September 22, 2025 • 29 mins
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:01):
you
Speaker 00 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
Monday Morning Coffee podcast.
On this podcast, our preacher,Mark Roberts, will help you get
your week started right with alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think through itfurther and better work the
applications into our dailylives.
(00:26):
Mark will then look forwardinto this week's Bible reading
so that we can know what toexpect and watch for.
And he may have some Extrabonus thoughts from time to
time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.
Speaker 01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
September the 22nd.
September the 22nd.
How is September going away sofast?
I'm Mark.
I'm holding a really great cupof coffee, and it is a great cup
of coffee.
Carson's Coffee Roastery, thelittle roastery that me and a
good brother in Christ areworking on, working with, and
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doing some coffee roasting with.
We managed to get our hands onsome Chinese coffee.
I'm not even making that up.
I'm not making that up.
I didn't even know they grewcoffee in China, but This is
pretty good coffee.
I would say this, it's mostcertainly not Folgers.
Hope that you are starting theweek in a really good way on
this Monday morning.
I hope that you have a good cupof coffee and that you've got
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your Bible ready to read over in2 Kings.
But let's think about thesermon yesterday, and then we'll
get everything going.
So, pour that cup of coffee.
Let's get ready.
Let's get set.
Let's go.
Unknown (01:45):
Let's go.
Speaker 01 (01:46):
Yesterday, I preached again in the preaching
theme this year, on thepreaching theme this year,
questions Jesus asked from Markchapter 10 this time.
Mark chapter 10 and verse 51,when Jesus asked blind
Bartimaeus, what do you want meto do for you?
I really like the preachingtheme this year.
It's been great to work withthese questions.
Sometimes we think about thequestions we want to ask Jesus.
(02:07):
It's been great to see whatJesus focuses on and what Jesus
asks.
And I wonder, here's a bonusnote from yesterday's sermon, I
wonder if anyone else thoughtabout the importance importance
of saying something out loud.
Bartimaeus, I nearly saidBarnabas, nope, it's Bartimaeus,
Bartimaeus needs to articulatewhat he wants from Jesus.
And in some ways, maybe, thatseems almost absurd.
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You know, come on, Jesus, I'mblind.
What do you think I want fromyou?
But there is power in speaking.
A lot of passages in the Bibletalk about the mouth.
If you confess with your mouth,Paul says in Romans chapter 10,
saying it out loud just provesextra oomph behind it.
It makes us own it.
And I wonder if sometimes thatcouldn't help us in our praying,
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and especially when we confessour sins to the Father.
If you need forgiveness ofsins, say so.
And maybe think about saying itout loud to your Father in
prayer.
We can pray silently.
There's no question about that,no doubt about that.
But sometimes we may find thatit helps us a little bit to hold
on to those great promises offorgiveness just a little better
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because we have been clear andhonest about what we need from
the Father, and we said it outloud.
If Jesus asks you, what do youwant me to do for you?
And the answer is, I need youto forgive my sins, then say it.
Go ahead and say it.
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And let's think now about dailyBible reading.
Open your Bible to 2 Kings 23.
Welcome to Monday.
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Monday's reading is 2 Kingschapter 23, verses 21 to 37, and
there is plenty for us to workwith in our reading today.
To start with, Josiah restoresthe Passover in verses 21 to 27.
This is an impressivecelebration, and while I think
the compliment in verse 25 is astrong compliment, I don't
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expect we should take thatliterally, but it is an amazing
Passover.
Hezekiah's Passover lasted twoweeks, but at Josiah's Passover,
the people offered almost twiceas many sacrifices.
And this does seem to representhis serious dedication and
devotion to the Lord.
There's more about this in 2Chronicles chapter 35.
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If you have time, you mightstep over there and read some of
that.
But God's wrath is still goingto focus upon the people.
Verses 26 and 27 say somethingabout that.
And I'll probably deal withthis a little bit more tomorrow
in our reading in chapter 24.
But I think a big key here isthat the people don't seem very
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penitent.
They don't seem to be whollyconverted.
Josiah makes them serve theLord, but there is an anxiety
and a wishfulness here foridolatry, which will return in
short order, I'm sorry to say.
The outward acts are good, butapparently this is a very
external restoration.
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Jeremiah chapter 3 verses 6 to10 may help us some there.
Then shockingly, Josiah ends updead.
In verses 28 to 30, Josiahdies.
Now, let me give you a littlebackground here.
Ashurbanipal died in 626 BC,and the Assyrian Empire began to
collapse.
By 625, Nabopolassar had gainedindependence for Babylon.
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Babylon's coming on.
Assyria is declining.
And in fact, in 612, Ninevehfell to a coalition of the
Chaldeans and the Medes.
Now, in the help Assyria,probably trying to use that as
an excuse to gain world power.
And I wonder here if Josiah ispitching in with the Babylonians
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because he's thinking a weakBabylon way over there is a
whole lot better than a strongEgypt on my doorstep.
Maybe he's trying to maintainindependence here.
Josiah's motivation here, onescholar says, must have been
that anything bad for Assyriawas good for Israel.
But there is no evidence thatJosiah was in any way formally
allied with Babylon.
However, he goes out to stopPharaoh Necho and that ends up
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badly.
In fact, in 2 Chronicles 35 and22, Necho claims he had a
message from God which Josiaheither ignored or maybe he
didn't understand or he didn'tbelieve that it really was from
God.
We don't know whether Necho wasjust saying something to get
Josiah out of his way.
The Chronicles account soundssort of like maybe Pharaoh Necho
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had a word from God.
I guess the answer to that isJosiah should have asked a
prophet.
Jeremiah is on the scene.
Ask Jeremiah, should I go intobattle?
And the message in Jeremiah, infact, the message in all of the
prophets at this time is don'tget involved in international
affairs.
Don't get involved ininternational politics.
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Stay home, serve the Lord, dowhat's right.
Josiah rolls into battle, paysfor it with his life.
The rest of the chapter thencovers the reign of Jehoahaz,
who's also known as Shalem inverses 31 to 33.
And then Jehoiakim in verses 34on into chapter 24.
And here, I think we probablysee why Josiah was opposing
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Egypt.
Israel and Egypt are notfriends.
And so as Pharaoh Necho comeshome from the battle, he grabs
Jehoahaz, puts him in bonds,verse 33, takes a bunch of
silver and gold, and sticksEliakim, verse 34, on the
throne.
So he's an Egyptian vassal atthis point in his reign.
His name is changed toJehoakim, and Jehoahaz
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disappears in Egypt.
Jehoiakim has a long reign.
