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JULY 14
DAY 13: How did Paul address the philosophers of Athens?
In preaching to them Jesus and the resurrection, Paul was brought to the Areopagus (Acts
17:19).This was a court named for the hill on which it once met. Paul was not being formally tried;
only being asked to defend his teaching.
Paul immediately mentioned the inscription on one other object of worship: TO THE
UNKNOWN GOD.The Athenians were supernaturalists—they believed in supernatural powers that
intervened in the course of natural laws. They at least acknowledged the existence of someone
beyond their ability to understand who had made all things.Paul thus had the opportunity to intro-
duce them to the Creator-God who could be known.When evangelizing pagans, Paul started from
creation,the general revelation of God (14:15–17).When evangelizing Jews,he started from the Old
Testament (vv. 10–13).
Declaring to them the “God, who made the world” (v. 24) flatly contradicted both the
Epicureans, who believed matter was eternal and therefore had no creator, and the Stoics, who as
pantheists believed God was part of everything and could not have created Himself. And adding
that “He has made from one blood every nation of men” (v. 26) also confronted them directly. All
men are equal in God’s sight since all came from one man, Adam.This teaching was a blow to the
national pride of the Greeks, who believed all non-Greeks were barbarians.“And has determined
their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.”God sovereignly controls the rise
and fall of nations and empires (Dan. 2:36–45; Luke 21:24). God is responsible for establishing
nations as to their racial identity and their specific geographical locations (Deut. 32:8) and deter-
mining the extent of their conquests (Is. 10:12–15).
God’s objective for man in revealing Himself as the creator, ruler, and controller of the world
was that they “should seek the Lord” (v. 27). Men have no excuse for not knowing about God
because He has revealed Himself in man’s conscience and in the physical world (Rom.1:19,20;2:15).

the LORD has said of the sons of David. This is
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July 14 what you shall do: One-third of you entering on
the Sabbath, of the priests and the Levites,
shall be keeping watch over the doors; one-
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third shall be at the king’s house; and one-
2 Chronicles 23:1–24:27
third at the Gate of the Foundation. All the
In the seventh year Jehoiada strength- people shall be in the courts of the house of
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23 ened himself, and made a covenant with the LORD. But let no one come into the house
the captains of hundreds: Azariah the son of of the LORD except the priests and those of the
Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Levites who serve. They may go in, for they
Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of are holy; but all the people shall keep the
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Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri. And watch of the LORD. And the Levites shall sur-
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they went throughout Judah and gathered the round the king on all sides, every man with
Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the chief his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes
fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. into the house, let him be put to death. You are
3 Then all the assembly made a covenant with to be with the king when he comes in and
the king in the house of God. And he said to when he goes out.”
them, “Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as 8 So the Levites and all Judah did according
to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded.
And each man took his men who were to be
on duty on the Sabbath, with those who were
going off duty on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the
23:3 as the LORD…said. This is one of the 9
most dramatic moments in messianic history. priest had not dismissed the divisions. And
The human offspring of David have been Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains of hun-
reduced to one—Joash. If he had died, there dreds the spears and the large and small
would have been no human heir to the shields which had belonged to King David, that
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Davidic throne, and it would have meant the were in the temple of God. Then he set all the
destruction of the line of the Messiah. people, every man with his weapon in his
However,God remedied the situation by prov- hand, from the right side of the temple to the
identially protecting Joash (2 Chr. 22:10–12) left side of the temple, along by the altar and
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and eliminating Athaliah (1 Chr. 23:12–21). by the temple, all around the king. And they
brought out the king’s son, put the crown on
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