Luke 16:19-31 - The rich man and Lazarus

Several of Jesus' parables give the message that it is not those we expect who will "go to heaven" (with all the caveats on the suitability of that phrase!). 

The story starts off with a rich man, he dressed well and lived well. Now this was not the problem, being rich is not a problem. It is what we do with riches that can be a problem, the attitudes it engenders in our hearts. Each day a beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate. So everyday the rich man had an opportunity to help a poor man, but did not do so. It is perhaps also significant that the poor man has a name. In fact I think he is the only person in a parable who gets a name. In doing this Jesus is showing that the poor man was actually the more "important" person in God's eyes.

In time both men died. No wealth, status nor power can prevent us from dying. Lazarus was taken up to Abraham's side, while the rich man was taken to Hades and was suffering torment. The rich man still had the proud attitudes he had acquired on earth and called out to Abraham to send Lazarus to ease his pain. What we do on the earth and the characters we develop are crucial, they will have eternal significance.

Abraham tells the rich man why he is suffering, and also that no one can pass from Hades to Heaven or vice versa.

Then the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his family to change their ways. People always complain that God does not make His message clear enough. This is garbage. The Jews had all the Law and the Prophets to tell them the truth but ignored them. Jesus walked among them and did many signs and miracles, yet few believed in Him. It is a lie to think that if only someone sees miracles they will believe. We are responsible for our unbelief. Even Jesus rising from the dead did not convince many of them. The human heart can be very hard.

Luke 16:16-18 - Miscellaneous

Verses 16-18 seem to have a rather random selection of extra teachings. John the Baptist marked a clear dividing line in the history of God's working with Israel and the world. Everything in the law and the prophets was pointing forward to Jesus and the kingdom of God. John also was pointing the people to Jesus, the difference was that John actually saw Jesus. Jesus was something that was going to happen at some point in the future, but was something that was imminent. 

Now the good news is being preached. We are no longer looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, rather we are announcing that He is here and the good news is now clear. So there is now a spiritual war going on. During Jesus' earthly ministry the Pharisees and other religious leaders tried to put a stop to it. Ever since then different groups at different periods and in different ways have sought to infiltrate the kingdom. 

Verse 17 is a warning about misunderstanding the relationship between the old and new covenants. The new covenant fulfills the old, it does not nullify it. The law reflected the heart of God. 

Verse contains Jesus' words on divorce. This is part of much longer sections in Matthew and Mark on the topic, and it is important to see it in its context. See my comments on Mark 10:1-12 and Matthew 19:1-12. 

Luke 16:1-15 - Wise Living

This is a fascinating parable and has to do with our attitude towards and use of money. It calls on us to have a realistic view of what life is really about. Money is very deceitful. As Paul says, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 

On the face of it the manager seems to be acting dishonestly!, yet he is commended by the master. He acted knowing that the money was not his and prepared for the future. Likewise, the money and other possessions we have are not really ours, we are just stewards of them. So instead of using money to get things for ourselves we should seek to get riches in heaven. We should give to God and give to others.

Jesus is quite open that the manager was dishonest, then He moves on to talking about us being trustworthy. Jesus is not calling on us to be dishonest, nor to act irresponsibly, but to use wealth for what it is. We are entrusted with various things, we need to use them for the glory of God and for the good of others. One day God will give us even greater responsibilities, and how well or otherwise we carry out our responsibilities here will have a bearing on the future. 

Jesus closes this section with the warning that we cannot love God and money. Some of the "prosperity" preachers really need to be bear this in mind and take heed. The Pharisees did love money. Jesus condemns them for seeking to justify themselves and living by man's standards. We are to live for God.

Luke 15:11-31 - The Lost Son

The theme of seeking the lost continues with the parable of the lost son, or the prodigal as it is often better known. As an aside, the groupings of parables and incidents tells us something about the construction of the New Testament. The gospel writers tended to group parables, incidents and teachings together thematically, not always following a chronological order. That is why some of the differences between gospels occurs.

The parable is well known, but there are many lessons to be learnt and questions that can be asked.

One is that it is quite amazing that the Father gave the younger son his share and allowed him to go on his way. God gives man an amazing amount of freedom. In someways the younger brother could be viewed as the Gentile nations. They wanted little to do with God, unlike Israel whose whole being was defined by the Law. Then the Gentiles repented and gladly turned to Jesus, but the Jews rejected Him.

Turning against the Father failed to benefit the younger son, resulting only in poverty. At last he came to his senses and decided to return home, and in a contrite fashion. He knew that he deserved nothing from the Father. The Father, however, had long been looking out for the son to return and was filled with joy when he spotted him. So the Father welcomed the son and threw a party of celebration. 

The older brother was put out by all this. Were all his efforts for nothing, and here was his brother getting a party.

The kingdom is about seeking out the lost. When they do so there is great rejoicing in heaven.

Luke 15:1-10 - God seeks the lost

In the previous chapter Jesus had been speaking primarily to the religious leaders. He continues this theme because "tax collectors" and "sinners" had been gathering around Him. These people were considered the lost of Israel, outcasts. Tax collectors were despised for two reasons. They worked for the occupying power, and they took their own cut from the people as well. Sinners were those who paid no regard to the Law, including adulterers and robbers amongst their number. So the Pharisees were shocked that Jesus welcomed these people, and saw this as an excuse to get at Jesus.

So Jesus tells them the parable of the lost sheep. The good shepherd goes out to seek for the lost sheep, He does not just abandon it. Moreover, when He finds it He cares for it and is full of joy. So if anyone turns to Jesus and is willing to be helped and restored by Him then God rejoices, and He delights in the fact that this lost sheep has been found.

The reference to the ninety nine sheep is probably ironic. All of us need to repent, the problem is that many of us think that we don't need to. Someone who feels terrible but knows their need of God is far closer the kingdom of God than someone who is satisfied with life and themselves and thinks that they do not need God.

Jesus then backs up the message with a related parable, this time about a woman who searches for a lost coin.She puts great effort into doing this and is delighted when her mission is successful. The kingdom of God is about calling people to repentance.

Luke 14:25-35 - A Costly Business

So we have just heard how many people refuse the invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven, then that there is lots of room and God makes strenuous efforts to get as many people into heaven as possible. Now we come to another warning. We tend to ask "will everyone get saved", "will lots get saved", "will just a few get saved". The questions we should ask are (i) are we saved; and if the answer is yes, (ii) how are we living our lives.
Some may have taken Jesus' earlier words to mean that anyone can get in, and that it is easy to get in. This is not true. It is all God's work, but it is not easy. We need to "hate" our nearest and dearest and even our own lives. Now "hate" here is being used as hyperbole, but this does not mean we can ignore it! We must love Jesus more than anything, this means there will be times when our lives and loved ones will come a poor second. There will be times when it might seem as if we do hate them. Notice also that Jesus talks about us coming to Him, following Him. If He was not God this would indeed be blasphemous.
Then Jesus uses another analogy. This time a king being opposed by a more powerful army. He cannot win so he makes peace. We cannot win against God. Moreover, the peace terms will be onerous, in the same way God demands everything of us, complete unconditional surrender. 
See the mixture of sentiments and metaphors used in Jesus' talk of the kingdom. If we have only a one-sided view of things then our view is wrong.
The saying on salt is given also in Matthew 9:50, I am not quite sure why it is mentioned here.

Luke 14:15-24 - Whose problem?

This is a continuation of the discussion in the preceding section. Jesus has warned the Pharisees that they should invite the poor and lame to their banquets, for it is God who gives the final reward, and we should be looking to Him for our reward, not an earthly reward.

