Second Kings

In the Hebrew Bible, First and Second Kings are one book.  Collectively, they are a history of the Israelite monarchy.   During most of this period, it is dual monarchies because two southern tribes make up the kingdom of Judah, the remaining tribes being Israel.

Second Kings covers a period of about 250 years.  It begins in the reign of Ahaziah.  It ends with the fall of Judah to Babylon.

Fall is an appropriate word.  The book describes the decline of the Israelite monarchy.  It is strongly associated with moral decline and apostasy.  Israel was called out to be God’s people.  Instead, they worshiped the gods of the people who occupied the land before them or of their neighbors.  Sometimes this idol worship was introduced and encouraged by the kings.  Some of the practices associated with these foreign religions included temple prostitution, sodomy, and child sacrifice.

When God established ancient Israel as a nation, he made a covenant with them.  If they followed Him, He would cause them to prosper in the land He gave to them.  If they did not, and especially if they abandoned Him to worship other gods and do evil, he would cut them off from the land and let their enemies overcome them.  That is exactly what happened.

Israel, the northern kingdom, succumbed first.  It fell during the reign of Hoshea.  It became a vassal state to Assyria.  More than that, the Assyrians removed the Israelite population to other lands and resettled Israel with people from across its empire.  Chapter 17 is an indictment against Israel, listing its crimes the judgment of expulsion from the land.

God did not let Israel go easily.  Much of the first half of the book is devoted to the exploits of Elijah and Elisha.  These prophets called people back to God and stood up against the influence of false religions.  Later, Isaiah would warn against the coming captivity to Assyria.

Judah held out longer, in part probably because of fitful reforms by kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah.   None of the kings of Israel committed themselves to god, but some of the kings of Judah turned their hearts to God, restoring the worship of God and sometimes even breaking down the idols of false gods.  Even so, they fell like their brothers to the north.

Babylon was the empire that overtook Judah during the reign of Zedekiah.  Zedekiah himself was appointed by Babylon after it took his nephew Jehoiachin as a prisoner.  Babylon also moved much of the population.  The poor were left to tend the farms, but anyone with status, military skill, training in crafts, or education was moved to Babylon to serve there.  The Israelite monarchy was finally broken and replaced with a Babylonian governor.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Deuteronomy

First and Second Samuel

First Kings

Second Kings.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

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First Samuel

First Samuel.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

First Samuel tells of the establishment of a monarchy in Israel, especially the rise of David from shepherd to king.  It is named for the prophet Samuel, a principal person in the book.

Samuel was the son of Elkanah and Hannah.  Hannah was one of Elkanah’s two wives.  Elkanah loved Hannah and doted on her, but she had no children, which grieved her and made her feel inferior to Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah.  She prayed that she would have a son and promised to dedicate him to the Lord.  That is what happened.

Samuel helped the priests from the time he was a boy.  As a child he heard God’s voice.  God told the boy He would do things in Israel so astounding that hearing it would make your ears tingle.

It started with the overthrow of wicked priests.  The Ark of the Covenant fell into the hands of the Philistines and would not return to Israel in Samuel’s lifetimes.

As a prophet, Samuel led Israel in the manner that the judges before him did.  The people began to clamber for a king so they could be a nation like the others around them.  Samuel was understandably hurt by the rejection.  God told the prophet they were really rejecting Him.  He saw fit to give them a king anyway.

Saul was the first king of Israel.  Like many modern leaders, he was tall and handsome. 

Unfortunately, he was week.  He craved approval from the people and was jealous of his position and power.  Eventually, his disobedience was too much and God sought out another king.

David did not immediately become king.  He was still youth when he was anointed by Samuel.  God led him through a series of events to prove David, the most famous being the battle with the giant Goliath.  David became a great general in Saul’s army, a fast friend of Saul’s son Jonathan, and popular with the people.

Saul’s jealousy of David was severe.  David had to get of the country.  He lived in foreign lands where he was permitted, along with many fighting men who were loyal to him and their families.

