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.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 1-2.

When King Ahaziah was injured, he sent messengers to Ekron to inquire of their god, their Baal as to whether he would recover.  Over the last few years I have mulled over a thought every time I read this passage, but not written down any aspect of it.  So, Ahaziah’s father, King Ahab, had instituted Baal worship as the official religion of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and everything written suggests that his sons continued this practice.  Yet, not only did Ahaziah not think to consult YHWH* when he was injured, he also did not consult with the prophets of Baal which were in his service.  It reveals that despite Ahab, and his sons, pretending to believe that Baal worship was just another way to worship YHWH* by a different name, none of them actually believed that to be true.  And we know from this passage that if Ahaziah had wished to consult YHWH*, he could have done so by sending his messengers to Elijah.  After all, he knew where to send his army captains to summon Elijah to him.  Ahaziah knew the prophets of Baal that he sponsored were fakes and frauds.  So, when he was desperate, he turned to foreign prophets, but refused to turn to God.  Let us pray for those we know who we suspect may behave likewise.

• I used the transliteration of the Hebrew name for God, YHWH, in today’s blog because I believe that King Ahab, and other advocates for Baal worship in Israel, claimed that Baal was just another term for God, and that Baal worship was an alternative to worshiping YHWH.

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 he knew God was about to take him, Elijah attempted to go off by himself away from Elisha, but Elisha would not let him go.   Elisha insisted on staying at Elijah’s side to the very end, despite Elijah’s attempts to spare him.  On two of those occasions, other members of the group of prophets approached Elisha and asked him if he knew that God was going to take Elijah that day.  Elisha’s response was, “Yes, I know, so be quiet.”  There is something very significant in those two exchanges, but I am not sure what it is.  Perhaps those two exchanges were included here to show us how determined Elisha was to remain at Elijah’s side to the very end, but I can’t help but think there is more to it than that.  I have the further thought that it seems to me that those two exchanges are related to Elisha’s attempt to convince the community of prophets that there was no reason to send a search party out to look for Elijah, or his body.  Elisha knew that Elijah was gone, that God had taken him away, and was not happy about it, but was determined to carry on Elijah’s ministry.

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.

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.

When Ahab’s son, King Ahaziah was injured he sent to the god of Ekron to determine if he would recover rather than seek an answer from God.  Then after his messengers are intercepted by Elijah and sent back with word from God that he will not recover, he sends soldiers to arrest Elijah.  By sending to Ekron, King Ahaziah revealed that the Baal worship introduced into Israel by his father was not just a different way of worshiping God, but was instead the worship of a different god.  We see here that in times of stress what we truly believe is revealed.  Then we have the experiences of the three groups of soldiers sent to bring Elijah to the king.  The first two recognized that Elijah was a man of God, but nevertheless felt that the power delegated to them by the king gave them the authority to order him to come with them.  They believed that because they were following orders they could threaten the man of God, and use force, or even violence, to compel him to do as the king had commanded.  The leader of the last group recognized that he did not have the authority, nor the power, to compel a man of God to action unless God allowed him to do so.

Elijah is one of two people recorded in the Bible as having their lives on earth end without them dying.  In Genesis 5 we are told that Enoch walked faithfully with God, then he was no more because God took him.  This is as opposed to the other men mentioned in Genesis 5 of which the passage says “and then he died”.  This passage tells us that a chariot drawn by horses of fire separated Elijah from Elisha and Elijah was carried into heaven by a whirlwind.  Before that happened, Elisha had requested a double portion of Elijah’s spirit and to be Elijah’s successor.  I am not sure what the meaning of all of this is, but it is definitely significant that Elijah was one of two people of whom the Bible records their life on earth ending without recording that they died.