{"id":2088,"date":"2012-03-21T08:45:59","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T12:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=2088"},"modified":"2012-03-21T08:35:39","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T12:35:39","slug":"fast-track-read-the-bible-in-one-month-part-10-of-24-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/03\/fast-track-read-the-bible-in-one-month-part-10-of-24-draft.html","title":{"rendered":"Fast Track: Read The Bible in One Month (Part 10 of 24)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>While the northern kingdom had been judged by the Assyrians, the southern kingdom was a roller-coaster ride of good kings and bad kings.\u00a0 A good king would come to power and move people up toward God, and then several bad kings would drive the nation back down. This roller-coaster occurred over dozens of years.\u00a0 The southern kingdom was not captured by Assyria because enough good kings kept the people close to God, and He protected them from the Assyrians. Two kings, the “J’s” on the top of our roller-coaster, are Josiah and Jehoshaphat.\u00a0 This godly duo led the people back to God in<\/p>\n

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The J-Kings got to the top of the coaster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

significant ways.<\/p>\n

They began national education programs that taught Biblical principles, in the hope that parents would educate their children in God\u2019s truth.\u00a0 They declared national festivals to celebrate the Sabbath and prayed to God for forgiveness.\u00a0 Jehoshaphat declared a Jehosha-fast \u2013 the people would skip a meal to seek God. They\u2019d use that time to pray to God and confess their mistakes.\u00a0 Many of the prophets began to see the roller-coaster headed downward as the southern Kingdom began to worship Baal.\u00a0 The prophets warned the people not to run from God.\u00a0 They reminded them that God is gracious and will forgive them.\u00a0 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Hosea, Obadiah, Nahum, and Amos were prophets who kept proclaiming God’s banner call to the northern and southern kingdoms:\u00a0 “Stop running and return to Me!”\u00a0 Micah told God\u2019s people to return to Him rather than continuing in their self-centered neglect for the poor around them. Amos told God\u2019s people to use God\u2019s truth as a plumb line for their lives.<\/p>\n

The prophets of the northern kingdom, Obadiah, Hosea, and Jonah, were the primary voices warning that God would remove His protection if they kept running.\u00a0 They reminded God’s people of His love, if they would only trust Him and return.\u00a0 A prophet named Hosea married a prostitute who was continually unfaithful to him.\u00a0 Hosea\u2019s pursuing love of an unfaithful spouse was a symbol of how God feels toward His unfaithful people.\u00a0 God’s heart was broken over their unfaithfulness, but He waited for them faithfully.\u00a0 Hosea\u2019s passionate preaching and \u201ccall to return\u201d originated in his own broken heart.\u00a0 With deep emotion, he pleaded with Israel to return to God just as he pleaded with his wife, Gomer, to return to him.<\/p>\n

The southern kingdom decided to make a treaty with the evil Assyrian empire to protect them from the upcoming nation of Babylon.\u00a0 God told them to trust Him rather than making this alliance.\u00a0 When Babylon conquered Assyria, they absorbed the southern kingdom of Judah as well. God supernaturally used this kingdom-takeover to put His people back together again.\u00a0 The northern kingdom, which had already been taken over by the Assyrians, was now captive along with the southern kingdom when Babylon swallowed them all whole.<\/p>\n

Isaiah even reminded the people that God was sending a Messiah, the Final Forgiver and Rescuer, who would help them return to God by suffering and dying a violent death.\u00a0 This Final Forgiver would be pierced for all mankind\u2019s wrongs: our running from God.\u00a0 After hundreds of years of warnings, God lets His people face the consequences of their rebellion.\u00a0 The nation of Babylon conquered the southern kingdom and Assyria at the same time.\u00a0 God united His people in both the northern and southern kingdom back together again in Babylonian Exile as slaves.<\/p>\n

The prophets told them it would last 70 years.\u00a0 Two prophets, Ezekiel and Daniel, reminded the people to take responsibility for their running and return to God in their hearts.\u00a0 Ezekiel reminded the people that God would restore them. Ezekiel was given a vision of a valley of dry bones.\u00a0 God asked Ezekiel if these dry bones could live again. He reassembled the bones in front of the prophet and breathed life into them This vision was a prophecy that God would reassemble the people back to their nation after their time in Babylon.\u00a0 It was also a future prophecy\u00a0 of the return of the nation of Israel after years of dormancy. (Modern history shows the 1948 fulfillment of this prophecy, when Israel was reassembled as a nation.)<\/p>\n

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A Baby-lon statue appeared in Dan's dream<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daniel rose to influence in Babylon.\u00a0 He accurately predicted the next 600 years of world history, including the rise of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman Empire.\u00a0 Daniel had a series of visions that laid out the timeline. One dream had a tall statue of “Baby-lon” \u2013 which is why our statue has a baby face.\u00a0 Each part of the statue was made of different metals: head, arms, body, legs, and feet.\u00a0 An angel told Daniel that Babylon was the first kingdom that would be defeated by the arms of the Medes and Persians.\u00a0 The Persians would be conquered by the Greeks.\u00a0 The Greeks would be destroyed by the Romans.\u00a0 During the time of the Romans, a rock \u2013 not made with human hands \u2013 came and destroyed the kingdoms of this world.\u00a0 This “rock” was the Messiah.\u00a0 He started a spiritual kingdom that dismantled the evil Roman Empire from the inside out.\u00a0 The course of history over the following centuries played out Daniel’s predictions to the letter.\u00a0 Daniel was an advisor to kings throughout the Babylonian empire.\u00a0 He garnered the respect and admiration of several kings, but some of his favor with the kings resulted in colleagues attempting to have him killed for his prayer and Bible study habits.<\/p>\n

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Daniel wasn't cowardly when facing lions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fact, Daniel was thrown into the lions\u2019 den when he was \u201ccaught\u201d seeking God during his private prayer time by an open window.\u00a0 God supernaturally sealed the mouths of the lions, and Daniel was rescued.\u00a0 God also supernaturally rescued three other Jewish captives who were forced to bow down before King Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s statue.\u00a0 Just as Daniel was thrown into the lions\u2019 den, his friends were thrown into a fiery furnace.\u00a0 God shut the lions\u2019 mouths, but actually entered the flames with Daniel\u2019s three friends.\u00a0 We find out later that “the angel of the Lord” who walked in the fire with Daniel’s friend was Jesus Christ, who would come to Earth literally and physically to establish a new kingdom of love, peace, joy, and generosity for years to come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here is a live teaching of Fast Track: 2 Kings – Malachi<\/p>\n