II Kings 11-12 Dear RTB’ers, Today we return to the Southern Kingdom, Judah, and we meet Amaziah’s mother, Athaliah, who makes herself queen. Amaziah was the young king of Judah who was killed by Jehu when he had visited Jehoram, the king of Israel. His mother, Athaliah then “succeeded” him. She quickly eliminated any others …
Category Archives: RTB 2025 – Search the Scriptures, Part 2
October 21 / II Kings 10
II Kings 10 Dear RTB’ers, Jehu. Wow! Yes, Jehu was chosen by the Lord to cleanse Israel of its paganism. (See I Kings 19:15-16.) But he went over and above that charge. We read of his anointing yesterday: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the …
October 20 / II Kings 8-9
II Kings 8-9 Dear RTB’ers, A long reading today, but mostly just narrative if you can keep the kings and their reigns straight – a particular problem when kings in both the Northern and Southern Kingdom have the same name, Joram/Jehoram. Our STS note helps clarify that. Elisha serves only as a messenger today — …
October 19 / II Kings 6:8-7:20
II Kings 6:8-7:20 Dear RTB’ers, Two items of interest to me today… First, Elisha prayed that his servant could see the heavenly army that had surrounded the city and it was done. (II Kings 6:17). Then he prayed for blindness for the enemy’s eyes and that also happened. (II Kings 6:18) Consecutive verses – vision …
October 18 / II Kings 5:1-6:7
II Kings 5:1-6:7 Dear RTB’ers, So, Naaman… What a story! Many of you know that I often like to “put myself into the story”. So readers, who would you be? The Israeli servant girl? Naaman (or his wife)? Elisha? Gehazi? I’m sure that none of us chose Gehazi; mostly, I think we like to set …
October 17 / II Kings 4:8-44
II Kings 4:8-44 Today’s reading presents a few miracles at the hands of Elisha. Together with II Kings 4:1-7 and subsequent chapters, these stories all serve to establish Elisha as a man of God (II Kings 4:9,16,21,22,25,27,40,42), a genuine prophet of the LORD. So it behooves us to pay attention to what Elisha says and …
October 16 / II Kings 3:1-4:7
II Kings 3:1-4:7 Dear RTB’ers, The author of II Kings does not have much good to say about the kings in the Northern Kingdom, but today we read a couple of positives. First, [Jehoram] … did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, though not like his father and mother, for he put …
October 15 / II Kings 1-2
II Kings 1-2 Dear RTB’ers, Leaving John’s gospel, returning to Kings. Ahab is gone and his son, Ahaziah succeeds him. Again, the pattern in the Northern Kingdom, “like father, like son”. Ahaziah follows false gods the same as Ahab had. And he gets the same results that his father had gotten – it would be …
October 14 / John 12:37-50
Dear RTB’ers, In John’s first quote today, he is quoting Isaiah: LORD, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? (Isaiah 53:1) The rest of Isaiah 53 is worth reading. That chapter, together with Psalm 22 is very often quoted with respect to Jesus’ …
October 13 / John 12:20-36
John 12:20-36 Dear RTB’ers, Jesus speaking: “Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that …