What's He Talkin' About

So often, especially with newer Christians, we try to read the whole Bible - cover to cover. Yet when we get to certain areas we end up feeling either stumped, or confused. Ever since I was shown this amazing aspect of Scripture I have always wanted to share the knowledge with as many people as I could.



Whenever I used to read the prophets I would read it to try to find messages for today. Lo' and behold I'd get stumped and confused. The great Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the like would be speaking about places and times that seemed irrelevant to me and my time. If that was the case how in the world do these prophecy pro's make the connections, what am I missing?



The first thing I was missing was the reality that the Prophet books should not be read alone. They ought to be accompanied by other Bible books, or at least a good understanding of them at the forefront of the mind.



You see, If I want to apply any Scripture to today I must understand what it was saying then. So just what was Jeremiah (our case study for the day) saying?



To find out what he was saying we must first figure out to whom was he speaking.



Jeremiah 1:1-3, "The words of Jermiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It also came in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month."



Now I know what your thinking (I think), what does that have to do with it; or... okay seriously this is gonna be too much already. I promise it's not as painful as you might think.



Notice that the who is the nation of Judah, city of Jerusalem, and most specifically the last three kings who ruled up until the point of Jerusalem's capture.



So why is that important? By knowing the who we can then learn the why!



This is where I might lose you, but I hope that you have enough interest in watching some basic mysteries of God unfold.



We'll find out the why by asking first where; where can we get to know these kings and what kind of rule they carried?



1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles tell the tales, and for the most part the same tales, but since they are written by 2 seperate authors one may go into better detail than the other. For the sake of simplicity I will point you towards the accounts made in 2 Kings.



For each of these kings' lives you will focus mainly on 2 Kings 22 - 25, alotting roughly 1 1/2 chapters to each king. However for the sake of your time here on this blog, I will summarize each account for you and leave it up to you to proof read and read the details for yourself.



2 Kings 22-23: Josiah did right in the sight of the LORD.

2 Kings 23-24: Jehoiakim, in the LORD's eyes was double-minded.

2 Kings 24-25: Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the LORD and sealed Jerusalem and Judah's fall.

Keep your eys out for the next posting as it will be full of amazingness.