Day 112 (Saturday) - 2 Kings 14:11-17:18

I guess the time comes when God has had enough. Over and over the kings’ rise and fall and none of them worship God alone. As God looks down on his people he sees them doing the most detestable acts. Worshiping other gods and sacrificing their own children to these false idols!

I see a connection to our culture today. I believe that we are not far off from these kings and these people. We worship many other gods and sacrifice our children to them. We want money and neglect our children to get it. We want leisure and sacrifice our children by disengaging and ignoring them. We want ease and don’t parent our children as a result. The worst is that some will actually kill their children through abortion to keep from having to be inconvenienced by their very existence!

May God have mercy on us all!

Day 111 (Friday) - 2 Kings 10:25-14:10

Good news and bad news. The good news is that some of the kings did some good. The refurbished the temple, made repairs, offered sacrifices to God and still called upon Elisha for guidance. The bad news is that they never fully removed the pagan shrines from their culture and society. Even though they knew that God was the only true God, they worshiped other gods anyway.

I find this to be true in my life. I clean stuff up and make changes only to keep little shrines to other gods. Like the god of greed or lust or anger. Just like the kings, I would do much better to fully clean house instead of hanging on to the lesser idols.

Day 110 (Thursday) - 2 Kings 8:16-10:24

2 Kings is one of the more gory books of the bible. The descriptions of death and what happens are powerful visuals that make you cringe when you hear them. What is the purpose of telling us about the blood spatter of jezebel, that it hit the wall and the horses? Or the point of telling us that only her skull, hands and feet remained after the dogs had their way with her? The details are gruesome are PG 13 at best!

This raises a good question, is everything in the Bible appropriate for children to read? I find it interesting that parents who are very careful to not allow their children view violence in TV, movies or video games do not feel the same way about the Bible. What do you think?

Day 109 (Wednesday) - 2 Kings 4:29-8:15

There are a couple of passages that disturb me in our reading today. The first one is Naaman right after he is healed. He asks to be pardoned from the sin of bowing before the god of Rimmon when his king goes to the temple. I don’t know why God heals this man or why he does anything for the people of Aram when they worship other gods. It seems like people get struck dead for such things in other situations, but it seems like Naaman gets his pardon.

The other passage is the one about the severity of the famine as a result of the siege. It is so bad that two mothers decide that they are going to eat their children. The shocking thing is that the dispute is that mother #2 didn’t follow through after they ate child #1. Mother #1 is complaining to the king that Mother #2 should offer her son for supper as they agreed. I don’t even know what to say on this one…

Day 108 (Tuesday) - 1 Kings 22:37-53; 2 Kings 1:1-4:28

I have always found it interesting that Elijah gets such a better billing than Elisha. Many Jewish Rabbis believed that Elijah was still alive and that’s why they set a place for him at the Passover meal. Since he didn’t die, it was assumed that he would return at some point. But scripturally, there is little information about Elijah. Even when John the Baptist came on the scene, the people thought he was Elijah.

I love the stories of Elisha though. He does some really cool stuff. The story of the bears mauling the boys because they were calling him baldy is one of my favorites. Back in August of 2003, I had the opportunity to teach on this passage. I have inserted a few of the points below if you have been wondering what was happening during this event.

1.Who is Elisha?
It is interesting to find that Elijah was only in his twenties, hardly old enough to be bald.
2.What are the ages of these boys?
It is interesting to see that they were not boys but young men, as the Hebrew work is translated in other places, and would be better understood as a gang…the same type we fear today. Looking at different translations will help you see this.
3.Is there any significance to their mocking?
Most translations say “Go up” because they are telling him to blast off like Elijah just did. Elisha most likely shaved his head in response to Elijah being taken. He had torn his clothes and the bible gives us many examples of head shaving as a normal response to this type of situation. The young men are teasing him about the loss of Elijah. The repetition in the passage shows how powerful this mocking was.
4.Why did Elisha turn around and look at them?
This is like a second chance; the Bible shows many of the second looks to confirm bad decisions, like when Jesus looked at Peter when Peter denied him three times.
5.Why did he curse them?
You see this all through Scripture, when someone mocks God, His word or even his messenger, God passes judgment on them.
6.What is the significance of the bears mauling the boys?
It shows how serious this offence is but it is also seen as a warning because later the whole place is destroyed. If only they would have listened.

Day 107 (Monday) - 1 Kings 20:26-22:36

In chapter 22, we get a cool glimpse into a heavenly discussion through the vision of Micaiah. Did you ever imagine God coming up with ideas for interacting with humanity through brainstorming with spirits? There are no other examples like this in scripture so it’s hard to make any firm conclusions but I do find this extremely interesting. Texts like this create more questions than answers for me.

Day 106 (Sunday) - 1 Kings 18:1-20:25

Elijah rocks! I seriously love this guy. He comes on the scene with no introduction. Even though he is never mentioned to us prior to these chapters, everyone knows about him. Ahab has even been looking for him. He has great faith and is willing to place that faith in God as he did with the flour and oil and with the prophets of Baal. If there was ever a super hero of the Bible, I would have to be Elijah. Many people miss the cool super human feats he can accomplish. The one in chapter 18 is awesome! As the rain starts to fall, God gives him “special” strength and he tucks his cloak (cape) into his belt and takes off running. Elijah runs faster than a chariot, passes Ahab and gets to Jezreel first. I picture him leaning against the gate asking Ahab, “What took you so long?”