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Hello, and welcome to the West Side Church's special Monday Morning Coffee podcast. On this podcast, our preacher, Mark Roberts, will help you get your week started right with a 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. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for Monday, September the 8th. I'm Mark. I'm working on a cup of coffee. It's not necessarily the greatest cup of coffee I've ever had, but yes, I do have coffee. Not every cup can be completely amazing all the time. Sometimes we have to have a little less than best. That makes us just appreciate when we have something that's really special, I guess. But I'm working on it. I know you're trying to get the week started. I'm trying to get the week started. Lots going on here. Lots to think about, especially in our daily Bible reading. Open your Bible with me to 2 Kings chapter 18. That's where we're headed. Let's get ready. Let's get set. Let's go. It is Monday and our reading today is 2 Kings 18, 1-12. And if you're thinking, wait a minute Mark, where's the notes from the sermon yesterday? There are no notes from the sermon yesterday because I was not at Westside yesterday. I'm in College Station, Texas. I'm preaching in a meeting for the Twin Cities Church of Christ and enjoying being with these brethren. I've been here before. Lots of good folks here. Lots of young people at A&M. Lots of good young Christians trying to serve the Lord. It's a joy to be with them. I'm enjoying being with them very much And I probably will go ahead and say this is my favorite gospel meeting of the year because, yep, it's my last gospel meeting of the year. And I know folks at Westside are thinking, hey, you sure have been gone a lot recently and the schedule has sort of worked out like that, but I'm coming home and I'm going to stay home for a long time. So let's get busy in the Word of God. It's 2 Kings chapter 18, and we finally get to the place in Kings where the And of course he's doing that because there is, as we read last week, no more northern kingdom. God's wrath has broken forth on Israel, all the assassinations and chaos and idolatry. All of that leads to the end of Israel. God sent his prophets and they would not listen and now they're gone. And so for the next 150 years, 2 Kings will detail what is happening in the south. They are the only kingdom. And the last time we were visiting over there, things weren't going a whole lot better than they were in the north. If you remember, Ahaz is an absolute mess. He is certainly nothing to get excited about at all. In 2 Kings 16, he's all in with Assyria and doing wicked things like replacing the altar in the temple with an altar of Assyrian design. He isn't much to get excited about, but today we meet his son who provides new hope for Judah. His son is King Hezekiah. Our reading for Monday is 2 Kings 18 1 to 12. And what Hezekiah does is what no king so far seems to want to do, and that is purify the religion of the land. It's not that he personally is devoted to the Lord, though he certainly is. He enforces the worship of God, of Jehovah God, all through the land. And so he is said to be, verse 3, like David. That's the key, and that's what we've been pushing all this year. How can I be like David? And Part of being like David is showing spiritual leadership. Verse 4, he removes the high places that the other kings had tolerated, and in fact Ahaz had actually worshipped at those high places. And there is the bronze serpent. Oh my. The bronze serpent is probably 700 years old, but Hezekiah does not hesitate to destroy it. Can't be having that. And this just all stands out, particularly because only Hezekiah and David prosper in war and be the Philistines, and the writer here of Kings seems to go out of his way to make sure, verse 8, that we know that Hezekiah struck down Philistines, and only Hezekiah and David are said to have the Lord with him. Note verse 7 compared to 1 Samuel 18 and verse 12. Hezekiah is reigning in the spirit of David. He is a king after God's own heart, and so he breaks free of being subservient to a Probably because Isaiah told him to do that. Verse 7, I would expect he received the counsel of God. And then we get a little review here of the Assyrians showing up and taking away the northern kingdom. And that review is here to remind us that this is what went wrong in the north. Look what's going right in the south. It's a comparison and it's a contrast. The two accounts begin with similar words. so that we're seeing these two things and holding them together and saying, they did it wrong, he's doing it right. Hezekiah, he's a man after God's own heart. Our reading for Monday, 2 Kings 18, 1-12. Welcome to Tuesday. Welcome to Tuesday, and our reading is 2 Kings 18, 13-37. Hezekiah is doing really, really well, and then things go south. And probably this relates to what we read yesterday about the