Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Blog Posting for June 25: Covenants in II Kings



God has asked that we give of our time, talent and treasure  to invest in and work on our relationships with each other and with God. Throughout 2 Kings, Israel and Judah do not live up to their covenant agreement; King after King does what is evil in the sight of the Lord, interspersed with Kings that do what is right in the sight of the Lord …. except the high places were not taken away.  The faithful Kings try to clean their spiritual house and in several cases set up building funds (sound familiar?) to repair God's house. The situation continues to spiral out of control as Israel is carted off to Assyria and Judah is besieged in Jerusalem.  Israel and Judah seem to be obsessed with Power, Prestige and Possessions to the point that they forget their covenant and in the end they lose all three. Josiah is made King at age 8 and finally he does what is right in the sight of the Lord and walks in all the ways of his father David. At age18, Jerusalem is on the verge of collapse when during a house cleaning to account for cash to pay for repairs to the house of the Lord, or possibly to buy their way out of trouble, they rediscover the Law.  Josiah reads the Law to all of the people and they rededicate themselves to their covenant with God. But  their efforts are too little too late and Jerusalem falls twice to the Chaldeans, the temple is burned and the people are carted off to Babylon. The great exile begins....

Thursday, June 6, 2013



                                        2nd Samuel 10-24; 1st Kings 1-3     Acts 17-22


Hello again!   Hope you have been enjoying this Bible challenge.  

This week our readings are very interesting and intriguing as we finish the book of  2nd  Samuel and begin the 1st Book of Kings. David has been anointed king of Judah.  God makes a covenant with David that He will never remove his steadfast love from the house of David and it will last forever.  

David is faithful in his love of God and he follows the commandments – at least he tries to.  Our readings in 2nd Samuel will cover how David sinned against God by committing adultery and murder – Bathsheba and Uriah.  God will not go against his covenant (he still loves David) but tells David his first born son will die.  Not only that, but “I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house.”