I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 8-9.

When I read this passage I wonder how the history of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel might have been different if King Jehoshaphat had raised his son to follow after him in serving God, and not arranged his marriage to King Ahab’s daughter.  Would Jehoshaphat’s grandson have then also served the Lord? And provided an ally who might have led King Jehu of Israel to be a better king?  In any case, Jehoshaphat’s son and grandson were kings who did evil in God’s sight and led the people of Judah to worship Baal.

In any case, when Jehu was anointed by a prophet to be king over Israel and to wipe out Ahab’s family he acted quickly and decisively.  The account of Jehu’s actions tells us that there was a strong element of those who still worshiped God and rejected Baal worship among the army of Israel and the people of Israel.  We can learn from this that as bad as things seem there are more people who still worship God than it may seem.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 5-7.

All of the accounts about Elisha’s actions in today’s passage contain elements in common with urban legends and other stories which should be taken with a grain of salt.  Unlike the story in yesterday’s passage where Elisha accompanied the armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom as they went to attack Moab, these stories contain little information which would allow someone to connect them with events recorded elsewhere.  I am not saying that these stories do not relate actual events.  However, it is possible that along with details being lost over time that some details from other events were added here.

More importantly, these stories contain important lessons for us.  In the story of Naaman we learn that sometimes God calls us to do things which seem mundane and beneath us.  Sometimes God works in powerful ways through things which seem mundane, ordinary, and even sometimes beneath us.  In the story about the attempt by the king of Aram to capture Elisha we learn that even when the odds seem overwhelmingly stacked against us, if God is on our side our enemies are outnumbered and outmatched.  In the story about the siege of Samaria, we learn that even the impossible is possible for God…and if we lose faith in God we may see His power at work but not have the opportunity to enjoy it.  Finally, these stories tell us that even though the kings of the Northern Kingdom were mostly idolatrous and evil, many of the people continued to worship and serve God,  They tell us this by the fact that they were told and retold among the people.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 3-4.

The story about the woman from Shunem provides several interesting lessons.  Elisha wanted to do something for her to thank her for the care she provided him, but she was content with her life as it was.  So, Elisha did some research and found something she would like: he had God give her a son.  The woman chastised Elisha for giving her such hope.  When a few years later her son took sick and died, she felt justified in her castigation.  She had been content with her life and would have preferred to continue in that contentment rather than risk the grief which was the possible companion to the joy of having a son.  This is a normal human reaction.  Many times we pass up opportunities for joy in order to avoid the risk of grief, failure, or some other form of suffering.

But there is more to it than that.  By providing the woman with the joy of a son, Elisha obligated himself to offsetting the risk of grief.  Elisha accepted this obligation.  When the boy became sick and died, he went to great lengths to restore the boy to his mother.  This lesson is an important one to keep in mind.  When we choose to do something good for others we need to measure our ability to follow through.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 1-2.

When Ahab’s son, King Ahaziah was injured he sent to the god of Ekron to determine if he would recover rather than seek an answer from God.  Then after his messengers are intercepted by Elijah and sent back with word from God that he will not recover, he sends soldiers to arrest Elijah.  By sending to Ekron, King Ahaziah revealed that the Baal worship introduced into Israel by his father was not just a different way of worshiping God, but was instead the worship of a different god.  We see here that in times of stress what we truly believe is revealed.  Then we have the experiences of the three groups of soldiers sent to bring Elijah to the king.  The first two recognized that Elijah was a man of God, but nevertheless felt that the power delegated to them by the king gave them the authority to order him to come with them.  They believed that because they were following orders they could threaten the man of God, and use force, or even violence, to compel him to do as the king had commanded.  The leader of the last group recognized that he did not have the authority, nor the power, to compel a man of God to action unless God allowed him to do so.

