Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 8-9.

King Jehoshaphat of Judah was a good king, but he allied himself with King Ahab of Israel to the point that he allowed his son, and heir, to marry Ahab’s daughter.  When Jehoshaphat’s son took the throne he followed the example of his father-in-law rather than that of his father.  As a result, when the Jehu overthrew Ahab’s son, Jehoshaphat’s grandson was there and was killed as part of Jehu’s revolt.  Reading between the lines of these events suggests that while Ahab’s son, King Joram, was injured in battle, the wounds were relatively minor and he used them as an excuse to withdraw from battle and indulge himself.  King Ahaziah of Judah, Jehoshaphat’s grandson, joined him in doing so.  We do not exactly know the sins which Joram and Ahaziah committed during their reigns, but we do know that King Ahab and his wife Jezebel had worshiped Ashtoreth and that Ashtoreth worship involved promiscuous sexual practices.  I suspect that Joram and Ahaziah also partook in human sacrifice.  All of this led to the breakdown of social order in both kingdoms.

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.

We rarely pay attention to what Naaman says to Elisha after he was cleansed of leprosy.  Well, we pay attention to the first part, where Naaman says he will no longer make burnt offerings or sacrifices to any god but the Lord.  However, Naaman begs that the Lord forgive him for those occasions when he must accompany his king into the temple of his king’s god and there bow down to that god with his king.  Elisha’s response to this request was to tell Naaman to go in peace.  Elisha’s response seems to affirm that God would indeed forgive Naaman for doing so.  This suggests that we do not always need to make it known that we disagree when those around us worship other gods.  I believe that this short exchange is very significant, but I am not sure of its full meaning.

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.

I started out to write a summary of the events as described here, but realized my time would be better spent reviewing some of the meaning of these stories.  The stories in today’s passage feel like legends every time I read them.  I suspect that most of those who were present for when these stories happened would barely recognize them.  Not because the stories as told inaccurately reflect what happened, but because it would have felt much different to someone going through these experiences.  In each of these stories, tragedy seems to be about to strike when people turned to God.  In each case, God provided a seemingly miraculous deliverance (in some of the stories, the deliverance was truly a miracle, in others it may have just been revealing important information to Elisha that no one else present knew).

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.

There are two accounts in this passage which at casual reading we find unsettling.  In the first account, the king sent a troop of 50 men under a commander to bring Elijah to him multiple times.  The first two times Elijah called down fire from God to consume the commander and his 50 men.  This seems rather harsh, but let us look closer at what happened.  The first two commanders called Elijah a man of God, but believed that they had the authority, based on the orders the king had given them, to command his obedience. The third commander recognized that Elijah’s authority as a man of God was greater than his authority as a man of the king.  The primary lesson here is for those who think they have authority over others.  If the first and second commanders had been polite and respectful, they would have lived, but they thought that Elijah was obligated to obey their commands because the king had given them those commands.  However, we must recognize that all people answer first to God, and we should treat them with respect and courtesy.

The second unsettling story occurs when some “boys” jeered at him and threatened him.  When we read the word “boys” in this passage, we tend to think children in the range of 5-10 years old.  However, the Hebrew makes it seem more likely that these “boys” were young men in the 14-18 year range.  The story seems more likely to have been a gang of ne’er-do-wells who got a kick out of  bullying and robbing defenseless strangers who passed near their town, which they took Elisha to be.  This story tells us that bad things happen to those who live to cause trouble for those they believe weaker than themselves.  More importantly, it teaches us that God will protect us from those who attempt to bully us.

Both of these stories teach us the importance of treating others with respect and warn us that bad things happen to those who ignore this lesson.  They also teach us that God can protect us from those who threaten us because they think they can get away with it.

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.

There are many lessons we can learn from reading the account of Ben-Hadad’s assaults on Israel given here.  First we see that Ben-Hadad got himself into trouble because he overreached.  King Ahab and the people of Samaria were willing to give tribute to Ben-Hadad rather than risk fighting against his army.  However, when Ben-Hadad increased his demand to allow his troops to sack the city, the people of Samaria decided to fight.  Ben-Hadad demonstrates his over confidence several more times in ways which led to his defeat.  Then, Ben-Hadad and his advisers made the mistake of thinking their defeat was because God was a god of the hills and that they could defeat Israel in the plains.  And once again they suffered defeat.  This second defeat occurred for two reasons, two closely related reasons. Ben-Hadad and his advisers refused to accept that their first defeat resulted from their own mistakes, mistakes which were caused by their arrogance.  This led them to their second mistake.  Since their first defeat could not possibly have been their own fault, it must have resulted from the power of the God of Israel.  That could have been the start of wisdom.  However, they concluded that God was limited and they could outmaneuver Him.  God’s power is not limited and He caused them to repeat their mistake.

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 am always struck by Elijah’s showmanship in this passage.  The prophets of Ball put on a great show as part of their worship, but Elijah manages to upstage them.  As a first step, Elijah let them go first.  The prophets of Baal sang and danced and  shouted.  They even began to cut themselves to work the people up.  Then comes the key to Elijah’s part of the show: he began to make people aware that for all of the show put on by the prophets of Baal, nothing happened.  Finally, when people were starting to think about dinner, after waiting all day for the sacrificial feast, Elijah calls them over to him.  Elijah starts his part of the show by making sure the people know he did not have any fire hidden in the altar.  Then, instead of a complex ritual to inflame the people’s passions, Elijah prayed a simple prayer which amounted to “God, show Your power!”  I will note that this approach has psychological power to effect people’s emotions.  Elijah put on this show to demonstrate that true worship does not need to be big and showy, that something simple and focused on God can be more meaningful.

