If you’ve been a part of the commitment to read the Bible through in a year at The Journey, we’ve been hanging out in II Kings the past few days.
I have to get this off my chest: this has to be one of the most depressing books in the Bible.
A lot of people die. A bunch of kings lead poorly, embracing idolatry and violent political posturing and rejecting God. There’s a greedy Gehazi, a couple of horrible famines, and a crazy chick named Athaliah, who kills all her grandsons so she can be queen (thankfully, she overlooks one).
There’s a lot of great, miraculous stuff here as well of course – Elijah ascending to heaven; Elisha raising a boy from the dead; the Syrian military captain Naaman’s supernatural recovery from leprosy (you’re just going to have to read about these and more for yourself – chapters 2-5 of II Kings).
But the overall tone is very dark. For the most part, this is God’s people (especially their leaders) at their worst.
I can’t write anything else about it right now though, because my wife has been delicately informing me lately that my blogs are way too deep.
So let me just say that reading all of this depressing stuff about treasonous servants and the execution of entire royal families and the wholesale abandonment of the law of God...
Makes me want to live well. It makes me want to be a humble, honest, faithful man, husband, father, and spiritual leader. It makes me want to stay on God’s side. It makes me want to strive to be (and lead others to be) God’s people at our best.
Thank God for the book of Luke – we’ll be leaving these mostly abhorrent back-stabbing, Baal-worshiping kings behind to read about the great King of Kings by the end of the week.
And I won’t have to be depressed any longer.
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