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

I have always wanted to write about God’s answer to Sennacherib through Isaiah, but could not figure out how to comment on the poetry Isaiah spoke in.  Today I am going to try to make my thoughts on it coherent.  In composing his message, Sennacherib thought he was belittling Hezekiah and Jerusalem, but he went beyond that.  Sennacherib told Hezekiah that God was deceiving him when He told Hezekiah that would not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.  Sennacherib told Hezekiah that the gods of other nations had failed to deliver those other nations, so therefore God would be unable to deliver Jerusalem.  God answered through Isaiah by telling Sennacherib that he did not know Who he was ridiculing and blaspheming.  That Sennacherib thought he had succeeded by his own power.  Sennacherib had reached great heights of power and thought that nothing and no one could stop him from reaching any goal to which he aspired.  God answered that by informing Sennacherib that He had planned Sennacherib’s rise to power long ago, and now He had brought it to pass.  Everything Sennacherib had accomplished was merely carrying out God’s plans.  Further God knew where Sennacherib was, and when he went out and when he went back in, and how he raged insolently against God.  This is the negative counterpart to Psalm 121. There God promised that He would watch over those who put their trust in Him.  Here what God tells Sennacherib is a warning to those who defy Him.  He says that He will put a hook in his nose and lead him back the way he had come.  For those of you who, like me, have never worked with large livestock that are manipulated by rings in their noses, I have another image that may help understand this.  I am sure you have seen videos of women, usually a mother or a wife, who grabs someone by their nose and pulls them around in a direction they did not want to go.  Imagine that, only more painful.  At some point, those who defy God will experience God putting a hook in their nose and dragging them somewhere they do not want to go.  While those of us who put our trust in Him will experience the protection described in Psalm 121.  And in both cases, it does not matter where we have gone, nor when, we will not be outside of God’s power.

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.

I love the story about Hezekiah and the king of Assyria.  And it is right to admire Hezekiah, because the passage tells us, “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.”  However, today I want to look at what the passage tells us about the exile of the people from the Northern Kingdom.  It tells us that God caused this to happen because they had sinned against God.  The phrase which really struck me was, “They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.”  They had value because they were made in the image of God, and because God had chosen them as His people.  But, instead of doing what He asked of them, serving and worshiping Him, they chose to worship idols.  As a result, they destroyed the value which God had given them and made themselves worthless.  In the same way, we have value because we too were made in God’s image, and Jesus died for our sins so that we might become children of God, God’s chosen people.  If, instead of seeking to follow God’s commands we worship idols , we too will become worthless.  This passage even foreshadows this when it speaks of those whom the Assyrians settled in the land of Israel after taking its people into exile.  It tells us that these settlers worshiped the Lord, but also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the lands they had come from.  The implication being that if they had given up their idols, God would have welcomed them into His people.  Today, we have the same choice.  God has chosen us and used the death if His Son, Jesus Christ, to bring us into His people and give us value.  Will we destroy that value by serving worthless idols and refusing to follow His commands?

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.

In today’s passage we have accounts of three kings in Judah, the Southern Kingdom, and five kings in Israel, the Northern Kingdom.  The passage tells us of the first two kings of Judah mentioned that “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father …had done.”  About four of the kings of Israel the passage says some variation of, “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his predecessors had done. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.”  The one king of Israel it does not say that about only reigned for one month.  Then we come to the third king of Judah.  It says of him that he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, that he followed the ways of the kings of Israel.  It goes on to say that he even sacrificed his son to the fire, following the practices of the people God had driven out of the land.  It is not clear to me if the writer is trying to say that the kings of Israel had sacrificed sons in fire, or that Ahaz, the king of Judah being referenced, had gone beyond the kings of Israel in following detestable practices.  In any case, when Israel and Aram allied with each other to attack Judah, instead of turning to the Lord and seeking His aid, Ahaz sent tribute to the king of Assyria and swore fealty to him.  Then he visited a temple with the Assyrian king and sent orders for an altar duplicating it to be made in the temple in Jerusalem.

