Day 184: Apprehended

Welcome to Day 184 of the Bible 365 Podcast! I'm so excited you are joining me on this journey through the entire Bible this year. Reminder that each episode in 2026 will have a brand new devotional.

Today we'll be reading through 2 Kings 22:3-20, 23:1-30; Acts 21:37-40, 22:1-16; Psalm 1; and Proverbs 18:11-12. Invite a family member or friend to join you as we grow in our knowledge of God through His Word.

I'm so glad that you are here!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to day 184 of the Bible 365 podcast. My name is Randy Goudo, and today we're going to be reading through 2 Kings chapter 22 verses 3 through 20 and chapter 23 verses 1 through 30. Acts chapter 21 verses 37 through 40 and chapter 22 verses 1 through 16. Psalm chapter 1 and Proverbs chapter 18 verses 11 and 12. The translation I'm using throughout this podcast is the Berean Standard Bible, also known as the BSB. Let's read. 2 Kings chapter 22 verses 3 through 20. Now in the 18th year of his reign, King Josiah sent the scribe, Shaphan, son of Azaliah, the son of Meshulam, to the house of the Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people, and let them deliver it into the hands of the supervisors of those doing the work on the house of the Lord, who in turn are to give it to the workmen repairing the damages to the house of the Lord, to the carpenters, builders, and masons, to buy timber and dress stone to repair the temple. But they need not account for the money put into their hands, since they work with integrity. Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, and he gave it to Shaphan, who read it. And Shaphan the scribe went to the king and reported, Your servants have paid out the money that was found in the temple, and have put it into the hands of the workers and supervisors of the house of the Lord. Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book, and Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes and commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikim, son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Makaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Azaiah the servant of the king. Go and inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah concerning the words in this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book by doing all that is written about us. So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikim, Akbor, Shaphan, and Azaiah went and spoke to Holdah the prophetess, the wife of Shalom, son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the second district. And Holdah said to them, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Tell the man who sent you that this is what the Lord says. I am about to bring calamity on this place and on its people, according to all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. My wrath will be kindled against this place and will not be quenched. But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, tell him that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. As for the words that you heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place. So they brought her answer back to the king. 2 Kings 23, verses 1 through 30. Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, and he went up to the house of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priest and the prophets, all the people small and great, and in their hearing he read all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of the covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priest second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal, Ashrah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priest ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. He brought the ashra pole from the house of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and there he burned it, ground it to powder, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the Lord, where the women had woven tapestries for Ashra. Then Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Giba to Geersheba, where the priest had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which was to the left of the city gate. Although the priest of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priest. He also desecrated Topheth in the valley of Ben Hinnem so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech. And he removed from the entrance to the house of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the chamber of an official named Nathan Melech, and Josiah burned up the chariots of the sun. He pulled down the altars that the kings of Judah had set up on the roof near the upper chamber of Ahaz, and the altars that Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the house of the Lord. The king pulverized them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtarath the abomination of the Sidonians, for Kemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the ashrapoles, and covered the sites with human bones. He even pulled down the altar at Bethel, the high place set up by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. Then he burned the high place, ground it to powder, and burned the ashrapole. And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things. Then the king asked, What is this monument I see? And the men of the city replied, It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done to the altar of Bethel. Let him rest, said Josiah, do not let anyone disturb his bones. So they left his bones undisturbed, along with those of the prophet who had come from Samaria. Just as Josiah had done at Bethel, so also in the cities of Samaria he removed all the shrines of the high places set up by the kings of Israel who had provoked the Lord to anger. On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem. The king commanded all the people, Keep the Passover of the Lord your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant. No such Passover had been observed from the days of the judges who had governed Israel through all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah. But in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, this Passover was observed to the Lord in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hokiah the priest had found in the house of the Lord. Neither before nor after Josiah was there any king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses. Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the fury of his burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke him to anger. For the Lord had said, I will remove Judah from my sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the temple of which I said, my name shall be there. As for the rest of the acts of Josiah and all his accomplishments, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? During Josiah's reign, Pharaoh Neko, king of Egypt, marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to confront him, but Neko faced him and killed him at Megedoh. From Megiddo his servants carried his body in a chariot, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father. Acts 21, verses 37 through 40. As they were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, May I say something to you? Do you speak Greek? He replied. Aren't you the Egyptian who incited a rebellion some time ago and led four thousand members of the assassins into the wilderness? But Paul answered, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Now I beg you to allow me to speak to the people. Having received permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. A great hush came over the crowd, and he addressed them in Hebrew. Acts 22, verses 1 through 16. Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you. When they heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. Then Paul declared, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted this way even to the death, detaining both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and the whole council can testify about me. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and I was on my way to apprehend these people and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished. About noon as I was approaching Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? I asked. I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting, he replied. My companions saw the light, but they could not understand the voice of the one speaking to me. Then I asked, What should I do, Lord? Get up and go into Damascus, he told me. There you will be told all that you have been appointed to do. Because the brilliance of the light had blinded me, my companions led me by the hand into Damascus. There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the law, who is highly regarded by all the Jews living there, came and stood beside me. Brother Saul, he said, receive your sight. And at that moment I could see him. Then he said, The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will and to see the righteous one and to hear his voice. You will be his witness to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on his name. Psalm chapter 1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does. Not so the wicked, for they are like chaff driven off by the wind. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Proverbs 18, verses eleven and twelve. A rich man's wealth is his fortified city. It is like a high wall in his imagination. Before his downfall, a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor. Today's devotional is coming from Acts chapter twenty-two. I love this passage right here. It's hard for me to choose another portion of Scripture when I read this, because this is one of my favorites of the book of Acts. Paul is sharing his testimony before all these people, and he's recounting of his first experience with Jesus, where there's this bright light from heaven flashing around him. He falls to the ground and hears this voice saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? But Paul shares these two questions that he asked. Number one, who are you, Lord? The second question he asks is, What should I do, Lord? And I love that Paul says in both of these questions, he mentions this word here, Lord. He recognized that whoever this is that is before me, that is so bright that I am blinded, who is speaking over me, whoever he is, he is Lord. And the first question he asks is, Who are you, Lord? That's the first and most important question that we should never tire of as Christians, as children of God, as believers. You hear Paul echoing this as he's writing to the Philippians, probably 15 to 25 years later, after this encounter he had had that he's describing with the Lord, where he says, That I may know him. Who are you, Lord? You know, that quest and discovering that question as we read through the Bible, as we pray, as we go to church and assemble with our brothers and sisters in Christ, are we growing in more understanding and knowledge of who our King of Kings is? The second question he asked, which is a natural overflow of the first question, is what should I do, Lord? Paul, as some say, was a man who became arrested by Jesus on the road to Damascus, going to arrest others. The one who went to apprehend became apprehended himself, love struck with Jesus Christ, as he says, Who are you, Lord? I want to know you and the power of your resurrection, and a man who literally laid his life down for the cause of Christ because he was willing to answer the call to what should I do, Lord? These are two questions that I want to ask myself every day when I wake up. Who are you, Lord, and what should I do, Lord? Let's pray. Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus, and I just pray that you would create such a hunger inside of every one of us, just to desire to know more and more of who Jesus is. And that the more we discover, the more overwhelmed we are and amazed with just how awesome He is. And that we would also just find that deep, deep, strong desire within us to ask, What should I do, Lord? Draw us close by the presence of your Holy Spirit and reveal your Son to us. We ask all these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Well, I sure hope you enjoyed today's devotional. If you're getting something out of the Bible 365 podcast, consider sharing it with your family and with your friends. Please continue to pray for me. I am praying for you. Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow with day one eighty-five.