Jesus then tells the parable of the Great Banquet, and inviting the poor, lame and blind is precisely what God does. It was not that "respectable" people were not invited, but that they all made excuses. Now see how the master reacts, He does not accommodate the people who have made excuses, but sends His servants out into streets to invite the lame and blind and poor. This was done but there was still room, so the master sent them out into the highways and byways.

There are several lessons to be learnt from this. The first is that God does not accommodate His ways to suit us. We need to change our ways to suit Him! Yet look at how men always react, listen to complaints and debates from atheists. They all boil down to "God should do things the way I want Him to do them". We need to beware of the same tendency within ourselves as well. We need to fit in with God's plans. 

Then we see that the problem is not that there is not enough room in "heaven". God will quite willingly take all who accept the invitation. God is not reluctant to save, rather we are reluctant to be saved. That is the problem.

Luke 14:1-13 - Living in the sight of God

Another Sabbath day, it is interesting how many incidents occurred on the Sabbath. Jesus was at the house of a prominent Pharisee. Jesus was not afraid to meet with the Pharisees, who for the most part were out to get Him. It also says that He was "being watched carefully". Jesus knew how to live under pressure. How did He do this? It was because He knew His Father. We need to adopt the same approach. We so often think that what we need is for various "stress causing factors" to be removed from our life. Now this is not to say that we should not seek a less stressful life, but there will always be something to cause us stress. The solution lies in knowing the Father better.

A man was there with an abnormal swelling. Jesus took the battle to the Pharisees. He challenged them on whether or not it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. They refused to answer. Jesus then challenged them further. They still remained silent.

Jesus then turned up the heat of the attack. They failed to do good, and instead indulged in hypocrisy, seeking honour for themselves. When we act like this we are forgetting that God is God, and that it is God we are ultimately responsible to. We need to live knowing that we are answerable to God. This the best protection there is in life against evil, and the greatest motivator for good, and a source of strength that enables us to overcome the world.

Luke 13:31-35 - Who do we weep for?

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and warned Him to leave because Herod was out to kill Him. Now they may have been acting out of genuine concern for Jesus, or they may have been trying to quietly get Him to stop causing trouble.

Whatever the case Jesus was having none of it. He had a job to do and would continue to do that job. This was not just bravado. Jesus knew full well what His mission was and that it would necessitate going to the cross. It was also necessary for Him to die on Jerusalem.

Moreover, Jesus was concerned for Jerusalem. He did not fear for His own life, for He knew what God was doing and had complete confidence in His Father. Instead He was concerned for Jerusalem. He knew that if only they would have listened to Him they would have spared themselves much suffering.

We live in a time when society is increasingly anti-Christian. We need to beware of feeling sorry for ourselves. It is not us who is in danger but our godless society. We should weep for our society, rather than weep for ourselves.

Luke 13:18-30 - The Kingdom

Jesus now uses one of His "what is the kingdom of God like" parables. A mustard seed was small, but grew into a large tree so that birds made their homes in it. Then he uses yeast as a good indicator. Often yeast is used in warning parables about the pervasive effect of hypocrisy, but not here. This should act as a warning about over interpreting parables. The kingdom of God can start off seemingly small, but then work its way through the whole batch of dough. The church did start off small, but has now spread throughout the world, and is continuing to do so. 

Jesus then continued his missionary journey. Someone asks about how many will be saved. Jesus turns the question round. What the questioner needs to be concerned about is whether or not he will be saved. Likewise today people often ask questions like "what about those who have not heard". Well, you have heard, so the key thing is first how do you respond. And if you respond positively to the gospel then you can go and tell those who have not yet heard. 

Jesus warns the man that just being associated with the kingdom is not enough. We need to make a decision. 

Notice how Jesus uses the analogy of a narrow door, then finishes by talking about people coming from all over the world. The debate about whether many or few will get saved is sterile, we need to respond, then we need to act. 

Luke 13:10-17 - Sabbath healing

We now get one the Sabbath confrontations. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. There must have been something about His teaching for Him to be so readily allowed to preach. 

In the congregation was a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years. Jesus called her forward and declared that she was free from her infirmity, laid hands on her and she was immediately healed.

The synagogue leader was indignant about this, for the "Sabbath had been broken". Now think about this and see how ridiculous this is on various levels. First, as Jesus pointed out, the religious leaders were quite happy to see an ox or donkey helped on the Sabbath, but apparently not a human being, a daughter of Abraham. This highlighted their hypocrisy. The we should think about what they had just seen happen. A great miracle had occurred, this could not have happened without the power of God, so should they not have been a little less hasty to condemn? Finally there is the question of what "work" Jesus had done? He had made a declaration and laid hands on her, this is hardly work!

We really do need to watch our hearts. When we see the work of God it brings us under judgement, we know that one greater than us is about. A human reaction can be to seek to condemn the work, but in doing so we are "condemning" God. We need to watch ourselves when we become full of our own theology, for it can be a very short step to error.

Luke 13:1-9 - Repent or Perish

In my Bible the start of chapter 13 of Luke is entitled "Repent or Perish", this is really quite appropriate after working our way through 2 Kings. Judah tried all sorts of things to survive except the one thing that would have worked, turning back to their God in repentance and trusting in Him. Turning to God is the one thing that we must do in all circumstances, and when we do we can be sure that it is the right thing to do.

The incident involves discussion about some Galileans who had been killed by Pilate. Now Galileans were looked down upon by other Jews (John 1:46, 7:52). Jesus raises another example of people dying in an accident.

Notice how Jesus answers. He does not deny the fact that the Galileans or the people in the tower were sinners. He is not saying no one deserves to die, rather that we all deserve to die. We are no better than they. Our human reaction is to look down on others and take some comfort or pride in that "fact" that we are not as bad as them. Jesus is warning us strongly against this. We all need to repent.

Then Jesus tells a parable of a fig tree that is failing to bear fruit. The tree deserved to be cut down, but instead it was given a period of time to improve, receiving much care in the meantime. God gives us time to repent and turn to Him, but it is so vital that we take advantage of that grace. If we do not we will be absolutely without excuse.

2 Kings 25 - Downfall

Zedekiah had promised allegiance to Babylon, but had then broken that promise and lined up with Egypt (see Jeremiah 37). So Nebuchadnezzar attacked and laid siege to Jerusalem. This brought about terrible starvation. The army and the king fled but were captured by the Babylonian army. Zedekiah was taken to Riblah, he saw his sons killed and then had his eyes gouged out, then he was taken to Babylon.

After this the Babylonians destroyed all the important buildings in Jerusalem, including the temple and palace. Only the poor people were left in the city. All the valuable items in the temple were taken away.Various leaders were taken away and executed. 

Gedaliah was left in charge of what remained of Judah. He had followed Jeremiah's non-resistance approach. He encouraged the people to serve Babylon. Now this was not defeatism, but came out of a realisation that the real problem was not the Babylonians but sin. However, after a time there was a rebellion and Gedaliah, along with several others, was killed. Many people fled, knowing the reprisals that would follow.

Jehoiachin was released after some time allowed to live in Babylon and given allowance. This is a rather strange ending to this sorry tale.

When we get to Chronicles we will get a second look at the history of Israel, looking at things from a different angle.

2 Kings 23:32-24:20 - Return of the bad kings

After the wonderful reign of Josiah we return to the bad kings and the eventual downfall of Jerusalem is about to happen.

