Week Fourteen Reading Assignment:
1 Kings 9 - 2 Kings 8

"The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man, being both God and Man."

(The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, 1563)

This Week's Teaching Video: Former Prophets

CHARACTER PROFILE:
​BLESSINGS BY THE POUND

When King  Jehoash came to see Elisha on his deathbed, the prophet instructed the king to fetch a bow and some arrows.  Then Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands, which were holding the bow and arrows.  Then he told the king to shoot an arrow out the window — “the Lord’s arrow of victory,” the prophet called it.

Then Elisha told the king to pound the ground with the remaining arrows. The king struck the ground three times, and that made Elisha angry.  “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it.  But now you will defeat it only three times” (2 Kings 13:19 NIV).

Then Elisha died.  Those were his last words.  And they are appropriate to the man, for he was a man of God who was impatient with half-hearted efforts, half-baked commitment, and wishy-washy faith.

Elisha had followed the fiery prophet Elijah.  He had been Elijah’s student, friend, and companion.  And when the time came for Elijah to be taken away, the older prophet asked his student, “Tell me, what can I do for you?”  

With what we come to recognize as characteristic boldness, Elisha respond-ed, “I want a double portion of your spirit!”

After Elijah is carried off, leaving his cloak behind, Elisha picks it up and heads home.  When he comes to the Jordan River, he strikes the river force-fully with the rolled-up cloak and cries out, “Where is the God of Elijah?”  And the river parts before him. 

This is the bold, no-nonsense quality of this man and his faith.  And his life and ministry bear bold fruit, accordingly.

Good Book Review:
The Great Divide

The line on the graph trends up signifi-cantly from the beginning to the end of the Books of Samuel.  When 1 Samuel opens, Israel is weak, without leadership, and far from God.  When 2 Samuel concludes, Israel is in the midst of its Golden Age. 

The trend goes the other way, however, from the beginning to the end of the Books of Kings. 

The nation is at its highest point in the early chapters of 1 Kings.  Solomon, is on the throne, and Israel reflects the glitter and glamour of it renowned king. The nation was never so prosperous, so growing, and so politically and militarily strong. 

At the end of 2 Kings, however, the tattered remnant of a long-divided Israel is conquered and carried off into faraway exile. Jerusalem is rubble, the Temple destroyed, and the people suffer the wrath of God’s judgment. 

What happened? The seed of trouble is planted even in the midst of the glitz.  Solomon’s heart turns away from God as he indulges his many wives’ idolatry.  Then the political foolishness of his son, Rehoboam, results in a national split.  The 12 tribes are never together again under a single monarch. 

The northern tribes are badly misled, persistently sinful, and utterly destroyed by Assyria.  The record of the southern tribes is more uneven, but still their judg-ment comes, and Babylon is the instru-ment of that judgment.

Judgment is not the last word with God.  But it is the last word in Kings.     

What to Watch for This Month 

Solomon and Jeroboam both begin well but end badly. Identify what events and choices in each case spoiled what should have been lives and reigns that were pleasing to God. 

Watch for the altar erected by Jeroboam as a recurring theme. 

Track the back-and-forth stories of the two kingdoms by generating a two-column list: “Kings of Judah” (starting with Rehoboam) and “Kings of Israel” (starting with Jeroboam).  

Reflect on the summaries of individual kings found in Kings.  Next to each name in your two-column list, offer a numerical rating for what kind of king he was (perhaps a 1-to-10 scale, from wicked to exemplary). 

The New Testament claims that Elijah was an ordinary person just like us (James 5:17).  As you read his story, identify the ways in which Elijah is a familiarly human character. 

Kings and Chronicles give us our first introduction to prophets.  What does the prophet’s role seem to be?  What are his functions?  His authority?  How is he regarded?  Responded to? 

The people of God —  Adam to Abraham, in Egypt or the desert, under Joshua or the Judges or the Kings, from the first disciples to the early church — the people of God are always people.  And at any time, people always have some prevailing problem. As you read through the history of the divided monarchy, identify what you think the people’s prevailing problems were. 
© 2021 The 3x5 Club