Spiritual Treasure in Clay Pots

2 Corinthians 4 God in his mercy has given us this work to do, and so we do not become discouraged. ²We put aside all secret and shameful deeds; we do not act with deceit, nor do we falsify the word of God. In the full light of truth we live in God's sight and try to commend ourselves to everyone's good conscience. ³For if the gospel we preach is hidden, it is hidden only from those who are being lost. ⁴They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. ⁵For it is not ourselves that we preach; we preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. ⁶The God who said, "Out of darkness the light shall shine!" is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts, to bring us the knowledge of God's glory shining in the face of Christ.
⁷Yet we who have this spiritual treasure are like common clay pots, in order to show that the supreme power belongs to God, not to us. ⁸We are often troubled, but not crushed; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair; ⁹there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed. ¹⁰At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies. ¹¹Throughout our lives we are always in danger of death for Jesus' sake, in order that his life may be seen in this mortal body of ours. ¹²This means that death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
¹³The scripture says, "I spoke because I believed." In the same spirit of faith we also speak because we believe. ¹⁴We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus to life, will also raise us up with Jesus and take us, together with you, into his presence. ¹⁵All this is for your sake; and as God's grace reaches more and more people, they will offer to the glory of God more prayers of thanksgiving.

Living by Faith

¹⁶For this reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. ¹⁷And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. ¹⁸For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.
2 Corinthians 5 For we know that when this tent we live in--our body here on earth--is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever. ²And now we sigh, so great is our desire that our home which comes from heaven should be put on over us; ³by being clothed with it we shall not be without a body. ⁴While we live in this earthly tent, we groan with a feeling of oppression; it is not that we want to get rid of our earthly body, but that we want to have the heavenly one put on over us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by life. ⁵God is the one who has prepared us for this change, and he gave us his Spirit as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.
⁶So we are always full of courage. We know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord's home. ⁷For our life is a matter of faith, not of sight. ⁸We are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord. ⁹More than anything else, however, we want to please him, whether in our home here or there. ¹⁰For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. We will each receive what we deserve, according to everything we have done, good or bad, in our bodily life.

King Hoshea of Israel

2 Kings 17 In the twelfth year of the reign of King Ahaz of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for nine years. ²He sinned against the LORD, but not as much as the kings who had ruled Israel before him. ³Emperor Shalmaneser of Assyria made war against him; Hoshea surrendered to Shalmaneser and paid him tribute every year. ⁴But one year Hoshea sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, asking for his help, and stopped paying the annual tribute to Assyria. When Shalmaneser learned of this, he had Hoshea arrested and put in prison.

The Fall of Samaria

⁵Then Shalmaneser invaded Israel and besieged Samaria. In the third year of the siege, ⁶which was the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the Assyrian emperor captured Samaria, took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners, and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the Habor River in the district of Gozan and some in the cities of Media.
⁷Samaria fell because the Israelites sinned against the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the king of Egypt and had led them out of Egypt. They worshiped other gods, ⁸followed the customs of the people whom the LORD had driven out as his people advanced, and adopted customs introduced by the kings of Israel. ⁹The Israelites did things that the LORD their God disapproved of. They built pagan places of worship in all their towns, from the smallest village to the largest city. ¹⁰On all the hills and under every shady tree they put up stone pillars and images of the goddess Asherah, ¹¹and they burned incense on all the pagan altars, following the practice of the people whom the LORD had driven out of the land. They aroused the LORD's anger with all their wicked deeds ¹²and disobeyed the LORD's command not to worship idols.
¹³The LORD had sent his messengers and prophets to warn Israel and Judah: "Abandon your evil ways and obey my commands, which are contained in the Law I gave to your ancestors and which I handed on to you through my servants the prophets." ¹⁴But they would not obey; they were stubborn like their ancestors, who had not trusted in the LORD their God. ¹⁵They refused to obey his instructions, they did not keep the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and they disregarded his warnings. They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves, and they followed the customs of the surrounding nations, disobeying the LORD's command not to imitate them. ¹⁶They broke all the laws of the LORD their God and made two metal bull-calves to worship; they also made an image of the goddess Asherah, worshiped the stars, and served the god Baal. ¹⁷They sacrificed their sons and daughters as burnt offerings to pagan gods; they consulted mediums and fortunetellers, and they devoted themselves completely to doing what is wrong in the LORD's sight, and so aroused his anger. ¹⁸The LORD was angry with the Israelites and banished them from his sight, leaving only the kingdom of Judah.
¹⁹But even the people of Judah did not obey the laws of the LORD their God; they imitated the customs adopted by the people of Israel. ²⁰The LORD rejected all the Israelites, punishing them and handing them over to cruel enemies until at last he had banished them from his sight.
²¹After the LORD had separated Israel from Judah, the Israelites made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam caused them to abandon the LORD and led them into terrible sins. ²²They followed Jeroboam and continued to practice all the sins he had committed, ²³until at last the LORD banished them from his sight, as he had warned through his servants the prophets that he would do. So the people of Israel were taken into exile to Assyria, where they still live.