Israel had enemies all around and it was the king’s job to lead the defense, through diplomacy or war.  Saul faced capture during a battle and fell on his sword rather than face humiliation in the hands of his enemies.  Most of Saul’s family was wiped out, including Jonathan.

David became king of the portion of Israel called Judah and later the whole nation.  Samuel was a witness and participant in these events.  His death is described at the end of the book.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Joshua

Judges

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Numbers

Numbers. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Numbers gets its name from the census of the Israelites that is described in its first chapter. This census counted men 20 years and over who were able to go to war. That is 603,550 potential soldiers. It’s not a stretch to image the total population exceeded 2 million.


In addition to censuses, Numbers covers history and law. The history is largely the time the Israelites spent in the wilderness before entering Canaan, the land God promised to their ancestors.

When God first lead Israel to the borders of Canaan, the Israelites sent spies in to check out the land. The spies reported that the land was rich in all the ways God promised. Ten of the twelve spies also reported that the inhabitants were powerful and couldn’t be overcome, so the people refused enter the land. God let there own words stand against them as a judgment; everyone of the Israelites age 20 and greater died as nomads over the next 40 years except the two spies who called for the people to conquer the land at the first instance. These two men, Caleb and Joshua, would be the only ones in their generation to enter Canaan.

An interesting thing about the book is that God continued to protect Israel in this period. The established kingdoms in the area became nervous about 2 million people wondering around looking for a place to settle. However, except when Israel entered unauthorized war, God never allowed a foreign power to harm them.

The Israelites had as much trouble within as without. One of these was an uprising to overthrow Moses, which God intervened to end. It should not be surprising that there was much contention amongst people who were depicted as inveterate complainers.

During this time, several laws were given and reiterated. Many of these dealt with the roles of priest and Levites. The later chapters cover laws related to inheritance and the apportionment of land to the tribes and families, which was an important matter for the soon to be conquerors.

Another issue of importance to conquerors is the size of the army they can raise. Toward the end of the book, the leaders conduct a second census. By this time, Moses, Joshua and Caleb were the only people over sixty who had been present for the first census. Of the surviving generation, there were 601,730 fighting men, so the population of Israel changed little from the beginning to the end of its time in the wilderness.

As the rebellious generation passed away, so did the great leaders of the nation: Moses and Aaron. New men were appointed to the civil and priestly leadership of Israel.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Exodus
Genesis
Leviticus

Hosea

Hosea was a prophet in Israel during the reign of the second Jeroboam. Hosea was an unusual prophet. He spoke the words God gave him, but that was just the start. His life, particularly his marriage, became a model and symbol of the relationship between God and Israel at the time.

Hosea married a woman named Gomer. She committed adultery. The prophet was heartbroken. I’m convinced that Hosea genuinely and deeply loved Gomer, and that her unfaithfulness hurt him badly.

This is the poignancy of the book. We can see how Hosea loves his wife, even when she is cheating on him. This is compared with God and the people of Israel. They worshipped idols and made alliances with foreign nations. They engaged in all manner of immoral behavior. Even the priests who were called to live set apart and serve God and the people committed all the same immoral acts as the rest of the populace.

Hosea had children with Gomer. He gave them names forecasting God’s judgment on the nation. Jezreel was named for a battlefield, and his name indicated God’s impending retribution. Lo-ruhamah means “no mercy” and Lo-ammi means “no longer my people.” Israel experienced the fulfillment of this judgement when it fell to the Babylonian empire.

After a time, Hosea reconciled Gomer to himself. This foreshadowed the time when God would restore Israel. The Babylonian occupation would create an Israelite diaspora that would last 70 years, after which the people were permitted to return to their homeland.

Hosea would have been a contemporary of Amos, Isaiah and Micah.

Hosea. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Ruth

Ruth.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Ruth is a short book with many lessons.  It takes place in the time of the judges, and in most Bibles will appear between Judges and First Samuel.  This is appropriate placement, because Ruth is an important part of the lineage of the kings who will supplant the rule of judges in the time of Samuel.

Ruth isn’t even an Israelite.  She is from Moab.  Her husband’s parents move their family to escape a famine in Israel.  The find plenty of hardship in Moab.  Ruth’s husband dies, along with her father-in-law and brother-in-law.

