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2 Chronicles 30 6
At the king’s command, runners were sent throughout Israel and Judah. They carried letters that said:“ O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he will return to the few of us who have survived the conquest of the Assyrian kings.
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2 Samuel 18 19-2 Samuel 18 31
Then Zadok’s son Ahimaaz said,“ Let me run to the king with the good news that the Lord has rescued him from his enemies.”“ No,” Joab told him,“ it wouldn’t be good news to the king that his son is dead. You can be my messenger another time, but not today.”Then Joab said to a man from Ethiopia,“ Go tell the king what you have seen.” The man bowed and ran off.But Ahimaaz continued to plead with Joab,“ Whatever happens, please let me go, too.”“ Why should you go, my son?” Joab replied.“ There will be no reward for your news.”“ Yes, but let me go anyway,” he begged. Joab finally said,“ All right, go ahead.” So Ahimaaz took the less demanding route by way of the plain and ran to Mahanaim ahead of the Ethiopian.While David was sitting between the inner and outer gates of the town, the watchman climbed to the roof of the gateway by the wall. As he looked, he saw a lone man running toward them.He shouted the news down to David, and the king replied,“ If he is alone, he has news.” As the messenger came closer,the watchman saw another man running toward them. He shouted down,“ Here comes another one!” The king replied,“ He also will have news.”“ The first man runs like Ahimaaz son of Zadok,” the watchman said.“ He is a good man and comes with good news,” the king replied.Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king,“ Everything is all right!” He bowed before the king with his face to the ground and said,“ Praise to the Lord your God, who has handed over the rebels who dared to stand against my lord the king.”“ What about young Absalom?” the king demanded.“ Is he all right?” Ahimaaz replied,“ When Joab told me to come, there was a lot of commotion. But I didn’t know what was happening.”“ Wait here,” the king told him. So Ahimaaz stepped aside.Then the man from Ethiopia arrived and said,“ I have good news for my lord the king. Today the Lord has rescued you from all those who rebelled against you.”
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Isaiah 47:11-13
So disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared.“ Now use your magical charms! Use the spells you have worked at all these years! Maybe they will do you some good. Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.All the advice you receive has made you tired. Where are all your astrologers, those stargazers who make predictions each month? Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.
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Isaiah 21:3-9
My stomach aches and burns with pain. Sharp pangs of anguish are upon me, like those of a woman in labor. I grow faint when I hear what God is planning; I am too afraid to look.My mind reels and my heart races. I longed for evening to come, but now I am terrified of the dark.Look! They are preparing a great feast. They are spreading rugs for people to sit on. Everyone is eating and drinking. But quick! Grab your shields and prepare for battle. You are being attacked!Meanwhile, the Lord said to me,“ Put a watchman on the city wall. Let him shout out what he sees.He should look for chariots drawn by pairs of horses, and for riders on donkeys and camels. Let the watchman be fully alert.”Then the watchman called out,“ Day after day I have stood on the watchtower, my lord. Night after night I have remained at my post.Now at last— look! Here comes a man in a chariot with a pair of horses!” Then the watchman said,“ Babylon is fallen, fallen! All the idols of Babylon lie broken on the ground!”
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Jeremiah 50:24
Listen, Babylon, for I have set a trap for you. You are caught, for you have fought against the Lord.
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Daniel 5:2-5
While Belshazzar was drinking the wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups that his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. He wanted to drink from them with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.So they brought these gold cups taken from the Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.While they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote,
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1 Samuel 4 12-1 Samuel 4 18
A man from the tribe of Benjamin ran from the battlefield and arrived at Shiloh later that same day. He had torn his clothes and put dust on his head to show his grief.Eli was waiting beside the road to hear the news of the battle, for his heart trembled for the safety of the Ark of God. When the messenger arrived and told what had happened, an outcry resounded throughout the town.“ What is all the noise about?” Eli asked. The messenger rushed over to Eli,who was ninety eight years old and blind.He said to Eli,“ I have just come from the battlefield— I was there this very day.”“ What happened, my son?” Eli demanded.“ Israel has been defeated by the Philistines,” the messenger replied.“ The people have been slaughtered, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were also killed. And the Ark of God has been captured.”When the messenger mentioned what had happened to the Ark of God, Eli fell backward from his seat beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he was old and overweight. He had been Israel’s judge for forty years.
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Esther 8:10
The decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring. Mordecai sent the dispatches by swift messengers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king’s service.
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Jeremiah 4:20
Waves of destruction roll over the land, until it lies in complete desolation. Suddenly my tents are destroyed; in a moment my shelters are crushed.
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Daniel 5:30
That very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed.
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Job 9:25
“ My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away without a glimpse of happiness.
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Esther 8:14
So urged on by the king’s command, the messengers rode out swiftly on fast horses bred for the king’s service. The same decree was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa.
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Esther 3:13-15
Dispatches were sent by swift messengers into all the provinces of the empire, giving the order that all Jews— young and old, including women and children— must be killed, slaughtered, and annihilated on a single day. This was scheduled to happen on March 7 of the next year. The property of the Jews would be given to those who killed them.A copy of this decree was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that they would be ready to do their duty on the appointed day.At the king’s command, the decree went out by swift messengers, and it was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa fell into confusion.
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Jeremiah 50:43
The king of Babylon has heard reports about the enemy, and he is weak with fright. Pangs of anguish have gripped him, like those of a woman in labor.
