Second Kings Chapters 3-4 Chapter 3 “One can barge off into something without the one essential item one needs most. That is the situation in 2 Kings 3. These three kings are going to be, as we say, dead meat without the word of God (3:13)” (Dale Ralph Davis, p. 41). 3:1-2 Ahaziah died, leaving no heir, so his brother Jehoram will occupy the throne in Israel for 12 years (ca. 851-841 B.C.). Although he was evil and supportive of the idolatry introduced by Jeroboam (3:3), he did remove the sacred pillar of Baal which his father (Ahab) had made. “Despite his successes among the prophets and the people, Elisha has yet to prove himself to the king as Elijah did in his time. This chapter fills this gap….While the monarch (Jehoram) is slightly less evil than his father, Ahab, and his mother, Jezebel, he is hardly the reformer Israel needs” (House p. 262). “The Bible is never satisfied with anything less than total submission. It’s as if our writer throws his pen down in disgust and hollers, ‘That’s that enough!’ It won’t do to go around saying it’s not as bad as it could be’” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 42). Doing some good or a little less evil isn’t enough. “Jehoram represents a man who is neither all bad nor all good. He reminds us of some pragmatic opportunists today who try to play it safe, especially in confronting crucial controversial issues. Afraid of offending those who may end up as the winners in a struggle, they refuse to take sides ….They work hard at maintaining a safe neutrality, constantly monitoring which way the winds are blowing, hoping that at the propitious moment they can jump on the winning side” (Dilday pp. 276277). Such an act (removing this pillar), it appears would have offended Jezebel. The children of the wicked often resent the immorality of their parents. 3:3 Jehoram continued to support the idolatrous shrines in Dan and Bethel. It was probably more of a political move than a religious one. The strategy from the time of Jeroboam had been to support these shrines in order to keep the 1
people in Israel loyal to the northern kings, rather than David’s line. Apparently, the kings after Jeroboam, also believed in the same theory (1 Kings 12:26-27). In reality, many people left the northern kingdom because of this idolatry, so the policy really had the opposite effect (2 Chronicles 15:9). This tells us that often doctrinal positions in the religious world are the result of political maneuvering rather than because of faith in what the word of God says (Romans 10:17; 2 Timothy 4:3-4). 3:4-5 Some time after the death of Ahab, Mesha of the king of Moab decided to rebel against Israelite domination. Moab had been subject to Israel during the days of the Omride dynasty and paid tribute in kind in terms of the basic economy of the area, i.e., the raising of sheep and production of wool. Apparently Moab was trying to take advantage of Israel’s temporary weakness following the defeat at Ramoth Gilead and the nation’s distraction over the death of King Ahab. In 1868, the Moabite Stone was discovered, which contains the exact words of Mesha as he issues this revolt. The stone reads, “As for Omri, king of Israel, he humbled Moab many years, for Chemosh was angry at his land. And his son (Ahab) followed him and he also said, ‘I will humble Moab’. In my time he spoke thus, but I have triumphed over him and over his house, while Israel hath perished forever”. For a complete view of the text of the Moabite Stone, see Ancient Near Eastern Texts (ANET), by Pritchard, p. 320. Here is just one example of where we have secular confirmation of the Biblical account. These events really happened! 3:6-7 Since such a rebellion would mean a significant loss of revenue, Jehoram decided to bring Moab back into subjection. Jehoram sought to utilize his alliance with Judah to give him success, so he sought for Jehoshaphat’s assistance. Remember, Jehoshaphat had agreed to a marriage between his son and Ahab’s daughter. Hence, Jehoshaphat is the father-in-law of Jehoram’s sister. 3:8 The decision is made to attack from the south. At this time Judah controlled the territory of Edom, and this would enable the army to avoid head-on conflict with the Moabite fortresses which were situated on Moab’s northern border. “There were only two ways to invade Moab: cross the Jordan above the Dead Sea to enter from the north, or go around the southern end of the Dead Sea and advance through the mountains of Edom to enter from the south….Taking the southern route, they would not have to worry about the Syrians in the north, and, because the Moabites would not expect them from this more difficult direction, they might be caught off guard. The southern assault through Edom
2
would also force the Edomites to go with them. Otherwise they might be tempted to join Moab in rebelling against Israel and Judah” (Dilday p. 278). 3:9-10 But they run out of water, and apparently, hoped for water sources near the border of Moab were found dry. Jehoram immediately blames Jehovah for the calamity. “It is strikingly strange that those who trust God the least are the first to blame Him for the disastrous results of their rash actions” (Winters p. 186). Jehoram sounds a lot like the disgruntled children of Israel during the Exodus, i.e., God has only brought us here to kill us! Note, Jehoram knew all about Jehovah. 3:11-12 In contrast, Jehoshaphat doesn’t panic, rather he seeks Divine direction from a true prophet of God (1 Kings 22). The expression, “who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah”, means that Elisha used to serve Elijah. “This picturesque phrase was used to identify a servant who held the jar of water while his water washed his hands” (Dilday p. 278). Somehow one of the king’s servants had heard that Elisha was in this general area. Jehoshaphat believes in God, but so often makes poor decisions. He asks for a word from the Lord, but only when the kings run out of water in the Edomite desert. Jehoshaphat didn’t need to ally himself with Ahab or his sons, a fact vividly demonstrated when Moab and Ammon invaded Judah some months earlier (2 Chronicles 20). Besides this, he had been rebuked for making such alliances (2 Chronicles 19:1-2). 