Gadfly's Muse

2 Kings 11-13: A Fresh Start and Renewal of Hope? Not So Fast.....

Image: Hope, 2008, Severn Run Church, Millersville, Md

2 Kings 12:2–3 (NKJV) 2 Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

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The depressing litany of decline manifested in idolatry, perversity and military defeat continues and the reader becomes almost numb to the details.  The Northern Kingdom under Jehu is pretty much a lost cause.  There are some brief, nearly inconsequential bright spots.  An unnamed "deliverer" arises in Israel (13:5) in a manner reminiscent of the Judges and pushes back the Syrians giving Israel some breathing room and a bit of peace, but we are immediately told that the land continued in its apostasy.  Jehoahaz's army is reduced to a token militia incapable of providing national security.  Elisha dies but on his death bed prophesies that Israel will strike three blows against Syria in the coming years.  Even at his burial we are told of raiding bands from Moab running rampant through the countryside.  The only truly bright light is that God continued to be "gracious to them, had compassion on them, and regarded them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob..." (13:23).  It was God's faithfulness to His covenant the kept them from being completely destroyed.

Judah was only somewhat better off.  When king Ahaziah was killed in Israel, Athaliah the wife of the previous king Jehoram and daughter of Israel's Ahab (remember what a piece of work he was) followed her father's practices and "destroyed all the royal heirs (11:1).  She was a tyrant of the first order.  One child, the infant Joash, alone was saved.  Like the previous instances of Pharaoh killing of the Israelite babies and the later instant of Herod's massacre in Galilee, he was hidden by a faithful woman, Jehosheba.  He was the one who would carry on the Davidic line in Judah.

In an interesting account Jehoiada, the priest, conspires to anoint Joash when he is seven years old.  This was a subversive act par excellance.  He gathers a small army of body guards and escorts, distributes them strategically and tells them to protect the boy at all costs, killing anyone who might come near him.  It is a measure of the people's hatred of Athaliah that they rejoiced when this was accomplished.  They made such a commotion that Athaliah hears it and comes to check it out.  Here, like Jezebel, she meets her doom and the crown of Judah is secured for Joash.

The story doesn't stop here.  Jehoiada proves to be a real hero of the faith.  He immediately makes a "covenant between the LORD, the king and the people that they should be the LORD's people, and also between the king and people."  Here we have a still relatively unknown priest being raised up by God to give hope to Judah.  They undertake with zeal to wipe out the temple of Baal and all of its priests.  You can almost feel the weight of despair being lifted from the people as we read (11:20) that the "people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet..."  All of this for a boy king, seven years old.

So, we also, have a bit of hope.  Joash / Jehoash reigns for forty years... not bad in those days when a king's life was precarious at best.  During this time we are told that he seriously undertakes to do "right in the sight of the LORD" (12:2).  There is a caveat here though.  His zeal for God was during the time that "Jehoiada the priest instructed him." We wonder if this relatively obscure priest was not the real power behind the throne since it was he that wielded the power for putting he king there.  Nevertheless, the awful refrain is repeated.  "the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places." (12:3).  There's some hope... but not a great deal of certainty.

Sure enough, we read that the repairs to the temple proceed by "fits and starts."  A lot of money is sunk into it but the bureaucracy doesn't get things done very efficiently.  It is only after the bureaucracy is bypassed and money sent directly to the "contractors" that the work gets done.

And then, just when we are beginning to think... well, maybe it's going to work out after all, Syria comes knocking on Jerusalem's door.  Jehoash has a failure of nerve.  He takes all of God's sacred things and gold and buys off Hazael, king of Syria.  Here is the price of unfaithfulness all over.  We read nothing of Jehoash inquiring of the Lord... of seeking what to do... of trusting the God would bring deliverance.  He fails and Judah languishes back into survival mode.  Jehoash's reign starts with a promise and ends with a whimper.

Thus the sad reality of faithless generations.

What can we say about all this?  I think that we should say that the process of decline is not always precipitous.  God can reign down fire from heaven and deal with apostasy in a heartbeat but His faithfulness to His Word continues to make Him long-suffering with His people.  This is how He deals with us also when we undertake to live by our own wits and undercut our own strength.  Our Mighty Fortress is our God...  when we live in our own abilities, take counsel of our own wisdom, employ the ways of the world instead of the ways of God... we can expect a continual slide toward failure.  Along the way God will work with us... reminding us that He is still there.  We also will have "Elisha" in our lives encouraging us to turn to God.  We will have faithful servants who often intervene and save our necks at critical points.  If we see these things for what they are, God's continued providential workings, and we embrace Him and undertake, in true repentance, to walk uprightly... His power will prove itself over and over again.  If, however, like Jehoash, we live a double-minded life, walking with one foot in the world and the other in God's kingdom, we will surely be disappointed.

Only the Lord Jesus Christ can be trusted in the midst of a world gone crazy.  We would be fools not to submit to His discipline and counsel.  It is the pathway of sanity and victory.

 

 

 

2 Kings 9 & 10: The Grapes of Wrath

Image: Grapes of Wrath, 2008, Constantine Frank Vineyards, NY

2 Kings 10:32–33 (NKJV) 32 In those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael conquered them in all the territory of Israel 33 from the Jordan eastward: all the land of Gilead—Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh—from Aroer, which is by the River Arnon, including Gilead and Bashan.

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These are disturbing chapters.  They seem so bleak.  

