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.

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

The thing we usually note about Jehu’s son, Jehoahaz, and his grandson, Jehoash, is that they each did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam.  We pay little attention to where it tells us that at some point Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s favor, and God listened to him and delivered Israel from the power of Aram.  And, while we sometimes hear someone teach about Jehoash weeping over Elisha when Elisha was on his death bed I have never heard them mention that just a few verses earlier the passage said that Jehoash did evil in the eyes of the Lord.  So, even though Jehoahaz did evil in God’s eyes, when he sought God, God listened to him.  And even though his son Jehoash also did evil in God’s eyes, he wept over Elisha and God gave him a prophecy of victory.  God will listen to those who have done evil if they turn to Him.  God will use those who do evil to further His purposes.  The lesson here is that as bad as each of them were, God saw potential in them and offered them an opportunity to serve Him.  Perhaps if Amaziah, king of Judah, had invited Jehoash to join him to worship God instead of making war against him, Jehoash would have abandoned the worship of Jeroboam’s golden calves.  Whether or not that is the case, we should invite others, even those who do evil, to join us in worshiping God, rather than making war on 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 10-12.

When Jehu met Jehonadab, whose descendants Jeremiah praises during the siege of Jerusalem, Jehu invites Jehonadab to join him and see his zeal for the Lord.  Jehu destroyed all of Ahab’s family who lived in Israel and completely destroyed Baal worship in Israel.  However, he continued the worship of the golden calves which Jeroboam had made.  So, Jehu considered himself zealous in serving God, yet he continued the worship of the golden calves.  Which raises the question: did Jehu not see the conflict between worshiping the golden calves and being zealous for the Lord?  Or, was he aware of the conflict but unwilling to change?  In either case, he offers a lesson for us today.  Whichever was true as to why Jehu continued the worship of the golden calves, the passage tells us what his mistake was: he was not careful to keep the Law of the Lord.  If Jehu had been careful to keep the Law of the Lord, he would have been aware that worshiping those images was contrary to what God desired for His people.  And, if he aware of that, being careful to keep the Law of the Lord would have led him to abolish such worship.  Are we careful t keep the Law of the Lord?  What things do we do which are contrary to what God tells us is best for us?  Have we studied what He tells us so that we do not miss some behavior which God has warned us against?  And if we are aware of such behaviors, have we turned from those behaviors in order to keep His Laws?  Or, have we continued to do things which we know we would be happier if we avoided 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 8-9.

I am not sure what all I want to write about today, but I will start with something I have noticed before.  At the end of the description of King Jehoram’s reign, the passage says, “As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ”  There is a similar phrase at the end of the description of reign of most if not all of the kings mentioned in the Books of Kings.  This indicates that the compiler of these books was aware of other writings which gave details about the actions of the kings of Judah and of Israel.  So, why is that significant?  There are those who claim that the books of the Old Testament were written after the Babylonian Exile.  However, if that were the case, it would be unlikely that the book of the annals of the kings of Judah or the one of the kings of Israel would still have been available.  Which means that the bulk of these two books were composed before the Babylonian Exile.  The only way to believe that First and Second Kings were written after the end of the Babylonian Exile is to believe that the writers intentionally deceived their readers by implying that they had access to the book of the annals of the kings of Judah and the book of the annals of the kings of Israel.  However, these references to those annals also tells us something about the things which the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel had in common.  They both kept a record of the acts of their kings.  A record which was maintained even with the dynastic changes which happened in Israel.

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.

Today the account of Naaman really spoke to me about how God gives us salvation.  First, Naaman was upset that Elisha just sent him a messenger rather than coming out to meet him in person.  We often see people argue that God should come to them in a way that they would be unable to deny his existence.  But God doesn’t usually work that way.  He sends messengers to tell us what He wants from us.  Second, Naaman was upset at the task which Elisha gave him in order to be healed.  In the same way, we often think that the tasks which God calls us to do are beneath us.  Naaman’s servants pointed out to him that if Elisha had asked him to accomplish some noteworthy deed, he would have gladly completed it.  In the same way, we often think that God should call us to some greater task than that to which He calls us.  Then Naaman wanted to reward Elisha for what he had done (actually, for what God had done).  Elisha refused payment for healing Naaman.  It was this which first caused me to see a connection the salvation God offers us.  God will not accept payment for the salvation which He gives us.  This is not just because we have nothing which He did not first give us.  We cannot pay God for our salvation because our reconciliation with God requires us to recognize that we have no power to redeem ourselves.  The final point from this account is Elisha’s servant, Gehazi,  fraudulently obtaining part of the reward which Naaman had offered to Elisha.  In the same way, some people strive to profit from delivering God’s message to sinners.  I am not saying that we should not pay those who do God’s work because we should indeed pay them.  Rather, I am saying that we should not seek to get wealthy while doing God’s work.

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.

It took me awhile to figure out what to write today.  After much thought it occurred to me that we can learn a lot about how God works from the miracle stories in today’s passage.  First, in the account of the prophet’s widow, Elisha gave her a task which would allow her to pay off her dead husband’s debts and have the means to survive after doing so.  How well she and her sons were provided for depended on the effort which they made to follow through on the instructions which Elisha gave them.  The same is often true for us: God will provide a method for us to have our needs met, but it will often depend upon our willingness to work.  The story of the the Shunammite woman and her son teaches something different.  The Shunammite woman did not seek anything from God because she was afraid she would lose it, but Elisha asked God to give her a son.  Then when the tragedy she feared occurred and her son died of some childhood illness, she cried out to Elisha, he in turn went tog God and her son was restored to her.  The Shunammite woman was afraid to have a good thing in her life because she feared that suffering would follow.  When we seek to serve God, He will provide us with our deepest desires which are consistent with His will, even when we are afraid to ask for 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 1-2.

The account of what happened after King Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, fell from his upper room has a lot of things to comment on.  One question which I have never thought about before is, “Why did Ahaziah send messengers to consult the Baal of Ekron?”  I am not asking why he sent to consult a Baal, but why Ekron?  Ahaziah’s mother was Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Tyre.  So, I would have expected him to send to Tyre if her was going to send messengers to a foreign city.  The suggestion I have seen to this question is that Ekron was the closest city to Samaria with a thriving priesthood of Baal.  That certainly makes sense, but I had never thought about it before.  The other question I have about today’s passage concerns Elijah’s actions when he knew that he was about to be taken up by God.  Elijah tried three times to leave Elisha behind to go off on his own to be taken up. Why?  Closely related to that question is the fact that several times Elisha was told that God would take Elijah from him that day, and each time Elisha replied that he knew and that they should be quiet.  As I read the passage, it seems that Elisha did not want Elijah to know that he knew that God was going to take Elijah presently.  Again the question is, why?  I don’t have much of a spiritual lesson from today’s passage.  Except, the value of faithfully remaining with our mentor to the end.  Ruth was determined to stay with Naomi and she was rewarded for doing so.  Elisha was determined to stay with Elijah, and he was rewarded for doing so.

As an aside, I picked the picture I used before I looked at what today’s passage was, but it is appropriate since Elijah was taken up into the sky.

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