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.

    King Jehoshaphat of Judah had been good friends of King Ahab of Israel and arranged for his son to marry Ahab’s daughter (or perhaps sister or niece, my understanding is that the Hebrew in the different places she is referred to is inconsistent and no one is quite sure if the different words used necessarily mean different things). Jehoram, the son in question, followed the practices of Ahab, rather than the practices of his father. I think this supports what I wrote yesterday about religious belief and practice among the people of Judah and Israel. Many of the people of that time and place did not see Baal worship as a separate religion from the worship of God. Jerhoram’s son, Ahaziah, followed in his footsteps in promoting the worship of Baal in Judah.

    I find this passage a fascinating insight into the military and political structure of ancient Israel. King Joram went to war against King Hazael of Aram (Syria) with the assistance of King Ahaziah of Judah (his nephew). Yet, at the same time, Jehu, one of his army commanders was in Ramoth-gilead (which was in what is now Jordan) with a number of other army commanders and sufficient troops to launch a coup. The triggering factor for Jehu’s rebellion was a prophetic message he received from a messenger sent by Elisha. A motivating factor in Jehu’s rebellion against King Joram, Ahab’s son, was his opposition to the idolatry, specifically Baal worship, which Ahab had introduced because of the influence of Jezebel. Jehu perceived himself as acting to fulfill the prophecies which Elijah had made against Ahab and his family.

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.

    Naaman was a rich and powerful man. When he went to see Elisha he expected to be treated preferentially. After all, he was a rich man, which meant that he could highly reward those who pleased him, and he was a powerful man, which meant that he could punish those who offended him. But Elisha could not be bothered to greet him in person. He just sent out a messenger to Naaman, telling him to undertake a simple task in order to be healed. Naaman was furious at the perceived slight and at the pedestrian, but inconvenient, nature of the task set for him. We can get caught up in looking at this as a story about healing, but it is more than that. We often want to do great things for God, but balk at doing boring, every day tasks to serve Him. Sometimes the tasks which God has for us are simple and inconvenient. If we wish the opportunity to serve God in great things we need to be faithful and serve Him in the simple things, even when they are inconvenient.

    The other story in this passage I want to write about today is the siege of Samaria. Things had gotten so bad that women were killing and eating their own children. The king went to Elisha intending to kill him because God had allowed this to happen. Elisha responded to the king saying that God had told him that by the following day food prices in the market would collapse. Everyone understood that Elisha was saying that food prices would collapse because food would be so plentiful. The king’s chief officer scoffed that it was impossible for that to happen. Elisha told the officer that he would see it happen, but not live to enjoy it. There are really two lessons from this story. No matter how bad things are today, God will bring salvation for His people. No matter how deeply we are sunk in misery, if we put our trust in God He will abundantly bring us joy. The other lesson here is to never deny that God is able to make things 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 3-4.

    When Ahaziah’s brother took the throne, he stopped the worship of Baal which his father Ahab had instituted, but he continued to encourage the people of Israel to worship the golden calves. Having read through this time and again, it seems clear to me that many of the people of ancient Israel and Judah did not see a conflict between worshiping God, Jeroboam’s golden calves, and Baal. In fact, it appears that a significant number viewed them as worshiping the same god. It looks to me like there was a kind of progression.

    There were those who worshiped God and either studied the Law of Moses or followed the spiritual direction of those who studied the Law of Moses. These knew that God had forbidden the worship of physical representations of Himself. These for the most part made regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem to worship. Just as today, not all of those who claimed to believe that the Law of Moses was the correct way to follow God were godly people who truly did so. There were certainly those who attempted to use it as a means to look down on others, or overlooked those commands which told them not to commit the sins which they desired to commit.

    Then there were those who had been raised to follow the basic laws and worship practice laid out in the Law of Moses but had never actually read it nor had those from whom they received spiritual guidance. These created idols, or used idols created by others, to focus their attention towards God. If we look at people today, I probably overstated it to say that none of them had read the Law of Moses. Just as today, there were probably those who had read God’s commands and felt that they were too limiting and that there was no need to be that legalistic. Again, just as today there were probably some among them who lived godly lives, who were faithful in the less ceremonial, but more important, of God’s commands.It seems likely to me that not all of those who worshiped Jeroboam’s golden calves were rejected by God. However, the lack of knowledge or arrogance which led them to do so made it likely they placed more emphasis on ceremonial worship than on truly obeying God.

