Through the Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 9-12

Posted on 06/20/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 18: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Tuesday, June 19: Ecclesiastes 5-8
Wednesday, June 20: Ecclesiastes 9-12
Thursday, June 21: Song of Solomon 1-4
Friday, June 22: Song of Solomon 5-8

Next week we will read the Gospel of John.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Ecclesiastes in General

As I’ve been saying, all of this is written from a temporary (earthly) perspective. This is Solomon looking at life without any eternal or divine perspective. He finds life pretty depressing.

Matthew Henry (a very popular commentator) describes Ecclesiastes in this way:

We here behold Solomon returning from the broken and empty cisterns of the world, to the Fountain of living water; recording his own folly and shame, the bitterness of his disappointment, and the lessons he had learned. … If this world, in its present state, were all, it would not be worth living for; and the wealth and pleasure of this world, if we had ever so much, are not enough to make us happy. (ref)

In his introduction to Ecclesiastes he writes:

At the close of [Solomon’s] life, being made sensible of his sin and folly, he recorded here his experience for the benefit of others, as the book of his repentance; and he pronounced all earthly good to be “vanity and vexation of spirit.” It convinces us of the vanity of the world, and that it cannot make us happy; of the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make us miserable. It shows that no created good can satisfy the soul, and that happiness is to be found in God alone; and this doctrine must, under the blessed Spirit’s teaching, lead the heart to Christ Jesus. (ref)

I don’t know if he’s right that this is a book of repentance, but he is certainly right that this is a look at life from a non-eternal perspective. Contrast what we have been reading and are reading today with the hopeful, joyful message in the apostles writings.

A blogger named Keith Mathison recommends some simple commentaries on Ecclesiastes. For further study, I would turn you to his recommendations, and I’m going to pick up one myself. I wish I had thought of getting one of those before getting to this section of Scripture, because as he says, "Ecclesiastes [is] one of the more difficult books of Scripture to interpret and apply."

Yeah, that’s what I’m finding, too.

By the way, Mathison’s statement that the author of his first recommended commentary is an expert on Old Testament Wisdom literature matters to me. There’s a lot of it. Ecclesiastes and Proverbs are real early ones, but the early Christians were familiar with several others written later. The Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) and the Wisdom of Solomon (or just Wisdom) were quoted heavily by the early Christians. They’re in Roman Catholic Bibles.

In fact, the Wisdom of Solomon contains a prophecy of Christ so clear that I’m surprised any secular scholars are willing to admit it was written before Jesus was born, but it’s generally accepted to have been written in the first or second century BC. Here’s a portion of the passage I’m referring to:

He professes to have the knowledge of God and calls himself the child of the Lord. … He is grievous for us even to behold, for his life is not like other men’s. … He … makes his boast that God is his Father. Let’s see if his words are true … for if the righteous man is the Son of God, he will help him … Let us examine him with spite and torture so that we may know his humility and prove his patience. Let us condemn him with a shameful death. (Wisdom ch. 2, KJV)

Ecclesiastes 9

Okay, back to our text. We wandered pretty far afield there.

There is a flash of something positive in the last half of this chapter. He commends a couple things and even admits that wisdom is good, though he has usually called it vanity through most of the book.

Solomon, unfortunately, becomes an excellent example of the fact that earthly wisdom is useless. Heavenly wisdom, the one that calls out on the street corner trying to deliver fools from their folly, which we read about in the first few chapters of Proverbs, provides life, righteousness, joy, and a prosperous life. She delivers from death. That Wisdom is a heavenly being, the Son of God, and his rewards are eternal.

Earthly wisdom can’t see through the veil. It sees only this realm, not the heavenly one, and it can produce the gloom that we see in the first few verses of chapter 9 and throughout most of this book.

James, the earthly brother of that heavenly being who is Wisdom, wrote:

If you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, do not boast, and do not lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but it is earthly, sensual, and demonic. … The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without pretense. (Jam. 3:14-17)

Ecclesiastes 10

There’s some interesting advice from a ruler about rulers in verse 4. If a ruler gets angry with you, don’t abandon your position, he says. He says that "composure allays great offenses" (NASB).

Every parent feels Solomon’s words in verses 8 and 9.

He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits logs may be endangered by them. (NASB)

We parents have to have a heavenly perspective. We have to have some trust that our children are in the hand of God, or we aren’t going to let them experience any risk, and we are going to rob them of a real life. I often have to remind myself of all the stupid things I did as a child and teenager (we won’t talk about the stupid things I do now) through which God kept me safe. Sometimes the reminder works, and other times I’m on my knees praying, "God, please don’t let me be a fool for letting those kids go down that river and jump off those rocks. Please keep them safe."

I know this next comment is another about the whole of Ecclesiastes and not just this chapter, but here it is anyway. Solomon is writing from an earthly perspective, so he complains that the righteous and unrighteous all die alike. From a heavenly perspective, the prophet Isaiah writes:

The righteous die, and no one takes it to heart. Merciful people are taken away, none considering that the righteous are taken away from evil. They shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds; each one walking in his uprightness. (57:1-2)

Solomon tells us in this chapter that the fool multiplies words. Proverbs tells us that in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking. James calls us to be "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (1:19). Let us measure our words, for we will be judged by our idle ones (Matt. 12:36).

Finally (for this chapter), verse 20 is the source of that odd response we give to questions about how we knew something: "A little bird told me."

Ecclesiastes 11

Verse 1, telling us to cast our bread on the waters, has always been taking as a picture of giving. Give and it will be given back to you (Luk. 6:36). Cast your bread on the waters, and it will return to you after many days. That definitely is not true as a literal statement, but it is an excellent picture of giving and trusting God to provide a return.

The one that gives to the poor lends to the Lord, Proverbs tells us (Prov. 28:27).

Verses 4-6 give some excellent advice about diligence. I’m in the process of trying to start a couple small businesses, with a lot of help from others, and I really feel those words. You have to press past some "what ifs," and you have to knock on doors that you’re almost certain will be closed to you.

If it takes that for an earthly business, yet we give that effort for the sake of an income, how much more do you think God will require of us the same effort to reap eternal rewards?

Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge … for if these things are in you and are increasing, they will cause you to be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. … Be diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble. (2 Pet. 1:5-10)

Verses 8-10 are excellent advice, and Solomon even brings the judgment of God into these verses. We should rejoice in all our years. Young men should take advantage of their strength and rejoice in their youth as long as they are remembering the judgment and commands of God. (Solomon will drive that point home in the last two verses of the next chapter.)

I had a year spent mostly in the hospital or visiting it almost daily. That year just ended in May. I’m 50, so I had already lost some of the speed and stamina of my youth, despite being an avid exerciser. This last year stripped most of the rest of that strength and stamina (though I’m slowly getting it back). Yet it’s a year I rejoiced through, felt close to God in, and look back on with gratefulness.

We should rejoice in all the years of our life, even the ones spent in adversity. Let us learn now, before adversity, to place our trust in God, to know him, and to find our rest in him, so that we are ready when we no longer have our own strength.

