9/30/2006

Josiah cleans house

2 Kings 23:4-20 - The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. He did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts. He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the LORD and where women did weaving for Asherah.

Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the shrines at the gates—at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which is on the left of the city gate. Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech. He removed from the entrance to the temple of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melech. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.

He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the LORD. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon. Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.

Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

The king asked, "What is that tombstone I see?"

The men of the city said, "It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it."

"Leave it alone," he said. "Don't let anyone disturb his bones." So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed and defiled all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria that had provoked the LORD to anger. Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

I wonder if anyone tried to oppose Josiah along the way as he desecrated altars, killed idolaters, and so on.

The list of people, places, and things to get rid of goes on and on. I wonder how long it took to accomplish all of this. (It seems it was less than a year. Hopefully only a few weeks.)

"Even the altar at Bethel...even that altar...." I wonder if even some of the God-fearing people thought of that place as untouchable. Not Josiah.

The people of Bethel obviously had passed the prophecy of the destruction of the altar from one generation to the next. I wonder if each one feared what would happen to their city when that day would finally come. Would they be destroyed along with it?

9/27/2006

Lost and found

2 Kings 22:8 - Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD." He gave it to Shaphan, who read it.

I wonder when the last time was that the Book of the Law (BotL) had been used. I wonder if Shaphan the secretary read the entire BotL before taking it to King Josiah. Or did he come across something particularly disturbing (like God's curses on the disobedient) that suddenly made him realize that this was an important document that the king needed to see immediately.

I wonder how much of it Hilkiah had read before turning it over to Shaphan. I wonder why Hilkiah himself didn't take it to Josiah. Did Hilkiah realize what it was? (Maybe Hilkiah hadn't been Josiah's regent.)

I wonder where the BotL had been stored that it fell into disuse. Did one of the ungodly kings maybe even hide it? Notice that God saw to it that the BotL was not destroyed -- even though many kings and priests and Levites had neglected it for many years.

I wonder how many people even knew it existed. How many fathers told their children the stories and instructions the BotL contained even if they didn't have a copy of their own. How many fathers today tell their children the stories and instructions the Bible contains even if they do have a copy of their own?

Josiah's early reign

2 Kings 22:1-7 - Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 31 years. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.

In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple of the LORD. He said: "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the LORD, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the LORD - the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple. But they need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are acting faithfully."

I wonder who was regent while Josiah was still so young. Perhaps it was Hilkiah the priest. That would certainly help explain why he turned out to be a good king. (He didn't learn it from his father Amon.)

It is only 10 chapters later in the book of 2 Kings, but it is over 250 years later when we hear of Josiah doing the same type of repair and maintenance work on the temple that his predecessor Joash had done centuries before. For a bit of perspective on this, consider what was happening in the world around A.D. 1750! The U.S. wasn't even a country as such yet. Here we read of Josiah fixing up a building that, for the second time at least, had fallen into major disrepair. At least it was still standing. I wonder how many centuries-old buildings anyone considers worth repairing today.

I wonder what the full job description of the king's secretary was.

9/25/2006

55 years of Manasseh

2 Kings 21:1-9 - Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother's name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem I will put my Name." In both courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

He took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, "In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. I will not again make the feet of the Israelites wander from the land I gave their forefathers, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them and will keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them." But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.

I wonder what outside influences turned Manasseh to such evil. Probably the usual: money, "friends," etc. And internally: greed, lust for power, sex, selfishness.

I wonder why he was permitted by God and good people to rule for 55 years. Apparently enough of the people were just like him -- or close enough. Isn't it amazing how quickly people forgot how good things were under Hezekiah? Then again, some probably didn't think life under Hezekiah was all that good.

10 steps

2 Kings 20:1-11 - In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.' "

Then Isaiah said, "Prepare a poultice of figs." They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.

Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the LORD on the third day from now?"

Isaiah answered, "This is the LORD's sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?"

"It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps," said Hezekiah. "Rather, have it go back ten steps."

Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the LORD, and the LORD made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

Hezekiah's illness was the result of a boil. Or maybe the boil was a symptom of something else. Perhaps he also contracted an infection related to it. I wonder what the doctors had done to try to heal him. Was a fig poultice a treatment they had never heard of before? In any case, it certainly reversed Hezekiah's condition quickly. I wonder if the doctors were amazed at his recovery just as they sometimes are today when prayer is offered on behalf of an ill person and they miraculously recover.