    Then there were those who found Baal worship more emotionally satisfying. They felt that all religions taught more or less the same thing. Thus there was no reason not to follow the teachings of Baal worship which gave them a greater sense of spirituality. They did not see any reason to follow specific rules and regulations. What was important to them was “being a good person.” While it is possible that a few of such people were godly, it is unlikely, not impossible, just unlikely, that any of them had a sufficient understanding of what God truly desired to faithfully follow His will.

    Finally, there were those who took this even further and worshiped Asherah and other gods of the region. These last thought that the important thing was to follow some sort of religion, but that it did not matter what. The important thing was the communal practices and ceremonies.

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.

    There are two elements of the final story about Elijah (the story about Elijah being taken up into heaven is really about Elisha). When King Ahaziah was hurt he sent messengers to consult the priests of Baal in Ekron to know if he would get better. Elijah intercepted the messengers and sent them back to Ahaziah to tell him that because he chose to consult Baal rather than God, he would not get better and would soon die. One thing I have noted in previous years when doing this blog is that Ahab, Ahaziah’s father, behaved as if Baal and God (Yahweh) were the same, until someone called him on it. Ahaziah’s name means “Yah (God) grasps” and would probably have been understood to mean “God holds”. So, his seeking to consult the priests of Baal in Ekron rather than a prophet in Israel was a repudiation of God, while attempting to present himself as God’s anointed ruler over Israel. This serves as a warning to us about using our claims of representing God to direct others away from God.
    The second element of this story comes from those sent by King Ahaziah to bring Elijah to him. The first two officers considered the order from the King sufficient to compel Elijah. Yet, they greeted Elijah as a man of God. Elijah demonstrated that his power, as a man of God, exceeded that of the officer, who was a man of the king. The third officer recognized this lesson and, rather than ordering Elijah, requested that he accompany him to the king. This element of the story reminds us that while we should respect government authorities God has the final say. As servants of God we cannot be compelled to violate God’s commands.

    When Elijah confronted King Ahab and the prophets of Baal he stood alone. Here in the story of him being taken up in a whirlwind, and in several later stories concerning Elisha, there are groups of prophets who serve the Lord and work with Elisha. It seems to me that Elijah was going from town to town to give final instructions to these groups of prophets before he died (similar to the way Paul visited the Churches on his final trip to Jerusalem). After the confrontation with the prophets of Baal, Elijah felt alone and isolated. God told him that he was not alone, that He had reserved a number in Israel who remained faithful. The Bible does not tell us outright, but Elijah clearly made sure that he maintained contact with those who worshiped the Lord after that. Something we should be sure to do.
    I would have stopped after the first segment but I felt it necessary to comment on the story where Elisha cursed the “boys” who bullied him. A lot of atheists and other skeptics use this story and emphasize how Elisha called bears to maul to death “children”. Some of the sources I have read claim that the word translated as “boys” in this translation and as “children” in others refers to teenagers. But even if this was a group of grade school children, there were at least 42 of them. Think about how threatening a group of 42 unsupervised 8-10 year old boys shouting abusively at a lone traveler would be. I think it likely that these boys were older than that, more like in the 13-16 year old range. I think this was a gang who harassed and robbed travelers, think of MS-13 (a gang which has been in the news lately and is largely composed of teenagers).

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 first part of this passage reminds me, somewhat, of modern Israel. The Arameans (Syrians, more or less) mustered their army and an overwhelming number of allies to attack Israel. When the Israelites agreed to their initial demands, the Arameans increased their demands. When the Israelites refused their increased demands, the Arameans bosted about how they would destroy the city completely. In response the Israelites attacked and the Aramean army was routed. However, the Arameans decided that they had only lost because God was a god of the hills and that He would not be able to aid the Israelites on the plains. So, they rebuilt their army and attacked again the following year. Once again, the Israelite army routed the Arameans. But rather than execute Ben-Hadad, King Ahab ransomed him, thus leaving him to be a threat to the nation of Israel going forward. Except possibly for that last bit, this reminds me of how the Arab nations surrounding the modern nation of Israel attacked Israel and were (are?) convinced that their defeat was just a question of tactics and did not reflect the hand of God protecting His people.