The Assyrians Settle in Israel

²⁴The emperor of Assyria took people from the cities of Babylon, Cuth, Ivvah, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the exiled Israelites. They took possession of these cities and lived there. ²⁵When they first settled there, they did not worship the LORD, and so he sent lions, which killed some of them. ²⁶The emperor of Assyria was told that the people he had settled in the cities of Samaria did not know the law of the god of that land, and so the god had sent lions, which were killing them. ²⁷So the emperor commanded: "Send back one of the priests we brought as prisoners; have him go back and live there, in order to teach the people the law of the god of that land." ²⁸So an Israelite priest who had been deported from Samaria went and lived in Bethel, where he taught the people how to worship the LORD.
²⁹But the people who settled in Samaria continued to make their own idols, and they placed them in the shrines that the Israelites had built. Each different group made idols in the cities they were living in: ³⁰the people of Babylon made idols of the god Succoth Benoth; the people of Cuth, idols of Nergal; the people of Hamath, idols of Ashima; ³¹the people of Ivvah, idols of Nibhaz and Tartak; and the people of Sepharvaim sacrificed their children as burnt offerings to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech. ³²These people also worshiped the LORD and chose from among their own number all sorts of people to serve as priests at the pagan places of worship and to offer sacrifices for them there. ³³So they worshiped the LORD, but they also worshiped their own gods according to the customs of the countries from which they had come.
³⁴They still carry on their old customs to this day. They do not worship the LORD nor do they obey the laws and commands which he gave to the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel. ³⁵The LORD had made a covenant with them and had ordered them: "Do not worship other gods; do not bow down to them or serve them or offer sacrifices to them. ³⁶You shall obey me, the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt with great power and strength; you are to bow down to me and offer sacrifices to me. ³⁷You shall always obey the laws and commands that I wrote for you. You shall not obey other gods, ³⁸and you shall not forget the covenant I made with you. ³⁹You shall obey me, the LORD your God, and I will rescue you from your enemies." ⁴⁰But those people would not listen, and they continued to follow their old customs.
⁴¹So those people worshiped the LORD, but they also worshiped their idols; and to this day their descendants continue to do the same.

The LORD's Case against Israel

Micah 6 Listen to the LORD's case against Israel.
Arise, O LORD, and present your case; let the mountains and the hills hear what you say.
²You mountains, you everlasting foundations of the earth, listen to the LORD's case! The LORD has a case against his people. He is going to bring an accusation against Israel.
³The LORD says, "My people, what have I done to you? How have I been a burden to you? Answer me. ⁴I brought you out of Egypt; I rescued you from slavery; I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you. ⁵My people, remember what King Balak of Moab planned to do to you and how Balaam son of Beor answered him. Remember the things that happened on the way from the camp at Acacia to Gilgal. Remember these things and you will realize what I did in order to save you."

What the LORD Requires

⁶What shall I bring to the LORD, the God of heaven, when I come to worship him? Shall I bring the best calves to burn as offerings to him? ⁷Will the LORD be pleased if I bring him thousands of sheep or endless streams of olive oil? Shall I offer him my first-born child to pay for my sins? ⁸No, the LORD has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.
⁹It is wise to fear the LORD. He calls to the city, "Listen, you people who assemble in the city! ¹⁰In the houses of evil people are treasures which they got dishonestly. They use false measures, a thing that I hate. ¹¹How can I forgive those who use false scales and weights? ¹²Your rich people exploit the poor, and all of you are liars. ¹³So I have already begun your ruin and destruction because of your sins. ¹⁴You will eat, but not be satisfied--in fact you will still be hungry. You will carry things off, but you will not be able to save them; anything you do save I will destroy in war. ¹⁵You will sow grain, but not harvest the crop. You will press oil from olives, but never get to use it. You will make wine, but never drink it. ¹⁶This will happen because you have followed the evil practices of King Omri and of his son, King Ahab. You have continued their policies, and so I will bring you to ruin, and everyone will despise you. People everywhere will treat you with contempt."