Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning. Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, March the 20th. I am Mark. I've got my sermon notes, my Bible reading schedule, my Bible, and a great cup of coffee and I am excited to be with you today. Had a great week last week in Rogers, Arkansas. Met some folks who are listening to the podcast and following in our Bible reading plan even up there in Arkansas. That was very, very cool. I got to visit a really neat coffee shop, Onyx Coffee, and so this morning I'm drinking some of their Columbian village, which I made in a brand new brewer dripper that arrived while I was gone and I got home and unboxed it and there was cool coffee toys. So the week is just starting about as great as it possibly can start, especially because I loved preaching yesterday on comfort and consolation in the 9:00 AM hour and then from second Samuel nine in the 10 40 hour on kindness, it was a day devoted to kindness pretty much from top to bottom. And I wanna talk with you a little bit more about kindness. Grab you some coffee. Wow, that is sensational. Grab some coffee. Let's get started. Yesterday I preached from Second Samuel nine. It is a joy to preach straight from the text of scripture and I love doing that. I'm preaching through the book of second Samuel and that is just always a great challenge. It's wonderful to interact directly from the text and to talk about what the text is saying. And the text is saying here that David was so secure in his place by the blessings of God, he could show unexpected kindness to others, particularly even the House of Saul. He was able to keep his promise to Jonathan. And so we talked about kindness and just worked with kindness. Let me give you a couple more quotes about kindness. Here's some quotes to remember about kindness. Maya Angelou said, it takes courage to be kind. Barbara d Angelus said, love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them and they bless you. The giver and Eric Hoffer said, kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind, but here's the best quote due to others. Whatever you would like them to do to you, this is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. That's Jesus in Matthew seven, in verse 12, Jesus reminding us, we want people to treat us kindly. We need to be kind to others. So it's Monday. Have you done your three acts of kindness yet? Remember the challenge yesterday? That's one of the main purposes of this podcast to carry the spiritual momentum of yesterday into our week. Sometimes there's a challenge in the sermon on Sunday and we're all nodding our heads. We all know, yep, we need to be doing that. I'm gonna be doing that by Monday morning. It's gotten lost in the backwash of Sunday and all the things that go with every getting ready for work and getting kids ready, we we, we forgot that we were making big plans to do something for the Lord. Something that will develop us to be better disciples. Something that makes us better servants. What about those three acts of kindness? Go get'em. Go get'em. Open your eyes, pray to God. Find the chances to be kind today. I know you will. And then let's think a little bit about our daily Bible reading. It is Monday and I'll give you that as a time marker for those of you who are using the chapter designations in the podcast to just skip to where you need to be. It's Monday and we're reading Second Kings 15 versus 23 to 31. This is the reign of pahia and then the reign of pka. And there's not a whole lot in this reading that you're gonna like. It's just more chaos and anarchy and craziness. Maybe the thing to hold onto as we're reading all of this is that this is the time ofa and it is also the time of Micah. And what that tells us is that even while everybody is acting completely wickedly and there's so much sin going on, what's God doing? God's sending preachers, God's sending prophets to try to pull these people back. The love of God here is just front and center. I've had several people talk to me about how they have not seen the love of God like they have now through the prophets ever before. And I think we have to hold onto that with both hands. Just get into that and sit down with that. You're gonna read this today and you're just gonna be shaking your head saying, what in the world is going on? And God must have been shaking his head too. This is just dreadful. Versus 23 to 26 cover Peah haa, he gets killed. Verse 25, assassinated in the Citadel. And that makes us wonder if that was an inside job, did he get killed by somebody that he trusted in, somebody that he knew? And so Pika then verse 27, reigns things settle down just a little bit here he reigns 20 years and then during his time, TIG laugh Policer verse 29 shows up and starts carving away at the empire or the kingdom of the North. And so some of these areas are listed here for us by, this is about 7 34, 7 32. By that time Damascus has fallen and so Syria gets caught up into a couple of provinces and Israel gets caught up into a couple of provinces here. Gilead would be, for example, the area on the east side of the Jordan and door. That's the plane of Sharon going down toward the Philistine border. Of course the area there of Hak, that would be that area around Mag ghetto. And this may be the event, verse 29 may be the event that is referred to in Jose 13 verses 10 and 11. We talked about it when we were in Jose, you it, it's kind of hard. You, you want to just bail out of Jose and just go read this right quick. But you can't jump around in the reading like that and people be able to maintain any kind of consistency. But in Jose 13, Jose talks about some things that may be in fact what exactly what's described here as the kingdom is just under siege from the Assyrians as they gobble more and more of this. And in fact, TIG lath Policer left some archeological records. These are records outside the Bible that talk about his own account states that he overthrew Pika their king. And I placed hoia as king over them. Verse 30, hosh, the son of Eli made a conspiracy against peka. Maybe he did that with