Archive for the ‘2 Kings’ Category

Day 165: 2 Kings 23:28-25:30; John 11:45-12:11 — It is not as it seems

Monday, June 14th, 2010

So often we have run through spates of time in life in which nothing seems to go right, no matter what we do or how hard we try. So it is in our readings today. Josiah finds himself on the wrong side politically. His children go into exile, one to Egypt, one to Babylon. Zedekiah finds rebellion does not work. There are two other groups in our readings for whom nothing goes right. The Babylonians fool themselves that they have conquered the people of God, that they are the great ones on earth. Actually they are being used by God to preserve the remnant that He talked about through Isaiah. Isaiah 11:11-12. In much the same way, Caiaphas and the other conspirators are completely unaware that they by nature play into the plans of God to make Jesus the Holy One to save the entire world. Their plans to destroy Jesus lead to His resurrection and their own destruction, Rom. 1:3-4. Someone said man proposes, God disposes.

The ones who “win” in our readings today are not the Babylonians nor the Jewish leadership, it is the God whose hand guides history. The same is true of others today who follow their own minds and whimsy or desires. They believe they win, but they are brief and fade away.

So for us today, let us find ourselves always working with our Great God and Creator, working with Christ in His church. Then we can watch over time how the plans of God work, how our choices to work with Him always turn out for good, perhaps ours directly as we see blessing flow, perhaps for others as God uses us to bless and work with other people. Things are not always as they seem. Ultimate Reality lies not with us, whose sight and might are limited, rather with our God.

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Day 163: 2 Kings 19:35; John 11:1-16 — The compassion of Jesus

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

We’re all familiar with “the shortest verse in the Bible”, John 11:35 (though if you’re looking for absolutes, there’s at least one verse shorter than that, if you consider the language in which the verse was written). We’re also well aware that it was not Jesus’ sorrow at Lazarus’ death that brought Him to tears, but rather his compassion for Lazarus’ friends and family. That’s a very easy connection to make, and certainly one that I believe to be correct.

What about examples of the compassion of Jesus in the Old Testament? Surely there aren’t any, are there? How could there be any examples in the Old Testament of Jesus at all, since he was born some 300 years after it was completed?

While it’s true that the man known as Jesus Barjoseph was born 2,000 some-odd years ago, the heavenly Being represented on earth as Jesus the Christ wasn’t born at all, and was involved in our lives since before time began. I doubt that will be any great revelation to you, so I’ll get to my point…

In 2 Kings 18, we read of a threat against Israel by the king of Assyria. This disturbed King Hezekiah, but he did the right thing and consulted God’s prophet Isaiah. The prophet told the king not to worry about it, Sennacherib would not succeed. In 2 Kings 19:35, we read this:

That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!

“The angel of the LORD” was Jesus. (If that’s a new concept to you, I’d encourage you to study the subject to see if this is correct. Here are two articles with which to begin:  1 2 .) So how does this show His compassion? It shows His compassion by delivering God’s people. God not only won the victory when His Son defeated the enemy, but at the same time He showed the Israelites one more sign that He was their God, and that He will provide.

What signs has God shown you? I believe the age of miracles has ceased, but if you aren’t seeing signs from God, then I suggest you simply aren’t looking.

How do you see Jesus’ compassion demonstrated today? Again, if you don’t see it — look! He’s very much here, and very much still active in the lives of God’s people.

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Day 162: 2 Kings 17 — Enough

Friday, June 11th, 2010

In Deuteronomy 28, before his death Moses told Israel that once they crossed into the Promised Land there would be blessings for obedience to God and curses for disobedience. Following the death of Joshua, Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and worshiped various gods of peoples around them. They provoked the Lord to anger by serving Baal and the Ashtoreths (Judges 2:11-13). For approximately 325 years, over and over Israel turned from the LORD to other gods. GOD would use foreign oppression to chasten his people and then send a deliverer (Judge).