Jehoahaz succeeded Josiah. He only reigned for three months, but still had time to "do evil in the eyes of the Lord". He was held captive by Egypt and forced to take money from the people of Judah. 

Jehoiakim came next. By this time Assyria was already a much weakened nation, having lost its capital to Babylon and the Medes some years earlier. Babylon was the new superpower and she now turned her attentions to Judah. Verse 2 states quite clearly that the Lord sent Babylon to destroy Judah, she was God's instrument of judgement. So what is the conclusion to be drawn from this? It is that if Judah wanted to be rescued she needed to make peace with God, through repentance and faith, not making treaties with Babylon, or other nations. The circumstances are the symptom, the root cause is the state of our relationship with God. Notice that these evil rulers had led to the shedding of much innocent blood. (v4).

Jehoaiachin came next. He was another three month evil doer. Jerusalem was now under siege. See how quickly things have collapsed since the end of Josiah's rule. So Jerusalem surrendered to Babylon. As Isaiah had prophesied (2 Kings 20:13,17) the temple treasures were carried off to Babylon. The king and all the skilled and prominent people were carried off into exile. 

Zedekiah was a puppet ruler, placed there by Babylon. Note that Zedekiah was actually a son of Josiah, the family line offered no guarantee of him being a good king. 

So Jerusalem was about to fall completely, and all this was a result of Israel's sin.

2 Kings 23:1-31 - Josiah cleanses the land

Josiah then had the word of the Law read out to all the people, from the least to the greatest. He wanted all the people to know what the Law says. He then also renewed the covenant, ie he recommitted the nation to God and to His Law. Then all the people followed suit. So the king led the people and the people followed. Leaders have a responsibility to give leadership, but the people also have a responsibility to understand and to commit themselves to God.

After the reading of the word and the commitment came action. First all the false idols were cleared out of the temple and they were burnt outside Jerusalem. The priests of the false gods were then removed as well. Next the male shine prostitutes were dealt with, along with the women who did weaving for Asherah. A whole industry and culture had built up about the idol worship. Worship of false gods does not come by itself, but brings a whole host of things with it.

Next the various shrines throughout the land were dealt with. All in all Josiah did as thorough a job as possible of removing all traces of idol worship from the land.

Having cleansed the land Josiah moved to positive worship, bringing back the celebration of the Passover.

Yet despite this great commitment, the sentence of death upon Judah remained. 

Josiah was killed in a battle against Egypt and was killed. It seems strange to us that God's judgement remained, despite all Josiah's actions. The truth is that only the death and resurrection of Jesus is sufficient to truly cleanse us.

2 Kings 22 - The Book of the Law

We now get a good king, Josiah who walked in the ways of David. We should remember that Jesus said that He was The Way, and we should all seek to walk in the way of Jesus.

Josiah was seeing to it that the work of the repairing the temple was done properly. This was done with the money collected from the people. Hilkiah the high priest was in charge of the work. Verse 7 is interesting. Now this does not mean we should not have proper accountability, in the New Testament Paul made sure that the handling of the collection of money for Jerusalem was done in a transparent manner. However, the heart of the matter has to be that we have people who can be trusted. If people cannot be trusted we can have all the laws we like, nothing will change.

During the work Hilkiah found the book of the Law. Now this is quite amazing. It seems that the nation had completely forgotten about the word of God. However, in one sense we should not be surprised. People by nature do not want to hear the word of God, and our society has to a large extent forgotten about the word of God. 

The Law was read out to the king. Josiah then repented. He realised that the reason for all Judah's troubles was their disobedience to the word of God. The priests went to consult Huldah, a female prophet. She then speaks the word, which says that disaster will come and not be stopped, but because of Josiah's faith and repentance it would not happen in his life time. We see here a woman having a significant impact on the nation by speaking the word of God.

2 Kings 21 - The downfall begins

Israel had now fallen to Assyria, Judah had survived and had just had a very good king. However, things were now to take a decided turn for the worse for Judah, leading up eventually to the Babylonian exile. Manasseh was the next king and had the longest reign of the kings of Judah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, undoing all the good work of Hezekiah. Idol worship was reintroduced to Judah. In fact he was following the ways of Israel's king Ahab. Now why did he do this? They had seen what had happened to Israel. They had seen the deliverance of Jerusalem from Assyria. Why then did they turn so quickly to false gods? The basic reason is that we are sinful and are blinded by sin. The world has rejected God's standards of morality. The results of this are obvious for all to see. Study after study shows that people suffer when family life breaks down, yet the world refuses to see and carries on headlong in its rush to destruction. 

Manasseh's evil even went as far as sacrificing his own son. He also set up an idol in the temple of the Lord. He seemed to have a determination to be as disobedient as possible, going against the law in every respect.

So God sent various prophets to Judah, all with the same message. They warned of the direction Judah was going in, they told Judah to learn from Israel, they warned of coming judgement upon the nation. The nation had the chance to repent, but did not take it.

Manasseh's sin also led to much bloodshed in the nation. Violence always accompanies evil.

Amon came next and he too did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Amon was assassinated, but his assassins were themselves then killed by the people of the land. Then they would get s good king.

2 Kings 20 - The seeds of future disaster

Hezekiah became ill. Isaiah sent him a word from the Lord, telling him he was going to die and that he should put his affairs in order.

Hezekiah did not want to die yet, and he wept before the Lord. The Lord then sent another word to Isaiah telling him that Hezekiah would indeed recover and live for another fifteen years.

Now this raises interesting questions. First, a prophecy is not final. When God speaks He does respond to our actions, there are many instances of this in Scripture. Prophecy must never be treated as fatalistic. Secondly it seems that it would have been better if Hezekiah actually had died, then the Babylonian incident would not have occurred.

Hezekiah demanded a sign from God, and indeed he received one.

Babylon was under Assyrian control for a period of time, but did gain independence briefly (later she would become the regional superpower herself). In that time she sent envoys to Hezekiah. Hezekiah showed the envoys all his wealth. Isaiah sees this as a sign that Babylon would one day carry off all of Judah's wealth, as indeed she did.

Hezekiah accepts the word. His response can be either viewed as selfish, or as humbly accepting God's word and being grateful for the time of peace.

2 Kings 19:14-37 - Assyria defeated

This time Hezekiah reacts differently. Instead of going to Isaiah he prays directly to God and he has learnt from Isaiah's reaction. 

Note that Hezekiah does not deny the truth of what Sennacherib has said about conquering other nations, but he recognises the truth that the gods of these nations were only gods of wood  and stone. Israel's God was the one true God. It is important when we are attacked by the enemy that we do not deny truths. A man or woman of faith does not need to be afraid of the truth. 

Hezekiah then calls on God to deliver Jerusalem so that His name might be glorified in all the earth. We are here to bring glory to God.

Having done this Isaiah sends a word of prophecy to Hezekiah foretelling Assyria's downfall.Note that it is the "virgin daughter Zion" who despises and mocks Assyria. We share in God's victory.

Then the prophecy was fulfilled as the angel of the Lord went through the Assyrian camp putting to death 185 000 of them. The king himself was then killed back in Nineveh.

God saves the greater victory for the time when Hezekiah reacted in faith.

2 Kings 19:1-13 - Partial deliverance

Hezekiah was distraught and tore his clothes. We have seen that Hezekiah did many good things, but also displayed weakness. Earlier he had tried to buy off Assyria, here he reacts with fear. However, he also does the right thing in going to the temple. We too can be a mixture of faith and fear. Ideally we would always have perfect faith, would always act with goodness, but we don't. So when we know that we are not reacting properly we should go to the throne of grace to "receive help in our time of need" (Heb 4:16). 

