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2 Kings 10
The purge continues… Jehu has been anointed to destroy the entire dynasty of Ahab. And when a king has a bunch of wives, the result is many children. At this point, it’s been 14 years since the death of Ahab. Assuming he fathered a child just before he went to battle where he was fatally…
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2 Kings 9
If chapter 9 were a movie… This chapter is finally tying up a bunch of loose ends that have been dangling for several chapters. Let’s review them. Remember back when we read this? (Note all the loose ends we just reviewed)… “Ahaziah also followed the evil example of King Ahab’s family, for his mother encouraged…
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2 Kings 8
Just in case you needed a bit of orientation, we’re still catching up on the timeline where we paused at the coronation of little king Joash in Judah. We went back a bit to cover details under the reigns of Ahaziah & Joram in Israel. Chronicles is more focused on Judah while the books of…
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2 Kings 6-7
I’m tweaking the reading schedule again… And that’s because the narrative of the siege of Samaria begins in chapter 6 and resolves in chapter 7 and I thought it would be helpful to take it all together. THE FLOATING AXE-HEAD This was me pondering this story: I mean, why is it in the Bible? Is…
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2 Kings 5
The story of Naaman washing in the Jordan is one of those OT narratives that we teach to even the youngest Sunday School classes. It’s a simple story they can understand, one of the characters is a little girl, it’s fun to sing songs and act out Naaman dipping 7 times… But there is a…
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2 Kings 4
Two Women and Two Food Miracles… 👩🏽👩🏻🦱 🍉🥖 The next few chapters cover a series of miracles performed by Elisha. Three of the four in this chapter involve that group we’ve encountered a few times, “The Sons of the Prophets.” And they will figure into a few more in coming chapters. So the first pair…
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2 Kings 2-3
Elijah sings “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and Elisha does 2 water miracles… One of the things I find fascinating about the narrative of Elijah being taken to heaven is that all the “sons of the prophets” seem to know it. The Spirit of the LORD has informed everyone. This story also has some significant parallels…
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2 Kings 1
We’re shifting our attention from the southern kingdom of Judah back up to the northern kingdom of Israel. We’re also backtracking in time just a little. There are some details and side-quests we need to pick up that weren’t mentioned in Chronicles. First… 2 Family Trees… 🌴 Omri > Ahab > Ahaziah, Athaliah & Joram…
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2 Chronicles 23
Praise the Lord for this godly couple – Jehoiada (Jehovah-known) and Jehoshabeath (Jehovah-sworn). They raise the one remaining seed of David in secret in the Temple; their nephew, King Joash. He is barely a year old when they hide him from the murderous Athaliah. And when Joash is seven years old – the age of…
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2 Chronicles 21-22
Ohhhh the drama! We were going along so nicely with good King Jehoshaphat. He gives gifts 🎁 to his sons and assigns them to lesser governmental roles before he names his eldest son Jehoram as his successor and dies. Then WHAM! 💥 “When Jehoram had ascended the throne of his father and was established, he…
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2 Chronicles 20, Psalm 83
I find this to be one of the most inspiring narratives in all of the stories of the kings. Jehoshaphat really took the correction of the prophet Jehu to heart. He personally went all over Judah and Benjamin appointing impartial Levites to teach the people the Word of God and to settle legal disputes. He’s…
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Psalm 82, 2 Chronicles 18-19
Let me give credit right up front to the late Dr. Michael S. Heiser for basically all of the concepts and content in this post. If you’ve never encountered this material before, it can be quite unsettling. So let me start by assuring you of some things from both myself and Dr. Heiser’s material. I…