“One of the great mistakes of the people of Israel in the Old Testament was to seek and wallow in the temporal blessings of God so much that they missed the great blessing of God Himself. We are in danger of doing the same today. …
“Having failed to pursue the presence of the Lord, Israel ultimately came to despise His many blessings, attributing them instead to their own prowess or to the false idols and pagan deities of their unbelieving neighbors.
“Yet God promised that their highest pleasures and most lasting joys would be found in Him, and not in the conditions of their lives. Not in His blessings, but in Him. Israel completely missed the mark, and we today are in just the same place.
“As long as we continue to seek our happiness in the blessings God provides rather than in the God Who provides blessings, we will be in danger of falling short of the exceedingly great and precious promises of God. ‘Come to Me,’ Jesus insisted, ‘and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). We will never know complete contentedness in the presence of the Lord as long we count our blessings primarily in terms of conditions and things. …
“Until seeking Him, knowing Him, dwelling with Him, walking with Him, delighting in Him, and partaking of Him is the greatest blessing, richest pleasure, and surest joy we know, we will be in danger of falling into idolatry and failing at our Kingdom-and-glory calling from the Lord.” —T.M. Moore
“O Lord, keep me strong in the sense of Thy call.” —Thomas Boston, Scottish Presbyterian pastor
“You have remained true to God under the great tests, now be alert over the least things.” —Oswald Chambers
“Mighty events turn on a straw.” —Thomas Carlyle
“God is love, but God is also just, as severely just as if He had no love, and yet as intensely loving as if He had no justice. To gain a just view of the character of God you must perceive all His attributes as infinitely developed; justice must have its infinity acknowledged as much as mercy.” —Charles Spurgeon
“Pleasures demean, disappoint, and destroy us when they are merely fleeting, fleshly, and foolish. The pleasure we ultimately seek, and for which we were created, can only be found in one place, in fellowship and communion with the Lord of heaven and earth.” —T.M. Moore
John Piper has some very insightful words in the wake of the tragedy in Paris—France: A Fabric Torn.
Jim Cymbala reminds us, “There are no trendy shortcuts, no hocus-pocus mantras that can defeat satan.” Read more in No Hocus-Pocus.
There are some extraordinary pictures in the Old Testament that take on new life when viewed through the lens of Jesus Christ. One picture is how God chose the Jewish people out of all the people on earth, how He then chose the tribe of Levi to serve as His priests, and then how He chose Aaron from the Levites to be the high priest.
The Jewish people, the Levites, and then Aaron became God’s special possession because He chose them; it’s not that He chose them because they were special. God did this to give us a picture of what He wants to do with all of us.
Although the Levites were chosen as priests, God tells all of Israel—
You will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Exodus 19:6)
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. That the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession. (Deuteronomy 7:6)
When the Apostle Peter is speaking to New Testament Christians, he uses the same type of language. He calls all Christians:
Christians are ‘a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ that are to carry out their priestly roles while on Earth.
Peter also talks about where Christian priests are to minister. In the Old Testament, the priests had a set location where ministry was done. But Peter says we are living stones built on the Living Stone (2:4). That means that the place of worship today is not brick and mortar, but flesh and blood.
Christian priesthood is mobile, adaptable, empathetic, and responsive to the the needs of the people.
If you are a Christian, here are some good questions to ask yourself:
Are you taking the light and mercy of God to others (1 Peter 2:9-10)?
We will be continuing our series about how citizens of Heaven should live on Earth this Sunday. If you don’t have a home church in the Cedar Springs area, please come join us. If you’ve missed any messages in this series, you may find the complete list by clicking here.
“The God who in the old creation did all this, can He not work today? He made the world out of nothing, can He not make new creatures without the aid of human will? His Word fashioned the creation of old, and His Word can work marvels still.” —Charles Spurgeon
“This verse [Psalm 119:67] shows that God sends affliction to help us learn His Word. We should ask how affliction helps us understand God’s Word and keep it. There are innumerable answers, as there are innumerable experiences. But here are five: (1) Affliction takes the glibness of life away and makes us more serious so that our mindset is more in tune with the seriousness of God’s Word. (2) Affliction knocks worldly props from under us and forces us to rely more on God, which brings us more in tune with the aim of the Word. (3) Affliction makes us search the Scriptures with greater desperation for help, rather than treating it as marginal to life. (4) Affliction brings us into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings so that we fellowship more closely with Him and see the world more readily through His eyes. (5) Affliction mortifies deceitful and distracting fleshly desires, and so brings us into a more spiritual frame which fits God’s Word more.” —John Piper
[VIDEO] Duane from DW Video has a new project for any organizations operating in Michigan called “Buy Local.” I did a promotional video for the En Gedi Youth Center which turned out pretty nice. (By the way, if you’re in Michigan and you would like to have a free promo done by Duane for your organization, please click here.)
