Friday, November 8, 2013

II Kings Part II: Just a Few Questions

More of the Seriously Disturbing

Well, as you have surely seen by now the Bible is chock full of some seriously disturbing material, is it not? Sure, I have a way of putting some of the questions I pose, but after reading the material can you really blame me? If you CAN please say so in the comments section.

1. II Kings 17:32-39
32 They also feared the LORD and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.

33 So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

34 To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.

35 The LORD made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them,

36 but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice.

37 And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods,

38 and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods,

39 but you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”

Questions
     1) Jesus Christ...how many times are they going to use the word fear?

2. II Kings 19:35
35 And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

Questions
     1) Say, is this another example of God's fighting dirty techniques?

3. II Kings 21:3
For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

Questions
     1) Sooo...there ARE other gods with at least some powers?

4. II Kings 21:6
And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

Questions
     1) Sooo...this guy did all of these no-no things and only provoked the LORD/God?

     2) But someone else who did not believe in the LORD/God and who did these things would have been totally annihilated, right?

5. II Kings 21:8
I will not again make the feet of the Israelites wander from the land I gave their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them and will keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them."

Questions
     1) Ahhh...this is one of those great deals where only God/the LORD wins, right?

     2) Isn't this an unconscionable or boiler plate contract?

6. II Kings 21:9-11
But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.

10 And the LORD said by his servants the prophets,

11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols

Questions
     1) Is any of this anywhere near fair?

     2) Is this an example of entrapment of man by God/the LORD?

7. II Kings 21:12-14
12 therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.

13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

14 And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies,

Questions
     1) Well...thanks for the warning, Pal, right?

8. II Kings 21:15-16
15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”

16 Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.

Questions
     1) Excuses, excuses, excuses. Is this the best God can do?


9. II Kings 21:22
22 He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.

Questions
     1) Of course he forsook the LORD! For Pete's sake...look at verses 14, 15, and 16, right?

10. II Kings 21:23
23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house.


Questions
     1) Sooo...I take it there is NO respect for royalty and kingship? Tell me, how will this work out for Jesus? After Jesus?

11. II Kings 22:16-17
16 Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read.

17 Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.

Questions
     1) But God deserves  disregard, doesn't He?

12. II Kings 22:19-20
19 because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD.

20 Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

Questions
     1) Wow...someone has control issues, don't they?

13. II Kings 23:14
14 And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

Questions
     1) What is it with God and the Bible and desecration of corpses?


14. II Kings 23:24
24 Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

Questions
     1) Sooo...no psychics due to the control issues?

15. II Kings 25:3
On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.

Questions
     1) Wow...I would say God is the worst parent ever. Don't you think so?


16. II Kings 25:7
They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.

Questions
     1) This is SO freaking horrible and so barbaric, isn't it?


17. II Kings 25:9
And he burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.

Questions
     1) Sooo...so much for God's people lasting forever, right?


18. II Kings 25:26

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