Bringing People to God

2 Corinthians 5¹¹We know what it means to respect the Lord, and we encourage everyone to turn to him. God himself knows what we are like, and I hope you also know what kind of people we are. ¹²We are not trying once more to brag about ourselves. But we want you to be proud of us, when you are with those who are not sincere and brag about what others think of them.
¹³If we seem out of our minds, it is between God and us. But if we are in our right minds, it is for your good. ¹⁴We are ruled by Christ's love for us. We are certain that if one person died for everyone else, then all of us have died. ¹⁵And Christ did die for all of us. He died so we would no longer live for ourselves, but for the one who died and was raised to life for us.
¹⁶We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in that way. ¹⁷Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. ¹⁸God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.
¹⁹What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace. ²⁰We were sent to speak for Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God. ²¹Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner, so that Christ could make us acceptable to God.
2 Corinthians 6 We work together with God, and we beg you to make good use of God's kindness to you. ²In the Scriptures God says,
"When the time came, I listened to you,
and when you needed help, I came to save you."
That time has come. This is the day for you to be saved.
³We don't want anyone to find fault with our work, and so we try hard not to cause problems. ⁴But in everything and in every way we show that we truly are God's servants. We have always been patient, though we have had a lot of trouble, suffering, and hard times. ⁵We have been beaten, put in jail, and hurt in riots. We have worked hard and have gone without sleep or food. ⁶But we have kept ourselves pure and have been understanding, patient, and kind. The Holy Spirit has been with us, and our love has been real. ⁷We have spoken the truth, and God's power has worked in us. In all our struggles we have said and done only what is right.
⁸Whether we were honored or dishonored or praised or cursed, we always told the truth about ourselves. But some people said we did not. ⁹We are unknown to others, but well known to you. We seem to be dying, and yet we are still alive. We have been punished, but never killed, ¹⁰and we are always happy, even in times of suffering. Although we are poor, we have made many people rich. And though we own nothing, everything is ours.
¹¹Friends in Corinth, we are telling the truth when we say that there is room in our hearts for you. ¹²We are not holding back on our love for you, but you are holding back on your love for us. ¹³I speak to you as I would speak to my own children. Please make room in your hearts for us.

King Hezekiah of Judah
(2 Chronicles 29.1, 2; 31.1)

2 Kings 18 Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah in the third year of Hoshea's rule in Israel. ²Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem. His mother Abi was the daughter of Zechariah.
³Hezekiah obeyed the LORD, just as his ancestor David had done. ⁴He destroyed the local shrines, then tore down the images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole for worshiping the goddess Asherah. He also smashed the bronze snake Moses had made. The people had named it Nehushtan and had been offering sacrifices to it.
⁵Hezekiah trusted the LORD God of Israel. No other king of Judah was like Hezekiah, either before or after him. ⁶He was completely faithful to the LORD and obeyed the laws the LORD had given to Moses for the people. ⁷The LORD helped Hezekiah, so he was successful in everything he did. He even rebelled against the king of Assyria, refusing to be his servant. ⁸Hezekiah defeated the Philistine towns as far away as Gaza--from the smallest towns to the large, walled cities.
⁹During the fourth year of Hezekiah's rule, which was the seventh year of Hoshea's rule in Israel, King Shalmaneser of Assyria led his troops to Samaria, the capital city of Israel. They attacked ¹⁰and captured it three years later, in the sixth year of Hezekiah's rule and the ninth year of Hoshea's rule. ¹¹The king of Assyria took the Israelites away as prisoners; he forced some of them to live in the town of Halah, others to live near the Habor River in the territory of Gozan, and still others to live in towns where the Median people lived. ¹²All of that happened because the people of Israel had not obeyed the LORD their God. They rejected the solemn agreement he had made with them, and they ignored everything that the LORD's servant Moses had told them.

King Sennacherib of Assyria Invades Judah
(2 Chronicles 32.1-19; Isaiah 36.1-22)

¹³In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's rule in Judah, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded the country and captured every walled city, except Jerusalem. ¹⁴Hezekiah sent this message to Sennacherib, who was in the town of Lachish: "I know I am guilty of rebellion. But I will pay you whatever you want, if you stop your attack."
Sennacherib told Hezekiah to pay about eleven tons of silver and almost a ton of gold. ¹⁵So Hezekiah collected all the silver from the LORD's temple and the royal treasury. ¹⁶He even stripped the gold that he had used to cover the doors and doorposts in the temple. He gave it all to Sennacherib.
¹⁷The king of Assyria ordered his three highest military officers to leave Lachish and take a large army to Jerusalem. When they arrived, the officers stood on the road near the cloth makers' shops along the canal from the upper pool. ¹⁸They called out to Hezekiah, and three of his highest officials came out to meet them. One of them was Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was the prime minister. The other two were Shebna, assistant to the prime minister, and Joah son of Asaph, keeper of the government records.
¹⁹One of the Assyrian commanders told them:

I have a message for Hezekiah from the great king of Assyria. Ask Hezekiah why he feels so sure of himself. ²⁰Does he think he can plan and win a war with nothing but words? Who is going to help him, now that he has turned against the king of Assyria? ²¹Is he depending on Egypt and its king? That's the same as leaning on a broken stick, and it will go right through his hand.

