Four passages and a short devotional a day to take you through the whole Bible in one year — right alongside your Spirit Church family.
Real questions from Spirit readers on this passage, answered by our pastors.
Today the northern kingdom falls. Samaria is besieged, taken, and exiled, and the writer pauses for a whole chapter of holy autopsy: all this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God.
Then, against the darkness, a new Judean king is introduced with the Bible's best epitaph: Hezekiah trusted in the LORD... He held fast to the LORD and did not stop following him. Two roads, fully mapped. Choose the second.
Israel's fall was not one decision but a documented drift, secret compromises, ignored prophets, imitated neighbors, hardened necks, until exile arrived on schedule. And Hezekiah's greatness was equally undramatic: he trusted, he held fast, he did not stop following, verbs of grip rather than genius, even smashing a sacred relic the moment it became an idol.
Paul's farewell at Miletus is holding fast with a passport: life counted as nothing except finishing the race of testifying to grace. June closes here, half the year read. Take Hezekiah's verbs and Paul's resolve into July: trust, hold fast, keep following, keep testifying, and let nothing, not even good bronze, become a god.