2 Kings 24:14 “He carried all Jerusalem into exile: all the officers and fighting men, and the skilled workers and artisans — a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest of the land were left.” Growing up, I was not always the first picked. All the boys would be lined up in a row. The

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2 Kings 23:3 “The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.” Most of us don’t

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2 Kings 22:10 “Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.” Mom would tell us to go and clean our rooms to which we would shout out, “OK!” Then, like little mice we would scurry about picking

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2 Kings 21:1-2 “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.” When I was growing up, we had bullies at my school. Rumors would

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2 Kings 20:2 “Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,” When I was young, my mother did not hesitate to punish us. She would go ahead and spank us right then and there. One time, we were acting up in a grocery store which seemed like a safe place that

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2 Kings 19:20 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you prayer.”   Hezekiah was the first king in a while to be written about as one that followed in all the ways of the Lord (Chapter 18:5-8). Here we find him

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2 Kings 17:32-33 “They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.” Whole hearted devotion can

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2 Kings 15:34-35 “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done.  The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there” Everything was great as long as I got to watch my morning cartoons as a kid. If that

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2 Kings 13:20-21  “Elisha died and was buried.  Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring.  Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders, so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb.  When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up

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