Does God have His ways to rule in the affairs of men?

1K22:22,23 “...The Lord said, 'Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said this while another said that. "Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, 'I will entice him.' "The Lord said to him, 'How?' And he said, 'I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' Then He said, 'You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so.' "Now therefore, behold, the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has proclaimed disaster against you..."

Do people continue to think they are in control?

1K22:26,27 “... Take Micaiah ...Put ...in prison and feed him sparingly with bread and water until I return safely...”

1K22:30,34 Ahab disguises himself, is hit by a random arrow.

1K22:38 His blood is licked up by the dogs in Samaria, just as the word of the Lord had said. [1K21:19]

Replacement kings for Jehoshaphat and Ahab.

1K22:41-43 Jehoshaphat, king of Judah 25yrs, “...doing right in the sight of the Lord. However, the high places were not taken away...”

1K22:50 “... And Jehoshaphat ...was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David, and Jehoram his son became king in his place...”

1K22:51,52 “... Ahaziah the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria ...he reigned two years ...He did evil ...walked in the way of his father and ...his mother ...”

2 KINGS

2K1

Ahaziah, like his father Ahab, believes in false gods.

2K1:1,2 Ahaziah falls through the lattice, becomes ill, and sends messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, god of Ekron.

2K1:3-4 God sends Elijah to intercept them with a true message -

2K1:4 “... You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you shall surely die..." .

Ahaziah sends for Elijah.

2K1:9-10 Elijah calls down fire on the captain and 50 men sent to get him.

2K1:11-12 Elijah calls down fire on another captain and 50 men

2K1:13-17 The third captain who is sent begs for mercy., and Elijah goes with him. “...Ahaziah dies according to the word of the Lord...”

Asa (2Chr16:13) and Ahaziah (2K1:2) made the same mistake.

They both looked in the wrong place for help.

2K2

It’s time for Elijah to be taken.

2K2:1-6 Elisha follows Elijah to Bethel, to Jericho, and to the Jordan, refusing three times to heed Elijah’s request to stop following him.

2K2:8 Elijah took his mantle and struck the Jordan so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

Elisha assumes his prophetic role.

2K2:9 Elisha asks for a double portion of the Spirit.

2K2:11 “... a chariot of fire and horses of fire ...separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven...”

2K2:13,14 Elisha “...took up the mantle of Elijah ...stood by the bank of the Jordan ...struck the waters and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” ...they were divided here and there; and Elisha crossed over...”

And the miraculous occurs.

2K2:21 Purifies the water supply of Jericho, the cursed city that was rebuilt by Hiel and cost him two sons. (1K16:34)]

2K2:23-24 Forty-two lads get cursed and torn up by bears after disrespecting Elisha by calling him a baldhead.

2K3

Beware of clinging, and that which clings.

2K3:1,2 Jehoram, king of Israel for 12yrs, did evil.

2K3:3 “...he clung to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin; he did not depart from them...”

Heb.12:1 “...since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,...” ESV

Worship, Water and War?

2K3:4-12 Three kings (Israel, Judah, Edom), lacking water, seek Elisha’s advice about fighting Moab.

2K3:15 Elisha reluctantly says “...But now bring me a minstrel." And ...when the minstrel played, ... the hand of the Lord came upon him...”

2K3:16,17 “... Make this valley full of trenches.... You shall not see wind nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water...”

2K3:20 “...in the morning about the time of offering the sacrifice ...water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water...”

2K3:21,22 “... the Moabites ...rose early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood...”

2K3:23-25 Assuming the that infighting had created what appeared to be blood, the Moabites march right into a slaughter.

An abominable scary sacrifice.

2K3:26,27 “...the king of Moab ... took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from him and returned to their own land...”

Why would the human sacrifice cause “...wrath against Israel...” ?

A stele, the Moabite Stone, contains King Mesha’s claim that Israel was defeated by the god Chemosh, presumably due to his son’s sacrifice.

Or did potential divine judgment from the true God cause withdrawal?

2K4 The Spirit empowering Elisha.

Oil to combat poverty.

2K4:1-7 Elisha helps a poverty stricken widow with a miraculous multiplication of oil. Limited only by the number of jars she had collected.

A needed son and his resurrection.

2K4:8-17 Elisha frequents the Shunamite woman’s bed and breakfast His servant Gehazi mentions her lack of a son. Elisha declares (doesn’t pray) that she will have a son, which she does by her old husband.

2K4:18-20 The grown son has a terrible headache and dies.

