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

We tend to think of the kings of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, listed in this passage as evil kings because the passage tells us that each of them “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”  However, I think that misses much of what the writer intends for us to understand about them.  The writer tells us that Jehoahaz son of Jehu sought the Lord’s favor after Israel had been oppressed by Aram for some extended number of years, and that God provided a deliverer in response to his prayer.  Then it tells us how Jehoahaz’s son, Jehoash, visited Elisha when Elisha was on his deathbed, and mourned the death of Elisha.  Finally, the writer tells us that God used Jeroboam son of Jehoash to save the people of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, from the bitter suffering which they had been experiencing.  We need to keep the way God used these deeply flawed leaders to care for His people.

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