Emily: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 300 and 45
Jotham was 25 years old when he became King, and he
reigned in Jerusalem 16 years.
His mother was Jerusalem.
The daughter of Zadak Jotham did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight.
He did everything his father Isaiah had done except that Jotham did not
sin by entering the temple of the Lord.
But the people continued in their corrupt ways.
Jotham rebuilt the upper gate of the temple of the Lord.
He also did extensive rebuilding on the wall at the hill of Al.
He built towns in the hill country of Judah and constructed fortresses
and towers in the wooded areas.
Jotham went to war against the Ammonites and conquered them
a over the next three years.
He received from them an annual tribute of 7,500 pounds of silver, 50,000 bushels
of wheat, and 50,000 bushels of barley.
King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to live
in obedience to the Lord his God.
The rest of the events of Johan's reign, including all his wars and
other activities, are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
He was 25 years old when he became King, and he reigned in Jerusalem 16 years.
When Jotham died, he was buried in the city of David.
And his son, Ahaz, became the next king.
Ahaz was 20 years old when he became King, and he reigned in Jerusalem 16 years.
He did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord as
his ancestor David had done.
Instead, he followed the example of the Kings of Israel.
He cast metal images for the worship of Baal.
He offered sacrifices in the valley of Ben Ham even sacrificing
his own sons in the fire.
In this way, he followed the detestable practices of the pagan nations.
The Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.
He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the pagan shrines and on
the hills and under every green tree.
Because of all this, the Lord, his God allowed the king of Aram
to defeat ahaz and to exile large numbers of his people to Damascus.
The armies of the King of Israel also defeated Ahaz and inflicted
many casualties on his army.
In a single day, pka son of Aya Israel's king killed 120,000 of Judah's troops.
All of them experienced warriors because they had abandoned the
Lord, the God of their ancestors.
Then Zaria, a warrior from Raam killed Meia, the king's son, ASAM,
the king's palace commander, and Elena, the King's second in command.
The armies of Israel captured 200,000 women and children from Judah and
seized tremendous amounts of plunder.
Which they took back to Samaria.
But a prophet of the Lord named ODed was there in Samaria when
the army of Israel returned home.
He went out to meet them and said, the Lord, the God of your ancestors
was angry with Judah and let you defeat them, but you have gone too
far, killing them without mercy, and all heaven is disturbed.
And now you are planning to make slaves of these people from Judah and Jerusalem.
What about your own sins against the Lord your God?
Listen to me and return these prisoners you have taken for
they are your own relatives.
Watch out because now the Lord's fierce anger has been turned against you.
Then some of the leaders of Israel Asiah, son of GI Johannan
Bara, son of Michelle Lath.
Gee, his Kaia son of Shalom and a Mesa son of Hadley agreed with this and
confronted the men returning from battle, you must not bring the prisoners here.
They declared.
We cannot afford to add to our sins and guilt.
Our guilt is already great, and the Lord's fierce anger is
already turned against Israel.
So the Warriors released the prisoners and handed over the plunder in the
sight of the leaders and all the people.
Then the four men just mentioned by name came forward and distributed
clothes from the plunder to the prisoners who were naked.
They provided clothing and sandals to wear, gave them enough food and drink,
and dressed their wounds with olive oil.
They put those who were weak on donkeys and took all the prisoners back to their
own people in Jericho, the city of Palms.
Then they returned to Samaria.
At that time, king aas of Judah asked the king of Assyria for help.
The armies of Edam had again invaded Judah and taken captives, and
the Philistines had raided towns located in the foothills of Judah.
And in the Negev of Judah, they had already captured and occupied Beth Lon
Ro Soko with its villages, Timnah with its villages and gizo with its villages.
The Lord was humbling Judah because of King Ahaz of Judah, for he had
encouraged his people to sin and had been utterly unfaithful to the Lord.
So when King Tig Lath Pizzer of Assyria arrived, he attacked Ahaz.
Instead of helping him, aas took valuable items from the Lord's temple,
the Royal Palace, and from the homes of his officials, and gave them
to the King of Assyria as tribute.
But this did not help him.
Even during this time of trouble, king A has continued to reject the Lord.
He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him
for, he said, since these Gods helped the kings of Aram, they will
help me too if I sacrifice to them.
But instead, they led to His ruin and the ruin of all Judah.
The king took the various articles from the Temple of
God and broke them into pieces.
He shut the doors of the Lord's temple so that no one could worship
there, and he set up altars to pagan gods in every corner of Jerusalem.
He made pagan shrines in all the towns of Judah for offering
sacrifices to other gods.
In this way, he aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of his ancestors, the
rest of the events of Ajas reign and everything he did from beginning to end.