    King Ahab’s actions regarding Naboth’s vineyard and his reaction to the idea of consulting Micaiah the prophet both reflect an unwillingness to take responsibility. When Naboth refused to sell his vineyard to King Ahab, Ahab threw a temper tantrum and sulked until Jezebel promised to make it better. Then when Jehoshaphat asked that they consult a true prophet of God, Ahab said that he hated the only option because he never told Ahab what he wanted to hear. These represent two different, but related failures of leadership. In the first case, Ahab was both unwilling to accept being refused but wanted to avoid responsibility by having someone else do the dirty work. Although it is worth noting that when confronted Ahab behaved repentant. The second example shows an unwillingness to listen to advice from those he knew would not just tell him what he wanted to hear.

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 18-19.

    In yesterday’s passage Elijah told King Ahab that it would not rain in Israel for several years, until he Elijah gave the word. James uses this as an example of the power of prayer. Elijah had prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain for 3 1/2 years. Now God told him that it was time for the rains to resume, so Elijah went to King Ahab to give him the news. But Elijah knew that King Ahab’s prophets to Baal and Asherah would attempt to take credit for the rain returning. So, he set up a show to cement in the minds of the people the power of God vs the power of Baal.

    I want to interrupt the flow of the story here to emphasize the exchange which took place when Elijah appeared before King Ahab. The first thing out of King Ahab’s mouth when they met was the accusation that Elijah was a troublemaker for predicting the drought. However, Elijah immediately responded that King Ahab and his family were the real troublemakers because it was their sin which caused the drought. We will often be called troublemakers and hate-filled when we warn people that their sins will bring them bad consequences. When we see people committing sins which will cause them trouble, we should warn them, but we should not wish those consequences upon them. Further when we see them suffering those consequences we should strive to ameliorate their suffering as best we can. One more point, when we find trouble in our lives, we should look inside ourselves for the cause, not blame others.

    Now, back to the main story. Elijah was clearly a showman with a sense of making an impression on his audience. He had the prophets of Baal go first because he knew that their numbers and rituals would draw the people’s attention. He also knew that if they went after him, their show might eclipse the demonstration of God’s power. Elijah was not disappointed. The prophets of Baal and Asherah put on quite a show. And once again we see Elijah’s skill as a showman. He humorously made sure that the people noticed that for all of the prophets gyrations and flamboyant activity, nothing actually happened. Then when the show started to become boring and the prophets were becoming tired, Elijah called everyone’s attention to himself.
    Again, Elijah demonstrates his flair for the dramatic. He did not put on a flashy show. Rather, as soon as he got everyone’s attention, he mundanely dug a trench around the altar he had built. Then he called for audience participation by having people from the crowd pour water over his altar until the trench he had dug filled with water. Finally, Elijah calmly stood before the altar and prayed a simple prayer. The pyrotechnics which followed that simple prayer would remain stuck in people’s minds. Even more importantly, the way Elijah had done this made it stick in people’s minds that it was God who acted, not Elijah. The fact that the rains returned shortly after this put an exclamation mark on the whole thing.

    I hate to make the entry this long, but there is one more thing in this passage that needs to be touched upon. Elijah fled in fear for his life and when he had fled as far as his strength would take him he begged God to take his life. At which point God showed him a lesson which is important for all of us. First, God caused there to be a mighty windstorm on the mountain to where Elijah had fled, then an earthquake, then a firestorm. Three flashy and adrenaline-inducing events. But God was not within any of them. After these mighty examples of power, God came to Elijah in a gentle whisper. Let us remember, there is a time and a place for the flashy and powerful, but God is in the quiet and calm after the storm.

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 15-17.

    The passage tells us that Rehoboam’s son, Abijam, committed the same sins which Rehoboam had committed. Further it tells us that Abijam was not faithful to God. However, the passage also tells us that Abijam’s son, Asa, did what was pleasing in God’s sight. Asa banished the shrine prostitutes from the land and destroyed the royal idols, including the one sponsored by his grandmother. However, there is one thing which it says that I have always overlooked, “He brought into the Temple of the Lord the silver and gold and the various items that he and his father had dedicated.” So, despite his failings, Abijam had tried to worship God. As a result, Abijam raised a son who did what was pleasing to God. It is important that we note how God blesses even our failed attempts to serve him. Abijam was unable to resist the pressure to idolatrous worship which came from his upbringing and his mother (the passage mentions that she sponsored an Asherah pole), but he raised a son who was.

