Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter.

Thanks for joining. We're about to start reading the Book of Second Kings, so I wanted to take a moment to go over some of the basics, to create a frame of reference, if you will, for us as we study this book.

The key word for the Book of Second Kings is exile,

because, as we'll see, at the end of the book,

all of the Israelites' bad choices catch up to them,

and the Southern Kingdom Judah is captured by the Babylonians,

leaving God's people to be taken from their home

and into exile as slaves to the Babylonians.

The outline for the book of Second Kings is as follows.

In chapters 1 through 17, we see the splintered kingdom and fall of Israel, and in chapters 18

through 25, we see the surviving kingdom and fall of Judah. That said, once again,

we need to remember that the books of 1st and 2 second kings were originally one book that explained how the kings who followed after David failed to live up to the promise of an even better king who would come.

Every time a new king's introduced, we learned several things about him.

Who did he worship, Yahweh alone alone or other gods? Did he do

anything about idolatry within Israel? And was this king like David? Or were they like Jeroboam or another

perpetrator of evil? But in addition to the kings, we learn a lot about prophets. Prophets reminded God's

people of who they were and how they were

supposed to live. The two most famous prophets in the kings are Elijah and Elijahsha. When Second

Kings begins, we see the end of Elijah's life and the passing of spiritual power and authority

from Elijah to Elijah. And Elijah's request for twice as much power is granted.

Throughout both First and Second Kings, seven miracles are ascribed to Elijah, whereas 14 are

ascribed to Elisha. Now, both Elijah, with a J and Elisha, S.H, were prophets to the Northern Kingdom, Israel. And despite the incredible

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