2 Kings

Even though 1-2 Kings was originally one book, I ended up making this two posts, due to how much material is in each.  2 Kings takes up where we left off before, with Elijah the prophet and his assistant Elisha.  Elijah gets taken up in a chariot of fire to be with God, and Elisha carries on his ministry.  The thing that really strikes you about their stories is how many miracles are involved.  At least as many as with Moses, and some are close parallels with his (like parting water and walking through it).

New kings come into power for both the northern and southern kingdoms in this book.  While before Judah had some good kings, now some evil ones come into power. In Israel, though, the evil family of Ahab are eventually vanquished and a good king Jehu comes into power.  A few years later, the good king Joash becomes king of Judah, and eventually repairs the temple.

A bunch more kings and their reigns are described.  The ones from north seem to be mostly evil, while the ones in Judah, mostly good, with some notable exceptions (e.g., Ahaz).  During Ahaz's reign, the northern kingdom has it's last king, Hoshea (who was... big surprise... evil).  At this point Israel becomes exiled into Assyria because of their sins.  At this same time a new king comes into power in Judah, named Hezekiah.  He is said to be the greatest and most godly of all of Judah's kings. Some time is spent talking about him, and the threat's to Jerusalem that were taking place at the time.  This is also when Isaiah was prophet, and he appears in the story line and delivers some prophecies.

After Hezekiah, a couple evil kings have reigns.  But then his descendant Josiah takes rule.  Josiah is famous for recovering the lost law of Moses that had been forgotten about.  Ironic what had once been central to their worship was now an old forgotten piece of text.  He renews the covenant with God, but the following kings do evil again.  Eventually Judah goes into exile too, this time into Babylon.

The book ends pretty bleak for the most part.  The kings and people of both the northern and southern kingdom are not shown in a particularly positive light.  Interestingly, the last paragraph talks about how Judah's last king is eventually released from prison and is allowed to eat with the king of Babylon and given allowance, perhaps hinting at the grace to come? Or highlighting the mercy of a foreign king compared to the evil of their own king?  Ironically this foreign king's name was "Evil Merodach".