Tag Archives: 2 Kings 1-2

Daily Bible Study

April 28, 2024 Bible Study — Baal Is Not Just Another Name for God

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

When King Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, fell and injured himself, he sent messengers to the god of Ekron, Baal-Zebub to find out if he would get better.  I did a little searching to see what information we had from other sources about Baal-Zebub and there wasn’t much.  However, scholars believe from the etymology of Baal-Zebub and a few other ancient references that Baal-Zebub was a god of healing.  Which explains why Ahaziah sent messengers to Ekron rather than just consulting the prophets of Baal in his own court.  I’ve mentioned before that I see evidence that the worshipers of Baal in Israel tried to present Baal worship as worshiping God, just with different worship practices.  Ahaziah sending to the Baal of Ekron runs counter to that idea, because God was clearly God of healing (as well as being God of everything).  Then, after Elijah intercepts his messengers and sends them back to him, Ahaziah orders Elijah brought to him.  The first two captains, along with their troop of fifty men, call Elijah a “man of God” and order him, under the king’s authority, to come with them.  Both of them discovered that, in a dispute between the government and God, they had taken the wrong side.  The third captain also called Elijah a “man of God”, but this third captain recognized that Elijah’s authority as an agent of God exceeded his authority as an agent of the king.

Ahaziah claimed that in worshiping Baal he was worshiping God.  Yet when he sought healing, he did not ask for healing from either the Baal he worshiped or from God.  Instead he sent to a foreign god, a Baal other than the one he worshiped.  Since God claimed dominion over the whole earth, this put the lie to Ahaziah’s claim that Baal was just another name for God.

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

Daily Bible Study

April 28, 2023 Bible Study — Even In Desperation, King Ahaziah Refused To Turn To God

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

When King Ahaziah was injured, he sent messengers to Ekron to inquire of their god, their Baal as to whether he would recover.  Over the last few years I have mulled over a thought every time I read this passage, but not written down any aspect of it.  So, Ahaziah’s father, King Ahab, had instituted Baal worship as the official religion of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and everything written suggests that his sons continued this practice.  Yet, not only did Ahaziah not think to consult YHWH* when he was injured, he also did not consult with the prophets of Baal which were in his service.  It reveals that despite Ahab, and his sons, pretending to believe that Baal worship was just another way to worship YHWH* by a different name, none of them actually believed that to be true.  And we know from this passage that if Ahaziah had wished to consult YHWH*, he could have done so by sending his messengers to Elijah.  After all, he knew where to send his army captains to summon Elijah to him.  Ahaziah knew the prophets of Baal that he sponsored were fakes and frauds.  So, when he was desperate, he turned to foreign prophets, but refused to turn to God.  Let us pray for those we know who we suspect may behave likewise.

 

  • I used the transliteration of the Hebrew name for God, YHWH, in today’s blog because I believe that King Ahab, and other advocates for Baal worship in Israel, claimed that Baal was just another term for God, and that Baal worship was an alternative to worshiping YHWH.

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

Daily Bible Study

April 28, 2022 Bible Study — Elisha Seeks To Continue Elijah’s Ministry

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

When he knew God was about to take him, Elijah attempted to go off by himself away from Elisha, but Elisha would not let him go.   Elisha insisted on staying at Elijah’s side to the very end, despite Elijah’s attempts to spare him.  On two of those occasions, other members of the group of prophets approached Elisha and asked him if he knew that God was going to take Elijah that day.  Elisha’s response was, “Yes, I know, so be quiet.”  There is something very significant in those two exchanges, but I am not sure what it is.  Perhaps those two exchanges were included here to show us how determined Elisha was to remain at Elijah’s side to the very end, but I can’t help but think there is more to it than that.  I have the further thought that it seems to me that those two exchanges are related to Elisha’s attempt to convince the community of prophets that there was no reason to send a search party out to look for Elijah, or his body.  Elisha knew that Elijah was gone, that God had taken him away, and was not happy about it, but was determined to carry on Elijah’s ministry.

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

Daily Bible Study

April 28, 2021 Bible Study Treat Others With Respect, Or Pay The Consequences

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

There are two accounts in this passage which at casual reading we find unsettling.  In the first account, the king sent a troop of 50 men under a commander to bring Elijah to him multiple times.  The first two times Elijah called down fire from God to consume the commander and his 50 men.  This seems rather harsh, but let us look closer at what happened.  The first two commanders called Elijah a man of God, but believed that they had the authority, based on the orders the king had given them, to command his obedience. The third commander recognized that Elijah’s authority as a man of God was greater than his authority as a man of the king.  The primary lesson here is for those who think they have authority over others.  If the first and second commanders had been polite and respectful, they would have lived, but they thought that Elijah was obligated to obey their commands because the king had given them those commands.  However, we must recognize that all people answer first to God, and we should treat them with respect and courtesy.