Prayer is powerful. Apparently Isaiah's announcement of impending death was intended as a test of Hezekiah's faith. A test he passed.

I wonder (not to the point of wanting to experience it) what it's like to know for certain that you're going to die very soon -- and the certainty comes not from fallible physicians but from a prophet who is the mouthpiece of God. I wonder what it was like for Hezekiah to know that 15 years later he would die for sure. Did he (would you in his place) do anything different, especially in that final year?

There probably has been a lot of conjecture about the shadow moving back 10 steps. I know very little of it, so this really is all my own.

I think there would be two ways for the shadow to move back 10 steps.

1) The rotation of the earth completely reversed.
2) The earth's orbit drastically changed.

If God used some "natural" phenomenon to accomplish the effect, I think it would involve a large object pulling on the earth via gravity. But something else plays in here too. The shadow moved back 10 steps, but apparently everything was back to normal immediately thereafter -- as far as we know. How long did that take? Did the 10 steps back take the same amount of time as the 10 steps forward? Perhaps a few hours? If another heavenly body was involved, it seems to me that its effects would have been felt for a longer period of time. (Then again, maybe not. I'm not a scientist.) So maybe there was no other asteroid or whatever involved. I wonder if God "simply" gave the earth a reverse twist with his "hand."

Were there any other effects on the planet besides all the shadows changing? And did anyone else notice? Did anyone not notice? Has anyone found other writings from this time that record this event? How did it affect the winds? The "jetstream"? The weather that day? Did any effects continue to have consequences over the next week? Month? Year?

I wonder if the Stairway of Ahaz (Hezekiah's father) was a type of timepiece like a sundial.

I wonder if anyone besides Hezekiah and Isaiah were told to expect this. I wonder if any "scientists" or wise men (magi) attempted to measure how long the phenomenon took once they noticed it had started. Or did anyone try to discover its cause?

9/23/2006

185,000 fallen

2 Kings 19:32-37 - Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria:
"He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.

By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,
declares the LORD.

I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant."

That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning -- there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

I wonder if God used some "natural" cause to bring about the death of these soldiers. Perhaps some quick-spreading disease? Was it something they ate? But all in one night! Wow! Presumably these were all able-bodied soldiers. I wonder if any of them realized what was happening. I wonder who had to dispose of the bodies. And how long did it take?

I wonder why Sennacherib thought he might need 185,000 (or more) just to take Jerusalem.

Everything happened as the LORD has prophesied through Isaiah, of course. I wonder why Sennacherib's sons killed him. I wonder how they were able to do so in a temple. I wonder why neither of them became the next king.

I know where you live

2 Kings 19:27-28 -
But I know where you stay
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.

Because you rage against me
and your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.

I wonder if Isaiah was grinning with a twinkle in his eye when he said that. That's how I imagine him as he gives the LORD's answer about Sennacherib to the messenger who would deliver it to Hezekiah. I wonder if he wrote it down then and there, or dictated it, or if the messenger was expected to remember it.

Most messages from God are frightening to those who make themselves his enemies and at the same time comforting to those he calls his friends. This one is no different. "I know where you stay." If he knows where I am, then I know I am safe, since I'm one of his friends. Were I not, even though I might scoff on the outside, I'd be terrified in truth.

9/21/2006

From watchtower to fortified city

2 Kings 17:9 - The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns.

2 Kings 18:8 - From watchtower to fortified city, he [Hezekiah] defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.

Compare the two uses of "from watchtower to fortified city." Stark contrast, isn't it?

There are so many interesting parts to the life of Hezekiah packed into a few short pages of the Bible. I wish there were a whole book called Hezekiah. For one thing, I could then read what's in my favorite verse that's currently not in the Bible: Hezekiah 3:12. (Ask me to explain that, if you're really interested.)

You really should read all about Hezekiah before going on. Read at least 2 Kings 18. Though Hezekiah was as faithful as David, note that he didn't have an easy life because of it.

About Sennacherib's field commander...I wonder how many languages he could speak. I wonder how Hezekiah knew to tell his guards on the wall not to respond to the taunts.

