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.

    For those of you actually reading the scripture passage, you may not that I skipped back a couple of chapters. That is because I accidentally skipped these two chapters on May 4. In today’s passage the reigns of five kings of Israel are recounted. Four of those kings lost power due to a coup. We are told that all five of these kings did what was evil in the sight of God. The sins which these kings led their people into contributed to the instability of the government and the instability of the government caused the people to sin. This is something we see throughout history. When a people stop living morally upright lives it results in government instability. As the government becomes more unstable, people are more inclined to live morally depraved lives.

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.

    Sennacherib blasphemed against God because he believed that he had risen to power by his own accomplishments. The message which God delivered for him through Isaiah applies to anyone who holds God in similar contempt for similar reasons. Whatever great things any human may accomplish, God planned for them long ago. Those things happened because it suited God’s purpose for them to happen. He knows where we are every moment of every day. He knows when we go out and when we come in. Sennacherib bragged that God could not stop him from conquering Jerusalem. Sennacherib believed that mostly because there was no human force which could stop him. Sennacherib thought that the only way he could be stopped was by an opposing military. It never occurred to him that God has other resources. We must be careful not to make the same mistake. While the human members of Christ’s body may often act as God’s hands and feet, they are not the only resource at His disposal to accomplish His will.

    At one point President Obama made a speech in which he said of those who think they have accomplished things because of their own abilities and effort, “you didn’t build that.” When he said that he was given a lot of flack but he was not wrong. No matter what you have accomplished in this life you were only able to accomplish it because it suited God’s purposes for you to do so. Furthermore, God arranged all of the necessary preconditions for your success. President Obama was giving credit to the government, credit which rightly belongs to God. I will add one more thing. God has already arranged all of the necessary preconditions for you (and I) to successfully carry out His will. If our goal in life is to carry out God’s will, and we actually work to accomplish that goal, we cannot fail.

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.

    The Northern Kingdom went into captivity. The writer tells us that this happened because they had rejected God’s commands. The writer spends quite a bit of time emphasizing their sins of worshiping other gods. The writer does not go into detail for the most part, but we know that many of those worship practices were sins in and of themselves. He does however bring special attention to the fact that the people of Israel had sacrificed their own children as part of their worship of idols. Their greatest failing resulted from wanting to be like everybody else. The same thing is the greatest danger facing Christians today. Just like it did for the ancient Israelites, wanting to be like our neighbors will lead us into sin.

    After the Assyrians settled other people in the lands of the Northern Kingdom something happened which influenced their attitude when they later invaded the Southern Kingdom. After initial problems they sent priests they had removed from that land back to teach the new settlers “what the god of the land requires.” When they did this the problems diminished. As a result, they viewed the God of Abraham as just another regional deity. This led them to two false conclusions. First, they thought that Hezekiah’s insistence that people worship God only at the Temple in Jerusalem was a slight against God which would reduce His interest in protecting the people of Judah. Second, they thought that their victory over other peoples with local gods indicated that God had no power to stop them. The failure of the people of Israel to faithfully follow God led the Assyrians to a false understanding of the nature of God. The failure of the Israelites to faithfully follow God led the Assyrians to hold Him in contempt. In the same way, our failure to faithfully serve God may lead non-believers to hold Him in contempt.

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.

    The overarching theme in today’s passage is that the kings of Israel did what was wicked in God’s sight. It does not give us a clear understanding of in what ways these kings were wicked except to tell us that they continued in the sins which Jeroboam had led Israel to commit. My reading of that is that these kings continued the worship at the two golden calves which Jeroboam had created. The passage does tell us that Jehoahaz prayed for God’s help when things got bad and that God answered his prayer despite his inability and/or unwillingness to get rid of the Asherah pole in Samaria, his capital. On the other hand, Amaziah, the king of Judah talked about here, is said to have done what was pleasing in God’s sight, but not as pleasing as David. Again, it is not clear what David did which was more pleasing to God than what Amaziah did. It does tell us that the high places were not removed and that the people worshiped at them. However, we know that some of those high places went back to before David. The passage does imply that the people worshiped gods other than God at them, so perhaps the difference is that under David those shrines were only, or at least primarily, used to worship God.
    All of this shows the importance of worshiping with other believers. As we worship God we need to make sure that our beliefs are not just a reflection of what we desire to be true. There is a true challenge involved in doing this. On the one hand, we need to worship with those who are worshiping God and not some facsimile thereof. As an example of this, consider the passage from a few days ago where Jehoshaphat asked Ahab to consult God before they went to war. Ahab summoned prophets of Baal. From what we know of Baal worship and the meaning of the very name “Baal”, most Baal worshipers consider Baal to be another name for God. Yet Jehoshaphat knew that this was not the case. On the other hand, we must make sure that we are not limiting ourselves to worshiping with those whose view of God is shaped by the same self-interests as ourselves.

