Living Water Community Church

We walked through the near death of Hezekiah. It is a really serious illness and he is really incapacitated by it. Isaiah comes to him and tells him to prepare to die. Hezekiah believes him and it grieves him because he is very sick. Hezekiah cries out to God from his deathbed asking for healing and restoration. Isaiah soon returns with the message Hezekiah will recover and will go up to the temple in 3 days. Because he is so sick Hezekiah finds this declaration unbelievable and he asks Isaiah for a sign. The sign he is given is the shadow moves back 10 steps on a time keeping device Ahaz had built. Hezekiah recovers and worships at the temple in 3 days just like Isaiah had prophesied. His sickness and recovery were talked about even in the halls of Babylon which was over 670 miles away. The king of Babylon sent an envoy with gifts to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery. There may have been alliances made at this time. But Hezekiah is clearly caught up in the celebrity of the moment and proceeds to show the envoy all the wealth and splendor of his kingdom and the temple. Isaiah shortly comes to Him and declares how this indiscreet display of wealth will lead to the conquest of Judah by Babylon. Isaiah prophesies the captivity and service of Hezekiah’s sons to the kings of Babylon. At this revelation Hezekiah is relieved this will not happen in his lifetime. We see in Hezekiah a king who is a good king but even a good king can be seduced by pride. And yet even in this we see God foreshadowing the better king the promised Son of David who will reign forever. Hezekiah was sick unto death and in 3 days he recovered and went to worship at the temple. Jesus the greater and better king entered into death and in 3 days he rose again in the new and better temple of His body. If even a prideful king can be used by God to point us to Jesus, then there is hope that God can use me to point people to Jesus.

We worked through the last part of Hezekiah’s conflict with the king of Assyria. In chapter 18 we ended with a very dark scene, Hezekiah and his leaders are in sackcloth before the Lord facing a grim and dismal threat from the king of Assyria. In chapter 19 we witnessed the Lord’s deliverance. It is a supernatural intervention as the Lord sends an angel who kills 185,000 men of the Assyrian army in one night. Sennacherib returns home in defeat and shortly after this is killed by his own sons. It is a good reminder that God loves His people and delights to rescue them. In this story we also see how Sennacherib declared his greatness above the god’s of all the other kings he had conquered and he boasted of how he would conquer Jerusalem as well. God will not be mocked by men, and God demonstrates His power by sending His angel to strike the army of the Assyrians. 

We followed the opening story of Hezekiah and his reign as the king of Judah. He is one of the most God honoring kings of the kings of Judah. He is one of the only kings to remove the high places where people worshipped. He destroyed the idols people worshipped including the bronze serpent Moses had made, since people had come to worship it as well. The record of Hezekiah’s reign includes the statement that there were none like him either before or after him in the way he trusted God. He not only trusted God but was recognized for seeking to be obedient to the commandments of God. The Lord was with Hezekiah and blessed him. We see Hezekiah breaking the reliance on Assyria his father had established. He also has success in going against the Philistines. This is all seen as a result of God being with him. In his fourth year as king of Judah the king of Assyria came against Samaria and besieged it for 3 years. After 3 years Samaria fell and the nation of Israel was conquered and carried off as captives. 7 years after Israel was conquered the king of Assyria moved his attention to Judah who had stopped paying tribute to him toward the start of Hezekiah’s reign which is now in its 14th year. Sennacherib began to conquer the cities of Judah. After most of his fortified cities were conquered Hezekiah sent word to the king of Assyria that he had done wrong and would pay whatever Sennacherib imposed on him. The king demanded 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the silver from his treasury and from the house of the Lord and he stripped the gold from the doors of the temple. All of this was to satisfy the king of Assyria. But he was not satisfied and he sent his military leaders to Jerusalem to demand they surrender of face what they believed was an unstoppable conquest by Assyria. We ended last time with Hezekiah’s leaders coming to him with the dismal message of impending disaster. We considered why the writer of kings would spend so much time painting such a dismal picture? To people in exile facing a dire situation this passage would have been an encouragement. Because in the background to this story God is there. No matter how bleak things may become God is there. 

Examples of times when peopled prayed to God. We look at the contexts of when peopled prayed and what they prayed about. Continuing this study of prayer is the focus of this Sunday. Ezra's confessionary prayer and Nehemiah's silent prayer of heart are two examples we looked at. Nehemiah also prays for protection and we see Job praying on behalf of other men. Daniel prays to God in the midst of danger and later for the Israelites in exile. Jonah and other examples are also looked at today.

