Ughhh...Jilly and I just got back from a steak dinner at Moton's Steakhouse to celebrate her birthday and both of our promotions. We ate so much freaking food my intestens are exhausted. I would like to promote another blog if you are interested. My old youth pastor has a blog about just finding God in our every day lives. You can check it out here - he has some great stuff on there.
Reading for July 4
2 Kings 23:31-25:30
This is the last chapter of 2 Kings. Another book completed yo. Word up.
In this final section of 2 Kings the entire region of God's people is handed over to foreign nations, and completely destroyed. There's a guy named Nebuchadnezzar who is king of Babylon and he leads an attack against Judah. It takes some time, but eventually they set fire to Jerusalem, destroying every building within, including the temple of God. This fulfilled the prophecy that God would remove the people of Judah from their land, but it also fulfills another promise of God from about four books ago, probably close to 1000 years in the timeline at this point.
Back in 1 Samuel, when the Israelites wanted a king to rule over their nation rather than appointed judges, God warned them that there would be extreme complications if they went down that route. They insisted and for the next thousand years, Israel slowly fell apart. Saul was their first king who was good at first and then slowly got worse and worse. Then David took over and barring a few flubs, he was one of Israel's most well respected kings. From there Israel split into two nations, the next line of kings for Israel got worse and worse and they completely turned away from God, so much so that they weren't even aware of him after a few generations. Then God removed the people of Israel from their land. The land he promised them after freeing them from Egypt was now in the hands of foreigners and the people were once again scattered. God's lone hope, the nation of Judah, had done alright for itself for a few hundred years until it got it's share of really bad kings. Eventually Judah was destroyed and it's people were removed as well.
So throughout these four books, we see a distinct cause and effect of a poor choice. God could have said "No. You're not getting a king, because it will ruin you." But he gave them free will and look where it landed them. The people chose what they wanted, and they wanted to fit in with the other nations around them and have a king. God allowed them to make that choice and then allowed them to pay the price for that choice. When you look at it from the large picture, that seems totally fair. Some awful awful things have happened over the course of these four books, but when you really think about it, the people could have listened to God and just been content with what they'd had. But because they wanted to be cool, they ended up destroying themselves. God no longer had any people it seemed. I wonder how it progresses from here...
Acts 22:17-23:10
Paul before the Sanhedrin.
So just as Jesus had been questioned and tried before the Sanhedrin, Paul was brought there as well. Paul tells them that he too was a Pharisee and is the son of a Pharisee. He says that he is on trial for his belief in the resurrection of the dead. This causes a huge, violent debate to break out amongst the Sanhedrin. Within the group there were Pharisees - strict teachers of Jewish law who also believed in resurrection, angels and Godly, supernatural things; and Sadducees - teachers of the law who believed in nothing supernatural.
The debate became so heated that the roman soldier who brought Paul before them was forced to take him out because he was afraid that the members of the Sanhedrin would kill him.
Psalm 2:1-12
10 Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear
and rejoice with trembling.
Interesting considering we just finished 2 Kings and the period of awfulness that was brought because of Israel becoming a monarchy. David's words obviously didn't resonate with a lot of the kings that took power.
Proverbs 18:13
13 He who answers before listening—
that is his folly and his shame.
Indeed, sir. Indeed.
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