Following the death of King Solomon, God gives ten tribes of Israel to Jeroboam and promised that if Jeroboam walked in His ways and kept God’s statutes and commands, as David did, God would build an enduring dynasty through Jeroboam. However, once Jeroboam became King over the ten tribes of Israel he led the people away from God for fear that they would turn back to Jerusalem to worship God. He set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan, appointed men other than Levites to serve as priests, set up festivals other than what God had instituted, and led the people away from God’s commands and ordinances. Succeeding kinds of Israel led Israel to worship gods other than the LORD. The LORD was longsuffering but Israel persisted in the sins of Jeroboam and would not turn away from them. As given to us in the accounts in 2 Kings 17, finally God became very angry and used Assyria to remove Israel from His presence as he had warned in Deuteronomy 28. Assyria took many of the noble families of Israel to other lands, many of whom would never return.

So, where does that leave us today? We are God’s chosen people; his adopted children bought with the blood of His son, Jesus Christ. God loves us as his children. His grace for the forgiveness of sins is extended to us through Jesus. As with Israel, God also expects us to follow His ways. When we become His children, we take on the responsibility of turning from the ways that we lived previously and the ways that the world would want us to live in the future. Just as God promised Jeroboam that if he followed God he would receive blessings, God promises us the same. God wants to bless our lives but He also wants us to follow Him.

  • God is and has always been jealous for men to walk in His ways.
  • God is long-suffering and wants us to follow him. He will chasten us when we turn from His ways.
  • We should pay strong attention to whom we choose to follow – the ways of God or the ways that men tell us are better or are God’s ways.
  • Continuing to not follow God after having been saved, but walk in the ways we (humans) think is best will eventually take us from God’s grace. I don’t know where the line is drawn that God will finally have had enough, but I don’t want to know.
  • I sin when I don’t want to and try as I might, sin anyway. However, there is a difference in trying every day to follow God and continually searching for his ways, and living by whatever way I want to or that someone tells me is their opinion of the way. God gave us the Bible to use to find his way, and the Holy Spirit to guide us. These are what we should be using and listen to.

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Day 156: 2 Kings 5:1-14 — You big crybaby!

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Elisha.

What a lot of great stories in this prophet’s CV, huh? We read about the widow’s oil, the Shunammite’s dead son raised, and the “death in the pot” incident in chapter 4. We’ll read about the floating axehead in tomorrow’s reading, and don’t forget the bears who came out of nowhere to do in the forty-two punks making fun of God’s man (2 Kings 2:23-25).

Now here we are in Chapter 5, where Elisha is introduced to an Aramean Army commander named Naaman, who really knew how to throw a temper fit. You know the story:

  • Naaman had leprosy.
  • His wife’s Israelite servant girl told him about a prophet who would cure him.
  • Naaman didn’t go where the servant girl told him he would be healed; he went to the king of Israel instead.
  • This made the king mad, and he tore his robes.
  • Elisha heard the king had torn his robes (you ever wonder how Elisha heard?), and told the king to have Naaman come to him.
  • Naaman went to see the prophet.
  • Elisha wouldn’t even come out to meet this powerful Army commander; he sent a messenger out to tell Naaman to wash 7 times in the dirty Jordan River.
  • Naaman went off in a huff.

The rest of the story isn’t until tomorrow’s reading, but you know how it ends and we have enough for today anyway.

Two points:

  1. You need healing? You go where the healing is! How difficult is that? We’re all sick with sin that separates us from the Father (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 59:2), and there is only One healer who can eliminate that separation — Jesus, the Christ (John 14:6).
  2. The instructions given to Naaman were intended to show that healing would only come from God, and only on His terms, not on terms of Naaman’s own choosing. It may not make sense to us that we contact the saving blood of Jesus through the waters of baptism, yet this is how God told us it happens (Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16). Many people today who seek salvation are told falsely that salvation is effected through prayer, during which you ask Jesus into your heart and accept Him as your personal Savior. That theology does beg the question though — if Saul of Tarsus wasn’t saved after 3 days of prayer and fasting (Acts 9:8-12, 22:16), why would we believe we can access the saving blood of Jesus through prayer?

Question: To whom do you look for eternal healing? Whose instructions do you follow?

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