Assyrians showing up and taking the northern kingdom into captivity. While they're there, it would be hard for the Assyrians not to look south and say, hey, we'll get those guys too. So that is exactly what happens. They invade Judea. And there is all sorts of records of this, according to Sennacherib and other kinds of Assyrian records. Sennacherib, the records that he has talk about capturing 46 cities in Judah and many forts and walled villages, on and on and on. I shut Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage. What's interesting, of course, Spoiler alert, I'm giving away the end of the story. Sennacherib's records do not say he captured Jerusalem. Hmm, I wonder why he didn't include that. But what we see in our reading today in verses 14, 15, and 16, that Hezekiah's faith here seems to waver some. And I think we need to be okay with that. Not that it's okay to have your faith waver, but it's okay for us to see biblical people being real. And Hezekiah does a lot of things that are right. 2 Chronicles 29, 30, and 31 detail a lot of that. But that doesn't mean that he was perfect, and the writer of Kings here includes that he tries to buy off the Assyrians. And then, of course, the Assyrians keep coming, beginning in verse 17, and people are a little confused about that. Hey, he paid him off. Well, it may mean that Sennacherib was intent on killing Hezekiah and putting a puppet king in his place. Some have said that there may be two invasions here, one in 715 BC, one in 701 BC, so he was bought off in 715, and then he decided to return later. He got a big payment of gold, and then when he needed some money, he He said, hey, let's go back where we got that from. But the Assyrians do show up and the Rabshakeh, verse 19, that seems to be a title. It seems to be the chief officer here. He has this big speech that he's making. And the operative word here is the word trust. If you'll underline in your Bible trust as you work down through here, you'll see what this is all about. And the writer of Kings is seriously recording this so that the reader, you and me, will decide who we trust in. He's trying to undermine confidence in Hezekiah, but even more than that, he's trying to undermine confidence in God. Who do you trust in? And when things go south... When things are terrible, who do you trust in? And this speech is a masterpiece of propaganda, particularly from an idol worshiper's viewpoint as he talks about the pantheon of gods and that no gods can help you. Egypt isn't going to help you. No one can assist you. And so verse 26, some of the servants of Hezekiah say, hey, let's talk in Aramaic. That's the language of diplomacy. You don't need to speak in the language of Judah. You don't need to speak Hebrew here. We can speak the language of Aramaic. We're civilized people. But of course, what they really want is they want him to speak Aramaic so that the people on the wall, all the citizens who are listening to him shout this out, won't understand. And he says, you need to understand this. You are the man who will be doomed, verse 27, to eat your own dung and drink your own urine. He's talking about siege warfare there. That's what he's talking about. And it gets even more serious when he says in verse 31, I'm going to take you away. You make peace with me. You surrender. I will take you away to another land like the northern ten tribes were taken and there you will eat of your own vine and sit under your own fig tree and each of you will drink water out of your own cistern. Water out of your own cistern is used in Proverbs as a reference to the marital bed and being satisfied with your own wife. That may be a thinly veiled double entendre that if we have to dock this city down and assault the city and siege the city, when we break in, we're going to kill everybody we can find. We're we're going to assault the women in this city. Think about hearing that. If you're a husband, if you're a soldier on the wall, if you don't want your wife to be violated, you'd better surrender if you want to drink water out of your own cistern. And notice how the failure of Israel in the north, verse 34, have the gods of Seraphim, Hannah, and Iva, have they delivered Samaria out of your hand? The failure of the ten tribes in the north give him the proof that the God of the Israelites is just weak. What a wretched speech this is and what a horrible crisis Hezekiah is in. Our reading for Tuesday, 2 Kings 18, 13-37. It is Wednesday. It's hump day. And today we read 2 Kings 19, 1-13. Let me get some coffee here as we get underway in 2 Kings 19, 1-13. As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, verse 1, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. This is a very difficult moment, as I said yesterday, for King Hezekiah. Both personally, bad things would happen to the king, to his body. The Assyrians are not nice. I want to talk about that more in just a moment. But what would happen