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1 Kings 16, 2 Chronicles 17
First Kings 16 is the account of the absolute dumpster fire that is the throne of Israel. All of these wicked kings of Israel come and go during Asa’s reign in Judah. The contrast between them couldn’t be more striking. Judah has “Good King Asa” who leads the southern kingdom in loyalty to Yahweh and…
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2 Chronicles 15-16
Chapter 15 picks up right after that miraculous victory over the million-man army. They are headed back to Jerusalem with loads of plunder and huge herds of captured livestock. And a man who we’ve never heard of before, and will only appear this once in scripture, comes out to meet the returning King Asa and…
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2 Chronicles 13-14
Of Abijah, the book of Kings said: “He walked in all the sins of his father that he had done before him, and his heart was not fully with Yahweh his God as the heart of David his father.”1 Kings 15:3 LEB And what were “the sins of his father,” Rehoboam? “And he did evil,…
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2 Chronicles 12, 1 Kings 15
You probably already know that the northern kingdom of Israel will have no good kings. Not one. Every last one is evil. The southern kingdom of Judah is a mixed bag. Some will start out ok and go bad. Some are bad but repent at the end. And there are a few good ones, but…
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2 Chronicles 10-11
One of the MANY benefits of reading through the ENTIRE Bible, especially in chronological order, is that it can correct overly simplistic views of the biblical narrative that we tend to pick up when we just pop in and read a text here and there. This is particularly true if you were raised in church…
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1 Kings 14
Boy, that didn’t take long. If you’ve never squandered a perfectly useful hour watching the Redbull tandem coaster challenge, you don’t know what you’re missing. Israel is off the rails into such deep idolatry that Yahweh is already saying that He will uproot them from the land and send them into captivity. The Northern Kingdom…
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1 Kings 12-13
We open a new chapter on Israel’s history: The Divided Kingdom. How typical of a spoiled rich kid to reject the wisdom of his elders and instead listen to the stupid ideas of his frat bros. That was Solomon’s son Rehoboam. And it’s no surprise that the people weren’t keen on heavier taxes. This whole…
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Proverbs 31
Ahh, the infamous much lauded intimidating fabulous Proverbs 31 Woman… As I mentioned in the last post, many scholars believe that “Lemuel” was a nickname for Solomon. If it is, then the text of this final chapter of Proverbs was given by God through Bathsheba. It’s one of the few places in scripture where God…
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Proverbs 30
The opening verse of Proverbs 30 is a little odd. The Hebrew names – Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ucal can also be understood as words and not names. Agur (aw-goor) means “collector” or “to gather.” It could be a title rather than a name – like, the guy who collected these lists of wise observations.…
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2nd Chronicles 9
SOLOMON’S WEALTH The interesting tidbit about the special wood used for making instruments caught my attention. So I did a little digging into it. “Moreover, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum wood and precious stones. And the king made from the algum wood supports for…
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1st Kings 10-11
The Queen of Sheba is a figure that is rather like King Arthur. A real person from the past whose life is basically mythical. The Quran has a story about her but she is called Bilqis. And among Arabs there rose many legends about her. One of these legends says that King Solomon had a…
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Ecclesiastes 10-12
In general, I really enjoy the New Living Translation for the poetic books and wisdom literature. There are many idioms used in these books and the NLT’s thought-for-thought translation really excels with those. But – I take issue with the choice of word for translating the Hebrew word hebel. It’s often translated as “vanity.” The…
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