Week4

So, this week we learned about a few kings, the split of Israel and the big bad Assyrians.
  Basically in the reading I was getting frustrated mainly because I thought I was reading the same thing over and over and over again. "there was a king who rule for this long, his mothers name was this, and he did evil in the eyes of the LORD...he did evil in the eyes of the LORD...he did evil in the eyes of the LORD"...you would think these kings would start to learn and STOP doing evil. When David and Solomon die this was supposedly the end of the GOLDEN AGE. The rule under Solomon's son Rehobam split Israel into a North and South because Rehobam wouldn't appease the North. The North is most of Israel but the South has Jerusalem. Also the South has the main perspective in the Bible so...the North ditched and the South was good and stayed under their ruler.
  But either way the big bad Assyrians come in. This huge army that brags about the horrible killings and murder of thousands on art all over. So basically the Assyrians conquer the North and the people of Israel start fleeing to the South to hid in Jerusalem and Jerusalem grows big time. At this point Hezekiah is the king (the good king as he is later refereed to because he did good so he received good). The Assyrians and Rabshaken come to the wall of Jerusalem (like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail- awesome movie!) and taunt the city. Hekekiah asks question for God what he should do and God says do nothing. An angel strikes down most of the Assyrian troops and then they run away. So Jerusalem is not over taken because it is defended by God (so people see Jerusalem as sacred). Hezekian then centralizes the faith and worship of Israel. His son Manasseh undoes all of Hezekiah's work so they say Manasseh is the bad king. BUT the next ruler Josiah is a good king again and re centralized the worship (but he has a short rule because he is killed in battle). Also during Josiah's rule the Assyrian power declines (but as they fall the Babylons rise. PROBLEM!).