I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
After King Ahab’s death, his son King Ahaziah takes the throne. At some point, King Ahaziah falls through some latticework on an upper floor of his palace and is seriously injured. He wants to know if he will recover, so he sends messengers to the temple of the god of Ekron to inquire. While they are en route, Elijah intercepts them and tells them that because he sent to consult an idol rather than God, Ahaziah will die from his injuries. When the messengers gave Ahaziah this message, he sent fifty men to arrest Elijah. When they found Elijah, their leader called Elijah a man of God and told him that the king had commanded that he come with them. Elijah replied that if he was a man of God fire would come down from heaven and destroy those fifty men. This happened. King Ahaziah sends another fifty men. The same thing happens. King Ahaziah sends a third group of fifty men. The leader of the third group of fifty men recognizes that he has no ability to force Elijah to do anything and begs Elijah to spare the life of himself and his men. God tells Elijah to go with this group and he does. The first two groups of men believed that they had the ability and right to compel Elijah’s compliance to the King’s will despite acknowledging that Elijah was a man of God. They felt that their strength and the King’s authority carried more weight than the will of God as expressed through Elijah. The commander of the third group recognized that they would be unable to compel Elijah to do anything that God did not allow to happen. That Elijah was only subject to the secular authorities if God chose to allow it.
Some time after this, Elijah and Elisha were traveling together. Elijah tells Elisha to stay where he is while Elijah goes on ahead. Elisha tells Elijah that he will never leave him. When they arrive at the destination, a group of prophets came to Elisha and asked him if he knew that God was about to take Elijah. Elisha replies that of course he knows. Again Elijah tells Elisha to stay where he is while Elijah goes on ahead. And again Elisha tells Elijah that he will never leave him. When they arrive at their next destination, another group of prophets ask Elisha if he knows that God is about to take Elijah and again Elijah tells them that he knows. A third time Elijah tells Elisha to stay behind while he goes on ahead and again Elisha says that he will not leave him. This time fifty of the prophets followed them at a distance. When Elijah and Elisha come to the Jordan river, Elijah uses his cloak to cause the Jordan river to part for them and they cross. Elijah asks Elisha what he wants before Elijah is taken away. Elisha asks for a double share of Elijah’s spirit and to be his successor. Elijah tells him the if he sees Elijah taken, he will get his desire. As they continued to walk and talk, a chariot of fire pulled by fiery horses drives between them. While they are thus separated, a whirlwind carries Elijah into heaven. Elisha witnesses this and is distressed, even though he knew it was coming. Elisha picks up Elijah’s cloak and returns the way they had come (including parting the Jordan).
After Elijah is taken up, Elisha spends some time in Jericho. The elders of the town approach Elisha because their water supply is tainted. Elisha pours a bowl of salt into the spring where they got their water purifying it. Shortly after this Elisha leaves Jericho and travels to Bethel. As he is walking a gang of young men comes out and start harassing him. They tell him to go away and insult him. There is an element in their choice of words that suggests that when they told him to go away they were telling him to die. This was a large group of people approaching a single individual who was a stranger to them in a somewhat isolated area. It reminds me of stories that have been in the news recently about gangs of young people who have surrounded strangers and beaten them up. In this case, they chose the wrong target. Elisha turns to them and curses them. At which point two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them to death. Think about that, the bears mauled forty-two of them, but not all of them. That means there were more than forty-two of them in the mob that harassed Elisha. Again, Elisha was in a rather isolated area and a large group of boys or young men start following him, taunting him and insulting him. The language is ambiguous about their ages, but think about it, even if they are only 10-12 years old there are more than 42 of them and Elisha is alone. This was a dangerous group of people, whose parents had failed to teach any kind of discipline. Sooner or later they were going to seriously hurt someone, if they had not already done so.
After Paul’s speech in the synagogue, the people begged them to come back the following week and tell them more about the Gospel. The following week we are told that most of the city came out to hear them speak. Some of the Jews were jealous of Paul and Barnabas and began slandering them and arguing against everything they said. When the Jews rejected the Gospel message, Paul and Barnabas began preaching to the Gentiles. We are told that many became believers and the Gospel spread throughout the region. The Jews stirred up the leaders of the city and got a mob to run Paul and Barnabas out of town.
From there, Paul and Barnabas went to Iconium where a similar thing happened. Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue and preached, many believed. But a small group of Jews became jealous and stirred up trouble for them. We are told that Paul and Barnabas stayed there a long time and performed miraculous signs, bringing many to the faith. At some point a mob is stirred up and decides to stone Paul and Barnabas. However, Paul and Barnabas learn of the plan and travel to another region.
This psalm has so much to say to us. God knows everything about us, more than we know ourselves. This psalm has been used as part of the anti-abortion argument and I certainly see why. But it is so much more than that. I am anti-abortion, but so often, we Christians have allowed others to frame the argument. Whether abortion is legal, or illegal, is irrelevant. What matters is that it is wrong. We as Christians are not called to see to it that the laws punish sinners.
We are called to see to it that the sinners know that they have the opportunity to be saved from their sins. That we too are sinners to whom God has shown another way. As we read this psalm, the psalmist says that he cannot escape God’s eye, no matter what he does. That no matter where he goes, God can see what he does. And that is not a cause for fear and cowering, but a cause of rejoicing. There is no method we can devise, no place we can go, to hide our sins from God…and this is more wonderful than we can imagine. We need,…I need to pray the psalmist’s final lines in this psalm:
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
Those who love fights, disputes quarrels is a lover of sin. Those who think that they can find safety through defensive measures and military might will suffer disaster. No matter how powerful the armaments or imposing the defensive structures, those who lie and are deceitful will come to sorrow.