“In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were ‘normal.’ Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till the whole population has been destroyed.” —A.W. Tozer
“I want you to know how to study theology in the right way. I have practiced this method myself. … The method of which I am speaking is the one which the holy king David teaches in Psalm 119. … Here you will find three rules. They are frequently proposed throughout the psalm and run thus: Oratio, meditatio, tentatio [prayer, meditation, trial]. …
“You should completely despair of your own sense and reason, for by these you will not attain the goal. … Rather kneel down in your private little room and with sincere humility and earnestness pray God through His dear son, graciously to grant you His Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide you and give you understanding. [Psalm 119:18, 27, 33, 34-37]. …
“Second, you should meditate. This means that not only in your heart but also externally you should constantly handle and compare, read and reread the Word as preached and the very words as written in Scripture, diligently noting and meditating on what the Holy Spirit means. … Therefore, you observe how in this psalm David always says that he will speak, think, talk, hear, read, day and night and constantly—but about nothing else than God’s Word and Commandments. For God wants to give you His Spirit only through the external Word. [119:11, 15, 48, 24, 47, 93, 97] …
“Third, there is the tentatio, the trial. This is the touchstone. It teaches you not only to know and understand, but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s Word is: it is wisdom supreme. This is why you observe that, in the psalm indicated, David so often complains of all sorts of enemies. … For as soon as God’s Word becomes known through you, the devil will afflict you, will make a real [theologian] of you.” [119: 67-68, 71] —Martin Luther, on the 119th Psalm
As the fellowship I grew up in celebrates its 100th anniversary, I love reading quotes like this: “Worldwide, 95% of Assemblies of God adherents lived outside the United States in 2013. In the U.S., over 41% of Assemblies of God adherents were non-white. In the U.S., the white constituency has decreased by 34,922 over the past ten years, while the number of non-white constituency has increased by 433,217.”
“God’s sovereignty means that His design for us cannot be frustrated. Nothing, absolutely nothing, befalls those who love God and are called according to His purpose, except what is for our deepest and highest good (Romans 8:28; Psalm 84:11).” —John Piper
“Since God does in fact address man in His Word, He obviously regards him as addressable in spite of the fact that man as a sinner closes his ears and heart to Him.” —Karl Barth
“In a time when everything in the world seems to be vanity, God is depending on us to proclaim that He is the great Reality, and that only He can give meaning to all other realities.” —A.W. Tozer
“The treacherous enemy facing the church of Jesus Christ today is the dictatorship of the routine, when the routine becomes ‘lord’ in the life of the church. Programs are organized and the prevailing conditions are accepted as normal. … That would be perfectly all right and proper for a cemetery. Nobody expects a cemetery to do anything but conform.” —A.W. Tozer
“Father, we fear our deadly fondness for floating toward the falls when we ought to be swimming against the current. Oh, God, have mercy to waken us again and again to the perils of drifting in the Christian life. Help us heed Hebrews 2:1, ‘We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.’” —John Piper
“Hamas are terrorists pure and simple. The Egyptians get it. Why doesn’t the Western media get it? Why don’t Western leaders get it? And why don’t Christian leaders get it?” Read more about the Israeli battle against Hamas in Middle-East Meets Middle-Earth.
“What most Americans—and the world—hear about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas goes something like this: ‘125 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed by Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza. No Israelis have yet been killed.’ This may be true, but there is absolutely no context to it. One must look at the methodologies of the two sides.” Read more in this post: The Moral Difference Between Israel And Hamas.
“Christianity at any given time is strong or weak depending upon her concept of God. … Our religion is little because our god is little. Our religion is weak because our god is weak. Our religion is ignoble because the god we serve is ignoble. We do not see God as He is…. A local church will only be as great as its conception of God. An individual Christian will be a success or a failure depending upon what he or she thinks of God.” —A.W. Tozer
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
“Give us a pure heart, that we may see Thee, a humble heart, that we may hear Thee, a heart of love, that we may serve Thee, a heart of faith, that we may live Thee, Thou, Whom I do not know, but Whose I am.” —Dag Hammarskjöld
“Whether we call ourselves classical evangelicals, traditionalists, fundamentalists, Pentecostals, or charismatics, we all have to face our lack of real power and call out for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. We need the fresh wind of God to awaken us from our lethargy. We must not hide any longer behind some theological argument. The days are too dark and dangerous.” —Jim Cymbala
On the Biblegateway website, Jacob Edson has taken my chart and added even more details and cross-references to related Scriptures for each of the kings on this chart.