    Meanwhile, the kings of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) continued to follow the example of Jeroboam and encourage the worship of the gold calves he had constructed. Again I noticed something here which I had not noticed before. Jeroboam had built the calves for the Northern Tribes to worship in order to keep the people from going to Jerusalem to worship God. It seems likely to me that neither he nor the kings who followed his example believed the calves were gods. They encouraged their worship for purely political reasons. However, when Ahab took the throne in Israel, he began worshiping Baal, the god of the Canaanites. Ahab appears to have genuinely worshiped Baal.

    I debated stopping after what I wrote above, but the story of Elijah and the widow is too important not to comment on. When God sent Elijah to the widow, she had barely enough food for one last meal for herself and her son. However, she believed Elijah’s promise that if she used the last of her food to feed Elijah she would not run out of food before the famine ended. If we seek first to do God’s will, all of our other needs will be met.

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 13-14.

    Today’s passage starts with a story about a man of God who was sent to prophesy against Jeroboam because Jeroboam had led the Northern Tribes into idolatry. God had commanded the man of God not to eat or drink until he had returned to Judah. So, the man of God declined Jeroboam’s invitation to dine with him. However, on his way home another prophet overtook him and told the man of God that an angel had appeared to the second prophet instructing him to bring the man of God home with him to dine. The writer tells us that the second prophet was lying, although we do not know what his motives were. I do not know why the man of God took the second prophet’s word for this, but it cost him his life. We must be careful not to accept the guidance of others when it contradicts what God has revealed to us directly, no matter how godly those others may appear to us. This does not mean that God will not sometimes reveal His will to us through others. It just means that we have to not let the words of men override clear instructions we have received directly from God.

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 11-12.

    After completing the building of the Temple, or perhaps even before, Solomon began marrying many women. Certainly some of those marriages were political, but just a little thought suggests that many of those women were merely women he desired. Despite the fact that God had appeared to Solomon on two occasions he chose to partake in the idolatrous worship practices of some of the women he married. The passage tells us that Solomon Ashtoreth and Molech and built shrines for the gods worshiped by the women he slept with. It is noteworthy that in at least some of the societies of the Ancient Middle East, Ashtoreth was the consort of Molech. There is actually a connection between the two which is relevant to our society today. Ashtoreth worship involved promiscuous sex and orgies, while Molech worship involved child sacrifice. This is much like elements of today’s society which behave as if promiscuous sex and abortion are sacraments.

    When Solomon took over from David, a couple of foreign adversaries were able to set themselves up in opposition to him in ways that would not have been possible when David reigned. The writer clearly wants us to connect their rise and success to Solomon’s worship of other gods. Even one of Solomon’s officials, Jeroboam, raised rebellion against Solomon. We do not have much detail on Jeroboam’s rebellion against Solomon except that a prophet told Jeroboam that he would lead 10 of the tribes to independence from Solomon’s son. We also know that Solomon forced Jeroboam to flee to Egypt. Which brings us to the interesting fact that the Pharaoh of Egypt supported at least two enemies of Solomon despite the fact that his daughter was married to Solomon.
    All of this sets up what happened when Solomon died and his son Rehoboam succeeded him. We find that Jeroboam has returned from Egypt and is leading those who request concessions from Rehoboam in return for supporting his coronation. This suggests that perhaps Jeroboam’s rebellion against Solomon was not an attempt to overthrow Solomon, but was instead a series of protest attempting to get the tax burden reduced (with the understanding that in that time tax included forced labor). Rehoboam had seen how his father ruled while satisfying his many desires and instead of listening to his older, wiser advisers took the advice of the friends he had been partying with while those older, wiser men had been doing the work of running the country.

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 9-10.

    Sometime after the dedication of the Temple God appeared to Solomon to give him the answer to his prayer. God told Solomon that He would watch over the Temple because it was dear to His heart, but a bit later He tells Solomon that, if he or his descendants abandon the worship of God, He will reject the Temple and make it an object of mockery. It will become an object lesson to all peoples.
    As I mentioned yesterday, the New Testament tells us that each of us has become a Temple. As such, the promises and warnings which God made to Solomon apply. If we follow God with integrity and godliness, He will establish us for all eternity. But if we abandon God, He will make us objects of scorn and mockery, an example of what goes wrong for those who turn away from God.