Hi waterman. Hope you've been doing well. Interesting thread. I've thought about the northern and southern kingdom kinda in the same way you have, minus the two witnesses aspect. Didn't know much about that topic back then.

Have you ever thought about how easily it would be for people nowadays to try to replicate the events in the Bible and try to fulfill prophecy themselves by copying the "Playbook"? I think about this, and I think about how God must have "known" this too and He's steps ahead of them. I can't wait to see how He has orchestrated the whole thing for the good. It's going to be mind boggling. He's such a genius, beyond genius level, beyond comprehension. I think the book of Malachi plays into His grand scheme somehow, as do all His words.

Are we really meant to understand the final outcome or be left in the dark, hanging on faith? Is everything set in stone, or is there room for free will? I think that all the answers lie in the Bible, but for anyone to get too close to that kind of knowledge, they obviously have to go through the Fire. Paul had to endure his thorn in the flesh. Solomon was perplexed by too much wisdom. David sinned. Moses screwed up. Noah....

I'm really humbled by the mere fact that God even gives us the time of day, and I know that's my own sinful nature speaking. The Master of the Universe, of all things known and unknown, and to stoop to our level. Nothing in my life has gone the way I wanted, and yet I feel Him closer than ever. It's such a wonderful paradox, it makes me cry. Some might classify me as bipolar, for I've experienced the lowest of lows and the highest of highs (at least in my own puny mind), and always it circles back to me standing in awe and respect of Him who controls it all, despite my shortcomings. I still, to this day, cannot get over that simple fact that...He loves us in spite of. In spite of... He is incredible. Even those words sound stupid to describe Him.