    In the middle of this is the story of King Jehoash’s last visit with Elisha. During this visit Elisha instructed Jehoash to strike some arrows against the ground. Jehoash did so only three times. Elisha berated him for not doing so more times. There is a lesson here for us. When Elisha told Jehoash to strike the ground with the arrows, he did so in little more than a perfunctory manner. I can imagine him thinking after he hit the ground three times. “OK, I did that. Now what?” The lesson here is that when God gives us instructions, even instructions which seem inconsequential, we should carry them out enthusiastically. Think about the difference in attitude which would have been expressed by Jehoash striking the ground five or six times instead of the three which he did. Or suppose he had struck the ground until Elisha told him to stop?
    Both the things I discussed in the first part of today’s blog and in the previous paragraph are about serving God whole-heartedly. God had instructed the people of Israel to worship Him in the one place which He chose in the Promised Land, and only that place. At the time of this passage, that place was in Jerusalem. For various reasons and to varying degrees, the people of the Northern Kingdom and of the Southern Kingdom did not follow that command. This failure led them into other sins. Even when they did follow God’s commands, they did not do so enthusiastically. If we enthusiastically follow the commands from God which we know, He will bless us and teach us how to follow Him even better.

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.

    Jehu effectively wiped out Baal worship in Israel, the Northern Kingdom. Jehu also completely wiped out Ahab’s family (except for Athaliah, who was ruling as the Queen Mother in Judah) according to the prophecy God had delivered through Elijah. I believe that Jehu chose to worship God. However, it is not clear to me if that was a pragmatic decision (having a single God whom all of the people of his kingdom worshiped improved the cohesiveness of his kingdom) or a matter of true faith. In either case, he chose to maintain the worship of the two golden calves which Jeroboam had established. This may have been due to a lack of understanding. Or, it may have been a result of not wanting his people to go to Jerusalem to worship.

    Meanwhile, in Judah Athaliah seized power as soon as she learned that her son, King Ahaziah, had been killed as part of Jehu’s revolt in Israel. She immediately set about killing off the remaining male descendants of Jehoshaphat. However, one of Ahaziah’s sisters (she may have been Athaliah’s daughter, but she may only been a half-sister to Ahaziah) secretly took his infant son to the Temple and hid him there. When the child reached seven, Jehoiada the priest staged a revolt and overthrew Athaliah and placed the boy, Joash, on the throne. Jehoiada acted as regent for Joash, and later as a trusted adviser. As regent, Jehoiada encouraged the people of Judah to once more dedicate themselves to God and to reject Baal worship. The way I read this passage leads me to believe that the revolt against Athaliah was popular with the general populace and the people associated the excesses of her reign with Baal worship.

    It seems to me that the people of both kingdoms had learned that Baal worship led to abuses of power by those in authority. It seems to me as I read the Old Testament that the more faithful the rulers of the people of Israel were, the better they were as rulers. A corollary to that is that the more faithful the people were to God, the better government they received. I believe that the same is true today. If you want better government, seek to be a better follower of Christ.

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.

    Jehoshaphat, who ruled Judah according to God’s will, allowed, or possibly even arranged for, his son and heir to marry Ahab’s daughter. The result was that Jehoram, Jehoshaphat’s son, and Ahaziah, Jehoshaphat’s grandson, were wicked kings who did what was evil in God’s sight. As a result, Ahaziah was killed in the revolt which overthrew Ahab’s dynasty in the Northern Kingdom. Or another way to look at this, Jehoshaphat’s alliance with Ahab, a wicked king, resulted in his son failing to follow in his footsteps as a king who did what was right in the eyes of God. Jehoshaphat’s failure to “judge” Ahab led to his son, and his grandson, committing the same sins as Ahab. In the same way, we must watch how our friendship with non-Christians may influence the generations which come after us. I want to be careful in what I say here because I do believe that we need to be friends with non-Christians. Nevertheless we need to be clear that we do not condone their sins.

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.

    Today’s passage begins with the story of the healing of Naaman. As I read it today I was reminded of the story I saw yesterday regarding the IRS raiding the offices of Benny Hinn Ministries. For those who do not know, Benny Hinn is a televangelist famous for his healing ministry. Benny Hinn has used his “healing ministry” to become fabulously wealthy. Benny Hinn’s behavior contrasts with what happened to Elisha’s servant when he went after Namaan to obtain those gifts…or perhaps it doesn’t. I am always suspicious of those whose only source of income is what they claim to be God’s ministry but live a life of luxury. All too many of the requests for money from televangelists and other professional ministries sound an awful lot like the story which Gehazi gave Namaan, “my master has sent me to tell you that two young prophets from the hill country of Ephraim have just arrived. He would like 75 pounds of silver and two sets of clothing to give to them.” On the other hand, there are times when those who serve the Lord need to ask for money to continue their ministry.

