Journey Of The Seed - Catch The Bible's Big Picture In 60 DaysSample

THE END IN MIND

[Scheduled Reading: 1 Kings 19 - 2 Kings 3]

The books of 1 & 2 Kings are difficult books for Bible readers.

Reading bounces around from king to king (mostly bad ones), and back and forth between the Judah (the two southern tribes) and Israel (the 10 northern tribes), all while tripping over difficult-to-remember names and depressing themes.

Focus is hard. 

Sometimes the different kings from the two different kingdoms share the same name! (I know, doubly confusing!)

It helps to read these books with the end in mind – asking ourselves, “where are we headed?”

If you don’t mind a little spoiler alert – let's talk about that. 

Both the northern and southern tribes are headed toward exile. 

Remember, that’s the path initiated by Solomon’s sad departure from God.

While 1 & 2 Kings (and 2 Chronicles) cover history for both kingdoms, extra attention focuses on Judah. 

That makes perfect sense because Judah carries The Seed.

It also makes sense that the transfer of power for Judah stays on track within the family line, while power transfer gets off track for Israel.

Why would this matter? Because God promised David that his throne (and effectively his seed) would endure forever. So God keeps the path of The Seed intact for Judah.

But for Israel, the family line doesn’t really matter, does it?

Israel will be conquered first. Every single one of Israel’s kings were deemed “evil in the sight of the Lord”, helping to move this northern kingdom “off the grid” sooner. 

Meanwhile, Judah will last a little while longer. The occasional righteous kings, balanced with the mostly evil kings, help to slow the race toward exile.

Like I said. This is very tough reading. 

Sometimes knowing the big picture and the down-the-line story points can take the pressure away from trying to understand everything.