God anoints Jehu to be His instrument for bringing home the prior judgment on Ahab (ch. 9; vs. 8ff. cf. 1Kings 21:21) and we have to admit that Jehu shows real zeal for the task.  He meets Joram', Ahab's son who was king of Israel at the time, sends an arrow into his back that pierces clean through to the other side and, while he was at it, killed off Ahaziah, king of Judah, for good measure.  He tells Jezebel's servants to toss her out the window, which they do not hesitate to do, and Joram goes inside to have a bite to eat and a swig of wine, leaving her body where it lay.  Sure enough the dogs ate her which was, in that time, the most degrading thing that could happen.  The pagans believed that such a fate would prevent the dead person from ever having any peace.

Jehu continues his bloody work by killing of seventy sons of Joram and carries on to trick the prophets of Baal and all their worshipers to gather at Baal's temple.  There he proceeds to exterminate them, one and all, without mercy.  Along the way he manages to kill Ahaziah's brothers also.

For all of this the LORD commends him (10:30) and promises him that he shall have four generations of dynasty.  You would think Jehu would have been pretty motivated to stay in the Lord's good graces but we are told that he still continued in the idolatrous religion of Jeroboam and for that he would never achieve the greatness that God could have brought him.

Then we come to 10:32-33 (quoted above).  We read with great sadness that "in those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel..."  So much blood had been shed by Israel in claiming the promised land.  So many great men (and bad ones too) had been used by God to give secure defensible borders and many prosperous cities.  That great history was now entering into a new phase... the stubborn insistence of Israel's kings and the willing cooperation of the priests and nobles had brought the Northern Kingdom into rotten decay.  It was this decay that weakened them and made them easy prey for predatory neighbors and it is here that we should recognize a serious truth.

In Romans 1 we are taught that the way God deals with persistent sin in His creation is by giving people over to their sin (Romans 1:24ff).  When God pulls back His restraining Spirit, when the general population suffers from the absence of Christian influence, when God's righteous ways are despised, then God allows people to spiral down into their own lusts and stubborn foolishness.  

It is not only in the sensual sins that this is true.  It is also true of economic sins of greed and selfishness.  God's Spirit is what keeps the measure of humanity in a culture.. it is God's Spirit that makes it possible for sincere concern for others take precedence over personal vainglory or gain.  As God's Spirit departs the social order becomes harsh, unforgiving, petty, spiteful, vicious, self-serving, and murderous along with and beside the descent into fleshly pursuits.

What is not recognized often is that this kind of situation strips the society of its virility... honor, courage and self-sacrifice become less prevalent and the security of the nation will be infected and deprived of its primary strengths.  God will allow this to continue and in some nations we see that it leads to dissolution of the entire national structure.

There is no such thing as a separate moral sphere from that which governs the social sphere.  There is no law which does not ultimately derive from a sense of ethics and all ethics are based in a world view that is religious in its presuppositions.  Even atheism is ultimately accepted by faith and its ethics are derived from a religious presupposition that there is no god.  When the moral order in any given society that has had the blessings of God's Word proclaimed and accepted in it, turns its back on God, you can expect that society to decline and that tragic consequences will follow.

The hope of any nation is only in the Lord.  In this phase of history we can never expect that any land will be predominantly composed of born-again Christians nor that every law-maker will be a true believer.  But what we can seek and work to bring about is a revival of true Christian witness among that minority of citizens who are born-again.  And what we can also expect is that God can and will bring wider influence from them than their numbers would appear to warrant.  

As we approach this New Year, perhaps we Christians ought to look at our society and see if the "grapes of wrath" are evident in it.  If we see it, as I think we will, then let that drive us to rededicate ourselves to bearing witness to God's righteousness and ways with renewed zeal.  In the last analysis, it is the most patriotic thing we could do.

 

 

2 Kings 7 & 8: The Poor, The Defenseless, The Widow

Image: Still Hopeful, 2019, Burnet, Tx

2 Kings 7:3–4 (NKJV) 3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.”

2 Kings 8:6 (NKJV) 6 And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.”

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An old saying that has been a comfort to me through some fairly difficult times is: "As long as there is life there is hope."  Although neither I nor my family back in the "old days" ever faced actual famine yet there was often a pressing worry about "how we are going to make it."  Money was scarce all the time and non-existent on occasion but my mother, especially, never let us give in to despair.  She, like Scarlett, kept the faith that "tomorrow will be a better day." (paraphrase)

So it was with the "incidental characters" in the stories in these chapters even though, in one sense, they are the main characters.

The lepers sitting at the gate represented the lowest of the low.  Being "unclean" they could not associate with the people inside the city.  Their lives depended on hand-outs and because of the famine and the Syrian siege there was no surplus food at all.  They took realistic stock of their situation and concluded: "If we stay here we will die.  If we go to the Syrians they may kill us but perhaps not."  So they took their chances and went to the Syrian camp.  There they discovered abundant treasures and food for the taking.  God had sent terror among the Syrians and they had fled.  They helped themselves to some stuff, stashed some more and then went and told the king of what they found.

God had saved His people and he was attentive to the needs of even the lowest among them.

The Shunammite woman was in similar straits.  She had evidently been fairly prosperous.  Elisha brings the Word of God to her again and tells her to get out of Dodge because the famine would last seven years.  She packed up her household and went to the land of the abominable Philistines.  It was the only "hope" she had although the Philistines could have treated her very roughly indeed.  In doing so she forfeited her previous possessions in Samaria.  

When the famine eases up she returns and decides that there was a slim hope that the king would restore her fortunes.  She goes to appeal to him for mercy and, providentially, there is Elisha's servant telling the king about the great things Elisha had done.  Gehazi, the servant notices the woman and tells the king that "Look... this is the woman and this is her son that Elisha restored to life."  There is no coincidence here.  This is God showing mercy, again, on this woman and her household.

She was taking a chance because there was no other option.  Where there was life there was hope and God moved the king to restore her lands and the proceeds that had accrued from them in her absence.

