He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger. – 2 Chronicles 33:6

Today's Scripture Reading (June 16, 2026): 2 Chronicles 33

Life isn't just about your actions. We need to put our beliefs into practice, but actions also need to arise from the core of who we are. We are not designed to be simply actors on the stage, going through the motions and reading the lines provided for us. There is supposed to be a belief system in our lives that underpins everything we do. And when that belief system is missing, it is noticeable by almost everyone around us.

So it shouldn't surprise us that Hezekiah seems to be concerned about the details of his own reign, not so much about those who followed him. After all, Hezekiah waited until it was almost too late to marry and produce an heir to follow him. His son took it a step further, doing what Hezekiah would have thought unthinkable: he actively sacrificed his own children, sacrificing the nation's future, to the gods to ensure his own reign would succeed. While the actions of these two kings may have been very different, they stemmed from a very similar core belief. The only difference was that Manasseh put that core belief into action.

Too many people seem to hold the belief that Christianity is about following the rules. It is about training ourselves to do the right things. Christianity is about denying our passions and living disciplined lives. Except, I am not sure if that is true. I mean, I am not a disciplined person; I hate rules, and when I do the right thing, it often seems incidental.

What if Jesus died on a cross, not so we could play a game and follow the rules, but so we could be successful as we live our lives? What if his purpose was not that we would spend our lives denying our passions (and not having fun), but giving us passion for things that would strengthen our communities and us?  What if what he really wanted to do was to change what existed at the core of our lives? What if his plan was for us to spend our lives not denying our passions but letting them loose? What if …?

I believe that the what-ifs are the truth. God's purpose is to change us on the inside so that what flows from us glorifies God and encourages the people in our circles of influence. We can actually be all that we were meant to be because God has done a work in our deepest places. That is what I believe God wants from us. But following the rules will never get us there, and neither will sacrificing our children on an altar dedicated to our needs. Because the future needs them to follow our example, and be all that God needs them to be as well.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings

See Also 2 Kings 21:6

He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. – 2 Kings 21:3

Today's Scripture Reading (June 15, 2026): 2 Kings 21

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." With these words, Charles Dickens launches his story about the French Revolution, "A Tale of Two Cities." The words highlight the paradoxical nature of the human experience. And sometimes it seems that the best of times and the worst of times are separated by the thinnest of margins. Consider the men who historians often argue are the best and the worst American Presidents. On the best side, Abraham Lincoln consistently ranks as the best of American Presidents. Lincoln is praised for his leadership throughout the American Civil War and his abolition of slavery. Abraham Lincoln is a man who was made, as maybe we all are, by the circumstances of his life. Would Abraham have presided over the abolition of slavery had he been President twenty years earlier? I don't think so. And while one of the great tragedies of American history was Lincoln's assassination, the assassination stopped the Lincoln story before Reconstruction. And no one knows how Reconstruction might have changed his legacy.

So maybe it's no surprise that the two worst Presidents are the two men who served before and after Abraham Lincoln. The worst President of the United States is consistently James Buchanan. I think there might be a few other candidates for this position, but Buchanan keeps rising to the top because of the way he handled American Society in the years leading up to the Civil War. Buchanan believed that history would vindicate him, but that vindication has never really materialized. He has been consistently criticized for his unwillingness or inability to react to the Southern States, which were threatening to secede from the Union, setting the stage for the Civil War. It is as if someone else were President; maybe the Civil War wouldn't have happened. And I am not sure that is true either.

But Buchanan's competition for the title of worst American President is often Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln. In all fairness, Johnson had been Lincoln's Vice-President for less than two months before Lincoln's assassination. Still, Johnson had the privilege of serving as President for most of Abraham Lincoln's second term (April 15, 1865 - March 4, 1869), and his legacy remains that he failed Reconstruction by blocking civil rights for the newly freed slaves. Together, Buchanan, Lincoln, and Johnson served as Presidents of the United States from March 4, 1857, to March 4, 1869, some of the most volatile years in the history of the Union. They were the best and the worst of times and of Presidents.

I sometimes wonder why the author of Kings chose not to compare the reign of King Manasseh with that of his father, Hezekiah, and his grandfather, Ahaz. Here, we once again seem to have a story of the worst and the best of the Kings of Judah in two consecutive generations. But instead, the author of Kings, possibly Jeremiah, chooses to compare Manasseh to the best of the Judean Kings, Hezekiah, with the worst of the Israelite or Samaritan Kings, Ahab. And while 2 Kings omits part of the story, it seems that Manasseh competed with both of these kings. For part of his reign, he was as bad as Ahaz and his wife, Jezebel, of Israel. And while he was never as good as his father, Hezekiah, he did try to follow his father's example later in his reign.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 33

All because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. – Nahum 3:4

Today's Scripture Reading (June 14, 2026): Nahum 3

If we take the Bible seriously, then every part of creation grew out of a common point in human history. Maybe you don't accept the story of Adam and Eve as a historical account. Still, even if the story of Adam and Eve is only a legend, the human race still likely developed from a single point, likely in southern Iraq, and spread to the rest of the world from there, which means that at some point in the past, we all shared a belief in some common deity. Some argue that the monotheism of the Abrahamic religions grew out of various polytheistic faiths, but I believe the reverse is true. In the beginning, we had an understanding of God, even if it was very vague. I had a conversation with a Hindu believer a few years ago, and she asked me if I believed in one God. I said I did, and her reply has stuck with me. "My faith teaches me that there are many gods, but deep down, I think you are right. There is only one."