the bidding of Tig la pleaser. Maybe the backing of TLA P pleaser got that done. When we are finished with verse 31, then here we have a kingdom of Israel that's now a small kingdom about 30 miles wide by about 40 miles long. And of course, what's the dominant note in all this? He did what was evil in the side of the Lord. He did not depart from the sins of Jeral, the son of Nebat with which, which he made Israel to sin. That is from nine 30 BC 930 years before Christ. And now we're dealing with 7 34. So it's 200 years. And that sin, that jib beum, the first plants in Israel just won't go away. It just keeps cropping up and it's utterly destructive to the people of God. It just shows you something about introducing sin. It's so hard to root it out once you put it in there. It just keeps coming up and coming up and biting you and bringing the wrath and judgment of God upon you. But as a big part of that, there's all these prophets and the key preaching, trying to bring these people back to the Lord. I love something that Paul Goss said last week in his Facebook writing about our, about our Bible reading when he said, these people don't know the way back. And that is exactly right. Even though prophets are pointing the way back, they're so lost. They're they, they're not paying attention to the prophets and they don't know how to get home. It's really a terrible, terrible time and it's, it's not getting better tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow in Second King 17. Welcome to Tuesday. And today we're reading Second King, 17 versus one to eight. And this is it. The as sirian deportation that we have been fearing for so long. Finally comes to pass. Hoshi is the reigning king. Verse one, remember he assassinated pka to become king chapter 15 and verse 30, but he did what was evil in the side of the Lord. Verse two, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. Kind of wish we knew a little bit more about that. Some have suggested that he may have let people go to Jerusalem to worship. I wish I knew a little bit more about how he was a little more moderate in his evil doing than other kings, but it does not change what's going to happen. Shaman Naer comes verse three up against him and Hoshi becomes his vessel. But verse four, he finds out that he has tried to make an alliance with Egypt. This treachery then is the final straw. And we would do well to remember that Hosea constantly criticized this political leadership's, uh, intent, determination to run and make an alliance with somebody usually Egypt instead of trusting in God. You can find that in Isaiah five, in verse 13 in chapter seven, beginning in verse eight, in chapter eight. And in verse nine Jose says, stop with the alliances. But that's exactly what Hoia tries to do. And as a result of that, everything comes to a stop. This is the end for the northern kingdom. Tig Lath Policer died in 7 27 BC and so this is his son Almanza Almanza ruled from 7 27 to 7 22 and this is 7 22. That's the date you wanna mark in your Bible. That's considered the date that the northern kingdom came to an end and they are deported hundreds of miles away to the northeast. There is some description of this in verse six, Halah and on Haber the river of Goan and in the cities of the Meads, Goan was located on the upper harbor river, a tributary of the Euphrates. These locations are within Ayia proper and the town of the Meads is even further to the east. This is ays, this is their clear policy. When they deal with their provinces, with their vassal states, a vassal is an under kingdom. You're allowed to reign and be your own little independent or kind of quasi independent nation as long as you recognize that you're not really independent and you behave yourself and do what we say. I use the illustration of the vassal states in the Soviet Union like East Germany and Poland and those other Eastern European block countries. They weren't really their own country. They were effectively provinces of the Soviet Union because they had to do what Moscow said and that's exactly how a Syria treats their conquered people. And so here's a quotation from the international standard Bible encyclopedia at the outer limits of the empire. The requirement was initially a vow of allegiance and loyalty and tribute. If any resistance to these conditions was made by the state, the as sirians would reduce it by military means into a province and appoint another vass state to govern it. But if resistance still occurred, the final step was the extermination of the state and deportation took place. So that's where we are. Verse five, the king of a Syrian invaded all the land, came to Sumerian for three years, he besieged it. Can you imagine how awful a three year siege would have been? How hungry people got all the horrors of a siege? Wow, that must have just been dreadful. And so verse six carries everybody away, deports everybody into the far north and east regions that breaks their spirit, ends any chance of rebellion. And of course other people, as we're gonna read here in a little bit, are being resettled into their land. And the Assyrians use that policy of deportation very effectively to rule their empire and keep people from rebelling. I do need to say one more thing As we're thinking about deportation and what goes with all of that, some have misunderstood exactly what Shaman Nazer is doing here and have somehow decided that this meant every man, woman and child plus their dog was resettled in these cities of Halo and in the Hay bar and in the cities of the Meads. And so if you had walked around Samaria after this had happened, it was all just a giant ghost town. Nobody was living there. And then where people go with that is they start talking about the lost 10 tribes of Israel and they start trying to find them. And there have been some cults and other religions that have been based off of this idea that those 10 tribes are floating around somewhere and they could be identified and then of course we could be figuring out our genealogy and that we're somehow related to them, which makes in Si Israelites, in fact