to his subjects, what would happen to his kingdom is truly appalling. And I want to give you some information here about Assyrian cruelty. In fact, in the youth lectures this year, Caleb Churchill spoke on Jonah. Jonah, of course, goes to Nineveh, which is the capital of Assyria. And he talked a little bit about Assyrian cruelty. And so I'll read you a little bit of this. And some of this is pretty stern. If you've got little ears listening, you may want to decide if they're up for this or not. Ashurbanipal describes his dealings with a certain city that he had conquered, and he says, 600 of their warriors I put to the sword, 3,000 captives I burned with fire. I left not a single one among them alive to serve as a hostage. Their governor, Kolai, I captured alive, and their corpses I piled into heaps. Their men and maidens I burned. Their governor I flayed, and his skin was spread upon the wall. These are not nice people, and when they subjugate a city, they make an example out of that of just sheer cruelty and awful violence that would cause many, many people to say, we need to capitulate. We need to give in. Being deported, like what happened to the northern ten tribes, is far better than standing here and being flayed. So, for example, Sargon, another king of the Assyrians, he delighted in torturing defeated soldiers. He dug huge That's a lot to take on as you're reading it. and having morning coffee, I realize, but I think it's significant and important for us to understand this is an awful, awful nation that perpetrates violence and atrocities and enjoys doing so. By the way, where did Roman crucifixion come from? That's right. They adapted it from the Assyrian practice of impalement. These are not nice people. And so in Isaiah chapter 19, Hezekiah falls on his face before God praying in earnest because of the threat that is before him. And the theme here is hearing. Hearing is the key idea in verses 1 to 20. Just underline that again and again. And I think the key difference here between Hezekiah and other kings, especially Ahaz, is that other kings don't listen to the prophets. Ahaz, for example, would not listen to the prophets. He throws in with Assyria and becomes an Assyrian vassal, much to his detriment. The message never changes. Trust in God. Depend upon God. Jehovah is salvation. And Hezekiah is willing to listen to that message. This really is not so much a struggle between Hezekiah and Sennacherib. This really is about who is God and who do you trust in? Who will you listen to? And so we get that idea of hearing over and over again in our reading. And there's a and the terrible things that he's threatening and the things that are going on, will God listen? Will God help Hezekiah? And of course, early on, verses 6 and 7, Isaiah reassures Hezekiah, but the Assyrians return. There's some notes chronologically, historically, some of that's hard to work out, about maybe the Egyptians rolled out of Egypt and offered a temporary threat and the Assyrians had to go take care of that. And it seems like they pulled out out, but then maybe that's what we're getting here in 2 Kings 19 verse 8. They come back. They come back. How devastating must that have been to Hezekiah and to the people? We thought we were delivered. We're not delivered, and the same threats are issued again. Our reading for Wednesday, 2 Kings 19, 1 to 13. It is Thursday. It is Thursday, and I'm home from the meeting. Oh, what a joy to be home. Our reading today is 2 Kings Kings chapter 19 verses 14 to 37. Please notice Hezekiah's prayer and how it exalts God as the God of all the kingdoms of the earth, verse 15 and verse 19. That's particularly important given what we know about Assyrian kings delight in proclaiming themselves as being the king over all of the earth. For example, Shalmaneser records on the Black Obelisk, that is so easy to say, isn't it? The Black Obelisk So the Assyrians think of themselves, especially the king, as being in charge of everything, sovereign. And Hezekiah says, God, you are sovereign. And Isaiah responds, speaking for God, beginning in verse 20, I have heard, verse 20, Do you see that reference again to hearing? And so there's a threefold response here. The boasting of Sennacherib is replied to. Don't mock Jerusalem, verse 22. That's the same as mocking God. God's just using you, verse 25. You're a tool in God's hands. I like the reference in verse 26, tender grass on the housetop. Sometimes grass would sprout on the housetops of people's homes in this particular area of the country in this particular time. But since it can't put real roots down, it's shallow, it would soon die. And the Assyrians love to put hooks in people's noses and their mouth. And what you've done to others, I talked about Assyrian cruelty, what you've done to others, that will be done to you. So the response begins, all that boasting and nonsense, verses 21 to 28, that's replied to. Then there is a sign given to