We worked through the last half of chapter 17. We see the pagan people the Assyrians moved into the land of Israel dealing with attacks by lions. The response is, “We don’t know how to appease the God of this land!” and so they send word to the king of Assyria for help. He orders a priest to be sent back to the land to teach the people about God. The amazing thing about this is how God is using the establishment of the people of Israel in the land to be the basis for bringing the truth about the true and living God to the nations even if Israel is not really occupying the land. God is at work glorifying His name through them. While the vast majority of pagan people in the land of Israel certainly do not repent and turn to Yahweh there were no doubt some who did. God promises His word will not return void so there must have been some among those moved into the land who came to follow Yahweh. 

We worked through the first half of 2 Kings 17. Here we see the judgement of God being poured out on the 10 northern tribes for their unfaithfulness. Again and again the point is made how this is happening because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people. They had adopted the customs of the people who were driven out before them. They rejected the one true God who had delivered them from Egypt and slavery and had given them the land. They embraced idolatry with zeal. We spent a good deal of time looking at the idea of customs and how God had given them many things which would have made them a peculiar people. They had the sabbath observance, the feasts of the Lord, the freeing of slaves and resting of land every 7 years and the forgiveness of debts and return of property every 49 years. They clearly had God ordained customs which should have set them apart and been a constant reminder of God and His grace. But they turned their back on these things and did not practice them but instead adopted the customs of the nations around them and the ones which had been driven out of the land. We reflected on how easy it is to cast judgement on the people we are looking at but we should be careful to consider what we are ignoring which God has asked us to do. We reflected on tithing and how the national average for tithing is less than 1%. Are we actively seeking to keep a sabbath to the Lord? Or have the pressures of life and the burdens of bills driven us to ignore these things or push them off to a later time. How are we dealing with the issues we face because the customs God calls us to are no less important before God than the ones Israel faced.

We worked our way through chapter 16 dealing with the rulership of king Ahaz of Judah. There is a lot of detail about his life especially when we consider how he is described as a king who did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. This is the first time this kind of description is applied to a king of Judah. It is a sad commentary an a life spent turning away from God at every point. He was even said to have sacrificed his son to an idol. Yet we see in the book of Isaiah how God reached out to Ahaz in his time of need as Jerusalem was being attacked by both Israel and Syria. But Ahaz refused to trust God and accept His help. Instead he sent money to Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria and asked him for help. The Assyrian king came down and conquered the Syrians killing their king. This of course aided the kingdom of Judah but the Assyrian king demanded Ahaz submit to him and even came down and executed his own attack against Jerusalem. Ahaz also lost soldiers and cities to the Philistines and the Edomites. Overall his time as king was one of continual decline. The one thing which stands out is God’s patience with him and the kingdom of Judah. Ahaz led the people into idolatry of all kinds and yet God did not destroy them. This ongoing patience of God had to be an encouragement to the people in exile who were reading this account. They were living among a people who were idol worshippers. They were probably under the kind of pressure Christians face today to just be quiet and not say anything about their faith. In the meantime the false faith of the pagan is declared loudly and without consequence in the public square. The fact God was there constantly showing mercy in the midst of an unfaithful kings rule had to be a comfort to those who were afraid and felt like they were failing in their pursuit of God. This same kind of comfort is available to us today. God is faithful in the midst of our unfaithfulness. This does not give us license to just ignore God’s call for us to be faithful. On the contrary it should call us to abandon hope in man and put our hope in God alone. To live lives of uncompromising faith in the midst of a pagan and fallen world. 

We are looking at many different ways in which people in the Bible prayed. The examples of prayer are very rich and it will take a few weeks to go through these examples of prayer we find in the Bible. Different words are used for "prayer" depending on the way the person was seeking to approach God. Join us as we look through the ways we see prayer done in the Bible.

We worked through a section which showed us one of the longest reigns of any king in Judah. King Uzziah also known as Ahaziah reigned 52 years. Here was a king which in many ways honored God and yet as he entered the end of his reign he became proud and entered the temple to offer incense to God. This angered God and he struck Uzziah with leprosy in front of the 80 priest which assembled to stand against what Uzziah was doing. He lived the rest of his life in a different house as a leper. His son Jotham reigned after him. While his reign was said to be like his fathers he too fell short of doing all God wanted. While this was happening in Judah there were 5 reigns of different kings of Israel laid out for us. They did not seek to honor God and one after another they died often at the hands of people close to them. The writer of kings takes us through all of these kings in this short space showing us how time after time after time no matter how the king intended to go they all fell short. None of them was the real king Israel and Judah needed. The real king they needed and we all need is Jesus. 