Mormonism, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, they identify the Native Americans as the lost 10 tribes. There you go. But that is not how deportation works. And as we're reading along, you're gonna bump into some remaining Israelites from time to time. And when the Jews are taken into captivity and they are deported by the Babylonians, we're gonna get some places where there's still Jews living back in Judea. It's not a case where they gather up every single person, everybody and resettle them. In fact, a Syrian records talk about 27,000 people being deported. Not everybody. What deportation means here is the taking of the ruling aristocracy, the military leaders and the religious leaders, the people who could start a rebellion, the people who were fomenting a rebellion by trying to make a deal with Egypt in Second King, 17 four. Those people are the folks that are hauled out of there, but you don't take everybody. That would be a massive project indeed. And that is not what the Bible is talking about here. When we talk about a deportation or the Assyrian captivity, these people, some of these people, a lot of these people are taken away, but not every last man, woman, and child and their dog, like I said, probably mostly concerned about the dogs, aren't we? Yes. Don't want the dogs to have to suffer for these wicked people. And that's what verse seven and eight makes clear, not so much about the canines but that they were wicked. And so we get a long section verse seven and eight that begin to introduce the reasons why this happened. What did they do wrong? Why? Where did this thing go astray? Why are they being punished? God's word wants you to know why God took this dramatic action for so long. We have seen God pleading with his people to do what's right. They have utterly refused. And that is going to be detailed beginning in verses seven and eight and in our reading tomorrow, see you on Wednesday. It is Wednesday and today we're reading Second King 17, nine to 23. In fact, you need to back up and get verses seven and eight. That really starts this section here, which details for us at great length why the children of Israel were taken into captivity. Why God took this dramatic step. So you wanna read seven and eight and just keep flowing, just read all the way down to verse 23. And as you're reading, pay attention to why the children of Israel went into captivity. And I know what you're thinking. Come on, mark. We all know why they went to captivity because they were involved in idolatry. Hello. How complicated is this? We have read so much about idolatry. Okay, I read that stuff too and I know that that this is about idolatry, but there is a lot more here than just idolatry. And if you'll read carefully, you'll see other stuff that contributed to the idolatry and that angered the Lord and that caused them to worship idols and to not return to the Lord what was going on in Israel verses seven to 23 detail that really help us with that. And I would say as well, there's some language here that is inclusive of Judah. So this is helpful and instructive for us to see. Look, for example, in verse 13, the Lord warned Israel and Judah see, so this helps us see some of those problems were going on in the south as well. Pay attention what's going on here besides just idol. I will have a list tonight in Bible talk. If you're listening to this and you're not a member at West Side, you're not gonna be there. It will be live streamed and it'll be on our Facebook page. I'll have my list tonight for Bible talk, why they went into idolatry. You bring your list, we'll compare notes, but there's lots to see here that has tremendous application to us. Remember, just cuz we're not falling down in front of idols, woodstone marble metal, I get it. We don't have metal statues and idols, physical idols going on at least widespread in our society yet. Whew. Kinda worried about that but it's not happening yet. But that doesn't mean that there's no application of this material on idolatry. Remember what Paul says in Colossians three five about covetousness being idolatry. Let's work that. Let's think about that. Let's make this reading come alive. Don't let it just sit on the page, get your list running and then think about how that plugs into our life today. See you tomorrow. Actually see you tonight for Bible talk. Bring your list. How come God had to punish the Israelites with captivity? We're talking about that in Bible talk tonight. Tomorrow we read Second King 1724 beginning verse 24. I'll see you on Thursday. It is Thursday, Thursday, second King 17 verses 24 to 31. You made it to Thursday. I know you're excited because that means the NCAA tournament starts back up and that means we've got hoops tonight. We get all those wonderful days of hoops Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday of last week and then we get nothing, no basketball until today. But I'm not here to talk about basketball. I'm here to talk about daily Bible reading. Let's think about Second King, 17, 24 to 31. This tells us about the people who were resettled in the land of Samaria in the area where the Israelites, the 10 tribes had been and these people take possession. Do you see that? Verse 24, they took possession, which is the expression used in Deuteronomy of the Israelites when they take possession of the promised land. How about that? That's pretty ironic, isn't it? The very thing that the Israelites had done was now done to them. Their land becomes the possession of pagans, of outsiders and these people don't fear the Lord. Verse 25. And so there's immediate problems. The lions show up, some modernistic scholars say that there were a lot of dead bodies in the land and they were unburied from the warfare and the seie and so forth. And so that allowed lions to, to start moving in and to reproduce and suddenly you've got a big lion population. Hey, here's an idea. How about we believe God sent them? Yeah, that would work, wouldn't it? Yes. We'll just believe what the Bible says, that God sent these lions as a reminder that these people are outta step with