When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD. – 2 Kings 19:1

Today's Scripture Reading (June 11, 2026): 2 Kings 19

Our modern society is built on the idea that no single person should hold all the political power in a nation. Some kings boasted of their all-powerfulness, especially in the ancient world. Still, as societies became more advanced, we began to recognize that strength comes from two or more coequal sources of power being forced to talk and negotiate with each other to get something done. This concept of the division of powers is worked out in several ways. Sometimes it was a Sovereign and the Senate or Parliament. Sometimes it is found in the interplay between the House of Lords, or upper house, and the House of Commons, literally a political house made up of elected common people like you and me. It is often displayed in regional governments, where the Federal and State or Provincial governments are forced to cooperate on specific projects. But whatever the system, the division or separation of powers ensures that no one person is all-powerful and can do whatever they want. It can be frustrating, especially for the Sovereign or the Political leader, but the system works. However, not only does it work, but it makes us strong.

In Judah, this division of power was structured around the distinction between secular and religious authority. The King, with his advisors, ran the earthly portion of the country. But Israel and Judah were designed from the very beginning to be a nation with two Kings: a secular King who sat on the throne of the country, and God, represented by his priests serving in the Tabernacle and later the Temple. Both were essential to the effective running of the nation.   

Some Kings did not like that separation. They felt that they should be able to go it alone; to rule the secular portion of the nation as well as the religious part. Hezekiah probably knew well the story of Uzziah, his great-grandfather. Uzziah was King, but his pride led him to enter the Temple and burn incense before the altar, something only a priest was supposed to do. Uzziah was the King and had come to believe that he was the ultimate authority in Judah. But Uzziah was wrong, and the Bible says that his disobedience caused him to be struck with leprosy, and for the rest of his life, the King lived alone, away from all who mattered to him.

Hezekiah is disturbed by all that is happening around him. And in his distress, he puts on the outward signs of mourning. But Hezekiah does not allow his pain to carry him away from God. He also does not allow his grief to drive him into sin the way that Uzziah's pride had caused him to sin. In his pain, the King goes to the temple, but not into the holy place itself, a space reserved for only the priests of the nation. The King of Judah enters into the court as any worshipper would, and stands before the priests to ask for intercession. And in doing so, Hezekiah honored God and recognized that whenever any of us come and stand before the throne of God, we do so as equals. The most powerful King and the poorest of supplicants share the same status – they are worshippers of the living God.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Nahum 1

See Also Isaiah 37:1

 

Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. – Psalm 48:9

Today's Scripture Reading (June 10, 2026): Psalm 48

Charles Spurgeon imagines three people that we might meet in church. The first is a lady who is dominated by her aches and pains. Her hurts dominate every waking moment and every conversation that she has with friends. If you dare to visit her at her house, you can be assured that she will tell you about every place that hurts. But it is not just the physical pain. She has been hurt by those around her emotionally. Whether they intended to hurt her makes little difference; the hurt is the same. The problem is that she concentrates the impressive force of her personality on the pain that she is going through. It is at this point that Spurgeon interjects into the situation. What would happen if she took just a little of that personal force to meditate on God's unfailing love? What would happen if she lifted her eyes for a moment to see the love that God has for her and every person that comes within her circle of influence?

The preacher then turns his attention to a businessperson. It is a hard time to be in business. And sometimes it seems that everybody wants to make the task a little harder. The bottom line isn't all that the man wishes that it might be. And so, it is business struggles that predominate everything the man says. He complains about not being able to make ends meet. And yet, he still can put food on the table. He started with nothing, and now he has a little more. While it might not be all that he dreamed, still, he has something. What would happen if he took just a little time out to meditate on God's unfailing love? What would it cost to speak to those around him about how he has benefited from the love of God?

The last story that Charles Spurgeon tells is of the Christian who complains about the church. Are there any who truly believe, or is the Christian Church filled with Sunday-only Christians, or ChiNOs (Christians In Name Only)? There is no doubt that, as Christians, we provide our enemies with a lot of ammunition. But is there anything positive we could discuss? Do we, as Christians, feel the unfailing love of God? Do we dare to share that love and forgiveness with those we come in contact with?

