Walk Through the Bible: II Kings

Passage: II Kings 2:9-12a; 17:6-13, 16-20

II Kings is different from the previous three.  Each of them had a central character, Saul, David, Solomon.  II Kings is more like a montage than a portrait, with many characters as it summarizes the careers of nearly 30 kings.  Only Elisha stands out for a bit.

From Joshua and to I Kings the historical books traced the rise of the Jewish empire of Israel.  At the end of I Kings we see the nation divided but still standing.  In II Kings the movement shifts to a grim spiral downward and over a spiritual cliff into destruction and exile.

The northern kingdom falls first to the Assyrians.  Then Assyria fell to the Babylonians and 136 years after the north fell, Judah suffers a similar fate.  But Israel will remain scattered, Judah will return after 70 years of exile.

The great nation that Joshua led into the Promised Land to be set apart and to be a witness and testimony to the one true God, instead of being holy, became an imitation of the pagan nations.

We need to know 1 and II Kings because without them we won’t understand the context for more than half of the Old Testament, 20 of the 39 books of the OT were written during the time of the kings.