3:13-14 When Elisha arrives he sarcastically urges the Israelite king to go to his parents’ prophets. “Speaking like a good polytheist, Jehoram replies that Jehovah seems bent on destroying the kings, so they have come to the Lord’s messenger. Elisha cannot hide his disgust for Jehoram’s insinuation of God’s evil intentions and overall faulty view of the Lord. He informs Jehoram that he would not even receive him if Jehoshaphat were not with him” (House p. 263). “Ten righteous people could have served Sodom as a catalyst (Genesis 18:16-32); faithful Christians are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). As far as the prophet Elisha was concerned, Moab would have the worthless Jehoram and his golden calves were it not for the righteous Jehoshaphat” (Winters p. 186). “Now chew a bit on Elisha’s words. Do you hear him? He is saying that Jehoram is beyond the help of Yahweh’s word—if it weren’t for Jehoshaphat. That’s a frightening implication: you can place yourself beyond the point of receiving direction or help from God” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 45). Jehoram only sought God for his own convenience, he was only interested in God as a kind of spiritual “airbag” in the troubles of life.
3
3:15 Elisha receives his word from the Lord while listening to a harpist play music. Remember, the Old Testament prophets received their messages in a variety of ways, including through visions (Hebrews 1:1). The prophetic office was a gift of God, and apart from such, all the good music in the world couldn’t persuade Him to speak to someone. “This was not to awaken any latent magical powers of the prophet, as Jehoram probably assumed, but was rather for the purpose of calming his distraught soul in order to concentrate upon God Himself” (Whitcomb p. 71). 3:16-17 The kings are commanded to have trenches dug in the valley and God will fill them with water, but they would see neither wind or rain. Although the kings would see no storm, God would send water in abundance. Note, the army was to exhibit faith in the prophecy by digging trenches in the dry sand! Sure enough, in the morning, water came down the water river beds and filled these trenches. 3:18 Provision for an entire army was an easy thing for God to do, in addition, He would also give the allied forces victory over the Moabites, and they would engage in a scorched earth policy. “This is but a slight thing in the sight of the Lord”: Let us always remember this truth! God can do all things, and even the creation of the universe in six days is a “slight thing” in the eyes of the Lord. 3:21-23 Moabite scouts probably detected the advance of this army and the Moabite forces (young and old) were called out to defend their country. In the morning from their vantage point, it looked as if the valley where the Israelites were encamped was filled with blood. The Moabites immediately assumed that the Israelites, and men from Judah and Edom had fought among themselves and killed each other in the process. They immediately ran into the valley with eyes fixed on finding all sorts of treasures and loot. 3:24-25 Yet the Israelites were waiting for them, and the disorganized Moabite soldiers were met by the well-stationed allies who not only turned them back but, in turn, invaded Moab. The Moabites fell back in disarray as far as Kirhareseth (kir HAHR uh sheth. This city is present day el-Kerak, about 50 miles SE of Jerusalem. Apparently, this was a well fortified city, but the Israelites besieged it with some sort of assault that included many projectiles. 3:26-27 “Mesha, king of Moab, made one desperate attempt to break through the siege lines with seven hundred swordsmen. He aimed at the battle line held by the army of Edom because he considered it the weakest of the nations and the 4
least concerned with the success of the attack” ( Dilday p. 282). But this attempt failed and at this point the Moabite king is so desperate that he sacrifices his oldest son (the first born, his heir to the throne) on the city wall. The worshippers of Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, regularly practiced human sacrifice. 3:27 “And there came great wrath against Israel”: The wrath didn’t come from Chemosh, since such a god doesn’t even exist. This may mean that the Moabite defenders were so indignant because the enemy had in a sense taken their prince from them that they rose up with renewed determination and threw off the besieging armies. It may also mean that the Israelites were shocked and horrified by the sacrifice. “They assumed that Yahweh’s displeasure with human sacrifices would likely bring His wrath down on them as well as the Moabites, so they turned and voluntarily gave up” (Dilday p. 282). “This was a horrible act of desperation; but it aroused extreme resentments against Israel for causing such abject human misery” (Winters p. 187). But the object of the campaign had been attained; the power of Moab was broken, the rebellion suppressed, and the country-side was destroyed (3:19,25). “It’s as if the writer is pleading: ‘O Israel, do you realize the treasure that you have in Yahweh? You never need to resort to stuff like this’. In Moab you can bash your head against the wall or sacrifice your son on it. Both are equally futile. But in Israel Yahweh has given prophets through whom one can receive the light and help one needs. Here is the easy yoke of the word of God. What a relief biblical religion is! If you don’t believe it, try paganism” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 50).
