Jun 20 2012

2 Kings 9 – Jehu Anointed King of Israel

English: Jezabel and Ahab Meeting Elijah in Naboth’s Vineyard Giclee. Print by Sir Frank Dicksee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God has ordained that Elisha will anoint Jehu (son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi) as king over Israel. The servant of the prophet, at Elisha’s instructions, anointed him in secret chambers (reminiscent of Samuel’s anointing of Saul in 1 Samuel 9:27-10:1). As he anointed him, the servant gave him the instructions of the Lord as given to Elisha (verses 6-10). He is to carry out the prophecy of 1 Kings 21:21-4 that Elijah had spoken to Ahab, declaring the death and destruction of Ahab’s house, that Jezebel would be eaten by dogs (we learn later that this is for killing the Lord’s prophets), and that Ahab’s blood would be shed in the very same place where he and Jezebel had caused Naboth to be stoned to death for his vineyard (1 Kings 21:19). Because of Ahab’s repentance in 1 Kings 21:25-29, the Lord relents on Ahab himself, and has Elijah wait for his son to come to power.

Jehu wastes no time in assuming power (verses 12-13), and heads to Jezreel to deal with Ahab’s son, Joram and his mother Jezebel. The tension of the story mounts while Jehu furiously approaches, as one by one, messengers sent to inquire of Jehu’s intentions fail to return – instead turning to ride with Jehu! Ahaziah, the king of Judah, had come to visit Joram, so at first reading, one might think that it was just his bad luck to be there. But another account of this event with more details is in 2 Chronicles 22 (especially 2 Chronicles 22:7-9), making it clear that Ahaziah’s death was ordained by God.

English: Jehu was king of Israel, the son of Jehoshaphat [1], and grandson of Nimshi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After Jehu, kills Joram, he has his body taken to be thrown on the ground of Naboth’s vineyard. He then pursues Ahaziah and has him shot near Ibleam; and Ahaziah makes it to Megiddo before dying. Back in Jezreel, he had Jezebel tossed out the window; and when he sat down to eat, he gave instructions to have her buried. But when they went to get her, there was not much left of her body (verses 35-37), just as God had said.

This chapter shows us once again that when God’s will is made known, you can count on it coming to pass – in His time.

Side notes:

This link to an interesting article about excavations in Tel Jezreel has a lot of great information and pictures, and interesting bits of history, such as a reference that “shortly before Jehu’s revolt in 842 BCE King Joram and the dowager Queen Jezebel were in residence in Jezreel.”

Also, this link to the British Museum is about an Assyrian exhibit of a find in an 1846 excavation containing the Black Obelisk of Shalmanesar III (a public monument erected about 825 BCE), which both mentions and pictures Jehu (the earliest known picture made of an Israelite) and Ahab’s father Omri. It has an inscription about tribute the Assyrian king received from Jehu when he was king (dated about 841 BCE) written in Assyrian cuneiform:

“The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: I received from him silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for a king [and] spears.”

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog. All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility. When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com. For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

Jun 19 2012

2 Kings 5 – Naaman Healed of Leprosy

Elisha refuses the gifts of Naaman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Naaman was a leper. In these times, leprosy was a general term for a number of skin diseases – not necessarily the same as the leprosy that we refer to today, but no less incurable than that sort of leprosy once was. When he learned of Elisha’s reputation as a prophet , being the commander of the Syrian army, his king sent him to the king of Israel with a gift of riches so that he would be cured. The king of Israel was deeply distressed (verse 7), as he knew he could not cure him; and was sure that the Syrian king was looking for a quarrel. But Elisha heard, and told him to send Naaman to him.

Naaman arrived at Elisha’s house, expecting to meet him personally, and have him perform some ritual to cure him. Instead, Elisha sends word for Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan river seven times, and he would be cured. Naaman went away angry – both at the impersonal instructions, as well as the fact that the Jordan was a dirty river, compared to others that he could wash in. But his servants convinced him that doing as Elisha had said was the right thing to do; and he was indeed cured.

Grateful and certain that the God of Israel was the true God, Naaman returned to offer a gift to Elisha, but he would not take it. So in verse 17, he asks for two mule-loads of earth to take home from Israel (probably for construction of a mud-brick altar – see Exodus 20:24) because he will no longer offer any sacrifices to any god but the Lord. He asks for the Lords pardon, as he will still be required to enter the house of Rimmon, the Syrian god of storms, with his master, appearing to be in service. Elisha tells him to go in peace.

Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, lets greed overtake him; and runs after Naaman, telling him a lie to make it seem that Elisha had changed his mind about accepting some payment. Had he forgotten that Elisha was a prophet? When he returned, Elisha obviously knew what he had done, and sent him away with a worse case of leprosy than had afflicted Naaman. The Lord had provided the circumstances for Naaman’s conversion, and Gehazi’s evil deeds threatened to taint Elisha’s fulfillment of that effort.

The chapter also serves to remind us that although we sometimes might not understand why God requires something of us, it is no less important for us to do it than it is to do the things for which we do understand the purpose.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 18 2012

2 Kings 4 – God’s Power in Elisha’s Deeds

English: Elisha raising the Shunammites Son (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The creditors are about to take the children of a widow of a prophet as slaves for debt she cannot pay. Elisha becomes her redeemer, as she has no kin to do so for her. In verses 2-7, the oil God provides in abundance from the little that she has is enough to pay her debts and provide for her and her sons.

The kindness of the Shunnamite woman in providing food and generous shelter for Elisha whenever he came her way (verses 8-10) prompts him to desire to do something for her. She was wealthy, and needed no help in the same regard as the widow. When Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, tells him that the woman has no son and that her husband is old, he tells the disbelieving woman that she will embrace a son the next year; and it was so. Some years passed, as the child had grown, was struck ill, then died (verse 18-20). So the woman went to Mount Carmel to appeal to Elisha, “the man of God” she had befriended. Elisha sends Gehazi with his staff, and instructions to raise the boy; but the woman stayed with him, sure that no less than Elisha’s own intervention would do. That did turn out to be the case; and Elisha’s healing of the boy reminds us of the similar deed of Elijah for the widow in 1 Kings 17:17-22.

Then in verses 38-44, Elisha purifies a pot of stew that the famine-stricken prophets had perceived to have been poisoned by the wild gourds one of them had added; and then provides in abundance for a hundred more men, using meager resources (this latter, on a smaller scale, being similar to Jesus feeding the multitude in Matthew 14:13-21). This chapter is intended to once again demonstrate God’s awesome power; and that His will is going to be done.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 17 2012

Trouble in the Northern Kingdom \ Week 23 summary posted

We will begin this weeks reading tomorrow with Elisha demonstrating God’s sovereign power, while a succession of kings in the northern kingdom accompanies trouble because of the wickedness and idolatry of the people. Change is in the air.

English: Kurkh stela of Shalmaneser that reports battle of Karkar, of 853 BC. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As or schedule has left first 1 Kings behind and has skipped over some of the wicked king Ahab’s story (some will be revisited next week), we thought it appropriate to include another interesting bit of archaeological evidence of Ahab’s rule from the Assyrian empire, which was on the rise at the time. This article from Bible and Spade contains a picture and account of a monolith found in 1861 in southeastern Turkey, which inscriptions record the Assyrian kings first six military campaigns. The battle in 853 BCE listing 2,00 chariots and 10, 000 soldiers received as aid from “Ahab, the Israelite” is not mentioned in the Bible because it is not relevant. A bit ironic that Israel provided aid to the rise of an empire that would come to crush them later.

Summing Up

Each weekend, I am now posting a small PDF of one week of chapter summaries (on the website’s “Summaries” page), current to the beginning of the previous week. I have posted the summary for Week 23 (June Week 1) of the schedule I am following. This short PDF document contains condensed comments about 1 Kings 1, 2, 3, 6, and 8:1 – 9:9, with hyperlinks to the ESV version of each chapter for listening or reading, and joins the summaries for other weeks already posted there.

/Bob’s boy

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image © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 15 2012

2 Kings 2 – Elijah Taken To Heaven

For the most part, the Old Testament speaks very little about life after death, at least compared to the New Testament. Some take that to mean that God’s people knew nothing about it then. But how much the people of God knew or thought about it is actually pure (and often, I believe, incorrect) speculation. It is clear from God’s word that His people were told something about, and had been given hope for, some sort of fellowship with God after death. Among the notable places in scripture where this is evident are Genesis 5:24, where Enoch was “taken” by God, Psalm 23:6, Ecclesiastes 12:7, and certainly here in 2 Kings chapter 2, where Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind.

