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

We rarely pay attention to what Naaman says to Elisha after he was cleansed of leprosy.  Well, we pay attention to the first part, where Naaman says he will no longer make burnt offerings or sacrifices to any god but the Lord.  However, Naaman begs that the Lord forgive him for those occasions when he must accompany his king into the temple of his king’s god and there bow down to that god with his king.  Elisha’s response to this request was to tell Naaman to go in peace.  Elisha’s response seems to affirm that God would indeed forgive Naaman for doing so.  This suggests that we do not always need to make it known that we disagree when those around us worship other gods.  I believe that this short exchange is very significant, but I am not sure of its full meaning.

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 3-4.

I started out to write a summary of the events as described here, but realized my time would be better spent reviewing some of the meaning of these stories.  The stories in today’s passage feel like legends every time I read them.  I suspect that most of those who were present for when these stories happened would barely recognize them.  Not because the stories as told inaccurately reflect what happened, but because it would have felt much different to someone going through these experiences.  In each of these stories, tragedy seems to be about to strike when people turned to God.  In each case, God provided a seemingly miraculous deliverance (in some of the stories, the deliverance was truly a miracle, in others it may have just been revealing important information to Elisha that no one else present knew).

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.

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.

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 19-21.

In yesterday’s passage we were told that King Hezekiah did what was pleasing in God’s sight, just as David had done.  I believe that Hezekiah is the only king of Judah about whom the writer says that.  In today’s passage we see the reason he wrote that about Hezekiah.  When Hezekiah faced trouble he turned to the Lord.  When the King of Assyria threatened Jerusalem, Hezekiah turned to God.  When his health was bad, Hezekiah turned to God.

The response which God gave to Hezekiah through Isaiah regarding the King of Assyria contains much for us to consider.  The King of Assyria was proud of his successes, and with good reason, but he credited himself with those successes and gave no credit to a higher power.  For all that he had done, the King of Assyria only had that success because it accorded with God’s plan for him to do so.  It was God’s plan that allowed the King of Assyria to rise to such heights.  The King of Assyria was convinced that no power could stop him from doing that which he chose to do.  He probably died believing that to be true.  Yet, when he chose to attack Jerusalem, something happened so that the attack never took place.  How often do we see God’s hand at work in things that do not happen?

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 17-18.

Israel’s last king was less evil than his predecessors, but he still did evil in God’s sight.  Important note: being less evil is not the same as doing good.  As we read through the account of each of the kings of Israel it would be easy to miss the extent of the people’s sin.   The writer makes that extent clear here in today’s passage.  They adopted the practices of the people whom God had driven out of the land and worshiped idols, setting up pagan shrines in all of their settlements.  I want to note that the writer makes a distinction between following the practices of other peoples and idolatry.  Yes, idolatry was practiced by the people to whom the writer refers, but by listing it as a separate sin from following their practices he makes it clear that they had other practices which were detestable to God.  As the writer summarizes the various forms of idolatry they practiced, he singles out sacrificing their own children as going above and beyond other forms of idolatry.

After the conquering Samaria and taking many of the people in the Northern Kingdom into exile, the King of Assyria settled peoples from other lands in that territory.  These peoples had problems with lions attacks, which led them to conclude that they did not know the proper customs for worshiping God.  I think this suggests that there were Israelites remaining in the land, but those who had been educated (in particular about God’s laws, but also everyone who had been educated) had been exiled.  How else would the new people in the land know there were different customs for worshiping God than what they knew?  In any case, once a priest was brought back from among those who had been taken into exile, these new immigrants began to worship the Lord.  But, they did not give up their worship of other gods, the gods they had worshiped in their homeland.  From what is written here it seems likely that the compiler of this book was a post-Exile Jew.  His understanding of the worship practices of those who were in the land when the Exiles returned certainly colored his understanding of what he wrote here from the stories he collected into this document.

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 15-16.

Comparing what the passage tells us about the kings of Israel with what it tells us about the kings of Judah gives us some interesting insight.  The kings of Israel in today’s passage did what was evil in God’s sight by committing the sins which Jeroboam had first led the people of Israel to commit.  On the other hand, there was a stretch of four kings of Judah who did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, but did not destroy the pagan shrines.  Then there was King Ahaz, who did not do what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, but instead followed the example of the kings of Israel, going so far as to sacrifice his own son to a pagan god.  Jeroboam’s primary sins were setting up two gold calves in place of God, and making the priesthood a political appointment with no connection to the descendants of Aaron, or even descendants of Levi.  By making appointment to the priesthood merely another sinecure which the crown gave out with no connection to a knowledge of God, or His Law, the kings made God’s Law subordinate to their law.  One example of the end result of this was King Ahaz viewing the gods of Assyria as more powerful than God because Assyria was powerful.  Rather than seeing the rise of Assyria as a judgement on the failure of the people of Israel and Judah to be faithful to God, he saw it as the result of God’s inferiority to their gods.  All too often, we make similar mistakes, we view the success of wicked people as an indicator that they are doing right, rather than as an indicator that we are failing to follow God’s will.

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 13-14.

I find a few things interesting about today’s passage.  First, the three kings of the Northern Kingdom mentioned are all listed as being evil in God’s sight because they continued in the sins of Jeroboam.  This description is interesting because the writer spoke positively about King Jehu, listing that he failed to destroy Jeroboam’s gold calves as his only drawback (although the writer does count that as a serious drawback).  So, perhaps King Jehu had not encouraged the worship of the gold calves but merely allowed it.  Also interestingly, King Jehu’s grandson, King Jehoash wept at Elisha’s bedside as the prophet was dying, despite the fact that we are told he did what was evil in God’s sight.  This reveals that the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom did not outright reject God.  Rather, they just gradually allowed themselves to foll into sin, while thinking they were continuing to worship God.  Just as we all too often do today, they treated God as something to be used in case of emergency.  Sure, when times are good you check that He is there every so often, but you don’t really need to spend any time with Him.  They, and we, only “get Him out” when disaster strikes.  Then we cry out to God for deliverance.

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 10-12.

I have commented on this several times, but it is worth noting again.  The account of King Jehu’s actions after he took the throne of the Northern Kingdom show us that the people of that land still respected God.  They sought to worship Him, despite the attempts by their leaders to turn them to idolatry.  God rewarded King Jehu for destroying Ahab’s family and the worship of Baal.  Nevertheless, Jehu continued to encourage the people of Israel to worship at the golden calves which Jeroboam had set up.  He almost certainly did this for political reasons; he was afraid that if the people went to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship they would turn their loyalty to the king in of Judah who ruled in Jerusalem.  So, the account we have suggests that Jehu was not a godly man, but he appears to have revolted against King Ahab’s son because of the latter’s Baal worship.  One thing that is not clear to me is whether he worshiped God according to what he understood to be correct and did not seek a better understanding, or if he chose to worship as he did because it was politically expedient.

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.