I wrote the above not quite sure where I was going.  However, I realized that the sins of Jeroboam were in using religious practices to further his own ends, rather than using religious practices to build a closer relationship with God.  In following the practices of the kings of Israel, Ahaz was doing the same thing.  Ahaz followed ever more “exotic” religious practices.  There are three possible reasons that may have motivated him.  Perhaps he was seeking to use these religious practices to consolidate his political power.  Perhaps he was seeking spiritual enlightenment.  Or, perhaps he was seeking a new “thrill”.  Whatever his motivation, he started by rejecting the God of his fathers and went ever further afield in seeking to satisfy his craving.  But he started by following a path laid out by the kings of Israel, Jeroboam, and later Jehu.  They were men who were called by God to lead His people, but they did not fully put their faith in Him.  So, they gave themselves exceptions to His Laws in ways they thought would help them better fulfill the plan He had for them.  Ahaz just took what they did to its logical conclusions and threw over worship of God for worship of the gods of the most powerful nation on earth.  Where are we on that path?  Is there still time for us to give up all of the pagan practices we have introduced into our worship and turn back to God?

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 passage begins by telling us that Jehu’s son, Jehoahaz, “did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam.”  It goes on to tell us that Jehoahaz, in the face of the terrible suffering Israel experienced at the hands of Hazael, king of Aram, sought the Lord’s favor.  And that God answered his pleading.  It tells us that God provided a deliverer for the people of Israel.  It follows that by telling us that, despite what God had done for them, the people of Israel did not turn from the sins of the house of Jeroboam.  Then later when discussing Amaziah becoming king of Judah, it says that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but “not as his father David.”  It then tells us that the high places were not removed and the people offered sacrifices and burned incense at them.  In both of these places it seems to indicate that it was the people who were at fault for the sin.  The only blame given to Amaziah appears to be that he did not lead the people away from their idolatry.  I would also say that it appears as if the writer is implying that Jehoahaz turned from the sins of Jeroboam, but failed to lead the people to do the same.  Whether or not my interpretation about the actions of the rulers is correct, the passage clearly tells us that, at the time being recounted, the people sinned because they chose to sin, not because their leaders led them into sin.

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.

Today’s passage begins with the acts Jehu took to consolidate his control over Israel, the Northern Kingdom.  One of the key things we learn about Jehu’s desire to serve God comes from his interaction with Jehonadab, whose descendants are later held up by Jeremiah as examples of faithfully following God.  The passage tells us that Jehu completely wiped out Baal worship in Israel.  Unfortunately, he was unwilling to get rid of the calf idols which Jeroboam had constructed and continued the practice of worshiping them.  Which suggests that, those who lived in the Northern Kingdom, Israel, considered that those who worshiped according to the practices established by Jeroboam thought they were following the covenant which God had established with their ancestors.  I suspect that leaders, such as Jehu, knew better, but convinced themselves otherwise out of political expediency.

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 quite sure what to make of the thought which struck me about today’s passage.  In today’s passage, Elisha instigates a coup in Aram, and one in Israel.  First, Elisha goes to Damascus, then the capital of Aram.  At the time, the king of Aram was Ben-Hadad (a name which multiple kings of Aram had), who was also ill.  When Ben-Hadad heard that Elisha had come to Damascus, he sent one of his top aides, Hazael, to ask if he would get better.  Elisha told Hazael to tell Ben-Hadad that he would get better, but that Ben-Hadad would not get better.  Then Elisha told Hazael that God had revealed to him that Hazael would be king of Aram.  Hazael returned to Ben-Hadad and killed him, making himself king.  Then later in today’s passage, Elisha sends a messenger from the company of prophets to anoint Jehu, one of the commanders of the Israelite army, king of Israel.  Jehu then launches a coup and kills Ahab’s son, who was at that point the king of Israel, and Ahab’s grandson, who was king of Judah.  The passage explains why God had Elisha have Jehu anointed.  Well, not why Jehu specifically, but why Elisha precipitated the overthrow of Ahab’s dynasty.  But it does not explain why Elisha precipitated the overthrow of the dynasty in Aram.  Perhaps these two accounts of coups are here to remind us that every king and every ruler is in their position because God put them there.  Hazael, who did terrible things to the people of Israel, and Jehu, who overthrew Ahab’s dynasty and destroyed the cult of Baal in Israel, were equally chosen by God to be in the positions of power they occupied.

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.

I want to look at the lessons we should learn from three of the accounts in today’s passage.  First, we have the story of Naaman, a commander in the army of Aram.  Naaman was an enemy of Israel and had wrought significant damage against it and its people.  Yet, when he came to Elisha for healing, Elisha healed him.  However, that is not the lesson I want to focus on.  Elisha told Naaman that in order to be healed he needed to wash in the Jordan River.  Naaman was angry about this, but his aides asked him if he would not have undertaken some “great quest” in order to be healed.  In the same way, we often look for the great deeds we can do in order to serve God, when what God is asking us to do is more mundane.  Are we willing to do the mundane tasks to which God calls us?

