Bible in a Year - Day 258 - Tuesday 15th September 2026

0:00The Bible in a year, bringing the Word to life. Father God, thank you for the Scriptures, written in the past to teachers, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. Help us to treasure your Word and follow your teachings. Amen. Psalm 107 verses 23 to 32. Some went out on the sea in ships. They were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, His wonderful deeds in the deep. For He spoke and stirred up a tempers that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths. In their peril, their courage melted away.

1:01They reeled and staggered like drunkards. They were at their wit's end. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He still the storm to a whisper. The waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and He guided them to their desired heaven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love, and His wonderful deeds from unkind. Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people, and praise Him in the counsel of the elders. Galatians chapter 2 verses 1 to 10. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation, and meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.

2:05I wanted to be sure I was not running, and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks, to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. As for those who were held in high esteem, whatever they were makes no difference to me. God does not show favoritism. They added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they recognised that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.

3:05James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, give me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and there to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor. They are very thing I had been eager to do all along. Isaiah, chapter 36 and 37 In the 14th year of King Hezekiah's reign, Senacarib, king of Assyria, attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lekish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool on the road to the Laundraers' field, a liar came, son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator, Shepnah the secretary,

4:09and your son of Asaph the recorder went out to him. The field commander said to them, tell Hezekiah, this is what the great king, the king of Assyria says. On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have counsel and might for war, but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending that you rebel against me? Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered read of a staff which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who depend on him. But if you say to me, we are depending on the Lord our God, isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? Things of Judah and Jerusalem, you must worship before this altar. Come, now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria.

5:15I will give you 2,000 horses, if you can put riders on them. How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord Himself told me to march against this country and destroy it. Then a liar came, Shepner and Jor, said to the field commander, please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew, in the hearing of the people on the wall. But the commander replied, was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall, who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?

6:17Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew. Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. This is what the king says. Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when He says, the Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says. Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own system. Until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of corn and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when He says,

7:18the Lord will deliver us. Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpaad? Where are the gods of Saraphayam? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand? But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply because the king had commanded. Do not answer him. Then the liar came, son of Iolkiah, the palace administrator. Shaktana the Secretary and your son of Asaf the recorder went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what the field commander had said. Isaiah chapter 37

8:20When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. He sent a liar came, the palace administrator, Shaktana the Secretary and the leading priests all wearing sackcloth to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amos. They told him, this is what Hezekiah says. This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace. As when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives. When King Hezekiah's officials came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them,

9:24tell your master, this is what the Lord says. Do not be afraid of what you have heard, those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me? When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword. When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Leakish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libna. Now Senakarib received a report from Tehaker, the king of Kush, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word. Say to Hezekiah, king of Judah, do not let the God you depend on, deceive you when he says, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

10:25Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them? The gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezif and the people of Eden who were in Talasaar. Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Leir, Sephavayum, Hina and Ivar? Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. Lord Almighty, the god of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear.

11:25Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to all the words Sinakarib has sent to ridicule the living God. It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them. For they were not gods, but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now Lord our God, deliver us from His hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God. Then Isaiah, son of Ehmos, sent a message to Hezekiah. This is what the Lord, the god of Israel, says. Because you have prayed to me concerning Sinakarib king of Assyria, this is the word the Lord has spoken against him. Virgin daughter Zion despises and mocks you.

12:28Dr. Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it? You have ridiculed and blasphemed. Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the holy one of Israel. By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, with my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of junipers. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests. I dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the souls of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt. Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In the day of old I planned it.

13:29Now I have brought it to pass. That you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. And I will make you return by the way you came. This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah. This year you will eat what grows by itself and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year saw and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

14:34Once more a remnant of the King of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the King of Assyria. He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that He came, He will return. He will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and serve it for my sake and for the sake of David my servant. Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp.

15:38When the people got up the next morning there were all the dead bodies. So Sanakirab, King of Assyria, broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nizrok, his sons Adramalek and Shiza killed him with the sword. And they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Isar hadn't his son, succeeded him as King. Father God, thank you for the blessing of your word. We thank you that you speak so clearly towards from the Bible. Help us to listen with care to all that you have to say to us and remain faithful to what we have learned. Amen. For more resources to help you bring the word to life, go to premier.org.uk or it's slash Bible.

16:43This reading has been taken from the NIV Bible Biblical and is published by Hodder and Stanton.