Bible Reading Challenge Blog

I feel that as we begin to look at this book of the Bible I have to include a rating to ensure that only adults are going to be reading.  It is a beautiful poetic book, along the lines of Lamentations and Ecclesiastes and Psalms, where the author is not depicting historical events but rather scenes of love between a man and a woman which can be taken either metaphorically or literally.  A question many of you may be asking is: why is this in the Bible?  My reading is that it gives us a very complete picture of what it is like to be in love with someone and how that love must include not only a fraternal love but a sensual love as well.  It is an affirmation for husbands and wives that the sexual desires and impulses that we have each other are not negative nor sinful, but rather God ordained.  So…let’s read: Warning, this book of the Bible contains some images that may be deemed as graphic by some.

The first chapter contains a back and forth between a man and woman describing their love for each other.  Notice, the woman in this passage describes herself as being black.  This is where the term black is beautiful comes from, because, well, it is, the Bible says so!  Look at vs. 5.  We also see that this is attributed to Solomon whom we know wrote many things, including Proverbs and potentially Ecclesiastes.  

We find the woman asking where her lover might be as he goes out to tend his flocks.  The man answers that if she wanted to find out she just had to follow the tracks.  There is an interplay between male and female relationships that is not one sided or dominated by one sex or the other, at least in this chapter.  Let’s see if that holds up as we go forward.

The worst happens to Judah as the city is in siege for 2 years before the walls are breached and the king of Babylon and his  men enter the city of Jerusalem.  The king of Judah, Zedekiah, escaped with his sons but they were then captured.  His sons were killed in front of him and then his eyes were poked out so that he would remember that as the last thing that he saw.  It reminds me of the myth of the architect of St. Basil’s cathedral in Russia on red square, where it is said, falsely, that Ivan the Great blinded him after it was constructed so that he would not construct any other, it was that beautiful.  None of this happened, but it is a great story.

All of the goods of the temple were destroyed and then the temple itself was destroyed as well as all the important houses of Jerusalem.  Notice the name of the person who was responsible for destroying the temple and the houses:  Nebuzaradan.  His name literally means: chief of the butchers.  How about that as a gloss?  I like the fact that they kept a remnant behind, look at vs.12 where we see that some do remain behind to till the land so that it would not go to waste.  

We find ourselves in the last chapter of this book of the Bible which laid out for us the kings that reigned in both Israel and Judah, the northern and the southern kingdoms after the reign of Solomon who was the last to rule a united kingdom.  Things did not go well once the sons of David were no longer.  The people continued to do what was evil in the sight of Lord on a much more consistent basis than those who did was was good in the sight of the Lord. 

But then we see in vs. 27  that the new king of Babylon started to become friends with the king of Israel and even invited him to his table for meals.  It should strike a bit of a familiar story to that of Joseph who found himself in a foreign land and make friends with the ruler who then eventually was able to bring salvation to the people of Israel by saving them from a famine.  Here there needs to be some hope for a remnant who will be able to go back and inhabit Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.  It will happen, but not yet.  We still have time in Scripture for that to take place, and it does…

In this chapter we find ourselves at the end of the existence of Judah before they are carried away to captivity to Babylon.  Remember that earlier Israel, the north, had been taken away to Assyria  and now God was taking away the people of the south.  If you notice the sins of Manasseh are always lifted up as the reason for why God acted in a way that did not protect the people of Jerusalem.  If you look at vs.3 you see the reason for why Babylon was given “permission” to take the people of Jerusalem away to Babylon. 

Notice also in vs.13 that Babylon then carries away all of the items that were found in the temple, which probably included the ark of the covenant, if you were interested.  But notice that because Jehoiachin surrenders quickly Jerusalem is spared.  Even though the temple is looted it is not destroyed, at least not yet.  That comes later on.  Zedekiah is then put in power by the king of Babylon over Johoiachin, who was carried away to Babylon with his family.  

If you look at vs.20 you see that God actually “expelled” the people from his presence.  His presence would have been Jerusalem, so we see that the people of God are kicked out of Jerusalem because God simply does not want them around.  

We read about the last days and acts of the life of Josiah.  We begin the chapter with Josiah gathering all of the people of  Israel together in Jerusalem in order to read the book of the law which had been found in the temple.  There at the reading the king and all the people promised to followed God’s laws as long as they were living.  We use this Scripture often when we are reminded of our own covenant that we have made with God on the first Sunday of January.  When we celebrate our covenant renewal service we rededicate our lives to God remembering our baptism and remembering that we too have made vows to follow the Lord.

From there Josiah does a number on all of the religious artifacts that are left over from previous kings, even those that were left over from Solomon which no one had the heart, or the courage, to tear down.  He did so, he tore everything and anything down which did not contribute to the worship of Almighty God.  The list of those places are many and he did quite a number on all of them in order to purge the foreign gods from withing the midst of the people of  God. 