One challenging point in history is the divided kingdoms of Israel (the 10 northern tribes) and Judah (the 2 southern tribes). What makes it challenging when reading straight through the Bible is the history is covered in 1 and 2 Kings and then again in 1 and 2 Chronicles. In the midst of these kingdoms, several prophets are sent by God. Some of these prophets only have their words recorded in Kings or Chronicles, while others have their words recorded elsewhere in the Bible (usually the book name is the prophet’s name).
In trying to keep all of these people and messages clear in my mind, I have put together a list of all the kings and prophets during the period of the divided kingdom (roughly 931-586 BC).
You can click the picture above to get a larger view, or you can download a PDF copy by clicking here → Kings of Israel & Judah ←
I am not a biblical scholar, nor do I have a history degree. This is just a chart I put together to help me in my Bible reading, and I thought it might help someone else too. I would welcome any corrections or clarifications that anyone would offer on this humble work.
Not all of these updates are reflected in the screenshots on this page, but they are all in the PDF version.
**UPDATE 1: several people pointed out some tweaks I needed to make to this chart, and I am grateful for the input! This is the revised copy as of August 28, 2017.
**UPDATE #2: a few more tweaks … this is the revised version as of July 31, 2014.
**UPDATE #3: I have posted a chart zooming in on the chronology of the Old Testament prophets which I recreated from the Archeological Study Bible. You can read it and download it by clicking here.
A couple of notes:
Prophets who also have their words recorded in a book that bears their name are listed in bold italics.
The “start / finish” designation for each of the reign of the kings is clearly my subjective opinion.
Sometimes you will see dates for two kings’ reigns that overlap. These are where there was a co-regency (that is a father and son ruling simultaneously).
The prophets that are listed under the Israel side after Israel had gone into captivity are the prophets that God was using to speak to the Israelites in exile.
**UPDATE #4: I continue to do more research and get feedback from people far wiser than me. The latest version is dated August 28, 2017.
**UPDATE #5:The original chart stopped when Israel and Judah went into captivity. I have now added another line to show the prophets who continued to prophesy to both the exiles in Babylon, as well as to those who returned to Israel later.
**UPDATE #6: Scholars are unsure of the date of Obadiah. We know that it took place after invaders had caused problems in Judah (Obadiah 11)—and Edom responded in a way that angered God. Some scholars place this date after Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Judah in 586 BC, but since post-exilic prophets always named Nebuchadnezzar or Babylon, I think it’s more likely to have occurred during the reign of Jehoram around 840 BC (see also 2 Chronicles 21:8-10). Added Huldah as a prophetess during the reign of Judah’s King Josiah.
**UPDATE #7: Thanks to Anthony Wimmer, this chart is now available in French → Rois d’Israel & Juda
**UPDATE 8: I am always appreciative of the interaction with those who have downloaded my chart and are digging into the dates. After a few conversations, I have modified the chart slightly on the lower right quadrant of the last page to show those prophets who were ministering to the Israelites who were in captivity.
“There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them. It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry ‘masculine’ when we see them in a woman; it is arrogance in them to describe a man’s sensitiveness or tact or tenderness as ‘feminine.’ But also what poor, warped fragments of humanity most mere men and mere women must be to make the implications of that arrogance plausible. Marriage heals this. Jointly the two become fully human. ‘In the image of God created He them.’ Thus, by a paradox, this carnival of sexuality leads us out beyond our sexes.” —C.S. Lewis
“The highest kind of liberality is, to redeem captives, to save them from the hands of their enemies, to snatch men from death, and, most of all, women from shame, to restore children to their parents, parents to their children, and to give back a citizen to his country.” —Ambrose
John Piper says, “We are supposed to let our light shine before others that they give glory to our Father. But in my experience shining with supernatural, divine light from another world is the very essence of non-regular.” Read the rest of his post: I Do Not Aspire To Be A “Regular Guy.”
It nauseates me when I think that my tax dollars are funding this sort of irresponsible, atrocious behavior at Planned Parenthood! Read more about the latest lawsuit against Planned Parenthood.
“One of the great mistakes of the people of Israel in the Old Testament was to seek and wallow in the temporal blessings of God so much that they missed the great blessing of God Himself. We are in danger of doing the same today. …
Craig T. Owens 