I was reading in 2 Chronicles about King Ahaz and his son Hezekiah, and had just figured out that Hezekiah was probably one of Ahaz's children that he passed through a fire in some way as a child as an act of idol worship, when on the radio came a song:
"You walked me through fire, pulled me through flame".
The timing in 2 Chronicles between the two kings seems off, unless Ahaz fathered Hezekiah at age 11 or 12. Hezekiah was in any case able to observe years of Ahaz's reign, and as soon as he became king he began undoing everything his father had done.
Ahaz's aversion to the Temple, which he eventually closed up, had roots back in the time where his grandfather was chastened by God in it.
Under Ahaz's rule, his men fought valiantly, but were still defeated for not being faithful to God; they were virtuous enough to do well, but not enough to do the first things first.
Their families were taken prisoner after their devastating defeat to Israel, but God ordered their release.
A boomer apologizes, albeit without much clarity.
"It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs," Jesus said; Matthew 15:26.
I recently understood that I am spending my life in rebuilding spiritual and practical foundations that had been foolishly undermined by previous generations.
Several months ago I was reading a nonfiction book by Christian author Paul Tournier, and made it about three-quarters of the way through before being drawn away to other things.
When I picked it up this last week and finished reading it, I found references to about a dozen Bible passages that had come up in my daily Bible readings in the interim, mostly obscure Old Testament personages with a variety of afflictions; Tournier was a Swiss doctor famous for connecting his Christianity with his medical practice.
I also read a Christian fiction book this last week: Deadline, by Randy Alcorn. One day, what I read in the book mirrored my morning Bible reading on that same day.
"A work of creation was three-fold, an earthly trinity to match the heavenly; the Creative Idea, timeless and passionate, which is the image of the Father; the Creative Energy, begotten of the idea and working in time, which is the image of the Word; the Creative Power, the meaning of the work and its response in the individual soul, which is the image of the indwelling Spirit."
-- P. D. James, summarizing Dorothy L. Sayers' description
