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

I have thought about this from time to time, but I do not think I have ever written about it.  Up through King David, and even early in the reign of King Solomon, the Bible references various people, including David and Solomon, offering sacrifices at various places throughout the land of Israel, and does so in a positive manner.  However, after King Solomon there are numerous kings of Judah about whom the Bible says  some variation of this, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.”  The context seems to suggest that the writer considered that second sentence to reflect poorly on the king in question.  What changed?  Actually, the real question is, why weren’t the biblical writers as bothered by it in the times before King Solomon as they were after?

In Deuteronomy 12 Moses told the Israelites that they were to destroy all of the high places where the people they were dispossessing worshiped their gods and make their offerings at the place God will choose to put His name, and only there.   So, clearly, failing to get the people to stop worshiping at the high places violated that command.  But why was it not a problem for those leaders who preceded King Solomon?  The answer I think is twofold.  First the passage in Deuteronomy suggests that God would not choose that place until after He had given the Israelites peace.  Following up on that the writer of 2 Samuel clearly suggests when recounting David’s desire to build a Temple that this did not happen until Solomon was king (or, more precisely would not happen until David’s son was king, since that writer does not specify Solomon).  The second piece, which really is related to that first piece, is that while the Israelites worked together under Moses and Joshua, they were very much separate tribes until they started to truly become one nation under David.  The process actually started under King Saul and did not complete until Solomon was king (and then only lasted his lifetime).  The Temple represented the culmination of that unification and, of course, that was why Jeroboam felt it necessary to replace it with golden calves at both ends of the Northern Kingdom when he rebelled against Rehoboam.

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.

The writer tells us that Jehu’s son, grandson, and great grandson did evil in God’s sight by following the sins of Jeroboam.  However, we are told that Jehu’s grandson, Jehoash was stricken by grief over Elisha’s death.  In addition, Elisha blessed him by prophesying victory by him over Aram.  Further, God used Jehoash’s son, Jeroboam, to restore the borders of Israel and rescue the people of Israel from their suffering.  On the other hand, while Amaziah, king of Judah, did right in the eyes of God, he became cocky after his defeat of Edom and lost a war he instigated with Israel.  Which should serve to remind us that those who serve God do not have a carte blanche to go up against those who do not serve God.  Or, as Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said, we should not be seeking to have God on our side, rather we should seek to do that which puts us on God’s side.  King Amaziah chose to go to war with Israel, thinking that God would be on his side, never considering that by doing so he might not be on God’s side.

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 5-7.

Some of these stories contain lessons about our relationship with God which I feel led to write about today.  Each contains more lessons than what I am going to focus on, nevertheless I am going to limit myself to just a few points.  In the story of Naaman, Naaman was angry because not only did Elisha not personally come to talk to him about his illness, he told him to do something inconvenient, yet completely pedestrian.  Naaman’s servants pointed out that if Elisha had told him to complete some feat of valor in order to be healed, he would gladly have done so.  Which brings us to the lesson.  Sometimes God calls us to do things which are inconvenient and completely unnoteworthy.   We need to recognize that these things may be more important than any action we could do which might bring us glory.  There is a story about a boy who helped a neighbor boy he barely knew with his books one day in grade school, only to learn years later that the boy he helped was planning to commit suicide and chose not to because of his help.  If things had turned out slightly differently the boy who helped may have never learn the difference his actions made.  Sometimes, the inconvenient little things make a big difference.

In the story where the king of Aram sent soldiers to capture Elisha, Elisha’s servant was terrified when he got up in the morning and discovered their city surrounded by a small army.  Elisha told him not to fear because those with them were more than those against them.  Then Elisha prayed for his servant’s eyes to be opened and his servant saw a much larger host of fiery warriors defending Elisha.  In many ways this parallels God’s answer to Elijah when Elijah complained of being the only one left in Israel faithful to God.  On that occasion God told Elijah that He had reserved seven thousand who had remained faithful.  In the same way here, Elisha’s servant thought they were outnumbered by their enemies, but there were many on their own side who he did not see until Elisha had God open his eyes.  However, this contains another message as well.  In this case, the human army surrounding Elisha was not countered by a human army which had not revealed itself.  Instead, the forces of God surrounded Elisha and his servant, protecting them against those sent against them.  So, even if there are not many on our side of whom we are unaware (or if they are too far away to be of aid), still God has the ability to protect us against those who would do us harm.  Let us not fear to be faithful to God, even when we think we are outnumbered by those who wish us harm for doing 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 3-4.

When Joram became king of Israel, the writer tells us that while he did evil in the sight of God he was not as evil as his parents.  The writer praises Joram for getting rid of the sacred stone of Baal, but then condemns him for continuing the sins of Jeroboam.  This, combined with the other places where kings of Israel are condemned for following the sins of Jeroboam, suggests to me that the worship of the calves built by Jeroboam was closer to the worship of Yahweh than was the worship of Baal.  Along the same line of thinking, when Joram consulted Elisha during the invasion of Moab, Elisha told him to consult the prophets of his father and the prophets of his mother.  Elisha’s reference suggests that Joram had continued the worship of those gods, although he had reduced their prominence in the kingdom.

