February 13

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR FEBRUARY 13, 2026: 2 CHRONICLES 31, MATTHEW 10, PSALM 7:8-17                 2 CHRONICLES 31 Have you ever heard someone say they can be a good Christian without going to church?  Many of our family members have either stopped attending or just show up at Easter, Christmas, weddings, baptisms, or funerals?  The Bible says, after all, that we are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:9). What’s the point of going to church? The Bible commands us to meet together: “Let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people” (Heb. 10:24-25).  In this chapter after participating in these meetings, the people went back to their homes and started destroying their idols (vs.1). Love, good deeds, and tearing down sin in our daily lives should also be our priorities upon leaving church each week. Is that how attending YMC impacts us?

In verse 2, Hezekiah doesn’t rest on his laurels after successfully relaunching Passover. He immediately begins to put structures in place to keep Moses’ law part of Judah’s ongoing practice. He organizes the priests and Levites into functioning divisions. He donates animals for continuing the sacrificial offerings and directs the people to also start giving to the priests and Levites. Excitement over a two-week festival is great but, to be meaningful, it must lead to this long-term obedience. In this case, it does. Offerings came in and were placed in great heaps. 

One good result usually creates another problem. That kind of occurrence will be the case in an obedient church and should not be the cause for division. The priests were having a problem storying all offerings. Hezekiah dealt with it by ordering storage rooms to be made ready in the Temple to receive all these gifts. Faithful men were also charged with distributing all these resources to the right places and people. Not only were they reliable men, but they “consecrated themselves faithfully in holiness” (vs.18). A healthy functioning church needs qualified officers to handle the business aspects of the church who are also committed completely to holiness.  

Let’s read these last two verses of this chapter but replace the pronoun “he” (referring to Hezekiah) with our names. See if the verses still ring true with that replacement: “He did what was good, right, and true before the Lord his God. Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in the Law and in the commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered” (vs. 20-21).

MATTHEW 10 It’s good to know that the human authors of the Bible did not include chapter markings in their manuscripts; it was one document without any chapter divisions. The Arch- bishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton gave us the chapter divisions, likely around 1200. This was very helpful, but it’s easy to forget the start of a new chapter is more connected to the end of the previous one than we might think. That’s the case moving from Matt. 9 to 10. At the end of Matt. 9 we find Jesus worried about the masses of people and seeking laborers to READINGS FOR FEBRUARY 13, 2026 CONTINUED: MATTHEW 10, PSALM 7: 8-17             minister to them. At the start of Matt. 10 He prepares the 12 disciples to be those laborers. Their marching orders:     

  • Go only to Jews, not to Gentiles or Samaritans at this time. Jesus was sent to the Jews first. Israel, though God’s chosen people, was lost and needed salvation. Jesus tells his disciples to go to the ends of the earth later. This is our mission, too. 
  • Preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Their Jewish audience knew something big was up: “God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for an- other people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever” (Dan. 2:44).                                   
  • Heal the Sick. It says in Matt. 10:1 that Jesus gave them authority to heal every kind of sickness. After Jesus, healing might be less part of outreach to unbelievers than part of the normal life within the church. In 1 Cor. 12:9 some in the church are given the gift of healing to serve within the body. In James 5:13-15 the James, half-brother of Jesus, tells the sick in church to ask the elders to pray for and anoint them.  Why don’t we see more divine healing today?
  • Don’t take money with you but stay in a worthy person’s house. A husband (Biola grad.) and wife (Taylor grad.) currently spread the gospel in Indonesia. They take their rickety boat down the river to stop at various villages. When they find a “worthy person” they pile into the person’s house, unfurl their sleeping bags, and stay a week or so until they have talked about Jesus to everyone in the usually Muslim village. They are just crazy enough to trust the Bible and put it into practice. It works for them.

The rest of the chapter does not paint an unrealistically rosy picture about being workers for Jesus. Jesus said some would be arrested, which certainly happened to many of the disciples. As Jesus mentioned, though, this would be an opportunity to testify before the Gentiles about Jesus—as Paul later did in Caesar’s own house. Some would be killed, as most traditions say happened to all of them. He told them, if they are persecuted, leave town and witness at the next one. Don’t worry; these people can’t kill the soul or send them to hell.    

It’s in this bleak earthly context Jesus reminds them/us that they/we are worth more than sparrows and all their/our hairs are numbered. Those willing to confess Jesus before men will not be denied by Jesus before the Father. Those losing their life for Jesus will find it. Do we really believe that whatever rejection we face for Jesus now, for these few earthly years, it’s  more than worth it for the joy of His presence now and our eternal joy after our earthly lives.

PSALM 7:8-17 David declares that God will judge those called wicked and those called righteous. David refers to God as a righteous judge who “saves the upright in heart” but allows whoever has dug a pit to fall “into the hole which he has made.”  The New Testament also teaches this, but in a sense David might not have foreseen. In Rom. 1:16 Paul writes, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes.”  But a few verses later he writes, “Professing to be wise, they became fools ... There- fore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (Rom 1:22 and 24). If we believe the Gospel of Jesus, our salvation is assured. If we reject the Gospel of Jesus, we will not be rescued from our sins but experience the natural consequences of them. All people are classified as sinners before being saved.