May 23, 2022: Day 110 – II Kings 21-25 and Proverbs 8

There last chapters of II Kings contain the most celebratory and the most tragic of all the chapters in this book of the Bible.  We continue along that cycle of those kings of Judah, and we are only looking at the Southern kingdom at this point, of those who don’t do the will of the Lord and those who do the will of the Lord.  We have the extreme disobedience of Manasseh who even got the people involved again in human sacrifice as we see in II Kings 21:6 that he made his son pass through fire.  That would have been a human sacrifice.  As a result of the evil of Manasseh the Lord determines that he will destroy Judah including Jerusalem one day.  That day had not yet arrived, but he determined to do so.  

But then we have King Josiah who is the exact opposite.  He tears down all that was built up that was pagan and not pleasing to the sight of the Lord.  What is more, he discovered the book of the law and made all of the people pledge to follow the book of the law.  This has to be the highlight of the people of Judah as we see that they all follow the will of God.  It was an incredibly fruitful time.  The temple was repaired and all the other places of worship to the foreign gods were destroyed.  

Once Josiah dies, this go south quickly.  Babylon begins to move in and takes a group of people into captivity and leaves others in Jerusalem.  Those who are left in Jerusalem rebel and take just about everyone else and they flee to Egypt.  After that Babylon is angry and they take the rest of the people into Babylon and leaving behind just a few people to tend the land and then they destory Jerusalem and burn down the temple and take all that was in the temple, most probably the ark of the covenant as well.  It isn’t mentioned specifially but we can pretty much be sure that this is when it is taken.

Proverbs 8 speaks about the importance of wisdom and the importance of following in her ways.