He reigns, let's see here if Ican do the math, for about,
excuse me, let me have a littlecoffee here, make this work,
about 11 years.
from 609 to 598.
And that breaks down into threeparts.
From 609 to 604, he is a vassalfor the Egyptians.
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And then in 605 to 601, he's aBabylonian vassal.
And then in 601 to 598, he's inrevolt and ends up, yeah,
revolting against theBabylonians never ends well for
anybody.
So that's his reign, and we'llpick up more about him as we
talk about what he's doing and,in fact, that he's not doing
what's right when we read intochapter 24.
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But today's reading, Monday'sreading, is 2 Kings 23 verses 21
to 37.
It's Tuesday.
It is Tuesday and today we read2 Kings chapter 24, the entire
chapter.
2 Kings 24 does bring us to theend of our journey.
Hezekiah's reforms have beenruined by Manasseh.
Manasseh and Ammon bringidolatry right into the temple,
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in fact.
Josiah makes many reforms, butas I mentioned yesterday,
Jeremiah's writings particularlyshow us that people's hearts
had not been changed.
So when Josiah dies, thekingdom disintegrates
spiritually and and politically.
Let me give you a couple ofdates here.
Some of this is helpful towrite in your Bible just to have
handy, maybe to get some fix onwhere we are in relationship,
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for example, to the NewTestament.
In 612, 612, 612, Nineveh fallsbecause the Assyrian empire is
collapsing.
And then in 609, Babylondefeats an Assyrian-Egyptian
alliance.
That's the battle where Josiahgets killed trying to stop the
Egyptians from getting to thatbattle.
The Egyptians are unable tomake any headway, and they end
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up withdrawing.
So finally then in 605, at theBattle of Carchemish, Babylon
whips everybody and establishesitself as the ruling power.
And this is the battle that'smentioned in 2 Kings 24 verse 7
in our reading today.
Then what we get is a series ofrevolts against Babylonian
power under these differentJudean kings.
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So in 605, Babylon makes itsfirst appearance, making Judah a
vassal state of Babylon, takingit from the Egyptians, and and
that's when Daniel and hisfriends go into captivity.
Then in 597, there is a revolt,and so there's conquest, and
there's the deportation ofthousands and thousands,
including Ezekiel being takeninto Babylonian captivity.
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And then there's another revoltin 586, and that's when the
city is absolutely destroyed,and the temple is burned down.
So those dates help us get afix on where we are, and our
reading today starts withNebuchadnezzar arriving in 605,
and he is triumphant.
He has won at Carchemish.
and the world bows at the feetof the Babylonians.
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And Kings begins to use phraseslike in his days to introduce
these invasions because Judeankings are no longer important.
They don't establish anything.
If you want to date something,you have to date it off the
world powers that are currentlyrunning the show.
And while Nebuchadnezzar maynot have been able to
immediately act againstJehoiakim, verse 2, because
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there were some marauding bands,he will send some raiders and
so forth, but eventually he willget there and he will take over
according to the word of theLord.
Verse 2, he takes over and sofrom now on everything looks
east to Babylon and they arepaying tribute to Babylon.
Joachim seems to have foolishlythought the Egyptians would
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help him.
That's a running theme in thebook of Jeremiah and of course
they do not.
The king of Egypt, verse 7, didnot come again out of the land.
Now I've been askedspecifically about verses 3 and
4.
This came upon Judah at What'sthe deal?
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Would not pardon.
What's that all about?
There's a couple of pieces tothat.
Some of that is punishment hadbeen decreed and God must keep
his word.
God delayed that because ofJosiah and his righteousness, so
God didn't want to do that.
But now that there's wholesalewickedness going on, there isn't
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any point in delay that anyfurther.
And I think a huge piece ofthis is Jehovah would not pardon
because why?
They wouldn't ask.
They wouldn't seek him and ask.
In fact, the New InternationalVersion has, the Lord was not
willing to forgive, which is aterrible translation.
I would take very sharp issuewith that.
That acts like a bunch ofpeople were petitioning God for
forgiveness and the Lord was,oh, I'm not forgiving you
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people.
The Lord wanted to forgive.
Look what happened with Josiah.
Look what happened during thetime of Josiah.
The issue here is no one'sasking because they're all busy
serving idol gods.
They're all busy servingeverybody but Jehovah.
So there's no asking andthere's no pardon when there is
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no asking, which takes us thento Jehoiachin in verse 8.
He was 18 years old when hebecame king.
Now, this is difficult to keepstraight.
We got Jehoiachin and thenJehoiachin.
If somebody has a mnemonic tohelp me with that, wow, you're
welcome to suggest that.
I would love to have some ofthat.
And I think about what a timefor him to get to the throne.
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This is 597, and there's aBabylonian invasion breathing
down your neck.
He's probably the one that'sknown as Jeconiah in some other
places in Scripture, and thereare a ton of archaeological
records of this invasion,notably the Babylonian
Chronicle.
And if you look at verse 12,Jehoiachin, the king of Judah,
gave himself up to the king ofBabylon.
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His servants and his palaceofficials, the king of Babylon,
took him prisoner in the eighthyear of his reign.
They There it is again, thisidea of dating things off
foreign kings because they areabsolutely in charge.
And there has been somearchaeology done that unearthed
hundreds of receipts for oilissued in Babylon, and the name
Jehoiachin appears on three ofthem along with the title King
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of Judah.
And so you get a good look hereat the kind of people who are
taken captive.
Ezekiel went because this is atime when nobles and princes are
being taken, and finallyZedekiah is set up on the king.
Jehoiakim reigned approximately11 years.
All of that is bad.
He persecuted the prophets.
He's the guy that burned theword of God.
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Jeremiah wrote out this longletter from God, and they would
read it to the king, and afterthey read some of it, he'd reach
over with his pocket knife andslice off from the scroll what
had been read and throw it inthe fire.
He's a disaster.
He is absolutely a disaster,and Zedekiah is not much better.
Zedekiah is not not muchbetter.
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And maybe the thing to hold onto here, verse 19, Zedekiah did
what was evil on the side of theLord.
How is that possible?
How is that possible when Godis bringing all kinds of
terrible judgments on them?
Even this deportation of somany thousands of people off to
Babylon doesn't change theirhearts.
These people don't want God,and God will evict them from His
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land.
How about that?
So, Westsiders, we do have aZoom call tonight, and I'm
excited about it because intonight's Zoom call, we'll step
away from Bible reading.
I haven't made all thedecisions about everything.
We'll probably still do ourdaily Bible reading from 2 Kings
24, but what we really want tofocus on tonight is the book of
Habakkuk.
