Judges 19-21 is undeniably one of the most troubling narratives in the Bible. The story begins horrifically and keeps going from bad to worse. A Levite man’s concubine is raped and murdered in the town of Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin after he shoves her out the door into a mob. He cuts her body up, sends her to each of the tribes of Israel, and the men respond by raising a huge army of 400,000 warriors and sending them against Benjamin to demand justice. The Benjaminites met with an army of 26,700 men. In a series of three day attacks, Israel lost 30,000 men before overrunning the men of Benjamin. Only 600 Benjaminite survivors escaped into the wilderness.
It is not explicitly stated that the Israelite army then murdered every woman and child in the territory of Benjamin, just that they burned every city in Benjamin’s land, but by the time they are done there are no women left for those 600 escaped Benjamite soldiers to marry and rebuild the tribe. Realizing this, “The Israelites regretted what had happened to their brother Benjamin. They said, ‘Today we cut off an entire tribe from Israel! How can we find wives for those who are left?'” (Jud. 21:6-7, NET). The “solution” involves killing everyone in the town of Jabesh Gilead except for 400 virgins they give to Benjamin. Then the elders of Israel give the remaining 200 men from the mascaraed tribe of Benjamin permission to steal virgins gathered for an annual festival in Shiloh to be their wives.
I can’t even begin to wrap my head around how many people died in this horrific chapter in ancient Israel history. The numbers we are given tell us 65,100 fighting men died. That doesn’t include the remainder of the tribe of Benjamin (men past fighting age, women, and children) or all the people of Jabesh Gilead. It’s horrific. And the solution is almost equally horrifying: turn 600 women over to those 600 men and force them to rebuild the tribe. The Bible doesn’t shy away from discussing violence, but there is “atypical and excessive use of violence within Judges 19–21” (Matheny, 2018, p. 286). It stands out even among other violent stories as particularly horrible.
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A Biblical Fiction Perspective
Whenever I read this section of scripture, I wonder what it was like for those women. This is the longest narrative in the book of Judges (Matheny, 2018), yet it still only gives us a history-level narrative rather than a human-level one. One of the reasons that I love reading well-researched Biblical fiction is because it helps bring the Bible narratives down to an individual, human level as the author and reader explore what life would could have been like to live in those days. Books like that give voices (albeit fictional ones) to people who are silent in historic records. It would be very, very easy to write any book about this incident as a horror story. I am a hopeless romantic, though, so I desperately want to believe that at least some of these poor women found good lives with their unexpected husbands.
As far as I can find out, there are only two fictionalized accounts of this moment in Biblical history. I read Building Benjamin: Naomi’s Journey by Barbara M. Britton back in 2019 and after recently rereading the book of Judges, I read Warrior of the Heart by Mary Ellen Boyd just this past week. Both follow the story of one of the women captured during the feast at Shiloh. Both hypothesize a man (strangely, named Eliab in both novels) scarred by the past few months, repentant for his role in the atrocities, and committed to making the best of the situation and treating his new wife well. Both show a woman wrestling with whether to accept this as God’s will and eventually falling in love with her husband.
Violence against women (though certainly not exclusively against women) is so much a part of world history, and it can be especially discouraging to see it in scripture because sometimes we wonder if that means God is okay with this sort of thing. One of the things we have to remember when reading passages like this is that just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean God approved of what happened. There are a lot of stories, especially in the Old Testament, that are a cautionary tales and proof that human beings mess things up horribly when they don’t follow God’s way.
Perspective from Ruth
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This story in Judges begins with the words, “In those days Israel had no king” (Jud. 19:1, NET) and it ends by saying, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 21:25, WEB). They weren’t following God as their king the way they were supposed to, there wasn’t a righteous human ruler there to enforce God’s law, and people just did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. This story shows just how very wrong people can be when they think they are doing what is right. It provides context for why God answered the way He did when Israel asked for a king: “The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do everything the people request of you. For it is not you that they have rejected, but it is me that they have rejected as their king'” (1 Sam. 8:7, NET). The community cannot be trusted to govern themselves even when they have God’s Law, as the tragedy in Judges 19-21 proved (Cohen, 2020).
