Please review the overview material in lesson three as it covered both I & II Kings. II Kings continues on from I
Kings with no break in the flow of material. The divided kingdom is still being discussed as well as the ministry of the
prophets such as Elijah and Elisha. The student must be very careful to follow the context of what they are reading as the
storyline is constantly switching back and forth between the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah)
.
The tone of this book is rather negative, but unfortunately very realistic. The destruction and carrying off of
Israel into captivity is described in chapter seventeen and the similar fate of Judah is found in chapter twenty-five. Despite
the occasional king who desired to serve God, both Israel and Judah consistently rebelled against God with the result of a
society that was very wicked and anti-God. It was in this context that we find the prophets ministering – they attempted to
encourage the few faithful followers of God and warn the wicked from their wicked way. It is in this time period that the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah all ministered (their books are found later on in the Old Testament). Consult the time-line chart on the following pages that shows when each king of Israel and Judah reigned and the how the different OT prophets fit into the picture.