Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 22-25.

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Some scholars argue that the Book of the Law which Hilkiah “found”  and gave to Josiah was actually compiled at the time of this passage and that it is what we now know as Deuteronomy (I use quotation marks around the word found because those who hold this theory would say that it was not actually found).   In fact, they claim that Deuteronomy was written to support Josiah’s religious reforms.  I am not going to go into most of their arguments for that claim, nor am I going to discuss the elements of the Book of Deuteronomy which make me think that unlikely.  I think the narrative here has enough to make that argument suspect.  I think it makes more sense to believe that Josiah’s reforms were the result of discovering a Book of the Law than that a “Book of the Law” was compiled in order to support those reforms.  The account here makes it clear that something changed when Josiah was twenty-six years old.  As this, and other accounts of Josiah’s reign, tell it, Josiah strove to serve God from the time he took the throne.  Finally, when he was twenty-six, he began restoration of the temple.  Then, suddenly, he begins celebrating Passover and starts a campaign to wipe out all elements of idolatry throughout the land of Israel, including land which had been controlled by the Northern Kingdom from Samaria.  If Josiah, or the people around him, were working on compiling a book to support the religious reforms, I would expect to see those reforms start when Josiah reached his majority, even if it took a year or two for them them to finish compiling the book which would allow them to go full-bore with the reforms.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 19-21.

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When Hezekiah heard what the servant of Sennacherib said about God, he sent to Isaiah the prophet requesting that Isaiah pray to God God for the people of Jerusalem.  Isaiah sent word back that God would cause Sennacherib to return to his own land, where he would fall by the sword.  Sennacherib turned from his war against the kingdom of Judah because he heard that the king of Cush was marching against him, but before he marched away he sent a message to Hezekiah doubling down on his blasphemy against God.  Sennacherib mocked God and claimed that his successes showed that God had no power to stop him.  God responds by saying that He determined, before Sennacherib was born, that Sennacherib would do all of those things about which Sennacherib boasted.  And now, because Sennacherib had boasted and raged against God, God was going to guide and direct Sennacherib in the same way that a farmer guides and directs a horse or an oxen back the way in which he had come.  This is a warning to those who rage against God today, who think their personal accomplishments mean that God cannot stand against their will.  In the same way that God knew Sennacherib’s sitting down, and his comings and goings, He knows ours.  We have a choice, we can rage against God, or we can surrender to His will.  We will face the consequences of our choice, whichever we make.

I debated about what else I would write, if anything at all.  I decided that I wanted to contrast Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son, with Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father.  Here the writer describes the sins of which Manasseh was guilty as the same as the ones which his grandfather had committed.  Yet, the writer told us that Ahaz did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, but here he tells us that Manasseh did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.  Notice that for all of his sin, the Lord was still Ahaz’ God, but He was not Manasseh’s god.    Ahaz had done evil in the ways that he worshiped God, but he still sought to honor and worship God.  Manasseh not only practiced the evil forms of worship which Ahaz had performed, he also chose to defile God’s holy temple by dedicating it to the worship of other gods.  After Ahaz, Hezekiah turned the people of Judah back towards God and the destruction of Judah was not inevitable.  After Manasseh, the destruction of Judah was inevitable.  It could be delayed by a revival, as we will see in tomorrow’s passage, but it could no longer be avoided.  In the same way, there comes a point where our society’s rejection of God will lead to God’s inevitable judgement.  Still, even if we have already passed that point, revival can delay that judgement.  If people of this generation turn away from idolatry and debauchery, instead turning to God, God’s judgement on our society will be put off for as long as society remains dedicated to Him.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 13-14.

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The writer tells us that Jehoash (which is can alternatively be written as Joash) the grandson of Jehu did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, but he also tells us that he visited Elisha when he was sick on his deathbed.  Further, the writer tells us that Jehoash wept about Elisha’s pending death, demonstrating a love for Elisha, a man of God.  When it comes to what Jehoash did which was evil in the sight of the Lord, the writer tells us that “he did not depart from all of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin.”  Which I understand to be worshiping the calves which Jeroboam had built, one in Bethel and one in Dan, and the appointment of non-Levites to the priesthood which served those calves.  Compare that to what the writer says about Amaziah, the king who began to rule over Judah in the second year of Jehoash.  The writer says that Amaziah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not like David his father.”  He tells us that Amaziah failed to remove the high places where people made sacrifices.