    Having written all of that, I want to go back and look at the primary point of this story. First, Namaan expected Elisha to treat him special because he was a man of importance. Further Namaan was upset that the task he was set to be healed was so pedestrian. He was willing to do something difficult and challenging, but he viewed washing in the Jordan River as demeaning. All too often we are the same way. We want God to call us to some grand and glorious ministry and view the one to which we are called as beneath us, or, perhaps, just not as a ministry. The lessons for us here are clear, God’s will for us is not about gain, nor is it about glory for us. Sometimes we will acquire wealth and sometimes glory from doing God’s will, but only when that also furthers God’s will upon this earth. If our reason for doing God’s will is gain or glory, we have missed the point.
    I really hope that you will read the entire passage because there is much to be learned from the parts I did not write about, but I have run out oftime.

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.

    When Joram succeeded his father Ahab as king of Israel, he moved away from Baal worship, but continued to worship at the golden calves which Jeroboam had erected. During his invasion of Moab things went badly. So, he had Elisha called before him (it is interesting to note that Elisha was among the soldiers in King Joram’s army). Elisha asked Joram why he was not consulting the gods of his parents. The point being made here is that King Joram could not be bothered to call on God until he found himself in trouble of his own making. It was Joram who chose the route which the army marched. A route which had insufficient water for the armies he was leading. How often do we do something similar? We march out on a path of our own choosing without seeking God first. Then, when things go badly wrong, we call out to God to rescue us from our bad decisions. The key is that we should call on God before we undertake the campaign, not just after things go wrong.

    The rest of the stories are a series of vignettes about Elisha. They each have a “moral to the story”, a lesson we can learn from how God worked in each case. The first story is about a widow of one of Elisha’s fellow prophets. She desperately needed money. Elisha did not provide her directly with money. Instead he directed her to use a resource which she had and asked her to apply some effort. God then multiplied that resource so that she could use it to obtain the money she needed to survive. The amount of aid she received was limited by the amount of effort she put into the project. This is how God generally meets our needs, we will need to expend the effort to get started, but God will expand the results of our efforts beyond what we could have possibly accomplished on our own.

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.

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.

    The story of Ben-hadad is a perfect example of the dangers of overreach. Ahab was willing to meet his initial demands of tribute to give up his siege of Samaria. When he heard this, Ben-hadad increased his demand. Perhaps because he felt that if Ahab capitulated that easily he would be willing to give up more, or perhaps because he never expected Ahab to meet his first demand and wanted an excuse to attack. In either case, he had overplayed his hand. The whole story reflects the dangers of hubris. Having lost the battle this first time, Ben-hadad decided that he had only lost because God was a god of the hills. This was taking hubris even further. Not only did Ben-hadad underestimate his human opponents, he dismissed God’s ability to act where and when He wanted.

    Later, Ahab wanted to retake a town he had lost to Ben-hadad in these wars. When he asked Jehoshaphat to join him in this war, Jehoshaphat asked that they find out what God had to say. In response, Ahab summoned his 400 prophets. The similarity of this number to the number at the contest with Elijah on Mt Carmel suggests that these were prophets of Baal. Jehoshaphat certainly thinks something along that line because he asks for a prophet of God.* Ahab does not want to summon the prophet because Ahab never wants to abide by what he prophesies. Jehoshaphat tells Ahab that such a response is not how a king should act. After all of this, despite the prophet of God prophesying that Ahab would die if he went to this war, Ahab and Jehoshaphat go. Ahab thinks he knows how to “beat” God’s prophecy by going into battle dressed as a common soldier. By doing so, he avoids the attacks targeted for him as king, but falls victim to a random shot taken at the troops.
    When I started the above paragraph I really meant for it to connect to the story of Ben-hadad from the first paragraph, but it just did not work out that way. My point was that in both stories, the king, Ben-hadad and then Ahab, thought he could go against God and win.

    Now I want to go back and look at the middle of today’s passage. When Elijah confronted Ahab about what Jezebel had done to Naboth in Ahab’s name, which Ahab had been happy to take advantage of to get what he wanted, Ahab called Elijah his enemy. Previously, Ahab had called Elijah a troublemaker. In both cases this is an example of “blaming the messenger”. It was Ahab who had sinned and Elijah was delivering God’s message. Despite his initial dismissive reaction to Elijah, Ahab was repentant and humble upon hearing Elijah’s message. It was a start, but being sorry and mourning for having done wrong is not sufficient. Ahab refused to change his ways and turn from his idolatry. How often do we behave similarly?

*I want to note that every time I can think of when God sends a message through a prophet that prophet appears as a single individual, not as part of a group of prophets.