These incidental stores, more anecdotal than anything else, have been carefully preserved for us right in the midst of the other accounts in these chapters.  We read of kings of Samaria and Judah and how they fought and how they fared in their battles.  We see both kingdoms being lead by unprincipled men who lead their people into idolatry.  God tells us that He preserves Judah because of His promise to David.  Big events are recorded but in one sense, the bigger events were these encouraging stories of how God rewarded the hope of those nameless lepers and this equally nameless widow.  That's something to which we can cling when times are tough for us also.

God has a special place in His heart for those on the fringes.  As I write this it is Christmas Eve.  Tomorrow, if past history repeats, there will be an abundance of "stuff" exchanged as presents and there will be feasting at a table supplied with plenty.  It is right and good to rejoice when "hope" is rewarded.  The day that my mother hoped lay ahead, especially for her children, certainly arrived.  It was the Lord's hand without a doubt.  Like the lepers and the widow it is time to enjoy what God has given... that is why He gave it.  At the same time, perhaps in our prayers and certainly in our thoughts, we need to remember that there are still those on the fringes who hang on by a thread in hope that tomorrow will be better. 

God's providential care for the poor and disenfranchised is a complex governing but the Scriptures teach us that they are always in His heart.  He sent His Son into the world, on that first Christmas, so that a poor man and his wife would be blessed and poor shepherds in the fields could bring good tidings... like the lepers in this story.  In the midst of our rejoicing perhaps we should pray again - "Thy Kingdom come" so that suffering and hunger and despair would finally be banished.

Perhaps also, as we prepare for this coming year, we might undertake to be more attentive to those around us who are legitimately poor, hungry and cold.  God still cares for them and so should we.

1 Kings 5 & 6: Who Is Really Running Things?

Image: Flowers of the Fields, 2019, Winterthur Gardens, Winterthur Castle, De.

2 Kings 5:1 (NKJV) 5 Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.

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There's a lot that these two chapters can teach us but I am going to loosely tie things together with the verse above.  

Chapter 5 vs. 1 is a very interesting statement.  We are accustomed to hearing about the "mighty men of valor" in Israel but, other than negative examples such as Goliath, great men in other nations are not given the spotlight very much or at all.  But look at what vs. 1 says about Naaman.

He was the "commander in chief" of the Syrian army.  He was a "great and honorable man" at least in the eyes of the Syrian king.  The LORD had given him victories over Syrian enemies!  Wait.... the LORD gave him victories?  Over whom?  Israel... yes! ...at least to some extent.  Now that should stop us in our tracks for a bit.

No pagan nation would dare to say such a thing about their National God. That would be crazy!  The pagans would abandon that god in a minute if they thought such a thing.  Pagans thought in terms of relative power among the gods and they also granted that their gods were unreliable... but to my knowledge they didn't generally think of them as being traitorous.  Here we have the Scriptures speaking in a matter-of-fact manner about God giving victories to Israel's perpetual enemy.  Amazing.

And in that same, matter-of-fact manner, we are told, "Oh, by the way, Naaman was a leper."  This is not just some interesting historical tidbit. This sums up the main point of verse 1.  God was the "God of Israel", yes and amen, even as He is the "God of the Church" today.  But that speaks of the "special" relation that God holds with His people.  Above and beyond that is the primary truth of sovereignty.  God is the God of the entire world.  He was the God of Syria then as when He would prove to be the God of the Persians who chooses another pagan "servant" Cyrus to do His will.  David sang about this glorious truth in Psalm 24.  2 Kings 5 & 6 give us vivid examples of how this truth works out in time and space. 

Psalm 24:1 (NKJV) 1 The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.

Naaman, I believe, was elect of God.  He belonged to the LORD.  In many ways, Naaman is held up before the eyes of Israel as an example of what God can do and thus indicts them with shame.  God raised up Naaman to his position of power and God afflicted him with leprosy.  Each of these was essential for God's purposes in Naaman.

It was God that directed Naaman's steps on a raid into Israel where he brings back an Israelite slave.  She remains nameless but she, like so many of her sisters in the Bible, is used by God to bring glory to His name and healing to the nations.  God uses her servitude to get word to Naaman about the prophet in Samaria who could heal his leprosy.  Then follows the story of Naaman's interaction Elisha that leads to his beautiful proclamation in vs. 15: "Now I know there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel..."  

This is the theme: There is only One God over all the earth.  As the king of Israel, in verse 7 states clearly: "Am I God, to kill and make alive..???"  This is the entire point. Only the God of the whole earth could do what the Syrian king desired.  If Naaman was not healed it probably meant war. 

But Naaman was healed and in chapter 6 we see war comes anyway.  Ben-Hadad of Syria comes and lays waste to Samaria.  People are starving.  Women are eating the flesh of their own children (6:27-29). God who gave victories to Syria over Israel appears to be doing it again.  God does what He thinks best.

The king of Samaria is again in deep distress but, like the Sanhedrin in their confrontation with Jesus, has some insight into truth.  In 6:33 he says: "Surely this calamity is from the LORD; ..."  Yes and amen... that's the whole point.

Here is the plain truth.  God is in His heaven and He is still actively directing the affairs of men and nations.  His ways are perplexing to us... that's because He is God and we are not.  He is the God who brings people to Himself in the strangest circumstances... like Naaman.  He uses relatively insignificant individuals, like the servant girl, to influence events that have international repercussions.  He extends grace to Whom He chooses and, again like Naaman, brings about a witness in a foreign nation who is still under the control of demons.  

