Reading for Today:

• 2 Kings 19:1 Chapter 19 1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah. –21:26
• Psalms 74:9-17 9 We see not our signs: There is no more any prophet; Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. 10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? 11 Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand? `Pluck it' out of thy bosom `and' consume `them'. 12 Yet God is my King of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters. 14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces; Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 15 Thou didst cleave fountain and flood: Thou driedst up mighty rivers. 16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: Thou hast made summer and winter.
• Proverbs 19:1-2 Chapter 19 1 Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity Than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool. 2 Also, that the soul be without knowledge is not good; And he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.
• Acts 2:1-21 Chapter 2 1 And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speaking in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying, Behold, are not all these that speak Galilaeans? 8 And how hear we, every man in our own language wherein we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, 10 in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our tongues the mighty works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine. 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them, `saying', Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words. 15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose; seeing it is `but' the third hour of the day. 16 but this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel: 17 And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams: 18 Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show wonders in the heaven above, And signs on the earth beneath; Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable `day'. 21 And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Notes:

2 Kings 20:16, 17 word of the LORD…carried to Babylon. Isaiah predicted the Babylonian captivity that would come over a century later (586 B.C.), another prophecy historically fulfilled in all of its expected detail.

2 Kings 20:17 nothing shall be left. Hezekiah’s sin of parading his wealth before the visitors backfired, though this sin was only symptomatic of the ultimate reason for the captivity. The major cause was the corrupt leadership of Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son (21:11–15).

2 Kings 21:13 the plummet. These were weighted lines dropped from walls to see whether they were structurally straight (Is. 28:17; Amos 7:7 7 Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. , 8). Walls out of line were torn down. The Lord had measured Jerusalem by the standard of His word and had determined that the fate of Samaria (Israel) was also to befall Jerusalem. wipe Jerusalem. As one would wipe food off a dish, the Lord would wipe Jerusalem clean off the earth, i.e., obliterate her, and leave her turned upside down, empty, and useless.

Acts 2:3 3 And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. The disciples could not comprehend the significance of the Spirit’s arrival without the Lord sovereignly illustrating what was occurring with a visible phenomenon. tongues, as of fire. Just as the sound, like wind, was symbolic, these were not literal flames of fire but supernatural indicators, like fire, that God had sent the Holy Spirit upon each believer. In Scripture, fire often denoted the divine presence (Ex.3:2–6). God’s use of a firelike appearance here parallels what He did with the dove when Jesus was baptized (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16 16 John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but there cometh he that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and `in' fire: ).

Acts 2:7 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying, Behold, are not all these that speak Galilaeans? Galileans. Inhabitants of the mostly rural area of northern Israel around the Sea of Galilee. Galilean Jews spoke with a distinct regional accent and were considered to be unsophisticated and uneducated by the southern Judean Jews. When Galileans were seen to be speaking so many different languages, the Judean Jews were astonished. 

DAY 16: What can we learn about the Holy Spirit’s special role from the Book of Acts? 

One of the cautions we must exercise in studying and teaching from the Book of Acts has to do with the difference between description and prescription. The difference plays an important role in interpreting the historical biblical books. The Bible’s description of an event does not imply that the event or action can, should, or will be repeated.

The role of the Holy Spirit in His arrival as the promised Helper ( John 14:17 17 `even' the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you. ), which Acts describes as a startling audiovisual event (2:1–13),had some partial and selected repetitions (8:14–19; 10:44–48; 19:1–7).These were special cases in which believers are reported to have received or been filled with the Holy Spirit. In each of these cases, the sound of a rushing mighty wind and the tongues as of fire that were present in the original event (2:1–13) were absent, but the people spoke in tongues they did not know (but others recognized).These events should not be taken as the basis for teaching that believers today should expect the same tongue-evidence to accompany the filling of the Holy Spirit. Even in Acts itself, genuine conversions did not necessarily lead to extraordinary filling by the Holy Spirit. For example, a crowd of three thousand people believed and were baptized on the same Day of Pentecost (2:41) that started so dramatically, yet there is no mention of tongues. So, why in some cases did tongues accompany the confirmation of faith? That this actually occurred likely demonstrated that believers were being drawn from very different groups into the church. Each new group received a special welcome from the Holy Spirit. Thus, Samaritans (8:14–19), Gentiles (10:44–48), and believers from the old covenant (19:1–7) were added to the church, and the unity of the church was established. To demonstrate that unity, it was imperative to have some replication in each instance of what had occurred at Pentecost with the believing Jews, such as the presence of the apostles and the coming of the Spirit, manifestly indicated through speaking in the languages of Pentecost.

From The MacArthur Daily Bible Copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson Bibles, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc, Nashville, TN 37214, www.thomasnelson.com.

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