September 15, 2025 • 25 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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UNKNOWN (00:01):
you
SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the West Side Church's
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast.
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.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's Bible reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some Extra bonusthoughts 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 15th.
I'm Mark.
I'm holding a great cup ofcoffee here in my Reepicheep
mug.
If you don't know who Reepicheepis, he's my favorite character
from the Narnian Chronicles.
A little bit of a throwback hereto the summer in Narnia Club.
Drinking some great coffee.
I've got sermon notes because Ipreached yesterday at Westside.
(01:14):
And I'm ready to talk aboutdaily Bible reading.
We finally found ourselves aking who seems to have some
inkling of what it means toserve the Lord.
Hello, Hezekiah.
Hezekiah has entered the chat.
Welcome aboard.
Well, whatever it is that youare working to get your daily
Bible reading started today,pour that cup of coffee, grab
that Coke Zero, get you someMountain Dew diet, whatever it
(01:37):
is, let's get ready.
Let's get set.
Let's go.
Yesterday, I resumed ourpreaching theme for 2024, the
questions that Jesus asked, andthis series had been on summer
hiatus.
So much going on.
VBS Sunday and Youth LectureSunday and people everywhere on
vacation.
I was out some.
(01:57):
Lots going on with all of that.
So it's time to pick that backup and continue to work on that.
These are the questions that youvoted for as being the most
incisive, the most important,the most interesting questions
that Jesus asked.
And the question yesterday camefrom Luke 24, 26, where Jesus is
talking to the disciples on theroad to Emmaus.
(02:19):
And he simply asks, Because oftheir misunderstanding of the
cross and the resurrection, wasit not necessary that the Christ
should suffer these things andenter into His glory?
You can listen to that entiresermon on our website or on our
Facebook page if you did nothear it yesterday.
Let me just share one additionalobservation.
You can't say everything in thepulpit.
Whoa, I just had a bucket ofapplications.
(02:41):
There was a lot of things thatwe could have worked with out of
that question that just didn'tmake the final cut.
Maybe the one that I should haveused is...
the most obvious one, and thatis that the resurrection is
real.
It happened.
It is a historical fact, and ahuge proof of that is that there
is somewhat skepticism about theresurrection among Jesus'
(03:06):
followers.
Have you noticed that?
It's not just the enemies ofJesus who say, no, we don't
think that's going to happen.
No, no, no, that can't behappening.
No, Jesus' disciples are theones who say, no, women came
back from the tomb, and they butyou can't really believe in any
of that.
One of the scholars that I readafter Darrell Bock, he's an
(03:27):
excellent Lucan scholar,evangelical fellow, does a great
job in Luke.
He writes this, Here is themajor lesson of the Emmaus Road
experience.
Though resurrection is hard tobelieve, be assured that it took
place.
Its reality means that Jesus'claims are true.
He was more than a teacher, morethan a prophet.
He was the promised, anointedone of God.
A host of skeptics saw this, andthey believed.
(03:51):
I think this helps us to thinkabout the facts of the
resurrection.
When Jesus rises from the grave,His disciples are not anxiously
waiting outside the tomb.
They don't think it's going tohappen.
They don't believe that it hashappened.
(04:13):
But Jesus tells them it wasnecessary for the Christ to
suffer.
The prophets wrote about it.
Hope that helped you yesterday.
I enjoyed preparing that lessonon the questions Jesus asked.
Going to be in that theme a goodlittle bit here as I run off a
series of those to kind of catchup from that summer hiatus.
(04:33):
Well, turn your Bible now withme over to 2 Kings.
Let's do some Bible reading in 2Kings.
2 Kings Monday's reading is 2Kings 20, as we see a highlight
(05:01):
in Hezekiah's life and,unfortunately, a low light as
well.
We started some with Hezekiahlast week, and as you read
today, you may have somequestions about exactly when
this occurred.
Verse 1 begins with, in thosedays.
When exactly is those days?
Particularly since in verse 6,as part of God's response via
(05:22):
the prophet Isaiah, God says,I'll add 15 years to your life,
I'll deliver you, and I willdefend the city for my own sake
and for my servant David's sake.
I thought the city had alreadybeen defended.
We read that last week.
So there are some chronologicalissues here.
Is this material not inchronological order?
And there are some questionsabout exactly when the Assyrians
(05:43):
invaded and how many times theyinvaded.
If Hezekiah dies in 698 BC,which that date seems to be
pretty firmly set by some thingsoutside of the Bible, then this
would be 15 years obviously infront of that.
So So this makes that somewherearound 713 to 712 BC because
Hezekiah started rainingsomewhere about 727.
(06:04):
But again, there are somedifficulties with some of those
numbers, and you probably don'twant me doing the math anyway.
That would mean that Hezekiah isabout 39 here.
He was 25 when he began raining,so he's about 39.
And in the Bible world, 39 isgetting up there.
39 is getting up there.
Average lifespan could be in the50s, so 39 is somewhat older,
(06:28):
and he is told that he will die,and he prays to the Lord, verse
3.
And that prayer follows thepattern that we often see in the
Psalms of appealing to one'sfaithfulness before God as a
reason to be heard or delivered.
Lord, I'm a faithful servant.
It's not kind of a barter ortrade sort of request.
It's saying, I stand with you,and I have served you well, and
(06:51):
so I'm asking for this favor.
And notice verse 5, there'sDavid It's all about David this
year in our reading.