In traditional English Bibles, the reading order of books in the Hebrew Bible goes from Judges, to Ruth, to 1 Samuel. Originally, the order was Judges immediately followed by 1 Samuel (Ruth was placed with Psalms, Proverbs, etc.). The original placement underscores the connection between everything that happened in Judges and the transition to Israel as a monarchy. The more recent placement, though, makes sense from a historic and literary level. Ruth takes place during the time of Judges (Ruth 1:1) and some scholars believe that “its placement in the Septuagint and Vulgate immediately after Judges” helps show “Judges 19–21 and Ruth are in dialogue” with each other (Matheny, 2018, p. 1-2). The silent, violated women of the book of Judges give way to the vocal, respected women in Ruth. In her thesis (which I will admit I have not read in it’s entirety yet), Matheny argues that “the story of Ruth can be read as a voice of canonical ethical response” to the Judges narrative, offering “an alternative voice of non-violence” after the horrors of Judges 19-21 (2018, p. 2-3). She bases her claim on close readings of the text, their position in canon, genre similarities (both can be read as parables/fables), and the use of language.
Ruth is one of my favorite Biblical stories. It has an “early and almost undisputed acceptance in the canons” of scripture, and there is no reason not to think it was meant to stand alongside the Law and the Prophets, perhaps even “as a commentary on those sections of scripture” (along with the other Writings like Psalms and Proverbs) (Matheny, 2018, p. 12). The Book of Ruth bridges the time of Judges and the time of Kings, both in a literary sense by coming between Judges and 1 Samuel in modern canon and in a literal sense as she and Boaz are King David’s great-grandparents (Ruth 4:17). Another connection between Ruth and the Judges 19-21 story can be found in the original Hebrew language. For example, Naomi’s sons are not said to have “‘taken’ a wife, they נשא אשה (1:4). The verb, נשא ‘lifted/carried’ wives for themselves, Moabites which means ‘to lift’ or ‘to carry’ connotes the issues of Ruth and Orpah as other, as foreign women. This is the same verb used at the end of Judges in the scene where the Benjamite men ‘lift’ and ‘carry’ wives for themselves at the festival dance in Judges 21:23” (Matheny, p. 299). That does not necessarily mean that Ruth and Orpah were taken against their will (it may simply underscore their status as non-Israelites) but it does provide a concrete link in the language of the two texts.
Ruth serves as a way pointing forward with an extraordinary display of חסד (“loving–kindness,” “covenant–faithfulness”), of self-sacrifice for the other. With the story of Ruth beginning with death and ending with life, it becomes clear that this story was meant to be one of the canonical voices of answerability to the horror and violence witnessed in Judges. It is as if the text of Judges 19–21 is calling out for a king to make things right and one reply comes in the form of a story about women, and in particular, a Moabite woman named Ruth.
Matheny, 2018, p. 327
Reading Biblical fiction and examining the Book of Ruth as a possible answer to what happened in Judges 19-21 does not make the account any less horrific. But it can help us gain perspective on why the story might be included in scripture, and reassure us that the hopelessness and horror at the end of Judges was not God’s final word on the topic of women or on the subject of building a righteous community.
Matheny, J. M., & Sherwood, Y. (2018). Judges 19-21 and Ruth: canon as a voice of answerability. University of Kent (United Kingdom). https://kar.kent.ac.uk/75992/
As I mentioned in my email newsletter that went out this past Wednesday, I’ve been reading quite a bit of New Testament historical fiction. One of the series–Angela Hunt’s “Jerusalem Road”— made me think about is how weird it would have been to live at the time of Jesus. We look back from our modern perspective and think it would have been amazing to be alive at that time and have the chance to actually meet and talk with Jesus. But I wonder if it’s more likely we’d have been confused and perplexed by this seemingly ordinary man who suddenly started performing miracles and who claimed to be the literal Son of God.
