2 Kings

Second Kings is the story of the divided kingdom of the Hebrews: Israel and Judah. Each kingdom had its own kings and its own priests and its own prophets. But one thing they had in common: their governments went from bad to worse with only a few exceptions. The people continued to disregard God even though He sent prophets again and again to set them straight.

Through the years, each kingdom became a weakling spiritually and morally. After years of disobedience and struggle, they became sitting duscks for the larger nations around them. Assyria, a nation know fir its cruelty in warfare, eventually attacked Israel. Babylon, a rich and strong nation to the south, attacked Judah. The Hebrew people were carried away from their countries to be slaves and prisoners in a foreign place.

The Hebrew people continued to lose their land because they wouldn’t listen to God. They wouldn’t listen to Him about how to govern their land or how to treat each other. They wouldn’t listen to Him about how to worship and who to worship. This is their story so that we can learn from their mistakes. 

The purpose of 2 Kings is to teach us that no nation marked by moral and spiritual decay can survive. The theme are the lessons from the ruin of Israel and Judah and it was written in 590-550 BC.