In the face of all the confusing events one thing remains true.  God empowers His Word.  Elisha speaks with authority to Naaman about his healing and his moral decision relating to his duties to his king.  Elisha raises an ax head from the bottom of a river.  Elisha calls down the forces of heave (6:17) to blind the Syrian troop who had come to take him back to Syria.  And yes, for His own purposes, God directs the Syrian army to lay waste to Samaria.  As we shall see in the next chapter it will also be His purpose to defeat that army and say His people from the famine through the spoils that the Syrians leave behind.

This same God Whose awe inspiring Holiness and Mystery is behind the events of these chapters is the same God Who is at work in the world today.  As it was with Elisha so it is with us.  Our call is to wait and see what He is doing.  Yes we should be busy and we should be pursuing righteousness, justice and mercy in all our doings.  But when great movements of human institutions are crashing in conflict and there is burning anger and confusion and even war bringing untold misery to the world, that does not mean... for one moment... that God is not in control.  That is our hope and stay in all things.

2 Kings 3 & 4: Powers That Preserve

Image: "Feeding the Flock", 2013, Baltimore, MD

1 Kings 3 details the interaction between Jehoram of Israel, Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom going to battle against rebellious Moab.  It is interesting in that it very closely parallels the previous occasion (1 Kings 22) when Ahab and Jehoshaphat had sought to fight against Syria.  At that time Micaiah was the prophet of God and he prophesied against Ahab and he, of course, died.

In 2 Kings 3 we see a different outcome as God acts mightily to put down the rebelling Moabites.  This time it is Elisha who is bringing the Word of God to the current situation.  I think it is instructive that Elisha completely disrespects Jehoram.   He (vs. 13) caustically dismisses him and asks him why he is seeking out Elisha and not the gods that Jehoram and his mother had used.  Then, after Jerhoram says that he believes it is the Lord's doing that brought the kings together, Elisha even more caustically states (v. 14) "If Jehoshaphat king of Judah were not present I wouldn't even look at you much less talk to you."  That's a scary thought but it teaches us how God still is setting His Covenant people apart in the world.

In passing on to chapter 4 I ought to at least mention 3:27 where the king of Moab, seeing the battle was "too fierce" for him, "took his eldest son... and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall."  We are then told that "there was great indignation against Israel so they departed and returned to their own land."

This is a disputed passage.  The verse could possibly be translated "there was great indignation within Israel" which would be taken to mean they departed in disgust.  But it also could mean that this sacrifice by the king of Moab so enraged his men against Israel that the Israelites saw they would never be able to take the city or it would be too costly.  It is not clear.  The bottom line of it is that Moab was not completely defeated and went on to be a thorn in Israel's and Judah's side for quite a while.

Chapter 4 is of a completely different genre.  In it we see, much like the Gospel of Mark, a series of anecdotes that are probably not intended to indicate historical sequence.  They probably didn't happen one right after the other and, in fact, may have happened in a different sequence than recorded.  The sequence doesn't matter... what does matter is that these events are historically true and are grouped together to make a point.  2 Kings 4 show us the amazing love of God for ordinary people.  Mark, in those passages where Jesus performs miracles very similar to these (feeding of the multitudes, raising a woman's dead child, etc. ) makes the same point though Jesus is proclaimed as the originator of these miracles.  In 2 Kings 4 Elisha is only the vehicle for God's external power to work through him.

But notice how the picture develops. 

A poor woman's bowl never runs out of oil and thus she is able to keep her creditor's at bay. 

The Shunammite woman's courtesy to Elisha results in a deep friendship.  I am reminded of the deep friendship Jesus had with Lazarus and his sisters.  The woman is blessed with the miraculous birth of a son.  Note that unlike other miraculous births this young boy played no significant role in the further history of Israel.  This is not the same as Isaac or Samuel or, even later, John the Baptist.  This is just God's blessing on a family that honored and befriended His servant Elisha.  It is clearly the case when we see Elisha hurrying to raise her son from the dead.  I think that, like Jesus again with Lazarus, he was genuinely sorrowful over the grief that had come on this family.

Then we see Elisha purifying a pot of stew.  There was a famine in the land and Elisha sends out is servant to gather herbs and stuff for a meal for some visiting prophets.  There is no telling what the servant picked but in a famine healthy plants were in short supply.   The bottom line is that the stew was poisonous.  The men eating started to get sick and they cried out in fear.  Elisha has some flour put in the pot and it became healthy.  We can see how God is here involved in the ordinary activities of his people.  Those prophets probably never forgot what God did for them through Elisha.  That's why it is recorded here.  But the main point is that God is concerned for His people and His servants and acts with power to save them.  Jesus rescued impetuous Peter when he started to sink in the sea... the same protective, loving God was at work here.

Lastly we see Elisha feeding 100 men with a few loaves of bread and some grain.  Elisha has a very similar conversation with his "disciples" as Jesus did when He fed the 5000.  We are told that afterwards, in both cases, there were "left-overs."  Here we see the bounty of the Lord's table as a picture of that great day when He will feed us directly and at last all hunger and famine will be banished from the land.

What ties all these stories in chapter 4 together is the utter apparent insignificance of the people being helped.  We are not told a single name.  The widow is identified only as "a certain woman."  The next is only called a "Shunammite woman" though was was a "notable" person (vs. 8)  The same is true for those eating from the pot and the others who were fed with the bread.  Their names are not important to us... they are important to God.

Here we see the great comfort of our religion.  Most of us will go to our graves relatively unremembered.  Family will preserve some stories, perhaps, but with passing generations we become of historical interest only as names on a family tree.  But each of us during our time have stories to tell... and sometimes those stories are more important than we are.  Sometimes it is the work of God in our lives that becomes part of the record of God's powerful preserving hand for His nameless people.

