Today’s passage: 2 Kings 15:1-38
Helpful thoughts:
- King Azariah and King Uzziah are the same person.
- He is also referred to in Isaiah 1, Amos 1 and Zechariah 14.
- Another “dynasty” of kings in Israel comes to an end, near the height of their power and after just four generations.
- God’s prophecy proved true. God’s power is greater than the greatest of our earthly kings.
- Within the next generation, Israel would have four new kings. All of them came to power by killing the previous and stooping to dastardly levels of evil that are hard to even consider against their own people. By the end of this chapter, they are nearly entirely under Assyrian control.
Questions to consider:
- Is financial prosperity an automatic sign of God’s blessing and pleasure? Does God simply see us doing “good” and then give us money and power? What does this tale from Israel teach us about this?
- How do you think the new kings felt when they first sat on their thrones “unopposed?” How certain was their security? Who was truly in control and on the throne?
- As Israel is declining and getting ready to cease to exist as a country, what should we see happening from the grand scale of things? What is God doing? Why has this happened? Where does it fit into the larger narrative of Scripture?