Second, we have the story of the king of Aram sending an army to capture Elisha because God revealed the king of Aram’s plans to him and Elisha passed that knowledge on to the king of Israel.  When the forces of Aram surrounded the city in which Elisha was living, Elisha’s servant panicked.  Elisha told his servant that there were more on their side than those mustered against them.  Some translations render what Elisha said as, “Greater are those who are for us than those who are against us.”  Elisha then asked God to open his servant’s eyes to those who supported them.  In the same way today, we often think there are more opposing us in our attempts to serve God than there are supporting us.  However, not only are there more supporting us than we realize, since one of those supporting us is God, they are greater than those opposing us.

Finally, we have the story about the famine in Samaria caused by Samaria being besieged by the armies of Aram.  When Elisha told the king of Israel that by the same time the next day, the prices for food would go from being completely unaffordable to practically free, one of the king’s officers said that even if God opened the floodgates of heaven, that was not possible.  Elisha told him that he would see it happen, but not get to eat any of the food.  When the residents of the city discovered the next day that the army of Aram had fled in the night, the officer in questioned was trampled by the crowds.  The officer’s sin was not in his failure to believe what Elisha said.  His sin was in thinking that God was unable to do it.  I struggle with having faith that God will do miraculous things in my life, but I pray that I never doubt that He can do them.  Let us never doubt that anything is possible for God, and pray that we have the faith to believe, and to act on that belief, that He will perform miracles around us.

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.

Today’s passage contains various accounts which relate how God will provide when we turn to Him.  In the first account, when Joram, son of Ahab, attacked Moab along with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the king of Edom, he led the armies through the desert.  Joram had planned badly and the armies ran out of water.  At Jehoshaphat’s recommendation, Joram sought Elisha’s counsel.  Through Elisha’s counsel, Joram and his allies found victory over Moab from a disastrous start.  In the second account, a widow under overwhelming debt comes to Elisha out of desperation.  God provides a way out of that debt with sufficient left over to support her family.  Then there was the woman of Shunem who provided Elisha with a room to stay in when he travelled through.  She wanted nothing from Elisha in return, but Elisha prayed to God to give her a son.  Then after the son was born, the boy died and the woman came to Elisha and said that the grief of losing the child was why she had asked for nothing.  Elisha came and prayed for God to raise the child and the child was raised.  We have two more stories, one where Elisha makes an accidentally poisoned stew edible and another where God caused a few loaves of bread to stretch to feed a large number of people with leftovers.  When Jesus fed the five thousand and the four thousand it would have reminded his followers of this last account.   All of these stories remind us that God will provide for our needs, if we do His will.

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 King Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, fell and injured himself, he sent messengers to the god of Ekron, Baal-Zebub to find out if he would get better.  I did a little searching to see what information we had from other sources about Baal-Zebub and there wasn’t much.  However, scholars believe from the etymology of Baal-Zebub and a few other ancient references that Baal-Zebub was a god of healing.  Which explains why Ahaziah sent messengers to Ekron rather than just consulting the prophets of Baal in his own court.  I’ve mentioned before that I see evidence that the worshipers of Baal in Israel tried to present Baal worship as worshiping God, just with different worship practices.  Ahaziah sending to the Baal of Ekron runs counter to that idea, because God was clearly God of healing (as well as being God of everything).  Then, after Elijah intercepts his messengers and sends them back to him, Ahaziah orders Elijah brought to him.  The first two captains, along with their troop of fifty men, call Elijah a “man of God” and order him, under the king’s authority, to come with them.  Both of them discovered that, in a dispute between the government and God, they had taken the wrong side.  The third captain also called Elijah a “man of God”, but this third captain recognized that Elijah’s authority as an agent of God exceeded his authority as an agent of the king.

Ahaziah claimed that in worshiping Baal he was worshiping God.  Yet when he sought healing, he did not ask for healing from either the Baal he worshiped or from God.  Instead he sent to a foreign god, a Baal other than the one he worshiped.  Since God claimed dominion over the whole earth, this put the lie to Ahaziah’s claim that Baal was just another name for God.

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