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

I don’t think that I ever noticed before that King Jehoshaphat’s grandson was named after King Ahab’s eldest son.  I doubt there is much significance to that fact, but it does tell you a bit about the influence of Ahab’s daughter over Judah.  When Ben-Hadad sent a messenger to ask Elisha if he would get better, Elisha tells the messenger to lie to Ben-Hadad.  The messenger’s name was Hazael, and it seems that Elisha’s purpose in travelling to Damascus was to encourage Hazael to launch a coup.  In a similar way, Elisha sends a messenger to Jehu to encourage him to launch a coup against Ahab’s son.  I will note that Hazael becoming king in Damascus set the stage for Jehu to overthrow King Joram.  It took me many readings of this passage to realize that Elisha encouraged Jehu to overthrow Joram because of Jehu’s opposition to the idolatry of the House of Omri (Ahab’s father).  And it was only today that I realized that the support for Jehu among the army was for the same reason.  Which leads me to realize that despite the support of the crown, Baal worship was unpopular among the people of Israel, the Northern Kingdom.

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