It is OK that we are or shall be, relatively nameless in the annals of history.  God knows who we are and He knows that we are His and His actions in our lives will one day be proclaimed to the watching world.  That's something worth remembering from this chapter.

 

 

 

 

2 Kings 1 & 2: The Prophetic Word Made Certain

Image: "Elijah", 2019, original wood carving from Winterthur Castle, De

2 Kings 1:3 (NKJV) 3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’

2 Kings 2:14 (NKJV) 14 Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, “Where is the LORD God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over.

Hebrews 2:2–3 (NKJV) 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,

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Elijah typified and embodied the "Word of God" during his day and chapters 1 & 2 represent the culmination of his career as such.  He is the formal subject of these two chapters and all the other players are in a supporting role but it is the "Word of God" that is the theme.  What we see here is the 'power of the Word of God' and the 'preservation of the Word of God.'  God's Word proves itself terrifying in its inherent authority and jealousy.  God's Word is preserved even when its formal instrument is exchanged.  This over-arching teaching binds both chapters into a scary yet warm and beautiful unity.

Notice the jealous power of the Word of God. 

Ahaziah has the sheer gall to send for a "word" from Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron about his current reduced state (1:2).  God's Word replies contemptuously: "Is there no God in Israel that you should so inquire?" (1:3)

God is jealous of His Person and His Word.  He and He alone is the source of all power and understanding.  When anyone, much less His covenant people, seek out wisdom or help from any source that is not grounded in His Holy Being or Revelation, then He is personally insulted and He does not pass over it lightly.  Notice how He teaches us that He is not compelled by any human agency to give account for His Counsel or His Decrees.  When Ahaziah sends out a mere "fifty" armed men to compel Elijah, in his role as the "Word of God", to come and give account for what God has said, twice those men are destroyed by fire.  This same thing happens when "some youths", 42 in number, mock the newly mantled Elisha in his role as the "Word of God" after Elijah is taken away.  A bear comes and mauls them.

The unity of the two chapters confronts us with the seriousness with which God views His Word.  He does not make allowances for any competing powers or sources of human wisdom.  His Word and His Word alone stands as the sole authority in history and space.  It poses a deadly danger to any who would contemptuously dismiss or ignore it.

Secondly we see how God preserves His Word through the changing seasons of history.  Elijah's removal constitutes a major change in the times.  He has been like an eagle standing watch over Israel calling them to righteousness and raining down the Power of Heaven to teach them lessons.  Kings have trembled before him and false teachers have perished at his command.  In chapter 2 we see Elijah going to his destiny.

The literary structure of 2 Kings is highly instructive.  Elijah departs Israel the same way Joshua entered into it.  He travels to Jericho and then crosses the Jordan river on dry ground as the waters part for his passing.  Elijah is making a point here.  The Word of God can be taken from God's people at any time.  It can depart the same way It came.  If the prophetic word is no longer held in respect and submission, God can, at any time He chooses, remove that Word completely.  That is a terrible prospect and it points toward that time, yet to come, when God will remove His Spirit from the general population and allow them to degenerate into depravity as He did in the day of Noah.  

But the "Gospel" of 2 Kings is that this ultimate withdrawal is "not yet."  God passes down Elijah's mantle to Elisha and he comes back to Israel along the exact same path as Elijah left it.  He crosses the Jordan on dry ground. Like Elijah with the widow of Zarepath he brings healing to the waters of Jericho which previously had brought death.  Like Elijah with the 50 men, he brings down God's wrath on the young men.  Everything here is to teach the Israelites that God's Word was still "living and active" among them and that, even though Elijah was gone, yet they had best "not neglect" the great salvation which God's Word proclaims (Heb. 2:2).

What a powerful message this was for the people of that day.  Taking the Hebrews passage to heart we must see that it is even more powerful today.  God's Word has become flesh and dwelt among us.  God's Word was brilliantly passed down to His Church through the Apostles at Pentecost.  Though the Living Word of God is absent physically in heaven, yet His power, might, counsel and comfort is still present.  But God remains as jealous for His Word as ever.  As we saw in Ananias and Sapphira In Acts 5, God will act with terrifying power to prove how unwise it is to not treat it with due reverence.  

There is much to ponder here but the teaching cannot be more clear.  God is still, like the Eagle, watching over His people, the New Israel of God.  Truly we should hear the caution that is implicit in 1 & 2 Kings and explicit in Heb. 2:2-3.  God's Word is present with us in far greater power and clarity today than in any previous epoch in history.  We would do well to "not neglect so great a salvation" as it proclaims.  

 

 

1 Kings 21 & 22: Pitiful Petulance & Shameful Sin

Image: Rusted Remnants, 2018, Chesapeake City, Md

1 Kings 21:19 (NKJV) 19 You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.” ’ 

1 Kings 21:28–29 (NKJV) 28 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29 “See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.”

1 Kings 22:23 (NKJV)  23 Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.”

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For all of his sin in leading Israel after false gods the portrait painted of him in these chapters is not very manly.  He appears weak and indecisive, petulant and spiteful.  I don't think Jezebel respected him very much.

Chapter 21 starts off right where chapter 20 ended.  In verse 4 Ahab went into his house "sullen and displeased," the same attitude he had in 20:43.  He is like a spoiled rich kid who goes and sulks when he doesn't get exactly what he wanted when he wanted it.  Naboth owned a vineyard... it was his and his family's by right of inheritance.  Ahab wanted it.  Naboth said, 'respectfully, no."  Ahab goes into his bedroom, lies down on his bed and turns his face to the wall and refuses food.  One wonders if he was hugging his Teddy Bear and sucking his thumb.  What incredible corruption sin breeds in us.  A man who lives in luxury as king of a large kingdom is reduced to this.  How large are our desires and how essentially worthless are the objects of our desires compared to the blessings God showers on us.