Your father, David, the God ofDavid, your father.
And obviously, David is notHezekiah's father, but he is a
man after David's heart, a manafter God's own heart.
(07:11):
And then again in verse 6, formy servant David's sake.
So David looms large in theHezekiah story.
And you should remember as well,in verse 8, Hezekiah asked for a
sign, and I'm kind of not greaton asking for signs, but But
Ahaz refused a sign.
He didn't want signs.
He didn't listen to any of that.
(07:31):
So Hezekiah is very different.
If you have some additional timetoday on Monday, then take a
look at Isaiah 38 verses 9 to 22because there's a psalm of
Hezekiah there where he looksbackwards at the time when he
was sick and then he rejoices indeliverance beginning in about
verse 15.
Now, that's really a high point.
I love this.
He prays.
(07:52):
God answers his prayer.
So impressive.
Then verses to 12-19, notimpressive.
Babylonian envoys show up.
Babylon is a rising power asAssyria now is starting to
corrupt from within and totter alittle bit.
And so Babylon shows up andHezekiah is all about impressing
Babylon.
(08:13):
In fact, the account inChronicles in chapter 32 verses
25 and 26 tells us that Hezekiahdid this because of pride.
This is just not a good call atall.
It seems that He's veryself-centered.
Look at me.
Look at what I have built.
And then Isaiah says, this isgoing to bring problems.
(08:33):
You don't show bad people allyour wealth.
They'll show up and steal it.
And Hezekiah says, whatever.
It's not going to happen, verse19, in my days.
And there's different ways ofinterpreting that, but that is
certainly, it seems to me, thesense of what Hezekiah is saying
there.
Finally, then, in verse 20,there is specific mention made
in verse 20 how he made the pooland the conduit and brought
(08:56):
water And that is a reference tothe famous Hezekiah Tunnel that
was carved out of solid rock toprepare Jerusalem for invasion,
like when the Assyrians underSennacherib came and besieged
the city, to bring water intothe city.
And 2 Chronicles 32 providesmore detail on the digging of
(09:16):
this tunnel and how they didthat and how they accomplished
that.
And Dana and I have been blessedto be in Israel, and you can
walk through that tunnel It isreally a spooky kind of
experience because you're wayunderground in deep rock.
It's about 1,700 feet long, andyou are literally walking in
(09:37):
water because the Pool of Gihonstill flows, and that cold,
fresh water is still rushingthrough that tunnel to what is
known in New Testament times asthe Pool of Siloam.
And so you're wading throughwater.
It starts about thigh-leveldeep, and then pretty soon it's
about calf-level deep.
So it's not a hard way.
But it's really rocky and dark,and if you're claustrophobic,
(10:00):
it's certainly not for you.
And I'll try to post somepictures about that on my
Facebook page today.
A reading for Monday, 2 Kingschapter 20.
It is Tuesday.
It is Tuesday, and our readingtoday is 2 Kings chapter 21.
And after saying a lot of goodthings about Hezekiah, here is
Manasseh.
What an absolute disaster thisis.
(10:22):
And this is a good place to notethe selectivity of the inspired
account here.
Sometimes people imagine thatthe Bible contains notes on
everything that happened, andthat of course is absolutely not
true.
Manasseh reigns 55 years.
That would fill many volumes ifeverything that he did was
recorded in Scripture.
And one of the things that's notrecorded in Kings that is
(10:43):
recorded in Chronicles is thathe repented, which is utterly
shocking and absolutely amazing.
And you just can't say enoughabout that given how he started
and how long in his life he wasso wicked.
But that's not here in Kings.
The reason it's not here inKings is because Kings is
documenting what got theIsraelites, or specifically the
(11:05):
Jews, taken into captivity.
So it's all about, hey, theseguys did bad and they were
punished as a result it kind ofdiminishes that point a little
bit if you have to have the fineprint and suddenly say well you
know he actually did some goodthings there and he did repent
no no no you can't have a bunchof disclaimers when you're
trying to make one big point thebig point is idolatry caused us
(11:29):
to be taken into captivity andthis guy is the idolater of all
idolaters he is theanti-hezekiah notice verse 3
while hezekiah is compared withdavid Manasseh has the
distinction of being Judah'sonly king to be compared to King
Ahab in Israel.
How awful.
He undoes all the things thatHezekiah did.
(11:52):
He's the anti-Hezekiah.
And somewhere in here, you haveto start wondering just how
compliant the nation had beenwith Hezekiah's reforms.
Was that just a bunch ofsuperficial sort of religion
because the king was makingeverybody do that?
Not too sure about some of that.
Verse 10 speaks of prophets, andwe're not sure who these
prophets are.
Micah and Isaiah are probablyoff the scene well before.
(12:15):
Jeremiah has not begun hisprophesying.
So these prophets are nameless,although some have suggested
that Habakkuk might fit righthere.
Please notice then in verse 11that the comparison is not to
other previous kings.
He walked in the ways ofJeroboam, the son of Nebat, for
example.
Instead, you have to compare himto the Amorites.
That's how wicked he is.
(12:36):
And the shedding of innocentblood just runs all through
Manasseh's reign and which is ahuge concern for the Lord.
Deuteronomy chapter 19,Deuteronomy chapter 21,
Deuteronomy chapter 27, 1 Samuelchapter 19, on and on and on.
God really, really hates it wheninnocent blood is being shed.
(12:56):
That will bring the wrath of Godin a hurry.