The second unsettling story occurs when some “boys” jeered at him and threatened him.  When we read the word “boys” in this passage, we tend to think children in the range of 5-10 years old.  However, the Hebrew makes it seem more likely that these “boys” were young men in the 14-18 year range.  The story seems more likely to have been a gang of ne’er-do-wells who got a kick out of  bullying and robbing defenseless strangers who passed near their town, which they took Elisha to be.  This story tells us that bad things happen to those who live to cause trouble for those they believe weaker than themselves.  More importantly, it teaches us that God will protect us from those who attempt to bully us.

Both of these stories teach us the importance of treating others with respect and warn us that bad things happen to those who ignore this lesson.  They also teach us that God can protect us from those who threaten us because they think they can get away with it.

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

Daily Bible Study

April 28, 2020 Bible Study — Stress Will Reveal What We Really Believe

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.

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April 28, 2019 Bible Study — Do Not Mistake Idols For God

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 King Ahaziah, King Ahab’s son. became seriously injured he sent a messenger to Ekron to inquire of the Baal of Ekron whether he would get better. I am unsure why he did not inquire of the prophets of Baal in Israel, perhaps they had been pretty well wiped out after the confrontation on Mt Carmel. In any case, God sent Elijah to intercept the messenger. Elijah’s message for King Ahaziah was that because he had chosen to consult a foreign god he would die before rising from his bed. When I read this story I tend to focus on the three captains King Ahaziah sent to bring Elijah to see him, but I think this first part needs more thought given to it then I normally do. There really seem to be two elements to what King Ahaziah did wrong. The first part is obvious, he consulted a false god, Baal, instead of the true God, the God of Israel. The second part is more complicated. Reading between the lines, the Baal worshipers in Israel seem to have claimed that Baal was just another name for the God of Israel and that the practices of Baal worship were perfectly legitimate alternatives to the practices laid out in the Law of Moses. One other thing we also know is that most people of that day believed that gods were limited to specific geographic locations. By sending to the Baal of Ekron rather than consulting the local prophets of Baal, Ahaziah was saying that the god of Ekron was more powerful than the God of Israel (since Ahaziah would have claimed that the local prophets of Baal were merely worshiping God using a different name).

Having written all of that I realized that there are implications for us today in that story. Many people who consider themselves Christians look to other religions as having truths which Christianity does not. I am convinced that this is a form of idolatry. Now this does not mean that other religions do not possess some truths. However, I firmly believe that all of those truths can also be found in the Christian Scripture if you look. Some of those truths have been hidden by traditions which have grown up over the years. Other truths were “lost” when reformers pruned away human traditions which had grown up to obscure God’s teaching. So, there can be some value in looking at other religions to see what truths they have. But before putting the truths you think you have found into practice, pray and search the Scriptures to see God’s true intent.

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April 28, 2018 Bible Study — We Acknowledge God’s Power, But Do We Truly Acknowledge His Authority?

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.

    There are two elements of the final story about Elijah (the story about Elijah being taken up into heaven is really about Elisha). When King Ahaziah was hurt he sent messengers to consult the priests of Baal in Ekron to know if he would get better. Elijah intercepted the messengers and sent them back to Ahaziah to tell him that because he chose to consult Baal rather than God, he would not get better and would soon die. One thing I have noted in previous years when doing this blog is that Ahab, Ahaziah’s father, behaved as if Baal and God (Yahweh) were the same, until someone called him on it. Ahaziah’s name means “Yah (God) grasps” and would probably have been understood to mean “God holds”. So, his seeking to consult the priests of Baal in Ekron rather than a prophet in Israel was a repudiation of God, while attempting to present himself as God’s anointed ruler over Israel. This serves as a warning to us about using our claims of representing God to direct others away from God.
    The second element of this story comes from those sent by King Ahaziah to bring Elijah to him. The first two officers considered the order from the King sufficient to compel Elijah. Yet, they greeted Elijah as a man of God. Elijah demonstrated that his power, as a man of God, exceeded that of the officer, who was a man of the king. The third officer recognized this lesson and, rather than ordering Elijah, requested that he accompany him to the king. This element of the story reminds us that while we should respect government authorities God has the final say. As servants of God we cannot be compelled to violate God’s commands.