²²Is Hezekiah now depending on the LORD your God? Didn't Hezekiah tear down all except one of the LORD's altars and places of worship? Didn't he tell the people of Jerusalem and Judah to worship at that one place?

²³The king of Assyria wants to make a bet with you people. He will give you two thousand horses, if you have enough troops to ride them. ²⁴How could you even defeat our lowest ranking officer, when you have to depend on Egypt for chariots and cavalry? ²⁵Don't forget that it was the LORD who sent me here with orders to destroy your nation!

²⁶Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said, "Sir, we don't want the people listening from the city wall to understand what you are saying. So please speak to us in Aramaic instead of Hebrew."
²⁷The Assyrian army commander answered, "My king sent me to speak to everyone, not just to you leaders. These people will soon have to eat their own body waste and drink their own urine! And so will the three of you."
²⁸Then, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he shouted in Hebrew:

Listen to what the great king of Assyria says! ²⁹Don't be fooled by Hezekiah. He can't save you. ³⁰Don't trust him when he tells you that the LORD will protect you from the king of Assyria. ³¹Stop listening to Hezekiah! Pay attention to my king. Surrender to him. He will let you keep your own vineyards, fig trees, and cisterns ³²for a while. Then he will come and take you away to a country just like yours, where you can plant vineyards, raise your own grain, and have plenty of olive oil and honey. Believe me, you won't starve there.

Hezekiah claims the LORD will save you. But don't be fooled by him. ³³Were any other gods able to defend their land against the king of Assyria? ³⁴What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? What about the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Were the gods of Samaria able to protect their land against the Assyrian forces? ³⁵None of these gods kept their people safe from the king of Assyria. Do you think the LORD your God can do any better?

^36-37Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah had been warned by King Hezekiah not to answer the Assyrian commander. So they tore their clothes in sorrow and reported to Hezekiah everything the commander had said.

Israel Is Corrupt

Micah 7 I feel so empty inside--
like someone starving for grapes or figs,
after the vines and trees have all been picked clean.
²No one is loyal to God; no one does right.
Everyone is brutal and eager to deceive everyone else.
³People cooperate to commit crime.
Judges and leaders demand bribes,
and rulers cheat in court.
⁴The most honest of them is worse than a thorn patch.

Your doom has come!
Lookouts sound the warning, and everyone panics.
⁵Don't trust anyone, not even your best friend,
and be careful what you say to the one you love.

⁶Sons refuse to respect their own fathers,
daughters rebel against their own mothers,
and daughters-in-law despise their mothers-in-law.
Your family is now your enemy.
⁷But I trust the LORD God to save me,
and I will wait for him to answer my prayer.

The Nation Turns to God

⁸My enemies, don't be glad because of my troubles!
I may have fallen, but I will get up;
I may be sitting in the dark, but the LORD is my light.
⁹I have sinned against the LORD.
And so I must endure his anger,
until he comes to my defense.
But I know that I will see him making things right for me
and leading me to the light.

¹⁰You, my enemies, said, "The LORD God is helpless."
Now each of you will be disgraced and put to shame.
I will see you trampled like mud in the street.

A Bright Future

¹¹Towns of Judah, the day is coming
when your walls will be rebuilt,
and your boundaries enlarged.
¹²People will flock to you from Assyria and Egypt,
from Babylonia and everywhere else.
¹³Those nations will suffer disaster because of what they did.

Micah's Prayer and the LORD's Answer

¹⁴Lead your people, LORD! Come and be our shepherd.
Grasslands surround us, but we live in a forest.
So lead us to Bashan and Gilead, and let us find pasture
as we did long ago.

¹⁵I, the LORD, will work miracles just as I did
when I led you out of Egypt.
¹⁶Nations will see this and be ashamed
because of their helpless armies.
They will be in shock, unable to speak or hear,
¹⁷because of their fear of me, your LORD and God.
Then they will come trembling,
crawling out of their fortresses
like insects or snakes, lapping up the dust.

No One Is Like God

The people said:
¹⁸Our God, no one is like you.
We are all that is left of your chosen people,
and you freely forgive our sin and guilt.
You don't stay angry forever; you're glad to have pity
¹⁹and pleased to be merciful.
You will trample on our sins
and throw them in the sea.
²⁰You will keep your word
and be faithful to Jacob and to Abraham,
as you promised our ancestors many years ago.