So then, the second part of thisreading today is Ammon in verses
19 to 26, and we don't know muchabout him except that he just
acted like his dad.
That makes you wonder, how longdid Manasseh live after he had
that repentance, that change ofheart that Chronicles documents?
(13:17):
And Chronicles does add thatAmmon didn't humble himself but
added to his guilt, chapter 33,verses 21, 22, and 23.
So by the end of our readingtoday, Josiah comes to the
throne, and we're at a littlebit of a cliffhanger here.
No one knows if he will be anybetter than the last two kings
who are just atrocious.
Westsiders, we do have a Zoomcall tonight.
(13:38):
I'm anxious to talk a little bitmore about Manasseh How Manasseh
acted so awfully when his dadwas such a good king.
What do we make of that?
How do we solve that?
How do we figure that out?
I want to talk about that andmake a list of Manasseh's sins
and the things that he did.
We'll have good opportunity tostudy further in our Bible
reading today on Zoom tonight.
For the rest of you, see you onthe podcast tomorrow.
(14:00):
It's hump day.
It is hump day.
And today we're reading 2 Kingschapter 22.
The reading for Wednesday is 2Kings chapter 22.
And today we read about Josiah.
What an amazing and wonderfulyoung man Josiah really is.
He is the last great king ofJudah, and he is absolutely
amazing.
He did what was right, verse 2,in the eyes of the Lord and
(14:21):
walked in all the ways of Davidhis father.
He did not turn aside to theright or to the left.
Only Asa and Hezekiah have thiskind of comparison.
This business of not turningaside to the right or the left
is straight out of Deuteronomychapter 17, verses 11 and verse
20.
And it is important to see here,watch the command structure, the
king's sin the king commanded,the king did.
(14:42):
That will fill Josiah's reign.
Chapter 23.1, chapter 23.4continues that.
He's always taking action.
And what I love about this is heunderstands it is not enough to
get the idols out of the temple.
We need to restore the rightworship of God by cleansing the
temple and making it what itshould be, God's house.
(15:03):
And then in what is easily oneof the most dramatic verses in
all of the Old Testament, verse8, Hilkiah the high priest said
to Shaphan the secretary, I havefound the book of the law in the
house of the Lord.
It is hard to imagine that theyhad somehow lost God's law, that
the people under Manasseh andunder his son Ammon had gone so
(15:25):
far from God that the law of Godwas lost.
But now it is found.
And of course, we would like toknow an awful lot more about
that.
For example, had Hilkiah hiddenthis?
Maybe from Manasseh and Ammonpre had been carefully hiding
God's law so that it would notbe destroyed.
Later in Jeremiah's life, theking will actively burn the word
(15:48):
of God.
So that's certainly apossibility.
That's something that may beworking here.
Some have wondered, what exactlyare we looking at here?
Is this just parts of Exodus andDeuteronomy?
What is the book of the law?
And I think that's probably thefirst five books of the Bible.
That's probably what Moseswrote, the Pentateuch, the first
five books there.
And notice here how the writerof Kings keeps the book's
(16:09):
content a secret we don't knowwhat it says until verse 16 and
verse 16 brings this incrediblereaction and so impressive from
Josiah because he turns to theLord and is doing what's right
and God respects repentance Godrespects repentance and even
(16:30):
though through Huldah theprophetess she begins in verse
15 down through verse 20 Godsays this punishment must come
this punishment has been decreedand it will come.
It's not coming on you.
It's not coming on you, Josiah,because you are doing what's
right.
Such an impressive king.
(16:50):
There'll be more about that inour reading tomorrow.
Our reading for Wednesday, 2Kings 22.
It's Thursday.
It is Thursday.
Today we're reading 2 Kings 23verses 1 to 20.
The reading for Thursday, 2Kings 23, 1 to 20.
Let me get some coffee here.
And let's see if we can learnmore about Josiah's reforms.
Now, as is so common as we'redealing with Old Testament
(17:14):
records, there are somedifficulties with some of the
timeframes here.
You can get a lot more of theexact timing in the book of
Chronicles in chapter 34.
Some of this seems to be mergedtogether here in Kings in kind
of a topical way instead of achronological way.
I'll let you work further withthat if you're really into doing
all the numbers and establishinga timeline.
What's important here is verse3.
(17:34):
King Josiah functions like Mosesand Joshua.
He renews the Sinai Covenant AndI do love that he stood by the
pillar, which reminds me ofSolomon when he dedicated the
temple in 1 Kings 8 and prayedthat great prayer there.
So the entire nation is turningback to the Lord.
There's commands.
The king sent, verse 1, and nowverse 4, the king commanded.
(17:56):
This is what we are to do.
And as you're reading downthrough all the things that
Josiah burned and desecrated anddestroyed, you begin to see the
level of idolatry and how badthings really were in Judea, and
you begin to see some thingsabout how perverse some of this
idolatry really is.
Verse 7, he broke down thehouses of the male cult
(18:18):
prostitutes.
There's so much sexualimmorality in its perverse and
sick sexuality that goes on inCanaanite idolatry, and
sometimes maybe we wonder, whyhas God so been out of shape
with idolatry?
It's not just that people arefalling down in front of a
statue, which is obviouslyextremely offensive.
That alone would be enough, butthey're burning their children
(18:39):
to these statues to these fakegods that are not gods.
And then there's all kinds ofwrong use of sexuality as part
of that worship.
It's just horrible.