So, when I compare the two, Jehoash king of Israel and Amaziah king of Judah, it seems that the writer tells us that Jehoash did evil because he encouraged, and perhaps joined, his people in following worship practices which God condemned, while Amaziah failed to stop his people from worship practices which God condemned.  In both cases, the people were applying these worship practices towards God, but they were not practices which truly honored God.  Both kings were held accountable for falling short of what God asked of them.  Both kings were also blessed by God to some extent for the ways in which they served Him.  We should strive to do better than either.  We should seek to root out the ways in which we represent God of which He does not approve.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 10-12.

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Yesterday, I wrote about how Jehu was a worshiper of the God of Israel when he took the throne of Israel.  The writer makes that even more clear in today’s passage when he gathers all the worshipers of Baal and has them executed.  in order to illustrate how dedicated to serving the Lord Jehu was, the writer tells us that Jehonadab the son of Rechab allied with him.  I find that interesting because the only reason we know  anything about Jehonadab other than his alliance with Jehu is because Jeremiah (in Jeremiah 35) uses his descendants to illustrate the message which God gave him.  This seems to me to be an undesigned coincidence which lends support to the idea that this book is historically accurate.

Let me explain what I mean.  The writer here includes the alliance between Jehu and Jehonadab as evidence of Jehu’s dedication to the Lord when he first took the throne.  The writer took Jehonadab’s dedication to God as a given which everyone would know.  Yet we only know anything about Jehonadab’s dedication to God because of what Jeremiah wrote about his descendants.  On the other hand, Jeremiah in no way references this passage when he refers to Jehonadab.

I want to end by noting that despite Jehu wiping out Ahab’s entire household and wiping out the worship of Baal in Israel the passage tells us that he was not careful to walk in the Law of God with all his heart.  This tells us that a ruler can do much to honor and serve God without being someone whom we should emulate.  Of course, we can apply that standard to ourselves as well.  We, also, can honor and serve God in one part of our lives while falling short of what He truly desires for us.  After we do the things to which we clearly see God calling us we need to examine our lives to see where we are doing something similar to what Jehu did when he “did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam”.  What sins have we fallen into because we think it is expedient to do so?

I use 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.

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Two points are expressed with the account here about what happens when Ahaziah sends messengers to inquire of the god of Ekron.  The first is that by doing so Ahaziah took the sin of his father, Ahab, one step further.  Ahab at least pretended that he thought that Baal was just another name for the God of Israel.  Ahaziah abandoned all pretense of worshiping the God of Israel in favor of worshiping foreign gods.  I will also note that Ahaziah knew of the God of Israel because when his messengers described Elijah to him he immediately knew that they had been confronted by Elijah.  So, Ahaziah was intentionally choosing another god over the God of Israel.  Which leads directly into the second point expressed in this account which comes up when Ahaziah sent soldiers to bring Elijah to him.  When each of the first two captains of fifty came to Elijah they assumed that the king had the authority to order Elijah, whom they acknowledged as a man of God, to do as the king directed.  By calling down fire from heaven on them, Elijah was demonstrating that God’s authority over him superseded that of the king.  The third captain recognized that he had no authority, and neither did the king, to order Elijah to act unless God granted them that authority.  The third captain begged Elijah to spare his life by coming with him to see the king.  He knew that he could not compel Elijah to come with him, but he also knew that if Elijah failed to come with him the king would have him, the captain, killed.    I want to tie this back to Ahaziah sending messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub.  By doing so, Ahaziah was saying that Baal-zebub had more authority over his life, and his people, than did the God of Israel.

That went longer than I expected, so I am going to skip over most of the rest of the passage and touch upon what is recounted at the end of today’s passage.  It says that while Elisha was on the way to Bethel from Jericho after Elijah’s death some “small boys” came out of the city and jeered at him.  Every commentary I have read on this passage says that the Hebrew word which is translated as “small boys” here refers to what we would politely call “young men”.  That is males between the ages of fourteen and twenty.  The passage says that Elisha cursed them after they jeered at him and two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of them.  So, this was not a few bad apples who were jeering at a traveler who looked funny.  This was a large group who were working up the courage to attack what they thought was a vulnerable traveler.  Think about that, even if the group was younger than fourteen, there were enough of them that two bears were able to maul forty-two of them.  Also, the passage does not say that the bears killed any of them, just that they tore forty-two of them.  Most generous interpretation of this incident was that it was a large group of boys acting in a threatening manner towards strangers with no adult supervision.  Think about being confronted by forty-two boys in a remote area.  Even if they were all only five years old, they present a significant threat to a single individual.  And it is worth noting that the wording of the passage suggests that there were more than forty-two of them.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 22-25.

