Tag Archive | kings

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 159 & 160

Jun9

Sunday and Monday studies are posted together on Mondays

Day 159. Reading Proverbs 16 – 18.

Day 160.  Reading Proverbs 19 – 21

Read Today’s Scriptures.
What insight or joy do you receive?
 
Day 159 – Proverbs 16.

God is sovereign in all things. Did you see that in this chapter?

  • Verse 1. “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.”
  • Verse 4. “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” (Think Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus) 
  • Verse 9. “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
  • Verse 33. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.’

I can trust God’s perfect will and way for my good and His glory!

And a few proverbs that you’ve probably heard quoted:

  • Verse 7. “When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
  • Verse 18. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  

(Has that ever happened to you?  I’m guilty of pride, and often, I find myself on the ground with muck on my face!!)

  • Verse 24. “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” 

(Try this today when you want to lash out and see the joy it brings to the other person AND yourself!)

  • Verse 31. (I love this one!) “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.”

(My life is only righteous through the Lord Jesus Christ, but I’m glad that even Solomon did not find grey hair disgusting!)

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Proverbs 17.

  • Here’s another of the “better” proverbs. Verse 1. “BETTER is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.” (also 15:17)
  • I love this one, being a great-grandma of six. Verse 6. “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.”
  • A proverb against GOSSIP!  Verse 9. “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.”

(Oh, LORD, gossip is so tempting, so self-exulting, so delicious, and we can hide its malicious intent by saying we are “sharing a prayer need.”  Father, keep me from such heinous foolishness today!!)

  • Verse 17. “A friend loves at ALL times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

(I’ve always wondered what the second part of this proverb meant.  Well, you can lean on a friend through thick and thin, but it is a brother, a relative, who will stand with you in true trouble.  “Blood is thicker than water,” they say.  I’m so thankful that Jesus is both a friend AND brother to the believer.)

  • Want to seem wise?  According to verse 28, just keep your mouth closed. 

Yes, it can be difficult at times. But why open it and prove your foolishness?  (Me?  Yep, I have deeply regretted a word (or many more) spoken when I should have kept silent.)

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Proverbs 18.

This chapter has many of the points (truths) from the previous chapters. (Don’t you wish Solomon would have grouped all the similar ones together?  Ah, but then, would we search the verses so carefully?)

A FOOL AND HIS MOUTH

  • Verse 6-7 “A fool’s LIPS walk into a fight, and his MOUTH invites a beating.”  “A fools’ MOUTH is his ruin, and his LIPS are a snare to his soul.” 

GOSSIP

  • Verse 8. “The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels, they go down into the inner parts of the body.”

PRIDE

  • Verse 12.  “Before destruction, a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”

FRIENDS/BROTHERS

  • Verse 24. “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” 

This reminds me again of our Lord Jesus Christ’s words in John 15:12-17. 

  • “This is my commandment, that you love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. YOU ARE MY FRIENDS if you do what I command you (love one another). No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I HAVE CALLED YOU FRIENDS, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.   You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you.  These things I command you will love one another.”

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Day 160 – Proverbs 19-21.
 

Lots more wisdom in these three chapters, many repeated with a few different words. 

  • Verse 3. “When A MAN’s (own) folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against THE LORD!” 

 Have you ever seen this?  Have you ever blamed God for your own foolishness?  I can recall this in my own life, oh, fool that I am!

Wives, who wants them? Who can do without them?

  • Verse 13b. “a wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.” Yikes!!
  • Verse 21:9. “It is BETTER to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife!”
  • Verse 21:19. “It is BETTER to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.”

However…

  • Verse 19:14, “House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.”  YAY!

And, on the OTHER hand…

  • Verse 20:6, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a FAITHFUL MAN who can find?”

On keeping silent…

  • Verse 21:23. “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”  Amen!

God’s Sovereignty…

  • Verse 19:21. “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”
  • Verses 21:30-31. “No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD. The horse is made ready for battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.”

The lazy sluggard …

  • Verse 19:15. “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.”
  • Verse 19:24. “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.”
  • Verse 20:4. “The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.”
  • Verse 20:13. “Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.”
  • Verse 21:15. “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hand refuses to labor.”

Then, there are several proverbs concerning “a king.”  I wonder if Solomon is describing himself and his own rule…

  • Verse 19:12. “A king’s wrath is like the growling of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.”
  • Verse 20:2. “The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.”
  • Verse 20:8.  “A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes.”
  • Verse 20:26. “A wise king winnows the wicked and drives the wheel over them.”  OH MY!!
  • Verse 20:28.  “Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king, and by steadfast love, his throne is upheld.”
  • Vere 21:1. “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 186

Jul4

    Day 186—We are in the seventh month of Bible reading, continuing with the history of Israel (North and South)

    Day 186 – 2 Kings 12 – 13, 2 Chronicles 24. (confusing kings – Jehoash, Joash, Jehoahaz, Jehoash 2, Joash)

2 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 24.  Jehoash/Joash, at seven years old, begins to reign in the southern kingdom of Judah. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD during the days of his mentor, the priest Jehoiada. 

He instigated repairs to the Temple but had to take matters into his own hands when the Levites were slow to do this. He had an “offering chest” made where the people could directly give toward the repairs. The people responded willingly.

Then Hazael, king of Syria, attacked and took Gath, a city of Philistia, to Judah’s west. He then looked to attack Jerusalem, but Joash took all the sacred gifts and gold from the king’s house and gave them to Hazael. Satisfied, he went away. 

The old priest finally died and was buried among the kings in the City of David because he had done “good” in Israel. After his death, the princes of Judah came in and influenced the king to abandon the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and serve Asherim and idols. God sent prophets with warnings, but none were heeded. 

Then Zechariah, the son of the “good” priest, called out to them, “Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has forsaken you!”  But shamefully, by Joash’s own command, Zechariah was stoned to death in the temple court. 

The Syrians then sent a small army against Judah (in judgment). They destroyed all the princes, wounded Joash, and took spoils to their king. Then, the king’s servants (who happened to be an Ammonite and a Moabite), who supported the godly priest and his son, killed Joash in his bed. They buried him in the City of David but not among the kings. He had reigned for 40 years.  His son, Amaziah, became king.

 

2 Kings 13.  Back in Israel in the north, Jehoahaz, the son of that bloody Jehu who had annihilated Ahab’s line, began to reign in Israel. Like all the kings in the north, he did evil in the sight of the LORD.  In judgment, the LORD caused Hazael, then Ben-Hadad, the kings of Syria, to attack and harass them continually. 

Jehoahaz temporarily turned to the LORD for help, and God was gracious and gave them “a savior.” This could have been Elisha, who often caused Israel’s success by telling them what the enemy was doing, or it might have been the Assyrian king, whose attack on Syria, caused them to withdraw from Israel. In either case, it was God who arranged it.

Nevertheless, Jehoahaz stuck to his evil ways. He died after a 17-year reign, and his son, Joash (not to be confused with the 7-year-old king in Judah), reigned in his place. This Joash reigned for 16 years and did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.

Now, Elisha, that mighty prophet in Israel, got sick with the illness he would die from.  King Joash of Israel came to him about the attacks from Syria. Through some “object lessons” involving shooting arrows and striking the ground with arrows, Elisha shows him that Israel will have victory over Syria… but only three times. 

Then Elisha died, and they buried him. But the miracles of the prophet weren’t done yet!  As another man was being buried, a marauding band of Moabites appeared. The grave diggers quickly threw the dead man into Elisha’s grave.  When the body touched Elisha’s bones, he was immediately resurrected!! WHOA!