It's absolutely horrible.
And what I really like aboutJosiah here is that he not only
purges the land of this stuff,but he seems to be determined to
make certain that it will nevercome back because he desecrates
(19:02):
so many of these sites, defiledthe ESV has.
You can't worship here anymorebecause I've offered bone on
that altar.
I burned this down and made itinto a city dump.
All kinds of things like thatare part of Josiah's reign and
part of his right worship anddetermination to restore the
(19:23):
worship of God in Judea.
He just does all sorts of thingsto cause people to say, well,
we're never going to be able todo that again.
Unfortunately, spoiler alert,they will get back into
idolatry, but he's making it alot harder to do some of that.
And if you're not impressedenough with that, how about
what's said there beginning inverse 13 about the altar that
(19:45):
Solomon built.
That altar was built in like 970AD and here we are in 630 AD.
So that's about 340 years ago.
This is an antique.
It's a shrine.
Everybody says, oh, that's whatKing Solomon did.
Josiah says, I don't care.
It's wrong and we're burning it.
(20:05):
And then we have in verse 15, wehave the altar at Bethel That's
the terrible altar that Jeroboamerected that started all the
apostasy for the northern tentribes.
We're burning that down too.
None of this will stand.
None of this is allowed.
And then verses 17 and 18, weget the wonderful prophetic
fulfillment of what we read solong ago in 1 Kings chapter 13.
(20:27):
God's word comes to pass.
And Josiah is a powerful tool inbringing God's word to come to
pass.
Josiah.
The last great king of Judah.
A reading for Thursday, 2 Kings23, 1-20.
See you tomorrow.
We'll be in the Psalms.
(20:48):
Friday.
On Friday, we're in the Psalms.
Today, we read the 40th Psalm.
This is an interesting psalm, tosay the least, because it's not
like any other psalms.
It is a little bit lament-y anda little bit Thanksgiving-y.
Those probably are not realwords, but I'm going to coin
them as words.
I'm going to make them intowords.
We talk a lot about what kind ofpsalm is this.
(21:09):
And you'll note pretty quicklythat there's some cry for help
here, and that makes it alament.
A lament is a call to God fordeliverance.
But going with laments,oftentimes there'll be a lament
psalm, and then somewherethere's a corresponding
thanksgiving psalm where God ispraised for delivering.
I called to God, I lamented, andGod did deliver, so I am
thankful.
(21:29):
And this psalm is a two-for-one.
You get both.
You get both thanksgiving andlamenting in this psalm.
So the structure here, and I'malways a little reticent, about
outlining psalms, but thestructure here would be waiting
rewarded, verses 1 to 10, andthen waiting renewed, verses 11
to 17.
And we don't know everythingabout the troubles that are
(21:51):
being mentioned in verse 2.
And one scholar noted that thegood news here is that we don't
know.
And I say good news, I'm quotinghere, because that gives the
psalm the authority to speakinto every situation.
If this was only the problemthat comes with the invasion of
an enemy, could you and I readthis and benefit from it when
we'd lost our job like LikePaul's thorn in the flesh, there
is something to be said fortimes when God leaves us a
(22:13):
little in the dark so that wemight better see a whole lot of
light.
I appreciate that in a very goodway.
And as you read down throughthis psalm, verses 6, 7, and 8
will sound very familiar becausethe Hebrew writer quotes those
in Hebrews 10, verses 5, 6, and7 and applies that to Jesus
doing the will of God.
The quotation, by the way, inthe Hebrew epistle is a little
(22:33):
bit different than here becausethe Hebrew writer is quoting out
of the Septuagint, the Greektranslation of the Old
Testament.
verse 11, the psalm takes ashift.
There's all this thanksgivingand deliverance and it's light
and glory and wonderful.
And then verse 11, I'm introuble.
Verse 12, evils have encompassedme beyond number.
My iniquities have overtaken meand I cannot see them.
(22:55):
They are more than the hairs ofmy head.
My heart fails me.
The question here would be, isthis David taking on the sins of
the nation as he represents thenation?
Or is this his personal sins?
It does seem to me to be very,very personal.
But I like verses 14 and 15There is so much confidence
here.
There are some bad, bad enemiesaround me, David says, but I am
completely confident that Godcan handle them.
(23:18):
So the psalm ends in such ajoyous way.
May all who seek you, verse 16,rejoice and be glad in you.
May those who love yoursalvation say continually, great
is the Lord.
And then verse 17, as for me, Iam poor and needy, but the Lord
takes thought for me.
You are my help and mydeliverer.
Do not delay, O my God.
You may be wondering, how couldDavid say I'm poor and needy?
(23:39):
He was a king.
He lived in a palace.
Well, we don't know exactly whenthis was written, and in fact,
we cannot be entirely certainthat David did write this.
The headings of the Psalms, ofcourse, are not inspired.
But I'm thinking about the timesthat David was in the wilderness
being chased by King Saul, andhe was poor and needy.
No home, no place to lay hishead, always on the run.
(24:00):
It would fit that time framevery well.
A reading then for Friday isPsalm 40.
That's the podcast then for theweek.
Certainly do appreciate youlistening.
Hope that you'll share thepodcast with others.
Leave us a rating and a review.
So until Monday when we'll openour Bibles together again, I'm
Mark Roberts and I want to go toheaven.
(24:22):
I want you to come too.
See you on Monday with a cup ofcoffee.
