February 28, 2008

Today we finished the book of 2 Kings. What is significant is that we just finished the main story of Israel. The remaining books in the Old Testament contain poetry and music, and then some of the stories of the lives of the prophets -and a little bit about different groups of the Israelites as they are in bondage here and there, but ultimately, most of the rest relates back to what we've already covered in the Old Testament so far. We saw the Israelites in bondage to the Egyptians for 600 years, and then free for 600 years. They had their moments, but didn't always make the very best choices - okay - not often at all. So - that's what we covered today.
Yesterday we spent much of our time discussing following the prophet.

Today we started out reading about the 10 northern tribes being carried away captive and spent some time discussing the N. and S. kingdoms, and the lost tribes, and the prophecies regarding their return.

We then looked at King Hezekiah - he was actually a righteous one! We looked at what what the Assyrians were shouting from the walls (chapter 18) - don't listen to Hezekiah - we are going to slaughter you, don't trust the Lord, don't be deceived. We talked about how Satan uses those same tactics to lull us into security and sin. No one will ever know, he doesn't know what he's talking about, it's going to be fine etc. Here we blatantly see satan speaking. Later in verse 36 - we see their response... The were directed to keep their peace and not respond at all. Is it possible for us to just keep on going doing what's right and ignore Satan? Absolutely! It may be tough, but we can, and if we do - as they did, we will be blessed.
Later on, we saw how they were smitten by the Lord as they slept and when they arose, they saw that they were dead. The only joke in the bible.. 'they saw they were dead.' Kind of funny...
We also saw that Hezekiah's prayers were answered, his life was prolonged, and that time moved backwards as a sign to him. We also saw that Isaiah was the prophet ministering to him at this time.
Moving along - we saw that Manasseh was really bad, and then that Josiah was REALLY good.
We compared King Ahab with King Josiah. Everything that could be said bad about the one, could be said good about the other. We discussed how we all have our agency, and our outcome really depends our our own decisions.
Finally, as they were rebuilding the temple - we saw that they found the scriptures. As King Josiah read them, he was overcome with how far they had strayed. He had all his subjects come, and then he read them the words of the law. They were all moved and covenanted to be obedient. We compared this section with King Mosiah - the same thing happened. We spent considerable time discussing how the scriptures can change our lives. When we read them - change comes from within. The reading of the scriptures brings change and even more importantly, it brings conversion. The Lord speaks to us through the scriptures, and whisper to us what is true - then we recognize this, and we change. We are asked every day to read our scriptures so that we can have the spirit with us -and so that the Lord can speak to us. My favorite quote is: "If you want to speak to the Lord, Pray. If you want the Lord to speak to you, read your scriptures." I think it is true, and I think we forget what great power we can find in the scriptures - they were written for us.

As we wrapped up class, - we found that King Zedekiah was the king. As we looked at 1 Ne 1:4 - we saw that this is Nephi's time! 1 Ne 1:19 tells us that once Lehi had his vision, he tried to preach repentance to Jerusalem (the remaining tribe of Judah, and a few other righteous people from other tribes in the Southern Kingdom). They tried to kill him, and frequently stoned the prophets. Within this climate, we see the fulfillment of Lehi's prophecy, as the final tribes are conquered and many are carried away into captivity into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.

That's it - we just saw the dissolution of the entire Israelite people. They are now scattered and smitten.
Tomorrow we will be passing off Ezekiel 37:15-17.