Come Follow Me Insights This Week: July 11

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This Week's Reading: 2 Kings 17-25

Come Follow Me Insight #1

The righteous King Hezekiah knew he was going to die. The prophet Isaiah came to him and promised that he would NOT die. Hezekiah asked for a sign (which usually doesn’t end up too well in the Book of Mormon, but here it seems to be alright). Isaiah offers to either send the shadow on the sundial forward 10 degrees or back 10 degrees. Hezekiah opts for the more difficult one– he asks Isaiah to move the shadow on the sundial BACK 10 degrees– in other words for the sun to move backward (2 Kings 20:8-11).

“Scientific logic tells us that if the earth were suddenly stopped and turned backward, everything on its surface might be smashed flat by the immense rotational inertia that would have to be overcome. We do not know how the Lord accomplished this, but dare we suppose that anything is impossible for the Creator of the world?” – Andrew C. Skinner and D. Kelly Ogden (Verse by Verse, The Old Testament, Volume 2, 2 Kings 20:1-11)

Come Follow Me Insight #2

The book of Kings mentions a prophetess named Huldah. But what exactly is a prophetess?? (2 Kings 22:14)

A prophetess does NOT appear to be the female equal of the prophet of God who holds the keys of the priesthood. This term is used throughout the scriptures to indicate one (or more) of three things about a woman:

1. 1. She is the wife of a prophet as in the case of Isaiah’s wife (Source)
  2. She has an “abundance of the Spirit of the Lord,” (Source)
  3. She has the spirit of prophecy, aka she knows through the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ (Revelation 19:10)

Come Follow Me Insight #3

2 Kings 25:7 tells us that all of Zedekiah’s children were killed before they blinded him and took him into captivity. Is this true and why was this done?

1. The Babylonians (under King Nebuchadnezzar) controlled the land of Judah. In an act of defiance, the Israelite King Zedekiah attempted a rebellion to which the Babylonians responded quickly and violently. Rather than depose or simply kill the king, they first forced him to watch his own children be killed and then put out his eyes. They thus guaranteed that the last thing the king would see before his own death would be the death of his children. Brutal! (Source)
2. The Book of Mormon clarifies that ONE son got away (we don’t know how but what a story that must be!). That son was Mulek, who – like Lehi and his family– was led by the Lord to the Promised Land on the American continent. The Mulekites seem to have settled in an area north of where Lehi’s family settled and didn’t cross paths until the time of Mosiah. (Omni 1:16)

My Favorite Scriptures for the Week

1. 2 Kings 17:41
2. 2 Kings 18:4, 6
3. 2 Kings 19:14
4. 2 Kings 20:1, 5
5. 2 Kings 22:2
6. 2 Kings 22:13
7. 2 Kings 25:9

Why Do We Need to Read the Scriptures?

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