SPEAKER_00 (24:33):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith 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
(24:58):
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 West Side Church's
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast.
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.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's Bible reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some Extra bonusthoughts 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 15th.
I'm Mark.
I'm holding a great cup ofcoffee here in my Reepicheep
mug.
If you don't know who Reepicheepis, he's my favorite character
from the Narnian Chronicles.
A little bit of a throwback hereto the summer in Narnia Club.
Drinking some great coffee.
I've got sermon notes because Ipreached yesterday at Westside.
(01:14):
And I'm ready to talk aboutdaily Bible reading.
We finally found ourselves aking who seems to have some
inkling of what it means toserve the Lord.
Hello, Hezekiah.
Hezekiah has entered the chat.
Welcome aboard.
Well, whatever it is that youare working to get your daily
Bible reading started today,pour that cup of coffee, grab
that Coke Zero, get you someMountain Dew diet, whatever it
(01:37):
is, let's get ready.
Let's get set.
Let's go.
Yesterday, I resumed ourpreaching theme for 2024, the
questions that Jesus asked, andthis series had been on summer
hiatus.
So much going on.
VBS Sunday and Youth LectureSunday and people everywhere on
vacation.
I was out some.
(01:57):
Lots going on with all of that.
So it's time to pick that backup and continue to work on that.
These are the questions that youvoted for as being the most
incisive, the most important,the most interesting questions
that Jesus asked.
And the question yesterday camefrom Luke 24, 26, where Jesus is
talking to the disciples on theroad to Emmaus.
(02:19):
And he simply asks, Because oftheir misunderstanding of the
cross and the resurrection, wasit not necessary that the Christ
should suffer these things andenter into His glory?
You can listen to that entiresermon on our website or on our
Facebook page if you did nothear it yesterday.
Let me just share one additionalobservation.
You can't say everything in thepulpit.
Whoa, I just had a bucket ofapplications.
(02:41):
There was a lot of things thatwe could have worked with out of
that question that just didn'tmake the final cut.
Maybe the one that I should haveused is...
the most obvious one, and thatis that the resurrection is
real.
It happened.
It is a historical fact, and ahuge proof of that is that there
is somewhat skepticism about theresurrection among Jesus'
(03:06):
followers.
Have you noticed that?
It's not just the enemies ofJesus who say, no, we don't
think that's going to happen.
No, no, no, that can't behappening.
No, Jesus' disciples are theones who say, no, women came
back from the tomb, and they butyou can't really believe in any
of that.
One of the scholars that I readafter Darrell Bock, he's an
(03:27):
excellent Lucan scholar,evangelical fellow, does a great
job in Luke.
He writes this, Here is themajor lesson of the Emmaus Road
experience.
Though resurrection is hard tobelieve, be assured that it took
place.
Its reality means that Jesus'claims are true.
He was more than a teacher, morethan a prophet.
He was the promised, anointedone of God.
A host of skeptics saw this, andthey believed.
(03:51):
I think this helps us to thinkabout the facts of the
resurrection.
When Jesus rises from the grave,His disciples are not anxiously
waiting outside the tomb.
They don't think it's going tohappen.
They don't believe that it hashappened.
(04:13):
But Jesus tells them it wasnecessary for the Christ to
suffer.
The prophets wrote about it.
Hope that helped you yesterday.
I enjoyed preparing that lessonon the questions Jesus asked.
Going to be in that theme a goodlittle bit here as I run off a
series of those to kind of catchup from that summer hiatus.
(04:33):
Well, turn your Bible now withme over to 2 Kings.
Let's do some Bible reading in 2Kings.
2 Kings Monday's reading is 2Kings 20, as we see a highlight
(05:01):
in Hezekiah's life and,unfortunately, a low light as
well.
We started some with Hezekiahlast week, and as you read
today, you may have somequestions about exactly when
this occurred.
Verse 1 begins with, in thosedays.
When exactly is those days?
Particularly since in verse 6,as part of God's response via
(05:22):
the prophet Isaiah, God says,I'll add 15 years to your life,
I'll deliver you, and I willdefend the city for my own sake
and for my servant David's sake.
I thought the city had alreadybeen defended.
We read that last week.
So there are some chronologicalissues here.
Is this material not inchronological order?
And there are some questionsabout exactly when the Assyrians
(05:43):
invaded and how many times theyinvaded.
If Hezekiah dies in 698 BC,which that date seems to be
pretty firmly set by some thingsoutside of the Bible, then this
would be 15 years obviously infront of that.
So So this makes that somewherearound 713 to 712 BC because
Hezekiah started rainingsomewhere about 727.
(06:04):
But again, there are somedifficulties with some of those
numbers, and you probably don'twant me doing the math anyway.
That would mean that Hezekiah isabout 39 here.
He was 25 when he began raining,so he's about 39.
And in the Bible world, 39 isgetting up there.
39 is getting up there.
Average lifespan could be in the50s, so 39 is somewhat older,
(06:28):
and he is told that he will die,and he prays to the Lord, verse
3.
And that prayer follows thepattern that we often see in the
Psalms of appealing to one'sfaithfulness before God as a
reason to be heard or delivered.
Lord, I'm a faithful servant.
It's not kind of a barter ortrade sort of request.
It's saying, I stand with you,and I have served you well, and
(06:51):
so I'm asking for this favor.
And notice verse 5, there'sDavid It's all about David this
year in our reading.
Your father, David, the God ofDavid, your father.
And obviously, David is notHezekiah's father, but he is a
man after David's heart, a manafter God's own heart.
(07:11):
And then again in verse 6, formy servant David's sake.
So David looms large in theHezekiah story.
And you should remember as well,in verse 8, Hezekiah asked for a
sign, and I'm kind of not greaton asking for signs, but But
Ahaz refused a sign.
He didn't want signs.
He didn't listen to any of that.
(07:31):
So Hezekiah is very different.
If you have some additional timetoday on Monday, then take a
look at Isaiah 38 verses 9 to 22because there's a psalm of
Hezekiah there where he looksbackwards at the time when he
was sick and then he rejoices indeliverance beginning in about
verse 15.
Now, that's really a high point.
I love this.
He prays.
(07:52):
God answers his prayer.
So impressive.
Then verses to 12-19, notimpressive.
Babylonian envoys show up.
Babylon is a rising power asAssyria now is starting to
corrupt from within and totter alittle bit.
And so Babylon shows up andHezekiah is all about impressing
Babylon.
(08:13):
In fact, the account inChronicles in chapter 32 verses
25 and 26 tells us that Hezekiahdid this because of pride.
This is just not a good call atall.
It seems that He's veryself-centered.
Look at me.
Look at what I have built.
And then Isaiah says, this isgoing to bring problems.
(08:33):
You don't show bad people allyour wealth.
They'll show up and steal it.
And Hezekiah says, whatever.
It's not going to happen, verse19, in my days.
And there's different ways ofinterpreting that, but that is
certainly, it seems to me, thesense of what Hezekiah is saying
there.
Finally, then, in verse 20,there is specific mention made
in verse 20 how he made the pooland the conduit and brought
(08:56):
water And that is a reference tothe famous Hezekiah Tunnel that
was carved out of solid rock toprepare Jerusalem for invasion,
like when the Assyrians underSennacherib came and besieged
the city, to bring water intothe city.
And 2 Chronicles 32 providesmore detail on the digging of
(09:16):
this tunnel and how they didthat and how they accomplished
that.
And Dana and I have been blessedto be in Israel, and you can
walk through that tunnel It isreally a spooky kind of
experience because you're wayunderground in deep rock.
It's about 1,700 feet long, andyou are literally walking in
(09:37):
water because the Pool of Gihonstill flows, and that cold,
fresh water is still rushingthrough that tunnel to what is
known in New Testament times asthe Pool of Siloam.
And so you're wading throughwater.
It starts about thigh-leveldeep, and then pretty soon it's
about calf-level deep.
So it's not a hard way.
But it's really rocky and dark,and if you're claustrophobic,
(10:00):
it's certainly not for you.
And I'll try to post somepictures about that on my
Facebook page today.
A reading for Monday, 2 Kingschapter 20.
It is Tuesday.
It is Tuesday, and our readingtoday is 2 Kings chapter 21.
And after saying a lot of goodthings about Hezekiah, here is
Manasseh.
What an absolute disaster thisis.
(10:22):
And this is a good place to notethe selectivity of the inspired
account here.
Sometimes people imagine thatthe Bible contains notes on
everything that happened, andthat of course is absolutely not
true.
Manasseh reigns 55 years.
That would fill many volumes ifeverything that he did was
recorded in Scripture.
And one of the things that's notrecorded in Kings that is
(10:43):
recorded in Chronicles is thathe repented, which is utterly
shocking and absolutely amazing.
And you just can't say enoughabout that given how he started
and how long in his life he wasso wicked.
But that's not here in Kings.
The reason it's not here inKings is because Kings is
documenting what got theIsraelites, or specifically the
(11:05):
Jews, taken into captivity.
So it's all about, hey, theseguys did bad and they were
punished as a result it kind ofdiminishes that point a little
bit if you have to have the fineprint and suddenly say well you
know he actually did some goodthings there and he did repent
no no no you can't have a bunchof disclaimers when you're
trying to make one big point thebig point is idolatry caused us
(11:29):
to be taken into captivity andthis guy is the idolater of all
idolaters he is theanti-hezekiah notice verse 3
while hezekiah is compared withdavid Manasseh has the
distinction of being Judah'sonly king to be compared to King
Ahab in Israel.
How awful.
He undoes all the things thatHezekiah did.
(11:52):
He's the anti-Hezekiah.
And somewhere in here, you haveto start wondering just how
compliant the nation had beenwith Hezekiah's reforms.
Was that just a bunch ofsuperficial sort of religion
because the king was makingeverybody do that?
Not too sure about some of that.
Verse 10 speaks of prophets, andwe're not sure who these
prophets are.
Micah and Isaiah are probablyoff the scene well before.
(12:15):
Jeremiah has not begun hisprophesying.
So these prophets are nameless,although some have suggested
that Habakkuk might fit righthere.
Please notice then in verse 11that the comparison is not to
other previous kings.
He walked in the ways ofJeroboam, the son of Nebat, for
example.
Instead, you have to compare himto the Amorites.
That's how wicked he is.
(12:36):
And the shedding of innocentblood just runs all through
Manasseh's reign and which is ahuge concern for the Lord.
Deuteronomy chapter 19,Deuteronomy chapter 21,
Deuteronomy chapter 27, 1 Samuelchapter 19, on and on and on.
God really, really hates it wheninnocent blood is being shed.
(12:56):
That will bring the wrath of Godin a hurry.