More bits to come on Hezekiah.

9/20/2006

New kids in town

2 Kings 17:24 - The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.

I wonder how Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, decided who would go live in Samaria. I wonder if it was considered a privilege or a punishment to move there. I wonder if the people had a choice. Did they all go at the same time?

I wonder how Shalmaneser decided which nations to choose the people from. Why did he choose more than one nation's people? I wonder if any pure Assyrians moved in permanently.

How many Assyrian soldiers, officials, etc. had to move there temporarily to get the other peoples settled in where the king wanted them? Did the king provide moving vans and other aid? Did the king (and his officials) care exactly which city (street? house?) the people settled in? Were as many people reported as had been deported?

The more you think about the details here, the more questions come up. But I'll stop for now.

9/19/2006

Ahaz remodels the temple

2 Kings 16:10-18 - Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He saw an altar in Damascus and sent to Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, with detailed plans for its construction. So Uriah the priest built an altar in accordance with all the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and finished it before King Ahaz returned. When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings on it. He offered up his burnt offering and grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar. The bronze altar that stood before the LORD he brought from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of the LORD -and put it on the north side of the new altar.

King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: "On the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. Sprinkle on the altar all the blood of the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance." And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered.

King Ahaz took away the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base. He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the LORD, in deference to the king of Assyria.

I wonder how complex the new Assyrian-Judean altar was. Detailed plans imply some level of difficulty. Yet under Uriah's direction, it was built before Ahaz returned from Damascus. I wonder how long Ahaz stayed as Tiglath-Pileser's guest.

The king is the king, and what he says is law, but I wonder that there was no one -- not even a prophet or a priest -- who questioned Ahaz's remodeling of the temple and restructuring of worship and sacrifices. Apparently Tiglath-Pileser had some influence on the changes too, since some of them were made "in deference" to him.

9/18/2006

Temple repair outsourced

2 Kings 12:4-16 - Joash said to the priests, "Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the LORD -- the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, and let it be used to repair whatever damage is found in the temple."

But by the 23rd year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple. Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, "Why aren't you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple." The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.

Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the LORD. The priests who guarded the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the LORD. Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal secretary and the high priest came, counted the money that had been brought into the temple of the LORD and put it into bags. When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. With it they paid those who worked on the temple of the LORD -- the carpenters and builders, the masons and stonecutters. They purchased timber and dressed stone for the repair of the temple of the LORD, and met all the other expenses of restoring the temple.

The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the LORD; it was paid to the workmen, who used it to repair the temple. They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty. The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the temple of the LORD; it belonged to the priests.

I wonder in which year of his reign Joash first told the priests to repair the temple. I get the impression that they delayed any repair work for several years. I wonder why Joash (and his staff) assumed that the priests themselves would be capable of making the repairs. After all, they were just that -- priests, not carpenters, builders, masons, or stonecutters. It's not surprising to me that they finally decided to outsource the repairs to the professionals.

I wonder if the priests thought, "Hey, we just got a nice raise! If we play our cards right, we won't even have to do any more work than we did before."

I wonder if Joash ever tried to recover the money from the priests that had never been used for repairs as intended. And if not, why not?

Since it's specifically mentioned that no accounting was required of the workmen, that seems to imply that such an accounting was required in other situations. Seems an accounting maybe should have been conducted with the priests (of all people!) a few years earlier.

Joash the boy king

2 Kings 11:1-3, 21 - When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed. He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

Joash was seven years old when he began to reign.

I wonder why Jehoiada the priest waited 6 years before proclaiming Joash as king. Was there something significant about Joash turning seven? Was Athaliah too powerful and had too much support during the first 6 years? Did Jehoiada need that long to make preparations for declaring Joash king?

I wonder how much Joash understood about what Jehoiada was doing for him. Today he would have been a 2nd-grader in elementary school at best.

9/16/2006

Jehu drives like a madman

2 Kings 9:17-20 - When the lookout standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu's troops approaching, he called out, "I see some troops coming."

"Get a horseman," Joram ordered. "Send him to meet them and ask, 'Do you come in peace?' "

The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, "This is what the king says: 'Do you come in peace?' "

"What do you have to do with peace?" Jehu replied. "Fall in behind me."