Her mother-in-law, Naomi, decides to move back to Israel, where she might find help from family.  She tells her daughters-in-law to return to their families.  Ruth decides to stay with Naomi.

In Israel, Ruth cares for Naomi.  She gathers dropped grain in the fields.  (It is the law that grain the falls in the field during the harvest must be left for the poor to gather.)  In the field of one of Naomi’s relatives, she is noticed by the owner, Boaz.

Boaz notices Ruth and inquires about who she is.  He is moved by the story of how she left her homeland and family to take care of her destitute mother-in-law.  He tells her to stay in his fields and follow his workers.  He even tells her to drink the water and eat the food he provided for his workers.  He makes sure she won’t be harassed and instructs his harvesters to leave behind extra handfuls of grain for her to gather.

It was the law in Israel that if a man died without children, a near relative should take her as a wife and have children with her.  This was a way of ensuring that the woman was cared for and that her husband would continue to have heirs.  After some subtle and direct negotiation, Boaz takes that role, redeeming and marrying Ruth.  It may be seen as a duty someone should have undertaken, but I think the story shows Boaz has affection for Ruth and respect for the way she stepped up to do things she was not obligated to do, even while others ignored those obligations.

This summary does not do this beautiful story justice.  I recommend reading it.  It is a short book and can be read in one setting.

It is full of lessons, too.  First, trouble falls into every life, even good people.  Ruth and Naomi aren’t presented as deserving of famine and widowhood; they are simply people who suffer hardship like all of us.

Next, God provides and has a plan.  We see God’s provision through the laws regulating harvest, marriage and inheritance that allow Ruth and Naomi to find food and eventually a place in Boaz’s household.  That God plans for these things to happen is not explicitly stated by the author, but the implication of God’s working can be found throughout the story.

Finally, God’s plans are bigger than we can expect.  The end of the tale reveals that Boaz and Ruth are great-grandparents of David.  Generations before Israel clamors for a king, God is arranging for a great one, and eventually an ultimate king who will be a savior of His people.

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First Chronicles

First Chronicles is a history of Israel beginning at the beginning of creation and running through the transfer of power from David to Solomon. The first roughly half of the book is a series of genealogies, showing the descent from Adam to the various tribes of Israel. The end of Saul’s reign, and his thwarted dynasty, are treated briefly. The rest of the book is devoted to the reign of David.

The treatment of David’s reign is much different in this history than it is in Second Samuel. First Chronicles focuses on David’s service to God, especially in relation to the Ark of the Covenant and the temple.

David recovered the Ark and eventually moved it to Jerusalem and restored it to the Tabernacle. Considering how important the Ark and the tabernacle were to Israel in the time of Moses and Joshua, when the people became a nation, recovering it must have had a great impact on the minds of Israelites as they transitioned from a nation to a kingdom.

I think one can see a connection between the reestablishment of regular worship under the Mosaic system and the establishment of David’s reign. God makes a covenant with David that a descendant of David will build a temple to God and reign forever.  This promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

David’s devotion to God was sincere. His motivation to build the temple came from a desire to serve and glorify God. Even though he was instructed not to build a temple, this task was reserved from Solomon, he prepared for it by gathering materials for its construction and decoration. David envisioned a beautiful and richly appointed temple.

If there is a theme to tie together the various parts of the book, I think it is the hand of God in the establishment of the kingdom of Israel, especially David’s family dynasty. It didn’t start with David, though, or even Moses. It started with Adam. From the beginning, God planned to set aside a people for Himself, to serve and worship Him and to enjoy Him and His blessings. In God’s covenant with David, we can even see the continuity of this plan through the church.

First Chronicles is not an easy book to read. There is a lot of genealogy. This abundance of family history and the various divisions of Israel can give one a sense of piece-by-piece building of a kingdom, though it may have as easily been for ensuring a correct inheritance to the various people the land God gave them.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Exodus

First Samuel

Genesis

Second Samuel

First Chronicles. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

First Kings

First Kings is a history of the kings of Israel and Judah beginning with the transition for David to his son Solomon.  The book also recounts some of the notable prophets of the time, particularly Elijah and Elisha.