Maybe these people and the responses feel a little Pollyanna to you. But here is the reality: we will feel what we focus on. I am not saying everything is good, but if our focus is on everything that is going wrong, we will be living in the worst era we can imagine. But if we are willing to meditate on God's love, it gives that love a window into changing our lives. And not only will we experience God's love, but it is only by meditating on that love that we will be able to share it with the world around us.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 19

 

God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. – Psalm 47:8

Today's Scripture Reading (June 9, 2026): Psalm 46 & 47

Abraham began his life in the city of Ur of the Chaldees. The city is in the southern portion of modern-day Iraq. But God called him away from his childhood home and to a place where Abraham had never been, and possibly, the Patriarch never even knew existed. Abraham followed God and went to the place to which he believed God had called him. It was at this new place in the land of Canaan that Abraham came to an understanding with God.

I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:2-3).

Abraham, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to allow me to bless you, and you will share that blessing with the world around you. I am going to start with you, but it is going to multiply through your descendants, which will be greater than even the number of grains of sand that lie by the sea. This "blessed to be a blessing" will be the mission statement of the Jewish people. They will receive the blessing of God and share it with the world around them.

Sometimes, the Jewish people succeeded, but often they failed. As a result, Jesus came and reinforced the same message that had been given to Abraham. It is a hard teaching, but Jesus said he had come for the Jewish people, to reinforce the message that they would become a channel of God's blessing to be shared with the world. Paul probably understood this mission the best. He gathered people around him who would channel blessings to people who were not Jewish. Paul took that message of blessing to the world.

Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 C.E. He grew up and looked at the world around him. He felt that something was missing. His people were tribal and often consumed by fighting among themselves. He looked at the Jews and Christians, whom he considered to be distant cousins and descendants of Abraham, and mourned that they had a book. Muhammad believed that the unity of the Jews and the Christians was because of the existence of this book. He desired a book for his people, whom he believed were the descendants of Ishmael, the oldest son of Abraham, and of Sarah's maidservant, Hagar. The question we have been asking ever since has been "Was Muhammad right?" I believe he might have been, but if our Muslim brothers and sisters are descendants of Abraham, then the mission remains the same. I will bless you so you can bless the world.

None of the three Abrahamic religions has done this "blessed to be a blessing" well. But our mission hasn't changed.

The Psalmist argues that God rules over the nations. He is not a national God who is bound by the borders of the nations. He is God over all. And he continues to bless us so that we can make this world a better place. The only question is this: Which of the children of Abraham will take up the mission and make it theirs? God is still on the throne and still blessing us. It's time we started being a blessing to the world around us.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 48

It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. He succeeded in everything he undertook. – 2 Chronicles 32:30

Today's Scripture Reading (June 8, 2026): 2 Chronicles 32

It is the Deh Cho River, though you probably don't recognize it by that name. That is because in 1828, Sir John Franklin encountered the river and suggested that it be called the Mackenzie River. It was the name "Mackenzie" that was put onto maps and government documents. But that name ignored the river's existing name: the Deh Cho River, given by the Dene people who were native to the area. Deh Cho means "The Big River." The Deh Cho River is a massive waterway that runs from "The Great Slave Lake" to the Arctic Ocean in the Northwest Territory of Northern Canada. And the Deh Cho River brings life wherever it goes.

So, it is not surprising that, as the Deh Cho River began to look cloudy and water tests showed an increase in toxicity, a group of Elders met on the banks of the river on September 7, 2006. They wanted to know what was happening to the great river. Their message was that life depended on the river's water. But the message went beyond just what was happening to the Deh Cho River. Water is essential to life – all water and all life. We don't exist without it. This group of Elders developed what they called "The Keepers of the Water Declaration."

Water is a Sacred gift, an essential element that sustains and connects all life. It is not a commodity to be bought or sold. All people share an obligation to cooperate in ensuring that water, in all its forms, is protected and conserved with regard to the needs of all living things today and for the generations yet to come (Keepers of the Water Declaration).

Water is essential to everything that we hold dear.

In ancient times, the people understood this need for water. Towns were built beside rivers and lakes. I suspect that most people can point to the river on which their community is built. Maybe the water is not as majestic as the Deh Cho River, but there is water running close by most human settlements. One of the purposes of an enemy siege was to separate the city from its source of food, but, even more importantly, to isolate the urban environment from its source of water. A city could not survive if its people had no water to drink.