The Ascent of Prophet Elijah, a northern Russian icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We know little about most of the prophets of the Old Testament because God gave us what we need to know through the prophets that gave us His word in the scriptures. But there were many more than most people think (remember Obadiah hiding 100 of them from Ahab in caves in 1 Kings 18:4). Here, Elijah has been preparing Elisha to be his successor as God told him in 1 Kings 19:15-18; and some of the prophets make it clear that God has revealed to them what is about to happen to Elijah (verse 5). Clearly, Elijah is in some way their leader, and is held in reverence. When Elijah asks him what he would have Elijah do for him, Elisha asks for a double portion of his spirit. Though God had already declared that Elisha would be Elijah’s successor, this could have symbolic meaning as Elijah is like a father to him (verse 12). He has already left his old life behind and an inheritance with it; and a first son would expect a double portion in his inheritance.

Elisha tearing his clothes before he takes the cloak that Elijah left behind (verse 12-14)appears to have a double meaning. The tearing of ones own clothing in the Old Testament was an act of mourning or deep dismay, but it also seems to symbolize the transformation of Elisha to Elijah’s role. Upon Elisha’s return, the other prophets can tell that Elijah’s spirit “rests on Elisha” (verse 15). And in verses 19-22, he makes it clear that he has the favor of the Lord. The fate of the “boys” in verses 23-24 when they were disrespectful to Elisha may seem harsh, but remember that Bethel was at the center of Israel’s apostasy; and traveling in a gang of around 50 (or possibly many more), their behavior and intentions were likely more threatening than mere taunts.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 14 2012

1 Kings 18 – The Prophets of Baal Defeated

Verse one says it has been three years since it rained (James confirms in James 5:17) since Elijah proclaimed that the Lord would shut the heavens up; and the Lord sent word to Elijah to go to Ahab and he would make it rain. Obadiah was the head of the house of Ahab and Jezebel, but he feared the Lord, and had hidden a hundred prophets from them. But he is afraid that Elijah is setting a trap for him. Elijah reassures him, and Obadiah tells Ahab of Elijah’s requested meeting. Elijah lets him know in verse 18 that the crisis they are in is the result of his abandonment of the Lord to worship Baal. He then challenges Ahab to meet him at Carmel with their Baal prophets.

University of Haifa atop Mount Carmel in 1996 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At Mount Carmel Elijah challenges the people and the prophets of Baal, as he points out that it only he against the 450 of them. The challenge is for each side to be given a bull and some wood but they may use no fire themselves. Instead, Elijah will call upon the Lord, and they will call upon Baal; and the God who answers by fire is God. The people agree that this is a worthy challenge, and they begin. Notice Elijah’s rebuke of the people “limping” between serving God and Baal (trying to hedge their bets?) in verse 21. Then in verse 26, the Baal prophets were described as “limping” their altar, as they call out to a god that does not exist. Elijah’s mockery and taunting of the false prophets efforts in verses 26-27 is amusing.

Elijah builds an altar with twelve stones (for the twelve tribes of Israel that God would rather be still united), and digs a trench around it. Then he has the people pour water from 4 jars onto the sacrifice three times, filling the trench with water. Then, Elijah called upon God and fire consumed the bull, the wood, the stones, and the water (verse 38). The people fell on their faces as they realized the true God was the Lord, and Elijah had them seize all the prophets. The fact that Elijah slaughtered the prophets of Baal in verse 40 was necessary, and is best explained by the law in Deuteronomy 13:13-15.

(Side note: There are good photos of the area around Mount Carmel in this article at Ferrell’s Travel Blog)

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 13 2012

1 Kings 16:30-17:24 – Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

English: Elijah Resuscitating the Son of the Widow of Zarephath (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since Jeroboam, there were a few other kings in the scripture since chapter 12. At the end of chapter 16, Ahab is king; and he marries a foreign woman, Jezebel. Then he erects an altar for the idol Baal, and worships it. So under his reign, the people are turned from the perverse worship of the Lord through idols into the outright worship of Baal. The lines of loyalty to the Lord have gone from blurred to blind, and worse. Baal worship was appealing in the dry regions of Canaan when the Israelites first came because Baal was the “god” of rain. This is fitting, just as the plagues in Egypt in Exodus were a mockery of their gods (see blog on Exodus 7).

In chapter 17, we meet the prophet Elijah – arguably the most important prophet since Samuel. Right away, in verse 1, we find him telling Ahab “there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word” because of this Baal worship. This is exactly what God had told them would happen in Deuteronomy 11:16-17. God then sends Elijah to the brook at Cherith, where he commanded the ravens to feed him; and he remained there until the brook dried up from the lack of rain. He then sends him to Zarephath, where he has commanded a widow to feed Elijah.

