1 & 2 Kings 2
David Pawson observes that the book of Kings begins with King Solomon who began well by asking for wisdom, so God gave him everything he didn’t ask for as well: wealth, fame and power. Solomon wanted to share his wisdom. Unfortunately, he only had wisdom for everybody else, none for himself though he wrote three books and did many good things. He built a temple for the Lord with the materials and the plans from his father, David. All the northern kings were evil. In the south, some were good. The south survived a hundred and forty years longer than the north because good kings reigned longer. They had two very good kings called Hezekiah and Josiah, but another, Manasseh, even got into Satan worship. He ordered the death of Isaiah the prophet. We see in the book of Kings the dangers of becoming mixed up in other religions, other ways of life and other moralities. And it’s happening. But the God who is the king of the universe is also our judge and sooner or later we will lose what He’s given to us unless we wake up. That’s the lesson from the book of Kings. The Bible is able to make us ‘wise unto salvation’ and avoid the terrible mistakes that God’s people of old made.
1 & 2 Chronicles
David Pawson explains that, though there is much repetition in the books of Kings and Chronicles, one is viewed as a prophetic book and the other not, by the Jews. Jews have grouped the books of the Old Testament entirely differently from Christians, and thereby we have misunderstood some important matters. And if we skip Chronicles because it seems to be like Kings, we will miss the unique message it brings. As with the Gospels, these books are written from different angles, one from a prophetic viewpoint and the other from a priestly viewpoint. And Chronicles covers a much longer period, omits much included in Samuel and Kings, and is looking at the kings of Judah only. In fact, the writer is concerned only with kings in the royal line of David and their attitudes to two spiritual matters. David Pawson brings clarity to this study on Chronicles. He says that the author is writing for the sake of the Jews returning to the land from a long exile, and wants to give them Roots (that they had a line that God had been controlling all the way down), Royalty (they had their own royal line) and Religion (the purpose for which they existed) again.
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