I'm working my way through Ecclesiastes and (in my opinion) watching Solomon flail between faith and the faithlessness that has come with all of his selfishness and worshipping other gods. He vacillates between seeing the real purpose we have in the Lord and no purpose as he walks in his own strength trying to use God's wisdom without obidience to the Lord.
...continue reading "Ecclesiastes 5"Ecclesiastes 4
Solomon is using his life mixed with God's wisdom as an experiment in search of some meaning he has lost since he has walked away from worshipping God alone. He'll contemplate some portion of life left hollow in his earth pursuits and then briefly come back to the understanding that life lived with God does have meaning and purpose. We just completed the famous chapter three in which he contemplates the events in life under heaven.
...continue reading "Ecclesiastes 4"Ecclesiastes 3
Taking a detour between I and II Kings into Ecclesiastes.
...continue reading "Ecclesiastes 3"Ecclesiastes 2
Solomon, or the author taking on his persona, has made his claim of the vanity of vanities. Now he continues to explain his grim world view.
...continue reading "Ecclesiastes 2"Ecclesiastes
I'm waiting on a commentary for II Kings before I move on with the chronological study. So I thought I would take a detour through Ecclesiastes. I had planned to read this with all of the other David and Solomon reading; but the failed attempt at Psalms stopped that plan.
...continue reading "Ecclesiastes"I Kings 22 (final chapter)
Well...if you've following along on the recent adventures in my blog you'll know that Ahab finally brought God to the end of His mighty patience and God poured out a most severe judgement. Ahab finally expressed some grief and humility- bringing God to delay the judgement package until Ahab's son.
...continue reading "I Kings 22 (final chapter)"I Kings 21: God’s Amazing (and Surprising) Grace
We're firmly into Prophet Elijah and King Ahab territory. Mostly recently, Israel was attacked by Syria and God took a very personal interest in King Ahab, assisting for His own name's Sake. While Ahab was partially obedient to his nation's benefit, he was also partially wrong.
...continue reading "I Kings 21: God’s Amazing (and Surprising) Grace"I Kings 20: God is Sovereign
Elijah has recovered from his despair and has returned to duty. He has recruited Elisha to help and eventually replace him. Elijah is to anoint new kings in Syria and Israel.
Now, in Chapter 20, we return to the situation in Israel (the northern rebellious tribes). Previously, we learned that King Asa of Judah engaged Syria to war against Israel for his own purposes. Syria is now back at Israel's door ready to cause trouble.
...continue reading "I Kings 20: God is Sovereign"I Kings 19: The Lord is Our Shepherd
We've settled in to the wicked kings that ruled over Israel once it split from Judah. We are currently during the reign of the infamous King Ahab. Elijah and Ahab have gone head to head as Elijah shamed and then had slain the 450 prophets of Baal who professionally served Ahab and Jezebel's court.
God has proven himself as real and Baal has been proven as silent and unresponsive.
Ahab is racing back to Jezreel to meet up with his wicked wife, Jezebel; but God blesses Elijah with the strength to overtake Ahab on foot and get to Jezreel first. This is where the story picks up in Chapter 19.
...continue reading "I Kings 19: The Lord is Our Shepherd"I Kings 16 – 18: Ahab and Elijah
Just as a brief reminder of how we arrived here. Israel split into two after Solomon. In the north, the nation that held onto the name Israel, was the rebellious half. It's first leader, Jeroboam, had a covenant with God; but promptly began to ignore by making idols, adding new worship centers and festivals to keep people from going to Judah. He then went off the deep end and started a full blown false religion.
This was followed by his son, just as wicked, but only ruling for a fraction of the time and replaced by his assassin, Baasha, ending the Jeroboam dynasty with a count of 2. Baasha's dynasty also held a two count, as his drunk son was assassinated, while getting drunk, by one of his military's leaders, Zimri.
Zimri lasts seven days and is replaced by Omri. That brings us up to speed.
...continue reading "I Kings 16 – 18: Ahab and Elijah"