Habakkuk, in all likelihood, isspeaking during this time,
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during these Babylonianinvasions, during the
Babylonians showing up, 605-597.
And Habakkuk has some hardquestions to ask of God about
why this is happening and howthis is happening and what
should I do during this time.
We want to talk about the bookof Habakkuk tonight in Zoom.
See you tonight, Westsiders, onthe Zoom call and the rest of
you, I'll see you on the podcasttomorrow.
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It's Wednesday.
It's Wednesday and we'rereading 2 Kings chapter 25.
What a dismal chapter this isand indeed brings us to the end
of the book of Kings.
In the ninth year of his reign,2 Kings 25, 1, in the 10th
month, on the 10th day of themonth, Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, came with all his armyagainst Jerusalem and laid siege
to it.
This is the story of the end ofthe Judean kings and of
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Jerusalem and even the temple.
There are six episodes that arerecounted here.
You can outline this chaptervery easily.
The siege that begins on the10th month on the 10th day is
actually the result ofdestroying all the other
fortresses on the way toJerusalem.
Lachish, Ezekiah, and otherswere absolutely reduced to
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rubble.
So, for example, there'swriting here about the burning
of lakish, whatever wood theycould lay hand on, they dragged
to the spot, stripping the wholearea around lakish of its
forest in thickets.
Countless olive groves werehacked down for this purpose.
In fact, the layer of ashescontains masses of charred olive
stones.
Day and night, sheets of flamesleaped sky high, a ring of fire
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licking the walls from top tobottom.
The besieging forces piled onmore and more until the white
hot stones burst and the wallscaved in.
Can Can you imagine being inLachish and that kind of thing
happening, seeing the smoke risefrom the fires around your
walls, knowing what waits whenthe walls finally collapse?
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And Jeremiah, of course, is theprophet during this time.
He had counseled Zedekiah andhis officers to surrender to
Nebuchadnezzar to save the cityand the temple.
Jeremiah chapter 21, forexample, Jeremiah chapter 38,
but they refused to obey God'sword.
And the reading in Jeremiahhelps us know that Zedekiah was
a terribly weak king, justawful.
awful, just awful.
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He refuses to do what's right,but he keeps consulting with
Jeremiah, sometimes in secretbecause he is afraid to be seen
with Jeremiah.
It's terrible.
At one point, he has Jeremiahcast into a cistern where
Jeremiah would have died if somepeople hadn't helped him.
This is a terrible time, and ofcourse, this siege that goes on
for so long would have beenjust absolutely unbearably
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awful.
The suffering that must begoing on in the city when it
takes all this time, the siegebegins in the 11th year, and
then it goes on The ninth day ofthe fourth month, the famine,
verse 3, is so severe that therewas no food for the people.
Finally, there's a breach madein the wall, and they run away.
What a bunch of cowards, verse4.
The king and the army try tobreak out and get out of there
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and leave all the people behind.
They're headed to the Dead SeaDesert to hide.
You remember David hid fromSaul down in the Dead Sea
Desert, the ravines and canyonsand caves.
This is the only way Zedekiahis like David.
He is a coward, and he is noleader of men, and he doesn't
care for God at all.
And they are captured, ofcourse, and the result then is
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that the temple is burned.
Verse 9, the Talmud says theBabylonians desecrated the
temple with the two-day feastand burned it on the third day
and that the fire burned for twoentire days.
And then we get all this detailbeginning about verse 11, I'm
sorry, about verse 14 that tellsus about all the things that
they destroyed.
It's verse 13.
I'll get it right in a minute.
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More coffee is the answer tothis.
Verse 13 begins to give us thedetail, and in God's good
providence, I've been preachingabout the building of the temple
under King Solomon, and we'vetalked about how magnificent it
was, and here's the end of allof that.
It's burnt, melted down,destroyed.
It's just awful.
It's just absolutely awful.
And then, of course, verse 20and 21, there's even more death
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for the people who were leadingthe rebellion.
Gedaliah then is made thegovernor of Judah.
This is covered in Jeremiahchapter 40 and 41.
and he tells everybody, calmdown.
We're the people who are lefthere, and we're just going to do
right and serve God, and that'sbecause Jeremiah is counseling
them to do that, and of course,they don't listen to Jeremiah,
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and Gedalia ends up beingassassinated.
The Babylonians hate that kindof thing because now there's
anarchy and chaos and so forth,and the people panic when that
happens, and even thoughJeremiah tells them don't, they
ask Jeremiah, ask God, should werun off to Egypt?
And Jeremiah says, I will tellyou what God says, and they say,
we We are going to listen toyou, Jeremiah.
This is Jeremiah 42, and thenJeremiah says, don't go to
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Egypt.
God does not want you to go toEgypt.
God never wants his people togo to Egypt.
He brought them out of Egypt,and what do they do?
Yep, they up and go to Egypt.
A bunch of faithless people whorefuse to do what's right.
But finally, there is a littlelight at the end of the tunnel.
Jehoiachin, verses 27 to 30, iscovered here.
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This takes us to about 561 whenevil Merodach releases
Jehoiachin.
And one scholar says, what hadbeen a note of dark despair is
illuminated by the light ofGod's gracious concern for his
own.
Jehoiachin's release andrenewed enjoyment of life stands
as a harbinger of a futurerelease and the return of the
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nations in accord with God'spromise.
There is, by the way,archaeological evidence that
confirms Jehoiachin's existence.
And I should say this, it'smore than just the harbinger of
good things for the nation.
We are reminded God's promiseto Abraham in Genesis chapter 12
and God's promise to David in 2Samuel 7 depends upon the
Judeans not being exterminated,completely rubbed out, erased
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off the planet because theMessiah is going to come from
them and they are not all goneand not all the Davidic kings
are gone.
There is hope.
There is hope for the future.
This is where the book ofLamentations fits, by the way.
If you have additional time,read the book of Lamentations.
Our reading for Wednesday 2Kings 25.
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Welcome to Thursday, and it mayseem like it's Friday.
I guess there's nothing wrongwith getting to the weekend
faster, but it is just Thursday,even though we are reading in
the Psalms.
Today we are reading Psalm 41.
This is a beautiful psalm, apowerful psalm.
We actually read this psalm inweek 16.
It fit there perfectly withsome of the things going on in
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David's life, and it is, ofcourse, a psalm that is quoted
by Jesus, and at that time wedid jump over to the Gospel of
John and read John 13, whereJesus makes use of this psalm.
Today we'll just work along andtalk about about how this psalm
helps us see ourselves and tosee the Lord.