We explored the time when the kings of both Israel and Judah demonstrated halfway commitments to God. They either started out strong for the Lord and ended worshipping idols or they simply seemed to want God and idols too. It is a sad time in Israel of halfway commitments. People seem to be seeking for the Lord because of their oppression and God hears them and gives them relief but they continue to worship idols. God watching over them and watching out for them seems to have little or no impact on how they live or worship. And yet there is a warning here. A warning to honor God as God. Judah thought they could simply worship at the high places it would be fine. It was more convenient then going up to Jerusalem. Who cares that other idols are worshipped there. But God had established the temple and He had come to dwell there and establish His presence between the cherubim. He called on the people to come to Him and worship Him there. This was God’s plan. The worship of God is established by God and matters to God. These ideas or very relevant to us today. The worship of God still matters to God. He cares about how He is worshipped. He cares about the hearts of His people. He knows if our hearts have divided loyalties. The reason He wants His people to be fully committed to Him is because we were created for fellowship with God and being in that place of worship and fellowship is the best thing for us. 

We worked our way through the lives of some of Jehu’s descendants as they ruled over Israel. We also witnessed the last acts of Elisha as he wrapped up his ministry and died. The descendants of Jehu were very much like their father. They seemed to have a certain type of zeal and regard for Yahweh but they continued to worship the golden calves and other false gods. It is a tragic act of disobedience as they show only a half way commitment to God. But the reality is a halfway commitment is not an act of faith. We saw in the story of Joash a real sorrow at the sickness of Elisha. He weeps when he goes to visit him. But his compassion does not translate into a greater commitment to God. Elisha gives him a prophecy about his future conflicts with Syria. He uses a bow and arrows to speak of the victories which will come. We also see a brief story about how a man’s body is quickly tossed into the tomb where Elisha’s body lay. The dead man came into contact with Elisha’s dead body and God brought him back to life. This combined with the victories Joash received after Elisha died was a testimony to the people of how God was working even though Elisha and Elijah were gone. This resurrection foreshadows the greater and better resurrection which happened when Jesus died. His death was different in that He was perfect and did not deserve death. Jesus died to bear God’s wrath against our sin so that we could be set free from the eternal damnation which we rightfully deserve. When Jesus died He broke the power of death over saints who had died around Jerusalem. The Bible tells us many came forth from the grave. It is a testimony to the completeness of the work Jesus did on our behalf. Death could no longer keep men and women who were righteous in Jesus. Jesus Himself rose again the third day according to the scripture. We are the recipients of a clear and better understanding of the work of Jesus which was being foreshadowed in the events we see around Elisha’s life and death. 

We explored the chapter in kings dedicated to the reign of Joash. He started out intent of bringing glory to God. He called the priest to account about the state of disrepair in the temple and he followed through with working to bring about the repairs which needed to happen. The tragedy is how as he aged he drifted away from his fervency for God and the temple. He actually gets to the point where he has Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest killed for calling them to repent and return to the true worship of God. This is really shocking because Jehoiada was really the only one he would have known as a father and it was Jehoiada and his wife Jehosheba who saved Joash from being killed by Athaliah when she tried to wipe out the royal descendants of king David. Zechariah would have been the only person in his life who was essentially like a brother. This shows us how far Joash had moved away from God. He preferred his idolatry over the family which had saved him and raised him. In doing this Joash led all of Judah into idolatry. Joash started really well but ended terribly. The writer of Kings is covering both the kingdoms of Judah and Israel so those in exile might see how they both are under judgment and they both need to seek the Lord with all their hearts. 