Are recorded in the book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
When Ahaz died, he was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal
cemetery of the kings of Judah.
Then his son, Hezekiah, became the next king.
Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became the king of Judah, and
he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years.
His mother was a Baja, the daughter of Zechariah.
He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight just as his ancestor
David had done in the very first month of the first year of his reign,
Hezekiah reopened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them.
He summoned the priests and levies to meet him at the courtyard east of the temple.
He said to them, listen to me, you levies purify yourselves and purify the temple
of the Lord, the God of your ancestors.
Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary.
Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God.
They abandoned the Lord and his dwelling place.
They turned their backs on him.
They also shut the doors to the temple's entry room, and
they snuffed out the lamps.
They stopped burning incense and presenting burnt offerings at the
sanctuary of the God of Israel.
That is why the Lord's anger has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem.
He has made them an object of dread, horror, and ridicule as
you can see with your own eyes.
Because of this, our fathers have been killed in battle, and our sons and
daughters and wives have been captured.
But now I will make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his
fierce anger will turn away from us.
My sons do not neglect your duties any longer.
The Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him,
and to lead the people in worship and present offerings to him.
Then these Levites got right to work from the Klan of Coha May
hath son of Amasai and Joel's son of Azariah from the clan of Marai.
Kish, son of Abdi and Azariah, son of Jaha from the clan of Gershen.
Joah, son of Zimmer and Eden, son of Joah from the family of Eliza fan Shiri and
Ja from the family of ASAP Zechariah and Maiah from the family of Heman, Jeha,
and Shiai from the family of Judean.
Shama and Zeel.
These men called together their fellow Levites, and they all purified themselves.
Then they began to cleanse the temple of the Lord just as the king had commanded.
They were careful to follow all the lord's in instructions in their work.
The priests went into the sanctuary of the temple of the Lord to cleanse it, and
they took out to the temple courtyard, all the defiled things they found.
From there, the Levites carted it all out to the Kidron Valley.
They began the work in early spring, on the first day of the new year,
and in eight days they had reached the entry room of the Lord's temple.
Then they purified the temple of the Lord, it itself, which took another eight days.
So the entire task was completed in 16 days.
Then the Levites went to King Hezekiah and gave him this report.
We have cleansed the entire temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all
its utensils and the table of the bread of the presence with all its utensils.
We have also recovered all the items discarded by King aas when he was
unfaithful and closed the temple.
They are now in front of the altar of the Lord, purified and ready
for use early the next morning.
King Hezekiah gathered the city officials and went to the temple of the Lord.
They brought seven bowls, seven rams, and seven male lambs as a burnt
offering together with seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom,
for the temple, and for Judah, the king commanded the priests who were
descendants of Aaron to sacrifice the animals on the altar of the Lord.
So they killed the bulls and the priest took the blood and
sprinkled it on the altar.
Next, they killed the rams and sprinkled their blood on the altar, and finally
they did the same with the male lambs.
The male goats for the sin offering were then brought before the
king and the assembly of people who laid their hands on them.
The priests then killed the goats as a sin offering and sprinkled
their blood on the altar to make atonement for the sins of all Israel.
The king had specifically commanded that this burned offering and
sin offering should be made for all Israel King has aah.
Then stationed the Levites at the temple of the Lord with
symbols, liars, and harps.
He obeyed all the commands that the Lord had given to King David through Gad,
the king's seer, and the prophet Nathan.
The Levites then took their positions around the temple with the instruments
of David and the priests took their positions with the trumpets.
Then Hezekiah ordered that the burnt offering be placed on the altar as
the burnt offering was presented.
Songs of praise to the Lord were begun, accompanied by the trumpets and
other instruments of David, the former King of Israel, the entire assembly
worshiped the Lord as the singers sang and the trumpets blew until all
the burnt offerings were finished.
Then the king and everyone with him bowed down in worship, king Hezekiah
and the officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the Psalms
written by David and by Asaf, the Sr.
So they offered joyous praise and bowed down in worship.
Then Hezekiah declared, now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord,
bring your sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings to the temple of the Lord.
So the people brought their sacrifices and Thanksgiving offerings and
all whose hearts were willing, brought burnt offerings to.
The people brought to the Lord 70 bowls, 100 rams and 200
male lambs for burnt offerings.
They also brought 600 cattle and 3000 sheep and goats as sacred offerings,
but there were two few priests to prepare all the burnt offerings, so
their relatives, the Levites helped them until the work was finished
and more priests had been purified.
For the Levites had been more conscientious about purifying
themselves than the priests had been.
There was an abundance of burnt offerings along with the usual
liquid offerings and a great deal of fat from the many peace offerings.
So the temple of the Lord was restored to service, and Hezekiah and all the
people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people, for everything
had been accomplished so quickly.