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

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When I read the stories about Elisha many of them remind me of the rules for suspecting that a story is an urban legend: they are missing details that would allow one to corroborate them.  They don’t really tell us when they happened, or they don’t tell us who the important people in the story are.  For example, in this the account of the Shunammite woman returning from the land of the Philistines it does not tell us who the king was to whom she appealed to get her land back.  Which made me wonder if Elisha actually existed.  Now, by default I believe that when the Bible presents something as history it actually happened.  Then I came to the story of Hazael and Ben-hadad.  That contains information which can be corroborated.  That leads me to think that Elisha did exist (not just believe it as a matter of faith), but that there were fewer references to him in the written records the writer relied upon than for Elijah.  While I was checking whether there was anything known which might contradict, or support, the thoughts which came into my head I discovered that there is archeological evidence for Elisha which dates from the same time period as the account contained here says that he lived.  The writer repeatedly references that more details about various kings can be found in either “The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel” or “The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah”.  I have always assumed that these were likely official records kept by the kingdoms in question.

Now that I have gone down this rabbit hole, I think we need to explore the reason the writer wrote these two Books (First and Second Kings).  I think his purpose was to explain the spiritual history of both Israel and Judah.  While for much of their history, that could be understood by the actions of their kings.  However, one other thing which influenced the spiritual development was the religious school established by Elijah and led by Elisha after his death, referenced here as “the sons of the prophets”.  Which brings us to the account where Elisha sent one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu as King of Israel in place of Ahab’s son Joram.  We often think of the kings of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) as being evil idolaters.  This is generally true.  However, we miss the fact that when Jehu took the crown he was a worshiper of the God of Israel.  We see that here.  He launched his coup only after he was anointed by a prophet of God.  He also quotes the word of the Lord given through Elijah.  There is more in tomorrow’s passage which shows us that Jehu was a worshiper of the God of Israel when he took the throne.  All of this shows how many of those who lived in the Northern Kingdom strove to be faithful worshipers of God, despite the official religion of the kingdom involving idol worship.  We must strive to follow the example of these ancient Israelites who worshiped the true God in the midst of a society which denied Him.

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