THE TALE of two kingdoms continues in our Old Testament study this week. We get the stories of the northern kings of Israel Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, and Omri, and the southern kings of Judah Abijah, Asa, and Jehoshaphat.

We discuss the conflicts between Israel and Judah, and the miraculous victory of Judah over a huge force led by Zerah the Ethiopian. (Scholars Peter van der Veen and Peter James make a case for one Userḫau, Egypt's "Overseer of the Northern Foreign Lands" during the reign of Ramesses IV, as Zerah.)

And scholars for hundreds of years have believed there is a simple solution to the question about when Baasha died (how could he attack Judah in the 36th year of Asa's reign when he died in the 26th. The conclusion is that the attack came in the 36th year of Asa's kingdom, Judah, which would have been the 16th year of Asa's reign. (The Hebrew word for "reign" and "kingdom" are the same.)

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CHURCH LEADERSHIP and proper behavior for Christians is the focus of Paul's letters that we study this week. Timothy had been left in charge of the church Ephesus, while Titus had been left on the island of Crete to shepherd the new church there.

Both Timothy and Titus faced challenges; Timothy was a young man charged with guiding older men and women, while Titus worked in a place notorious for its lack of moral integrity ("to Cretanize" was a term in the ancient world that meant to lie).

Paul also encouraged both men to avoid vain discussions, myths, and endless genealogies, "which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith." Our mission is to show "love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

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THE DIVISION of the kingdom of Israel is the focus of our Old Testament study this week. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, gets some bad advice from his young friends, not just rejecting the request of the northern tribes for tax relief, but doing so with a rather crude euphemism.

That didn't work out well. And it didn't go well for the people of the new kingdoms of Israel or Judah. Jeroboam quickly led the northern kingdom into apostasy, setting up high places to worship golden calves at Bethel and Dan and appointing priests who were not from the tribe of Levi to offer sacrifices to these pagan idols.

Meanwhile, we're told that Rehoboam and the people of Judah only followed God for three years. Because they quickly began following the example of Solomon, worshipping the foreign gods the late king introduced to the land because of his hundreds of wives, God allowed the Egyptian king Shishak to take the fortified cities of Judah and sack the Temple. Sadly, this is a pattern we will see repeated throughout the history of the divided kingdom.

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OUR STUDY in the New Testament this week focuses on military formations and tactics, although it might not seem that way at first. We cover Ephesians 5 and 6, with a lot of time on the passages that instruct husbands and wives on their relationships to one another and a description of the whole armor of God — and why those verses describe a holding action and not an attack on the Enemy.

Note that in the "full armor of God" passages (Ephesians 6:11-20) Paul uses the word "stand" four times. That's stand, not attack. We are called to hold our ground and protect the weak and injured until Christ returns at the head of a heavenly army. We are not called to conquer the world in his name, a false teaching that has led the Church astray for centuries.

ENTANGLEMENTS WITH cares of the world, whether it's business, politics, or personal relationships, can distract us from what we're called to do by God.

This week, we see the fall of Solomon, whose wives draw him into the worship of pagan gods like Ashtereth (Astarte; i.e., Ishtar), Chemosh, and Molech. For his apostasy, God took the northern tribes away from Solomon's descendants, leaving the House of David as rulers of only Judah and Benajmin.

We also discuss the visit of the queen of Sheba and two chapters of Proverbs, including the famous section of Proverbs 31 that describes the ideal wife.

NOTE: Derek erroneously named Joash as the king who returned the Ark of the Testimony to the Temple. It was actually King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:1-6).

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LETTERS FROM Paul in Rome are the focus of this week's New Testament study, and there is a lot of meat here. Paul addressed errant teachings that threatened to undermine the gospel of salvation by grace through faith at Colossae and Ephesus.

It appears some teachers had arrived preaching that Gentiles needed to follow the Law of Moses to be saved. Paul was very direct about that:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Colossians 2:16-17 (ESV)

Paul also addressed ongoing hostility between Jews and Gentiles, pointing out that the "wall of hostility" between the groups had been destroyed at the Cross, the worship of angels, and the proper roles of husbands, wives, and bondservants as followers of Jesus Christ.

ANOTHER BOOK of wisdom attributed to Solomon is our Old Testament study this week. The collected sayings of "the Preacher" (or "the Collector"), widely believed to be Solomon, are generally gloomy, but only in that they remind us of the folly of pursuing material things apart from God.

The book concludes with a summary of Solomon's long pursuit of wisdom — a three sentence summary of the meaning of life:

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (ESV)

PAUL TRAVELED to Rome in A.D. 60, but not the way he would have wanted. Getting a ride on an Alexandrian grain ship, the biggest vessels crossing the Mediterranean Sea in the 1st century, Paul and his traveling companions, which included Luke and Aristarchus among the 276 people aboard the ship, suffered through a storm that blew them off course and left them adrift for a couple weeks. They finally ran the ship aground at Malta where the spent the winter before completing his journey to Rome.

For the interview with Mark Gatt, author of PAVLVS: The Shipwreck 60 A.D., on his discovery of the anchor from the ship that delivered Paul to Malta, go to http://www.vftb.net/?p=4866.

PAUL RETURNS to Jerusalem in this week's study, as we return to Luke's historical account of Paul's journey, in spite of warnings from believers from Asia to Judea that he would be arrested and possibly killed. But Paul already knew that, since he'd been warned by the Holy Spirit that this is what God had in store for him.

We also discuss Paul's teachings for Christian living to the church at Rome, which includes some much-needed instruction that's timely even today on being careful not to make ourselves stumbling blocks to others.