Prophets, Kings, & “Cross” Words
“Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing
without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.”
Amos 3:7 NIV
This is week 3 of our summer puzzle theme! This week’s puzzle is a crossword based on 1 & 2 Kings to help lead us back into our Bible study plan…
Our plan for 2023 is to journey through The NeverEnding Story of the Bible and discover how we fit into it along the way. Our plan for this year is loosely based on The Story, an abridged chronological version of the Bible, and the accompanying study guide The Heart of the Story by Randy Frazee.
Here is where we left off in The Story:
MOVEMENT TWO: The Story of Israel (Genesis 12-Malachi)
Chapter 14 – A Kingdom Torn in Two
In God Always Keeps His Promises, my post about this chapter, we discussed that because of Solomon’s failure to follow God completely, the Hebrew nation was split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The books of 1 & 2 Kings outline the reigns of all the kings in each of these nations, evaluating each of them as either good or bad.
“He did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.”
2 Kings 17:2 NIV
As we read through these books, we see that all of Israel’s kings and most of Judah’s kings were bad, meaning that they weren’t faithful to God in their worship or in their obedience to His law. The poor leadership had disastrous results. In 2 Kings 17 the northern kingdom of Israel falls at the hands of Assyria. Even the reforms of the good kings in Judah were not enough to save the southern nation. In 2 Kings 17 the northern kingdom of Israel falls at the hands of Assyria. And the book of 2 Kings ends with the capture of Judah by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
The next chapter we’ll look at in The Story is “Chapter 15: God’s Messengers,” which focuses on the prophets of God during the time of the kings. Before we get there, though, we’ll get a little background first. Here is great summary of 1 & 2 Kings to help us see the big picture of everything that’s going on in these books:
This week’s crossword puzzle focuses on some of the kings and prophets in 1 & 2 Kings. And next week we’ll showcase a scene in the life the prophet Elisha. As I mentioned above, the story of Kings leads to the exiles of both northern Israel and southern Judah. Not exactly a happy tale. But it ends with a bit of foreshadowing about something good to come: a future King in David’s line who will eat at the royal table forever.
That King, of course, is Jesus Christ. And because of Him, our story has a happy ending. So, I have also included some “cross” words in my crossword. That is, I’ve included a few verses that point to Christ and how He became King of all kings through the power of His death on the cross. Because that’s really what the story of Kings is pointing us toward…
“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
‘The kingdoms of this world have become
the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,
and He shall reign forever and ever!'”
Revelation 11:15 NKJV
This week’s Scripture passages all come from the clues for the crossword puzzle below. I have also included an answer key below the puzzle in case you get stuck. As we read about past kings, both good and bad, and the prophets who tried to keep them on the right path, let’s give thanks for our King — a King whose goodness knows no bound and whose reign will never end!
References:
- “Books of 1-2 Kings Summary: A Complete Animated Overview.” YouTube, uploaded by BibleProject, 2 April 2016, https://youtu.be/bVFW3wbi9pk.
- Frazee, Randy. The Heart of the Story: Discover Your Life Within the Grand Epic of God’s Story. Zondervan, 2017.
- “Prophets, Kings, & ‘Cross’ Words” Puzzle created at https://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/
- The Story: Read the Bible as One Seamless Story from Beginning to End. Rev. ed., Zondervan, 2008.
Images:
- Crossword Puzzle featured image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay (edited)
- Elisha image taken from “Books of 1-2 Kings Summary: A Complete Animated Overview.” YouTube, uploaded by BibleProject, 2 April 2016, https://youtu.be/bVFW3wbi9pk (edited)
- Thumbs Up Thumbs Down image by Jermain Allen from Pixabay (edited)
- Jesus image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay (edited)
- Cross image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay (edited)
About The Author
Christa
My vision for Wondertakings was to create a devotional blog for "nerdy" Christians like me. I do believe, as Socrates said, that wisdom begins in wonder. So I love to read or watch anything that inspires wonder and figure out what I can learn from it. I view it all through a Christian lens. I believe that God can and does speak through many sources in many ways, even if those speaking are not aware of it. I am not an expert in theology or religious studies. My goal with this blog is simply to share what I've learned as a fellow student and sinner in the Christian walk. My hope and my prayer is that by doing so I may be able to help someone else. In Deuteronomy 5:33 (NLT), we are told: "Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives. . . ." So in the words of Moses (and Spock), live long and prosper, my friends!