Elijah is one of two people recorded in the Bible as having their lives on earth end without them dying.  In Genesis 5 we are told that Enoch walked faithfully with God, then he was no more because God took him.  This is as opposed to the other men mentioned in Genesis 5 of which the passage says “and then he died”.  This passage tells us that a chariot drawn by horses of fire separated Elijah from Elisha and Elijah was carried into heaven by a whirlwind.  Before that happened, Elisha had requested a double portion of Elijah’s spirit and to be Elijah’s successor.  I am not sure what the meaning of all of this is, but it is definitely significant that Elijah was one of two people of whom the Bible records their life on earth ending without recording that they died.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 20-22.

There are multiple things about the attacks by King Ben-Hadad of Aram on Samaria and King Ahab that provide us with useful life lessons.  By this point, we know that King Ahab did not serve God, not even a little bit.  However, after Ben-Hadad was defeated the first time he chose to attack again.  The second time, he based his strategy on the idea that God was geographically limited.  God proved that he was mistaken.  But what I want to focus on is what happened after that second battle.  When King Ahab’s forces captured Ben-Hadad after the battle, he was happy to learn that his enemy survived.  This was not the happiness of a man who did not want to see anyone die (see his later reaction to the death of Naboth).  No, King Ahab was happy because he viewed Ben-Hadad and himself as part of a group which was above, and better then, the common people.  King Ahab viewed himself and Ben-Hadad as members of the elite, those who should be treated differently from the common people.  Despite the fact that Ben-Hadad would happily cause misery and death for those for whom King Ahab was responsible, King Ahab wanted to see Ben-Hadad treated well.  Later, when King Ahab went to war with Aram to regain a city Ben-Hadad had taken from him, we learn that Ben-Hadad did not return this feeling.  We often see leaders today with the same attitude as King Ahab had here towards leaders of other countries who have the attitude of King Ben-Hadad.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 18-19.

I love the story about the competition Elijah sets up between himself and the prophets of Baal.  It shows how Elijah was a great showman and understood how to capture people’s attention.  It reminds us that there is nothing wrong with using showy techniques to attract people to follow God.  However, today I want to focus on some lesser things we can learn from this passage.  First, we have King Ahab.  He was responsible for the well-being of his people during a terrible drought, but what motivated him to do a desperate search for water and a place where plants were growing?  His people were dying of thirst and starving, but King Ahab was not motivated to make a desperate search for water until his horses were in danger.  Then when King Ahab met Elijah, Ahab called Elijah a troublemaker for having told him that there would be a drought.  Elijah accurately points out that it was King Ahab who had caused the trouble by disobeying the Lord and worshiping Baal.  We find the same sort of thing happening today.  For example, there were people who protested and made a big fuss accusing Samaritan’s Purse of bringing hate and vitriol to New York City during the pandemic because they opened an emergency tent hospital in Central Park.  The question is, who was spreading hatred and vitriol?  The ones who were treating the sick, all of the sick, who came to them for care?  Or the ones shouting and screaming because they did not like the beliefs of those providing care?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 15-17.

The writer of this passage tells us that Rehoboam’s grandson Asa was the king of Judah after David to do what was pleasing in God’s sight.  The passage lets us know what he did right, and how he fell short of ideal.  King Asa got rid of the shrine prostitutes throughout the entire territory which he controlled and destroyed the idols made by his predecessors.  He even deposed his grandmother from the role of Queen Mother and tore down the Asherah pole she had built (which Asa subsequently destroyed).  King Asa is considered to have done what is right in God’s sight despite taking the silver and gold out of the Temple treasuries to buy an alliance with the king of Aram against the king of Israel.  A later king of Judah did something similar and was condemned by a prophet for doing so.  King Asa’s heart remained faithful to the Lord his entire life…the passage says “completely faithful”.

Meanwhile, Israel was ruled by a succession of kings who each did what “was evil in the Lord’s sight.”  Until we get to Omri, and then his son Ahab, about each of whom we are told that they did more evil than any of their predecessors.  King Ahab went so far as to introduce Baal worship.  This suggests that before Ahab the kings encouraged worship practices similar to those practiced in the Temple in Jerusalem, but before the golden calves which Jeroboam had made.  Ahab’s actions resulted in God sending Elijah to him to announce a famine, which gives rise in tomorrow’s passage to one of my favorite stories in the Bible.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 13-14.