They then celebrate Passover together in a way that had not been done since the Judges.  So keep in mind normally rulers are lifted up as doing right in the eyes of God in the fashion that King David had done.  But here Josiah’s actions go even further back to a righteousness that had not been seen since the time of the judges.  That really is saying something as to how Josiah sought after the will of God which apparently was something that was new to his generation because no one had really seen the law before.  

The death of Josiah is mentioned and it is actually quite matter of fact.  He went to meet the king of Egypt and when they met he killed him.  His body was carried back and he was buried in Jerusalem.  His son takes over but the king of Egypt doesn’t let him reign in Jerusalem and so he puts another of his sons in place.  They were both not good and they both did evil in the sight of the Lord.  We now expect bad things to happen, like it might be the people of Judah’s turn to be taken away into exile.  

Just when we thought all was lost along comes King Josiah.  He was only 8 years old when he began to rule over Judah.  He had a fairly long reign, 31 years, and he did what was right in the style of David, so really completely right and turned the people back to the Lord.  He has the priests empty out the coffers so that the workers who were rebuilding the temple and putting things back in order the way they were supposed to be, could be paid.  As they  were emptying out the coffers they found something important, even nation changing.

As they were cleaning up the temple they found the book of the law.  When it was read to Josiah he cried aloud and tore his clothes in mourning because he recognized  that the people of God had turned their back on the Lord and as a result the Lord was plotting evil against the people of God.  But because of Josiah’s faithfulness God saves him and his rule and his people from chaos.  He will be able to finish out his rule in peace as he follows God.  

The result of faithfulness to the Lord, at least in II Kings, is longevity of life, longevity of nation building, longevity of faithfulness from the Lord.  We can’t draw a straight line between our actions and those of the Lord, especially when we are told that we are blessed when we are persecuted.  A follower of Jesus Christ is not promised an easy and abundant and safe life.  A follower of Jesus is promised that they will be shown the path forward and if they follow it then they will be provided with the assurance of a life well lived.  That should be enough.

We go from really, really good to really, really bad.  Remember the name Manasseh because he set Judah back a number of years.  He ruled for 55 years so imagine the damage that he was able to do over that long period of time.  He is considered  the worst of all the Judean kings.  He followed the abominable practices of all the pagan kings that were surrounding the nation of Judah.  In the temple itself he built up high poles and he created spaces where you could worship foreign gods, in the temple.  Can you think of anything worse?  Maybe if you look at vs.6 where we see that he sacrificed his son to the fire.  Yeah, that is just as bad, if not worse.

Manasseh was as bad as you could get.  God said that because of Manasseh He would bring such evil upon the nation that it would cause the people of God to have  their ears tingle with the news.  I’m guessing that if you are someone who has the condition of tingling ears then bad things are lined up for you.  He says that he will not maintain even a remnant of the people in Jerusalem but  they will all be carted off.  What happened at the end of last chapter was  that Hezekiah was a great host and showed the visitors of Babylon what his house looked like.  One day they will inhabit his house and when that happens then all of those in Jerusalem will be deported out.

Amon succeeds his father Manasseh.  But there is a conspiracy and he is killed.  Then the conspirators are killed and the people of the land put Amon’s son in office, Josiah, who was 8 years old.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So I think Hezekiah is probably one of my favorite kings of the people of Israel.  I want to start at the end of this chapter.  Every time that I take a group of people to Israel I make sure that people have the opportunity to walk through Hezekiah’s tunnel so that they can experience what he did and the incredible feat that it was to bring water into the city of Jerusalem.  It is a wet tunnel and you have have to walk most of it hunched over with water up past your knees, but it is well worth it.  It is a tunnel that runs outside of the city walls and runs into the city and served as the source of water for Israel especially when it was under siege.  We read in vs.20 about how he brought the water into the city through a conduit.  Kind of surreal to think that this conduit is still present and that you can walk through it to this day.

The beginning of the chapter is also powerful because we read about the faithfulness of Hezekiah even when he was sick to the point of death.  Isaiah, his prophet, came to him and warned him to put his house in order because he was about to die.  So, this is where we get that idea that when you come to the end of your life you have to put your house in order.  This was commanded to the king of Judah by the prophet Isaiah.  