He then sends his secretary to tell Isaiah what has happened. Hezekiah also recognises that it is the Lord's name that is being mocked by Assyria. Isaiah acts in faith and sends Hezekiah a word that Assyria will hear a report and so be diverted from the attack.

Assyria did indeed receive a report of an attack and so withdrew. Sennacherib warned Hezekiah that this was only a temporary reprieve, reminding him of all the nations that had fallen to Assyria. The threat was that Israel would be next. We will see how Hezekiah reacts to this in the next post.

2 Kings 18:17-37 - How the enemy seeks to demoralise us

We now come to the part which is also found in Isaiah 36-37. The Assyrian army came right to the walls of Jerusalem. Assyria was hoping to use threats to get Jerusalem to surrender, though they would have been confident of victory if it came to a battle. They would probably have besieged the place for a while, causing terrible conditions in the city.

The enemy uses fear to try and gain victory. Note the tactics used. There is a mixture of lies and truth in the words used. Our enemy uses the same tactics. Judah had tried to get help from Egypt and should not have done so, so her confidence is undermined. Then he mentions the taking away of the high places. Now this was a good thing and something that they had done right. However, for many years the people had worshipped at these high places, so they would be feeling vulnerable. No matter how devoted any of us are to the Lord there is some degree of mixture in our lives, there is some sin that the enemy can put his finger of accusation on. This is why it is so important that we know and understand that our confidence rests purely on Christ and what He has done. Hezekiah had returned the focus to Jerusalem, now the enemy was attacking Jerusalem. When we as individuals, or as a church or even a nation turn back to God, often there will be an attack on the right things that we have done.

Then the Assyrians offer them a way out, and he also claims to be acting on behalf of the Lord. Again there is a mixture of truth and lies. Assyria was indeed an instrument of the Lord, as Isaiah had said. However, we can be pretty certain that if Judah had surrendered slavery and exile would have been awaiting her.

Hezekiah then asked the Assyrians to speak in Aramaic for he did not want the people to hear and be demoralised. Assyria refused. We need to understand that the enemy will speak to us in a language we understand, he knows the fear buttons to press in our lives.

So the enemy speaks to all the people, seeking to undermine the leader. The enemy will try and undermine our leaders, and also to undermine their faith in God.

The people remained silent for they had been told to do this. When the enemy is lying to us (which is basically whenever he is speaking to us) the best tactic is not to engage with him. Do not bother trying to argue with your fears or anxieties. Instead turn to the positive word of the Lord.

2 Kings 18:1-16 - Hezekiah

Much of the next few chapters of 2 Kings can be found also in Isaiah 36-39.

Hezekiah did right in the eyes of the Lord, and even got rid of the high places. This included smashing up the snake that Moses had made (Num 21:4-9) for it had become an idol. We have a great human propensity to make idols out of anything, including genuine godly successes. Sometimes we need to get rid of things of the past that were once good, because they were for their time and are not for now. 

Kings speaks very highly of Hezekiah here, noting that he trusted in the Lord and held fast to the Lord. He rebelled against Assyria, Now it is notable that a major battle is about to ensue, one in which Jerusalem will be on the very brink of defeat. A simplistic notion would say that when we turn to God everything will turn out fine in a nice simple way. Things will turn out fine in the long run, but the road may be far from smooth.

It was during Hezekiah's reign that Assyria overran Samaria. Then Sennacharib, king of Assyria, attacked the towns of Judah. Hezekiah then went back on his rebellion against Assyria and tried to buy him off with gold and silver from the temple. 

Why did Hezekiah backslide? His outward actions had been good, but deep down there was something lacking in his devotion and trust in God. He needed to be born again, as we all do. Our human nature is fundamentally incapable of truly trusting God. We need to be born again of the Spirit.

2 Kings 17 - The Last King of Israel

Hoshea was to be the last king of Israel. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but apparently was not quite as bad as his predecessor.  Shalmaneser had succeeded Tigleth-Pileser as king of Assyria. Hoshea was a vassal of Assyria, but was also making overtures to Egypt. Now Israel should have made overtures to neither Assyria nor Egypt, but acting dishonestly just made the situation worse. Hoshea must have thought things were going well with Egypt and he stopped paying tribute to Assyria. Not surprisingly Assyria was none too pleased, so he had Hoshea arrested.  Then he invaded the land and many Israelites were eventually deported.

We then get an account of all the sins of Israel. The reason Israel had fallen was very simply a result of their continual disobedience to God, especially their idol worship. Numerous prophets and seers had been sent to the nation warning them, but to no avail. This was no snap judgement of God, He had shown enormous patience with them.  Their idol worship even involved the sacrifice of children. A key difference between Judaism and the pagan religions was that child sacrifice was forbidden (Deut 18:10).

As well as Israelites being deported, Assyria resettled various peoples in Samaria. People in those days thought that different lands had different gods. So they got one of the priests sent back to Assyria to teach people how to worship the god of the land. This could have been a great opportunity, but given the track record of Israel it seems unlikely that proper advantage could be taken of it. So the settled peoples indulged in their own idol worship.

The chapter closes with a reiteration of the fact that Israel was suffering because of her sin against the Lord.

2 Kings 16 - Ahaz the bad

After a series of generally good kings Judah gets a bad one, Ahaz. He followed the ways of Israel. This included sacrificing his son in the fire. Sometimes we are appalled at the judgement that God puts on nations (both Israel and other nations). Often we do not appreciate just how evil they were, and child sacrifice was not uncommon. You could argue the same about our society with its close to two hundred thousand abortions a year.

Israel and Aram attacked Ahaz but failed to win. Ahaz recognised the danger that Assyria posed and sought to buy off Assyria with riches from the temple. He did not realise that he one who he really needed to make peace with was God.

After seeing Tiglath-Pileser Ahaz had a pagan altar made and offered sacrifices on it, he also desecrated the temple.

This was a sorry time for Judah, but another good king was about to follow.

2 Kings 15:8-31 - King Sandwich (2)

Let's now look at the kings of Israel. For all of them, except Shallum, it says they did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And the only reason it doesn't say this about Shallum is because he only reigned for a month and was then assassinated in a power grab by Menahem. 

Doing "evil in the eyes of the Lord" is the most significant thing all of them did. The most important thing in living our lives is whether we live life pleasing or displeasing to the Lord. We think it is about the results, but it isn't. The results are given by God, and follow on from whether or not we follow the Lord.

In being assassinated Shallum was only receiving due retribution for his own act of assassination of Zechariah (Zechariah was a very common name, and is clearly not the minor prophet). Zechariah was the last of the four generations guaranteed by God to Jehu. 

Menahem was a particularly violent man (v16). It was during Menahem's reign that Assyria attacked Israel and Menahem bought him off with silver. This silver was taken from the people. When we have bad rulers it is the people who pay the price. Our response to this maybe to blame the rulers, but maybe God has given us bad rulers as a judgement upon us. You can be absolutely sure that if the people had repented and turned to God He would have done something about the situation.

Pekahiah succeeded Menahem and he too was assassinated.

Pekah is the last king in this sorry list, and it is during his reign that Tiglath-Pileser invades Israel properly, capturing much of the land. Many people were sent into exile. Israel was receiving the price for all her sins.