Hezekiah, verses 29 to 31. And I'll just quote from a scholar, while three actual calendar years are intended, this is probably only about 14 to 15 months covered, the view suggests that the prediction was made in the fall so this year in which accidental growth was being eaten that would draw to a close but the deliverance would not come in time for fall planting to be done meaning that only what comes up from the roots of previous plants would be available during the next year but by the following fall the third calendar year when it was beginning normal life would resume for the Assyrians would be gone and then of course the third part of that response is final resolution that is the destruction of the Assyrian army please understand Underline in your Bible verse 34. I will defend the city and save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. Hezekiah has shown himself to be a man after God's own heart. He has shown himself to be like David. And God stands in and defends that city because he is like David and because God made promises to David in 2 Samuel 7. Our reading for Thursday, 2 Kings 17 verses 24 to 41. It's Friday. It is Friday minute to the end of the week, didn't you? Another week, another week in Bible reading where we've drawn closer to the Lord and sought His heart. And we do that especially out of the Psalms on Friday. Today our reading is Psalm 39. Now this is not the easiest Psalm to classify. It is a Psalm of David. The heading gives it to David. Remember the headings are not inspired, but they're very old and they're helpful. It sounds like David and it fits in the book of David, Psalms 1 to 41, have the Psalms David. So I'm very content saying this is from David, but I'm not very content saying it's a lament. A lament psalm is a cry for help, a call for God to deliver. But this sounds like a wisdom psalm in places. So maybe I'll go lament, maybe I'll go wisdom psalm, having a hard time deciding about all that. What's even more difficult is deciding where this fits in David's life. What exactly is the trouble here? Who are these enemies and what are they doing that's bothering David so much? This is really about David's very bad day. I'm thinking about that book, Alexander's Very Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Bad Day. And that's kind of Psalm 39, but I can't tell you for sure who's ruining David's day and why things are so terrible. I can tell you this, what David does when life is bad, when his day has been ruined, is he prays about it. And the Psalm really breaks down into about three pieces. It's not the easiest to outline, but there are three pieces here. I'm really unhappy, verses one to three. And then God will help me see how unimportant I am and all these troubles really are, verses 4, 5, and 6. And then the second prayer here is forgive my sins, verses 7 to 13. So notice in the beginning of the Psalm, verse 1, David decides it'd be better not to say anything than to make it worse by blaspheming, by carrying on in the wrong kinds of ways. I like that a lot because there's so much emphasis today on letting it out. You've got to vent. You've got to express yourself. No. No, you don't. Sometimes the best thing to do is keep your mouth shut. Just Just hold it in. That's better than sinning with your mouth. And that's a note that's needed in our world today. Don't make the problem worse by speaking out, especially in front of the wicked, or by saying things about God that you shouldn't say. And then in verse 4, since David can't get things figured out, he can't put the pieces of the puzzle together, what he does is he turns to God and God begins, as he thinks about the Lord, to help him see and put some things in perspective. And look at verse 6. Doesn't that sound like Ecclesiastes Life is uncertain. Man can't control his own death or even what will happen to his affairs after he dies. Lots of, is it really that big a deal? Get some perspective here, David. And then since he gets some perspective, what he wants now is for God to forgive him of his sins. Beginning about verse 7, since life is short, since there's a lot of things we can't control, since there are a lot of things that really don't matter that much, what does matter? Our relationship with God. And I love the idea of being a sojourner, verse 12. That's a key concept biblically, the understanding that I'm not a citizen here, that I don't live here. I'm going to God. I'm journeying to be with God. That's important for people who want to serve the Lord and seek after God's own heart. Our reading for Friday, Psalm 39. I want you to come too. I'll 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 Westside, you can connect with us through our website, justchristians.com, and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.io. That's upbeat with two Ps, U-P-P-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 cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday.