PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

The story actually gets better as you follow along.  We have a queen who is ruling over Judah, in Jerusalem.  That is Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother.  Remember Ahaziah was the one who was killed by Jehu as he was running away from him after his father was killed.  After Ahaziah was killed then his mother, Athaliah, wanted to secure her throne and so killed all of her family members.  She succeeded except for one of Ahaziah’s sons, Joash.  He was hidden by one of Ahaziah’s sisters, Jehosheba.  I hope you are following.  The queen mother wanted to consolidate her power, but her step-daughter hid one of her grandchildren so that he would be spared from the slaughter that took place in order to consolidate the queen mother’s power.

This infant grew and when he was 7 years old the high priest, Jehoiada, commanded the captains of the Carites to join him and make an oath to him.  They promised to protect this child, Joash, from anyone who might look to harm him.  Jehoiada anoints him in the temple, just like we see Jehu was anointed by a minion and the other kings who were anointed by priests, and the people celebrate the new king, even while the queen mother is trying to consolidate her power.

She comes out of the kings palace wondering what all the commotion is in the temple. When she enters the temple and sees that this new king has been anointed she is arrested and killed outside the temple.  The new king then takes his residence in the kings palace when he is only 7 years old.  We find that the Lord and His people begin to take back over the land.  In Jerusalem we have a high priest who anoints a new king and you can assume that the new king will follow the way of God.  In the north you have Jehu who kind of followed God and destroyed all the priests and the people of Baal.  Things are starting to look up.

For 28 years Jehu, the one who was anointed by the minion, rules over Israel.  But look at what he does once he comes into power.  He slaughters all of the children of Ahab, which we must assume were followers of Baal as Jezebel was.  There were 70 children in all.  He slaughters anyone who was friends with Ahab.  He calls a solemn day of sacrifice and worship for Baal and that anyone who loved Baal had to come.  They all came and they were all slaughtered.  From all across the land Jehu is involved in a theocide by destroying all the priests, worshipers, followers of Baal.

So we find Jehu cleans house, literally, and turns the people away from the worship of Baal which was very pleasing to the Lord.  He didn’t 100% follow the Lord, he maintained the sins of Jeroboam, vs.29.  But God was somewhat pleased and promised him, in vs.30ff, that to the 4th generation the ruler of Israel would come from the family of Jehu.  But God did start to trim away the territory that Israel controlled and so we begin seeing that Israel starts to lose some of the land that had originally been considered as theirs.  As a result Israel begins to lose some of its power.

We find that Jehu, that crazy driver (II Kings 9:20), is succeeded by Jehoahaz, his son.

I have always said that violence begets violence.  We find Elisha who takes the leading role in deciding who is going to be the king over Israel, which then also has an impact on who is going to be the king in Judah.  He tells one of his minions (read a member of the company of prophets) to go to the north and anoint one of the commanders of the north as the king of Israel.  Then when you do that run away as quickly as you can.

So this member of the company of prophets (read minion) goes to Israel and calls out the commander and anoints him with oil.  Remember, this is a tradition that goes all the way back to Saul who was anointed king of Israel, the united kingdom, by Samuel, and then David who was also anointed king of Israel by Samuel, and Solomon was anointed by the priest Zadok.   Here, instead, the king of Israel is anointed king covertly by a minion and not by the head of the priestly class which would have been Elisha.  Elisha could never have gotten close to Jehu because he was known and also kind of a wanted, despised man.

As a result Jehu takes the reigns and kills the current king of both the north and the south so that things are completely shaken up.  The queen mother, Jezebel, is thrown off the wall even while she was wearing her makeup and all dolled up.  Look at vs.30.  So we find that all the prophecies come true which the prophets had foretold.  Jezebel would die and would not be buried but rather would be eaten by the dogs, that is except for her skull, her feet, and her palms.  That is a bit random.

We find ourselves with a lot of transition in the house of Judah, read Jerusalem, and in the house of Israel, read Samaria.  We do see that the king who made it out of the famine was not only very curious about Elisha, but he also does a very good deed on behalf of Elisha.  What you see in vs.1-6 is a type of repayment to Elisha for all that he had done for the nation of Israel.  And I said we would never hear how the king felt about what Elisha did.  I was wrong.  The king begins by wanting to know everything there was to know about Elisha and all the good that Elisha did.  He is talking with Elisha’s old right hand person, the one who went back to the king for a kickback, and the topic of the woman with the son who died and then was raised from the dead comes up.

She was told by Elisha to flee to Philistia during the famine, and then return once it is over.  She does that and on her return the king grants not only her land back but all of the profits that she would have made had she been on the land when she was gone.  She was treated right and it is primarily because of her relationship to Elisha.

We see Elisha has a hand in the transition of power in Aram as the king is ill and the one waiting on him kills him and takes over the country.  We see that Jehoram ruled in Judah.  For 8 years he lived the type of life that Ahab had lived, which was walking away from the Lord.  We see a theme coming up that whenever a king was unfaithful he is described as walking in the way of Ahab.  That is not a good moniker and that describes a person who is walking away from God toward their own desires, while drawing the people away from God.  One never wants to be described as someone who walked in the way of Ahab.

I hope you are following along with this story.  I am finding it much easier to follow along in the life of Elisha and what happens to him and with him as he ministers to the north.  The Arameans are still amassing against Israel on the city gates of Samaria, which is the capital.  The people are starving, the king, in the last chapter, sent people to kill Elisha because he was to blame for this failure of provision.

The chief guard was told by Elisha that tomorrow, the next day, food would be sold at the city gates at a rate which was normal.  Basically, Elisha said that by tomorrow things will go back to normal.  The guard said there is no way that is going to happen.  Elisha responded by saying: it will happen, oh it will happen, but you will not be able to enjoy it.  

Outside of the city gates there are four lepers who find themselves in a difficult situation.  If they choose to go inside the city they will die from starvation.  If they go to the camp of the Arameans they could potentially die at the hands of the Arameans, but at least they had a chance.  So they go to the camp and notice that they had deserted it because God had sent a squadron of angels which scared away the Arameans.  So they go back and tell  the people of Samaria, the capital of Israel, that they were free to roam about the cabin. 

The words of Elisha are fulfilled as they plunder the camp.  But when they open the gates of Samaria the people get a bit excited and crush the commander who opened the gate, the same one who came to kill Elisha earlier and who heard the prophecy that next day things would go back to normal.  So the famine passes and the siege is over simply because the Arameans have run away from the presence of the Lord.  

The question I am asking is how is the king going to treat Elisha after this situation?  I’m guessing that we do not find out how the king responds.

We  have another list of miracles that Elisha is able to muster up and some are significant while others are pretty petty.  But they all lead to the same conclusion that Elisha was a man of God and someone that kings, both allies and enemies, feared and understood that God was on his side.  Let’s run down the miracles that he performed.  

There is the strange tale of Elisha’s minions, the Bible calls them his company of prophets, who are unhappy with the living arrangements and they go out to build individual log cabins in which to dwell.  One of the prophets was cutting down a log when his axe head came off.  He bemoaned the loss because it was borrowed and he would have to pay it back.  Elisha was able to make the axe head float.  That is a pretty insignificant miracle, but it does give us insight into the fact that Elisha had a whole lot of students who were under him.  So it definitely is not Elisha and the rest of the world.  He had folks on his side who were studying under him.

Elisha is also able to hear what the king says when he is in his bedchamber.  As a result he tells the king of Israel where the Arameans are going to be so that they can go somewhere else and be safe.  The king of Aram is pretty upset by this and demands that Elisha’s head be brought to him.  As the company of soldiers draw near Elisha is able to make them blind and transport them to Samaria, into the hands of the king of Israel.  Instead of killing this vowed enemy, the king serves them a meal, as God commanded, and is quite the host.  There is peace in the land for some time after this event. 

Once again the king of Aram is on the battle trail and they lay siege to Samaria, which is the capital of Israel.  The Israelites are starving and as a result they start eating their kids.  This scandalizes the king of Israel and he blames God and Elisha for the situation in which they find themselves.  He sends people to go kill Elisha because they (God and Elisha) are not making a difference in the current situation.  When things go poorly, people of bad character blame others for their misfortune.

The purported enemies, well at least certainly not allies, of Israel have a king and a commander who is very powerful and very well known.  This commander’s name is Naaman, but Naaman has a problem.  After they have been out robbing and looting and pillaging the Israelites one of the slaves that they picked up from Israel was serving Naaman’s wife.  Now, Naaman had a problem.  He had leprosy which is a bit of a bummer if you are worshiping other gods.  You can still make things work out, but it is quite a nuisance.  Now, if you are an Israelite, which Naaman was not, it would  disqualify you from worshiping God as you ought to.

This servant told Naaman that she knew that there was a man of God in Israel, that would be Elisha, who could heal him, if he was willing to be healed.  The commander asks the king, the king gives the green light and Naaman goes off to meet this man of God with enough booty to satisfy him.  The man of God doesn’t even meet the commander but just tells him to wash in the Jordan and then he should be good to go.  Naaman was furious.  First of all, how dare he not even meet me.  Secondly, how dare he tell me to wash in a second class river when we have the best rivers in the world.  Remember, pride does come before the fall and if we are so intent on how we look in a certain situation then we are going to miss the opportunities for healing and leading our people in the correct direction.  That is a lesson for all times,  including today.

He eventually listens, he washes, he is healed, and, this is key, he is converted to becoming a follower  of the Lord.  He committed himself, which probably also meant his family, to sacrifice  and worship only to the one true God.  Elisha refused to accept anything  for his time and his work.  Which was unusual for prophets.  In fact, it was so unusual that Elisha’s side kick, Gehazi, raced after Naaman wondering if he might have some of the booty which Elisha refused.  Of course Naaman complied, he was healed after all.

When Gehazi gets back Elisha confronts him and the leprosy of Naaman was then transfered to Gehazi and all of his future generations.  I don’t really understand why Gehazi did what he did, but he certainly did pay for it.  

It is hard to keep up with all of the miracles that happen in this one chapter at the hands of Elisha.  It is interesting how Elijah tends to be the prophet that takes the day and is the most well known, and yet Elisha does indeed seem to have double the Spirit of God that Elijah had.  Let’s list the miracles that happen in this chapter alone:  a widow saves her two children from slavery because Elisha allows oil to continually flow from a vessel to fill up all the empty jars that were brought to the widow.  A barren woman conceives and bears a son.  That son dies and over a long period of time is raised from the dead by Elisha.  Elisha changes a toxic soup to a delectable delicacy.  Elisha feeds hundreds of people with a meal only meant for him.

It is fascinating how far below the radar he flies, and yet he raised someone from the dead.  We don’t know much about Elisha but he is definitely a man of God and one that we would do well to see how his story ends in this book of the Bible.  Follow along with his life with me.  It makes me think of all the untold stories of the heroes who during this time are flying below the radar but making a substantial difference in the lives of people.  

We find a new king in Israel, the north, whose name is Jehoram who was slightly better than his dad in that he tore down the high places of Baal which were put in place by his father.  So he is slightly better, but still clung to the sin of going to foreign gods instead of worshiping the one Lord.  Moab comes into the picture as the king senses a weakness and becomes antagonistic against Israel and this new king.

So the new king gathers up any allies which he may have which includes the king of Judah, so the southern kingdom, and the king of Edom.  They seek out counsel not from the foreign gods, but actually from the Lord and wonder if there might be a prophet who could give them counsel as to whether they should attack or not.  They find Elisha.

Elisha is not very excited to see the king of Israel, the new one, and asks him why he doesn’t seek out the gods of his father?  He has a great answer and says that the Lord has summoned them so he is asking of the Lord’s prophets for advice.  Did you see what Elisha did next?  He asks for a musician.  He needs the presence of music, at least in this case, in order to feel the presence of God.  Yes, I said feel the presence of God.  That is pretty unique in this situation.  David used to play the harp for Saul and it would drive the evil spirits away.  Here Elisha uses music to discern the will of God.

He says that the battle will be favorable, and it was.  The king of Moab finds himself up against the wall, literally, and as a result he decides that maybe if he goes to the extreme then his gods will win the battle.  He sacrifices his eldest son and the Israelites are horrified by this action and retreat back to their cities.  In effect, the king of Moab saves his life by sacrificing his son.  It is the exact opposite of what we see in the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave of his life in order to save all of humanity.  

As we read this chapter we see a classic transition of power from Elijah on to Elisha who receives double the Spirit of Elijah.  And then there is a disturbing ending which causes us to catch our breath and think: Hmm, now that is weird.

Elijah is in his last days and wants to hand on his mantle, literally, to Elisha.  He does and he is carried away by chariots of fire, which again is an image that we are somewhat familiar with, at least in regards to the movie.  Once the mantle is passed on then Elisha begins his ministry in Jericho and transforms the city from a place of deadness, to a place of life.  He changes the water of the city so that it is able to be consumed and as a result it brings life.  Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world and it continues to remain a viable city.  It is located in the midst of Palestinian territory and a place that is difficult to understand when you go there.  There is much conflict and much confusion as it finds itself really in hostile territory.  But it perseveres.

Then we find ourselves in the end of this chapter wishing this part wasn’t present, especially for those of us who are follicly challenged.  Elisha must have been bald because a band of boys came out and started to make fun of him saying: “Go away, baldhead!”  He cursed them in the name of God, yes, in the name of God, and two bears came out and killed 42 of those kids.  Not a great ending to the chapter.  It is a repetition of what we found in the earlier chapter: the moral of the story is: Don’t mess with the person of God… or don’t mess with God.