It is kind of a wisdom song.
I think the first three verseshave a wisdom introduction to
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them.
And then there's a cry for helpin verses 4 to 10.
That's a lament.
And then there is thanksgiving,being thankful for God's
deliverance.
And it does seem to have beenwritten at a time when David was
under great strain and greatdifficulty.
And maybe some of that ordealis over.
And as he reflects on it, hediscovers some things about
himself and about the So verse1, Now remember, we think of the
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poor in a very different waythan people would have in
David's day.
In David's day, and in fact inNew Testament times, in Jesus'
time, being poor meant that youwere financially impoverished,
like starving to death.
It meant downtrodden, on thebottom of society's ladder, no
hope, no recourse, no chance foranything better.
There is no welfare,unemployment, Social Security,
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no Medicare.
None of that is helping thosekinds of people.
Our definition of poor today isvery different than the
definition of poor used in theBible.
And I would not, the Lordprotects him, verse 2, and keeps
him alive.
The Lord sustains him, verse 3,on his sickbed.
I would not take these promisesliterally.
This is not guaranteeing youthat if you become an advocate
for the downtrodden, you'llnever be sick.
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This is just David describingthe kind of person that God will
deliver because this is thekind of person who cares about
God, who has God's agenda uponhis heart, who wants to do
what's right.
And so God wants to bless thatkind of person and use that kind
of person in his service.
And though it seems like Davidmay be sick here, it's not
enough that he's just goingthrough sickness and trouble.
Verses 4 to 10 show that he hasenemies circling him like
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buzzards waiting for him to die,or maybe more likely like
sharks circling him trying toget after him.
Notice verse 4 and verse 10both open and end with a request
for God's grace here, and thesebad visitors say things like,
when he die, will his nameperish?
That's a disaster if you're aJew, if you're an Israelite,
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because then your land gets outof the family.
You can't have that happen.
And verse 9 may reference thetrusted friend Ahithophel, who's
one of David's best and mosttrusted counselors, yet he
joined Absalom's rebellion, asyou remember.
And Jesus does make use of thatin the Last Supper as he speaks
of Judas Iscariot.
So, this psalm helps us seesome things about ourselves, the
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kind of person that we need tobe, and the kind of person that
God will bless and that Godwants to hear from, the kind of
person that God will deliverfrom Verse 11, by this I know
you delight in me.
My enemy will not shout andtriumph over me, but you have
upheld me because of myintegrity and set me in your
presence forever.
That final verse, verse 13, isthe closing benediction to the
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first collection of Psalms, thefirst book of Psalms, Psalms 1
to 41.
Our reading for Thursday isPsalm 41.
It is Friday.
It is Friday, and today we readthe 9th Psalm.
Today we're reading the 9thPsalm.
This seems to me to be veryappropriately placed in our
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reading schedule.
I'm looking at verse 7.
The Lord sits enthronedforever.
He has established His thronefor justice.
Verse 8, He judges the worldwith righteousness.
He judges the peoples withuprightness.
It's easy in this reading thatwe've been doing about
Babylonian power and might.
They just smash Jerusalem, killeverybody, and drag the rest
off into slavery.
I guess you can't drag peopleoff into slavery if you kill
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every They kill most everybody,okay, and drag the rest off into
slavery.
And it's easy to be impressedwith Babylonian power, but it's
important that we hold on to whothe true king of the earth is
and that we understand who sitsenthroned forever, and that is
the Lord.
Probably the most importantissue to acquaint you with when
you're reading the 9th Psalm isdoes it belong to the 10th
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Psalm?
Both of these psalms areacrostic psalms, and of course
that means sometimes an acrosticpsalm is kind of jumpy because
the writer needs to get anotherline that matches the letter of
the alphabet that he's on.
These acrostic psalms, if youwill, go A, B, C, D, of course
in Hebrew, not in English.
And so it's hard to outlinethese, but both Psalm 9 and
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Psalm 10 are acrostics.
And in the Septuagint, they arebound together as one psalm.
And the 10th Psalm doesn't havea title, which is pretty
unusual in this early part ofthe psalms.
So some people think they gotogether.
However, they don't dealprecisely with the same theme.
Psalm 10 is concerned with thewicked man.
Psalm 9 is different.
It's much morecommunity-oriented.
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You take a look at that and seewhat you think about that.
Maybe read both of these psalmstoday.
I love these I wills in verses1 and 2.
Despite some difficulties andsome problems, I will do this,
and that gives me confidence,verse 3, confidence and
anticipation that God will act.
And again, the heart of thepsalm is verse 7.
(27:01):
The throne of the Lord lastsforever, and these enemies will
not.
The ground of all hope is thatour God is sovereign.
He is the king of kings.
He is the one who is ruling.
And I do like verse 15 whereyou get this boomerang effect of
evil here.
Bad things will come backaround on bad people.
They dig a pit and they're theones that fall in it.
They spread the net.
(27:22):
It catches them.
And verse 17 says somethingabout Sheol.
The New King James here hashell and that's a terrible
translation.
This is just the idea of thegrave death and the idea that
you're going down into death,which is not clearly everything
about the afterlife is notclearly understood in the Old
Testament, so this is the worstthing that could happen to you.
(27:42):
But an understanding of helland heaven is simply not in this
psalm.
And I do like how the victoryhere is viewed as an
accomplished fact.
True trust in God looks uponwickedness and says, you know
what?
That'll never last.
I'm not joining up with that.
That will be brought down.
I don't want to be with thelosers.
Things can't continue as theyare because God is at work, and
(28:05):
evil like this will be broughtto an end.
What an important thing to tothink about at a time when we've
just read about the templebeing burned or a time when we
look around us and see openhostility to Christian faith.
Don't give up.
Don't give in.
Evil will be put down.
Our reading for Friday, Psalm9.
That concludes the podcast forthe week.
(28:27):
I certainly do appreciate youlistening to the podcast.
I hope you'll share it withothers, tell more people about
it so it will help them withtheir daily Bible reading.
I look forward then to seeingyou on Monday when we'll open
our Bibles together again.
I'm Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come too.
See you Monday with a cup ofcoffee.
Speaker 00 (28:54):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ podcast, Monday MorningCoffee with Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, 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
(29:19):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again, with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
you
Speaker 00 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
Monday Morning Coffee podcast.
On this podcast, our preacher,Mark Roberts, will help you get
your week started right with alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think through itfurther and better work the
applications into our dailylives.
(00:26):
Mark will then look forwardinto this week's Bible reading
so that we can know what toexpect and watch for.
And he may have some Extrabonus thoughts from time to
time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.