Ecclesiastes 12

Solomon acknowledges here that the spirit (or breath) returns to God who gave it (v. 7). He calls it all vanity anyway because he is still suggesting that those in the grave are unfeeling and unknowing.

There’s truth in this. We are all used to the idea that every soul, righteous or unrighteous, is immortal, an idea that I believe came from Plato, not the prophets or apostles of God. Immortality is the promise of the Gospel, not of being born on earth. Paul writes:

[God] will repay everyone according to their deeds. To those who seek glory, honor, and immortality by patiently continuing to do good, [he will repay] eternal life. But to them … that do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, [he will repay] indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. (Rom. 2:5-7)

Later he tells us that if we live according to the flesh, we will "die." We will live only if we put to death the deeds of the body by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:12-13).

Sorry for addressing such an entrenched way of looking at things in passing at the end of a commentary on Ecclesiastes. It is worth looking through the apostles writings, though, at what they and Jesus had to say about the unrighteous perishing. Even John 3:16 tells us that those who believe will have eternal life, so that they will not perish.

Romans 2 talks about "seeking" immortality. It is not simply the natural state of the soul.

Ecclesiastes 12:10 (back to Ecclesiastes) tells us that the Preacher sought out "delightful" words (NASB). The KJV has "acceptable" words, but when I looked up the Hebrew word, it appears the NASB is undoubtedly accurate.

These were delightful words? I’m not sure I agree with that. A lot of them were dark and depressing.

On the other hand, if we look at them as words to learn by, a wisdom from below that we should supplant with Wisdom from above (which God gives freely to all who ask – Jam. 1:5), then they can be delightful, even if they depress us a bit along the way.

Verse 11 is so well said that I’m going to repeat it here:

The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. (NASB)

Personally, when my words are like goads, I get nervous. If someone gets angry at me, I start to doubt what I said to them. A wise man’s words are like goads (prods used to direct cattle), so he should expect that he is going to occasionally (or often) make others angry.

I remember reading once that Charles Finney, a 19th century evangelist preaching mostly in New York state, was preaching to a congregation that was steadily growing restless and obviously angry with what he was saying. Unbeknownst to him, his chosen text for his sermon, concerning Lot and Sodom, had been applied to their town before, and they didn’t appreciate his poking an old wound. Undeterred, Finney reported that as he saw their restless state, "I thrust at them with the sword of the Spirit."

I have a great appreciation for such boldness. May God grant me grace to imitate it.

Verses 13-14 are Solomon’s conclusion, even from a standpoint of earthly wisdom:

Fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (NASB)

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Through the Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 5-8

Posted on 06/19/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 18: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Tuesday, June 19: Ecclesiastes 5-8
Wednesday, June 20: Ecclesiastes 9-12
Thursday, June 21: Song of Solomon 1-4
Friday, June 22: Song of Solomon 5-8

Next week we will read the Gospel of John.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Ecclesiastes 5

Now Ecclesiastes becomes a lot like Proverbs and is full of advice. If you’ve never memorized any verses out of Ecclesiastes before, now is you chance to do so. A lot of the proverbs and instructions in Ecclesiastes are well worth remembering.

Have you ever been told to keep your words few when you pray? That is the instruction verse 2. Prayer should be two way communication with God.

Many Christians have no experience with this kind of prayer. They simply offer up petitions to God, sometimes with thanksgiving as well. However, to purposely keep your words few in the presence of God and purposefully listen, this is the instruction of Solomon and the Holy Spirit. After all, if you can be talking or God can be talking, who should get first priority?

If you have no experience with this kind of prayer, don’t give up on the first day. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6). Finding out how to hear God and how to be still before God (Ps. 46:10) is part of diligently seeking him.

I don’t mean that you will hear a voice or that you will be able to recount words. However, you should be able to enter his presence with thanksgiving and praise (Ps. 100) and with confidence because of the blood of Jesus Christ (Heb. 4:16). As you diligently seek him in this way, you will begin to learn to listen not just in prayer but all the time, and you will learn to recognize the voice of the Shepherd of your soul.

Ecclesiastes 6

Solomon asks questions that he himself answers in the book of Proverbs. "What advantage does a wise man have over a fool?" Read Proverbs, it deals with that subject over and over again.

Solomon is still working through a thought process that is pretty depressing. (This is not the chapter I was recommending memorizing!) However, it is a process that builds to chapter 12.

Ecclesiastes 7

This is the sort of chapter I was talking about memorizing.

Solomon’s words about feasting and pleasure versus mourning and sorrow are very true. I heard Barry McGuire sing a song once that expressed Solomon’s thoughts very pertinently:

I walked a mile with Gladness
She chattered all the way
But nary a thing learned I
For all she had to say

I walked a mile with Sadness
Nary a word said she
But oh the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me

The rest of this chapter is very thought-provoking. It’s ironic that Solomon talks about the snares, nets, and chains of a woman’s heart and hands since his wives were his downfall.

Read this chapter’s words remembering that inspiration is spiritual, and you, being born again, are spiritual as well. God has things to say through words like this that are figurative and that we should look for as spiritual beings.

Ecclesiastes 8

Solomon’ laments are true … for the natural man. Much of what he has to say explains why Jesus came to die and rise again, triumphing over death and delivering us from our sins, and we have read today that everyone sins.

From a natural, human standpoint, there is much futility and striving after wind. What profit is there in all we do? Just try to labor and enjoy your few years upon this earth.

But Jesus has made us children of God, partakers of immortality. God can make us full of joy with his presence, and his right hand will give us pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).

An eternal perspective allows us to live in joy and hope, especially when we have already received a deposit on our eternal inheritance, that deposit being the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14).

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Through the Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 1-4

Posted on 06/18/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 18: Ecclesiastes 1-4
Tuesday, June 19: Ecclesiastes 5-8
Wednesday, June 20: Ecclesiastes 9-12
Thursday, June 21: Song of Solomon 1-4
Friday, June 22: Song of Solomon 5-8

Next week we will read the Gospel of John.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Ecclesiastes 1-2

Solomon wrote this book, as is evident throughout and stated in verse 1.

I put chapters 1 and 2 together in this commentary because I think they need to go together. Chapter 1 gives us an introduction to who "the Preacher" is, and it gives a basic overview of what he’s going to be talking about. "What can we change?" he asks. He suggests that there’s nothing anyone can change, which makes wisdom and insight into life simply depressing.

In much wisdom there is grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain. (1:18, NASB)

This directly contradicts what the same person, Solomon, has said about Wisdom in the beginning of Proverbs.

Ecclesiastes is a thought process. Most of the verses are not conclusions; they are thought experiments and life experiments leading toward a conclusion that he will give us at the end of chapter 12.

Fortunately, we get a brief, less depressing glimpse at the conclusion at the end of chapter 2.

At the start of chapter 2 we are introduced to a life experiment that Hollywood and sports stars provide us with on a regular basis. Being fabulously rich, being able to obtain all you want, and living in profligacy (that big word will allow parents to explain what it means in their own words and with their own care) does not bring happiness.

‘Futility, striving after wind, and no profit’ is how Solomon describes it (v. 11).