Solomon was David’s contested successor.  David had many sons older than Solomon, though some were dead, notably Absalom who had tried to usurp the throne.  David’s son Adonijah was preparing to succeed his father, and even organized an elaborate celebration to court the favor of important aristocrats.  The prophet Nathan discovered the plot.  He, Solomon, David, and Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, arranged to elevate Solomon to the throne while his father still lived.

Solomon was notable for his wisdom.  God offered to the young king what he wanted.  He asked for wisdom to govern the people rightly.  God was pleased with the answer and gave Solomon wealth and power in addition to wisdom.

Wisdom didn’t keep Solomon out of trouble.  He had many wives (no doubt trouble by itself), and he permitted his foreign wives to continue practicing their religions, so the worship of false gods was allowed in the kingdom.  Idol-worship would be common amongst Solomon’s successors.

After Solomon, the kingdom was divided.  The ten northern tribes formed a kingdom generally referred to as Israel.  Two southern tribes made Judah.  Throughout this period, idol-worship prevailed in Israel.  Some kings of Judah served God, but many did not, and the godly kings did not succeed in eradicating idolatry.

Following Solomon, most of the kings of both the north and the south are summed up briefly.   Some just get a paragraph.  We see the kingdom rise and fall based on the faithfulness of the people.  When they sought God, even imperfectly, He blessed them and they thrived.  When they sought to gratify themselves and follow false gods, they quickly ran into trouble.  This is a pattern in the history of ancient Israel that started before the kings and continued after them.

First Kings ends with the reign of Ahab, famously married to Jezebel.    These monarchs promoted the worship of Baal and suppressed the worship of God.  They were opposed by the prophet Elijah.  Elijah is associated with some spectacular miracles.  God withheld rain from the land until Elijah called an end to the drought.  Elijah called out the prophets of Baal in a contest to call down fire from heaven  Baal did not answer his worshippers, but God sent fire for Elijah, who that day executed hundreds of Baal’s priests.  This put him in serious conflict with Ahab and Jezebel.

Elijah is also well known in that he did not die, at least not in a conventional sense.  He was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire.  He appeared to Christ and a few disciples on during the Transfiguration.

It is clear that First Kings is intended to be a summary.  It frequently refers to records of the actions of the kings as if these might be available to a reader who wanted to confirm the recounting of find more information.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

First and Second Samuel

Luke

Mark

Matthew

Proverbs

First Kings.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

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Second Chronicles

Second Chronicle continues the history of Israel from First Chronicles (originally they were one book). It covers a period of almost four centuries, beginning with the reign of Solomon and ending as the Babylonian captivity started.

The chronicles are books of comparisons and contrasts. There was something alike about all the periods when the kings of Israel were successful and the people thrived. Likewise, periods of defeat and loss all shared a common element. These thriving and dying periods similarly were unlike in a key way.

The key factor was the faithfulness of the king, and the people, to God. When the kings sought God and the people worshipped Him, he blessed them and caused to rise in wealth and power.  When the king and people sought their own ways, especially to worship the idols and practice the sins of neighboring kingdoms, God let them fall into the hands of their enemies. Eventually, Israel was completely taken over by Babylon.

This pattern could play out even if the reign of a single king. Some hard-hearted kings would start well but stray from God and lead the people away with him. Some evil kings responded to God’s call of repentance and reconciliation, and their turnaround could bring the whole kingdom back to God.

One could argue that the kingdom was at its peak during the reign of Solomon. He built the temple, he reigned in peace, and he stored up great wealth for himself and his kingdom. In spite of his wisdom, he strayed, too. Though he never abandoned the worship of God, he suffered for his sins, suffering he brought onto himself.

Even so, Solomon was the model of a good king. His reign takes up more pages than others in the book. A lot happened during that time, especially the building of the temple. The temple was the symbol of God’s presence with the nation of Israel, and His blessing is central to the prosperity of the nation, so it makes sense that His temple received a lot of attention.