Speaker 01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
September the 22nd.
September the 22nd.
How is September going away sofast?
I'm Mark.
I'm holding a really great cupof coffee, and it is a great cup
of coffee.
Carson's Coffee Roastery, thelittle roastery that me and a
good brother in Christ areworking on, working with, and
(01:12):
doing some coffee roasting with.
We managed to get our hands onsome Chinese coffee.
I'm not even making that up.
I'm not making that up.
I didn't even know they grewcoffee in China, but This is
pretty good coffee.
I would say this, it's mostcertainly not Folgers.
Hope that you are starting theweek in a really good way on
this Monday morning.
I hope that you have a good cupof coffee and that you've got
(01:33):
your Bible ready to read over in2 Kings.
But let's think about thesermon yesterday, and then we'll
get everything going.
So, pour that cup of coffee.
Let's get ready.
Let's get set.
Let's go.
Unknown (01:45):
Let's go.
Speaker 01 (01:46):
Yesterday, I preached again in the preaching
theme this year, on thepreaching theme this year,
questions Jesus asked from Markchapter 10 this time.
Mark chapter 10 and verse 51,when Jesus asked blind
Bartimaeus, what do you want meto do for you?
I really like the preachingtheme this year.
It's been great to work withthese questions.
Sometimes we think about thequestions we want to ask Jesus.
(02:07):
It's been great to see whatJesus focuses on and what Jesus
asks.
And I wonder, here's a bonusnote from yesterday's sermon, I
wonder if anyone else thoughtabout the importance importance
of saying something out loud.
Bartimaeus, I nearly saidBarnabas, nope, it's Bartimaeus,
Bartimaeus needs to articulatewhat he wants from Jesus.
And in some ways, maybe, thatseems almost absurd.
(02:29):
You know, come on, Jesus, I'mblind.
What do you think I want fromyou?
But there is power in speaking.
A lot of passages in the Bibletalk about the mouth.
If you confess with your mouth,Paul says in Romans chapter 10,
saying it out loud just provesextra oomph behind it.
It makes us own it.
And I wonder if sometimes thatcouldn't help us in our praying,
(02:52):
and especially when we confessour sins to the Father.
If you need forgiveness ofsins, say so.
And maybe think about saying itout loud to your Father in
prayer.
We can pray silently.
There's no question about that,no doubt about that.
But sometimes we may find thatit helps us a little bit to hold
on to those great promises offorgiveness just a little better
(03:13):
because we have been clear andhonest about what we need from
the Father, and we said it outloud.
If Jesus asks you, what do youwant me to do for you?
And the answer is, I need youto forgive my sins, then say it.
Go ahead and say it.
(03:33):
And let's think now about dailyBible reading.
Open your Bible to 2 Kings 23.
Welcome to Monday.
(03:58):
Monday's reading is 2 Kingschapter 23, verses 21 to 37, and
there is plenty for us to workwith in our reading today.
To start with, Josiah restoresthe Passover in verses 21 to 27.
This is an impressivecelebration, and while I think
the compliment in verse 25 is astrong compliment, I don't
(04:18):
expect we should take thatliterally, but it is an amazing
Passover.
Hezekiah's Passover lasted twoweeks, but at Josiah's Passover,
the people offered almost twiceas many sacrifices.
And this does seem to representhis serious dedication and
devotion to the Lord.
There's more about this in 2Chronicles chapter 35.
(04:39):
If you have time, you mightstep over there and read some of
that.
But God's wrath is still goingto focus upon the people.
Verses 26 and 27 say somethingabout that.
And I'll probably deal withthis a little bit more tomorrow
in our reading in chapter 24.
But I think a big key here isthat the people don't seem very
(05:00):
penitent.
They don't seem to be whollyconverted.
Josiah makes them serve theLord, but there is an anxiety
and a wishfulness here foridolatry, which will return in
short order, I'm sorry to say.
The outward acts are good, butapparently this is a very
external restoration.
(05:21):
Jeremiah chapter 3 verses 6 to10 may help us some there.
Then shockingly, Josiah ends updead.
In verses 28 to 30, Josiahdies.
Now, let me give you a littlebackground here.
Ashurbanipal died in 626 BC,and the Assyrian Empire began to
collapse.
By 625, Nabopolassar had gainedindependence for Babylon.
(05:45):
Babylon's coming on.
Assyria is declining.
And in fact, in 612, Ninevehfell to a coalition of the
Chaldeans and the Medes.
Now, in the help Assyria,probably trying to use that as
an excuse to gain world power.
And I wonder here if Josiah ispitching in with the Babylonians
(06:06):
because he's thinking a weakBabylon way over there is a
whole lot better than a strongEgypt on my doorstep.
Maybe he's trying to maintainindependence here.
Josiah's motivation here, onescholar says, must have been
that anything bad for Assyriawas good for Israel.
But there is no evidence thatJosiah was in any way formally
allied with Babylon.
However, he goes out to stopPharaoh Necho and that ends up
(06:30):
badly.
In fact, in 2 Chronicles 35 and22, Necho claims he had a
message from God which Josiaheither ignored or maybe he
didn't understand or he didn'tbelieve that it really was from
God.
We don't know whether Necho wasjust saying something to get
Josiah out of his way.
The Chronicles account soundssort of like maybe Pharaoh Necho
(06:51):
had a word from God.
I guess the answer to that isJosiah should have asked a
prophet.
Jeremiah is on the scene.
Ask Jeremiah, should I go intobattle?
And the message in Jeremiah, infact, the message in all of the
prophets at this time is don'tget involved in international
affairs.
Don't get involved ininternational politics.
(07:13):
Stay home, serve the Lord, dowhat's right.
Josiah rolls into battle, paysfor it with his life.
The rest of the chapter thencovers the reign of Jehoahaz,
who's also known as Shalem inverses 31 to 33.
And then Jehoiakim in verses 34on into chapter 24.
And here, I think we probablysee why Josiah was opposing
(07:34):
Egypt.
Israel and Egypt are notfriends.
And so as Pharaoh Necho comeshome from the battle, he grabs
Jehoahaz, puts him in bonds,verse 33, takes a bunch of
silver and gold, and sticksEliakim, verse 34, on the
throne.
So he's an Egyptian vassal atthis point in his reign.
His name is changed toJehoakim, and Jehoahaz
(07:56):
disappears in Egypt.
Jehoiakim has a long reign.
He reigns, let's see here if Ican do the math, for about,
excuse me, let me have a littlecoffee here, make this work,
about 11 years.
from 609 to 598.
And that breaks down into threeparts.
From 609 to 604, he is a vassalfor the Egyptians.
(08:19):
And then in 605 to 601, he's aBabylonian vassal.
And then in 601 to 598, he's inrevolt and ends up, yeah,
revolting against theBabylonians never ends well for
anybody.
So that's his reign, and we'llpick up more about him as we
talk about what he's doing and,in fact, that he's not doing
what's right when we read intochapter 24.
(08:39):
But today's reading, Monday'sreading, is 2 Kings 23 verses 21
to 37.
It's Tuesday.
It is Tuesday and today we read2 Kings chapter 24, the entire
chapter.
2 Kings 24 does bring us to theend of our journey.
Hezekiah's reforms have beenruined by Manasseh.
Manasseh and Ammon bringidolatry right into the temple,
(09:00):
in fact.
Josiah makes many reforms, butas I mentioned yesterday,
Jeremiah's writings particularlyshow us that people's hearts
had not been changed.
So when Josiah dies, thekingdom disintegrates
spiritually and and politically.
Let me give you a couple ofdates here.
Some of this is helpful towrite in your Bible just to have
handy, maybe to get some fix onwhere we are in relationship,
(09:22):
for example, to the NewTestament.
In 612, 612, 612, Nineveh fallsbecause the Assyrian empire is
collapsing.
And then in 609, Babylondefeats an Assyrian-Egyptian
alliance.
That's the battle where Josiahgets killed trying to stop the
Egyptians from getting to thatbattle.
The Egyptians are unable tomake any headway, and they end
(09:43):
up withdrawing.
So finally then in 605, at theBattle of Carchemish, Babylon
whips everybody and establishesitself as the ruling power.
And this is the battle that'smentioned in 2 Kings 24 verse 7
in our reading today.
Then what we get is a series ofrevolts against Babylonian
power under these differentJudean kings.
(10:04):
So in 605, Babylon makes itsfirst appearance, making Judah a
vassal state of Babylon, takingit from the Egyptians, and and
that's when Daniel and hisfriends go into captivity.
Then in 597, there is a revolt,and so there's conquest, and
there's the deportation ofthousands and thousands,
including Ezekiel being takeninto Babylonian captivity.
(10:24):
And then there's another revoltin 586, and that's when the
city is absolutely destroyed,and the temple is burned down.
So those dates help us get afix on where we are, and our
reading today starts withNebuchadnezzar arriving in 605,
and he is triumphant.
He has won at Carchemish.
and the world bows at the feetof the Babylonians.
(10:45):
And Kings begins to use phraseslike in his days to introduce
these invasions because Judeankings are no longer important.
They don't establish anything.
If you want to date something,you have to date it off the
world powers that are currentlyrunning the show.
And while Nebuchadnezzar maynot have been able to
immediately act againstJehoiakim, verse 2, because
(11:07):
there were some marauding bands,he will send some raiders and
so forth, but eventually he willget there and he will take over
according to the word of theLord.
Verse 2, he takes over and sofrom now on everything looks
east to Babylon and they arepaying tribute to Babylon.
Joachim seems to have foolishlythought the Egyptians would
(11:28):
help him.
That's a running theme in thebook of Jeremiah and of course
they do not.
The king of Egypt, verse 7, didnot come again out of the land.
Now I've been askedspecifically about verses 3 and
4.
This came upon Judah at What'sthe deal?
(11:49):
Would not pardon.
What's that all about?
There's a couple of pieces tothat.
Some of that is punishment hadbeen decreed and God must keep
his word.
God delayed that because ofJosiah and his righteousness, so
God didn't want to do that.
But now that there's wholesalewickedness going on, there isn't
(12:10):
any point in delay that anyfurther.
And I think a huge piece ofthis is Jehovah would not pardon
because why?
They wouldn't ask.
They wouldn't seek him and ask.
In fact, the New InternationalVersion has, the Lord was not
willing to forgive, which is aterrible translation.
I would take very sharp issuewith that.
That acts like a bunch ofpeople were petitioning God for
forgiveness and the Lord was,oh, I'm not forgiving you
(12:33):
people.
The Lord wanted to forgive.
Look what happened with Josiah.
Look what happened during thetime of Josiah.
The issue here is no one'sasking because they're all busy
serving idol gods.
They're all busy servingeverybody but Jehovah.
So there's no asking andthere's no pardon when there is
(12:55):
no asking, which takes us thento Jehoiachin in verse 8.
He was 18 years old when hebecame king.
Now, this is difficult to keepstraight.
We got Jehoiachin and thenJehoiachin.
If somebody has a mnemonic tohelp me with that, wow, you're
welcome to suggest that.
I would love to have some ofthat.
And I think about what a timefor him to get to the throne.
(13:15):
This is 597, and there's aBabylonian invasion breathing
down your neck.
He's probably the one that'sknown as Jeconiah in some other
places in Scripture, and thereare a ton of archaeological
records of this invasion,notably the Babylonian
Chronicle.
And if you look at verse 12,Jehoiachin, the king of Judah,
gave himself up to the king ofBabylon.
(13:36):
His servants and his palaceofficials, the king of Babylon,
took him prisoner in the eighthyear of his reign.
They There it is again, thisidea of dating things off
foreign kings because they areabsolutely in charge.
And there has been somearchaeology done that unearthed
hundreds of receipts for oilissued in Babylon, and the name
Jehoiachin appears on three ofthem along with the title King
(13:58):
of Judah.
And so you get a good look hereat the kind of people who are
taken captive.
Ezekiel went because this is atime when nobles and princes are
being taken, and finallyZedekiah is set up on the king.
Jehoiakim reigned approximately11 years.
All of that is bad.
He persecuted the prophets.
He's the guy that burned theword of God.
(14:21):
Jeremiah wrote out this longletter from God, and they would
read it to the king, and afterthey read some of it, he'd reach
over with his pocket knife andslice off from the scroll what
had been read and throw it inthe fire.
He's a disaster.
He is absolutely a disaster,and Zedekiah is not much better.
Zedekiah is not not muchbetter.
(14:42):
And maybe the thing to hold onto here, verse 19, Zedekiah did
what was evil on the side of theLord.
How is that possible?
How is that possible when Godis bringing all kinds of
terrible judgments on them?
Even this deportation of somany thousands of people off to
Babylon doesn't change theirhearts.
These people don't want God,and God will evict them from His
(15:08):
land.
How about that?
So, Westsiders, we do have aZoom call tonight, and I'm
excited about it because intonight's Zoom call, we'll step
away from Bible reading.
I haven't made all thedecisions about everything.
