Julie
Ahab dies and is followed in succession by Jehosophat who actually tries to do right by God if I understand correctly. Upon Jehosophat's death, Ahab's son reigns and is very much like his father and mother and sins against God in every possible way. It's obvious that the selfishness of people has been around since the beginning of time.
A psalm of praise and understanding that the Lord will protect the righteous and good things will come to them.
Michelle
A couple of things stood out in today's reading. It appears these kings are living in peace, but then one decides they should take back some land that is the people's. This makes me think we are never happy with what we have. They go on and in verse 6 it says the king of Israel brought forth 400 prophets. Why does he have so many prophets? It seems in the past there have been few prophets speaking for God yet he has so many. That seems like it could lead to problems. So Jehoshaphat asks if there are any other prophets and in verse 8 the king of Israel says yes but he hates this one because he never says anything good about him. I found this to be kind of funny in a way. Just because it made me think, how many times have we thought that about someone. That they are always negative. Maybe we just don't like what they are saying. I have felt this one personally from the other end before. People don't like what I tell them when they want an opinion or share their issues and I give them a different perspective. As the story goes on though this prophet ends up agreeing with the others, however, the outcome is not the same. So it goes on about the other few kings of these nations, Jehoshaphat does right in the eyes of the Lord, however he doesn't remove any of the places people are worshiping other gods or making sacrifices outside of God's instruction so people continue doing wrong in this way. The last king in this section was the son of Ahab and he did evil in the eyes of God, but it doesn't go into much about him.
There is a devotional with this chapter in which it talks about how children will resemble their parents in various ways including their personality traits. One of the questions is Which of God's traits would you like to model for your children? This one got me thinking. It also talks about how not everyone has or had the benefits of a Christian upbringing, but that doesn't exclude them from God's family. It explains that we are all God's family and that we need to be the light for them too.
The psalm seems to be saying that if you dwell in God, he is your refuge and those who run after other gods will suffer. With God on your side, you will be strong and joyful.
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