There is a document which goes along with this live study. You can access it at https://www.livingwatercommunitychurch.info/depth-charge/ You will find a link to download the document there.
The Bible begins with the earth covered in water and darkness and it ends with no more night and no more sea. This is an in depth cover to cover overview of a major aspect of God's glory on display in the Bible in the person and work of Jesus. We will be grappling with questions like. Why did God allow evil to exist? Is the existence of evil a problem for God? Why doesn't God wipe away pain if He is all good and loving? How did Satan fall? Why did Jesus have to become a man? What does all of this mean for today and the future? If God is sovereign, how could this have happened? Does all of this really bring Him glory? You might be surprised by what you discover as we explore these major themes together. Come join an interactive discussion of these topics as we seek to see the glory of God on display.

we explored the story of how Joash (also called Jehoash in todays passage) was saved from the slaughter of Ahaziah’s descendants by Athaliah the queen mother. Athaliah attempted to wipe out the descendants of David and set herself up as the ruler over Judah. Jehosheba a daughter of the former king and sister to Ahaziah, who had been killed, took Joash and his nurse and hid them from Athaliah so he was not put to death. Athaliah reigned over Judah for 7 years. She was a wicked queen and she promoted the worship of Baal in Judah. During her reign Jehosheba and her husband Jehoiada the priest kept Joash hidden in the temple. When Joash was 7 years old Jehoiada gathered the captains of the Carites and the guards together and made a covenant with them and made them swear an oath and after this he showed them how he had beer raising Joash in secret. These commander along with Jehoiada the priest made plans to overthrow the wicked queen Athaliah and install Joash as king in her place. On the sabbath they gathered all the guardsmen and anointed Joash as king and killed Athaliah. The people of the land showed their support for this by going to the temple of Baal and tearing it down and destroying the altars and images and killing the priest who served there. The people of the land rejoiced over Athaliah being put to death, and Joash began to reign. This is a critically important story for the people in exile to be reminded of. It is significant because the attempt by Athaliah to cut off the descendants of David was an attempt to destroy the promise of God that He would establish the throne of David forever. But God ensured a royal descendant was saved from destruction. Joash went on to father other sons who took the throne after him. His line of descendants continued all the way to Joseph who became the adoptive father of Jesus. This story is a reminder of how God is always faithful to do all He has promised He will do. To the people in exile this had to be a great reminder of how they could trust God in the midst of their captivity.

we explored the last events recorded for us in the life of Jehu the king of Israel. His last recorded act is in his words to show his zeal for the Lord. He meets Jehonadab and invites him to come along as he sets out to demonstrate his zeal. On arriving in Samaria he kills the rest of those who were still connected to Ahab. Then he announces to the people he wants to have a solemn assembly for Baal. Word is sent out to gather all the worshippers and priests of Baal. Anyone who was committed to Baal and failed to come would be put to death. They were all given special garments and brought into the temple of Baal where Jehu begins a sacrifice. After the sacrifice was finished he left and 80 soldiers slaughtered all the assembled worshippers and priests of Baal. They them destroyed the temple and turned it into a toilet. This desecrated the area ensuring no one would ever try to rebuild that temple. While Jehu does all these things which God wanted such as the destruction of the family of Ahab and the wiping out of Baal worship, he failed to destroy the golden calves. God granted Jehu a promise of four generations of his descendants on the throne of Israel because of his acts which were in keeping with what God wanted. But his continued support of the golden calf worship was a sin which hampered him and continued to hamper Israel. In his time God used Hazael of Syria to begin to take land away from Israel. Hazael ended up conquering 25%-30% of the land during Jehu’s reign. This was God’s judgement on Jehu and Israel for their continuing to worship false gods. We wrapped things up by considering how the true church today in America has come to be similar to Jehu in that we are good at many of the things which are pleasing to God but we are much like the church in Ephesus in that we need to return to a passionate love for God. It very much could be the decline we are seeing in the church in America has much to do with our failure to love God with all our hearts. The church really needs to repent and return to its first love.

we explored the story of Jehu going to Jezreel to challenge Joram for the kingship of Israel. When Joram thought it was Jehu he rode out to meet him in his chariot. He asked Jehu if it was a message of peace he brought since he had been at the front lines of their battle in Ramoth-gilead. Jehu’s response was, “What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?” Joram and Ahaziah who was with him reigned in their chariots and headed toward Jezreel because they realized Jehu was intent on opposing them. Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram through the heart. He died in his chariot and Jehu had him tossed onto the land of Naboth’s vineyard. Remembering Elijah’s prophecy about the coming death of Ahab’s heirs Jehu pronounced how prophecy was being fulfilled. He then pursued Ahaziah and shot him with an arrow in his chariot as well. Ahaziah fled to Megiddo and died there and his servants came and took his body to the city of David and buried it there. Jehu entered Jezreel and Jezebel called down to him from a balcony at the palace. Jehu asked if any of the servants were with him to cast her down. 3 of the eunuchs cast her down and she died and was eaten by dogs. This again was called out by Jehu as a fulfillment of prophecy. He sent word to Samaria about the 70 sons of Ahab who were living there. He told them to make one of them king and prepare for battle. The leaders of Samaria sent word back to Jehu that they would do whatever he asked them to. He told them to bring the heads of all of Ahab’s sons to him in Jezreel the next day. They did as he asked and killed all of Ahab’s sons. He then pointed out how the eradication of Ahab’s family was a fulfillment of another prophecy from Elijah. The house of Ahab was brought to a complete end under the rulership of Jehu. It is a brutal story but a story which reminds us how God is in control and accomplishes what He sets out to accomplish. In this case we see God raise up the man who has the determination to do the things which must be done to eradicate the line of Ahab.