him. They're living on God's land and they are not right with God. So the answer to that is to get a priest verse 27 and see if that priest can teach them something about the God of the land. This is a very common way of thinking about God, about deity or deities. In this case there are local deities and, and so we come from far away and now we need to figure out the local deity and appease that God and serve that God. Uh, interestingly here, it seems like these pagan people are more interested in serving the God, Jehovah, the God of the land. Of course God is is much more than the God of the promised land, but they seem to be much more interested in serving Jehovah than the people who used to live. There were. It's kinda like the Book of Jonah. You know the Pagans get all excited about God when Jonah's not very excited about God. So a priest calms, but of course verse 28, how can a priest of that time help? He can only teach corrupted religion. The religion of Jibal II and the the golden calves of Dan and Bethel, that worship was off from the start. So now you have people who are, they've got some interest in God but they can't really find God. They don't really know what God wants and they're not gonna be taught what God wants in the best way. And so what they end up doing is just kind of mashing the religion of the local God. That's how they view Jehovah. They just view him as the local God. We need to do something with that. They just mash that into their religion and keep serving their own false gods. Verse 29 begins to use the word made. They made gods that the Samaritans had made. Verse 31, the Avis made it's man made religion. It reminds me of Acts 17, there's a whole bunch of gods in Athens. Paul says, I need to tell you about the real God. These people are polytheistic and they are serving every God that they can think of and we've got this lion plague going on. So you know what? Clearly we missed one of those gods. Let's figure out who we missed and try to make that God happy. What a disaster this is. It's a total disaster. These people are not serving God correctly. They don't really fear the Lord. Hold onto that idea as the writer of kings finishes up with the terrible things going on in the land of Samaria in our reading tomorrow I'll see you on Friday. It is Friday, you made it through the week and we're finishing Second Kings 17. Today we're reading this business that begins in two King 17 verse 32 that summarizes the end of the peoples in Sumaria. The end of the story for the people in Sumaria and then once again sets before us the reasons why God had taken the northern tribes, the 10 tribes of Israel into captivity. So verse 32 says about these resettled folks who got the lion problem going on and then made all these false gods but had a priest come and tell'em a little bit about the God that used to be served in this place. They also, verse 32, feared the Lord. Now verse 25 says, they didn't fear the Lord. So is this a contradiction? No, it's not a contradiction at all. They kind of feared the Lord. I I, I think I would insert the word sort of there or maybe the best thing to do is to see this as sarcasm and just use those air quotes they feared the Lord do. Do you hear the air quotes there? It's kind of hard in a podcast. They feared the Lord but they also served their own gods after the manner of the nation's for among them. So they didn't really fear the Lord. And that's how they act. Verse 34, up to this very day. Then there is a summary beginning verse 35, the Lord the Lord had made a covenant with who? The children of Jacob. Verse 34, the Lord had, I'm adding the word, had there and had commanded them. You shall not fear other gods. So there's a summary statement again about the error of the Northern 10 tribes and their failure to do right and serve God. Work through that. Think about that while how we worship God and serve God has certainly changed from the old covenant to the new covenant. There's some amazing and wonderful things about the new covenant, Jesus being the better sacrifice, being our high priest. Uh, many, many other things about that. But the basic ideas of serving God that he is an exclusive God. He is worthy of our exclusive devotion. We need to obey him exactly as he has said. We need to be careful. Verse 37, to do what he has told us that we are in covenant with him. In verse 38, work that, think about that. How does this inform our worship of God today? These people failed. As a result they were taken into captivity. And from that captivity they will never return. These tribes, they intermarry with the people of the lands where they are resettled and they lose their tribal identities and they are gone. They are off the stage of scripture. They are never to return. On Monday, we'll start reading Micah who had something to say to some of these people in this critical time when, when a serial was coming and and beginning to devour the land and all these bad things were happening but also was talking to Judah at the same time, it's time for us to go read the Prophet Micah. We'll start that on Monday. Thanks for listening then I hope that you're enjoying the Monday Morning Coffee podcast. And if so, that you're following and subscribing and especially rating and reviewing the podcast that helps more people find the podcast. Please tell other folks about the podcast, share reading schedule with them and say, Hey, give this a listen. It will help your daily Bible reading be better. It'll take it up a level if you'll listen to the podcast. So until next week, I hope your coffee is delightful. I hope your Friday is wonderful and I hope the Lord will be with you today all day. I will see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

Thanks for listening to the Westside church of Christ podcast. Monday morning coffee with mark. For more information about west side, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.is that's upbeat with two P'S UPP, B E A T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others. And we look forward to seeing you again with a company coffee, of course, on next Monday,