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Kings and Chronicles, Part 2: Seeds of Hope

  1. Lesson One
    Hezekiah (2 Kings 17–20, 2 Chronicles 28–32)
    19 Activities
  2. Lesson Two
    Josiah and the Fall of the South (2 Kings 21–23, 2 Chronicles 33–35)
    23 Activities
  3. Lesson Three
    Overview of 1 and 2 Chronicles (1 Chronicles 1–7, 14–29, 2 Chronicles 29–36)
    22 Activities
  4. Lesson Four
    Ritual and Sacramental Living (1 Chronicles 13, 21, 2 Chronicles 1–27)
    24 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  5. Lesson Five
    Wisdom Literature (Proverbs 1–4, Ecclesiastes 1–3, 12, Job 1–4, 40–42)
    18 Activities
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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As was the case for other religions in the ancient Near East, the Israelites could drive God from their midst by violating the covenant. He would leave the temple and they would lose the benefit of His provision and protection. This was the worst possible outcome for the people. Bible scholar Dr. Jacob Milgrom notes the similarity here between Israel and its neighbors. 

On this point, Israel is in full accord with its neighbors’ obsessive compulsion to purify their temples. They too, in their more sophisticated cultures, believed that human transgressions were responsible for the departure of the deity from his sanctuary. Thus in a Babylonian stele, dedicated to the mother of Nabonides (dated 547 BC), we find, “Sin, the king of all the gods, became angry with his city (i.e., Harran) and his temple, and went up to heaven and the city and the people within it became desolate” (ANET3 560). Thus the sack of Harran (610 BC) is attributed not to the attacking forces but to the failings of its citizens.

The most noticeable difference in Israel was that the performance of prescribed ritual was not the guarantee of the deity’s presence. In fact, we’ll find the prophets often saying that this does not influence YHWH’s choice to stay or go. It is rather their relational fidelity to the covenant . . . to love God by showing mercy and justice to each other.

Source: Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 1991, pp. 254-262.