Chapter 4 “Now we enter a segment of Elisha’s ministry in which he shows that Yahweh’s power is triumphant over debt (4:1-7), death (4:8-37), drought (4:38-44), disease (5:1-27), and difficulty (6:1-7)” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 53). 4:1 Here we learn something about the “sons of the prophets”. Some of these men were married and had families. Even in the Old Testament, prophets were not monks or ascetics (1 Timothy 4:3). The sons of the prophets were not some kind of monastic and celibate order. A man from the company of the prophets has died, leaving his widow destitute and on the verge of having to sell her sons into slavery to pay her debts. The Mosaic Law allowed a creditor to enslave a debtor and his children as far as the Year of Jubilee in order to work off a debt (Exodus 21:2-4; Leviticus 25:39).
5
4:2-6 All this woman has is a jar of oil to her name. “How often God begins His work at the point of our inadequacies” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 56). She is instructed to borrow all the vessels she can from her neighbors, and then start pouring the oil from the original vessel into these. It becomes clear that the amount of miraculous oil she received was limited only by the number of vessels she was willing to collect. “So the extent of the resolution of her crisis was directly proportionate to the degree of her faith” (Dilday p. 290). The oil stopped at the moment that there were no more vessels. God doesn’t like waste. The miracle was also performed in private, probably lest the prophet be overwhelmed with applications for similar aid from those with ulterior motives. 4:7 The woman is then directed to sell the oil and pay off her debt. Notice that this woman simply informs Elisha of her problem. She doesn’t suggest a solution. No recommendations, no outline of procedures, God can be trusted to provide the solution. He knows what to do in any given situation Like Elijah, Elisha helps a poor widow (1 Kings 17:16). “Although the miracle especially bolstered the faith of the widow and her children, it also spoke to all the widow’s friends and acquaintances from whom she had borrowed jars” (Vos p. 146). If the widow and her children had only gathered a few jars, they would still be in need. This should remind us that God is sometimes limited in working in our behalf because of our lack of confidence in Him (James 4:2). If we would only talk to more people, He could reach more people through us (1 Corinthians 3:6). The miracle would also take place when Elisha wasn’t present, proving that the real power was with the God whom Elisha served. “He will not make us wise or holy or powerful unless we really desire these gifts and bring Him our empty lives…Feeble wishing for things is one thing, but the intense, steadfast desire of faith is another” (Dilday p. 291). Consider the privacy of this miracle. “Sometimes God works quietly, in a hidden way, perhaps precisely because He does not want hullabaloo or fanfare or religious rah-rah over His marvelous provision” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 57).