It’s hard for me to imagine not knowing Jesus is the Messiah (the Hebrew word for “Christ,” which means “anointed”). I grew up going to church. Not only that, I grew up in a culture that was shaped by Christianity and where most people I met had at least a basic understanding of who Jesus is and what Christians believe. It’s so natural for me to think of Him as the Son of God and accept that He lived, died, and rose from the dead. But that all would have been brand-new to early 1st century people.
As our modern culture moves farther and farther away from Christianity, more and more people don’t have much–if any–Christian cultural background or Bible knowledge. Those of us in the U.S. and similar countries can’t really assume anymore that if we talk with someone about our faith they’ll have any foundational Biblical knowledge to build on. It’ll be more like Paul preaching to Gentiles who’d never heard of Jesus and thought Yahweh was only a God for the Jews than it is like Peter preaching to Jewish people who already had a faith background but needed to hear how Jesus is relevant to them.
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What Are the Gospels Doing?
I’ve also been pondering a related thought, this time about sharing Jesus with someone rejecting Him rather than someone who never knew about Him. I know of someone who was Christian but is now adopting Jewish beliefs, and I’ve heard that this person challenged someone to prove that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God using only the Old Testament. In many ways, that’s a ridiculous thing to ask. You can prove just from the Old Testament that there is a promised Messiah coming, but if you’re going to prove that it’s Jesus you need to cite evidence that His life lines up with those prophecies. As I thought about this topic more, I realized this is exactly the point of the gospels. They’re there to convince readers of who Jesus is.
Now Jesus performed many other miraculous signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not recorded in this book.But these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 2o:30-31, NET
Have you ever noticed how many times the gospel writers (especially Matthew) say things like, “it is written” or “that it might be fulfilled”? They’re constantly referencing back to the Old Testament writings and linking them to Jesus, showing that He fulfilled prophecies. Just like Jesus came to fill the law and the prophets to the fullest and just like He had to open His disciples eyes to understand the scriptures about Himself (Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 24:25-48), so are the gospel accounts there to open up the scriptures for us and show that Jesus is the Messiah. Of course, God the Father is the one who opens minds to comprehend these truths (John 6:44), but He also responds to those who diligently seek Him (Matt. 7:7-11) and expects His people to help share His truths with the world (Matt. 28:18-20; 2 Tim. 4:1-2).
Preaching the Word of Christ
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I feel like a lot of times when we talk about our faith, we want to jump right into the details. We like to explain what makes our church’s Christianity different from other churches. We want to make sure people know God has expectations for them and their conduct if they commit to following Him. But that only matters to people if they already know about Christianity and they already care what God thinks about them. If they don’t have that already, they need to hear the gospel–the good news about who Jesus is and what He taught–before all the details about how to follow Him.
For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them?And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How timelyis the arrivalof those who proclaim the good news.”But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.
The details about how to follow Jesus are important–He included many of those “how-to” details in His message, and His followers filled in more information in their letters that make up the rest of the New Testament. But at it’s core, the gospel is very simple. People hear the preached word of Christ, they respond in faith and obey the good news, and their belief results in righteous living. Remember, God’s sincere desire is that everyone turn away from wickedness, turn to Him, and choose life (1 Tim. 2:1-4; 2 Peter 3:9; Eze. 18:21-32). That should be our desire as well, and the ways we talk about Him should reflect that.
I know this wasn’t really my typical blog post format this week. It was more musings and reflections than a topical Bible study. I just really struggled coming up with a topic this week, and so I wrote about the ideas my thoughts kept coming back to pondering.