The story proceeds and the "Wicked Witch of the East", Jezebel, contemptuously takes charge.  Naboth is brought up on false charges and executed... all over a piece of land and a spoiled brat king.

God sends Elijah to Ahab who greets him with even less enthusiasm than he did the previous occasion.  Previously he called Elijah "the troubler of Israel."  Here he calls him "my enemy."  Ahab knew bad news was coming and he was not wrong.  He was already under the sentence of death (ch. 20) but now God gets more specific.  He is told that the dogs will lick his blood in the same place that Naboth was killed and that his wife Jezebel will be eaten by dogs in Jezreel.  Culturally this was a sentence to the most humiliating kind of death.  Wild dogs were horrible and nasty creatures.  This must have been terrifying to a weak character like Ahab.  

The rest of chapter 21 & 22 basically recount the details of how God brings Ahab to justice.  The details are important at least as far as we see Israel and Judah allied together against the king of Syria.  Ahab asks Jehoshaphat to go to war with him and Jehoshaphat agrees.  Now it is Micaiah who comes forth and tells Ahab that this battle would be his last.

There is a scene in the movie "Little Big Man" where Dustin Hoffman's character is employed as a guide to General George Custer. (HERE)  They stand on a ridge overlooking Little Big Horn and Custer asks Hoffman's character whether they should attack.  Hoffman smiles and says something to the effect... "You go down there General and you will see this ain't like the Washita River where you attacked sleeping villages filled with women and children."  Custer despises "the Mule Skinner" and in his arrogance decides that the scout is just trying to keep him from winning another victory.  Ahab is like that here with Micaiah.

The armies of Israel and Judah are defeated and Ahab dies of his wounds.  The chariot in which he rode is soaked in blood and when it is taken to be cleaned at the place Naboth died, the dogs lick up the blood.

The theme that ties these chapters together is justice... justice for the death of Naboth, a common Israelite of no great stature, but a member of God's covenant people.

There are several things we might consider:

First - God never forgets the injustice and injury done to his people... even the smallest and most insignificant of them.

Ahab was a powerful king who had almost unlimited authority.  Naboth was a mere commoner.  But justice is higher than kings and though Ahab did not himself undertake Naboth's death he certainly did not condemn it nor fail to take advantage of it.  Ahab is guilty of murder because he consented to it after the fact.  And all this time God is watching from heaven.  Like the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, the end will be the same.  I believe Naboth, because of his obvious obedience to God in not selling his inheritance, was welcomed into God's Presence and discovered that his riches far exceeded anything he could have asked or imagined.  But Ahab... his shameful death and the dogs licking his blood symbolizes that he and his house are cursed by God and their name was removed from the covenant relation.

Second - we should see just how petulant people in power can be and how they will find minions to do whatever their pitifully small hearts desire.

Jezebel had no problem enlisting men to her plan to kill Naboth.  Think about that!  Principled rulers, whether kings or politicians, are few and far between.  There are not many Davids... there are numerous Ahabs.  So, we should not be surprised when we see people in power acting out of spite and resentment rather than considered and principled policies.  The more individual power these rulers possess the greater the probability of such actions.  That is why government should have checks and balances and a distribution of power.  When power is distributed the tendency to petulant injustice is still there but it is hedged in by other petulant politicians who are not seeking the same thing. 

What we should learn from these chapters is not to put our faith in kings, politicians or magistrates.  There are some good ones and some who are not bad and there are some who are worthless.  But what is always present is that they are fallen human beings and they are prone to selfish actions which can produce great harm.

There is only one Good King... He alone gave up Himself for us and our well being... that is about as far from Ahab and his ilk as you can get.

 

 

 

1 Kings 20: A Sense of Gloom

Image: Grey Skies, 2018, Severna Park, Md

1 Kings 20:11 (NKJV) 11 So the king of Israel answered and said, “Tell him, ‘Let not the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.’ ”

1 Kings 20:27 (NKJV) 27 And the children of Israel were mustered and given provisions, and they went against them. Now the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, while the Syrians filled the countryside.

1 Kings 20:42 (NKJV) 42 Then he said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.’ ”

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Though the base image for the picture above was taken almost two years ago, as I sit here and look out the window I see an almost identical sight.  A damp and cold winter's day conveys a dampening influence on my person.  There is a prevailing ominousness in the very atmosphere.  One wonders what is coming next but, whatever it might be, the desire is to hunker down, draw what warmth one can from whatever shelter is available and "hope for the best."

The king of Israel, Ahab, had this same sense at the close of this chapter (vs. 43).  He went "to his house sullen and displeased..." we are told even though he had just won incredible victories over his Syrian enemies, there was no "joy in mudville" that day... and with good reason.  The future was not bright for him or for his house.

Like Saul before him when the Lord had delivered Agag, king of the Amelekites, into his hand (1 Samuel 15:20ff), Ahab had won a powerful victory over the Syrian king Ben-Hadad and that king had been delivered into his hands.  There was no question that it was the Lord who had won the battle.  Ahab's army was described (20:27 above) as like "two little flocks of goats while the Syrians filled the country side."  Yet Ahab, always the politician rather than a man of God, sought to further his own influence by pardoning Ben-Hadad.  God was not pleased with Agag any more than He had not been pleased with Saul and in a very similar prophesy (vs. 42) Ahab is told that his own life would be required of him and ominously, "your people for his (Ben-Hadad's) people."  Ahab had enough sense to know that this was a final decree.  His life and his kingdom would be stripped from him.

No wonder he went to his house in a terrible frame of mind.  The future was bleak indeed though he was at the height of his power.