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, would seem to agree with this shift from monotheism to polytheism.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles (Romans 1:20-23).

Prostitution and harlotry in the prophetic writings are often code words for turning away from faith. Maybe we wouldn't expect that a foreign nation could turn away from God, but we need to be reminded that the story of Jonah tells of a revival in the Assyrian Capital as the people turned away from their national gods. But the revival was short-lived. The people turned to God in Jonah's presence, but fell away since the prophet had left the city. Their sin was not just that they turned away from the monotheistic God to whom Jonah had pointed them, but that they had spread their false religion to the nations, spreading lies against the truth Jonah had shared with them.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 21

The chariots storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through the squares. They look like flaming torches; they dart about like lightning. – Nahum 2:4

Today's Scripture Reading (June 13, 2026): Nahum 2

Over the years, I have spent a lot of time in traffic. I don't think I am predisposed to road rage, though I have seen a lot of it over the years on the road. Where I am vulnerable is when people get mad at me, especially if I have no idea why they are angry. I remember one trip home a few years ago when a guy in a big truck decided to pull a U-turn on a residential street. I came around the corner to find the road blocked by this guy and his truck. My response was to pull over to one side of the road; I admit that when I made the turn, I was closer to the middle of the road than I should have been. In my defense, I didn't know a truck was going to be blocking my way. So I pulled over to let the truck do its thing.

I thought everything was okay until the driver pulled up beside me and gave me the universal one-finger greeting for hello. Then he pulled over and parked. So, I parked (Do not try this at home). I got out and went over to him. I am a fairly big guy, and he was relatively small, so when I walked up to him, it was obvious that he was looking for something he could use as a weapon if things turned bad. Knowing that, I kept everything as calm as I could. I asked my new acquaintance what was wrong, and he responded that he believed I was trying to block him. I assured him that I wasn't, apologized, and then turned and went back to my vehicle. Maybe the most unnerving part of the whole confrontation was that I noticed he watched me intently until I disappeared out of sight.

Some people read this passage in Nahum and wonder if Nahum was seeing a contemporary traffic jam on the ancient streets of Nineveh. Chariots that storm through the streets looking like torches that run back and forth might be a description of a scene that any traffic camera of an urban center during rush hour might reveal. However, it is not a contemporary rush-hour scene that is being described, but rather the bedlam of Nineveh overrun by its enemies. The end of Nineveh would see armies flowing into the city from several different directions. The city and its defenses would be overwhelmed in a way that couldn't have been imagined fifty years before the fall of the city. History records that the city's end occurred in 612 B.C.E. In that year, the city was overrun, and bitter fighting raged from house to house. No place was safe. And when the fighting ended, the city was razed. The former mighty city of the Assyrians was gone, never to attain any importance ever again. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Nahum 3

But with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness. – Nahum 1:8

Today's Scripture Reading (June 12, 2026): Nahum 1

It had been about a hundred years since Jonah tried to escape going to Nineveh by making a detour to the south coast of Spain and the city of Tarshish. A century has passed since a whale swallowed Jonah and then spewed the prophet up onto the coast. It has been a hundred years since Jonah presided over a revival in Nineveh. Unfortunately, over those hundred years, the revival in Nineveh has died, and the people have returned to their evil ways. So, Nahum gets to proclaim the judgment of which Jonah could only dream.

Nahum says that "an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh" (Nahum 1:8). For the people who first heard these words, the prophecy of Nahum had to bring the minds of the people in his audience back to the time of Noah and the days of the flood that covered the earth. There is no doubt about the power of the Assyrian Empire. The Empire had itself been a metaphorical "overwhelming flood" that had dominated the known world. The Empire stretched from parts of Iran through modern-day Iraq and into Syria and Turkiye, and down through Jordan and Israel into Egypt, and even into the eastern part of Libya. And as Nahum makes this prophecy, Assyria is still strong.

But within fifty years, the nations would come together to defeat the Assyrians. It will be a "tidal wave" of opposition as the Babylonians and Persians join with other smaller powers to overcome the Empire. Not far down the road, both the Babylonians and the Persians would also have their time on the world stage before giving way to a Greek flood.

But James Boice (1938-2000) reminds us that this wasn't just a figurative flood. While it wasn't the overwhelming flood that Noah knew, there was a flood that helped to take down the Assyrian Capital.

"According to secular accounts, during the final siege of Nineveh by a rebel army of Persians, Medes, Arabians, and Babylonians, unusually heavy rains caused the rivers to flood and to undermine the city's walls, which then collapsed…the invading armies entered the city through this breach in its defenses" (James Montgomery Boice).

Jonah tried to escape his mission by taking a boat to Tarshish, but he was stopped by a storm and high waves that threatened to sink the boat he was on. It was a whale, or a big fish, that saved the prophet and threw him up onto dry ground. But the water that sank Nineveh, both figurative and literal, didn't carry a message of salvation for the people. This time, the water would carry the final vote.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Nahum 2

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