2 Kings Theological Point Of View In Practice

Getting Biblical in Daily Life

God isn't quite as talkative and intimate in 2 Kings as he is in certain other books—like Genesis, where he personally stops to eat some cakes with Abraham. But he is still present and palpable throughout the narrative, guiding Israel through the prophets, rewarding and punishing the people as he sees fit.

In 2 Kings, God makes it clear that he isn't only the God of Israel—although Israel remains the chosen people—but the God of the whole world. When the Assyrian King, Sennacherib boasts that he'll be able to defeat Israel's God, the voice of God responds through Isaiah, knocking Sennacherib down a peg:

I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins […] But I know your rising and your sitting, your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. (2 Kings 19:27)

God proves just how much he controls Sennacherib by destroying his whole army, then sending Sennacherib home to Assyria where his sons conspire and kill him.

Also, when God extends Hezekiah's life, he moves back the shadow on the sundial—indicating that he doesn't just control the events that happen in time, but time itself. Even though God isn't afraid to get involved in messy current affairs, he ultimately is so far above them, that even time is under the power of God. He can extend it or reduce it or do whatever he wants. He is a God who is both above humanity and totally involved with it.