How should we react to this somewhat dreary story?

I think we should take it to heart that having an impending sense of judgment on the apostate world about us and the ultimate bitter fate that awaits those who are driving the world into godlessness is appropriate.  Jesus wept at the sight of Jerusalem as he journeyed into it.  He knew that He would not be embraced as its long awaited Messiah.  He knew that the structures of power were controlled by men who viewed the world through "practical" eyes and that they would reject Him and sin horribly against Him and His Father in heaven.  It was necessary for judgment to come but He pronounced "Woe" on those through whom that judgment would be brought.  But it was yet a cause for tears.  We also, with eyes to see, can recognize that in many ways our world is "hell-bent" for judgment because the Word of God (in Ahab's day in the person of Elijah) is being suppressed and therefore the godly counsel of the Word is not acting to inhibit the spread of perversity and unrighteousness.

Ahab needed Elijah as Saul had needed Samuel.  If he had inquired of the Lord then perhaps he would have acted righteously as did David and executed the evil king who had sought to destroy God's covenant people.  It was his own arrogance that deprived him of godly counsel, just as was the case with the death of John the Baptist.  Thinking himself wise he became a fool and such is all too apparently, the case with the world about us as it actively seeks to suppress the Wisdom of God and the Power of God that is proclaimed in the Word of God.

Dreary days should cause us to meditate on such things.  We have the Truth yet with us and that Truth is a two-edged sword.  It should be proclaimed in the world for what it is: a message of certain judgment and the offer of hope in the face of that judgment.  We should be moved by weeping... it should be our heart's desire that repentance be forthcoming such that the awful suffering entailed in judgment be avoided.  In the midst of our weeping there should be a fundamental hope though.

Ahab was doomed but the Word of God would remain.  Ahab's house would fall but the House of God would remain.  There is the strength of the True Church and its humility.  We are always aware that judgment will fall on those that deserve it but that awareness is tempered by the corollary awareness that "there, but for the grace of God, go I."  

Today this message is vitally necessary for the world to hear.  It is important for our world at large, for our leaders and for all who are cheer leading for further apostasy.  It is important for our children, and our neighbors and even our churches.  Now the world needs "men of God" like the ones God raised up to confront Ahab.  Who knows what God might do?  Perhaps, even now, in this country and in this world, He might pour out His Spirit when the people of God, in obedience to His Word, rise up to speak "truth to power", even if that power goes away sullen and displeased.

We do not weep as those without hope even though weeping is appropriate.

 

 

 

 

1 Kings 19 & 20: What ARE You Doing Here?

Image: "Dark Times", 2018, National Arboretum, District of Columbia

1 Kings 19:9 (NKJV) 9 And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
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Even the strongest faith sometimes falters.  Other than the Lord Christ Himself (and even He, perhaps, in His garden prayer) none of us are continuously solid, unwavering and bold all of the time.  Our walk before the Lord is comprised of hills and valleys.  We had a saying in my Navy days: "Sometimes you bite the bear, sometimes the bear bites you."  Not very eloquent but, in my experience, generally true.

In chapter 19 we see Elijah, the very "type" of the Word of God in the OT, cringing before the anger of Jezebel and Ahab.  He leaves his servant behind and slinks off into the "wilderness" and sits under a broom tree.  There he prays that he might die.  It was just that dark.

In a very interesting and tantalizing conversation an angel of the Lord comes and provides food and drink for him... twice.   The angels tells him "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you!"  Like the Lord Christ Whom he typifies, Elijah is being sent into the wilds for forty days and forty nights.  That food would be all that he ate.

He goes into a cave and God speaks to him and says "What ARE you doing here, Elijah?" (vs.9).  He will ask Elijah the same question again in vs. 13.  God knows what Elijah is doing there... He is just causing Elijah to face up to what he, Elijah, is doing.  Elijah is going through a crisis of faith and this is the real "journey" of which the Lord spoke.  The trials of faith, in my opinion, are that of which the angel was speaking when he said "the journey is too great for you."  And here is where we can find comfort for our souls as we see how God ministers to Elijah in the very midst of his soul's despair.

Notice first that it is a crisis of faith.  Elijah, twice in verses 10 & 14, calls out to the Lord in faith.  "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts;..." he wails.  "God, I have tried... I really have... but it has not worked!  Your people, Israel, have vandalized your altars and killed Your prophets!  I am alone... they are coming after me... what good have I accomplished?  What purpose have I achieved?  Has it all been for nothing?"

I don't think there is a serious Christian alive who has not "been there, done that."  Elijah has not departed from the faith.  He is still clinging to the truth of God.  He knows that God and God alone is the only hope for him and for God's people.  Yet, in the words of James Russel Lowell in his brilliant poem, "The Present Crisis", "Truth is forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne."  This is the most potent trial we Christians face... it is the problem of evil in the world and the seeming impotence that God's people demonstrate in the face of it.

It is exactly here we see how God deals with us as He dealt with Elijah.  He confronts us... He causes us to look at ourselves... "What ARE you doing here?"  "Why are you indulging in self-pity and despair? You believe in Me... you know Who I am... Why is that not enough?"

God shows great sympathy and compassion to Elijah.  He does not beat him over the head with caustic comments.  God speaks to him and reminds him of great truths.  God is not in the "great and strong wind" that breaks the rocks in pieces, or in the earthquakes that shake the entire world, or in the fire that consumes the temporal works of man (vs. 11-12).  God is in the "still small voice" that tugs at our conscience and tenderly pulls at our heart.  

That is the true God and, as we shall see, it is the power of God.