2 Kings 15:1-7,32-38 - King Sandwich (1)

In this chapter we have a king sandwich, five kings of Israel sandwiched between two kings of Judah. Azariah was the son of Amaziah and continued the line of relatively good kings, though he too failed to remove the high places and people still worshipped there. One might say "well what does it matter how they worshipped as long as they did worship?" Evidently it does matter because God's word keeps going on about the fact that the high places were not removed.
Despite being a good king he had leprosy. Note that it says the Lord afflicted him with leprosy. Again, we tend to react against this thinking "God couldn't do that". Well He did. However, this also should warn us against ideas that sickness and unrighteousness are always directly related. Clearly they are not. There are times when someone gets a disease as a direct result sin, be it causal or judgement from God, but this is not always the case. Azariah did reign for a long time.
Let's go straight to the end of the chapter and the second king of Judah. Now if you read this you will immediately be confused (as I was), for it says "Jotham son of Uzziah". Where is Uzziah? He hasn't been mentioned. Well there is probably a footnote in your Bible telling you that Azariah was also called Uzziah. Jotham followed in the ways of his fathers, doing right but not removing the high places. Note that this period is when Isaiah was starting to preach and prophecy, and was the build up to the time when Assyria would attack the nation, but fail at the last to conquer it. There may have been a tendency towards complacency because the nation was doing relatively well, both spiritually and materially. However, the heart of the matter was not being addressed, as shown by the failure to remove the high places.

2 Kings 14 - Amaziahing times

Amaziah succeeded Joash. he was a reasonable king, but not as good as David He continued doing the things that his father Joash did, but the high places remained.

Amaziah executed (literally) judgement on those who had assassinated his father. However, this was tempered by adhering the to the injunction of the law of Moses that the children were not to be put to death for the sins of their parents. There is firm judgement in the Bible, but it is characterised by justice and mercy.

Judah and Israel were hostile to each other and after establishing his firm control, of the land Amaziah wanted to do battle with Israel. Jehoash, the king of Israel sent him a rather poetic reply declining to do battle.

Amaziah was bent on war, so battle ensued. The battle did not go well for Amaziah. He himself was captured, and Jerusalem and Judah suffered loss, including the breaking down of portions of her walls.

We then get the rather sudden announcement of the death of both Amaziah and Jehoash. Amaziah was succeeded by his son Azariah.

In Israel Jehoash was succeeded by Jeroboam II. He continued the family tradition of doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and reigned for 41 years. Some kings reigned for a very short time, others for a considerable period. Whether or not they did evil seems to have had little bearing on the length of their reign.

However, Jeroboam did restore some of the boundaries to Israel. This was done because of God honouring his promise to Jehu.

2 Kings 13 - Two kings of Israel

We now return to a couple of the kings of Israel, and true to form "they did evil in the eyes of the Lord", the hallmark of the kings of Israel. 

Jehoahaz continued in the sins of Jeroboam, and so led Israel to continue sinning as well. Both Jehoahaz and the people of Israel suffered as a result. So we see that it matters what leaders do. Leaders can set those under them on good or an evil path. Our own leaders have a lot to answer for, and if we are in any positions of leadership we need to recognise that we have a great responsibility.

At the same time the people were responsible for their own actions as well. They did not have to follow the lead of the king. We have a duty to submit to authorities, but we have a greater duty to obey the Lord, and when the two come into conflict we must chose the Lord. 

So Hazael and Ben-Hadad were allowed to have power over Israel.

It then says that Jehoahaz turned to the Lord for help and the Lord answered, even though Israel did not turn away from most of her sins. The Lord is more merciful than we ever imagine. People paint a picture of God as vengeful and talk about hell as being unjust. At the last judgement there will be no one who is surprised at the sentence, the only surprise will be that God was willing to be so merciful for so long.

Little is said about the Jehoash, the important thing is that he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. The other events are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel. Now look at our own lives. What is really important? We worry about all sorts of things, but what really matters is whether or not we living a life worthy of the Lord (Eph 4:1). 

Elisha is about to die. Jehoash seems to be concerned about Elisha. It is not clear how genuine this concern was. Maybe he realised that Elisha was a man of God and suspected that having a man of God was the only thing that was preserving Israel at all. Elisha tells the king to shoot some arrows, which he did. This was a sign of victory over the Arameans, Then he told the king to strike the ground, which he did, but only three times. Elisha wanted him to have struck the ground six times. Now he didn't say this explicitly, but the inference is that Jehoash was really just humouring the prophet, not acting out of committed obedience to the word of God. 

Even in death Elisha continued to have a miraculous effect. Some towns were retaken from Israel's enemies.

2 Kings 12 - Temple Repairs

Joash was one of the few good kings, doing what was right. However, he did not remove the high places. These high places were where the Lord was worshipped, but not in accordance with His instructions. Why was this so serious? Why did so many good kings do lots of right things but fail to remove the high places? The high places had been set up before the temple was built, now the temple was here they should no longer be used. Instead of acting as a place of worship they posed a risk of being a doorway for pagan practices, a risk that was realised on many occasions. Man was seeking to maintain control of worship. If you think about it, this is a contradiction in terms, but the rebellion in our hearts goes deep. God is God and only He has the right to decide how things are done. The same pattern was seen in the New Testament with the Judaisers wanting to cling to traditional Jewish practices, and this was why Paul was so vociferous in his arguments against circumcision etc.

Note that Joash received instruction from the priest. Our governments are quickly rejecting any notion of receiving guidance from religious leaders. Given the quality of some of our religious leaders they may not be missing much, but the principle is dangerous.

Joash set about organising the restoring of the temple, which had evidently been left to go into a state of disrepair. This work was taking an inordinately long time, much longer than it took to build the temple in the first place! It seems (v8) as though the priests were using the money for themselves instead of its proper purposes. So action was taken to correct this. In churches the collection and use of money needs to be handled in a proper and efficient manner. There is nothing wrong or worldly about a church managing its finances in an effective manner.

So the work started to progress properly. Hazael attacked Gath and threatened to attack Jerusalem, but Joash bought him off with the temple treasures. Joash was assasinated.

We will read more about Joash in Chronicles.

2 Kings 11 - Joash becomes king

Athaliah ruled the land for six years. During this time Joash, one of Ahaziah's sons was taken into hiding, Athaliah having tried to the destroy the whole family. There are a number of things to learn here. One is the evil of Athaliah and its connection with pagan worship. She was willing to kill her whole family. When people abandon God death comes. Abortion is an example of this in our society. Secondly, out of this evil family came Joash, who was to be a good king. Our background has an influence on us, and we have an influence on others, but this influence is not decisive. It is God's will and grace that is decisive. He can bring good things out of the most terrible backgrounds. We should never imagine that our background has an irrevocable effect on our life. Finally, there are a number of key servants of God whose life was threatened from the outset. Moses is one, Joash is another, and , of course, Jesus is yet another.

Jehoiada organised protection for Joash, and in the seventh year his crowning as king. The people were delighted, Athaliah having been a thoroughly destructive influence on the land. 

Athaliah was dragged out of the temple and put to death. Evil people often seem powerful for a long time, but when the end finally comes it comes quickly. 

So Joash began to reign at the age of seven.

2 Kings 10 - Judgement

The judgement continued and all of Ahab's family was killed. Now this may seem unfair to us and I don't have a complete answer to this, but consider this. Our actions affect other people, in particular our own families. If we act well we bring blessing on them, if we act badly we bring suffering on them. If we have the freedom to bring good it follows that we must also have the freedom to bring bad. Even so the judgement seems harsh. However, we do not know what sins the family had committed. All in all seventy heads were amassed and Jehu had these placed at the city gates. 

