Friendship with God through Christ

2 Corinthians 5 ¹¹We know what it means to fear the Lord, and so we try to persuade others. God knows us completely, and I hope that in your hearts you know me as well. ¹²We are not trying again to recommend ourselves to you; rather, we are trying to give you a good reason to be proud of us, so that you will be able to answer those who boast about people's appearance and not about their character. ¹³Are we really insane? It is for God's sake. Or are we sane? Then it is for your sake. ¹⁴We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death. ¹⁵He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for him who died and was raised to life for their sake.
¹⁶No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards. Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so. ¹⁷Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. ¹⁸All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. ¹⁹Our message is that God was making all human beings his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.
²⁰Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ's behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends! ²¹Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 6 In our work together with God, then, we beg you who have received God's grace not to let it be wasted. ²Hear what God says:
"When the time came for me to show you favor,
I heard you;
when the day arrived for me to save you,
I helped you."
Listen! This is the hour to receive God's favor; today is the day to be saved!
³We do not want anyone to find fault with our work, so we try not to put obstacles in anyone's way. ⁴Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God's servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties. ⁵We have been beaten, jailed, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food. ⁶By our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness we have shown ourselves to be God's servants--by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, ⁷by our message of truth, and by the power of God. We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves. ⁸We are honored and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; ⁹as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on. Although punished, we are not killed; ¹⁰although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.
¹¹Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you; we have opened our hearts wide. ¹²It is not we who have closed our hearts to you; it is you who have closed your hearts to us. ¹³I speak now as though you were my children: show us the same feelings that we have for you. Open your hearts wide!

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

2 Kings 18 In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah as king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah ²at the age of twenty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ³Following the example of his ancestor King David, he did what was pleasing to the LORD. ⁴He destroyed the pagan places of worship, broke the stone pillars, and cut down the images of the goddess Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made, which was called Nehushtan. Up to that time the people of Israel had burned incense in its honor. ⁵Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; Judah never had another king like him, either before or after his time. ⁶He was faithful to the LORD and never disobeyed him, but carefully kept all the commands that the LORD had given Moses. ⁷So the LORD was with him, and he was successful in everything he did. He rebelled against the emperor of Assyria and refused to submit to him. ⁸He defeated the Philistines and raided their settlements, from the smallest village to the largest city, including Gaza and its surrounding territory.
⁹In the fourth year of Hezekiah's reign--which was the seventh year of King Hoshea's reign over Israel--Emperor Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and besieged Samaria. ¹⁰In the third year of the siege Samaria fell; this was the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign and the ninth year of Hoshea's reign. ¹¹The Assyrian emperor took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the Habor River in the district of Gozan, and some in the cities of Media.
¹²Samaria fell because the Israelites did not obey the LORD their God, but broke the covenant he had made with them and disobeyed all the laws given by Moses, the servant of the LORD. They would not listen and they would not obey.

The Assyrians Threaten Jerusalem
(2 Chronicles 32.1-19; Isaiah 36.1-22)