Other notable kings include Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. These leaders were associated with revivals, the destruction of idols, the restoration of worshipping God, and generally successful reigns. As an engineer, I take special note of Hezekiah, who was famous for building a reservoir and underground aqueduct to supply water to Jerusalem.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

First Chronicles

First Kings

Second Kings

Second Chronicles. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Isaiah

Isaiah was a prophet in Judah during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He was active during the Assyrian occupation of Israel, sometime around 745 to 695 B.C. In particular, he advised Hezekiah, who is known for tearing down idols permitted by previous kings and for turning back the advances of Assyrian King Sennacherib.

Like many prophets, much of Isaiah’s message is a call to repentance and return to God. This call was heightened by the Assyrian takeover of Israel, the northern sister kingdom to Judah. Isaiah’s prophecies, and the interpretation of the writers of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, is that the fall of Israel was due to its abandonment of God and embrace of idolatry and other sins. If Judah wanted to avoid that fate, it would need to return to God.

Isaiah had a long career as a prophet, so his writings address many events of his day. These were generally threats of foreign aggression against Judah, particularly from Assyria and its allies. He also warned against alliances with Egypt because if its instability. He predicts the eventual fall of Jerusalem and it rebuilding under another empire.

He is also known for prophecies of the Messiah. These texts are often intermingled with texts referring at one moment the nation of Israel as God’s servant and next to the coming Messiah in the same terms.  It’s necessary to read these passages in the context of the surrounding text to sort out when Isaiah is referring to which entity. Both Matthew and John refer to Isaiah in their gospels.

Note that much of Isaiah is written in the form of poems or songs. Sometimes he is speaking very directly to a particular nation or person about specific issues or events that are present or predicted. At other times, nations or peoples may be stand-ins for concepts or other future peoples with similar roles or viewpoints. Much of this can be sorted out by careful reading of the text and by reference to the historical books of the Old Testament.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Ezra

Nehemiah

Second Chronicles

Second Kings

Isaiah. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Exodus

Exodus. The Holy Bible. (NKJV). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Exodus continues the history of the Israelite nation that began in Genesis. The main emphasis is on the how God acted to lead them out of Egypt.

Back in Genesis, Israel (Jacob) and his large family moved to Egypt to escape a famine. They thrived there under the patronage of one of Israel’s sons, Joseph, who God had placed in a position of great power in the Egyptian government.

At the beginning of Exodus, Joseph was dead and so were the pharaohs who knew him. A pharaoh came to power who felt threatened by the many foreigners who were flourishing in the midst of his nation. He decided to enslave and oppress the Israelites, even to the point of having their male children exterminated.

Moses escaped this fate by the shrewd, faithful actions of his family and the providence of God. He grew up in the household of Pharaoh, with Pharaoh’s daughter as his guardian and his own Hebrew mother as his nursemaid.


Moses is a huge figure in the Bible, so one would expect to find a lot about his life. It’s not so. Exodus is a story about God, and even though Moses is a great prophet, his early life and his many years in exile are treated briefly with a focus on how God preserved and equipped His prophet for the work He had in mind

The remainder of the first half of the book deals with how God acts to win the Israelite’s release from Egypt with Moses as His spokesman. This was famously accomplished with ten plagues. It may seem excessive, but the intent was to drive home, especially in the minds of the Israelites, the power and providence of God. The Egyptian gods, god-king, and magician-priests were powerless against the God of their fathers, who was generous and loving toward them. (The Israelites forgot this lesson with amazing speed, just as we often do.)

The second half of Exodus deals with the establishment of those things that identified Israel as a nation: the law and the tabernacle. The law was given by God, through Moses, because God would be their king. The tabernacle was a place of religious ceremony, but also the thrown of God, who produced a physical manifestation of His presence there.

I suspect others, like me, can find the second half of this book to be rough going. The directions for making the tabernacle and its furnishings are so detailed that one could build a reasonable reproduction of it. Even in this part of the book, there is a demonstration of God’s power and provision.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Genesis
The Gospels

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

After 40 years of wondering, the Israelites are about to enter the land God promised to their forefathers. Their leader and prophet, Moses, won’t be entering with them because of his sin in the wilderness, God ordained that he would not go in. He appoints Joshua to lead the people.