We'll probably still do ourdaily Bible reading from 2 Kings
24, but what we really want tofocus on tonight is the book of
Habakkuk.
Habakkuk, in all likelihood, isspeaking during this time,
(15:32):
during these Babylonianinvasions, during the
Babylonians showing up, 605-597.
And Habakkuk has some hardquestions to ask of God about
why this is happening and howthis is happening and what
should I do during this time.
We want to talk about the bookof Habakkuk tonight in Zoom.
See you tonight, Westsiders, onthe Zoom call and the rest of
you, I'll see you on the podcasttomorrow.
(15:54):
It's Wednesday.
It's Wednesday and we'rereading 2 Kings chapter 25.
What a dismal chapter this isand indeed brings us to the end
of the book of Kings.
In the ninth year of his reign,2 Kings 25, 1, in the 10th
month, on the 10th day of themonth, Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon, came with all his armyagainst Jerusalem and laid siege
to it.
This is the story of the end ofthe Judean kings and of
(16:18):
Jerusalem and even the temple.
There are six episodes that arerecounted here.
You can outline this chaptervery easily.
The siege that begins on the10th month on the 10th day is
actually the result ofdestroying all the other
fortresses on the way toJerusalem.
Lachish, Ezekiah, and otherswere absolutely reduced to
(16:39):
rubble.
So, for example, there'swriting here about the burning
of lakish, whatever wood theycould lay hand on, they dragged
to the spot, stripping the wholearea around lakish of its
forest in thickets.
Countless olive groves werehacked down for this purpose.
In fact, the layer of ashescontains masses of charred olive
stones.
Day and night, sheets of flamesleaped sky high, a ring of fire
(17:01):
licking the walls from top tobottom.
The besieging forces piled onmore and more until the white
hot stones burst and the wallscaved in.
Can Can you imagine being inLachish and that kind of thing
happening, seeing the smoke risefrom the fires around your
walls, knowing what waits whenthe walls finally collapse?
(17:21):
And Jeremiah, of course, is theprophet during this time.
He had counseled Zedekiah andhis officers to surrender to
Nebuchadnezzar to save the cityand the temple.
Jeremiah chapter 21, forexample, Jeremiah chapter 38,
but they refused to obey God'sword.
And the reading in Jeremiahhelps us know that Zedekiah was
a terribly weak king, justawful.
awful, just awful.
(17:42):
He refuses to do what's right,but he keeps consulting with
Jeremiah, sometimes in secretbecause he is afraid to be seen
with Jeremiah.
It's terrible.
At one point, he has Jeremiahcast into a cistern where
Jeremiah would have died if somepeople hadn't helped him.
This is a terrible time, and ofcourse, this siege that goes on
for so long would have beenjust absolutely unbearably
(18:03):
awful.
The suffering that must begoing on in the city when it
takes all this time, the siegebegins in the 11th year, and
then it goes on The ninth day ofthe fourth month, the famine,
verse 3, is so severe that therewas no food for the people.
Finally, there's a breach madein the wall, and they run away.
What a bunch of cowards, verse4.
The king and the army try tobreak out and get out of there
(18:24):
and leave all the people behind.
They're headed to the Dead SeaDesert to hide.
You remember David hid fromSaul down in the Dead Sea
Desert, the ravines and canyonsand caves.
This is the only way Zedekiahis like David.
He is a coward, and he is noleader of men, and he doesn't
care for God at all.
And they are captured, ofcourse, and the result then is
(18:46):
that the temple is burned.
Verse 9, the Talmud says theBabylonians desecrated the
temple with the two-day feastand burned it on the third day
and that the fire burned for twoentire days.
And then we get all this detailbeginning about verse 11, I'm
sorry, about verse 14 that tellsus about all the things that
they destroyed.
It's verse 13.
I'll get it right in a minute.
(19:06):
More coffee is the answer tothis.
Verse 13 begins to give us thedetail, and in God's good
providence, I've been preachingabout the building of the temple
under King Solomon, and we'vetalked about how magnificent it
was, and here's the end of allof that.
It's burnt, melted down,destroyed.
It's just awful.
It's just absolutely awful.
And then, of course, verse 20and 21, there's even more death
(19:28):
for the people who were leadingthe rebellion.
Gedaliah then is made thegovernor of Judah.
This is covered in Jeremiahchapter 40 and 41.
and he tells everybody, calmdown.
We're the people who are lefthere, and we're just going to do
right and serve God, and that'sbecause Jeremiah is counseling
them to do that, and of course,they don't listen to Jeremiah,
(19:53):
and Gedalia ends up beingassassinated.
The Babylonians hate that kindof thing because now there's
anarchy and chaos and so forth,and the people panic when that
happens, and even thoughJeremiah tells them don't, they
ask Jeremiah, ask God, should werun off to Egypt?
And Jeremiah says, I will tellyou what God says, and they say,
we We are going to listen toyou, Jeremiah.
This is Jeremiah 42, and thenJeremiah says, don't go to
(20:15):
Egypt.
God does not want you to go toEgypt.
God never wants his people togo to Egypt.
He brought them out of Egypt,and what do they do?
Yep, they up and go to Egypt.
A bunch of faithless people whorefuse to do what's right.
But finally, there is a littlelight at the end of the tunnel.
Jehoiachin, verses 27 to 30, iscovered here.
(20:36):
This takes us to about 561 whenevil Merodach releases
Jehoiachin.
And one scholar says, what hadbeen a note of dark despair is
illuminated by the light ofGod's gracious concern for his
own.
Jehoiachin's release andrenewed enjoyment of life stands
as a harbinger of a futurerelease and the return of the
(20:56):
nations in accord with God'spromise.
There is, by the way,archaeological evidence that
confirms Jehoiachin's existence.
And I should say this, it'smore than just the harbinger of
good things for the nation.
We are reminded God's promiseto Abraham in Genesis chapter 12
and God's promise to David in 2Samuel 7 depends upon the
Judeans not being exterminated,completely rubbed out, erased
(21:20):
off the planet because theMessiah is going to come from
them and they are not all goneand not all the Davidic kings
are gone.
There is hope.
There is hope for the future.
This is where the book ofLamentations fits, by the way.
If you have additional time,read the book of Lamentations.
Our reading for Wednesday 2Kings 25.
(21:41):
Welcome to Thursday, and it mayseem like it's Friday.
I guess there's nothing wrongwith getting to the weekend
faster, but it is just Thursday,even though we are reading in
the Psalms.
Today we are reading Psalm 41.
This is a beautiful psalm, apowerful psalm.
We actually read this psalm inweek 16.
