So what do we make of all that? We have arrived at the point where the judgmement of God falls on both kingdoms and they are carried off into exile. The northern kingdom (Israel) is never to be heard of again, but the remnant of Jesse, the branch of David will remain and God will bring his people back from Babylon. All this remains for us. In fact we have a slight hiatus as we start on Chronicles and its genealogies tomorrow.
I am very aware that I have not been able to keep up with the level of blogging that I had hoped, but please don't let this stop any of us from contributing and sharing your thoughts.
On today's reading, my appreciation of chapters 16-21 was greatly heightened by having read Lynn Austin's Chronicles of the Kings series. The series opens with Hezekiah witness his elder brother being sacrificed in the fire to the idol Molech, and the horror of that brings an extra vividness to the brief reference there. The books are novels, but they do give a portrayal of the time that both made me want to return to the scripture, but more importantly worship the one true God, who alone can sustain these small kingdoms, surrounded by all manner of foes.
I was thinking about time in all this - the northern kingdom lasts slightly more than 200 years, while the southern kingdom lasts the best part of 350. During this period there are long periods where things are set in their ways - under good kings like Asa, or bad kings like Manasseh. Yet while these period would have seem very long drawn up to those living, in God's timeline these are mere semi-quavers. It is a salutary reminder that God's world is so much wider than just our little bit, yet He cares for us and sustains us through times of immeasurable stress.
Miriam had a very interesting observaton about Elijah. She said that when Elijah wanted to give up because he felt it was too difficult to carry on, God immediately gave him an assistant, telling him to go an anoint Elisha. This was a very different type of conversation from the one God had with Moses, where God seemed constantly to be chivvying him along to get job's work done. Here, although Elijah still did a lot afternoon, God provided others to help shoulder the burden.
I particularly like the episode in 2 Kings 6 where Elisha prays for his servant to see the reality of the strength of God's forces. If we only could understand God's power and dominion, we would worry less, as Charlie told us last Sunday.
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