2K4:24-27 “...The Shunammite woman “...saddled a donkey ...went and came to the man of God ...she caught hold of his feet ...”

God reserves the right to reveal what He chooses, keeping a person from thinking too highly of himself.

2K4:27 “...Let her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me..." Elisha’s staff to the face didn’t work.

2K4:29-31 Gehazi is sent to place Elisha’s “...staff on the lad’s face ...no sound or response...”

2K4:32-37 Now Elisha prays “... he went up ...lay on the child ...mouth on his mouth ...eyes on his eyes ...hands on his hands ...and the flesh of the child became warm. ...walked in the house ...back and forth ...went up ...stretched himself on him ...the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes ...Shunammite ... came ...took up her son and went...”

Removing Death from the Pot

2K4:38-41 Elisha deals with “...death in the pot ...there was no harm...”

Multiplies a meal, much like Jesus would later do.

2K4:42-44 Twenty loaves feed a hundred men with “...some left over...””

2K5

Naaman, captain of Aram’s army, is in need.

2K5:1 A valiant, highly respected warrior, but a leper.

2K5:2-4 A little Israelite girl recommends a cure from Elisha.

2K5:5-7 King of Aram sends to the king of Israel requesting Naaman’s healing. King of Israel thinks he’s looking for a fight.

Politics and nationalism operate in a different place than God’s work.

The girl knew what the king didn’t.

Elisha knows how to meet the need.

2K5:8-10 “... Elisha ...heard ...let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came ...and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger ...saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean...”

Naaman is insulted.

2K5:11,12 “... Naaman was furious ...I thought, He will ...come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not ...the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? ...So he ...went away in a rage...”

Cooler heads prevail.

2K5:13-14 “... his servants came ...and spoke to him ...had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’? So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan ...and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean...”

More than just healing. Naaman now knew God existed.

2K5:15a “...Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel...”

2K5:17 “... your servant will no longer offer burnt offering nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord...”

Greed raises its ugly head.

2K5:15b,16 “...so accept now a present ...” Elisha refused.

2K5:21-24 “... Gehazi pursued Naaman. ...My master has sent me ...Please give ...a talent of silver and two changes of clothes ...he took them from their hand and deposited them in the house ...”

His second lie dooms Gehazi

2k5:25-27:”... Where have you been, Gehazi? ...Your servant went nowhere ...Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes ...Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever ...he went out ...a leper as white as snow...”

Point 1: You can serve a prophet with twice the Spirit of Elijah and still be overcome with greed.

Point 2: To say bodily diseases are all chance events is to forget that there is a God of all the earth. [and yet 2K13:14]

2K6

The existence of more than the natural world.

2K6:6 Elisha floats a borrowed ax head.

2K6:8 The same king who had sent his commander to Israel to be healed is now warring against Israel.

2K6:9,10 Elisha frustrates Aram’s plans “...more than once or twice...”

2K6:14,15 The army surrounds Elisha in Dothan.

2K6:16 “... Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them...”

2K6:17 Elisha’s servant has his eyes open to what Elisha sees.

2K6:18 The enemy has their eyes closed to even the natural world.

2K6:19-23 The blind enemy is led to Samaria where their eyes are opened, they are fed, and sent back to Aram unharmed.

Samaria under siege. Elisha is in danger.

2K6:24 “... Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his army and went up and besieged Samaria. There was a great famine in Samaria ...”

2K6:28 The king of Israel finds out that people are succumbing to cannibalism and he’s determined to get rid of Elisha.

2K6:32 ”... Elisha was sitting in his house ...the king sent a man from his presence; but before the messenger came ...(Elisha) said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head...”

2K7

Relief is coming.

2K7:1,2 After the long siege on Samaria, Elisha promises abundant food. The royal officer, with the natural viewpoint, says “not happening”. Elisha says “...Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but ...not eat of it...”

Discovered by an unlikely group.

2K7:3-7 Four lepers discover that “...the Lord had caused the army of the Arameans to hear a sound of chariots and a sound of horses, even the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, "Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us." Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents and their horses and their donkeys, even the camp just as it was, and fled for their life...”

2K7:9-12 The lepers tell the city, but the king thinks it’s a trap.

The prophesy is fulfilled.

2K7:13,14 A servant convinces the king to send someone to find out.

2K7:16 “... the people went out and plundered the camp ...”

2K7:17 “... the king appointed the royal officer ...to have charge of the gate; but the people trampled on him ...and he died just as the man of God had said ...”

2K8

The Shunammite is sent elsewhere.

