You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

Throughout this gospel, Luke has impressed upon His readers that what He and others witnessed could only be attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit. Zechariah prophesied in the Holy Spirit, and his son, John, was “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” The Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the “power of the Most High overshadowed” her. The Spirit promised Simeon that he would see the Lord’s Christ, and descended on Jesus at His baptism.

Furthermore, Luke is convinced that Jesus was in communion with God’s power and Spirit, reflecting at various times that, Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, moved about in the power of the Spirit, and rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Luke saw that the power of God was on Him to heal and that power went out of Him when He did. And as for Jesus’ perspective? After reading in the synagogue Isaiah’s words that “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,” Jesus announces: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled…”

In chapter 21, Jesus’ conversation is intense and private. Prophecy and warning and encouragement are mingled together as Jesus brings His teachings about the Kingdom of God to a climax. Chapter 22 is devoted to Jesus’ final night: the Passover feast, betrayal, and arrest of Jesus. Few things are singular: Satan enters Judas; an angel ministers to Jesus. Otherwise, there is the same confusion and tension that has been building in this gospel for some time.

Though much is happening, pay attention to Jesus’ words and activity as He nears the end. This is what He wants others to see and hear and remember of Him: what He teaches about, and what He prays for. He knows that Scripture must be fulfilled in Him, yet asks earnestly that the Father might remove this cup from Him. And listen carefully as He makes a promise to grant His power to His disciples: when it is their opportunity to bear witness, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.”

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:38-39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Luke 21 and 22.  Now let’s read it!  

“Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself… Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
- 1 Samuel 12:20-25

“…As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them…”
-1 Kings 9:4-7

“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.  And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies...” 
- 2 Kings 21:12-14

“…The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.  For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD will do this.     
- 2 Kings 19:30-31

Our verse for this week is Isaiah 40:31: “But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

2 Kings 24 and 25.  Now let’s read it!

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus’ reputation precedes Him and a man of Jericho wants to see Jesus so badly that he runs ahead and climbs a tree to get a better view.  This man was a man of means and stature: he was, in Luke’s words, a chief tax collector, and rich.  We don’t know any more of his backstory; nor do we know why Jesus looked up, called him by name, and invited Himself to the tax collector’s house.  But we soon find out how others feel about Jesus going to the house of a “sinner,” and this pretty much sums up the through line for the rest of today’s reading. 

Multiple times today Jesus cuts right through the aggravation of the scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees.  Without waiting for a response at the tax collector’s house, Jesus tells them a parable, about servants who were entrusted with their master’s wealth.  When they grumble about His disciples’ worship of Him, Jesus warns them that “…if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 

Rather than pay homage to the Jerusalem leadership, He drives out the market they had set up in the Temple.   When they try to trap Him, He defies them to show their hand, then tells the crowd another parable about wicked stewards.  Finally, in the hearing of all the people, He says “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces… who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers.”

All the while, Luke reflects that the scribes and chief priests were seeking to destroy him,           but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.  It seems that Jesus is doing everything He can to provoke them – a move that could end in His destruction, but would finally force them to reveal what’s really in their hearts.      

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:38-39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Luke 19 and 20.  Now let’s read it! 

“And the man cried against the altar by the word of the LORD and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’”  - 1 Kings 13:2

Today’s reading will offer a respite from the turmoil of the past few weeks.  Josiah’s father Amon had died at the hands of his servants, but this coup was quickly trampled by the citizens of Judah.  And eight-year-old Josiah, a child born to Amon at the age of sixteen, is established on the throne. 

The author spends most of his time on the subject most important to him, to Judah, and the LORD: the rediscovery of the Book of the Law.  Josiah’s righteousness is illustrated by his response to the Law’s reading: he tore his clothes.  Beyond this initial conviction he calls the priests to inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah… For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book…”

Josiah initiates a systematic reform of life and worship.  He commands that all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven be brought out of the Temple and burned outside Jerusalem.  He tears down the high places throughout Judah, and listen closely as he destroys, once and for all, the sin of Jeroboam.  And for the first time since the days of the judges who judged Israel, the Passover was kept in Jerusalem. 

Almost 400 years have passed David’s line had been established, and Judah had existed independently for 300 years.  Josiah’s reforms were possible because of an era of peace: Assyria was crumbling. 

However, Josiah’s peaceful reign will be the last for Judah.  His fateful decision to engage in the great battle between Egypt and Assyria not only ends his own life but ultimately proves fruitless, for lurking silently in the background is a power greater than any before: Babylon.

Josiah’s son Jehoiakim takes the throne as a puppet of Egypt in 609 B.C.  Jerusalem will fall in 586 – only two decades away. 

Our verse for this week is Isaiah 40:31: “But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

2 Kings 22 and 23.  Now let’s read it!