Daily Lesson for July 31, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Chronicles chapter 32 verses 1-8 and 20:

After these things and these acts of faithfulness, King Sennacherib of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself. 2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, 3 he planned with his officers and his warriors to stop the flow of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him. 4 A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the wadi that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the Assyrian kings come and find water in abundance?” 5 Hezekiah set to work resolutely and built up the entire wall that was broken down, and raised towers on it, and outside it he built another wall; he also strengthened the Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance. 6 He appointed combat commanders over the people, and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, 7 “Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him; for there is one greater with us than with him. 8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” The people were encouraged by the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.

20 Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed because of this and cried to heaven.

Saint Augustine said that we have to pray like everything depends upon God and work like everything depends on us.

Hezekiah did pray to God.  And he was wise enough to pray with a man prayer, the Prophet Isaiah. And by the what the Scripture tells us they must have prayed mightily.  And, they worked mightily also.  They built.  They fortified.  They organized, and trained, and sharpened.  They prayed like it all depended on God and they worked like it all depended on them.

Yesterday the New York Times ran a touching op-ed piece written in the final days of Congressman John Lewis's courageous life and printed on the day of his funeral.  He closed by telling us to "walk with the wind", his often-used metaphor for the Spirit which swept through America with the birth of the Civil Rights Movement and continues to blow in the direction of "a more perfect Union".

The wind blows and we walk.

We pray and we vote.

We ask God to help us and we organize.

We cry out to the heavens and we wear masks.

The Spirit moves and we move also.

And the Movement never ends.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  Over the weekend we will read: the book of Nahum, 2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34-35, and Zephaniah.