One of the great achievements of Hezekiah was that he took water from the Gihon Spring and allowed it to flow into the west side of Jerusalem, bringing the water of the spring into the City of David. But words don't quite sum up the task that Hezekiah had decided to undertake. Bringing the water from the spring meant cutting through 643 meters of rock, an intimidating task for people in the ancient world. Hezekiah decided to plot the intended passageway and then had workers start at each end and work toward the middle. It had to follow precise measurements or the two tunnels would completely miss each other. It was a significant achievement for an Eighth Century B.C.E. king, and maybe evidence that he really could achieve whatever he put his mind toward. Because we are all Keepers of the Water, and we still need water to survive. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 46 & 47

The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer, and his field commander, along with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. – 2 Kings 18:17a

Today's Scripture Reading (June 7, 2026): 2 Kings 18

There was a day when Kings went out to war with their troops. They were armed, and while the King was often positioned at the back of the battle formation, the King's purpose on the battlefield was to send out commands to the soldiers under their control in real time. King David is criticized at the beginning of the Bathsheba saga for not being with his troops when they went to war. The warrior King stayed home and sent his commander, Joab, to fight against the Ammonites. Because he was home, he was tempted by the beauty of Bathsheba, something that wouldn't have happened if he had been out in the field, fighting with his men.

The Book of Kings clarifies that King Sennacherib accompanied his men onto the battlefield in Judah. "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them" (2 Kings 18:13). What is less clear is whether Sennacherib went to Jerusalem for the siege of Judah's capital city. In fact, it appears he didn't, at least not at the beginning of the blockade against the Judean Capital. Isaiah argues that, as the siege begins, Sennacherib decides to send a field commander with a large army rather than go himself. Maybe Sennacherib understood that the blockade would be long and boring, and he didn't need to be there for all of it. Or maybe Sennacherib had more pressing duties elsewhere.

Whatever the reason, Sennacherib stayed behind, maybe in Lachish. Lachish was an important city thirty miles southwest of Jerusalem. During the First-Temple period, Lachish was Judah's second most important city, second only to Jerusalem. Because of its importance, it appears that Sennacherib led the effort to defeat Lachish and end the conquest in the area, defeating Lachish just before he turned the full force of his military on the Judean Capital.

Archaeologists have discovered a pit dating back to the attack on Lachish by Sennacherib. The pit contained 1,500 casualties from the attack. They also found a carving detailing how the Assyrians had laid siege to the city.

The Siege of Lachish became the launching ground for the attack on Jerusalem. Sennacherib may not have been at Jerusalem at the beginning of the siege of the Capital, either because he was busy cleaning up in Lachish, or because he was called back to Nineveh to deal with problems in the Empire. Wherever Sennacherib was, Lachish was the last victory that Assyria would experience in Judah. Jerusalem would be put under siege, but it would not fall, at least not at the hands of Sennacherib and the Assyrian army. The eventual fall of Jerusalem was still over a century away.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 32

See also Isaiah 36:2

 

Then Isaiah said, "Prepare a poultice of figs." They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered. – 2 Kings 20:7

Today's Scripture Reading (June 6, 2026): 2 Kings 20

I recently read an article on the benefits of quitting smoking. Our bodies are made in such a way that we actually start the healing process about twenty minutes after our last puff. So, the idea is that it is never really too late to reap some of the benefits of quitting. And the benefits are amazing. Among others, the article listed better sex, a healthier digestive system, a lower risk of developing arthritis, better, more restful sleep, a stronger heart, and even better-tasting food, all as a result of quitting smoking. And beyond that, we get a chance to be one of those annoying ex-smokers who are telling everyone else to quit smoking (Okay, that might not be a benefit.) And yet, with all of the positives, many of us still don't quit. And that speaks volumes about the addictive qualities of cigarettes. We are hooked, and quitting is hard.

As a result, we often need to ask for help. And there are many aids out there to help us on our new journey. Some have a better track record than others, and yet some of us do not even try these avenues. The excuse that I hear the most is that "right now I am experiencing too much stress to even think about quitting." But that excuse assumes that there are times when we are not experiencing stress, and I just haven't noticed very many of those moments around recently. The bottom line is that to quit smoking, first we have to do something. Stopping the practice of buying cigarettes is one of the first recommended actions. But beyond that step, often we need to change our lifestyle; we have to avoid certain triggers if our new non-smoking behavior is going to take root. We need to avoid the things and the places where we once enjoyed a cigarette. But something has to happen. The change in behavior needs to be paired with a specific action. We need it; it is the way that we are designed.

