April 6

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR APRIL 6, 2026: 2 KINGS 18, 1 CORINTHIANS 2, PSALM 28:1-5                                 2 KINGS 18   This is one of those epic encounters in the Bible that could easily be a blockbuster movie.  From other accounts of his reign in the Bible, we already know that Hezekiah was a good king of Judah. This text reminds us that he eliminated the high places of worship, which prior kings of Judah never had the courage to destroy.  He modeled his rule after David instead of His wicked father Ahaz, and he likely benefitted from the godly counsel of Prophet Isaiah.  

Because the Lord was with him, he revolted successfully against Assyria and defeated the Philistines. During his fourth year as king, he observed his neighbor Israel being besieged by the dominant superpower of the day, Assyria, who succeeded in carrying off the population of the northern kingdom during Hezekiah’s sixth year. This would certainly get Judah’s attention, something like how Poland must have felt when Germany acquired Czechoslovakia in 1939.  

In year 14 of Hezekiah’s eventful reign, Assyria captured Judah’s fortified cities, which turned out not to be so well fortified. Hezekiah falsely confessed to wrongdoing and agreed to pay Assyria a large sum in order to keep Jerusalem. Not so courageous. Again, this is totally reminiscent of England’s Prime Minister Chamberland’s policy of appeasement before Poland was invaded. Hezekiah had to tear off gold from God’s Temple in order to pay the tribute. 

Rabshakeh, an emissary from Assyria, then approached Jerusalem with a large army demanding that Judah allow Assyria to repopulate Jerusalem’s people as they had with Israel. Rabshakeh was over the top in his arrogance, again not unlike tyrants throughout history:

  • He threatened Judah openly in public speaking Hebrew, hoping to scare the common people.
  • He mocked Judah for considering allying themselves with Egypt, calling them a bruised reed. 
  • He mocked Judah for relying on their God, falsely believing Hezekiah had removed altars to Him. 
  • He offered to give Judah 2,000 horses and then bet against their being able to defeat a servant. 
  • Maybe worst of all, he said he was going to destroy Jerusalem because the Lord was with him.

Hezekiah’s representatives asked Rabshakeh to speak Aramaic instead of Hebrew so that the people would not hear what was being said.  This only made Rabshakeh stand up and speak louder in order to scare all the citizens. He told them there was no chance the Lord would save them. Perhaps this is the same message our culture is loudly shouting to us in our post-Christian age. This brings us to the chapter break but guess what our mighty God’s response will be to this display of human bravado. “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). 

1 CORINTHIANS 2 This chapter is a continuation of Paul’s instruction on Godly wisdom. Paul uses the device of hyperbole to make a point. He overemphasizes the fact that he “resolved to nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). The point is that Paul did not want the spotlight on his wisdom but on the message of Christ. The fact that Paul claims that his preaching was not particularly good (to paraphrase), should help us in our

READINGS FOR APRIL 6, 2026 CONTINUED: 1 CORINTHIANS 2, PSALM 28:1-5                                  faith journey as well. When we share the gospel of Jesus Christ to our friends and family, we do not need to have eloquent words or a polished speech that will leave the hearers in awe. If we rely on the Holy Spirit to help us to talk to someone about what it means for me to follow Christ, God’s power is in those words. Paul uses a quotation from Isaiah 64:4, to suggest to the people that the philosophers and Greek and Jewish religious elite of his age were ignorant of  the wisdom of God. Because they did not know and love God, these people were not able to see, hear, and comprehend the knowledge of God. And, on many levels, this is true. We cannot understand the love of God until we have accepted it freely. We cannot comprehend the sacrifice of Christ until we know that Jesus did it for me/you. 

When talking like this, one must be wary of coming off sounding like gnostic teaching. Gnostic- ism was/is a heresy of the church that emphasized a hidden personal spiritual knowledge that only the enlightened received. They considered the material world as evil and the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of God https://en.wikipedia.org/Gnosticism).    The main problem with this teaching (in its simplest form) is that Gnostics believe personal revelation from God as more important than the teaching of the Bible (i.e., if what I think God is telling me is different than what I read in the Bible then I should automatically reject what I the word teaches in favor of the self-revelation).

We are not called to that kind of understanding. As Christians, we believe that the Holy Spirit has opened the scriptures up to us as a collective body. We believe that the Holy Spirit helps us to take this book that was written over two thousand years ago and use it to understand how to live in this world right now. Secondarily, we believe that as a church, we can read those Biblical scholars over the centuries and through prayer gain help in knowing how to live as a follower of Christ today. Through the Holy Spirit, we have the mind of Christ (vs 16).

PSALM 28:1-5 This psalm begins as a song of lament. To lament is “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow” (www.google.com/lament). It is a plea by David for deliverance from his enemies. David plea is if God does not act on his behalf that he will not survive. David is asking God to repay David’s enemies in the way David believes that he has been mistreated. This request fits the Old Testament theology of “eye for an eye” (Exodus 21:24). In verse 5, David expresses confidence that God will protect him and will destroy his enemies. This may be a hard psalm to read. In our modern sensibilities, we may struggle with the call for God to de- stroy our enemies. And yet, David’s plea may be the precise thing we need to remember. God hears us when we are angry. God hears us when we are hurting. God hears our lament and is there for us in our time of need. We do not need to sugarcoat our words to God. We can bear our true feelings and desires.