Featured image by Ben White from Lightstock
Song Recommendation: “The Basics of Life” by 4HIM (a song I haven’t thought about in probably 10 years, but which popped into my head while writing this post)
One thing I find fascinating when reading the Old Testament is thinking about how the ancient kings of Israel and Judah did at childrearing. I’m guessing they weren’t all that involved with raising their children given their other kingly responsibilities (and perhaps cultural expectations as well). Still, if we didn’t know the story we probably wouldn’t expect David, the “man after God’s own heart” to have children who end up in a situation where one rapes his half-sister, gets murdered by her brother, and then that brother rebels against David and sleeps with his concubines (2 Sam. 13-18). David’s son Solomon was a great king, but then Solomon’s son Rehoboam listens to bad advisors, messes everything up, and the kingdom splits into Israel and Judah (2 Chr. 10).
Reading the books of Kings and Chronicles, it often seems like the kings of Judah bounce back and forth from good, to bad, to okay, to really bad, to almost righteous with no real pattern. It just seems random, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it’s deeply individual. We just don’t know that much about the kings and what influenced them to act the way they did. I suspect a closer look, though, will reveal some interesting things we can learn. This is going to be a pretty long post, mapping out the kings of Judah after Rehoboam through the fall of Judah. The first three sections of this post walk through the kings in order, then in the last section of the post I’ll share my thoughts looking back on this study (you can skim until then if you’re short on time).
Abijam to Athaliah
The scripture helpfully records summaries for each of the kings, giving us an overview of their deeds and character before (sometimes) filling in extra details. Before we dive into those summaries, here’s a link to a timeline of all the kings that should help with keeping all these names straight. Let’s start with Rehoboam’s son, along with the two kings after him.
Abijam began to reign over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father. …
Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in David’s city; and Asa his son reigned in his place. … He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. …Asa did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, as David his father did. He put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. … But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with Yahweh all his days. …
Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in his father David’s city; and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place. … Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He didn’t turn away from it, doing that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes. However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
1 Kings 15:1-3, 8-12, 4, 24; 22:42-43, WEB
note: bold words added throughout to help keep track of names when a new ruler takes over.
Here, we have a son (Abijam) who walked in all the sins of his father (Rehoboam), followed by a king (Asa) who refused to follow his father’s bad example. Then, that king’s son (Jehoshaphat) followed his father’s example of righteousness. The scriptures actually say their hearts were “perfect with Yahweh” (in Asa’s case) and they did “what was right in Yahweh’s eyes” (in Jehoshaphat’s case)–high praise indeed. Then the next king went back the other direction.
Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign. He reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did Ahab’s house; for he married Ahab’s daughter. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.However Yahweh would not destroy Judah, for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always. …
Jehoram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place. …Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel. He walked in the way of Ahab’s house, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Ahab’s house; for he was the son-in-law of Ahab’s house.
2 Kings 8:16-19, 24, 26-27, WEB
In case you’re getting a bit lost with all the names, this is talking about the daughter of King Ahab of Israel whose wife was the infamous Queen Jezebel. They were so bad that scripture says, “there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up” (1 Kings 21:25, WEB). Here, scripture does give us hints as to why this king went bad–he brought evil influences into his life.
Ahaziah dies in the same uprising that takes out Jezebel and her son Jehu. When his mother Athaliah heard it, she slaughtered all but one of her grandchildren and took Judah’s throne for herself (2 Kings 9-11). Out of the six rulers of Judah from Abijam to Athaliah, only two made an effort to walk with God.
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Joash to Ahaz
Athaliah only ruled for six years before the people who’d rescued her one surviving grandson put him on the throne. This new child-king is called Joash or Jehoash. He spent his childhood living in Yahweh’s temple, presumably raised by his uncle, Jehoiada the priest, and the aunt Jehoshabeath who’d saved his life (2 Chr. 22:11-12).
Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.
Jehoash … reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba. Jehoash did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. However the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
2 Kings 11:27-12:3, WEB
There’s an interesting qualifier here. Jehoash did what “was right in Yahweh’s eyes,” but only in the days when “Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” After that, things go terribly wrong. We learn the details about that by moving from 2 Kings to 2 Chronicles, where he’s called King Joash.
Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came, and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them. They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols …
The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “God says, ‘Why do you disobey Yahweh’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’”
They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house. …
[Joash’s] own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in David’s city, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings.
2 Chronicles 24:17-18, 20-21, 25, WEB
Joash, who started out so well, wasn’t even buried with the kings of Judah. He’s one of the few kings whose childhood we know about; he was raised by a God-fearing uncle and most likely aunt as well. Then the moment the people influencing him change, Joash’s character changed as well. It’s a sobering lesson in being careful about those you trust as influences, as well as a lesson in having your own convictions and sticking to them. It makes you wonder how much of Joash’s flip-flopping between good and bad examples influenced the kings after him.
Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan, of Jerusalem. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, but not with a perfect heart. Now when the kingdom was established to him, he killed his servants who had killed his father the king. But he didn’t put their children to death, but did according to that which is written in the law in the book of Moses …
Now from the time that Amaziah turned away from following Yahweh, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish, and killed him there. They brought him on horses, and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.
2 Chr. 25:1-4, 27-28 WEB
Amaziah did a little better than his father, but he didn’t say “perfect” with God. His son follows the same pattern once he brings ruling Judah. He starts out okay, but then he goes kind a crazy.
All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah. … he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jechiliah, of Jerusalem. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper. …
But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into Yahweh’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense.… He had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in Yahweh’s house, beside the altar of incense. … Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from Yahweh’s house. Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
2 Chr. 26: 1, 3-5, 16, 19, 21, WEB
Uzziah does not have other people to blame for influencing him in the wrong direction (though he does go off the right path after “the days of Zechariah,” so it seems he was better when he had a strong, positive influence in his life). He just let his success get the better of him, gave into pride, and thought he needed to act as a priest as well as a king. For his corruption, Uzziah becomes a leper and his son rules in his place (that’s why you’ll see them overlapping in a timeline of all the kings).
Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However he didn’t enter into Yahweh’s temple. The people still acted corruptly. … Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before Yahweh his God. …Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in David’s city; and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.
Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, like David his father,but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also made molten images for the Baals.Moreover he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel. He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
2 Chr. 27:1-2, 6, 9; 28:1-4, WEB
It seemed for a while that the kings were getting better. Uzziah was impious, but he didn’t forsake Yahweh like his father Amaziah. Then Jotham stayed with doing what “was right in Yahweh’s eyes,” even though the people he ruled over were corrupt. Then all of the sudden, his son Ahaz starts putting up idols and sacrificing children (a sin that so horrified God He hadn’t even imagined people should do it).
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Hezekiah to Zedekiah
I told you this would be a long post 🙂 We’re now at one of the greatest kings of Judah, famous for his religious reforms and the detail the Bible gives us about events during his reign.
Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of Yahweh’s house, and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the wide place on the east, and said to them … “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.”
2 Chronicles 29:1-5, 10, WEB
We have a lot of details about Hezekiah’s reign; probably more than any other king besides David and Solomon (2 Kin. 18-20; 2 Chr. 29-32; Is. 36-39). None of those details tell us about his life before he was king, but by the age of 25 when he assumed the throne he was passionate about following God faithfully and he stayed that way until his death. He also surrounded himself with good influences, including the prophet Isaiah. Unfortunately, it seems he didn’t have much influence on his own 12-year-old son.
Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he raised up altars for the Baals, made Asheroth, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them. … He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits and with wizards. He did much evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. … Manasseh seduced the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel. …
Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.
2 Chronicles 33:1-3, 6, 9, 11-13, WEB
It’s a rollercoaster now. From one of the most righteous kings (Hezekiah), to a wicked child-sacrificing king who then did a 180° turn of repentance (Manasseh), to a brief yet very wicked king (Amon), then back to a righteous king (Josiah).
So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house; and Amon his son reigned in his place.
Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them. He didn’t humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more. His servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house. But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, and walked in the ways of David his father, and didn’t turn away to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images. … All his days they didn’t depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 33:20-25; 34:1-3, 33 WEB
Josiah was the last really good king of Judah. Joahaz his son only reigned three months before he’s taken captive to Egypt and his evil brother Jehoiakim takes over. He reigned 11 years before being taken captive into Babylon. Jehoiachin his son reigned wickedly for just three months before the Babylonians took him as well and set up his brother Zedekiah. Zedekiah did evil, refused to “humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from Yahweh’s mouth,” rebelled against Babylon, and Jerusalem was destroyed (2 Chr. 36). Thus ends the reign of the Judean kings.
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Summary of Judah’s Kings
David—righteous with a perfect heart
Solomon—righteous, but not perfect with God in the end
Rehoboam—evil
Listened to bad advisors
Asa—righteous with a perfect heart
Jehoshaphat—righteous with a perfect heart
Jehoram—evil
Ahaziah—evil
Welcomed evil influences into his life
Athaliah—evil
Jehoash—righteous for a while, then turned wicked
Faithful only while he had good influences
Amaziah—righteous, but not perfect hearted
Uzziah—righteous at first, but disobeyed God later
Faithful only while he had good influences
Jotham—righteous
Ahaz—evil
Hezekiah—righteous with a perfect heart
surrounded himself with good influences
Manasseh—evil, but repented and changed
Amon—evil
Josiah—righteous
surrounded himself with good influences
Joahaz—evil
Jehoiakim—evil
Jehoiachin—evil
Zedekiah–evil
Lessons from the Kings
Alright, now that we’ve gone through a 3,000-word history lesson, what next? (I honestly didn’t intend for it to be that long; it just happened :lol:) One of the few patterns I did notice is probably obvious to you too based on how I’ve written about the kings–some of the really bad ones had evil influences, several that went from good to bad changed after a good influence died, and the good ones surrounded themselves with positive influences. It’s not all that shocking–we’ve all heard adages like “evil company corrupts good behavior.” We know the people around us influence how we live and act.
And yet, the influences don’t tell the whole story. Manasseh did some of the most horrible things any king of Judah ever tried, and yet he sincerely repented based not on the influence of another person but on a distress-prompted, character-redefining revelation that Yahweh is God. We see Asa, Jehoshapat, and Jotham all described as righteous with God and we’re not told anything about their influences. Some of the perfect-hearted kings came to power right after a father who was thoroughly wicked in God’s eyes, and some of the most evil kings rule right after seeing their righteous father lead the country.
It feels almost anti-climactic to go through that whole study and say it comes down to an individual issue of the heart. And yet, I also find this encouraging. The most famous kings are the ones that reformed all of Judah and brought the nation back into covenant with God, but Jehoshaphat and Jotham are still commended for doing what “was right in Yahweh’s eyes” even though they didn’t reform the entire country. Their individual faithfulness mattered a great deal to God, and it’s the same for us as well.
We also see real-life examples of the point God makes about himself in Ezekiel 18 and 33–He interacts with people according to the way their actions reveal their character. God says He delights when the wicked “return from his way, and live” (Ezk. 18:21, WEB), and we see that when He accepts Manasseh’s repentance even after he commits abominable sins like child sacrifice. God also says, “The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him in the day of his disobedience” (Ezk. 33:12,WEB), and we see this as well when kings who started out doing well are labeled as unrighteous because they did not stay faithful to God all their lives.
Looking back at ancient Israel’s history can give us perspective on our own walks with God (1 Cor. 10:1-13). We learn from the examples of the past how to follow God with perfect hearts. We also see warnings about how not to live, and learn we need to avoid evil influences and take personal responsibility for obeying and following God. We can also take encouragement seeing that God’s character is unchanging–He still interacts with us in both righteousness and mercy.