This is the setting of Deuteronomy. The name means “repetition of the law” because Moses takes the opportunity to reiterate to this generation the history of Israel and the law God has given them. Much of the Deuteronomy is a reiteration of the laws found in the books that precede it.

The law, recorded by Moses in writing, was comprehensive. The ecclesiastical law covered religious ceremonies. Other laws dealt with crime and punishment, dealing with accidental deaths, sanitation, construction, safety, marriage, family, commerce, foreign affairs, war, property, inheritance, contracts and other issues of importance to a people who are to live together peaceably. It was not he first recorded law, and it contrasts with its antecedents in its relative humanity, value of life, and emphasis on God. The Israelites were to eradicate the inhabitants of the promised land, God had proclaimed it as a judgment for those nations’ wickedness, but otherwise they were to treat law-abiding foreigners who live among them with fairness, even generosity, which was rare in ancient times and certainly not what they were experiencing when they fled Egypt.

Deuteronomy is not necessarily boring or devoid of new material. It is full of hope and warnings for a nation that was finally coming into its own. God, speaking through Moses, foretold that the people would fall away from the law and that trouble would follow. He foretold that they would seek a king some 400 years before they put a crown on Saul’s high head. The coming of Christ was also predicted.

Moses also composed a song. It was intended to help the people to remember their God, their history, and the law. After teaching them the song, he blesses the tribes of Israel.



It seems sad that Moses, who led Israel out of Egypt and in the wilderness, and who was faithful in comparison to his fellows, would die before he could enter the promised land. God led him up on a mountain to see the whole land that another generation of Israelites, raised in the hardships of the wilderness and fed from God’s special provision, would take. With this vision in his eyes, alone with God on a mountain, he died.

Even at this moment of Moses’ death, we see a picture of God’s justice and mercy mingled. It was just that Moses should not enter the promised land. However, Moses had the unique privilege to have is body laid in a grave prepared by God Himself. The funeral may be the most sparsely attended in history, but the Almighty officiated.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Exodus
Genesis
Leviticus
Numbers

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Obadiah

While many of the Old Testament prophets address nations other than Israel and Judah to some extent, Obadiah is somewhat unique in that his recorded prophecies are all directed at a foreign power: Edom. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. The tension between the brothers continued and worsened through the generations.

Obadiah delivers an indictment against Edom because of its haughtiness and the way it gloated over the fall and hardship of Israel. Rather than seeking peace with their neighbors, ostensibly their long distant cousins, they were belligerent and delighted in Israel’s subjugation to foreigners.

The judgment of Edom would come in the form of its own fall and eventual obliteration as a nation. The territory of Edom would be possessed by Israelites returning from captivity.

Obadiah. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Amos

Amos was a shepherd in Judah who God called to deliver a message to his nation, its sister nation Israel and the surrounding countries. His tenure as a prophet occurred during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam in Israel. His message had three components: an indictment of the nations for their sins, a warning of the oppression to come from occupying nations and a hopeful vision of the kingdom to come.

Amos warned the people, and particularly called out the leaders of the nations, that God saw their sins and He would not tolerate them forever. In particular, greed was rampant. People used dishonesty and force to gain wealth, especially to exploit those who were already poor. The leaders of the nations were complicit and expanded their own wealth by these means.

The luxurious lifestyles of these aristocrats was not to last. Amos warned them of the judgment to come in the form of subjugation to a foreign empire. That empire would be Babylon.

Like many of his contemporaries, Amos had a vision of a future restoration. Israel would be restored to nationhood for a while after the end of its occupation by Babylon (and later Persia), but these prophetic visions also extended the unending kingdom of Christ.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Isaiah

Second Chronicles

Amos. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Second Samuel

Second Samuel.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

The prophet Samuel died before the events described in this second book named for him.  Like First Samuel, this book continues the history of the establishment of a monarchy in Israel.  In particular, it covers most of the reign of David.