In a way, the second part of this passage tells the same message on a more personal level.  Elijah had just put on the show of his life, getting the people of Israel to see the contrast between God and Baal.  Yet Jezebel was still Queen and more determined than ever to have him killed.  So, Elijah fled to Mt Horeb (where Moses received the Ten Commandments.  It is not clear if Mt Sinai and Mt Horeb are the same mountain, or if they are across a valley from each other).  There God appeared to him, but not in a loud, showy way.  God appeared to Elijah in a quiet whisper.  Then when Elijah complained that he was the only one of God’s prophets left, God told him to go and anoint Elisha as his successor (indicating that there were indeed other prophets of God remaining).  Further, God told Elijah that there were seven thousand in Israel quietly living their lives and worshiping Him, completely rejecting Baal worship.  Not all of us are called to loudly and brashly proclaim God as Elijah was.  Some of us are called to quietly live our lives, proclaiming our faith in God by our refusal to take part in the idolatry going on 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  1 Kings 15-17.

We learn something about Rehoboam and his son by reading between the lines when the passage discusses Asa, Rehoboam’s grandson, taking the throne.  It tells us that Asa brought into the Temple the articles which had been dedicated to God by his father.  While this does not directly tell us anything about Rehoboam, it seems unlikely that Asa’s father would have dedicated items to the Lord, if his father before him had not worshiped the Lord along with the other gods he worshiped.  This fact does not redeem Rehoboam, since God does not accept worship if the worshiper also worships other gods, but it explains how the early kings of Judah were different from the kings of Israel.  This helps explain how Judah managed to have some righteous kings while the kings of Israel became ever more wicked.  In this passage we see the effects of having an unrighteous government, as kingship changed hands by violent overthrow in Israel as often as it passed peacefully from one king to the next.

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 13-14.

We can learn an important lesson from the man of God who prophesied against Jeroboam’s altar.  When offered reward from Jeroboam to violate a command which God had given him, the man of God refused.  I want to note that when Jeroboam made the offer he did not know that God had commanded the man of God to turn down any such offer.  Yet, a short time later, the man of God allowed someone who claimed to be a prophet to convince him that God had given the prophet a different command than the one He had given the man of God.  The prophet claimed that God had told him to bring the man of God back to his home and feed him.  The passage tells us that the prophet lied when he said this, but even if what he said was true, it does not change the fact that God had given the man of God a different command.  We must be careful not to allow those who claim to speak on behalf of God to convince us to do that which God has commanded us not to do.

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 11-12.

The passage tells us that King Solomon had many wives from nations which God had told the Israelites they were not to intermarry.  The passage also tells us that they turned his heart to other gods, in particular, Ashtoreth, Molek, and Chemosh. Worship of the latter two gods involved human sacrifice.  While the worship of Ashtoreth involved sexual actsWhich tells us that when the passage tells us that Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, it was not just referring to the fact that he worshiped other gods.  It is referring to what actions Solomon took as part of that worship.   The result of this behavior was that God allowed opposition to rise against King Solomon, both foreign and domestic.  I am not sure what to make of the fact that Egypt’s Pharaoh supported at least two of Solomon’s opponents even though Solomon was married to Pharaoh’s daughter (although it is likely that the Pharaoh who supported Solomon’s opponents was not the one who was Solomon’s father-in-law).

I find it interesting that the heading the translators gave this section was “Jeroboam Rebels Against Solomon”.  Yet, all the passage tells us is that a prophet told Jeroboam that God would give him ten of the tribes to be ruler over and that because of this Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam.  In addition, before this, King Solomon had put Jeroboam in charge of the labor he levied from the tribes of Joseph (technically, this would mean the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, but I suspect it means all of the tribes other than Judah and Benjamin).  This fact about Jeroboam being charge of Solomon’s labor force becomes significant when Jeroboam leads the tribes which ask Rehoboam to reduce the burden which Solomon had placed upon them.  This suggests that Jeroboam was genuinely interested in reaching a deal with Rehoboam, even though he had the message from the prophet telling him that God would take the ten tribes from Solomon’s son.

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 9-10.

When Solomon had completed building the Temple and his own palace, God appeared to him a second time (the previous time being when Solomon asked God for the wisdom to rule over His people).  God responded to Solomon’s prayer dedicating the Temple.  God told Solomon that His eyes and heart would always be present there.  Then God told Solomon that if he, or his descendants turn away from God, the Temple would become a ruin which would stand as a monument to their unfaithfulness (and, as a corollary of that a monument to God’s faithfulness).  I want to note that when God referred to Solomon He used the second person plural pronoun, meaning that He was talking not just to King Solomon, but to all of the people of Israel.  I think it is worth noting that the Temple is indeed a heap of rubble which stands as a monument to this day.  Yes, the Temple was rebuilt twice after being destroyed by conquerors, but I still think that its current status represents a memorial to God’s promise to King Solomon, and reminder to all of us of the dangers of turning our backs on God.

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