[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR TUESDAY APRIL 19

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR TUESDAY APRIL 19

WORD OF WISDOM

Everyone has photographic memory. The difference is some do not have any
film.

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DAILY DEVOTION

Remember What God Said

Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son
of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on
the third day be raised again.'
Luke 24:6-7, NIV

	 The three women who went to the tomb on Sunday morning to care for
Jesus' body were met by the angel's question, "Don't you remember what He
told you?" They came to the tomb discouraged, depressed, and defeated, and
they left excited, passionate, full of faith and hope. They couldn't wait to
tell the disciples. Remembering what God says will change your perspective.
When you're under pressure, under stress, overwhelmed by a situation, too
often we forget what God has said, and we go by what we see. We let negative
thoughts drown out what God has promised. Recognize that's a test. The enemy
would love for you to get so caught up in your circumstances that you forget
what God told you. Are you remembering that He says He'll supply all your
needs according to His riches? Are you remembering that He says greater is
He who is in you than what's trying to stop you? It's not complicated. Start
remembering what He has spoken over you.
	 
A Prayer for Today

"Father, thank You for the strength that rises within me whenever I remember
what You have promised me in Your Word. Thank You that I can stay focused on
what You have said and walk by faith and not by sight. I will not allow
negative thoughts to drown out Your voice and hold me back. In Jesus' Name,
Amen."

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DAILY BIBLE READING

2 Kings 19-21 New King James Version
Isaiah Assures Deliverance
19 And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes,
covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2 Then
he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the
elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the
son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah: 'This day is a day
of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth,
but there is no strength to [a]bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord
your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king
of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words
which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the
remnant that is left.' "

5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to
them, "Thus you shall say to your master, 'Thus says the Lord: "Do not be
afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the
king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Surely I will send a spirit upon him,
and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him
to fall by the sword in his own land." ' "

Sennacherib's Threat and Hezekiah's Prayer
8 Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against
Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9 And the king heard
concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "Look, he has come out to make war
with you." So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 "Thus you
shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: 'Do not let your God in whom
you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand
of the king of Assyria." 11 Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be
delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers
have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were
in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king
of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?' "

14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and
read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before
the Lord. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: "O Lord God of
Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of
all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline
Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the
words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 17
Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their
lands, 18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods,
but the work of men's hands-wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all
the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone."

The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord
God of Israel: 'Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of
Assyria, I have heard.' 21 This is the word which the Lord has spoken
concerning him:

'The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!

22 'Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
23 By your messengers you have reproached the Lord,
And said: "By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter the extremity of its borders,
To its fruitful forest.
24 I have dug and drunk strange water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of defense."

25 'Did you not hear long ago
How I made it,
>From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
26 Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.

27 'But I know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.
28 Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back
By the way which you came.

29 'This shall be a sign to you:

'You shall eat this year such as grows [b]of itself,
And in the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
30 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord [c]of hosts will do this.'

32 "Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:

'He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
33 By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,'
Says the Lord.
34 'For I will defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.' "

Sennacherib's Defeat and Death
35 And it came to pass on a certain night that the [d]angel of the Lord went
out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five
thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the
corpses-all dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away,
returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 37 Now it came to pass, as he was
worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and
Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of
Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah's Life Extended
20 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet,
the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Set your
house in order, for you shall die, and not live.' "

2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3
"Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and
with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah
wept bitterly.

4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that
the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 "Return and tell Hezekiah the
leader of My people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: "I
have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On
the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. 6 And I will add to
your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of
the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for
the sake of My servant David." ' "

7 Then Isaiah said, "Take a lump of figs." So they took and laid it on the
boil, and he recovered.

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What is the sign that the Lord will heal me,
and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?"

9 Then Isaiah said, "This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord
will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten
degrees or go backward ten degrees?"

10 And Hezekiah answered, "It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten
[e]degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees."

11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow
ten [f]degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

The Babylonian Envoys
12 At that time [g]Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon,
sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been
sick. 13 And Hezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house
of his treasures-the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and
[h]all [i]his armory-all that was found among his treasures. There was
nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did
these men say, and from where did they come to you?"

So Hezekiah said, "They came from a far country, from Babylon."

15 And he said, "What have they seen in your house?"

So Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is
nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."

16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord: 17 'Behold, the
days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have
accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be
left,' says the Lord. 18 'And they shall take away some of your sons who
will [j]descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in
the palace of the king of Babylon.' "

19 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord which you have spoken
is good!" For he said, "Will there not be peace and truth at least in my
days?"

Death of Hezekiah
20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah-all his might, and how he made a
pool and a [k]tunnel and brought water into the city-are they not written in
the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 21 So Hezekiah [l]rested
with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

Manasseh Reigns in Judah
21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned
fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 And he did
evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations
whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt
the [m]high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up
altars for Baal, and made a [n]wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had
done; and he worshiped all [o]the host of heaven and served them. 4 He also
built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, "In
Jerusalem I will put My name." 5 And he built altars for all the host of
heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 Also he made his son
pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted
spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to
provoke Him to anger. 7 He even set a carved image of [p]Asherah that he had
made, in the [q]house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his
son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the
tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; 8 and I will not make the feet
of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers-only if
they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and
according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them." 9 But they
paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the
nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.

10 And the Lord spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, 11 "Because
Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more
wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah
sin with his idols), 12 therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Behold,
I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of
it, both his ears will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the
measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe
Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 So I
will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of
their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their
enemies, 15 because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to
anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.' "

16 Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled
Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah
sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh-all that he did, and the sin that he
committed-are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of
Judah? 18 So Manasseh [r]rested with his fathers, and was buried in the
garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon reigned in
his place.

Amon's Reign and Death
19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two
years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz
of Jotbah. 20 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father
Manasseh had done. 21 So he walked in all the ways that his father had
walked; and he served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped
them. 22 He forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way
of the Lord.

23 Then the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in
his own house. 24 But the people of the land executed all those who had
conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah
king in his place.

25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in
the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 26 And he was buried in
his tomb in the garden of Uzza. Then Josiah his son reigned in his place.

Footnotes
2 Kings 19:3 give birth
2 Kings 19:29 Without cultivation
2 Kings 19:31 So with many Heb. mss. and ancient vss. (cf. Is. 37:32); MT
omits of hosts
2 Kings 19:35 Or Angel
2 Kings 20:10 Lit. steps
2 Kings 20:11 Lit. steps
2 Kings 20:12 Merodach-Baladan, Is. 39:1
2 Kings 20:13 So with many Heb. mss., Syr., Tg.; MT omits all
2 Kings 20:13 Lit. the house of his armor
2 Kings 20:18 be born from
2 Kings 20:20 aqueduct
2 Kings 20:21 Died and joined his ancestors
2 Kings 21:3 Places for pagan worship
2 Kings 21:3 Heb. Asherah, a Canaanite goddess
2 Kings 21:3 The gods of the Assyrians
2 Kings 21:7 A Canaanite goddess
2 Kings 21:7 Temple
2 Kings 21:18 Died and joined his ancestors