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.