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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 15th. I'm Mark. I'm holding a great cup of coffee here in my Reepicheep mug. If you don't know who Reepicheep is, he's my favorite character from the Narnian Chronicles. A little bit of a throwback here to the summer in Narnia Club. Drinking some great coffee. I've got sermon notes because I preached yesterday at Westside. And I'm ready to talk about daily Bible reading. We finally found ourselves a king who seems to have some inkling of what it means to serve the Lord. Hello, Hezekiah. Hezekiah has entered the chat. Welcome aboard. Well, whatever it is that you are working to get your daily Bible reading started today, pour that cup of coffee, grab that Coke Zero, get you some Mountain Dew diet, whatever it is, let's get ready. Let's get set. Let's go. Yesterday, I resumed our preaching theme for 2024, the questions that Jesus asked, and this series had been on summer hiatus. So much going on. VBS Sunday and Youth Lecture Sunday and people everywhere on vacation. I was out some. Lots going on with all of that. So it's time to pick that back up and continue to work on that. These are the questions that you voted for as being the most incisive, the most important, the most interesting questions that Jesus asked. And the question yesterday came from Luke 24, 26, where Jesus is talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And he simply asks, Because of their misunderstanding of the cross and the resurrection, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory? You can listen to that entire sermon on our website or on our Facebook page if you did not hear it yesterday. Let me just share one additional observation. You can't say everything in the pulpit. Whoa, I just had a bucket of applications. There was a lot of things that we could have worked with out of that question that just didn't make the final cut. Maybe the one that I should have used is... the most obvious one, and that is that the resurrection is real. It happened. It is a historical fact, and a huge proof of that is that there is somewhat skepticism about the resurrection among Jesus' followers. Have you noticed that? It's not just the enemies of Jesus who say, no, we don't think that's going to happen. No, no, no, that can't be happening. No, Jesus' disciples are the ones who say, no, women came back from the tomb, and they but you can't really believe in any of that. One of the scholars that I read after Darrell Bock, he's an excellent Lucan scholar, evangelical fellow, does a great job in Luke. He writes this, Here is the major lesson of the Emmaus Road experience. Though resurrection is hard to believe, be assured that it took place. Its reality means that Jesus' claims are true. He was more than a teacher, more than a prophet. He was the promised, anointed one of God. A host of skeptics saw this, and they believed. I think this helps us to think about the facts of the resurrection. When Jesus rises from the grave, His disciples are not anxiously waiting outside the tomb. They don't think it's going to happen. They don't believe that it has happened. But Jesus tells them it was necessary for the Christ to suffer. The prophets wrote about it. Hope that helped you yesterday. I enjoyed preparing that lesson on the questions Jesus asked. Going to be in that theme a good little bit here as I run off a series of those to kind of catch up from that summer hiatus. Well, turn your Bible now with me over to 2 Kings. Let's do some Bible reading in 2 Kings. 2 Kings Monday's reading is 2 Kings 20, as we see a highlight in Hezekiah's life and, unfortunately, a low light as well. We started some with Hezekiah last week, and as you read today, you may have some questions about exactly when this occurred. Verse 1 begins with, in those days. When exactly is those days? Particularly since in verse 6, as part of God's response via the prophet Isaiah, God says, I'll add 15 years to your life, I'll deliver you, and I will defend the city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. I thought the city had already been defended. We read that last week. So there are some chronological issues here. Is this material not in chronological order? And there are some questions about exactly when the Assyrians invaded and how many times they invaded. If Hezekiah dies in 698 BC, which that date seems to be pretty firmly set by some things outside of the Bible, then this would be 15 years obviously in front of that. So So this makes that somewhere around 713 to 712 BC because Hezekiah started raining somewhere about 727. But again, there are some difficulties with some of those numbers, and you probably don't want me doing the math anyway. That would mean that Hezekiah is about 39 here. He was 25 when he began raining, so he's about 39. And in the Bible world, 39 is getting up there. 