Verses 24-26 are the positive end of his depressing reasoning of the first two chapters, though he still calls it useless striving after wind. I’m not sure why.

Ecclesiastes 3

The section on a time for everything is very famous, and songs have been written about it. Going through the list of things that there are a time for is serious food for thought.

I want to apply a "time for everything" to Scripture interpretation, however. We humans love to have exact answers to all our questions. Mystery and doubt scare us. We want prophets to tell us the rules and give us the answers.

God provided Israel a framework in the Law, and he provides Christians guidance through the Spirit and the church. However, I hope it’s becoming evident as we read through the Scriptures that not many answers and rules apply in every situation. Exceptions abound, and at the heart of what matters to God is that we rejoice in him and acknowledge him.

We have looked at Romans 4 … twice. There are people to whom the Lord will not impute sin. We have seen examples of such people: Abraham, David, Samuel, and others. They are people who faithfully take God at his word. They may have weaknesses, even severe weaknesses, but refusing to believe God is never one of those. They’re courageous, and they’re excited about God.

When we read the Scriptures, we need to remember that. When we begin to feel that Pharasaical attitude rising up in us, wanting to demand that others give in to our interpretation of Scripture and the Law of God, let us remember what matters, and let us remember there is a time for everything. Sometimes, the Scripture we read and are applying to every situation in all time, applies only in certain situations and at some times.

Verses 11 and 14 imply that Solomon understands eternity and that God offers eternal life to the righteous. But in verses 19-22 Solomon questions all that and expresses doubts about it. "Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of beast descends downward to the earth?"

Jesus knows. He’s been there.

Ecclesiastes 4

One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind. (v. 6)

This rest is an emotional and spiritual rest. Being lazy is nothing Solomon would recommend. To live in a state of rest is the call of God in Christ because Christ is our Sabbath rest. If we feel that we are constantly striving and overwhelmed, it is time for us to labor a different way. We need to labor to enter the rest of God that is in our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Sabbath which cast the shadow that was the Jewish weekly Sabbath (Heb. 4; Col. 2:16).

Solomon’s words on two being better than one have been often quoted. When God speaks of Israel going to war, he says that one will put a thousand to flight, and two will put ten thousand to flight. The power of two is not just double, but ten times what the power of one is.

That is a spiritual principle. We need each other (1 Cor. 12). Together we are much more powerful than we are alone.

Finally, the statement that a cord of three strands is not easily broken is often applied to marriage. I strongly agree with this. A marriage tied together not just with husband and wife, but with Christ as well, is a marriage that is not easily broken.

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Through the Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 21-25

Posted on 06/15/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

Little Apology

Um … oops. I’m supposed to have a blog up this morning. I’ve been moving back into my home in Selmer, TN, and now I’m moving back into my job at the warehouse and my job as a homeschooling father. I just forgot and taught a "Life Prep" class last night instead of doing this blog.

I’ll put it up chapter by chapter as I get it done. I just give you what I think God is giving me to give, so I’m never sure how long one of these will take.

The Bible’s the more important read anyway, especially now that you’ve got some foundation in it.

Does anyone look up the references I give when I refer to other Scriptures in my commentary? Those are like the stitching that holds the Book together. Scripture’s commentary on Scripture can be really amazing if someone shows you the references.

2 Kings 21

Manasseh was very evil, and that is all that is recorded in this chapter. 2 Chronicles 33 reports, however, that he was captured by the Assyrians at one point, repented, and was restored to his throne, where he began to serve the Lord, getting rid of the idols in Jerusalem.

The prayer of Manasseh is famous, though I’m sure no one knows if it’s genuine or not. It was put at the end of 2 Chronicles in the Latin Vulgate by Jerome. You can read about the prayer of Manasseh and read a couple translations of it at EarlyJewishWritings.com.

The Latin Vulgate and the Canon

There’s lots of rumors about how the Protestant church became settled on the 66 books that make up our Bible and the Roman Catholic Church settled on the 73 that make up theirs. Many claim that the Synod of Hippo in A.D. 393 established the Canon. (Others claim that the Council of Nicea established the Canon in 325, but there’s not even a grain of truth to that story.)

The Synod of Hippo did give a list of books to be in the Bible, but they had no authority to enforce it. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo, and a few years after the synod, he wrote:

Prefer those [books] that are received by all the catholic churches to those which some do not receive. (On Christian Doctrine II.8.12)

Clearly, the bishop of Hippo did not think the Synod of Hippo settled anything concerning the books of the Bible.

In fact, the only council in history that authoritatively dictated what books should be in the Bible was the Council of Trent that began in 1546 and ran for a number of years. Their authority carried only to the Roman Catholic Church, not to the Eastern Orthodox Churches, which have never officially set a canon in a council.

So why do Protestants use the 66 books they use? It is because the Latin Vulgate, translated by Jerome in the early 5th century, was the only Bible translation used by western churches for nearly a thousand years. It had our 66 books in it, plus the extra 7 "apocryphal" books the Roman Catholics approved at the Council of Trent in the 16th century (but in an appendix). Custom has always been more powerful than law, and a thousand years of custom is what established our canon of 66 books.

Manasseh reigned 55 years. It has always been interesting to me that an evil king reigned longer than any other king. Perhaps it was because of his repentance at some point in his life. In fact, perhaps his repentance happened late in life. Peter tells us that God is patient, giving time for everyone possible to come to repentance because he wants everyone to be saved (2 Pet. 3:9).

2 Kings 22

There is no telling how long the book of the Law had been shut up in the temple. It seems likely that it was only since Hezekiah’s reign, since Hezekiah was a diligent follower of Yahweh. Further, Isaiah was a prophet during Hezekiah’s reign, and Isaiah makes some clear references to the Law:

To the Law and to the Testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20)

This is a rebellious people, lying children, who will not listen to the Law of the Lord. (Isaiah 30:9)

2 Kings 23

In this chapter we see that the repentance of Manasseh could only have been a mild one. God is still intending to judge Israel for Manasseh’s sins, and Josiah had to remove altars that had Manasseh had put in the court of the Lord (v. 12). Manasseh hadn’t removed them himself.

The Jeremiah that was the maternal grandfather of Jehoahaz was not Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah was prophesying during the reign of the sons of Josiah, and he mentions Jeremiah of Libnah as the grandfather of Jehoahaz, too (Jer. 52:1). Two different Jeremiah’s.

2 Kings 24

Jehoiachin came out of Jerusalem to surrender after being besieged by the Babylonians. In surrendering, he probably hoped to secure more favor from Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps even keeping his reign as Nebuchadnezzar’s vassal. It didn’t work, though the king of Babylon did not kill him. He was taken prisoner, and his uncle was installed in his place.

His uncle is also listed as the son of Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah because he was Johoahaz’ brother (and thus Jehoiakim’s brother, too).

Also, when it says that Jehoiachin was taken captive in the eighth year of "his" reign, it means Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Jehoiachin only reigned three months. Historically, the timing is correct that this was the eighth year of Nebuchadenezzar’s reign, though for some of those years he was co-regent with his father.