But Elijah finds that the widow is expecting that she and her son will die, saying that she only has a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Elijah tells her that until it rains, the jar and the jug both will never be empty, and God made it so (verse 16). Then, her son becomes so severely ill “that there was no breath left in him,” and she believes that Elijah has brought that upon her because of her sins. In verse 21, it is Elijah’s prayer to God that revives the boy – not the physical ritual described that the prophet did.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 12 2012

1 Kings 12 – The Kingdom Divided

Solomon’s son Rehoboam becomes king, but makes huge mistakes. The life under Solomon had become hard labor – so much so that it seemed not much different from the slavery to Pharoah. So the people come to Rehoboam asking him to lighten their load. He foolishly listens to the counsel of the young men who had grown up with him, and ends up telling the people who had complained that he would make things harder for them (verses 13-14). This also reminds of Pharoah’s response to Moses and Aaron in Exodus 5:1-21.

The United Kingdom of Solomon breaks up, with Jeroboam ruling over the Northern Kingdom of Israel (in green on the map). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This leads to the division of the kingdom (verse 16). Rehoboam tries to recover using his taskmaster, Adoram, but he is stoned to death and Rehoboam flees to Jerusalem. Rehoboam assembles Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to try to regain the rest of the kingdom, but God sends word through Shemaiah for all the people not to fight against their relatives because “this thing is from me.” So war is averted, and the people return to their homes.

But Jeroboam was fearful because the temple was in Jerusalem that people would return there to worship, and their hearts would be swayed to serve the house of David – Rehoboam. So he fashioned golden calves and worship places at Dan and Bethel, telling the people (just as Aaron did in Exodus 32:4) “Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (verse 28). He also appointed priests who were not Levites. This idol worship would be their downfall, and lead to their later exile, as the their minds had already begun to confuse the one true God with the rites of idol worship. Many perversely saw themselves as worshiping Jehovah through these idols! He even instituted his own feast in verse 33.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 11 2012

1 Kings 11 – Solomon Turns From the Lord

English: Judgement of Solomon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Lord’s warning in 1 Kings 9:6-9 seems pretty straightforward, and one would think that Solomon would have heed it. But chapter 11 makes it clear that he did not. God’s warnings concerning the king in Deuteronomy 17:14-17 were ignored, as well as what God said in Deuteronomy 7:3-5. Solomon took 700 wives and 300 concubines (verse 3), and seemed to have married princesses from every Canaanite nation. And just as warned over and over, they turned his heart to serving other “gods” (verse 5-8). He even built places of worship to these idols, including Molech, whom the Bible writers associated with child sacrifice in, as we are told in Leviticus 18:21 and other passages.

The Lord’s anger with Solomon was great, and he told him that he would tear the kingdom away from him and give it to his servant (we meet him – Jeroboam – in verse 26) and he will indeed be the next king of Israel. But God will not do this until Solomon dies, and he will leave one tribe with Solomon’s son for the sake of David (verse 13). So God raises up adversaries against Solomon – Rezon rises up from the north, and Hadad rises up from the south. Solomon now finds enemies on all sides. In verse 40, we find Solomon’s reaction to the promise of Jeroboam’s rise to king – he seeks to kill him, just as Saul did with David! How far he has fallen. Solomon dies in verse 43. Verse 42 says that he reigned as king for 40 years. Some believe that he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes in his later years

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Jun 10 2012

Elijah’s Entrance \ Week 22 Summary Posted

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are moving along in the Books of Kings. Like the Books of Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings were actually considered one book at one time. It’s just sort of hard keeping scrolls that large :-). More expedient to divide it up. This week, we will skip over the visit of the Queen of Sheba in chapter 10 to read about Solomon’s greatest sins. Then, we will move through the division of the kingdom, and Elijah defeating the prophets of Baal. We will be in the 2nd book of Kings by weeks end. Hope you are learning as much as I am in this “big picture” study of God’s word.

Summing Up

Each weekend, I am now posting a small PDF of one week of chapter summaries (on the website’s “Summaries” page), current to the beginning of the previous week. I have posted the summary for Week 22 (May Week 4) of the schedule I am following. This short PDF document contains condensed comments about 2 Samuel 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19, with hyperlinks to the ESV version of each chapter for listening or reading, and joins the summaries for other weeks already posted there.