Day 110 – January 22, 2024: II Kings 21-25 and Proverbs 8

And so we come to the end of Judah, and basically whatever remnant was left of the people of God. We see another rollercoaster of leaders from the worst of the worst: Manasseh who even sacrificed his children he was so into the other god thing. To the best of the best with Josiah who brought about the most sweeping reforms that Jerusalem had evern seen with the discovery of the law. But not even the goodness of Josiah was enough to sway the anger of the Lord. God had already said with Manasseh I’m done, no more Mr. Nice Guy. As a result once Josiah dies then we have the transition from the people of God allying themselves to Egypt, which is very short lived, to falling to the power and might of Babylone who eventually crushes them. Everyone, except the poorest in the land who needed to tend the fields, were taken away or slaughtered. That is the end of Israel as we know it for the time being. They are all dead or in exile.

Proverbs 8 is a chapter that we would be good to take note. It is an anthropomorphised wisdom who speaks about her presence and creation by God. This wisdom we see all through Scripture. Now, lest we make a mistake, it is a charicature of wisdom, and not the actual creation of an individual or a person. The presence of wisdom for Proverbs is so important that the author has made her a person. But she really is not a person. This all makes sense since we know that the author of Proverbs is Solomon who was gifted with more wisdom than anyone has ever had. Great chapter.