The story about the man of God who came from Judah and prophesied against the altar which Jeroboam had built has a feature which always puzzles me: why did the old prophet mislead him about God’s will to get him to eat before leaving the Northern Kingdom?  I don’t have an answer to that question.  However, the story has a lesson for us.  When Jeroboam offered the man of God food and drink, he refused it.  But when the old prophet claimed that an angel of God had told him to bring the man of God home and give him food and drink, the man of God never questioned what the prophet said.  If someone tells us that God told them to have us do something that goes against what we have heard God tell us, we should not just take them at their word.  First, if God told them to do as they are doing, He may have done so to test us.  Second, they may be making up the message from God which they are telling us.  We should always seek God’s guidance before accepting what someone else tells us is God’s will.  Or, to put that another way, when someone claims to speak on God’s behalf we should check what they say against what God had told us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 11-12.y

A short while back I came across a site which, when discussing King Solomon, said that this passage’s reference to him having 1,000 wives (well, wives and concubines) was surely an exaggeration because no man could sleep with that many women.  While I agree that 1,000 wives sounds excessive, when you think of some modern professional athletes (and other celebrities and wealthy men) you start to think that a man as rich and powerful as King Solomon could surely have done so if he desired.  Wilt Chamberlain claimed to have slept with 20,000 women, and several people who knew him said it was not out of the question.  Or to use someone more comparable to King Solomon: 8% of the people living today are descended from Genghis Khan.

One result of King Solomon being such a womanizer was that he started to take part in worshiping the gods of some of his foreign wives  Again, if we look ate men who are promiscuous on the kind of scale that King Solomon was we see that many times they also get involved in strange and “exotic” rituals.  Which would explain King Solomon’s involvement with these other gods.  Whatever the reason, it led to the dissolution of his kingdom.  It is really two-fold.  God took the kingdom away from his son, or part of it at least.  But, the revolt of the northern tribes was also a natural human reaction to King Solomon’s giving his attention to his wives and their gods rather than to the needs and wants of the people he ruled.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 9-10.

Today’s passage begins with God’s reply to King Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the Temple.  Solomon had asked God to watch over the Temple and to hear prayers directed towards it.  God responded that He would indeed watch over the Temple until the end of time.   But He warned the people of Israel that if they disobeyed God’s commands and worshiped other gods, the destruction of the Temple would serve as a warning to all peoples.  And today in Jerusalem we see that promise fulfilled.  The remains of the Temple are a platform upon which the worshipers of another god have built their own temple.  I believe that at some point those people will learn the lesson the Philistines learned when they put the Ark of the covenant in a subordinate position to their god, Dagon.  More importantly, it should serve as an object lesson to people today.  If we turn to God and serve Him, He will bless us, but if we turn from Him, our lands will become a desert and a ruin.

Every time I read the rest of today’s passage I am struck by how King Solomon’s wisdom led him to build a trading empire rather than one of conquest.  We see how he entered into a trading alliance with King Hiram of Tyre.  Tyre was the dominant trading empire in the Mediterranean, yet Solomon’s apparent control over the land trade routes to Asia gave him the dominant role in his partnership with Hiram.  Then once King Solomon began sending trade ships out into the Indian Ocean from the Red Sea the Queen of Sheba came to see what his intentions really were.  She had heard of his wisdom as a trading partner, but did not truly believe it until she met him.  I read this account as showing us that King Solomon entered into win-win trade relationships.  He did not seek trade agreements where he won and his trade partner lost.  We see that with both Tyre and the Queen of Sheba.  With Tyre, he sold King Hiram lands which were basically worthless, but invited Hiram into a partnership of trade out of a port city which Solomon controlled.  The Queen of Sheba brought Solomon gifts of great value, but he sent her on her way with gifts she would have considered of as great, or greater. value.