The lookout reported, "The messenger has reached them, but he isn't coming back."

So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, "This is what the king says: 'Do you come in peace?' "

Jehu replied, "What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me."

The lookout reported, "He has reached them, but he isn't coming back either. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi—he drives like a madman."

I wonder where the watchman had seen Jehu drive a chariot recklessly before. I wonder how often he had seen him drive. I wonder if this was the only reckless chariot driver he knew.

I wonder if Jehu was commonly known as a reckless driver or "madman" on the road.

I wonder if Jehu was simply not a good chariot driver or if he had a servant who was a bad driver.

9/15/2006

The sound of chariots and horses

2 Kings 6:24; 7:3-7 - Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria.

Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? If we say, 'We'll go into the city'-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."

At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!" So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

I wonder what (if any) natural phenomenon God used to replicate "the sound of chariots and horses and a great army." An earthquake? Thunder? The wind? All of the above?

I wonder...How did the Arameans think the king of Israel had contacted and hired the Hittites and Egyptians, when all the time they had had the city under siege? I guess when you're very frightened, you don't always think logically.

I wonder how the men with leprosy got out of the city. Wasn't it locked up tight and heavily guarded so that no one could pass through the gates?

Elisha uses *the* force

2 Kings 6:8-23 - Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, "I will set up my camp in such and such a place."

The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there." So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, "Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?"

"None of us, my lord the king," said one of his officers, "but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom."

"Go, find out where he is," the king ordered, "so I can send men and capture him." The report came back: "He is in Dothan." Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.

"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike these people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

Elisha told them, "This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria.

After they entered the city, Elisha said, "LORD, open the eyes of these men so they can see." Then the LORD opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.

When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?"

"Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill men you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master." So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory.

I wonder how the Aramean officers knew it was Elisha who ratted them out every time.

I wonder if the Arameans were struck with a true blindness; that is, that everything faded to black or if the blindness was such that they just couldn't tell where they were. They did have to follow Elisha. And while it's true that this could have been done without sight, it would have been extremely difficult for Elisha to manage. Far from impossible, but very difficult.

"This is not the road and this is not the city." I wonder if George Lucas knew of that line and just rephrased if for Obi-Wan. "You don't need to see his identification." "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

9/13/2006

Captain #3

2 Kings 1:9-15 - Then he [King Ahaziah] sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down!' "

Elijah answered the captain, "If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.

At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, "Man of God, this is what the king says, 'Come down at once!' "

"If I am a man of God," Elijah replied, "may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.

So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. "Man of God," he begged, "please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants! See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!"

The angel of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

I wonder how the first captain found Elijah. Did he just ask around? I wonder who reported what happened back to the king.

I wonder if Captain #2 was thinking, "Lightning never strikes twice in the same place."

I wonder how Ahaziah decided which captain would make the third trip. I don't have to wonder much what Captain #3 and his squad of 50 were thinking. "Damn! Why didn't I volunteer for night watch on the border patrol."

Assuming this all happened the same day, by the time Captain #3 got to Elijah he probably saw about 100 dead (charred?) bodies lying on the hillside all around him, his troops, and Elijah. I wonder (a little) how bad it smelled.

I wonder why Ahaziah considered it necessary to send 51 men each time to give a message to just 1 man.

9/12/2006

The Micaiah melodrama

1 Kings 22:1-38 - For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. The king of Israel had said to his officials, "Don't you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?"

So he asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?"

Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "First seek the counsel of the LORD."

So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, "Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?"

"Go," they answered, "for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."

But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?"

The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah."

"The king should not say that," Jehoshaphat replied.

So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, "Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once."

Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, "This is what the LORD says: 'With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.' "

All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. "Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious," they said, "for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."

The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, "Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably."

But Micaiah said, "As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me."

When he arrived, the king asked him, "Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?"

"Attack and be victorious," he answered, "for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."

The king said to him, "How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?"

Then Micaiah answered, "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, 'These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.' "

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?"

Micaiah continued, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?'

"One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.'

" 'By what means?' the LORD asked.

" 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said.

" 'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.'

"So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you."

Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. "Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?" he asked.

Micaiah replied, "You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room."