We worked our way through the first 16 verses of chapter 9. In this section we see Elisha providing the final fulfillment of God’s command to Elijah to anoint Elisha in his place, to anoint Hazael as king over Syria and to anoint Jehu as king over Israel. As our story opens Elisha commissions a son of the prophets to take a flask of oil to Ramoth-gilead and anoint Jehu as king over Israel in a private ceremony, and then leave with haste. This son of the prophets does exactly what Elisha instructs him to do, and Jehu is anointed as king. When Jehu comes from the inner room and encounters his fellow commanders they ask what has happened and his response is you know the fellow and what he said. This statement indicates Jehu thinks they are in on it and it may be a set-up or joke. Their response however dispels this idea because they tell Jehu they don’t know what has happened. Jehu then tells them the man has anointed him in the Lord’s name as king over Israel. The military commanders who were present removed their cloaks and put them on the steps under Jehu. Then they blew the trumpet and declared him as king of Israel. Jehu then makes plans to go to Jezreel and confront Joram the current king. He gets in his chariot and heads out. 

We are turning our attention to what properly might be called the mechanics of prayer. We continued our study of prayer by looking at the how people in the Bible focused on God’s actions as a basis for engaging with Him in prayer. We looked at a bunch of passages where we see prayers or praise rooted in things like His love, faithfulness, and judgements which are cast against His creation. His love extends to the heavens. His love is like the mountains of God. His judgements are like the great deep. What we see again and again is the writers of scripture taking the time to think about God and His works and actions in ways that a vivid to our imagination. This kind of thinking can begin to infuse our own prayers with a deeper sense of connection and awe as we engage our imagination in the pursuit of God in prayer. 

We explored the lives of the descendants of Jehoshaphat. They knew the promises of God because of their father Jehoshaphat. They were supposed to lead the people in following God but instead they led the people away from the Lord. This resulted in the judgement of God. Jehoshaphat’s son married the daughter of Ahab, and began to follow the sinful path of the people of Israel. Edom revolted from their rule and set up their own king. Joram went down with an army to quell the rebellion and was routed by the Edomites and had to flee. Libnah which was one of the cities of the Levites rebelled and separated from following Joram as well. Joram did not live long and Ahaziah his son reigned over Judah. He also led the people of Judah in the path of the house of Ahab king of Israel. The king of Israel was wounded in a battle with Hazael the king of Syria and Ahaziah went to see him in Jezreel while he was recovering. This is where we ended the last time. 

We looked at two stories at the beginning of chapter 8 which show us how God orchestrates all things. The first story demonstrates God taking care of those who are His. The wealthy woman of Shunam whose son had been raised from the dead returned to the land of Israel to find her property had been taken over during a time of famine. She went to the king to plead her case and Elisha’s servant was with the king recounting the works of Elisha. He had just talked to the king of this woman and her son’s resurrection when she appeared in the court to plead her case for the property. The king heard her story and granted her the property back as well as the revenue generated from the property while she was gone. We would typically call things like this a coincidence. But there is no such thing. God is working behind the scenes to direct people and even conversation to provide for the needs of His people. The second situation involved Hazael a commander who served king Ben-hadad of Syria. Ben-hadad had been sick and sent Hazael with a gift to inquire of Elisha if he would recover from his sickness. Elisha told Hazael his master would recover but he would certainly die. Then he began to weep for the evil he knew Hazael would do to Israel. Eventually Elisha told Hazael that the Lord had revealed he would become king of Syria. This of course happened the next day when Hazael smothered Ben-hadad and claimed the throne for himself. Here we see God raising up a wicked king to destruction and suffering on Israel as a judgement on them for turning their backs on God. Again there are no supernatural miracles here but a clear declaration of God ordering the events of men to bring about the culmination of His plan. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord.