Daily Readings: 1 Kings 19 and Psalm 119:1-32 Elijah had his great moment of triumph atop Mount Carmel. The LORD had given the miraculous sign of fire from heaven and had proven once and for all that Baal was no god at all. Rain had come to the land after a long drought and, as…

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Daily Readings: 1 Kings 18 and Psalm 118 Ahab was so corrupted by his allegiance to the false god Baal that he had allowed his wife, Jezebel, to initiate the wholesale eradication of Yahweh’s prophets from the land. Yet somehow, one of his most trusted administrators was Obadiah, a devout believer in Yahweh, hidden in…

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Daily Readings: 1 Kings 17 and Psalm 117 Elijah explodes onto the Biblical scene in 1 Kings 17. We aren’t told how the Lord called and commissioned him to the prophetic ministry, but he started with the same courage that characterised his whole ministry. Elijah comes from rural Tishbe into the court of the wicked…

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Daily Readings: 1 Kings 16 and Psalm 116 During the 41 years of King Asa’s reign in Judah (the southern kingdom) multiple kings came to power in the northern kingdom of Israel. Baasha (24 years), Elah (2 years), Zimri (7 days), Omri (12 years) and Ahab, who eventually ruled well beyond the time of King…

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Daliy readings: 1 Kings 15 and Psalm 115 The chapters of 1 Kings that deal with successive kings can be confusing. Remember that at this point the histories of the two kingdoms are being recorded in parallel. In chapter 15 we cover 44 years and read about the kingdom of Judah (in the south) being…

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Daily Readings: 1 Kings 14 and Psalm 114 King Jeroboam (of the northern kingdom of Israel) had utterly rejected Yahweh. He had erected golden calf idols and demanded that they be worship as the gods of Israel. Even having been confronted by the prophet from Judah and given two signs (an altar that split and…

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Daily Readings: 1 Kings 13 and Psalm 113 1 Kings 13 is a very tough chapter for disciples of Jesus. We know that God has chosen to deal with us mercifully – not treating us as our sins deserve. Yet, at first glance, it seems as though the man of God from Judah receives severe…

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Daily Readings: 1 Kings 12 and Psalm 112 1 Kings 12 is a chapter focussed on the devastating power of bad advice. On Friday we read in 1 Kings 11 that God had already decided to remove the kingdom from Solomon’s offspring because of his idolatry and accompanying immorality. Only the Southern Tribes of Judah…

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Daily Reading: 1 Kings 11 and Psalm 111 From the Word of the Lord at the time of creation, it is clear that a man who marries is to have one woman as his wife for life. The two are to become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Jesus reaffirmed this principle (Matthew 19:6) and the New…

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Daily Readings: 1 Kings 10 and Psalm 110 The Queen of Sheba (also known as Sabea and situated where modern Yemen is in southern Arabia) made the 2400 km journey to Jerusalem as part of a trade delegation. Her mission was essentially to assess whether Solomon was all he was reported to be, and whether…

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