As I read the rest of the passage I was struck by how some of the miracles which Elisha performed were reminiscent of miracles recounted elsewhere in the Bible.  The account of providing for the widow with olive oil is reminiscent of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, and Elisha raising the son of the Shunammite woman is reminiscent of Elijah raising the widow’s son.  Finally, Elisha feeding one hundred with twenty loaves of barley foreshadows Jesus feeding the 4,000 and the 5,000.  The similarities between these accounts does not mean that they were copied from each other.  Rather, it suggests that there are certain themes which accompany the display of God’s power.  One of those themes is that God has the power of life and death.  And He will sometimes restore life to those who have lost it at our request.  Another theme is that God uses our existing resources to accomplish more than seems possible, and provides to the extent that we can handle.  The widow did not stop having more oil to pour out of her jar until she ran out of containers to put it into.  Despite the amount of food provided being inadequate, the one hundred had enough to eat with leftovers.  In the same way, we should trust God to provide, whether what we have on hand is sufficient to the need or not.

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.

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.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 20-22.

Since I have no idea where I am going with today’s blog, I will start by noting that there appear to have been four prophets of God mentioned in this passage: two anonymously, and two by name.  First, we have the anonymous prophet who offered King Ahab the predictions of his victories over Ben-Haddad.  Then we have the anonymous prophet who condemned King Ahab for entering into a treaty with Ben-Haddad after defeating him instead of killing him.   Followed by Elijah re-appearing and condemning King Ahab for allowing his wife, Jezebel, to have Naboth killed so that King Ahab could claim Naboth’s vineyard.  Finally, we have Micaiah, who predicted King Ahab’s death in battle against the king of Aram.

The thing that strikes me about the story involving Micaiah is the way in which King Ahab attempts to substitute prophets of Baal for a prophet of God…and how King Jehoshaphat completely dismisses them as prophets of God.   Further, the prophets of Baal presented themselves as prophets of God, or, more precisely as interchangeable with prophets of God.  From reading this, it seems to me that the worshipers of Baal claimed that Baal was just another name for Yahweh.  It would follow from this that they claimed that their worship of Baal was just another way of worshiping Yahweh.  When pushed on the issue, people like King Ahab knew full well that Baal was not the same as Yahweh, but he liked what the prophets of Baal told him better than what the prophets of Yahweh told him.  Perhaps of most interest, we learn from this passage that the prophets of Baal appear to have considered themselves to be worshiping the same God as the prophets of Yahweh.  Also of note, the prophets of Baal outnumbered the prophets of Yahweh.  In the same way today, there are many who believe they are teaching about God, who are in fact calling on people to worship false gods.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 18-19.

I love the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel and the story of his trip to Mount Horeb.  However, I want to start by looking at Obadiah.  Obadiah was King Ahab’s palace administrator and a devout follower of the Lord.  This seems hard to reconcile.  How could a devout follower of the Lord serve as King Ahab’s palace administrator?  Nevertheless the passage tells us that such was the case.  More importantly, the passage tells us that Obadiah used his position to save 100 prophets of God from Jezebel’s persecution of them.  So, we do not know much about Obadiah except that he did this.  Not many of us are called to confront the powerful the way Elijah was, but we can at least be like Obadiah and use whatever power we have to aid others.

I also want to look at another part of this passage which is referenced a bit more than Obadiah, but even so not that much.  When King Ahab meets up with Elijah, he calls him a troublemaker.  I imagine that King Ahab did so because he blamed Elijah for the drought which he had predicted.  However, Elijah points out that King Ahab is the one bringing trouble on Israel because King Ahab has chosen to follow the path of idolatry rather than worship the Lord.  King Ahab’s Baal worship and support for Jezebel’s persecution of the Lord’s prophets was more disruptive to Israel than anything Elijah had done.    Similar things happen today.  Christians are often called divisive for calling people to traditional moral stances which have only recently been rejected,   If you are called, as Elijah was, to stand up and confront people over their moral failings, do not allow them to make you think that you are the one being divisive.  And, if you are called to be like Obadiah, do not let them convince you that the Elijah’s of the world are the one’s to blame.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 15-17.

The story of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath contains a wonderful lesson for us about how God will provide for our needs.  I usually seek something else in this passage to write about because this story is talked about so often.    Of course, this story contains a powerful lesson on how God provides, which is the reason it gets talked about so much.  And today, the power of this story struck me to write about it.  The story illustrates both Elijah’s faith and the widow’s faith.  When Elijah arrived in Zarephath, the widow was about to make one last meal for her son and for herself.  Yet when Elijah asked her to make him some bread, with the promise that if she did her oil and flour would not run out, she took him at his word and did so.  The power of this story really hit me when I read this phrase “For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”

Which brings us to Elijah’s faith, he had the faith to make that promise to the widow, believing that God could and would make it true.  Now Elijah had reason to have that faith, having just spent some period of time in the Kerith Ravine being supplied with food by ravens.  Nevertheless, that was just between him and God, now he needed to take the risk of telling someone else that they could rely on God.  Not really much of a risk, but isn’t it one which we often find hard to take?  So, we often focus on the widow’s faith and God rewarding her for it.  She was willing to give of the last little bit she had to someone in need, and , as a result, God provided for her.  But think about Elijah, he had to ask for help from someone in almost as desperate need, if not more desperate need, than himself, and he had to trust that God would provide for them because he certainly was unable to do so.  Think about this, the widow was provided for because Elijah asked her to give him some assistance.  Do we have the faith to ask someone to help us?  Do we have the faith to believe that God will provide for the needs of someone because they helped us?  Please note that the widow from whom Elijah requested aid was not even one of the people of God.

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