Tuesday, December 7, 2010

2 Kings & Chronicles

2 Kings 3:27
The Lord's blessing had not turned from the three kings, therefore it is not reasonable that they should begin losing in battle. The wording of this verse is peculiar; it seems to imply either that the Lord turned It's wrath upon Israel (without reason or justification), or that the Moabite king's offering brought forth a divine wrath which repelled the Israelites. If it was the Moabite king's offering that brought about this wrath, then the implication is that there exists a godly force other than the God of the Hebrews, with comparable power. The Bible has before hinted at that possibility; either the Lord is randomly and contradictorily using Its power, or this verse is a confirmation of that possibility.
2 Kings 14:6
It is simply staggering how outrageous this lie is. Mind you, these are solid, reasonable words in and of themselves. But to make a claim that these words are in line with the Law of Moses? These words are a direct contradiction of the words that Moses put forth in Deuteronomy 5:9. Such colossal inconsistency cannot be reconciled within a text inspired by God.
1 Chronicles 10:13-14
We have here a clear causality. Saul was unfaithful to the Lord; Saul dies. Plain and simple, and irreconcileable, for this kind of direct and immediate divine justice is simply not a reality of life. Nevertheless, the situation described is a clear-cut example of retribution following faithlessness. All this illustrates exactly what was so relentlessly frustrating about the books of the Kings. Divine justice, both as punishment and reward, occurs many, many times. And for divine intervention to be reasonable, two things must be present: justness and consistency. In Kings 1&2, the justness of the interventions was questionable, and the consistency almost nonexistent. We observed like offenses bring about differing punishments, unequal offenses given equal punishments, divine favor disappearing at crucial moments for no reason...the example of Saul is clear-cut cause and effect. Similar faithlessness throughout Kings 1&2 was treated with varying degrees of light punishment (Jehoram), heavy punishment (the small boys of 2 Kings 2), and no punishment (Jehoahaz). When divine consistency is gone, reasonableness quickly follows.
1 Chronicles 28:4
How do you reconcile this with the vast bloodshed the Lord has both sanctioned and inflicted?

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