{"id":4823,"date":"2023-06-15T21:21:01","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T02:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4823"},"modified":"2023-06-15T21:21:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T02:21:01","slug":"devotional-on-2-kings-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-2-kings-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 2 Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-FR6gdBSBv8Q\/XooDrNs3jJI\/AAAAAAABEiM\/ZaEaG2y2VfIpIvGSBMmr5cGvZ8uiawuSwCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/IMG_6097.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2017 &#8211; Black Hills, SD &#8211; Scenic Drives &#8211; Mt Rushmore in the distance<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nGod on the world stage<br \/>\n2Kings 19: Did it never occur to you that I&#8217;m behind all this?<br \/>\nIf Sennacherib&#8217;s threatening letter to Hezekiah is intended to frighten him, it&#8217;s a great success. However, in his fear Hezekiah runs, not away, but straight to God. Soon thereafter he receives an answer. As Hezekiah has spoken to God, now God has spoken to his man, Isaiah. Part of the message from God is directed to Hezekiah but part is addressed to Sennacherib, king of Assyria. God isn\u2019t pleased with him and he\u2019s about to take action against him. One of the statements in particular draws our attention today. God tells this powerful heathen king, this enemy of his people, that he\u2019s been using Sennacherib for his own purposes. This must have been seen by him as an unbelievably na\u00efve word out of Judah. Tiny and powerless Judah says that their God has been behind his military successes of this world superpower. It would have been absolutely laughable except for the fact that on that very night a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers die without Judah lifting a finger against them. Here are some things to consider. First, I see that God used a heathen king for his own purposes. Just because a nation has success in some area it doesn&#8217;t mean that God is smiling on them and is pleased with them. Second, God moves quite comfortably in the international arena. As one of his people I need to be careful I don&#8217;t play, to use a baseball term, &#8220;small ball&#8221; all the time. I serve a God who\u2019s interested in, and working through, events that are global in scale. Finally, no nation is bigger than God. Even if the whole world falls under the command of some conqueror, ultimately God remains Sovereign. Leaders of powerful nations had better remember that.<br \/>\nTake Away: Whether we recognize it or not the Lord is Sovereign; not only over our lives, but around the world and throughout the universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God on the world stage 2Kings 19: Did it never occur to you that I&#8217;m behind all this? If Sennacherib&#8217;s threatening letter to Hezekiah is intended to frighten him, it&#8217;s a great success. However, in his fear Hezekiah runs, not away, but straight to God. Soon thereafter he receives an answer. As Hezekiah has spoken [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1479,7],"tags":[117,433,547,643],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14505,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4823\/revisions\/14505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}