2 Kings 25

This is the account of the final destruction of Jerusalem. When we get to the prophet Jeremiah there will be a more detail because he was there for all of it. His perspective of these events is very interesting. Verse 11 mentions "the deserters" who "deserted" to the king of Babylon. Jeremiah was encouraging everyone to desert, promising them in the name of the Lord that this would spare their lives and and that they would eventually return to Jerusalem. This made Zedekiah, who was in rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, very angry.

More about that in a few weeks.

Zedekiah failed because the Lord was not with him. It’s not a good idea to take on other armies and great forces without God on your side.

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Through the Bible: 2 Kings 16-20

Posted on 06/14/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

2 Kings 16

Elath, which Rezin captured, sits at the top of the Dead Sea close to the Jordan. Thus it is about 30 miles from Jerusalem.

The Arameans are the same as the Syrians. (Some translations have Rezin as the king of Syria and others as the king of Aram. Aram is the Hebrew word for Syria.) Their land is east of the Jordan, north of the Sea of Galilee. The land east of the Jordan between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea had already been taken by the Arameans (2 Kings 10:32-33), when Hazael was king, and thus Gad, Asher, and the half tribe of Manasseh had already lost their ancestral lands.

Ahaz turns to Assyria for deliverance from Rezin and Pekah, and in the end he turns to the religion of the Assyrians as well. The Scriptures don’t say that he was worshiping an Assyrian god, but he had a copy of the Assyrian altar made at the temple, and he set things up so the Assyrian king would be pleased.

We will see the contrast when the Assyrians run into Hezekiah, Ahaz’ son.

2 Kings 17

This chapter records the fall of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel. The three-year siege of Samaria began in 724 B.C. and ended in 721 B.C. King Hoshea was already in Assyrian captivity while this siege went on.

The first king of Israel, when the kingdom was united, was Saul, who began his reign c. 1020 B.C. The first king of the divided kingdom of Israel was Jeroboam, who began his reign c. 922 B.C. Thus, the ten tribes had a kingdom for 300 years total, 100 united with Judah and 200 split from them. Actually, it’s 98 years and 201 years for a total of 299 years, but I thought 100, 200, and 300 would be easier to remember. And since most of those dates, outside of the fall of Samaria, have a "c." for circa (meaning about or near), rounding by one or two years is not a stretch.

The king of Assyria brought people from Babylonia and Cuthah (two Babylonian cities), Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim (probably all Syrian cities, but that’s only certain for Hamath), and he settled them in Samaria. These forced immigrants, along with Israelites left in the land are the ancestors of the Samaritans whom we read about in the Gospels 700 years later.

It’s ironic that the Samaritans were despised by the Jews, probably because of their "half-breed" status and because they were descendants of a nation that constantly worshiped idols and provoked God to wrath, but now, because of Jesus’ parable, the name "Samaritan" has become synonymous with kindness to strangers.

The last verse of this chapter gives you an idea of how long after the fact this history was written and also by whom it was written. The comments about how these Samaritans serve and don’t serve Yahweh make it probable that a scribe/historian in Judah is writing this part of the history, and he is at least two generations removed from the time of Samaria’s conquest because he’s able to comment on the behavior of the Samaritan’s grandchildren.

Judah began to fall about 120 years after the fall of Samaria, though they hung on as vassals of the Babylonian king (who had overthrown the power of Assyria by then). By the way, I’m getting all these dates from crivoice.org. I like lists of the Israelite and Judah kings that come with dates. Very helpful in picturing this history.

2 Kings 18

Jehoshophat had to break apart the bronze serpent that Moses had made to heal Israel from the poisonous snake bites they received in the desert. They had been worshiping it on and off since the exodus some 700 years earlier. (Solomon is said by the Scriptures, in 1 Kings 6:1, to have begun his reign 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt.)

It’s a little humorous that the Scripture adds here that the Israelites were calling it "Nehushtan." The note in the NASB (and several sites I checked online) says that Nehushtan means "piece of bronze."

Verse 5 says there was none like Jehoshaphat among the kings of Judah, not before or after him. This is not the only place you’ll read something like that. That’s because the sentence was written by a human historian who died at some point. He means, "Among the few other kings I’ve seen in my lifetime after Jehoshophat died, there have been no others as righteous as Jehoshaphat."

Later, after this historian died, another historian wrote about Josiah, and he said that Josiah was more righteous than any other that was before or after him (2 Kings 23:25). The person writing about Josiah was correct for all of Israel’s history, though, for after Josiah, Israel had no other righteous king at all.

The story of Assyria’s attack on Hezekiah and Jerusalem is told three times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Chronicles repeats the story, and it is in Isaiah as well, who is the prophet involved in this story. Perhaps it is important to God!

In this chapter, we find Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sending messengers to the gate, and Hezekiah gives excellent advice to his people: Don’t answer them.

I tell you based on 30 years of experience as a Christian that answering in such a situation is a waste of time and worse than a waste of time. The messengers of Sennacherib—or in our case, the messengers of satan and the world—are not going to listen to answers even if they’ve present arguments. Arguing with them, attempting to refute them … these are just opportunities for these people to present their blasphemies all over again or find new blasphemies and ignorant scoffing to spew.

They’re not listening to you, why waste your breath! If you must instruct your friends, or in Hezekiah’s case, the people on the wall, then do so after the deaf, blind, and careless scoffers leave. And they’ll leave faster if you don’t answer them.

On top of that, you can trust God that he will answer them. His answer to Sennacherib is powerful and doesn’t involve exchanging words at the wall.

I am not saying you should not try to help and convert those for whom there is hope. However, it is Jesus who said not to throw holy things to dogs and pearls to pigs. He was calling close-minded, hard-hearted, purposefully ignorant, careless people animals, and he was comparing their behavior to animals.

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him. (Prov. 26:4)

2 Kings 19

In verse 9, the king of Cush is the king of Ethiopia.

This is another great story to memorize and tell to kids. There is nothing that is too hard for God.

2 Kings 20

Speaking of there being nothing too hard for God. In this chapter, God causes the sun to go backwards in the sky (v. 11).

There have been numerous objections to this event by unbelievers. If the earth stopped rotating, the oceans would race across the planet, wiping out all life, and that’s in addition to all the problems of orbit and relation to the moon that such an event would cause.

God is the Creator. There is nothing too difficult for him, and laws of the universe are not out of his control.

Those of you who have experienced miracles from God, which I assume is most of the people who read this blog, know what it feels like. In some cases, the results are so obvious and so powerful that you just rejoice at God’s intervention or his answer to prayer. In many cases, though, you just look and think, "Did that just happen? No way. That did not happen." You doubt yourself, even if you just prayed for the miracle to happen. Then you start wondering if maybe it was just coincidence or if you didn’t understand what happened correctly.

From July, 2011 to May, 2012 I was in Nashville being treated for leukemia. I spent three of those months in the hospital (four stays, the longest being six weeks). During the most difficult of those times, we felt somewhat like we had text-a-miracle as an app on my wife’s iPhone. She would text, "Shammah’s blood pressure is down, if it’s not back up by tomorrow they’re putting him in ICU." Friends would pray. At the next check, it would be up. One prayer after another prayer after another.