But he prays to God and God spares him for another 15 years.  Much of the change in mind had to do with the righteousness of Hezekiah and how he had been faithful to God all of his life.  Then we get the harbinger of bad things to come, which don’t really bother or concern Hezekiah because,as Scripture says: “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”  Who cares what happens to my kids as long as I’m happy and prosperous.  Sounds like our approach to climate change…

Remember when we said that Judah was faithful in their king Hezekiah?  Well, this chapter introduces us to another person who is a bit of a legend in his own right.  We find the prophet Isaiah, yes the same prophet Isaiah that we have in our Scripture, who is in the court of Hezekiah.  Hezekiah, understandably, is wanting to know what the future is going to be like with the Assyrian army camped outside the gates of Jerusalem.  In the first set of verses we find Isaiah reassuring Hezekiah that the Lord will prevail and Jerusalem will not fall.

A note comes in the mail and it is again the king of Assyrian mocking Hezekiah and his people and reminding them of the power of Assyria and the history of the conquests of the nation of Assyria.  He also reminds Hezekiah what happened to the kings that went against him, nothing good.  So, Hezekiah once again is afraid and is unsure of what to do because of this new threat which probably feels to him like the last one before the Assyrian army would begin its siege.

It is very telling when we see what the king does next.  He goes into the temple, into the house of the Lord, and prays to God for guidance and direction.  We find him praying to God in a humble and honest way.  He considers the threat of the king of Assyria as a threat against God.  God responds and says that Jerusalem will not be overtaken, and in fact the king of Assyria himself will die in due time.  

What happens next can only be described as a miracle at the hands of God.  What we read in vs.35 is that an angel of the Lord appears and just begins to land haymakers and kills in a single evening 185,000 enemy soldiers.  Not bad for a single evening.  The king of Assyria leaves the battlefield outside of Jerusalem and finds himself at home, where he is promptly killed by his kids.  Good times.

We finally find a reverse in the trend of terrible kings.  We finally find a king, Hezekiah, who was completely different, in a good way as opposed to Hoshea from the north was completely different in a bad way.  Notice that there is no conditionality when he is described.  He did what was right in the sight of the Lord and worshiped God as David did.  So when the writer goes all the way back to David, then you know that the king is one that is to be praised and emulated.  He tore down all of the high places which hadn’t been done for centuries.  There had been kings in the south who were faithful to the Lord, but always allowed one or two of the foreign divinities to hang around.  Not so for Hezekiah.  He obeyed the commandments and reinstituted a people who were going to be faithful to God because their king was faithful to God.

But the threat of Assyria was real.  They had invaded the north and taken the people of Israel away into captivity.  So now you only have one kingdom, the south, because the north had been taken away and really no longer existed as an entity.  Now Assyria sets its sights to the south and begins by taking over all of the fortified cities of Judah, the south.  That really only left Jerusalem as the last remaining city in which the people of God were congregated.  

We find ourselves in a pretty tense moment with the minions of the Assyrians speaking to the minions of Judah telling them that they need to give up.   They not only address the rulers but also those hanging on the walls watching it all play out.  Interestingly the representatives from Judah ask the Assyrians not to speak Hebrew because they didn’t want their people to hear and understand.  But the Assyrians must have been learned Hebrew because they were able to speak it and so began only to address the people next. 

A scene of mockery ensues and there now seems to be a stand-off with the people of Jerusalem stuck in the city with nowhere to go and the Assyrians outside of the city gates.  What happens next will determine the future of the people of God.  

And now the final shoe has fallen.  We see a new ruler in the north who was unlike any other ruler that the north had.  He became a vassal to Assyria but even went behind their back with Egypt, so he was imprisoned by the king of Assyria as a result.  Israel is then carried away by Assyria, all of its people.  But that wasn’t the end of it.  Assyria then resettled other people in the land that was once occupied by Israel.  You have a whole listing of the people from foreign lands who resettled with their gods.  You have a whole run-down from vs.7-18 where you see the stubbornness of the people of Israel and so as a result God turns His back on them. 

We read in vs.19 that Judah also did not obey God and turned their back on the Lord and began to follow what Israel was doing.  But we don’t get the degree of punishment, probably because you don’t get the degree of abject debauchery, against Judah which you find against north.  Starting in vs.24 and following you see the absolute gutting of Israel.  

Notice the story of the lions eating the people who had settled and the rulers deciding that it was because the God of Israel was unhappy.  So they bring back one of the prophets of Israel from captivity, we don’t know as of yet who it is, to teach the foreign folks how the God of Israel expected people to worship Him.  Surprisingly, some of the them begin to  worship Him as they are told.  

Now all of a sudden you have this transition to a worship of God with a whole bunch of other deities.  Remember Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well?  Remember  the Samaritans were always considered a bit of a mixed religious breed?  This is where it all began when Assyria took out all the Isrealites and brought in foreign nations.  So when the Israelites come back in later on you will see that these foreign nations are still residing in the land in which they had found themselves.  We find this statement in a couple of places: “to this day…”  So even today, at least in the Scripture, these kinds of realities remain.