I’m always excited to receive a new Jody Hedlund book to read and review before its release. I’ve read and enjoyed the first three books in her Bride Ships series: A Reluctant Bride, The Runaway Bride, and A Bride of Convenience. This final book, Almost A Bride, was a disappointment for me. There’s some really good character growth, but overall I didn’t enjoy this story nearly as much as I did the first books in the series or her other novels I’ve read. This might have something to do with my own personal experiences, and I’ll be sure to talk about that in this review so you can decide for yourself if I’ve judged the book too harshly.
Kate Millington has no trouble finding potential husbands. Staying engaged, however, is a problem. She arrives in the frontier mining town of Williamsville intending to marry her latest fiancé, only to panic and back out of their deal. He’s the fourth man she’s failed to marry — two back home, and now two more since she arrived in British Columbia on a bride ship. She longs for true love, but she’s also frightened of trusting any man with her heart.
Zeke Hart barely remembers Kate from their childhood. Back then, she was just the little sister of his best friend. He’s sure she couldn’t have good memories of him, considering how he left things back home. Falsely accused of a crime, he ran away to the new world and turned his back on God. Now a prosperous owner of a gold mine and one of the most powerful men in the area, he doesn’t see a need for faith. But meeting Kate again convinces him he has a powerful need for a wife. If only she wasn’t so hung-up on that whole issue of him not being a Christian.
In the background of Kate and Zeke’s personal struggles and ill-advised romance, there’s another threat building. A jealous ex-fiancé stabs Zeke. Someone sets an explosive charge in his mine, nearly killing him. He receives anonymous threats. Perhaps the question of whether or not they should be together isn’t the only thing these two need to worry about.
As a Jody Hedlund fan, I was thrilled to receive a copy of her newest book A Bride of Convenience to read and review before its release. This is the third book in her Bride Ships series. I’ve also reviewed the other two: A Reluctant Bride and The Runaway Bride.
Pastor Abe Merivale has no intentions of getting married during his five-year mission to spread the gospel in British Columbia. Not even to beautiful Zoe Hart, a former mill-worker among the women to arrive on the latest bride ship. But shortly after their meeting in a hospital, one of Abe’s parishioners shows up and extracts a promise that they’ll find a good home for the infant daughter he hasn’t been able to take care of since his native wife died. Zoe takes to the baby immediately, and Abe finds himself taken with Zoe almost as quickly.
After a series of impulsive decisions, the two find themselves agreeing to a marriage of convenience. Marrying Zoe gives Abe a way to sooth his recent heartache and fulfill his promise to care for the baby, and marrying Abe protects Zoe from a less-desirable match while making it possible for her to keep baby Violet. Abe’s Bishop doesn’t approve of the hasty marriage, though, nor of the half-breed child. Tension and attraction in Abe and Zoe’s relationship rise as they discover this marriage might not be so convenient after all. Read more →
I’ve been a Jody Hedlund fan for some time now, and I was thrilled to receive a copy of her newest book The Runaway Bride to read and review before its release. This is the second book in her Bride Ships series. You can click here to read my review of the first book, A Reluctant Bride.
England in the 1860s was not a good place to find a husband. By the early part of the decade, there were about 600,000 more women than men living in the country. And when employment options are limited, especially for women of noble birth, and marriageable men are hard to come by a 25-year-old spinster doesn’t have many options. Especially when her stepmother wants her out of the house. That’s the situation Arabella Lawrence finds herself in when she agrees to marry her father’s employer. The man is old enough to be her grandfather, and he turns out to be anything but gentlemanly.
Fleeing what would certainly be an abusive marriage, she takes passage in one of the Columbia Mission Society’s bride ships bound for Vancouver Island and British Columbia, where men outnumber women approximately 10 to 1. Their need for respectable, Christian wives is Arabella’s chance at a new beginning. Upon arriving, she instantly attracts suitors with her compassion, charm, and fiery red hair. The most persistent are two very different men — Lieutenant Richard Drummond, a gentleman and naval officer, and Peter Kelly, the local baker. Read more →
Like An Anchor 