I can imagine that ‘the shadow going backward ten steps’ was similar. It should have been a huge miracle, blowing their minds, but when the shadow began moving the wrong direction, it probably seemed as natural as sunset, even a little unbelievable, except for the strongly spiritual, like Isaiah.

People forget and explain away and doubt. If we could remember all God has done for us. If we all together trusted God enough to take risks, we’d have so many stories that we’d laugh at a skeptic’s suggestion that the sun moving backward in the sky couldn’t happen. It could happen without scoffers even knowing it happened.

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Through the Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 11-15

Posted on 06/13/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

2 Kings 11

Athaliah is the only queen to reign over Judah or Israel. She reigned for six years.

She had to kill all her grandchildren to do so. The fact that she was so easily overthrown with no one to stand by her suggests that she as evil a queen as she was a grandmother.

The Carites that Jehoiada called upon were probably the same as the Cherethites, who were David’s palace guard.

The fact that Joash became king at seven lets us know that Jehoiada was making all the royal decisions for several years until Joash at least became a teenager.

2 Kings 12

Jehoash did right only as long as Jehoiada was advising him. But despite the fact that Jehoiada gave righteous advice, he was apparently plagued by the same problems a lot of modern religious organizations are plagued by. He and the other priests were unable to account for money in the building fund!

Despite doing right while Jehoiada advised him (and we’re not told what wrong he did afterward), Joash did not turn to the Lord when he was attacked by the king of Aram. Instead, he gave away Judah’s wealth and the wealth of the house of the Lord to buy him off.

It’s strange that the king of Aram was attacking Gath. Aram was on the other side of the Jordan, to the north near the sea of Galilee, while Gath was a Philistine city, near the Mediterranean coast west of Jerusalem.

Finally Jehoash is assassinated, though his son still managed to keep the throne.

2 Kings 13

I heard a sermon once on the prophecy of Elisha to Jehoash. The teacher talked about the importance of zeal in our obedience to God. Jehoash gave a half-hearted response to the prophet’s command to beat the floor with arrows, and so he got partial results rather than everything God had for him.

2 Kings 14

The prophet Jonah mentioned in this chapter is the same one that was swallowed by the great fish and taken to Nineveh. Though the king was evil, it appears that occasionally God would deliver Israel because of the righteousness of the prophet or prophets who spoke to Israel and because of his promises to the fathers of Israel (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and David).

2 Kings 15

This chapter details all the assassinations and turning over of the throne that happened in the northern kingdom during that time.

The city of Tiphsah that Menahem attacked was far north, on the Euphrates river. He must have made some real progress in expanding Israel because Tiphsah is north even of Syria and its capitol, Damascus.

The Uzziah that is mentioned is Azariah.

Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and Rezin of Aram (v. 37) are talked about in Isaiah chapter 7 as well. There God gives a prophecy that he would deliver Judah from these two kings in the time of Ahaz. That prophecy is a dual prophecy, applying in Ahaz’ time, but also applying to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ as well. We will talk more about dual prophecies when we get there, though we discussed this some when we went through Genesis as well.

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Through the Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 6-10

Posted on 06/12/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

2 Kings 6

The Lord was apparently giving the king of Israel (probably Jehoram) an opportunity to choose the right path. The first time the king of Aram came to Israel, God helped the king through Elisha even without the king asking. The next time, the king got no help at all. Amazingly, he wanted to blame Elisha for that!!!

The circumstances of the siege were horrifying. I won’t repeat any of them here.

2 Kings 7

God delivers Samaria again through Elisha. In this case, the king had to go to Elisha and appeal to him. He appealed in an unusual way, threatening Elisha’s life, but God decided to answer.

2 Kings 8

God answered the king in chapter 7, but he put a 7-year famine on the land in this chapter. It didn’t cause Jehoram of Israel to repent at all.

Ahaziah of Judah starts his reign in this chapter and reigns for one year. The year is 843 B.C. or something very close to that. Just over 150 years have passed since David began to reign.

2 Kings 9

It’s interesting to note that the captains who were with Jehu referred to the prophet as a madman (v. 11). I have always wondered about the appearance of Israelite prophets. We simply see black and white words on a page, printed in a professional font and professionally bound. The Israelites saw prophets who laid on one side for almost a year (Ezekiel 4:4-6) and walked naked for three years prophesying that Israel would go into captivity "with their buttocks uncovered" (Isaiah 20:4).

Jehu assassinates both the king of Judah and the king of Israel, but he only ascends to the throne of Israel.

2 Kings 10

Jehu calls himself zealous for Yahweh, and he kills all the worshipers of Baal. He destroys the temple of Baal. But he kept the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. He’s the closest thing to a righteous king that Israel had, despite the vast amount of assassinations at the start of his reign.

In ancient Jewish culture, the word "zeal" or "zealous" is tied to violence. Jehu was zealous for Yahweh by killing Yahweh’s enemies. The Maccabees (from the Apocrypha, found in Catholic Bibles) were zealous by fighting against Greek kings. Even Paul said that before he was a Christian he was zealous because he persecuted the church (Php. 3:6).

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Through the Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 1

Posted on 06/11/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 11: 2 Kings 1-5
Tuesday, June 12: 2 Kings 6-10
Wednesday, June 13: 2 Kings 11-15
Thursday, June 14: 2 Kings 16-20
Friday, June 14: 2 Kings 21-25

Next week we will read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

The overall year’s plan is here.

2 Kings: General Comments

At the end of this week, you will have completed most of the history of Israel as it is known in the Hebrew Scriptures. Chronicles is the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, and it covers the same time period as 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings do. In fact, in many languages, those books are not known as Samuel and Kings, but they are 1, 2, 3, and 4 Kings.

Kings ends with the capture of Judah by the Babylonians. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of the return from Babylon, and Esther describes a small period during the Babylonian captivity. Several of the prophets address either the Babylonian captivity or afterward as well.

After Ezra and Nehemia, there is no Biblical history of Israel until the Gospels, a 400-year gap. Protestants know this period as "the 400 silent years," but that’s not accurate. There are 4 books of the Maccabees giving the history of Israel during the 3rd and 2nd century B.C. Two of those are in the Roman Catholic Bible, and some Orthodox versions of the Bible have all four.

It appears that all Christian teachers of the period immediately after the apostles were familiar with the Maccabbees, as well as with Tobit and Ecclesiasticus, books that are found only in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Old Testament Scriptures. It’s likely they were familiar with all seven books that are called "the Apocrypha" and are contained in Roman Catholic Bibles, but not Protestant ones.

I’m not going to discuss whether they ought to be in the Bible. Even Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate which the Roman Catholic Church used throughout the middle ages, set those seven books in their own category separate from the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. However, Christian teachers should be familiar with them. If it’s worth it to know the history of Israel up to and immediately after the Babylonian captivity, it’s worth knowing it all the way to the time of Christ. Maccabees gives great insight into the culture of the Gospels because the Pharisees were basically trying to carry out the reforms that the Maccabees instituted, though their attitude was such that they made God mad, while God was with the family of the Maccabees.

