2 Chronicles Review

2 Chronicles begins the reign of Solomon and the building of the temple and ends with the the carrying away of both the people of Israel and Judah, which is the divided kingdom that they had become.  Our Christian life begins when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord and will end either at our death or at the His return.  Either way, we must remain faithful to Him and not allow sin to take us away captive once more.  We must also never become a divided people as Christians.  Matthew Henry points out that the kingdom of Israel that began with its first monarch and possible reached its apex with Solomon was superior to any of the four kingdoms that defeated it for a time, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon which lasted for about seventy years.  This was followed by the kingdom of Persia with several different families as the monarchs.  It included the kingdom of Greece that lasted for about three hundred years, and concluded with the kingdom of Rome, which also lasted about three hundred years.  The kingdom of God, which Israel really was spiritually has only one true King and will last forever for all those who become a part of it.  We may want to think that America is a nation of God, but many people who live here are not a part of that kingdom, and it is not going to last forever.  The Book is broken down into the peaceable reign of Solomon, when he followed God's law overall in chapters one through nine, followed by the blemished reign of Rehoboam, who was only king of part of the kingdom and who had what Matthew Henry refers to as a blemished reign as recorded in chapters ten through twelve.  This was followed by the short but busy reign of Abijah recorded in chapter thirteen, and then this was followed by the long reign of Asa, recorded in chapters fourteen through sixteen.  This was followed by the pious and prosperous reign of Jehosaphat, recorded in chapters seventeen through twenty.  The descriptions of these various reigns are what Matthew Henry referred to them as.  Next are the imperious and infamous reigns of Jehoram and Ahaziah found in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two.  Then we have again as Matthew Henry termed them the unsteady reigns of Joash and Amaziah found in chapters twenty-four and twenty- five, followed by the long and prosperous reign of Uzziah found in chapter twenty-six.  Then, the regular reign of Jotham found in chapter twenty-seven, verse one through nine, followed by the profane and wicked reign of Ahaz found in chapter twenty-eight.  This was followed by the glorious reign of Hezekiah found in chapter twenty-nine through thirty-two, which was then followed by the wicked reigns of Manasseh and Amon recorded in chapter thirty-three.  This was followed by the reforming reign of Josiah, found in chapters thirty-three and thirty-four.  Then we have a record of the ruining reigns of Josiah's sons in chapter thirty-six.  We find that some of the kings followed God faithfully and some turned away from Him completely and the people seemingly normally followed their leadership at least in appearance, but no matter if they were good kings who followed God or not, all their reigns ended.  Our King, Jesus Christ, will never have His Kingship end and He will always lead His people to be obedient to the word of God.