Everyone connected with Ahab was killed. Ahab was the embodiment of evil and was completely eliminated from the land. At the final judgement evil will be completely eliminated from the earth, and everyone associated with it. That is why it is so vital that we run to Jesus, only His blood can protect us.

Associates of Ahaziah fared no better. 

Jehu executed the judgement, but then (v18) appeared to continue the baal worship. However, this was all part of a plot to have the prophets of baal killed. And so the temple of baal was destroyed. 

Despite all this Jehu continued to worship the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up. Even so, Jehu received a reward from the Lord and was guaranteed to have a descendant on the throne for four generations. However, Jehu did not really love the Lord and the size of Israel decreased. Carrying out the acts of the Lord does not guarantee that we love the Lord.

2 Kings 9 - No escaping judgement

Appointing Jehu king over Israel was another of the tasks given to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:16. Elisha sent one of the prophets from the company to go and anoint Jehu and then to run. Jehu was anointed specifically to destroy the house of Ahab. Jezebel would also come to a stick end. Jehu told the soldiers what had happened and they acknowledged him as king.
Jehu then started to take the throne. Joram and Ahaziah had been involved in defending against Hazael and were in the city of Jezreel. Jehu rode on a chariot and was accumulating followers. Joram went out to meet him and did so at the location of Naboth's vineyard. The powerful may have forgotten what they had done to Naboth, but God had not forgotten.
"How can there be peace as long as idolatry and witchcraft abound?" As long as evil abounds there can be no true peace and prosperity. This is something that our own nations would do well to remember. Both Joram and Ahaziah were killed, and Joram's blood was spilt on Naboth's land.
Finally Jezebel is killed and eaten by dogs. The eunuchs had thrown her down to the ground, realising which way the wind was blowing.
So judgement on the house of Ahab and Jezebel was complete.

2 Kings 8:16-29 - Bad kings in Judah

Jehoshaphat had been quite a good king, but his son Jehoram was not. Jehoram followed the ways of Ahab, and this was a result of his having married a daughter of Ahab. We need to be careful who we marry for it will have a deep effect on our lives. If you are a believer but marry a non-believer you take an enormous risk and may lose your salvation. Now there are cases where someone marries an unbeliever and the unbeliever gets saved. Praise God when this happens, but the most likely outcome is that the believer will be led away from the Lord. Now the case of where two people are married and one gets saved is completely different. In this case, Paul's instruction in 1 Corinthians 7 applies. We can so easily be led astray by our emotions.

God did not destroy Judah because of His promise to David. We need to realise that sometimes we are blessed, or seem to "get away with things" because of the goodness of someone else.

However, Judah did experience increased difficulties, with various subjugated nations rebelling against them. As mentioned before, when we rebel against God we lost authority. 

Ahaziah succeeded Jehoram and he was no better. Again, he was related to the house of Ahab and this was the source of the trouble. Ahaziah joined Joram in battles against Hazael.

2 Kings 8:1-15 - God's care and prophecies fulfilled

The Shunammite's woman appears again. Elisha had warned her about the famine and told her to go away for a while. Now this would have involved the risk of losing her property, but God had this matter in hand. God cares for us more than we ever imagine, and has taken care of all sorts of details. He doesn't always tell us everything He is going to do, but we can always have complete confidence in Him. The woman returned after seven years and Gehazi happened to be speaking to the king at that time. The king seemed to have a more favourable attitude to Elisha at the time, and Gehazi was relating the tale of Elisha raising the Shunammite woman's son back to life. So the king restored everything to the woman.

One of the things Elijah had been told to do was to anoint Hazael king over Aram (1 Kings 19:15). Ben-Hadad was ill and sent Hazael to consult Elisha. The reputation of Elisha had spread far and wide and godless nations were aware of him and wanted to consult him.

Elisha said he would recover, but he also knew that Hazael would kill the king, so it was not the illness but Hazael who would kill the king. Elisha also knew what a violent man Hazael would be.

2 Kings 6:24-7:20 - Siege and Siege lifted

Aram now attacked Samaria. There was a terrible siege and great famine in the land. A donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and "the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung" for five shekels. Now you, as I was, are no doubt wondering why on earth dove's dung had any value whatsoever, siege or no siege. Well when famines get really bad people will literally eat anything. 

The king was apparently unaware of just how bad things were, but the reality of the situation was brought to his attention when two women brought a case to him about eating their children. Things really were that bad.

The king acted totally irrationally, thinking that beheading Elisha would help the situation, instead of realising that a little repentance on his part would far more effective. Today the world thinks it can avoid the consequences of its sin by shutting up those who preach the truth of the Bible, it is equally mistaken.

Elisha prophesied that the famine would soon be lifted, but that the messenger himself would not eat of any of the food.

The good news was brought by four lepers. They were as desperate as anyone else and decided to go out to the Arameans. However, God had put fear into the Arameans' hearts by means of a false report of help coming from the Hittites and Egyptians. So the lepers found lots of food left behind. They then acted honourably by going back to the city to tell the people.

Elisha's words were fulfilled.

2 Kings 6:7-23 - Those who are for us

God revealed things to Elisha, and this included the troop movements of the king of Aram. Obviously, this gave the Israelites a great advantage.  The king of Aram realised that something was going on and initially thought there must be a spy or traitor in the camp. However, his officers had obviously heard of Elisha and knew that he was the source of the inside information.

The king decided to send troops to capture Elisha. One might have thought that he would have had an inkling that trying to capture a clearly effective man of God by natural means was unlikely to work, but people do not always think logically. 

The troops came and Elisha's servant was greatly concerned. Elisha, however, was perfectly calm and uttered the famous word "those who are with us are more than those who are against us". There is an echo of this in 1 John 4:4, "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world". We need to realise who is on our side! Elisha then prayed for God to open his servant's eyes to see the true situation. We need to look at things with the eyes of faith. Notice in the opening chapters of Ephesians and Colossians the things that Paul prays for. He prays for our eyes to be opened to the fullness of what God has done for us. 

Elisha's servant saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire. Remember that Elijah was taken away in a chariot of fire. 

Elisha then prayed for God to strike the enemy with blindness. Then he led them into a trap. The king of Israel wanted to know if he should seize the opportunity and kill them. Elisha advised against it, citing the equivalent of our "Geneva convention". The king then threw a feast for the captives and then sent them away. As a result the raids stopped. If the king had killed them it is likely that there would have been more intense raids. So we see a mixture of the supernatural, righteousness and wisdom at work here.

2 Kings 6:1-7 - Lord of all

Elisha was not the only prophet but had a "supporting cast" in the form of the company of prophets, literally it says "sons of prophets". It seems that there numbers had grown and they needed a larger place to meet. So they went to chop wood in order to build a bigger hall. In the course of this one of them lost an axe head, and this axe belonged to someone else. We can all imagine the anguish that the man felt. Elisha did another miracle and the axe head was retrieved. Note how trivial this was, and that it could have been put down to the carelessness of the man, yet God still intervened. God truly does care about all the details of our lives, as Jesus said, all the hairs on our head are counted. This is not an excuse for a lackadaisical approach to life, but nor should we get neurotic about things. God's concern for our lives goes far deeper than we ever imagine.

Note also that God puts these stories in the Bible. There are accounts of kings and prophets, great battles, the moral degeneracy of the nation, and then these seemingly trivial matters. God is involved in all things.