39 is getting up there. Average lifespan could be in the 50s, so 39 is somewhat older, and he is told that he will die, and he prays to the Lord, verse 3. And that prayer follows the pattern that we often see in the Psalms of appealing to one's faithfulness before God as a reason to be heard or delivered. Lord, I'm a faithful servant. It's not kind of a barter or trade sort of request. It's saying, I stand with you, and I have served you well, and so I'm asking for this favor. And notice verse 5, there's David It's all about David this year in our reading. Your father, David, the God of David, your father. And obviously, David is not Hezekiah's father, but he is a man after David's heart, a man after God's own heart. And then again in verse 6, for my servant David's sake. So David looms large in the Hezekiah story. And you should remember as well, in verse 8, Hezekiah asked for a sign, and I'm kind of not great on asking for signs, but But Ahaz refused a sign. He didn't want signs. He didn't listen to any of that. So Hezekiah is very different. If you have some additional time today on Monday, then take a look at Isaiah 38 verses 9 to 22 because there's a psalm of Hezekiah there where he looks backwards at the time when he was sick and then he rejoices in deliverance beginning in about verse 15. Now, that's really a high point. I love this. He prays. God answers his prayer. So impressive. Then verses to 12-19, not impressive. Babylonian envoys show up. Babylon is a rising power as Assyria now is starting to corrupt from within and totter a little bit. And so Babylon shows up and Hezekiah is all about impressing Babylon. In fact, the account in Chronicles in chapter 32 verses 25 and 26 tells us that Hezekiah did this because of pride. This is just not a good call at all. It seems that He's very self-centered. Look at me. Look at what I have built. And then Isaiah says, this is going to bring problems. You don't show bad people all your wealth. They'll show up and steal it. And Hezekiah says, whatever. It's not going to happen, verse 19, in my days. And there's different ways of interpreting that, but that is certainly, it seems to me, the sense of what Hezekiah is saying there. Finally, then, in verse 20, there is specific mention made in verse 20 how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water And that is a reference to the famous Hezekiah Tunnel that was carved out of solid rock to prepare Jerusalem for invasion, like when the Assyrians under Sennacherib came and besieged the city, to bring water into the city. And 2 Chronicles 32 provides more detail on the digging of this tunnel and how they did that and how they accomplished that. And Dana and I have been blessed to be in Israel, and you can walk through that tunnel It is really a spooky kind of experience because you're way underground in deep rock. It's about 1,700 feet long, and you are literally walking in water because the Pool of Gihon still flows, and that cold, fresh water is still rushing through that tunnel to what is known in New Testament times as the Pool of Siloam. And so you're wading through water. It starts about thigh-level deep, and then pretty soon it's about calf-level deep. So it's not a hard way. But it's really rocky and dark, and if you're claustrophobic, it's certainly not for you. And I'll try to post some pictures about that on my Facebook page today. A reading for Monday, 2 Kings chapter 20. It is Tuesday. It is Tuesday, and our reading today is 2 Kings chapter 21. And after saying a lot of good things about Hezekiah, here is Manasseh. What an absolute disaster this is. And this is a good place to note the selectivity of the inspired account here. Sometimes people imagine that the Bible contains notes on everything that happened, and that of course is absolutely not true. Manasseh reigns 55 years. That would fill many volumes if everything that he did was recorded in Scripture. And one of the things that's not recorded in Kings that is recorded in Chronicles is that he repented, which is utterly shocking and absolutely amazing. And you just can't say enough about that given how he started and how long in his life he was so wicked. But that's not here in Kings. The reason it's not here in Kings is because Kings is documenting what got the Israelites, or specifically the Jews, taken into captivity. So it's all about, hey, these guys did bad and they were punished as a result it kind of diminishes that point a little bit if you have to have the fine print and suddenly say well you know he actually did some good things there and he did repent no no no you can't have a bunch of disclaimers when you're trying to make one big point the big point is idolatry caused us to be taken into captivity and this guy is the idolater of all idolaters he is the anti-hezekiah notice verse 3 while hezekiah is compared with david Manasseh has the distinction of being Judah's only king to be compared to King Ahab in Israel. How awful. He undoes all the things that Hezekiah did. He's the anti-Hezekiah. And somewhere in here, you have to start wondering just how compliant the nation had been with Hezekiah's reforms. Was that just a bunch of superficial sort of religion because the king was making everybody do that? Not too sure about some of that. Verse 10 speaks of prophets, and we're not sure who these prophets are. Micah and Isaiah are probably off the scene well before. Jeremiah has not begun his prophesying. So these prophets are nameless, although some have suggested that Habakkuk might fit right here. Please notice then in verse 11 that the comparison is not to other previous kings. He walked in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, for example. Instead, you have to compare him to the Amorites. That's how wicked he is. And the shedding of innocent blood just runs all through Manasseh's reign and which is a huge concern for the Lord. Deuteronomy chapter 19, Deuteronomy chapter 21, Deuteronomy chapter 27, 1 Samuel chapter 19, on and on and on. God really, really hates it when innocent blood is being shed. That will bring the wrath of God in a hurry. So then, the second part