The king of Israel then ordered, "Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king's son and say, 'This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.' "

Micaiah declared, "If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me." Then he added, "Mark my words, all you people!"

So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes." So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.

Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, "Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel." When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, "Surely this is the king of Israel." So they turned to attack him, but when Jehoshaphat cried out, the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel and stopped pursuing him.

But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, "Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I've been wounded." All day long the battle raged, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died. As the sun was setting, a cry spread through the army: "Every man to his town; everyone to his land!"

So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there. They washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed), and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the LORD had declared.

I don't mean to downplay the importance or undermine the wonderful truth of this story, but parts of it read rather like a good melodrama to me. I wish I could have heard Micaiah's talk with the kings and prophets. "Attack and be victorious for the LORD will give it into the king's hand." Can't you just see the sickly sweet sarcasm dripping off that line? Ahab surely could.

"If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me." I wonder if he said this on his way out, then paused in the doorway, turned (melo)dramatically and spat Clint Eastwood-ly, "Mark...my...words, all you people!" Go ahead. Make my day! Are ya feelin' lucky, prophets? Well, are ya?

I wonder what happened to those 400 false prophets.

9/11/2006

Elijah outruns Ahab

1 Kings 18:45-46 - Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

I wonder how fast Ahab's chariot was moving. Was the horse (or horses) going full tilt or just trotting?

I wonder what Ahab thought when he saw Elijah overtake him on foot. Did he tell his chariot driver to speed up to catch him or did he just let him go without a race?

Sidebar: I've never really understood why Elijah is held in such high esteem in the New Testament. He did get to do some spectacular things, but his successor, Elisha, has just as much, if not more, recorded in the Bible.

9/10/2006

Rebuilding Jericho

1 Kings 16:34 - In Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken by Joshua son of Nun.

I wonder if Hiel knew about Joshua's curse on the city of Jericho. (Joshua 6:26) If he did, he probably didn't believe it or care about it.

I wonder how his sons died. Were they helping to build the city and had fatal "accidents" while on the job? Or were their deaths only marginally connected to the rebuilding? For example, did Hiel spend money on the city that he could have spent on care for his sons, and that lack of care caused their deaths?

I'm surprised that, after over 500 years, anyone still knew where Jericho had been. If it was worth (so to speak) building a city there now, I wonder why no one had tried for the past few centuries.

9/09/2006

Jeroboam's son

1 Kings 14:1-5 - At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill, and Jeroboam said to his wife, "Go, disguise yourself, so you won't be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there—the one who told me I would be king over this people. Take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy." So Jeroboam's wife did what he said and went to Ahijah's house in Shiloh.

Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age. But the LORD had told Ahijah, "Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such and such an answer. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else."

I wonder why Jeroboam thought his wife should go to a blind man in a disguise. Perhaps it was not so much to hide from Ahijah as from others along the way. I wonder why he didn't go himself. Why didn't he want to be seen going to a prophet of God? Was it because of all the wrong he knew he'd done?

I wonder why Jeroboam wanted to know how Abijah's illness would turn out. Was there a need for an immediate answer? Was his son obviously deathly ill?

The lying old prophet

1 Kings 13 - By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD : "O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: 'A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.' " That same day the man of God gave a sign: "This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out."

When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, "Seize him!" But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the LORD.

Then the king said to the man of God, "Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored." So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king's hand was restored and became as it was before.

The king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift."

But the man of God answered the king, "Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. For I was commanded by the word of the LORD : 'You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.' " So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. Their father asked them, "Which way did he go?" And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. So he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?"

"I am," he replied.

So the prophet said to him, "Come home with me and eat."

The man of God said, "I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the LORD : 'You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.' "

The old prophet answered, "I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD : 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.' " (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the old prophet who had brought him back. He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, "This is what the LORD says: 'You have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.' "

When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was thrown down on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. Some people who passed by saw the body thrown down there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, "It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD. The LORD has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the LORD had warned him."

The prophet said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me," and they did so. Then he went out and found the body thrown down on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, "Oh, my brother!"

After burying him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. For the message he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true."

Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.

Doesn't it make you want to scream? I wonder what possible reason the old prophet could have had for lying to the prophet from Judah. If he had anything to gain from it, we're certainly not told what it was.