So then, the second part of thisreading today is Ammon in verses
19 to 26, and we don't know muchabout him except that he just
acted like his dad.
That makes you wonder, how longdid Manasseh live after he had
that repentance, that change ofheart that Chronicles documents?
(13:17):
And Chronicles does add thatAmmon didn't humble himself but
added to his guilt, chapter 33,verses 21, 22, and 23.
So by the end of our readingtoday, Josiah comes to the
throne, and we're at a littlebit of a cliffhanger here.
No one knows if he will be anybetter than the last two kings
who are just atrocious.
Westsiders, we do have a Zoomcall tonight.
(13:38):
I'm anxious to talk a little bitmore about Manasseh How Manasseh
acted so awfully when his dadwas such a good king.
What do we make of that?
How do we solve that?
How do we figure that out?
I want to talk about that andmake a list of Manasseh's sins
and the things that he did.
We'll have good opportunity tostudy further in our Bible
reading today on Zoom tonight.
For the rest of you, see you onthe podcast tomorrow.
(14:00):
It's hump day.
It is hump day.
And today we're reading 2 Kingschapter 22.
The reading for Wednesday is 2Kings chapter 22.
And today we read about Josiah.
What an amazing and wonderfulyoung man Josiah really is.
He is the last great king ofJudah, and he is absolutely
amazing.
He did what was right, verse 2,in the eyes of the Lord and
(14:21):
walked in all the ways of Davidhis father.
He did not turn aside to theright or to the left.
Only Asa and Hezekiah have thiskind of comparison.
This business of not turningaside to the right or the left
is straight out of Deuteronomychapter 17, verses 11 and verse
20.
And it is important to see here,watch the command structure, the
king's sin the king commanded,the king did.
(14:42):
That will fill Josiah's reign.
Chapter 23.1, chapter 23.4continues that.
He's always taking action.
And what I love about this is heunderstands it is not enough to
get the idols out of the temple.
We need to restore the rightworship of God by cleansing the
temple and making it what itshould be, God's house.
(15:03):
And then in what is easily oneof the most dramatic verses in
all of the Old Testament, verse8, Hilkiah the high priest said
to Shaphan the secretary, I havefound the book of the law in the
house of the Lord.
It is hard to imagine that theyhad somehow lost God's law, that
the people under Manasseh andunder his son Ammon had gone so
(15:25):
far from God that the law of Godwas lost.
But now it is found.
And of course, we would like toknow an awful lot more about
that.
For example, had Hilkiah hiddenthis?
Maybe from Manasseh and Ammonpre had been carefully hiding
God's law so that it would notbe destroyed.
Later in Jeremiah's life, theking will actively burn the word
(15:48):
of God.
So that's certainly apossibility.
That's something that may beworking here.
Some have wondered, what exactlyare we looking at here?
Is this just parts of Exodus andDeuteronomy?
What is the book of the law?
And I think that's probably thefirst five books of the Bible.
That's probably what Moseswrote, the Pentateuch, the first
five books there.
And notice here how the writerof Kings keeps the book's
(16:09):
content a secret we don't knowwhat it says until verse 16 and
verse 16 brings this incrediblereaction and so impressive from
Josiah because he turns to theLord and is doing what's right
and God respects repentance Godrespects repentance and even
(16:30):
though through Huldah theprophetess she begins in verse
15 down through verse 20 Godsays this punishment must come
this punishment has been decreedand it will come.
It's not coming on you.
It's not coming on you, Josiah,because you are doing what's
right.
Such an impressive king.
(16:50):
There'll be more about that inour reading tomorrow.
Our reading for Wednesday, 2Kings 22.
It's Thursday.
It is Thursday.
Today we're reading 2 Kings 23verses 1 to 20.
The reading for Thursday, 2Kings 23, 1 to 20.
Let me get some coffee here.
And let's see if we can learnmore about Josiah's reforms.
Now, as is so common as we'redealing with Old Testament
(17:14):
records, there are somedifficulties with some of the
timeframes here.
You can get a lot more of theexact timing in the book of
Chronicles in chapter 34.
Some of this seems to be mergedtogether here in Kings in kind
of a topical way instead of achronological way.
I'll let you work further withthat if you're really into doing
all the numbers and establishinga timeline.
What's important here is verse3.
(17:34):
King Josiah functions like Mosesand Joshua.
He renews the Sinai Covenant AndI do love that he stood by the
pillar, which reminds me ofSolomon when he dedicated the
temple in 1 Kings 8 and prayedthat great prayer there.
So the entire nation is turningback to the Lord.
There's commands.
The king sent, verse 1, and nowverse 4, the king commanded.
(17:56):
This is what we are to do.
And as you're reading downthrough all the things that
Josiah burned and desecrated anddestroyed, you begin to see the
level of idolatry and how badthings really were in Judea, and
you begin to see some thingsabout how perverse some of this
idolatry really is.
Verse 7, he broke down thehouses of the male cult
(18:18):
prostitutes.
There's so much sexualimmorality in its perverse and
sick sexuality that goes on inCanaanite idolatry, and
sometimes maybe we wonder, whyhas God so been out of shape
with idolatry?
It's not just that people arefalling down in front of a
statue, which is obviouslyextremely offensive.
That alone would be enough, butthey're burning their children
(18:39):
to these statues to these fakegods that are not gods.
And then there's all kinds ofwrong use of sexuality as part
of that worship.
It's just horrible.
It's absolutely horrible.