People sometimes mock Christians who pray for a parking space or some such thing. There is nothing wrong with doing this! Of course, if that is all I ever pray about there is a problem and I should pray for other matters as well. Moreover it betrays a deep misunderstanding. If God blesses me it does not mean that He has less to bless someone else with! There is also another side to this. When God blesses someone else it does not mean He has less to bless you with! We can sometimes think "why has such and such been blessed and I haven't". We should never be envious of others, instead we should rejoice with those who rejoice, we should rejoice when others are blessed.

2 Kings 5 - Don't be proud

This is one of the well-known stories in 2 Kings, the healing of Naaman. As happens periodically, it is a non-Jew who receives God's blessing, reminding us that God has no favourites, and His eventual mission is to the world. As God said to Abraham, "all nations will be blessed through you" (Gen 12:2,3).

Note in verse 1 that the victory of Aram over Israel is attributed to the Lord. Naaman was the commander of the army but had leprosy. During the course of their wars an Israeli girl had been captured, and she was serving Naaman's wife. Evidently she had heard of Elisha and told her mistress that the prophet could heal Naaman. So God was working through the the minutiae of events. 

Naaman sought permission from his king and off he went. First Naaman went to the king, who was greatly distressed, knowing that he did not have the power to heal, and fearing the consequences. However, Elisha heard about this and sorted things out.

Elisha gave his famous instruction to Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman was displeased about this, for it offended his pride. When we come to God we must come in humility, we need to recognise the true nature of our position in life. Fortunately one of Naaman's servants enabled him to see sense, Naaman did dip in the Jordan and was healed.

Naaman wanted to give Elisha a gift, but Elisha refused. Naaman also asked that the Lord would forgive him for he had to go to the temple of Rimmon as part of his job. Naaman now recognised who the Lord was.

While Naaman's servants had been very helpful to him, indeed vital in enabling him to receive the blessing of God, Elisha's servant was far less righteous. He saw a chance to make a killing from Naaman. As a result Gehazi was struck with leprosy.

2 Kings 4 - Miracles a plenty

With both Elijah and Elisha as well as confrontations with kings there were encounters with "ordinary" people. We see the same in Jesus' ministry, where He met both normal people, nobodies, and leaders of various sorts. God is the God of all creation and He shows no favouritism.

A woman of a prophet came to Elisha because her husband had died and she was in danger of losing her two sons. The sons would have been sold into slavery to pay the debt.

Elisha's initial response is "what do you have". We often look at our problems and circumstances with despair. The solution will often be to use what we have, the difference is that we will use what we have together with God. When God gets involved everything changes. 

So the woman collected all the jars and they continually poured oil into the jars until all the jars were used up, she could then sell the oil for money.

God has a special concern for the poor, but He doesn't just look after the poor. The Shunammite woman was well off and Elisha stopped there. The woman and her husband decided to make a "spare room" for him. Elisha wanted to repay her in some way. The woman was perhaps to proud to admit her real need, a trait many of us have. Elisha asked his servant and learnt that she had no son. She would consider this something of a mark of disgrace. So Elisha prophesied over her that she would have a son. The woman objected, probably not wanting to be hurt. There are two lessons to learn here. First, we may have suffered much, been disappointed so many times, that we are afraid to ask God, fearing we will just be disappointed again. Secondly, we must be most careful in giving words and promises to people. They may be given with the best of intentions, but if it isn't really God we risk hurting people.

So the woman became pregnant and had a son. However, a few years later the boy became seriously ill. The woman went off to find Elisha. She feared that all her fears were indeed coming true, that the end result was that she would be disappointed and deeply hurt. Elisha went with the woman and healed the boy, in fact brought him back to life.

On another occasion a pot of stew had become poisoned because of the carelessness of one of the men. Elisha resolved the problem by adding some flour. Sometimes we think God will only help us if we "deserve it", but this is not so. Sometimes He even makes allowances for our foolishness.

Finally Elisha fed one hundred men with twenty loaves. This rather pales in comparison with Jesus feeding the five thousand, highlighting the greatness of Jesus' miracle.

2 Kings 2:19-3:27 - Water, baldness, bears and more water

Elisha's position is then further vindicated by two incidents. First he heals the water at Jericho. The water had become bad, experiencing some of the effects of the curse of Deut 28:15-18.  He possibly used salt as a symbol of the Lord purifying the water. However, as v21 makes clear, it is the Lord who actually healed the water.

Elisha then goes on his way to Bethel, but is jeered by a group of boys along the way, and insulted for his baldness. This insult was indicative of them having no respect for the Lord's servant. Elisha called down a curse on them in the Lord's name and two bears came down and mauled many of them. We may find this reaction rather harsh, but in truth it is no less than they deserved.

Then in chapter 3 we return to the behaviour of a king. Joram was evil, but not as bad as Ahab had been. However, he "clung to the sins of Jeroboam", this related to consecrating priests at the high places.

As we read right at the start of the book, Moab rebelled against Israel. Israel called on Jehoshaphat to help them fight and Jehoshaphat agreed. Initially their strategy was not going well. Joram thought the Lord had just led them to disaster. Jehoshaphat was a more godly man and his response was to seek the Lord. Whatever happens to us we should always seek out the Lord.

Elisha is reluctant for help them, but does so only because of the presence of Jehoshaphat, a godly man.  He called on a harpist to help him prophecy. The combining and music and prophecy is actually a Biblical practice.

The Lord responded miraculously, both providing water for the troops and throwing the Moabites into confusion.

Finally we see the evil of the Moabites in the king offering his firstborn son as a sacrifice, this would be to Chemosh.

2 Kings 2:1- 18 - Chariots of Fire

Elisha was Elijah's anointed successor (1 Kings 19:19-21). Although he had been anointed then there was still much that had to happen before he assumed the role. We need to understand that this is a common pattern. David was anointed as king many years before he actually took the throne. When the disciples were called by Jesus that was just the start of the journey. 

Elijah knew that the time for him to go was near and urged Elisha to stay at Gilgal. Elisha had been Elijah's servant and refused to be left behind. The reasons for this are probably a combination of commitment to Elijah as a servant and knowing that he needed something more in order to fulfil his role.

The band of prophets came out and asked Elisha if he knew that this was time for Eljah to be taken away. In fact this happened several times, each time Elisha tells them yes but not to speak about it.

Elijah went to several places and each time to stay behind, each time Elisha refused. Maybe there is some parallel to Jesus asking Peter three times if he loved Him.

When they reached the Jordan Elijah struck the water with his cloak and the waters parted. This is reminiscent of Moses at the Red Sea, and Joshua at the Jordan itself. After they had crossed Elijah asks Elisha what he can do for him. Perhaps all the preceding events had been a test. Sometimes God tests us see how true our commitment is. After the test will come a reward. 

Elisha wanted to receive a double portion of Elijah's anointing. The "double portion" does not mean a stronger anointing, rather it reflects inheritance law where the firstborn son received a double portion. Ie he received the largest part of the inheritance.

Elijah said this was a difficult thing, he knew that the anointing was in the Lord's hands. So he left things in God's hands. 

Elijah was then taken up in chariots of fire. Elisha declared "the chariots and horsemen of Israel". What does this signify? It means that Elisha saw that the true strength of Israel was not in human power but in heavenly power, in God Himself. We too need to recognise where our strength comes from, and where the church's strength comes from. This is why it is so tragic when the church seeks to be like the world, for when it does so it loses all power.

Elisha went back and he too divided the Jordan, this was a sign that he had indeed received the spirit of the Lord. The band of prophets recognised the significance of this. They also wanted to go and look for Elijah. Elisha warned them it was a waste of time, and so it proved.