2K8:1,2 “... Elisha spoke to the woman ...saying, “Arise and go with your household ...for the Lord has called for a famine ...for seven years . So ...she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years...”

She returns to a timely encounter.

2K8: “...the woman returned ...and she went out to appeal to the king for her house and for her field. ...the king was talking with Gehazi ...saying, ...relate to me all ...that Elisha has done. As he was relating to the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead, behold, the woman ...appealed to the king ...Gehazi said, ...this is the woman and ...her son ...So the king appointed ...a certain officer, saying, “Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now...”

Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, is failing.

2K8:9 “... Hazael went to meet (Elisha) and took a gift ...forty camels’ loads ...and said, ...Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’...”

2K8:10 “...Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You will surely recover,’ but the Lord has shown me that he will certainly die.” He fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept. Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” Then he answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and their little ones you will dash in pieces, and their women with child you will rip up.” ...The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram...”

2K8:15 The next day, Hazael kills Ben-hadad. .

Successive kings in Judah

2K8:16-19 Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned 8 years, did evil.

2K8:25 Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, reigned 1 year, did evil.

2K9

Jehu anointed as king - to destroy Ahab’s line.

2K9:1-3 Elisha sends a prophet with a flask of oil to anoint Jehu, and flee.

2K96-8 “... he poured the oil on his head and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I have anointed you king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male person both bond and free in Israel...”

2K9:24-26 Jehu kills Joram and has his body thrown onto Naboth’s property [judgment against the house of Ahab].

2K9:33-37 Then Jezebel is killed to fulfill the Word of the Lord.

  2K10

Going after the rest of Ahab’s house.

2K10:1 Ahab had 70 sons. Did Jezebel get along with the other women?

2K10:7 Seventy heads are delivered in baskets.

2K10:11 “...So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his acquaintances and his priests, until he left him without a survivor...”

2K10:17 “... When he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to Elijah...”

The isolated incidents are gruesome. The bigger picture is logical in God’s justice. Who can evaluate as God does?

Tricking the Baal worshipers into gathering together.

2K10:18-27 “... Jehu said, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal.” ...Then ...all the worshipers of Baal came ...Then it came about ...that Jehu said ...Go in, kill them, let none come out ...they broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day...”

2K10:28 “...Thus Jehu eradicated Baal out of Israel...”

How was Jehu doing?

2K10:29 didn’t depart from the Jeroboam golden calf problem.

2K10:30 “...The Lord said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in executing what is right in My eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel..."

2K10:31 “...But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin...”

He was passionate about wiping out Ahab’s descendants.

He wasn’t passionate about wholeheartedly following God.

2K10:36 Jehu, king of Israel, reigned 28 yrs, evil.

2K11

An evil queen is replaced by a youngster.

2K11:1-3 Athaliah becomes queen of Judah, destroys all the royal offspring except Joash, who Jehosheba hides for 6 years.

2K11:4-12 Protection details are established, and Joash is made king.

2K11:16 Athaliah is seized and put to death.

2K11:21,12:1 A seven year old begins what will be a 40 year reign.

2K12

Good counsel is of great Value.

2K12:2 “...Jehoash (Joash) did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him...”

But problems still exist.

2K12:3 “...Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places...”

Contingency fund established but not used.

2K12:4,5 Assessments and voluntary offerings to be used for repairs.

2K12:6-8 Repairs weren’t getting done even after challenged.

An alternative system is created.

2K12:9-15 A donation box, with contents used to hire the work done.

2K12:15 “... they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hand they gave the money to pay to those who did the work, for they dealt faithfully...”

The good king makes a bad decision.

2K12:17-18 He buys off an enemy king by giving him all the sacred things.

2K12:20,21 “... His servants arose and made a conspiracy and ...struck him and he died; and they buried him with his fathers ...”

Why the bad decision? Answer in 2 Chronicles.

2Chr.24:17 “... after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them...”

His advisor, that had been with him from the beginning, dies. Bad advice leads to bad decisions.

2K13

How would God respond to Jehoahaz, another evil king?

2K13:1,2 Jehoahaz king of Israel, 17 yrs, evil.

2K13:3 “... So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He gave them continually into the hand of Hazael king of Aram, and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael...”.

How would Jehoahaz respond to God?

2K13:4,5 “... Jehoahaz entreated the favor of the Lord, and the Lord listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Aram oppressed them. The Lord gave Israel a deliverer ...”

2K13:6,9 “... Nevertheless they did not turn away from the sins ...but walked in them ...And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers...”

Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, becomes king.

2K13:10,11 Jehoash king of Israel, 16 yrs, evil.

NOTE: Jehoash and Joash are two forms of the same name. Both Judah and Israel had a king with this name. Their reigns overlapped by about 3 years. Also duplicate Jehorams and Ahaziahs.

The death of the prophet Elisha

2K13:14 “...Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die...”

2K13:14-19 Joash shoots an arrow out an open window - will have victory over Aram. Strikes the ground only 3 times, will only strike Aram 3 times.

2K13:21 “... they were burying a man ...they cast the man into the grave of Elisha ...touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up...”.

A great prophet who God used to:

- Part the Jordan. Purify a spring at Jericho.

- Multiply the widow’s oil. Raise boy from the dead.

- Remove the poison from a stew pot.

- Multiply the prophet’s food. Heal Namaan of leprosy.

- Float an ax head. Blind the Aramean army.

- Resurrect a dead man who touched Elisha’s bones.

Falls to disease?

- Point 1 - He didn’t do the miracles, God did!

- Point 2 - It’s extremely rare that a human doesn’t die from something (Enoch, Elijah).

2K14

Another ‘mostly good’ king of Judah.

2K14:1-3 Amaziah king of Judah, 29 yrs, good.

2K14:4 “...Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places...”

2K14:8 Amaziah challenges Jehoash to war. Jehoash warms him to back down. He doesn’t, and Israel defeats the army of Judah.

2K14:13,14 “... Jehoash ...captured Amaziah ...came to Jerusalem ...tore down the wall ...took all the gold and silver and all the utensils which were found in the house of the Lord ...and returned to Samaria...”

2K14:17-20 Amaziah outlived Jehoash by 15 years, was killed by a conspiracy in Lachish, and was buried in Jerusalem.

Another evil king of Israel.

2K14:16,23,24 Jeroboam II becomes king of Israel, 41 yrs, evil.

2K14:27 Jeroboam was evil, yet God saved Israel by his hand .

2K15, 2K16

A ‘mostly good’, but proud king of Judah.

2K15:1-3 Azariah (Uzziah) king of Judah, 52 yrs, good.

2K15:4 “...Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places...”

2K15:5 “... The Lord struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death. And he lived in a separate house, while Jotham the king’s son was over the household...”

Explanation in 2 Chron.26:16-19 “... he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God ...with a censer ...for burning incense ...was enraged with the priests, the leprosy broke out ...”

Israel’s evil kings continue the sin of Jeroboam,

2K15:8,9 Zechariah king of Israel, 6 mos, evil. Fulfills the word of the Lord to Jehu that 4 generations shall sit on the throne (2K10:30)

2K15:13 Shallum king of Israel, 1 mo. Evil overthrow?

2K15:17,18 Menahem king of Israel, 10 yrs, evil.

2K15:23,24 Pekahiah king of Israel, 2 yrs, evil.

2K15:27,28 Pekah king of Israel, 20 yrs, evil.

While Judah gets a good, then evil king.

2K15:32-34 Jotham king of Judah, 16 yrs, good.

2K15:35 “...Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. ...”

2K16:1-3 Ahaz king of Judah, 16 yrs, evil.

2K16:7-9 Paid the king of Assyria to defeat the king of Aram (with the gold and silver from the house of the Lord).

2K16:10-15 Built a pagan altar to match the one he saw in Damascus, bowing to the current system that seemed to be in control.

2K17

The Fall of the Northern Kingdom.

2K17:1,2 Hoshea king of Israel, 9 yrs, evil.

2K17:6 “... In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria...”

Why were they taken into exile?

2K17:7-9 “...Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city ...They served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, You shall not do this thing...”

They had been warned, but did not listen.

2K17:13-15 “...Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets." However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them...”

2K17:17 “... Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him....”

Why would people devote themselves to evil?

2K17:21-23 The trajectory was set by Jeroboam “... Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin ...until the Lord removed Israel from His sight...”

It took a little over 200 years, but the end result was exile.

Samaria is repopulated, educated, but still fails.

2K17:24-28 Foreigners are sent to populate “God’s” land. The Lord sent lions, which killed some. People request assistance from the King of Assyria regarding “...the custom of the god of the land...”

2K17:27,28 “...the king ...commanded ...Take there one of the priests ...and let him go and ...teach them ...So one of the priests came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord...”

2K17:29,33,41 “...every nation still made gods of its own ...they feared the Lord and served their own gods ..served their idols…”