The book begins with the death of Saul.  He was the king who preceded David and the father of David’s close friend Jonathan, who died in the same battle.  David mourned the loss of the king and his friend, even though he knew it cleared the way for him to take the crown.

David’s ascension to the throne was rocky even though he had been selected by God to fill the position.  The southern tribes, Judah, received David as king, but the rest of Israel was led by Saul’s son Ishbosheth.  The two were at war, which ended when Ishbosheth was killed by two of his own men.

That is only the beginnings of the intrigues that plagued David’s reign.  No doubt part of this was the instability of a new kingdom, where many people were seeking to acquire and consolidate power.

Part of this instability may have come from David himself.  At his best he was described as a man after God’s own heart.  He loved God.  He was brave and generous. He was a great military leader and a canny diplomat.  He was all too human as well.  He was lustful.  He didn’t want to face trouble, especially within his own family, which led to an insurrection led by his son Absalom.  He allowed his office to remove him from his people, his troops, and his family, and the isolation made him vulnerable.  Sometimes his temper got the better of him.

On the whole, though, David is remembered as a great king.  He consolidated his country.  He defeated foreign enemies.  He surrounded himself with faithful and capable advisers and assistants.  He especially was faithful to God; even though he slipped he returned to God, acknowledging Him and seeking His way for himself and the kingdom.

There is a lot of exciting history in this book.  Most of it is very tightly summarized.  If someone wanted to novelize this book, expanding and fictionalizing the detailed plot, they could probably produce a series of thick novels packed with enough intrigue and action to keep even a jaded reader of thrillers engaged.  For a religious book that you might think would want to polish and aggrandize the reputation of a powerful and beloved king, the Biblical historians are surprisingly frank.  They do not turn away from David’s shortcomings or the swirl of conniving in his court.

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Minor Prophets

The minor prophets are the final books that appear in the Old Testament. They are minor in the sense of being small books in comparison to the longer works of a few of the other prophets; the longer books are referred to as major prophets.

Collectively, these books cover a long period of time. The earliest of these prophets preached during the reigns of the latter kings of Israel and Judah. Some of them preached during the period of captivity and occupation that followed the fall of the Jewish kingdoms. Finally, a few of these prophets were active after the Jewish people were released form captivity and allowed to return to Israel.

Several themes run through all of these books. Sadly, a major them that occurs both before and after the period of captivity is the people’s indifference toward God. In the period before the captivity, idolatry was rampant and the people sought alliances with foreign powers rather than protection from God. Foreign alliances were an issue after the captivity, too, and religious practice for many was perfunctory, devoid of devotion to God, righteousness or justice.

Many of these prophets also foresaw the coming of Jesus Christ. Some foresaw his first coming in the incarnation with a mission of salvation. Others saw further into the time of His eternal reign. The problem of sin, the call for redemption and our hope for salvation (in Christ) are still with us today.

Though the Jewish people of the time were the immediate audience for most of the prophets, some bore messages to foreign neighbors. These books have value to Christians even today.

The minor prophets are

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zepheniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi

Major Prophets

The major prophets are the longest books in the prophecy section of the Old Testament. These are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Ezekiel.

These books were written toward the end of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and into the period of captivity to foreign empires. The main themes of the major prophets were: the fall of Israel and Judah to foreign powers, the eventual return of the people after a period of captivity, and the coming of the messiah.

The fall of the kingdoms is attributed to the sin of the people and their leaders. They abandoned God, pursued whatever their lusts desired, oppressed weak and poor people, and relied on alliances with foreign powers. They would be enslaved to foreign empires for 70 years.

Some of these prophets were active during the period of captivity. As much as earlier prophecies were warnings, God’s message in this time was focused on comfort and His plan to restore the people to the land from which they were taken.

Isaiah in particularly provides many messages of the messiah who will restore a true, lasting relationship with God. Christians see evidence in these prophecies for the claims of Jesus Christ, and some New Testament writers point to passages from Isaiah as evidence to believe Him.

If you’re interested in the major prophets, you may also be interested it

Daniel

Ezra

Hebrews

Nehemiah

Second Chronicles

Second Kings