Wednesday – History

Reading – 2 Kings 12-14

Highlight Verse:

“Jehoash son of Jehoahaz began to rule over Israel in the thirty-seventh year of King Joash’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria sixteen years.”
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭13‬:‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I’m sure there are multiple lessons to learn from today’s reading.

But I got hung up on a little detail.

I thought about ignoring it and moving on to one of those other lessons.

But I thought, “What if someone else gets hung up on that too?”

What tripped me up?

A three-year discrepancy between verse 1 and 10 in the length of Jehoahaz’s reign.

Okay, that may sound like a tiny detail to fret about but to detail oriented people (like me), it can foster doubt.

Let me put my detail-oriented friends at ease.

Co-regency (more than one king ruling at the same time) was common in that era. This was especially common when the rule is passed from father to son like here.

Simply put, he was considered a king for the last three years of his father’s reign.

There are more details in the Bible that seem to be inconsistent. Sometimes you have to look at the cultural and literary context to understand the consistency of the Bible.

Let me assure of one thing – the Bible is consistent.

There are many times more manuscripts of the Bible than any other documents from those eras.

It is the most accurate book of all time.

It does need to be studied within its cultural and literary context to be understood.

It is the Word of God.

If we want to hear from God, it is the primary and only authoritative source of what God wants to tell us.

I say we dive into it to understand it as best we can.

Are there other questions that you have had about the consistency of the Bible? (Let’s look at them together.)
What other lessons did you get out of today’s reading?