I taught a Sunday School class on Sunday and the teacher’s material stated that King David was uniquely righteous among the kings of Israel and Judah.  Today’s passage contradicts that statement.  The passage tells us that Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of David.  When Josiah was brought the Book of the Law, he heard what was in it and immediately sent an emissary to inquire of God.  In response to God’s message that His anger would not be turned aside, but that it would be delayed for Josiah’s lifetime, Josiah increased his efforts to be faithful to God.  When we read the list of things which Josiah did to cleanse the land we realize how far the Israelites fell short of keeping God’s covenant.  Even Josiah had fallen short of doing what was right up until this point.  It was the eighteenth year of Josiah’s rein when the Book of the Law was brought to him, and it was after that that he began to cleanse the land.  The passage tells us that when Josiah began cleansing the land he destroyed the quarters of male shrine prostitutes which were in the temple.  That tells us that for eighteen years of Josiah’s rein there were male shrine prostitutes in the temple.  I am not condemning Josiah for that, since, as I read this passage, he did not know that it was wrong until the Book of the Law was read to him.  Josiah was not the first king of Judah to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but none of those before him had desecrated the idolatrous shrines which King Solomon had built.  I think that is worth noting.  We think of King Solomon as the man who built the temple of the Lord, but that was not the only temple he built.  However, I want to focus on King Josiah.  Even after God had told him that nothing he would do would cause God to withhold His judgement against Judah, Josiah dedicated himself, and called on the people of Judah to dedicate themselves, to serving God faithfully.  Josiah did not serve God for reward, he served God because it was the right thing to do.  We should do likewise.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 19-21.

The message which God gave to Isaiah concerning Sennacherib’s threats against Jerusalem can be a lesson for us today when people speak against God and His people.  God had given power to Sennacherib in order to accomplish His purposes, but Sennacherib came to believe that his successes were due to his wonderfulness.  Like many he ridiculed God and those who put their faith in Him.  He thought that his success meant that nothing could keep him from accomplishing whatever goal he set himself.  God replied that all that Sennacherib had accomplished was according to His plans from long before Sennacherib had been born.  God has made His plans for us and will use us to accomplish His goals.  If we accept His plans for us and willingly serve Him, He will bless us.  If, on the other hand, we ridicule God and His people, He will show us the folly of our ways.

The prophecy God gave through Isaiah to Sennacherib bears a close resemblance to a psalm of David.  Isaiah said to Sennacherib:
“But I know where you are
    and when you come and go
    and how you rage against me.”
And this was a warning.  David said of God in Psalm 139,
“You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.”
After telling him that He knew his comings and goings, God told Sennacherib,
“I will put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth,”
Those are not pleasant ways to be guided.  David on the other hand after saying that God knows his comings and goings said,
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.”
Both David and Sennacherib were directed by God, but responded differently.  

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 17-18.

So, I had a different perspective on today’s passage than has previously occurred to me.  The passage begins by recounting how Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was completely conquered by Assyria and the people deported to other lands.  It tells us that they were deported for their sins and gives a list of some of those sins.  Then it tells us that the Assyrians brought people from foreign lands to settle in the Israelite lands.  When those foreigners first settled there they had problems with lions, which the Assyrians attributed to these new settlers not worshiping the god of the land (which was God).  So, the Assyrians brought back one of the priests they had deported from the land to teach these new settlers how to worship the Lord.  The writer then tells us that although these new settlers began worshiping God, they also continued to worship the gods of their homelands.  As the writer describes the practices of the people whom the Assyrians settled in the land his description sounds very much like his description as to why God allowed the Israelites to be deported.  Often  I have seen people interpret the description of the practices of the people the Assyrians settled in the land as justification for the claims by the post-Exilic Jews that their descendants had no rights to the land.  What struck me today that while this passage was indeed used that way, it actually tells us that the Israelites were exiled from the land because they were no more faithful in worshiping God than these foreigners with no connection to Abraham.  And how does this apply to us today?   The Israelites claimed to worship God, but they also worshiped other gods.  The settlers whom the Assyrians settled in the land, took up to forms of worshiping God, but did not give up their worship of other gods.  Do we today who claim to worship God allow ourselves to be drawn into the practices of those around us who worship other gods?  God has repeatedly told us that if we worship other gods we are not worshiping Him.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 15-16.

Today’s passage made me think abut something we overlook a lot.  We normally think of Ancient Israel (the combined lands of the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel) as being essentially the territory controlled by the modern state of Israel plus the West Bank and Gaza.  This year I have been noticing the repeated mentions of Gilead as part of Israel.  Gilead was the land east of the Jordan River settled by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and one half of Manasseh.   Today’s passage tells us that Pekah led a band of fifty men from Gilead to assassinate Pekihiah.  Then later the passage tells us that during the reign of Pekah, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria took Gilead and Galilee and deported the people living there to Assyria.  All of which tells us that Gilead was an integral part of Ancient Israel.

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