And what I really like aboutJosiah here is that he not only
purges the land of this stuff,but he seems to be determined to
make certain that it will nevercome back because he desecrates
(19:02):
so many of these sites, defiledthe ESV has.
You can't worship here anymorebecause I've offered bone on
that altar.
I burned this down and made itinto a city dump.
All kinds of things like thatare part of Josiah's reign and
part of his right worship anddetermination to restore the
(19:23):
worship of God in Judea.
He just does all sorts of thingsto cause people to say, well,
we're never going to be able todo that again.
Unfortunately, spoiler alert,they will get back into
idolatry, but he's making it alot harder to do some of that.
And if you're not impressedenough with that, how about
what's said there beginning inverse 13 about the altar that
(19:45):
Solomon built.
That altar was built in like 970AD and here we are in 630 AD.
So that's about 340 years ago.
This is an antique.
It's a shrine.
Everybody says, oh, that's whatKing Solomon did.
Josiah says, I don't care.
It's wrong and we're burning it.
(20:05):
And then we have in verse 15, wehave the altar at Bethel That's
the terrible altar that Jeroboamerected that started all the
apostasy for the northern tentribes.
We're burning that down too.
None of this will stand.
None of this is allowed.
And then verses 17 and 18, weget the wonderful prophetic
fulfillment of what we read solong ago in 1 Kings chapter 13.
(20:27):
God's word comes to pass.
And Josiah is a powerful tool inbringing God's word to come to
pass.
Josiah.
The last great king of Judah.
A reading for Thursday, 2 Kings23, 1-20.
See you tomorrow.
We'll be in the Psalms.
(20:48):
Friday.
On Friday, we're in the Psalms.
Today, we read the 40th Psalm.
This is an interesting psalm, tosay the least, because it's not
like any other psalms.
It is a little bit lament-y anda little bit Thanksgiving-y.
Those probably are not realwords, but I'm going to coin
them as words.
I'm going to make them intowords.
We talk a lot about what kind ofpsalm is this.
(21:09):
And you'll note pretty quicklythat there's some cry for help
here, and that makes it alament.
A lament is a call to God fordeliverance.
But going with laments,oftentimes there'll be a lament
psalm, and then somewherethere's a corresponding
thanksgiving psalm where God ispraised for delivering.
I called to God, I lamented, andGod did deliver, so I am
thankful.
(21:29):
And this psalm is a two-for-one.
You get both.
You get both thanksgiving andlamenting in this psalm.
So the structure here, and I'malways a little reticent, about
outlining psalms, but thestructure here would be waiting
rewarded, verses 1 to 10, andthen waiting renewed, verses 11
to 17.
And we don't know everythingabout the troubles that are
(21:51):
being mentioned in verse 2.
And one scholar noted that thegood news here is that we don't
know.
And I say good news, I'm quotinghere, because that gives the
psalm the authority to speakinto every situation.
If this was only the problemthat comes with the invasion of
an enemy, could you and I readthis and benefit from it when
we'd lost our job like LikePaul's thorn in the flesh, there
is something to be said fortimes when God leaves us a
(22:13):
little in the dark so that wemight better see a whole lot of
light.
I appreciate that in a very goodway.
And as you read down throughthis psalm, verses 6, 7, and 8
will sound very familiar becausethe Hebrew writer quotes those
in Hebrews 10, verses 5, 6, and7 and applies that to Jesus
doing the will of God.
The quotation, by the way, inthe Hebrew epistle is a little
(22:33):
bit different than here becausethe Hebrew writer is quoting out
of the Septuagint, the Greektranslation of the Old
Testament.
verse 11, the psalm takes ashift.
There's all this thanksgivingand deliverance and it's light
and glory and wonderful.
And then verse 11, I'm introuble.
Verse 12, evils have encompassedme beyond number.
My iniquities have overtaken meand I cannot see them.
(22:55):
They are more than the hairs ofmy head.
My heart fails me.
The question here would be, isthis David taking on the sins of
the nation as he represents thenation?
Or is this his personal sins?
It does seem to me to be very,very personal.
But I like verses 14 and 15There is so much confidence
here.
There are some bad, bad enemiesaround me, David says, but I am
completely confident that Godcan handle them.
(23:18):
So the psalm ends in such ajoyous way.
May all who seek you, verse 16,rejoice and be glad in you.
May those who love yoursalvation say continually, great
is the Lord.
And then verse 17, as for me, Iam poor and needy, but the Lord
takes thought for me.
You are my help and mydeliverer.
Do not delay, O my God.
You may be wondering, how couldDavid say I'm poor and needy?
(23:39):
He was a king.
He lived in a palace.
Well, we don't know exactly whenthis was written, and in fact,
we cannot be entirely certainthat David did write this.
The headings of the Psalms, ofcourse, are not inspired.
But I'm thinking about the timesthat David was in the wilderness
being chased by King Saul, andhe was poor and needy.
No home, no place to lay hishead, always on the run.
(24:00):
It would fit that time framevery well.
A reading then for Friday isPsalm 40.
That's the podcast then for theweek.
Certainly do appreciate youlistening.
Hope that you'll share thepodcast with others.
Leave us a rating and a review.
So until Monday when we'll openour Bibles together again, I'm
Mark Roberts and I want to go toheaven.
(24:22):
I want you to come too.
See you on Monday with a cup ofcoffee.
SPEAKER_00 (24:33):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith 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
(24:58):
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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