So Elijah never actually died. Enoch is the only other person never to die. What does this tell us? That death is not the end. We will one day die, but afterwards we will be raised to new life with Christ.

2 Kings 1 - Fire from heaven

We will leave Proverbs again for a while and go on to 2 Kings. Originally 1 and 2 Kings formed a single book, but were split purely for the convenience of scribes. 1 Kings started with the reign of Solomon and then the division of the Israel into northern and southern kingdoms, and the descent of the nation. The descent continues in 2 Kings, with Israel being conquered by Assyria and finally Babylon conquering Judah. However, there are some high points as well, notably Hezekiah and Josiah.

2 Kings starts by telling us that Moab had rebelled against Israel. David had brought Moab under subjugation, but when a nation turns from God they find that their authority starts to seep away as well.

Ahaziah had injured himself and his moral depravity is shown by the fact that he sent messengers to consult an idol, Baal-Zerub, when he should have been consulting the Lord. So Elijah was sent to confront the king by speaking to his messengers and a sentence of death is pronounced upon him.

Ahaziah recognised that it was Elijah who had spoken to his messengers. So he sent a captain and some troops to see Elijah, but Elijah sent fire down on the soldiers. This was repeated a second time. A third captain was sent, but this time he pleaded with Elijah, knowing what had happened to the previous two.

However, the king still died, as foretold by Elijah.

Proverbs 16

Again there are just 4 verses on righteousness:

• It is better to be righteous even though less well off than to have more wrongly acquired (v8)
• A throne is established by righteousness (v12)
• Righteous lips are the delight of a king (v13)
• Grey hair is a sign of righteous life (v33)

Righteousness is important. It is often tempting to take short cuts, indeed it is sometimes seen as the clever thing to do, and those who insist on acting rightly are seen as naive. This is nonsense, for the truth is that a truly safe kingdom is established on righteousness, any other sort is liable to collapse in a moment.

Moreover, if you are in charge, if you are the king, you need people you can trust. Imagine you get to the "top" by devious means. What if all those who are then working for you are equally devious. How will you ever know if you can trust them? A leader needs people he can trust.

And righteousness leads to a long life.

The chapter starts with various sayings relating to how it is the Lord's will that prevails. Men have many ideas, but only the Lord knows what is really going to happen. Moreover, He knows our motives better than we do ourselves. So what should our response to this be? To commit our ways to the Lord. 

Proverbs 15

Let's start as usual with those proverbs pertaining to righteousness:

• The house of the righteous contains great treasure (v6)
• God loves those who pursue righteousness (v9)
• The heart of the righteous weighs its answers (v28)
• The Lord hears the payer of the righteous (v29)

The great treasure can be both spiritual and material. Spiritual treasures are essential and by far the more valuable, but righteousness is one factor that affects our material wealth. Two of the sayings relate to God's attitude towards the righteous. First He loves those who pursue righteousness, and secondly He hears our prayer. Our pursuing righteousness affects God's attitude towards us. We are fond of saying that we are in a relationship with God. Well in a relationship the attitude of one affects the attitude of the other. It does not mean that God loves us any more or less, but the way that love can be shown is different. Notice that a righteous person weighs his words. Sometimes it is said that is our reactions that reveal who we really are. Well maybe, but there is sin in all of us, and with the Holy Spirit's help we are in the process of crucifying the flesh. Part of this process is to consider our ways carefully so that we make wise choices but reject bad ones. In this way sin will die all the quicker.

There are many other themes in this chapter. One is on the value of our words. Speaking widely or foolishly can greatly affect the course of dispute, bringing peace and resolution, or lighting a fire of destruction. For a wise person the tongue adorns knowledge, ie it is a benefit. But for the foolish the mouth only causes folly and damage. A soothing tongue is a tree of life but a perverse tongue crushes a person's spirit. Our words are powerful and do both great harm and great good.

Proverbs 14

There are just a few sayings directly related to righteousness here:

• The wicked will bow down at the gates of the righteous (v19)
• Even in death the righteous seek refuge in God (v32)
• Righteousness exalts a nation (v34)

It can seem that righteousness does not pay, that it is the wicked and selfish who prosper. Indeed the Psalmists and some of the prophets bemoaned this fact. However, the end result is that the wicked will bow down to the righteous.

The mark of a righteous person is that they do not exalt themselves, but know their true relationship to God. So even in death they put their trust in God. And in death He is the only one who can see us safely through it.

A nation is exalted by righteousness. In the West our societies are doing their best to break every one of God's laws, in so doing we are heaping up condemnation upon ourselves.

Verse 2 shows the importance of fearing the Lord. When we reject the Lord we become our own judge, we become proud, and we become devious. We need an outside authority, something beyond ourselves, to keep us on a straight track.

Verse 10 says that each heart knows it owns bitterness and its own joy. We need to understand that no one else, not even a wife or husband, will fully appreciate both the pain and the joy that we experience in life. So instead of reacting with bitterness when we find that others do not fully understand us, we should be grateful for the degree of understanding that we do find.

Verse 21 ties in nicely with Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan, in response to the question "who is my neighbour". Our neighbour is anyone who is needy whom we encounter.

Never let envy take a hold of your life, for it will only bring decay to your life (v30).

Proverbs 13

We will start again with the sayings relating to righteousness, but there are fewer of them in this chapter, so will look at something else as well.

The righteous:

• Hate what is false (v5)
• Righteousness guards the person of integrity (v6)
• Their light shines brightly (v9)
• Are rewarded with good things (v21)
• Eat to their hearts' content (v25)

So the sayings concerning the righteous start with qualities of the righteous and then turn to the fruit. It is so easy to lose a good reputation, so easy to gain a bad reputation, so we should guard what we have most carefully. We are meant to shine in the world. Indeed the New Testament has several verses on this, in particular Jesus' words about not hiding our light, and Paul's words in Philippians about shining like stars in the darkness. Righteousness will benefit us in life.

There are two key proverbs on fulfilled and unfulfilled desires (v12, 19). Unfulfilled desires are very difficult to deal with, whereas fulfilled one act as a spur to our life, they energise us. So what do we do with unfulfilled desires, for we all have them? Sometimes they are not fulfilled because they would not be good for us, but we need to recognise that there are desires that are good and are not, or at least not yet, fulfilled. We need to recognise the reality of the difficulty and pain that that causes.

Proverbs 12

I am going to continue yet again with the theme of righteousness:

• Cannot be uprooted (v3)
• His plans are just (v5)
• Speech rescues them (v6)
• House of the righteous stands firm (v7)
• Care for the needs of animals (v10)
• Their root flourishes (v12)
• No harm overtakes them (v21)
• Choose their friends carefully (v26)
• There is life in their path and it leads to immortality (v28)

Why am I persisting with this theme? . One, it is one way to look at Proverbs. We could take each verse on its own, and that would be a perfectly good thing to do, but doing things this way can sometimes bring out things we would otherwise miss. You could apply the same technique to other words or themes. 

Verses 3 and 7 reminds us of Jesus' words about the man who listens to His words and does them being the one who builds upon a rock.

We might look at verses like 21 and say "it is not true", for we all know good people who have experienced great harm, we may even have done so ourselves. This is part of the reason why I said in an earlier post that it is a mistake to read these as "laws" or "rules", it is better to read them as principles. We are in a far better position if we are righteous, it will make us far more secure. Now it does not mean we will not suffer for various reasons. (i) we still have sin us; (ii) others will sin against us; (iii) we live in a fallen and therefore imperfect world. But even when harm does befall us we will be in a far better position to recover.