I wonder what the old prophet thought when he heard himself speaking the real word of the LORD. If he had had some other plans in mind for the man from Judah, this certainly nixed them.

If the prophet from Judah had been confused before, I wonder how befuddled he was after hearing the old prophet's true message from God. Can't stay. Gotta go. No, an angel says stay. No, God says shoulda gone. Now what? Do I stay? Do I go? Can't do both.

If an animal can have these kinds of thoughts, I wonder if the lion said to himself (or to the donkey), "I came all the way out to the road - risked my neck - to get this guy, and I don't even get to take him home for dinner?! What's up with that?"

9/06/2006

The sin of Jeroboam

1 Kings 12:28-30 - After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.

I wonder whose advice Jeroboam sought. Was it someone who had Jeroboam's best interests in mind or his own?

I wonder if the golden calf idea was purposely an echo of the one Aaron had made at Mt. Sinai many years earlier. I wonder if Jeroboam realized he was quoting Exodus 32:4 virtually word for word in proclaiming what he wanted these idols to be. Probably.

It's ironic that, as the author states, the people went "even as far as Dan" to worship the idol when Jeroboam had bemoaned earlier how much of a hardship it would be for people to go all the way to Jerusalem to worship God. Priorities. Dan was about as far away from proper worship as they could go -- in more ways than one.

9/05/2006

Jeroboam

1 Kings 11:26-40 - Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon's officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah.

Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the supporting terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph.

About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes. But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as David, Solomon's father, did.

" 'But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon's hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who observed my commands and statutes. I will take the kingdom from his son's hands and give you ten tribes. I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever.' "

Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon's death.

Something is missing in this account of Jeroboam's rebellion. The rebellion. It doesn't say what he did that could be considered rebellious. I wonder what he did that made Solomon want to kill him.

First he was doing fine. He even got promoted by Solomon.

Then Ahijah tells him he'll be king over most of Israel.

Finally we hear Solomon is out to get him.

I'm not seeing anything rebellious in any of that. I'm not saying he didn't do anything wrong -- it's just not spelled out right here.

9/03/2006

Solomon's wives

1 Kings 11:1-8 - King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

Solomon ruled for 40 years. He had 700 wives of royal birth. I wonder if he had to have an official wedding ceremony for each one. If he started getting these wives at the very beginning of his reign and continued adding on right up to the end of his life (doubtful, since it seems he already had 700 sooner than that), that would mean on average a wedding ceremony about every 3 weeks! Perhaps he doubled up on some of them or some didn't require an official ceremony. Then again, some probably involved celebrations lasting a week or more. And, as I suggested above, this probably wasn't going on all 40 years of his reign from Day 1 to his death. If not, that ups the average frequency even more. It's a wonder he had time to do much else. And yet we know he did supervise the building of the Temple and 2 palaces which took many years to complete.

Ophir

1 Kings 9:26-28 - King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. And Hiram sent his men -- sailors who knew the sea -- to serve in the fleet with Solomon's men. They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

Ophir is mentioned a dozen times in the Bible. Two references name Ophir as a son of Joktan in the line of Shem, Noah's son. All the other references are about the gold in the region probably named after this man. I wonder where Ophir was located. Presumably you could get there sailing south on the Red Sea, since Ezion Geber was at the north end of that sea.

I wonder if Ophirites(?) considered gold of much value. There was obviously a lot of it there. Laws of supply and demand perhaps made it of little value in Ophir itself -- much like silver was of little value in Israel later in Solomon's reign. I wonder how easy it was to mine in Ophir. Was it above ground, below ground, or both?

9/01/2006

Solomon's wisdom, insight, and understanding

1 Kings 4:29-31 - God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man, including Ethan the Ezrahite -- wiser than Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.

Many people know Solomon for his wisdom, but God also gave him lots of smarts. It's one thing to be able to tell which mother the living baby belongs to; it's quite another to be able to describe cedar and hyssop. I wonder if he was not only wiser than Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Darda but also smarter, more intelligent, and understood more things. Probably.

I wonder if Solomon had a photographic memory (anachronisms aside). I wonder if he had any savant characteristics.

I wonder if anyone actually scientifically tested his wisdom and understanding and compared it to the other wise, intelligent men of the time and then published the results in scientific journals of the day.