God calls Elijah back to service (vs. 15-17) and gives him a mission.  God tells him that though he feels all alone yet he is not.  God has "reserved seven thousand in Israel" to Himself.  Like Gideon with his small band of soldiers, like the Lord Jesus with His twelve apostles and one of them a traitor, it is the few that shall overcome the many.  The power of God is most manifest when there can be no other explanation for the things that will happen than that it is He that has brought them about.

In chapter 20 we see other prophets of God, from among the seven thousand, confronting Ahab.  It is particularly important to see that Elijah is not used in this chapter.  Elijah will see that he is not alone and he will see, through Ahab's victories and Ahab's fall, that his, Elijah's, words and service have not been in vain.  Elijah is given a servant, Elisha, who will ultimately take his place (19:18).  Elisha will carry on in Elijah's place and do even greater works than he did.  Elijah's life has not been in vain and his reward is certain.  This is the power of God... this is the kindness of God... this is the mercy of God... and this is our hope.

Consider the image above.  When the skies are dark and grey... when all that seems to remain of the works of man are in ruins... know that for all the loneliness of the sight yet what you see is not all there is.  The "still small voice" has not been silenced and the Truth will yet prevail.  All that God has purposed in us will be restored and our faith will be vindicated.  God is yet moving to prove His righteousness and His grace and His wisdom and we, though presently so small, will be vindicated as triumphant.

"What are YOU doing here?  This is not where you belong!  You still have work to do and joy to experience, now strengthen your weak knees and see the power of God."

 

I Kings 17 &18: The War of the God's Word

Image: Window on the World, 2017, Monticello, Va. 

1 Kings 17:24 (NKJV) 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth.”

1 Kings 18:17 (NKJV) 17 Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”

1 Kings 18:20–21 (NKJV) 20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

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(I am indebted to Ralph Davis for insights from his fine commentary on 1 Kings leading to this meditation.)

These two chapters are filled with exciting stuff.  There are several important encouragements we could draw from it.  We could look at how God preserves His people even in the face of drought as even the ravens of the air provide Elijah's needs.  There is the widow of Zarephath example.  A Gentile woman in the Pagan Phoenician land of Sidon is chosen by God to provide hospitality to God's servant and is blessed in return.  She like other women before her (e.g. Rahab) demonstrates how even the lowliest "dog" is allowed to eat "crumbs from the Master's table" (Mark 7:28).  We can be warmed and fed by the assurance that our God has meaning and purpose and love for us even in the most difficult of times.  Here we have a bounteous feast of encouragement from the details in these chapters.

But we must not get lost in the trees and miss the forest.  These chapters are about war:  the war between God's Word (vested in the person and type of Elijah) and the demonic forces that surround us and are even now raging against the people of God and the peace of mankind.

Elijah is not just any old prophet.  When God wants to represent to us the Old Testament in terms of the "Law and the Prophets" it is Moses and Elijah that He chooses to represent it (the Mount of Transfiguration, Mat. 17:3).  Elijah figures as the Word of God present in the world confronting and doing battle with the evil spirits that seek to cover the world in darkness.  Here we see that very real and deadly conflict represented to us in extraordinary detail and we see its ultimate conclusion foretold with clarity and significance.

First we see the Word of God "coming" to Ahab and to all of Israel in power and judgment (17:1).  God brings the plague of drought on the land because of the evil that is in it.

Second we see the Word of God being "withdrawn" from the land as Elijah is sent into hiding (17:5).  God's most terrifying judgment is to withdraw His Word from a people so that they, in their corporate accountability, have no benefit from it.  The drought is nothing compared to this horrifying prospect as God's Spirit is held back and the people are given over to suffering and hope turns to despair.

Third we see God preserving His Word in the remnant of faithful believers in the face of apparent defeat by the forces of evil (17:5-24) and how God uses that persecuted remnant to touch and transform the lives of others.  God will always leave a witness to His power and greatness as He preserves His Word.

Fourth we see how God calls forth His Word in due time to confront evil and to proclaim the truth and how that truth is publicly and powerfully vindicated. (18:1-45)  

Fifth we see how God's Word is viewed by those who are held in Evil's power.  Elijah is characterized as "the troubler of Israel" (18:17).  This is the type of blindness that covers the world.  Rather than seeing that it is not their own wickedness that brings "trouble" into their land, those who are the instruments of Satan react angrily and vindictively against the Messenger that God sends to them.  Can we fail to see the parallel here between Elijah and the Lord Jesus Who was rejected by men because He was God's Word incarnate and the world loved darkness instead of light (John 1:3-11)?

Sixth we see the nature of God's final victory when the forces of evil are proved to be nothing at all, helpless to demonstrate any true power over mankind to their well being.  Elijah contemptuously calls on the wicked servants of Baal to prove himself as god in the direct confrontation between the Word of God and the powers of darkness (18:21).  The Word of God then, as Jesus did later, stood alone in this conflict (18:22) and prevailed against all the hosts of Satan.  

And we see the terrible prospect of final judgment as the prophets of Baal are summarily executed (18:40) and God's Word alone stands as the Truth, the Whole Truth and nothing but The Truth.  

In 1 Kings 17 & 18 we have a summarized view of all history.  God's Word is at war with the forces of deception and evil.  There are times when that evil appears to be triumphant and God's Word is of seemingly small effect.  But the power of God's people is "ministerial and declarative," it is to proclaim the Truth when God's brings about confrontation and to standby and see the power of God proved in their time and place.  All of this is reinforced in the powerful symbology present in the Revelation given to John.  

It is this calling which all of us are to pursue and it is the hope of these chapters that will sustain us.  God will not allow His Word to be vanquished.  It will triumphant and do so gloriously such that all the world will know that there is only One God and He is the Triune God of the True Israel, the people of God.