend in glory with the promise that he will come again, to send forth the Spirit to convert and to teach, to save us, and to preserve us, to keep us saved, so that all who are in him will never have their names blotted out of the Lamb’s book of life.

Christ is our one and only hope, our Helper, in all times, including in times like these.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (3.27.20): And the LORD gave Israel a Saviour

Image: Forsythia, North Garden, Virginia, March 2020

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 13.

“And Jehoahaz besought the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him: for the saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Israel oppressed them. (And the LORD gave Israel a saviour….) (2 Kings 13:4-5a).

2 Kings 13 describes, in part the reign of King Jehoahaz over Israel. Spiritually speaking Jehoahaz was a disaster: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD…” (v. 2). Furthermore, “The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel” and delivered them into the hands of the Syrians” (v. 3).

Then we read something amazing. The historian records that the ungodly Jehoahaz “besought the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him” (v. 4a). That is an astounding verse as related to the theology of prayer. We know from Scripture that God hears the prayers of the godly: “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16a). But this verse teaches us that he even hears the prayers of sinful and ungodly men! That ought to give all of us hope. It gives me hope in prayer.

Notice in v.4b the reason given as to why the LORD was pleased to open his ear to the prayer of wicked Jehoahaz: “for he saw the oppression of Israel…”

This is a picture of the compassion of the LORD toward his people. Just as a parent cannot bear to see his child suffering, so the LORD cannot bear to see his people suffering. He is moved with compassion on them.

This strikes a Biblical chord. When the Israelites were in bondage in Israel, the LORD spoke to Moses in the burning bush, saying, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows” (Exod 3:7).

Consider also the book of Judges where time and again the Israelites fell into their hands of their enemies, they cried out, and the LORD heard and raised up a Judge to deliver them.

I am reminded of the description of Christ himself when the saw the multitudes who came out to him: “he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matt 9:36).

Friends, this is good news. The Lord is not indifferent to the cries of his people!

What comes next is mysterious and told with precious little detail. It begins, “And the LORD gave Israel a saviour… (v. 5).” It sounds like Judges. We are not told the name or the details of this savior at this particular point in Israel’s history, but it points us forward to the ultimate Savior who was sent to deliver his people from oppression: the LORD Jesus Christ.

The sum: The Lord hears the prayers of sinners; the Lord sees their oppression; the Lord sends a Savior.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle