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 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!
By Anushka, on 26th June 2011 What is the book about?
- The book centers around three characters, Samuel, Saul and David.
- It recounts their history, highlighting significant events.
Samuel
- Hannah, a barren woman, prays to God for a child.
- Samuel is born and she dedicates his life to the service of the Lord.
- Samuel becomes a prophet, priest, and judge.
- The Israelites are at war with the Philistines.
- The Philistine nation capture the ark of God but later return it when it brings disease and other problems on them.
- The Philistines are defeated when Samuel prays to God on Israel’s behalf.
Saul
- The Israelites request a King, and Samuel takes this request to God in prayer.
- Samuel is instructed to anoint Saul as king, and he does so.
- Saul has a kingly presence, and leads the people to victory against the Ammonites.
- Saul makes two key mistakes, and consequently is rejected by God:
- Firstly, he offers a sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to do it.
- Secondly, he disobeyed the Lord by keeping Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and taking various spoils from the battle, when he had been ordered to destroy everything.
David
- Samuel is instructed to anoint a new king, David, the shepherd boy.
- David does not become king immediately.
- David enters King Saul’s service as his armor-bearer.
- In a famous battle against the Philistines, David defeats Goliath.
- David becomes best friends with Saul’s son Jonathan.
- Saul becomes jealous of David’s skills and popularity in the army and attempts to kill him.
- David eventually flees for his life with a band of followers and continues to evade Saul who pursues him constantly.
- During this period, Samuel dies.
- Eventually in a battle against the Philistines, Saul takes his own life.
What are the important themes in this book?
Prayer: Hannah prays for a son, Samuel is constantly praying on behalf of the Israelites, God gives Israel victory through Samuel’s prayers. We can see that righteous people always pray about decisions in their lives, and God hears them.
“To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22): God wants our obedience, and he wants to be worshiped in the way He chooses, not the way we would prefer. It is always better to obey, than to sin and ask forgiveness.
“People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7): Only God knows what is really inside a person, and we should leave ultimate judgment to Him. God knows what the best choices are for us, and before making decisions we should go to Him in prayer to ask Him to direct our lives.
Next time: Bitesize Book of 2 Samuel!
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