The Prophet Chronicles
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Another Divine Pause
The divinely appointed delay, from 622 BC to 586 BC, between King Josiah learning of Jerusalem’s coming judgment and the actual destruction of the temple was nearly 40 years. God’s advance warning system was activated in 605 BC when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took some of the temple treasures and carted them off to the temple of his god. Then, after striving with rebellious vassal kings for 20 years, he burned Jerusalem down. But the temple was rebuilt. Nehemiah got the job done when Cyrus of Persia let the exiles go home and Darius authorized the temple’s rebuilding. But it was a little, shall we say, shabby. So King…
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At the Appointed Time
The more I study Scripture, the more patterns seem to leap off the page. In the blog post The Book of the Law, we looked at God’s timing in the discovery of the Book of the Law during Josiah’s reign. God let it be found when a godly king would act on what he was given. We had the privilege of going to the Museum of the Bible this weekend to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Go if you get the chance! Just as finding The Book of the Law was a pivotal moment in Judea’s history, the timing of the finding the Dead Sea Scrolls could not have…
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A Divine Pause
The Hebrew word selah occurs in the Bible only in the Psalms, and we don’t know exactly what it means. By inference, we’ve come to see it as a pause, a musical interlude, perhaps a time to reflect. God gave Josiah a selah. The last blog post explored the time in Josiah’s reign when the high priest discovered the Book of the Law. Rejoicing quickly turned to mourning when Shaphan read of the coming judgment. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. – 2 Kings 22:11 It’s generally accepted that the words Josiah heard were from Deuteronomy 28 and 29. Deuteronomy 28 goes…
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The Book of the Law
Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan and he read it. – 2 Kings 22:8 Have you ever wondered what the Book of the Law was? All 5 books of the Torah, or just Deuteronomy? Scholars disagree. And just how did it get lost in the first place?! Hilkiah found it during the reign of Josiah. But who lost it? Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, was a wicked king. He didn’t just rebel. He tried to stamp out worship of Yahweh. In Judea in those days, idol worship was…
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Jeremiah, Who Were You?
If you think, “Uggh, the weeping prophet. How depressing,” think again. Jeremiah is fascinating. He’s so much more than a man who needs a box of Kleenex. This blog post is part of a series on the inspiration for my inspirational fantasy series, The Prophet Chronicles. We’ve talked about Josiah – how he was crowned at age eight. EIGHT! His dad was a rotten guy. He probably made disastrous choices when it came to marriage. He started following the Lord around age fifteen. Why? He became a godly king. Who or what influenced him. Who would he have listened to? Jeremiah! What do we know about Jeremiah? The words of Jeremiah…
