Day 190

2 Kings 18:1-19:13, Acts 27:13-44, Psalm 82:1-8

I can’t quite get over the anticipation each time a new king is named. You know when you pick up one of those novels that it is impossible to put down, where you are almost turning to the last page because you really really want to know what happens. It is like that every time when we get to the new kings, will he or won’t he have done good in the eyes of the Lord?!?  And I’m almost as surprised at how much I get excited when we finally get to one of the good ones. Three cheers for Hezekiah.

The reports of the reign of Hezekiah also gives us a snapshot of something that has been quite clear throughout our reading, but something that we have not mentioned yet. Biblical kings had a great deal of power. When we think of the power that our own queen has, we see that it is mostly handed over to Parliament. Even though Parliament has a lot of that power, they still don’t tell us what to believe and don’t even tell us what to do for some parts of our lives. When a biblical king says jump though, people ask how high. When the king says “stop worshipping random gods” or “break down that altar”, people do it. Their power was huge. So when Jesus is called King of kings it is a pretty immense title. One that we might actually struggle to comprehend in our modern way of life with so many freedoms. But if the King of kings says that the truth shall set us free, then free we will be.

We mentioned that some of the stuff in Acts is very run of the mill, and doesn’t necessarily show us God at work in big ways. Although surviving a shipwreck is pretty major, what these stories actually do is help us to understand the person behind a huge chunk of the New Testament. When we know Paul better we can understand the things he wrote on a deeper level. Battle on with Acts and you never know what you might find in Romans, Corinthians or the rest.

What we do know about Paul is that he knew the power of the King of kings, the power to change lives. The best thing is, like Paul, we can know the King personally.