July 9
2Kings 16 & Ephesians 5
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2Kings 16

Chapter 16

16:1In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah. 2Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king and reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God like his ancestor David 3but walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through the fire, imitating the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. 4He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
5Then Aram's King Rezin and Israel's King Pekah son of Remaliah came to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but were not able to conquer him. 6At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram and expelled the Judahites from Elath. Then the Arameans came to Elath, and they live there until today.
7So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. March up and save me from the power of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me." 8Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the Lord's temple and in the treasuries of the king's palace and sent them to the king of Assyria as a gift. 9So the king of Assyria listened to him and marched up to Damascus and captured it. He deported its people to Kir but put Rezin to death.
10King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. When he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction to Uriah the priest. 11Uriah built the altar according to all the instructions King Ahaz sent from Damascus. Therefore, by the time King Ahaz came back from Damascus, Uriah the priest had completed it. 12When the king came back from Damascus, he saw the altar. Then he approached the altar and ascended it. 13He offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar. 14He took the bronze altar that was before the Lord in front of the temple between his altar and the Lord's temple, and put it on the north side of his altar.
15Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, "Offer on the great altar the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering. Also offer the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings. Sprinkle on the altar all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of sacrifice. The bronze altar will be for me to seek guidance." 16Uriah the priest did everything King Ahaz commanded.
17Then King Ahaz cut off the frames of the water carts and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took the reservoir from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement. 18To satisfy the king of Assyria, he removed from the Lord's temple the Sabbath canopy they had built in the palace, and he closed the outer entrance for the king.
19The rest of the events of Ahaz's reign, along with his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah's Kings. 20Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Hezekiah became king in his place.

Ephesians 5

Chapter 5

5:1Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. 2And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. 3But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. 4Coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. 5For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.
6Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God's wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things. 7Therefore, do not become their partners. 8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light- 9for the fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth- 10discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Don't participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret. 13Everything exposed by the light is made clear, 14for what makes everything clear is light. Therefore it is said:
Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead,
and the Messiah will shine on you.
15Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk-not as unwise people but as wise- 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17So don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18And don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit:
19speaking to one another
in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,
singing and making music
from your heart to the Lord,
20giving thanks always for everything
to God the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
21submitting to one another
in the fear of Christ.
22Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, 23for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 27He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30since we are members of His body.
31For this reason a man will leave
his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh.
32This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.

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