So whether we consider the seven books of "the Apocrypha" to be Scripture or not, we who consider ourselves students of God’s word—and especially if we consider ourselves teachers—should at least be familiar with them. Our predecessors, including Martin Luther, John Calvin and the Anabaptist leaders, were deeply familiar with them.

2 Kings 1

At the end of 1 Kings, Ahab was shot by an arrow in battle even though he was disguised. You can hide from men, but you cannot hide from God. Ahaziah his son is now king, and Jehoshaphat is still king of Judah, having survived the battle that killed Ahab.

Also, Ahab’s evil wife, Jezebel, is still alive, though God will rectify that eventually as well.

The reigns of Jehoshaphat, and the two Jehorams, the king of Judah and the king of Israel, are wickedly difficult to reconcile. Verse 17 of this chapter says that Jehoram of Israel became king in the second year of the reign of Jehoram of Judah. Yet 2 Kings 3:1 says that he became king in the 18th year of the reign of Jehoshaphat. 1 Kings 22:51 gives us basically the same time frame as 2 Kings 3:1 because it says that Ahaziah became king in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat, and he only reigned two years. Taking into account that two years doesn’t mean "two years exactly to the day (or month)," it makes sense that Ahaziah’s son Jehoram would be king in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat reigned 25 years. How could his 18th year also be the 2nd year of the reign of Jehoram of Judah, Jehoshaphat’s son?

We get a clue in a few chapters. 2 Kings 8:16 says that Jehoshaphat was still king when his son Jehoram began to reign.

Here is the general understanding of Biblical scholars:

When Jehoshaphat went with Ahab to fight against the Syrians, the battle we just read about in which Ahab died, he left the administration of the kingdom in the control of his son Jehoram. Thus Jehoram became a viceroy or co-regent with his father starting in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat’s reign.

Later, in the 23rd year of his reign, Jehoshaphat retired and turned the kingdom completely over to his son and died two years later. It’s in the 23rd year of Jehoshaphat’s reign that Jehoram, his son, marks the beginning of his reign, except right here in 2 Kings 1:17, where the historian, for some unknown reason, marks Jehoram of Judah’s first year as the year he became co-regent with his father.

Understand, I am no defender of Biblical inerrancy when it comes to science and history. I don’t have any problems with spots where it is basically impossible to line up two Bible passages historically. I call those contradictions because I don’t believe that God feels any obligation to divinely enhance the memory of certain events so that Gospel writers and Jewish historians get every detail and conversation correct down to the word. For example, even skilled commentators are at a loss to explain why the Gospel of John says that the Pharisees stayed out of Pontius Pilate’s court so they could be clean to eat the Passover (18:28). According to the other Gospels, Jesus and his disciples had eaten the Passover the evening before. Various explanations are given by commentaries, none of which I find satisfactory. My explanation? John wrote his Gospel late in life, in the A.D. 90’s, about 60 years after the events transpired. Because Jesus’ death was so associated with the Passover, and perhaps also because John was by then used to reckoning days by Greek time rather than Jewish time, he remembered the day wrong.

But in the case of 2 Kings 1, I agree with the commentators. I think the historian gives the dates he does because of Jehoram’s co-regency with his father. I don’t think there’s a Bible contradiction or historical error here.

Bible Contradictions?

Some you may be in shock at my suggestion that there might be historical or scientific errors in the Bible. I’m not sure what to do about that because they’re undeniable. Job 37:18 says the sky is as hard as a metal mirror. 1 Samuel 2:8 says the earth is set on pillars. Genesis 1:7 says there’s a "firmament," a word that means something hard, separating waters above from waters beneath, and the creation account in Genesis 1 really doesn’t match the creation account in Genesis 2, even if you try to say that Genesis 2 is only talking about creating the Garden of Eden.

There are plenty of numbers that don’t line up between Kings and Chronicles and the list of those who came from Babylon to Jerusalem in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are similar, but not the same.

Apologists (people who defend a religion, in this case Biblical inerrancy) have explanations for the things I’ve written above, but I find most of them not just dissatisfying, but often embarrassing.

I have simply never understood why the inspiration of a spiritual book requires ancient people to understand modern science or nail down small nuances of history without any errors or contradiction. In modern courts, the testimony of two witnesses who tell exactly the same story down to the smallest detail is considered suspect. The court assumes they’ve collaborated. Contradictions between witnesses on minor details enhances their credibility, it does not detract from it.

The earliest Christian writing outside the Bible is called 1 Clement, and it’s a letter from the church at Rome to the church at Corinth. Some in the early church considered it inspired, and it was attached to the New Testament in a codex that dates from the fourth century. It’s a beautiful, encouraging writing. In it, however, the author uses the Phoenix bird as an illustration of resurrection. We now know the Phoenix bird does not exist, but should we ignore the powerful spiritual truths in 1 Clement because he didn’t know that the Phoenix bird was just an Egyptian legend?

2 Kings 2

This is another example of the kind of shape Elijah was in. The trip from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho was at least 50 miles. Crossing the Jordan would have added a couple miles to that.

Elisha cursing the children is shocking to us. I have no explanation that would stop it from being shocking, but perhaps the following explanation by Augustine will make it less so. This is taken from bible.cc in the Keil & Delitzsch section:

"The insolent boys," [Augustine] says, "are to be supposed to have done this at the instigation of their parents; for they would not have called out if it had displeased their parents." And with regard to the object of the judicial punishment, he says it was inflicted "that the elders might receive a lesson through the smiting of the little ones, and the death of the sons might be a lesson to the parents; and that they might learn to fear the prophet, whom they would not love, notwithstanding the wonders which he performed."

John Wesley adds this, from the same page:

If any of these children were more innocent, God might have mercy upon their souls, and then this death was not a misery, but a real blessing to them, that they were taken away from that education which was most likely to expose them not only to temporal, but eternal destruction. In the name – Not from any revengeful passion, but by the motion of God’s Spirit, and by God’s command and commission. God did this, partly, for the terror and caution of all other idolaters and prophane persons who abounded in that place; partly, to vindicate the honour, and maintain the authority of his prophets; and particularly, of Elisha, now especially, in the beginning of his sacred ministry.

2 Kings 3

A notable miracle happened in this chapter, and God delivered Israel, Judah, and Edom through the words of Elijah. However, I want to point out the role of the minstrel in this chapter. It was as the minstrel played and Elijah got into God’s presence that the word of God came to him.

Verse 27 is another horrifying occurrence. It’s impossible to tell just by looking at the verse whose wrath is being discussed. The Keil & Delitzsch commentary says that the Hebrew phrase used here is always used of divine wrath in every other occurrence in the Hebrew Scriptures. So they understand it to mean that God was angry with Israel for occasioning such a sacrifice.

If that’s true, there’s still no way to know in what way the Israelites felt that divine wrath. The result was that they went home. It’s possible that they were simply sickened by the sight, for the king burned his son to death on the wall.

