2 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; 2 Kings 18; Micah 7

2 Corinthians 5

1 For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 And, in fact, we groan in this one, longing to put on our house from heaven,

3 since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.

4 Indeed, we who are in this tent groan, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

5 And the One who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

6 Therefore, though we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-

7 for we walk by faith, not by sight-

8 yet we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord.

9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him.

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.

11 Knowing, then, the fear of the Lord, we persuade people. We are completely open before God, and I hope we are completely open to your consciences as well.

12 We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance rather than in the heart.

13 For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we have a sound mind, it is for you.

14 For Christ's love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: if One died for all, then all died.

15 And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.

16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him like that.

17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.

18 Now everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

19 that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ's behalf, "Be reconciled to God."

21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

1 Working together with Him, we also appeal to you: "Don't receive God's grace in vain."

2 For He says: In an acceptable time, I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you. Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation.

3 We give no opportunity for stumbling to anyone, so that the ministry will not be blamed.

4 But in everything, as God's ministers, we commend ourselves: by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardship, by pressures,

5 by beatings, by imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times of hunger,

6 by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,

7 by the message of truth, by the power of God; through weapons of righteousness on the right hand and the left,

8 through glory and dishonor, through slander and good report; as deceivers yet true;

9 as unknown yet recognized; as dying and look-we live; as being chastened yet not killed;

10 as grieving yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing yet possessing everything.

11 We have spoken openly to you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened wide.

12 You are not limited by us, but you are limited by your own affections.

13 Now in like response-I speak as to children-you also should be open to us.

2 Kings 18

1 In the third year of Israel's King Hoshea son of Elah, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah.

2 He was 25 years old when he became king; he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi daughter of Zechariah.

3 He did what was right in the Lord's sight just as his ancestor David had done.

4 He removed the high places and shattered the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah [poles]. He broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses made, for the Israelites burned incense to it up to that time. He called it Nehushtan.

5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.

6 He held fast to the Lord and did not turn from following Him but kept the commandments the Lord had commanded Moses.

7 The Lord was with him, and wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

8 He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.

9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Israel's King Hoshea son of Elah, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it.

10 The Assyrians captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Israel's King Hoshea, Samaria was captured.

11 The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and put them in Halah and by the Habor, Gozan's river, and in the cities of the Medes,

12 because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God but violated His covenant-all He had commanded Moses the servant of the Lord. They did not listen, and they did not obey.

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. Whatever you demand from me, I will pay." The king of Assyria demanded from King Hezekiah of Judah 11 tons of silver and one ton of gold.

15 So Hezekiah gave [him] all the silver found in the Lord's temple and in the treasuries of the king's palace.

16 At that time Hezekiah stripped [the gold from] the doors of the Lord's sanctuary and from the doorposts he had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced and came to Jerusalem, and they took their position by the aqueduct of the upper pool, which is by the highway to the Fuller's Field.

18 Then they called for the king, but Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebnah the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to them.

19 Then the Rabshakeh said to them, "Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: 'What are you relying on?

20 You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. What are you now relying on so that you have rebelled against me?

21 Look, you now trust in Egypt, the stalk of this splintered reed, which if a man leans on it will go into his palm and pierce it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.

22 Suppose you say to me: We trust in the Lord our God. Isn't He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem: You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem?'

23 "So now make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2,000 horses if you're able to supply riders for them!

24 How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master's servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

25 Have I attacked this place to destroy it without the Lord's [approval]? The Lord said to me, 'Attack this land and destroy it.' "

26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand [it] . Don't speak with us in Hebrew within earshot of the people on the wall."

27 But the Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words? Hasn't [he] also [sent me] to the men who sit on the wall, [destined] with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?"

28 The Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew. Then he spoke: "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

29 This is what the king says: 'Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; he can't deliver you from my hand.

30 Don't let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord by saying: Certainly the Lord will deliver us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.'

31 "Don't listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: 'Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and every one may drink water from his own cistern

32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land-a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey-so that you may live and not die. But don't listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying: The Lord will deliver us.

33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land from the power of the king of Assyria?

34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

35 Who among all the gods of the lands has delivered his land from my power? So how is the Lord to deliver Jerusalem?' "

36 But the people kept silent; they answered him not a word, for the king's command was, "Don't answer him."

37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Micah 7

1 How sad for me! For I am like one who- when the summer fruit has been gathered after the gleaning of the grape harvest- [finds] no grape cluster to eat, no early fig, which I crave.

2 Godly people have vanished from the land; there is no one upright among the people. All of them wait in ambush to shed blood; they hunt each other with a net.

3 Both hands are good at accomplishing evil: the official and the judge demand a bribe; when the powerful man communicates his evil desire, they plot it together.

4 The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is worse than a hedge of thorns. The day of your watchmen, [the day of] your punishment, is coming; at this time their panic is here.

5 Do not rely on a friend; don't trust in a close companion. Seal your mouth from the woman who lies in your arms.

6 For a son considers his father a fool, a daughter opposes her mother, and a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law; a person's enemies are the people in his own home.

7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will stand up; though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

9 Because I have sinned against Him, I must endure the Lord's rage until He argues my case and establishes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see His salvation.

10 Then my enemy will see, and she will be covered with shame, the one who said to me, "Where is the Lord your God?" My eyes will look at her in triumph; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

11 A day will come for rebuilding your walls; on that day [your] boundary will be extended.

12 On that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates River and from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

13 Then the earth will become a wasteland because of its inhabitants, and as a result of their actions.

14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock that is Your possession. They live alone in a scrubland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in ancient times.

15 I will show them wondrous deeds as in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt.

16 Nations will see and be ashamed of all their power. They will put [their] hands over [their] mouths, and their ears will become deaf.

17 They will lick the dust like a snake; they will come trembling out of their hiding places like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will tremble before the Lord our God; they will stand in awe of You.

18 Who is a God like You, removing iniquity and passing over rebellion for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not hold on to His anger forever, because He delights in faithful love.

19 He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

20 You will show loyalty to Jacob and faithful love to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from days long ago.