Hezekiah moves from an illness that will end in death to one that can be cured with traditional medicine very quickly (a poultice made of figs was the approved treatment for a boil in the ancient world). But the reality was that Hezekiah needed to do something if he was going to recover. Sitting back and letting God heal him probably wasn't going to work. However, too often we seem to read instructions like those in this passage and think we have discovered an ancient super cure. I can see the book now instructing us that a poultice of figs will cure everything from acne to cancer. But to make that suggestion misses the point. The focus of this instruction is that God would cure Hezekiah, but God, who created us, knows that, for lasting change to take root in our lives, we need to be involved in the process. And so, a poultice was developed as part of Hezekiah's buy-in into the process. Did God need the poultice to heal Hezekiah? Of course not. However, God knew that Hezekiah needed the poultice to ease his mind, and so he had Isaiah tell him to get one.

The instructions for Hezekiah were to follow the standard medical process of the day. He would use conventional medical wisdom to cure the illness, allowing God the space to move through it. Healing often seems to work this way. We do what we can, we act in support of healing, and allow God to do the rest. Cults that believe that healing is an "only God" enterprise have missed some important biblical instructions. Psychologically, we need to do what we can, feeling like we are part of the process, so that God can move through the rest. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 18

See also Isaiah 38:21

 

In addition, they distributed to the males three years old or more whose names were in the genealogical records—all who would enter the temple of the LORD to perform the daily duties of their various tasks, according to their responsibilities and their divisions. – 2 Chronicles 31:16

Today's Scripture Reading (June 5, 2026): 2 Chronicles 31

My eldest granddaughter is working on getting her Learner's Driver's License. Which means she has reached the age appropriate for those licenses, which in the area where I live is fourteen. Thinking about her journey as she begins to drive, I realize she is almost exactly the same age I was when I got my Learner's License. Life is repeating itself.

Back when I got my Learner's License, there was a conversation among the Federal Government Agencies about raising the age to get a Driver's License. I don't know how serious the argument was, but I took it seriously enough to put a little more effort into preparing for the test. Obviously, over the last half-century since I took my first driving test, the age hasn't changed, though some other details of the licensing process have.

Driver's Licenses are part of the "How old do you have to be?" conversation we have in so many different places in our society. The "How old do you have to be to consume alcoholic beverages?" conversation has always been of interest to me. Again, where I live, the age is eighteen. For many other locales, you need to be twenty-one to consume adult beverages. I have had conversations with young adults who have been surprised that they can't go to a liquor store or bar when they are traveling because they were underage there, but not here. It is an extension of the "how old" conversation.

In the church, the conversation continues. How old do you need to be to take communion or to be an active member of the church? How old should you be to play on the Worship Team or sing in the choir? Currently, our worship team features a pair of twelve-year-olds: one on guitar and the other on drums. I am amazed at how talented they are every time they play. What do you think? Where would you draw the line?

As Hezekiah prepares the workers for the Temple, he apparently has to answer the question, "How old?" I find it very interesting where he draws the line. First, working in the Temple is hereditary, so workers must have the right genealogy. Second, workers in the Temple must be male. Neither of these regulations is a surprise or an expectation that we carry into the contemporary church. They are artifacts of a different time, where people lived with a different understanding of what was right. I believe Paul released us from these understandings when he wrote to the Galatian Church, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). But maybe the most surprising requirement is the one on age; every qualified (genealogy) male over the age of three. (Some argue that maybe this is an error and the age should be thirty, but for our purpose, let's accept the age of three.) In God's community, if you are older than three, there should be a task for you in the church.

Can I ask how you are doing? I admit that my church isn't doing as well as it could. But the church is a community where everyone is important, and where even a three-year-old should have an age-appropriate task to undertake for the faith community. It might be challenging to get a three-year-old involved in a meaningful way, but we need to put some effort into the project.

Of course, this passage also puts a twist on Jesus's words;

Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there (Matthew 13-15).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 20