Rabbinic tradition teaches that the king of Moab was told by advisors that the Israelites had power against him because their founder, Abraham, had offered his son as a burnt sacrifice in quick obedience to God. (Of course, we know that God supplied a replacement, but the king of Moab didn’t know.) So the king of Moab did the same, hoping for the same power the Israelites had.

I’m pretty sure that in this case, rabbinic tradition is just the speculation of rabbis centuries later.

2 Kings 4

Shunem was near Jezreel, some 30 miles northeast of Samaria, which was the king of Israel’s capitol. Abishag, the young maiden who kept King David warm in his old age, was also from Shunem.

Note that when the Shunammite came to Elisha, he said that the Lord had hidden her problem from him. It seems that this was unusual and that in most cases, Elisha would have known what it was that was troubling the people who came to him. Powerful prophet!

The rest of this chapter is devoted to miracles that Elisha performed.

Make sure you’re reading the Scriptures and not just my commentary. These are great and inspiring stories.

Don’t think they can’t happen to you. If you listen to God, there are many opportunities to witness your own miracles. Maybe they won’t be as spectacular as some of Elisha’s, but spiritual Christians can normally list numerous places where they have seen the intervention of God in their lives or the lives of others after prayer.

I remember once being prompted by God to ask the church to pray for a drought to end here in Tennessee (spring, 2008, I think). When I asked the church to pray, one of the sisters in the church asked if we could pray for the rain to start on Tuesday because she was taking many children to the zoo on Tuesday. We laughed, but we prayed, and the rain started while they were in the parking lot leaving the zoo on Tuesday.

We had of course all been praying for an end to the drought, but on that day God was ready to do something about it, and he let us have a hand in seeing something special. This sort of thing can be ordinary life for a church of disciples, who love God, believe in his Son, know his promises, and who rely on his mercy daily.

2 Kings 5

Jesus uses Naaman as an example in his preaching. He points out that there were many lepers in Elisha’s day, but the only one that he healed was Naaman the Syrian. It made the Jews so mad that they tried to kill him (Luke 4:27-30).

There’s lessons for us in that story. We have to beware of excluding people. (Of course, we also have to beware of including people that we shouldn’t, as Jehoshaphat found out when he was rebuked by a prophet for going to war with Ahab.)

Gehazi’s greed is also a lesson to us. How many of us, given the opportunity, would have followed in his footsteps? He wasn’t stealing. He was just greedily taking advantage of an opportunity that wasn’t his to take advantage of.

There’s a lesson to be learned from Naaman as well. He had an expectation of how he was to be healed, and he almost missed his healing because of it.

I’d sum up those lessons this way: A spiritual person is flexible, brave (standing up to and against the wicked), merciful (open to all who come to God honestly), and trusts God strenuously.

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Through the Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 18-22

Posted on 06/08/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 4: 1 Kings 1-4
Tuesday, June 5: 1 Kings 5-8
Wednesday, June 6: 1 Kings 9-12
Thursday, June 7: 1 Kings 13-17
Friday, June 8: 1 Kings 18-22

We will start 2 Kings on Monday (June 11).

The overall year’s plan is here.

1 Kings 18

This is, of course, one of the most famous stories in the Bible. It’s the showdown between the prophets of Baal (and Asherah) and Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh.

You may wonder, as many skeptics have, where the people found 12 water jars full of water at the end of a 3-year drought. Mt. Carmel, which is only 1,742 feet high, sits right on the Mediterranean coast. The water probably came from the sea and was salt water.

As I pointed out yesterday, Elijah is persistent in prayer. He prays seven times, and each time he sends his servant to check on the results of his prayer.

At the faintest hint of an answer (a cloud as small as a man’s hand, v. 44), Elijah announces a deluge and sends Ahab back to Samaria to dodge the storm.

Elijah runs back ahead of Ahab’s chariot. You can see on the map that Jezreel is about 30 miles from Mt. Carmel. From Mt. Carmel on the coast (it’s on a little horn in C5 or D5) follow the Plain of Megiddo to the Valley of Jezreel. The city of Jezreel is just above the word "valley" there.

Jezreel was Ahab’s residence, but no other kings after Ahab lived there. Today it’s a village called Ze’rin (ref).

1 Kings 19

James, the Lord’s brother, tells us that Elijah was a man "of like passions to us" (Jam. 5:17). Perhaps this chapter is the reason he says it. Elijah, who has just conquered Ahab and 850 prophets of false gods, finds himself terrified and fleeing from Jezebel.

The Scriptures don’t say how many days he fled, but the trip from Jezreel to Beersheba was about 100 miles. It’s in the bottom left corner of the map I linked.

I found an excellent commentary on this chapter which includes the distances of Elijah’s travels. Horeb, which is Mt. Sinai of which the exact location is unknown, is 160 to 220 miles, as the crow flies, south of Beersheba. According to the commentary link at the start of this paragraph, it could be up to 420 miles if he took the roads.

The commentary suggests that Elijah was a younger man than we’re used to thinking of him as. He needed God’s strength to get to Horeb without eating, taking 40 days and 40 nights, but he traveled the 100 miles to Beersheba without divine intervention.

It is not at all unthinkable for a human in good shape to travel 40 to 50 miles a day for days on end and even further for one day only.

You’ve probably heard the term "still, small voice." This comes from verses 11 and 12.

Elijah is encouraged by God, and he goes back north to anoint two kings, one of which is to replace Ahab, though Ahab’s stories are by no means over at this point. He also anoints Elisha as his own replacement.

Elijah finds Elisha at Abel-Maholah, which is in the Valley of Jezreel though its exact location is unknown and it may be a region, not a city. Elisha is plowing with 12 yoke of oxen, indicating he is from a wealthy family. He leaves all that, however, to become Elijah’s student.

1 Kings 20

This is a bit of an unusual chapter. Unknown prophets approach King Ahab that are really sent from God. God helps King Ahab, declared by Scripture to be more evil than any of his predecessors (21:25), to defeat Ben-Hadad. (But see my comments on chapter 21.)

Also, we would expect that Ahab was finally doing something good in being merciful to a conquered king, but God curses him for doing so.

It is the word of the Lord that matters, and several kings and leaders are rebuked by God in Scripture for letting kings go that God had marked out for destruction. Saul is an example when he let Agag, king of the Amalekites live. God removed him from being king for not following through.

The figurative application for us today is that we need to deal with sin and with the things that make us stumble and make us weak in the same way God wanted Ahab to deal with Ben-Hadad. We must utterly purge our lives, leaving nothing of that weak area behind to tempt us.

I knew a man who was invited to a movie. He asked if there were anything in the movie to be concerned about. The person who invited him said, "Well, there’s a short scene where a beautiful girl walks around in a bikini; only a few seconds."

The man said, "I can’t see it. I’ve had difficulties in the past with my desires, and that would be like giving heroin to an addict."

That man was being thorough.

Are we really serious about following God?

(As I write that, I am convicted myself of a couple areas where I have not been thorough with God. Conviction should not discourage us, but should painfully empower us to action that we already knew was right.)