It fit there perfectly withsome of the things going on in
(22:01):
David's life, and it is, ofcourse, a psalm that is quoted
by Jesus, and at that time wedid jump over to the Gospel of
John and read John 13, whereJesus makes use of this psalm.
Today we'll just work along andtalk about about how this psalm
helps us see ourselves and tosee the Lord.
It is kind of a wisdom song.
I think the first three verseshave a wisdom introduction to
(22:24):
them.
And then there's a cry for helpin verses 4 to 10.
That's a lament.
And then there is thanksgiving,being thankful for God's
deliverance.
And it does seem to have beenwritten at a time when David was
under great strain and greatdifficulty.
And maybe some of that ordealis over.
And as he reflects on it, hediscovers some things about
himself and about the So verse1, Now remember, we think of the
(22:49):
poor in a very different waythan people would have in
David's day.
In David's day, and in fact inNew Testament times, in Jesus'
time, being poor meant that youwere financially impoverished,
like starving to death.
It meant downtrodden, on thebottom of society's ladder, no
hope, no recourse, no chance foranything better.
There is no welfare,unemployment, Social Security,
(23:09):
no Medicare.
None of that is helping thosekinds of people.
Our definition of poor today isvery different than the
definition of poor used in theBible.
And I would not, the Lordprotects him, verse 2, and keeps
him alive.
The Lord sustains him, verse 3,on his sickbed.
I would not take these promisesliterally.
This is not guaranteeing youthat if you become an advocate
for the downtrodden, you'llnever be sick.
(23:30):
This is just David describingthe kind of person that God will
deliver because this is thekind of person who cares about
God, who has God's agenda uponhis heart, who wants to do
what's right.
And so God wants to bless thatkind of person and use that kind
of person in his service.
And though it seems like Davidmay be sick here, it's not
enough that he's just goingthrough sickness and trouble.
Verses 4 to 10 show that he hasenemies circling him like
(23:52):
buzzards waiting for him to die,or maybe more likely like
sharks circling him trying toget after him.
Notice verse 4 and verse 10both open and end with a request
for God's grace here, and thesebad visitors say things like,
when he die, will his nameperish?
That's a disaster if you're aJew, if you're an Israelite,
(24:12):
because then your land gets outof the family.
You can't have that happen.
And verse 9 may reference thetrusted friend Ahithophel, who's
one of David's best and mosttrusted counselors, yet he
joined Absalom's rebellion, asyou remember.
And Jesus does make use of thatin the Last Supper as he speaks
of Judas Iscariot.
So, this psalm helps us seesome things about ourselves, the
(24:34):
kind of person that we need tobe, and the kind of person that
God will bless and that Godwants to hear from, the kind of
person that God will deliverfrom Verse 11, by this I know
you delight in me.
My enemy will not shout andtriumph over me, but you have
upheld me because of myintegrity and set me in your
presence forever.
That final verse, verse 13, isthe closing benediction to the
(24:57):
first collection of Psalms, thefirst book of Psalms, Psalms 1
to 41.
Our reading for Thursday isPsalm 41.
It is Friday.
It is Friday, and today we readthe 9th Psalm.
Today we're reading the 9thPsalm.
This seems to me to be veryappropriately placed in our
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reading schedule.
I'm looking at verse 7.
The Lord sits enthronedforever.
He has established His thronefor justice.
Verse 8, He judges the worldwith righteousness.
He judges the peoples withuprightness.
It's easy in this reading thatwe've been doing about
Babylonian power and might.
They just smash Jerusalem, killeverybody, and drag the rest
off into slavery.
I guess you can't drag peopleoff into slavery if you kill
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every They kill most everybody,okay, and drag the rest off into
slavery.
And it's easy to be impressedwith Babylonian power, but it's
important that we hold on to whothe true king of the earth is
and that we understand who sitsenthroned forever, and that is
the Lord.
Probably the most importantissue to acquaint you with when
you're reading the 9th Psalm isdoes it belong to the 10th
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Psalm?
Both of these psalms areacrostic psalms, and of course
that means sometimes an acrosticpsalm is kind of jumpy because
the writer needs to get anotherline that matches the letter of
the alphabet that he's on.
These acrostic psalms, if youwill, go A, B, C, D, of course
in Hebrew, not in English.
And so it's hard to outlinethese, but both Psalm 9 and
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Psalm 10 are acrostics.
And in the Septuagint, they arebound together as one psalm.
And the 10th Psalm doesn't havea title, which is pretty
unusual in this early part ofthe psalms.
So some people think they gotogether.
However, they don't dealprecisely with the same theme.
Psalm 10 is concerned with thewicked man.
Psalm 9 is different.
It's much morecommunity-oriented.
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You take a look at that and seewhat you think about that.
Maybe read both of these psalmstoday.
I love these I wills in verses1 and 2.
Despite some difficulties andsome problems, I will do this,
and that gives me confidence,verse 3, confidence and
anticipation that God will act.
And again, the heart of thepsalm is verse 7.
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The throne of the Lord lastsforever, and these enemies will
not.
The ground of all hope is thatour God is sovereign.
He is the king of kings.
He is the one who is ruling.
And I do like verse 15 whereyou get this boomerang effect of
evil here.
Bad things will come backaround on bad people.
They dig a pit and they're theones that fall in it.
They spread the net.
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It catches them.
And verse 17 says somethingabout Sheol.
The New King James here hashell and that's a terrible
translation.
This is just the idea of thegrave death and the idea that
you're going down into death,which is not clearly everything
about the afterlife is notclearly understood in the Old
Testament, so this is the worstthing that could happen to you.
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But an understanding of helland heaven is simply not in this
psalm.
And I do like how the victoryhere is viewed as an
accomplished fact.
True trust in God looks uponwickedness and says, you know
what?
That'll never last.
I'm not joining up with that.
That will be brought down.
I don't want to be with thelosers.
Things can't continue as theyare because God is at work, and
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evil like this will be broughtto an end.
What an important thing to tothink about at a time when we've
just read about the templebeing burned or a time when we
look around us and see openhostility to Christian faith.
Don't give up.
Don't give in.
Evil will be put down.
Our reading for Friday, Psalm9.
That concludes the podcast forthe week.
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I certainly do appreciate youlistening to the podcast.
I hope you'll share it withothers, tell more people about
it so it will help them withtheir daily Bible reading.
I look forward then to seeingyou on Monday when we'll open
our Bibles together again.
I'm Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come too.
See you Monday with a cup ofcoffee.
Speaker 00 (28:54):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ podcast, Monday MorningCoffee with Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, 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
(29:19):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again, with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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