2 KINGS 11-15: DAY 199 JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
July 18, 2023
2 KINGS 11-15
DAY 199 JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
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Focus Verses For Today: 2 Kings 15:34-35
Today our journey through 2 Kings shares the upheaval taking place in Israel while revealing that the Kings of Judah couldn’t surrender all to the Lord.
Ask God for His understanding of 2 Kings 11-15. Read 2 Kings 11-15. Let’s journey!
2 Kings 11-15: These chapters reveal two nations struggling to find their way in this world confronting spiritual reality, political life, and sin. The northern kingdom, Israel, refused to forsake idol worship, as its kings encouraged idol worship. It appears that Israel was heavily influenced by Sadducean philosophy. That being: God created all and stepped away from all. This meant that there was only civil punishment for civil offenses cloaked as spiritual life. The result was a pagan life that mimicked the assassinations of kings to gain power with the government abusing those it, Biblically, is directed to protect. The northern kingdom, Israel, did not have a single king that followed the Lord.
The southern kingdom, Judah, had a history of kings who attempted to obey the Lord interspersed with kings who did not follow the Lord. The importance of this is that kings who followed the Lord set the spiritual heart of the country. While the kings of Israel failed to establish a spiritual heart for the northern kingdom, Judah’s kings’ spiritual heart had a murmur. The leaders of Judah, the ones that followed the Lord, did not follow Him completely. The Bible only recognizes one king, King David, as following the Lord completely. (2 Kings 11:1-15:38)
Our focus verses for today:
34 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done. 35 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
(2 Kings 15:34-25)
Every king of Judah that is considered a good king, a king that truly believed in the God of Israel, has this verse following his death, except King David. All of the good kings of Judah were blessed by God. They knew that leaving places to sacrifice to idols violated their covenant with God. Why? Are you engaged in a secret struggle? A struggle with something that is offensive to God. It may be a secret from your friends and family, it is not a secret from God. Did they lack confidence in God to see them through the removal of the high places? Did they?
Godspeace!
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