¹³In the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them. ¹⁴Hezekiah sent a message to Sennacherib, who was in Lachish: "I have done wrong; please stop your attack, and I will pay whatever you demand." The emperor's answer was that Hezekiah should send him ten tons of silver and one ton of gold. ¹⁵Hezekiah sent him all the silver in the Temple and in the palace treasury; ¹⁶he also stripped the gold from the temple doors and the gold with which he himself had covered the doorposts, and he sent it all to Sennacherib. ¹⁷The Assyrian emperor sent a large army from Lachish to attack Hezekiah at Jerusalem; it was commanded by his three highest officials. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they occupied the road where the cloth makers work by the ditch that brings water from the upper pool. ¹⁸Then they sent for King Hezekiah, and three of his officials went out to meet them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace; Shebna, the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, who was in charge of the records. ¹⁹One of the Assyrian officials told them that the emperor wanted to know what made King Hezekiah so confident. ²⁰He demanded, "Do you think that words can take the place of military skill and might? Who do you think will help you rebel against Assyria? ²¹You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that would be like using a reed as a walking stick--it would break and jab your hand. That is what the king of Egypt is like when anyone relies on him."
²²The Assyrian official went on, "Or will you tell me that you are relying on the LORD your God? It was the LORD's shrines and altars that Hezekiah destroyed, when he told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship only at the altar in Jerusalem. ²³I will make a bargain with you in the name of the emperor. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find that many men to ride them! ²⁴You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and cavalry! ²⁵Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the LORD's help? The LORD himself told me to attack it and destroy it."
²⁶Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, "Speak Aramaic to us, sir. We understand it. Don't speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening."
²⁷He replied, "Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will."
²⁸Then the official stood up and shouted in Hebrew, "Listen to what the emperor of Assyria is telling you! ²⁹He warns you not to let Hezekiah deceive you. Hezekiah can't save you. ³⁰And don't let him persuade you to rely on the LORD. Don't think that the LORD will save you and that he will stop our Assyrian army from capturing your city. ³¹Don't listen to Hezekiah. The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines and figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own wells-- ³²until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own, where there are vineyards to give wine and there is grain for making bread; it is a land of olives, olive oil, and honey. If you do what he commands, you will not die, but live. Don't let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the LORD will rescue you. ³³Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria? ³⁴Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did anyone save Samaria? ³⁵When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the LORD can save Jerusalem?"
³⁶The people kept quiet, just as King Hezekiah had told them to; they did not say a word. ³⁷Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes in grief, and went and reported to the king what the Assyrian official had said.

Israel's Moral Corruption

Micah 7 It's hopeless! I am like a hungry person who finds no fruit left on the trees and no grapes on the vines. All the grapes and all the tasty figs have been picked. ²There is not an honest person left in the land, no one loyal to God. Everyone is waiting for a chance to commit murder. Everyone hunts down their own people. ³They are all experts at doing evil. Officials and judges ask for bribes. The influential people tell them what they want, and so they scheme together. ⁴Even the best and most honest of them are as worthless as weeds.
The day has come when God will punish the people, as he warned them through their watchmen, the prophets. Now they are in confusion. ⁵Don't believe your neighbor or trust your friend. Be careful what you say even to your husband or wife. ⁶In these times sons treat their fathers like fools, daughters oppose their mothers, and young women quarrel with their mothers-in-law; your enemies are the members of your own family.
⁷But I will watch for the LORD; I will wait confidently for God, who will save me. My God will hear me.

The LORD Brings Salvation

⁸Our enemies have no reason to gloat over us. We have fallen, but we will rise again. We are in darkness now, but the LORD will give us light. ⁹We have sinned against the LORD, so now we must endure his anger for a while. But in the end he will defend us and right the wrongs that have been done to us. He will bring us out to the light; we will live to see him save us. ¹⁰Then our enemies will see this and be disgraced--the same enemies who taunted us by asking, "Where is the LORD your God?" We will see them defeated, trampled down like mud in the streets.
¹¹People of Jerusalem, the time to rebuild the city walls is coming. At that time your territory will be enlarged. ¹²Your people will return to you from everywhere--from Assyria in the east, from Egypt in the south, from the region of the Euphrates River, from distant seas and far-off mountains. ¹³But the earth will become a desert because of the wickedness of those who live on it.

The LORD's Compassion on Israel

¹⁴Be a shepherd to your people, LORD, the people you have chosen. Although they live apart in the wilderness, there is fertile land around them. Let them go and feed in the rich pastures of Bashan and Gilead, as they did long ago.
¹⁵Work miracles for us, LORD, as you did in the days when you brought us out of Egypt. ¹⁶The nations will see this and be frustrated in spite of all their strength. In dismay they will close their mouths and cover their ears. ¹⁷They will crawl in the dust like snakes; they will come from their fortresses, trembling and afraid. They will turn in fear to the LORD our God.
¹⁸There is no other god like you, O LORD; you forgive the sins of your people who have survived. You do not stay angry forever, but you take pleasure in showing us your constant love. ¹⁹You will be merciful to us once again. You will trample our sins underfoot and send them to the bottom of the sea! ²⁰You will show your faithfulness and constant love to your people, the descendants of Abraham and of Jacob, as you promised our ancestors long ago.