1 Kings 21

In chapter 21, we get an idea why God was so patient with Ahab. The truly evil one was Jezebel. Ahab himself was guilty for being pushed by and following Jezebel, but notice that there appears to be no one that stood up to Jezebel during her lifetime except God himself … and that includes Elijah the Tishbite!

Even here, Elijah is sent by God to speak to Ahab, not Jezebel. Speaking to Jezebel could well have resulted in the death of the prophet, but Ahab had more respect than that. Somewhere, deep beneath his evil behavior, Ahab knew that Yahweh was God.

Even Jehu, whom had Jezebel put to death and who will come up in 2 Kings, exchanged no words with her. He simply asked those with her to throw her out the upper story window.

1 Kings 22

Jehoshaphat’s expressions of unity with Ahab in verse 4 are entirely inappropriate, and God rebukes him for it (2 Chr. 19:2). We are to despise evil, and we are certainly not supposed to form bonds of unity with evil men.

Notice, too, that down in verse 44 that Jehoshophat’s peace with the king of Israel is listed among the deeds of his life, but it seems to be listed in the negative section of his deeds, not the positive—the "exceptions" to his righteousness, if you will.

I think it is safe to conclude that Ahab’s 400 prophets were clearly unreliable prophets. Jehoshaphat asks if there’s any other to hear from, even though four hundred were presented before him, all speaking with one voice.

Ahab brings Micaiah. I have to wonder if Ahab kept Micaiah in prison so he could "have his cake and eat it, too." Deep down, he knew that though Micaiah always prophesied evil about him, Micaiah prophesied truth. He couldn’t acknowledge that Micaiah was true, so he found a terrific compromise. He threw Micaiah in prison. This allowed him to hear true prophecy while still ignoring it, pretending he didn’t recognize truth when it was spoken to him. He also got to relieve his anger by ill-treating Micaiah.

When I read the story of the battle, I get the impression that Jehoshaphat, though a righteous man himself, wasn’t very courageous in standing up to evil men, or at least to evil kings. For some crazy reason, he agrees to let Ahab disguise himself in the midst of the battle while Jehoshaphat himself dressed in his royal robes.

Why would Jehoshaphat agree to be a decoy for Ahab?

God worked it all out despite Jehoshaphat’s foolishness, and Ahab got his just punishment from God, the same punishment we will all get if we ignore the truth that is told to us.

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Through the Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 13-17

Posted on 06/07/2012 by Paul Pavao

This Week’s Readings

Monday, June 4: 1 Kings 1-4
Tuesday, June 5: 1 Kings 5-8
Wednesday, June 6: 1 Kings 9-12
Thursday, June 7: 1 Kings 13-17
Friday, June 8: 1 Kings 18-22

The overall year’s plan is here.

1 Kings 13

When we left Jeroboam yesterday he had set up two golden calves, one in the far north in Dan, and the other in the south near the border with Judah in Bethel. He had made a new priesthood and new temples. All this to prevent his people from going to Jerusalem to properly worship Yahweh, the God who had given Jeroboam his kingdom in the first place.

Chapter 12 ends with Jeroboam burning incense at the altar in Bethel during his new feast that took place in the eighth month. (The main feasts prescribed in the Law of Moses take place in the 1st, 7th, and 10th months of the year. The new year for the Jews begins in March or April depending on cycles of the moon and when the first crop grows.)

1 Kings 13 begins with the appearance of the man of God, who is never named, at the altar in Bethel while Jeroboam was by the altar.

The man of God’s prophecy came to pass (2 Kings 23:16) about 300 years later, during the reign of Josiah, which began c. 641 B.C. Jeroboam’s reign began approximately 925 B.C.

The story of the man of God and the prophet is a strange story, indeed. Why did the prophet lie to the man of God? Why would God speak through the prophet after he lied?

We can speculate about those questions, but the lesson I give to my kids when I tell them this story (which is another favorite story of theirs) is that they need to stick to what God has told them no matter what others tell them. I’m a big believer in the church as the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), and I’m a big believer in getting advice so that you are not deceived by your own heart (Jer. 17:9; Heb. 3:13) in imagining that you heard God when you did not, but if you are convinced that God has spoken to you (whether in your heart, through circumstances, through the Scriptures, or through the church), you must follow through and obey no matter who opposes.

The man of God had no reason to doubt that it was God who spoke to him, as his words had been backed up by miraculous power. Nonetheless, he trusted the prophet when the prophet gave him words that eased God’s demands on him, which turned out to be a big mistake.

1 Kings 14

Ahijah prophesies not only the death of Jeroboam’s son, but the captivity and scattering of the northern kingdom of Israel. Israel only lasted about 200 years as a separate kingdom, and all its kings were evil. Not one is declared by the Scriptures to be good. Only Judah had good kings, and they had only a few.

The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel is mentioned in verse 19, but we don’t have that book. We do have the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (v. 29), which we know as 1 and 2 Chronicles.

1 Kings 15

Verse 6 says there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of Abijam’s life. A few Hebrew manuscripts say "Abijam and Jeroboam," which is obviously what is meant. The LXX, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, leaves that line completely out.

Asa was a good king, and his history illustrates the difference between Chronicles and Kings. Chronicles covers only the kings of Judah, not the kings of Israel, but Chronicles is also a more spiritual book. The historians who wrote Chronicles let us know that God was not happy with Asa’s reliance on Ben-hadad, nor that Asa didn’t seek the Lord when he became diseased in his feet (2 Chr. 16:7-12).

Jeroboam’s line comes to an end after his son Nadab reigns two years. Baasha is a completely different family, coming from the tribe of Issachar. Jeroboam was from the tribe of Ephraim (1 Kings 11:26).

1 Kings 16

This chapter describes the awful state Israel was in, with the throne being turned over regularly. Zimri only reigned a week!

It also describes the founding of Samaria, which would be Israel’s capital for the next two centuries. The city would also give its name to the Samaritans, the Assyrian-Israelite mixed race that was despised by the Jews in Jesus’ time.

I finally found a decent, clickable map of the cities we’re looking at. They have Tirzah, where Omri was reigning, and Samaria highlighted so they’re easy to see.

We are introduced to Ahab, the son of Omri here, and 1 Kings spends some time on him because it was during his reign that Elijah the prophet arose.

This chapter ends with by mentioning the rebuilding of Jericho at the cost of two sons, which had been prophesied by Joshua (Joshua 6:26).

1 Kings 17

The Brook Cherith can be found on the map I linked above. If you go north from Tirzah, you’ll see Bezek. Go due east across the Jordan, and you’ll see the Brook Cherith. One of the towns on the brook was Tishbe, which is Elijah’s home town. He went somewhere familiar to hide out from Ahab.

Zarephath, where Elijah stayed with the widow, is also on the map, in the far north on the Mediterranean coast just south of Sidon. That was a long trip for Elijah, 60 or 70 miles from Tishbe.

We see a couple of Elijah’s miracles in this chapter. Elijah has to pray three times to raise the widow’s son. Later, when he prays for the rain to return, he prays seven times. Elijah was a persistent man of God, and perhaps this is what James means when he mentions Elijah and says that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (Jam. 5:16-18).

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