    When Elijah confronted King Ahab and the prophets of Baal he stood alone. Here in the story of him being taken up in a whirlwind, and in several later stories concerning Elisha, there are groups of prophets who serve the Lord and work with Elisha. It seems to me that Elijah was going from town to town to give final instructions to these groups of prophets before he died (similar to the way Paul visited the Churches on his final trip to Jerusalem). After the confrontation with the prophets of Baal, Elijah felt alone and isolated. God told him that he was not alone, that He had reserved a number in Israel who remained faithful. The Bible does not tell us outright, but Elijah clearly made sure that he maintained contact with those who worshiped the Lord after that. Something we should be sure to do.
    I would have stopped after the first segment but I felt it necessary to comment on the story where Elisha cursed the “boys” who bullied him. A lot of atheists and other skeptics use this story and emphasize how Elisha called bears to maul to death “children”. Some of the sources I have read claim that the word translated as “boys” in this translation and as “children” in others refers to teenagers. But even if this was a group of grade school children, there were at least 42 of them. Think about how threatening a group of 42 unsupervised 8-10 year old boys shouting abusively at a lone traveler would be. I think it likely that these boys were older than that, more like in the 13-16 year old range. I think this was a gang who harassed and robbed travelers, think of MS-13 (a gang which has been in the news lately and is largely composed of teenagers).

Daily Bible Study

April 28, 2017 Bible Study — Seeking God, Accepting His Authority

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.

    Elijah’s confrontation contains two elements. Ahaziah sent messengers to the temple of Baal in Ekron to find out if he would recover (and probably to seek divine intervention in his disability). What is interesting about this is that we know that there were prophets of Baal in Israel. Ahaziah’s father, Ahab, had supported at least 400 of them. It seems probable that Ahaziah continued this practice. So, Ahaziah did not seek a consultation with the prophets of Baal for whom he was paying support, nor did he seek out Elijah, or another prophet of God. Instead, he sought out assistance from the foreign and slightly exotic priests of Baal in Ekron. We see this sort of thing today in many ways. People reject Christianity as too mundane and ordinary, so they seek exotic “foreign” religions. Some of this is our fault as Christians for allowing our faith to appear humdrum and mundane, but some of it is human nature. We see the same thing in medicine. People will seek out exotic treatments with no evidence to support their effectiveness while rejecting more mundane treatments because those mundane treatments are not as effective as they would like. Let us not reject God’s message for us because it is not “sexy” enough.

    In the same story, Ahaziah sends three army captains with a troop of men to arrest Elijah. The first two God strikes down with fire from heaven. The third he does not.So, the question is, what did the first two do wrong? In the first two cases, the captain and his men acknowledged that Elijah was a man of God, but they nevertheless thought that the authority the king had delegated to them gave them authority over Elijah. They thought that they could compel the man of God with their threat of force (the 50 armed men accompanying them). The third captain recognized that he had no ability to compel Elijah to take any action. When that third captain acknowledged that he had no way to compel Elijah, God instructed Elijah to accompany him. Hopefully, we do not need the lesson which the third captain learned. We need to learn the lesson that when we are doing God’s will no one can compel us to act differently unless we let them. When someone shows up with 50 armed men and demands that we accompany them, we need to remember that fire coming down from heaven and striking them is within the realm of possibilities. If it is not God’s will for us to accompany them, He will not allow them to compel us to accompany them.

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April 28, 2016 Bible Study — Who Has the Final Say?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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

    King Ahaziah sent to the priests and prophets of a foreign god for a prediction about whether or not he would get better rather than to a prophet of God, or even to the shrines in his own country. There is more than one possible explanation, and perhaps more than one of them played a role in that decision. One explanation is the appeal of the exotic over the known. We see that today in people who are researching various religions trying to find one which teaches something like Christianity while rejecting Christianity. Another possibility is that Ahaziah believed that God and the other gods whose worship he promoted were not real, but was not sure about the god of Ekron.

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    However, the rest of the story suggests another reason. If King Ahaziah had sent for an answer from a man of God he would have been acknowledging that the man of God answered to an authority higher than that of King Ahaziah. We see this theme followed up in the behavior of the first two captains who were sent to arrest Elijah. They addressed Elijah as a man of God, but assumed that the authority which the king had delegated to them gave them authority over Elijah. The third captain sent understood that the authority given to him by the king did not exceed the authority given to Elijah by God. It is likely that he gained that understanding through the example of the first two captains. Nevertheless, he recognized that God’s authority exceeded the king’s authority.