of this reading today is Ammon in verses 19 to 26, and we don't know much about him except that he just acted like his dad. That makes you wonder, how long did Manasseh live after he had that repentance, that change of heart that Chronicles documents? And Chronicles does add that Ammon didn't humble himself but added to his guilt, chapter 33, verses 21, 22, and 23. So by the end of our reading today, Josiah comes to the throne, and we're at a little bit of a cliffhanger here. No one knows if he will be any better than the last two kings who are just atrocious. Westsiders, we do have a Zoom call tonight. I'm anxious to talk a little bit more about Manasseh How Manasseh acted so awfully when his dad was such a good king. What do we make of that? How do we solve that? How do we figure that out? I want to talk about that and make a list of Manasseh's sins and the things that he did. We'll have good opportunity to study further in our Bible reading today on Zoom tonight. For the rest of you, see you on the podcast tomorrow. It's hump day. It is hump day. And today we're reading 2 Kings chapter 22. The reading for Wednesday is 2 Kings chapter 22. And today we read about Josiah. What an amazing and wonderful young man Josiah really is. He is the last great king of Judah, and he is absolutely amazing. He did what was right, verse 2, in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the ways of David his father. He did not turn aside to the right or to the left. Only Asa and Hezekiah have this kind of comparison. This business of not turning aside to the right or the left is straight out of Deuteronomy chapter 17, verses 11 and verse 20. And it is important to see here, watch the command structure, the king's sin the king commanded, the king did. That will fill Josiah's reign. Chapter 23.1, chapter 23.4 continues that. He's always taking action. And what I love about this is he understands it is not enough to get the idols out of the temple. We need to restore the right worship of God by cleansing the temple and making it what it should be, God's house. And then in what is easily one of the most dramatic verses in all of the Old Testament, verse 8, Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. It is hard to imagine that they had somehow lost God's law, that the people under Manasseh and under his son Ammon had gone so far from God that the law of God was lost. But now it is found. And of course, we would like to know an awful lot more about that. For example, had Hilkiah hidden this? Maybe from Manasseh and Ammon pre had been carefully hiding God's law so that it would not be destroyed. Later in Jeremiah's life, the king will actively burn the word of God. So that's certainly a possibility. That's something that may be working here. Some have wondered, what exactly are we looking at here? Is this just parts of Exodus and Deuteronomy? What is the book of the law? And I think that's probably the first five books of the Bible. That's probably what Moses wrote, the Pentateuch, the first five books there. And notice here how the writer of Kings keeps the book's content a secret we don't know what it says until verse 16 and verse 16 brings this incredible reaction and so impressive from Josiah because he turns to the Lord and is doing what's right and God respects repentance God respects repentance and even though through Huldah the prophetess she begins in verse 15 down through verse 20 God says this punishment must come this punishment has been decreed and it will come. It's not coming on you. It's not coming on you, Josiah, because you are doing what's right. Such an impressive king. There'll be more about that in our reading tomorrow. Our reading for Wednesday, 2 Kings 22. It's Thursday. It is Thursday. Today we're reading 2 Kings 23 verses 1 to 20. The reading for Thursday, 2 Kings 23, 1 to 20. Let me get some coffee here. And let's see if we can learn more about Josiah's reforms. Now, as is so common as we're dealing with Old Testament records, there are some difficulties with some of the timeframes here. You can get a lot more of the exact timing in the book of Chronicles in chapter 34. Some of this seems to be merged together here in Kings in kind of a topical way instead of a chronological way. I'll let you work further with that if you're really into doing all the numbers and establishing a timeline. What's important here is verse 3. King Josiah functions like Moses and Joshua. He renews the Sinai Covenant And I do love that he stood by the pillar, which reminds me of Solomon when he dedicated the temple in 1 Kings 8 and prayed that great prayer there. So the entire nation is turning back to the Lord. There's commands. The king sent, verse 1, and now verse 4, the king commanded. This is what we are to do. And as you're reading down through all the things that Josiah burned and desecrated and destroyed, you begin to see the level of idolatry and how bad things really were in Judea, and you begin to see some things about how perverse some of this idolatry really is. Verse 7, he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes. There's so much sexual immorality in its perverse and sick sexuality that goes on in Canaanite idolatry, and sometimes maybe we wonder, why has God so been out of shape with idolatry? It's not just that people are falling down in front of a statue, which is obviously extremely offensive. That alone would be enough, but they're burning their children to these statues to these fake gods that are not gods. And then there's