THE PLAN
Every Monday I will post the reading for the week ahead. It will be about 10 chapters a week. You might want to read a chapter or two a day, and catch up at weekends. If there is a verse that especially spoke to you, a question that you have, or a thought that struck you, please share it with your fellow travellers by making a comment.
2 comments:
I was struck repeatedly by how these chapters are highly selective history. The writer routinely relates perhaps a couple of events in each king’s life and then says everything else is ‘written in the annals of the kings of Israel/Judah.’ It left me reflecting on his purpose. Why select these events and not others? It seems he wants to chart the kings' spiritual health, and how that affects the nation's spiritual health. He gives a verdict on each king. Did he do what was right in the eyes of the Lord? Did he ‘destroy the high places’ or leave them in place? 17:7-23 feels like something of a summary, and it’s a sad one. If a nation’s prospects are so affected by the spiritual health of its king, how grateful we should be for a king who has none of these kings' failings.
I was also very struck by 17:7-23. As Richard says, it opens a window into the purpose of the book. Imagine God's people in exile reading this. Are we here because our God is weak? No. Because we are sinful. The sovereign God is acting in line with His promises. The problem is never God. It is always our sin. And so God’s people in exile are being taught to wait for the new covenant, to long for it. Because that is when they will live in His presence, and walk according to God’s ways because that is when their sins will be forgiven (Jer 31). And after King after King has led them away from their covenant with the Lord, can you imagine their longing for the king in whose blood the new covenant will be signed.
Post a Comment