For nearly a week now, I’ve been studying 1st and 2nd Kings, reading through battle after battle of the Israelites, mostly between themselves.

Truthfully, I’ve merely skimmed through these sections of scripture in the past, mainly because our human propensity for selfishness and sin, literally drip from those pages. It’s never any fun to read of our own ignorance as human beings, over and over and over again!

But, in essence, that’s exactly what we do now, in modern society. We’ve still not learned! It’s 2024 in this moment, but if we look at what goes on in our government, what goes on in the churches, and what is playing out before our eyes in our streets.

Lying, stealing, backbiting, slander, adultery, poverty, murder, etc. etc. etc.

While this might be disturbing to my spirit, it isn’t surprising! The bible maps out exactly what happened in our past, what we face in today’s society, and what is to come.

That being said, it still doesn’t make it very pleasurable to read when I’m trying to keep a good attitude about much of the garbage I deal with on a day to day basis.

What it does do for me though, is offer insight into the heart of man. From then to now, when we turn from God and walk our own way, we are doomed by our very own ignorance!

When we start thinking we have figured things out and don’t need God, we are on a path set for self-destruction!

While parts of scripture may cause me to cringe, squirm, or even possibly feel defensive, I’m still going to read it! It seems to be a pretty consistent track record of three revolving scenarios:

Forget about God and go your own way…

Reap the consequences…

Run back to God when you can’t fix your own screw-ups!

I understand that simply reading the bible over and over again doesn’t seem like it will change anything, but what if it can?

There has to be a reason for God to have put all that history in the bible, and in my humanness I may not fully grasp the whys of it all. What I do know is that I’m going to keep reading scripture, just in case.

In 2 Timothy 3: 16, 17 it says,

“All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

I may not like everything that I read in God’s word, but it was put there for me to read, none the less… All of it!

For me, the bible is my history, all of our history, really! I’m not here to argue beliefs, opinions or facts about our past, but simply speak the truth of my heart.

Some study the bible, as I do, while others may study history books. In the end, it won’t matter what book you read, in order to see into our past. If we can’t seem to learn how to be decent human beings, why bother reading about our history, at all?!