About this Blog Seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
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By Anushka, on 26th January 2012 Isn’t 1 Chronicles just a repeat of the Books of Kings?
- 1 Kings and 2 Kings are history books, mainly reciting the facts of the kings of Israel and Judah, and associated prophets.
- 1 Chronicles is in the form of a journal of events, and adds supplementary information and detail to that information provided in Kings.
- 1 Chronicles only deals with the southern kingdom of Judah, where the line of David is continued.
- The genealogy at the beginning of the book reminds the people of Judah of their heritage with the Lord, and that they alone are God’s witnesses.
What else is in the book?
- The first 9 chapters are taken up with genealogies, from Adam through to King Saul.
- Many stories seen in earlier books do appear, but with a more spiritual emphasis, including much of the life of King David.
- The temple and temple ritual are a more prominent subject than the lives and wars of the kings.
- There are frequent references to the ark of the Lord and the priests and Levites.
- The preparations for the building of the temple made by David are detailed.
What are the main stories in the book?
- Chapter 10 – Death of Saul.
- Chapters 11-12 – David becomes king.
- Chapter 13 – The ark is transported on a cart to Kiriath-Jearim resulting in the death of Uzzah.
- Chapter 15 – The ark is brought to Jerusalem.
- Chapter 17 – God makes promises to David that he will have a son who will have an everlasting kingdom.
- Chapter 21 – David sins by carrying out a census of the people.
- Chapter 22 – David makes preparations for the temple to be built.
- Chapter 28 – Solomon is given instructions on the building of the temple.
What can we learn?
- The incident of Uzzah’s death upon the incorrect transportation of the ark teaches us that we must respect God and do things the way he wants us to.
- We have the promise of the future kingdom of God reiterated for us again, and we know that we await the Son whose throne will be established for ever.
Next time: Bitesize Book of 2 Chronicles!
By Anushka, on 14th October 2011 What happens in the book?
- The story of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah continues.
- Elijah the prophet’s ministry ceases, and that of Elisha the prophet takes over.
- Elisha performs many miracles in the northern kingdom of Israel.
- None of the kings of Israel follow God, and the kingdom of Israel is taken into captivity by Assyria in 722 BC.
- A handful of the kings of Judah do follow God, but 136 years later, the kingdom of Judah is also taken into captivity by Babylon.
What are the main miracles Elisha performed?
- Increased the oil of a widow woman close to starvation (Chapter 4).
- Raised the Shunammite lady’s son to life (Chapter 4).
- Purifies a poisonous stew (Chapter 4).
- Cures Naaman’s leprosy (Chapter 5).
- Makes an axe head float (Chapter 6).
Who were the significant good kings of Judah?
- Jehoshaphat – followed God in his early years, did not worship idols.
- Joash/Jehoash – repaired the temple.
- Uzziah/Azariah – did what was right in the sight of the Lord.
- Hezekiah – removed the high places (altars to idols), did not depart from following the Lord.
- Josiah – repaired the temple, finds the Book of the Law and institutes reforms throughout the land including the Passover.
Are there any other significant events?
- There was one queen throughout this period, Athaliah. She was wicked and tried to destroy the rest of the royal family.
- The royal line from David – which God had promised would lead to Jesus – nearly came to an end in this period thanks to Athaliah, but one child was saved and hidden.
- The morality of all the kings is judged by whether they did what was right, or what was evil, in the sight of the Lord. A worldly king was a bad king.
What can we learn?
- Human nature doesn’t change – throughout history people do not learn from their mistakes, the next generation has the same problems. The people of Israel and Judah did not learn that when they followed God life was better. Their evil ways eventually brought destruction.
- In the miracle of Naaman’s cure from leprosy we see a sign pointing forward to baptism – Naaman was given new life following a cleansing in the water.
Next time: Bitesize Book of 1 Chronicles!
By Anushka, on 11th September 2011 As I’ve been doing the Bitesize Bible study series, sometimes I end up wondering what the point of reading a particular book is. There is such a variety of literature in the Bible; it’s full of history, poetry, prophecy, letters, and songs, all written by many different people over a wide span of history, but not all of it seems directly relevant to the message of salvation.
If you view the Bible as a whole, its clear to see that there is a thread running through it. Right from creation you can see that there was a plan for a Saviour, and that God chose his special people and promised them the land of Israel for ever, and that these two plans are linked – eventually the Saviour will be the means of Israel, both physical and spiritual, being restored to the promised land.
The thing that can be difficult is understanding all the details in between the various strands of this thread. Why do we care exactly how the Israelites prepared each sacrifice? Why do we care how many from each tribe entered the land, the exact borders of their territories, and exactly how many gold plates they gave to the Lord? What relevance do some of these details have for us?
Some books strike me as being very dry, or very difficult to understand or get into, and even when you do, the relevance for us today is not always obvious.
We have to have a starting point. Having decided that the Bible is the way to find God, it stands to reason that all these details must be there for a purpose. So, the question is, what is the point of the more obscure books and passages in the bible and how do they help us to find God? The Bible says:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea…Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:1-2,11-12)
We can summarize the above quotes as follows:
- The whole written Bible is inspired by God – for people who want to follow him.
- It teaches us how to behave and corrects our wrong behavior, so that we become more righteous and do good works.
- The character studies and stories present examples so that we can see the right and wrong ways to behave, and can learn from the mistakes of other people, and in doing so we will keep on the right path.
How can we put this into practice when reading an obscure or slightly dry book of the Bible?
- Review the passage briefly to start with to get an idea of what is happening.
- Focus in on words spoken by God or the story elements involving people.
- Can you take a lesson from Gods words or see something in it for yourself?
- Can you learn from the situation a certain person found themselves in and their reaction to that situation?
- Can you obtain any practical advice from the chapter?
- If not maybe you need to place the book in its historical context. Do some research and find out what period of history you are looking at, if there are links with any other parts of the Bible, and look at what the culture and society of the time was like. This approach is often helpful with the prophets to place them in the relevant king’s time period, and also with Paul’s letters to see what topical issues in his current culture he had to deal with.
- If the above doesn’t help, look at the cross-references in your Bible margin and try to find some links with other parts of the Bible which may give you an insight into the chapter you are reading.
- Finally, if you find it difficult, get some friends at church to help you study, read some books around the subject, or use the internet for research or to have discussions with other people.
It may be hard work to persevere and find out the answers, but knowing that everything in the Bible is there for a reason will mean that everything you learn is beneficial and helping you to walk in the way of the Lord. May God bless your studies.
By Anushka, on 29th August 2011 What happens in the book?
- David’s son Solomon becomes king of the land of Israel and reigns for 40 years.
- Following Solomon’s death the kingdom is divided in two, the south (Judah) is ruled by Solomon’s son Rehoboam and the north (Israel) by a man called Jeroboam.
- Jeroboam leads Israel into idolatry and his reign is followed by other kings who follow in his footsteps and do not follow God.
- The prophets Elijah and Micaiah try to turn the heart of one of these kings, Ahab, back to God to no avail.
What happened during the reign of Solomon?
- Chapter 3 – Solomon asks God to give him wisdom.
- Chapters 5 – 8 – Solomon builds the temple in Jerusalem. It is modeled on the tabernacle.
- Chapters 9 – 10 – Solomon becomes extremely wealthy, and the Queen of Sheba comes to visit him.
- Chapter 11 – Solomon sins by marrying foreign wives, building up a great army of horses and chariots, and turning to idolatry.
- God tells Solomon he will take his kingdom away from him and it will be torn in two.
What did Elijah do during the reign of king Ahab?
- Chapter 17 – he performed a miracle for the widow of Zarephath, providing her with food to eat when she had only a handful of flour left, and also raised her son back to life following a fatal illness.
- Chapter 18 – he competes with the prophets of Baal to see whose God is the true God – and wins.
- Chapter 21 – he rebukes Ahab and his wife Jezebel for murdering Naboth and taking his vineyard.
What can we learn?
- When Israel followed God the country flourished and had wealth and peace from their enemies.
- When they departed from God the kingdom declined.
- Wealth and peace sometimes led the people to become complacent and forget God – we should never forget to thank him for our blessings and to follow Him during good times and bad.
Next time – Bitesize Book of 2 Kings!
By Anushka, on 24th July 2011 What’s the book about?
- The book covers the reign of King David over the land of Israel.
- He reigned in Hebron for 7 years and in Jerusalem for 33 years.
- Chapters 1 – 10 detail David established as king, and God’s promises to David.
- Chapters 11 – 24 tell of David’s great sin, and the family troubles that come on him as a consequence.
David becomes king:-
- Following Saul’s death, the men of Hebron anoint David as king over the southern half of the country.
- Meanwhile Saul’s son Ishbosheth becomes king over the northern half of the country.
- Following much warfare, Ishbosheth is murdered.
- David captures Jerusalem and becomes king over the whole of Israel.
- David brought the ark of God to Jerusalem.
- David wanted to build a temple to put the ark in, but God told him that his son would be the one to build the temple, not him.
David’s sin:-
- David sins by committing adultery with Bathsheba, and then having her husband murdered so that he could marry her.
- He repented of his sin following a visit from the prophet Nathan.
- However his punishment was that his first son with Bathsheba would die.
- Following this, his family was never at peace – his son Absalom stages a coup and David has to flee for his life.
- Civil war reigns in the country and eventually Absalom is killed.
- Another man called Sheba stages an uprising, which is suppressed in due course.
- Towards the end of the book David sings praises in gratitude to God for deliverance from his enemies.
What can we learn?
Sin
- God sees everything we do, and everything that is in our hearts – he knows our motives.
- God will always forgive our sins, but we may also have to live with the consequences and punishment for our actions.
- The consequences of our actions can be far reaching and affect our whole lives and the lives of those around us in some way.
God’s Promises
- Yet again we see more promises from God in this book, in Chapter 7 verses 12-13:
“When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ”
- Not only will David’s son Solomon build the temple for God, but this is a dual prophecy, referring to Jesus, the Son of God whose kingdom will never end.
Next time: Bitesize Book of 1 Kings!
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