all kinds of wrong use of sexuality as part of that worship. It's just horrible. It's absolutely horrible. And what I really like about Josiah here is that he not only purges the land of this stuff, but he seems to be determined to make certain that it will never come back because he desecrates so many of these sites, defiled the ESV has. You can't worship here anymore because I've offered bone on that altar. I burned this down and made it into a city dump. All kinds of things like that are part of Josiah's reign and part of his right worship and determination to restore the worship of God in Judea. He just does all sorts of things to cause people to say, well, we're never going to be able to do that again. Unfortunately, spoiler alert, they will get back into idolatry, but he's making it a lot harder to do some of that. And if you're not impressed enough with that, how about what's said there beginning in verse 13 about the altar that Solomon built. That altar was built in like 970 AD and here we are in 630 AD. So that's about 340 years ago. This is an antique. It's a shrine. Everybody says, oh, that's what King Solomon did. Josiah says, I don't care. It's wrong and we're burning it. And then we have in verse 15, we have the altar at Bethel That's the terrible altar that Jeroboam erected that started all the apostasy for the northern ten tribes. We're burning that down too. None of this will stand. None of this is allowed. And then verses 17 and 18, we get the wonderful prophetic fulfillment of what we read so long ago in 1 Kings chapter 13. God's word comes to pass. And Josiah is a powerful tool in bringing God's word to come to pass. Josiah. The last great king of Judah. A reading for Thursday, 2 Kings 23, 1-20. See you tomorrow. We'll be in the Psalms. Friday. On Friday, we're in the Psalms. Today, we read the 40th Psalm. This is an interesting psalm, to say the least, because it's not like any other psalms. It is a little bit lament-y and a little bit Thanksgiving-y. Those probably are not real words, but I'm going to coin them as words. I'm going to make them into words. We talk a lot about what kind of psalm is this. And you'll note pretty quickly that there's some cry for help here, and that makes it a lament. A lament is a call to God for deliverance. But going with laments, oftentimes there'll be a lament psalm, and then somewhere there's a corresponding thanksgiving psalm where God is praised for delivering. I called to God, I lamented, and God did deliver, so I am thankful. And this psalm is a two-for-one. You get both. You get both thanksgiving and lamenting in this psalm. So the structure here, and I'm always a little reticent, about outlining psalms, but the structure here would be waiting rewarded, verses 1 to 10, and then waiting renewed, verses 11 to 17. And we don't know everything about the troubles that are being mentioned in verse 2. And one scholar noted that the good news here is that we don't know. And I say good news, I'm quoting here, because that gives the psalm the authority to speak into every situation. If this was only the problem that comes with the invasion of an enemy, could you and I read this and benefit from it when we'd lost our job like Like Paul's thorn in the flesh, there is something to be said for times when God leaves us a little in the dark so that we might better see a whole lot of light. I appreciate that in a very good way. And as you read down through this psalm, verses 6, 7, and 8 will sound very familiar because the Hebrew writer quotes those in Hebrews 10, verses 5, 6, and 7 and applies that to Jesus doing the will of God. The quotation, by the way, in the Hebrew epistle is a little bit different than here because the Hebrew writer is quoting out of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. verse 11, the psalm takes a shift. There's all this thanksgiving and deliverance and it's light and glory and wonderful. And then verse 11, I'm in trouble. Verse 12, evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see them. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me. The question here would be, is this David taking on the sins of the nation as he represents the nation? Or is this his personal sins? It does seem to me to be very, very personal. But I like verses 14 and 15 There is so much confidence here. There are some bad, bad enemies around me, David says, but I am completely confident that God can handle them. So the psalm ends in such a joyous way. May all who seek you, verse 16, rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. And then verse 17, as for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God. You may be wondering, how could David say I'm poor and needy? He was a king. He lived in a palace. Well, we don't know exactly when this was written, and in fact, we cannot be entirely certain that David did write this. The headings of the Psalms, of course, are not inspired. But I'm thinking about the times that David was in the wilderness being chased by King Saul, and he was poor and needy. No home, no place to lay his head, always on the run. It would fit that time frame very well. A reading then for Friday is Psalm 40. That's the podcast then for the week. Certainly do appreciate you listening. Hope that you'll share the podcast with others. Leave us a rating and a review. So until Monday when we'll open our Bibles together again, I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven. I want you to come too. 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.