Elisha and the Shunammite’s Son 4:8 The city of Shunem (SHOO num), was about three miles north of Jezreel and about twenty miles SE of Mount Carmel. The site is present day Solem or Sulam. From the text we learn that Elisha made regular rounds in Israel and often passed by this city. Here a prominent or wealthy woman insisted on showing him hospitality. This wealthy woman wanted to share her food fortune with this
6
faithful prophet. “What preacher has not had an identical experience…a talented cook in the church family who delights in frustrating every good intention of weight control by constraining him to eat a second helping of her prize-winning coconut pie?” (Dilday p. 294). 4:9-11 This woman urges her husband to construct an furnished apartment for Elisha, which was probably built on the flat open roof of their home. “This probably refers to a room added to the roof of the house with access by an outside stairway or ladder” (Dilday p. 295). 4:12 Here we are introduced to Elisha’s personal servant, “Gehazi” (geh HAH zih), who served Elisha as Elisha had served Elijah. 4:13-14 Elisha had been so impressed with her hospitality and diligent concern for his welfare (“you have been careful for us with all this care”, i.e., “you have been so anxious for our welfare”), that he wants to do something for this woman. “Since her husband was very old and she was childless, did she perhaps need the protection of the king or the military commander (v. 13)? No, she lived among her own people, that is, with her relatives who looked after her” (Dilday p. 295). Gehazi suggested that she needed a son, for she was childless. “In the heart of every mother in Israel, there burned the desire to have a child (1 Samuel 1:4-18; Luke 1:23-25)” (Winters p. 190). The reference to the king in verse 13 suggests that Elisha is enjoying better relations with a slightly reformed Jehoram. 4:15-17 The woman’s reaction to the news that she would bear a son next year was in modern language, “You’re kidding!” “It expressed polite skepticism. But in spite of her incredulity, the prophecy of Elisha came true, and the son was born” (Dilday p. 296). 4:18-20 Some years later when the boy was “grown” (8 or 10?), while accompanying his father in the field, the boy suffered an illness that sounds like heatstroke. This would be consistent with the fact that harvesting was done during the warm season of the year. The child was immediately taken to his mother and he died in her arms. 4:21-24 Observe the faith of this woman. Step by step her calm actions demonstrate a strong faith in the midst of what some would call the ultimate crisis or heartache. She placed the body of her son on Elisha’s bed in his apartment and shut the door. She requested of her husband a donkey and a servant to take her to Elisha, about twenty miles away. Without revealing to her husband that their son was dead, she simply told him, “It will be well” (23), i.e., “Don’t worry I will be back soon”. Her faith convinced her that if Elisha would
7
bring about the impossible (the birth of her son), he could also bring him back from the dead. Also be impressed with how she protects her husband. 4:25-27 She basically brushes Gehazi aside and heads straight for Elisha. Clearly she is resting all her hopes on this man of God. She clings to Elisha, despite Gehazi’s attempt to pull her away, a rather stunning break of decorum in the ancient world. She will travel 15-18 miles to find Elisha, and the only place she can turn is to the God who has perplexed her. “The fact that Scripture features such narratives as this shows that the Bible itself presses us to think about this problem” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 65). 4:27 “And the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me”: Elisha is a humble man, without God’s communication is just as ignorant as any other man. “Prophets were not omniscient and knew only what God told them about situations requiring superhuman knowledge” (Vos p. 148). 4:28 This woman is hurting deeply. “Originally, she had not wanted to be hurt by the false hope of a son; she wanted even less to have the son and have him so early wrested from her arms. And since Elisha was responsible for her son in the first place, she somehow thought that he had been responsible for his death as well” (Winters p. 191). Here is one of those places where we can see that the Bible is not a product of mere human thinking. If as some scholars say, these Elisha stories are nothing more than legends put together by Elisha’s followers, then they did a very poor job in this section. Elisha here is pictured as not having the answer—apart from God. Let us remember that “none of Christ’s servants are as adequate as He is. So however much we may prize their help and admire their walk, we must not make idols of them. We dare not make them pale substitutes for Jesus” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 67). Let us also accept and recognize our own limitations as servants of God—and to enjoy the freedom that comes from that. 4:29 “This passage also reveals much about the character of Elisha. We can see his gentleness and sensitive concern for human suffering. Approachable as always” (Dilday p. 298). Several explanations have been given for Elisha’s instruction to lay have his servant lay his staff on the boy’s body until he arrived. It may have been to give immediate comfort to the mother, that while it would be some time before he would arrive, he was doing something about the situation. 4:30 The mother refuses to leave the side of Elisha, and will travel with him. 4:31 As Elisha and the mother approached the city, Gehazi met them and reported that, though he had carried out Elisha’s bidding, nothing at all had happened. Some think that Gehazi had actually tried to raise the child using 8
Elisha’s rod. “At least this passage about Elisha’s rod demonstrates that the miracle that was about to happen was not some sorcerer’s cheap trick associated with a magic rod. The miracle must wait for the man of God himself” (Dilday p. 297). 4:32-37 Elisha did all of this in private, a crowd wasn’t gathered and a contribution wasn’t collected. Some think that Elisha stretched himself upon the child for the purpose of preparing or warming the body for the reinhabitation of the soul or spirit? “Many miracles were accompanied by some sort of unique activity—a march around a wall, carrying an ark into the water, digging ditches in dry ground, putting clay on blind eyes---activity which had nothing to do with the miracle per se; but which were usually required as acts or tests of faith” (Winters p. 192).
Death in the Pot 4:38-41 During a time of famine, Elisha went to the “sons of the prophets” who lived in Gilgal. He instructed his servant to cook a pot of stew for these starving men. During the cooking process, either this servant or one of the prophets went out and found some gourds and sliced them up and put them into the stew. Immediately, when the stew was served, those familiar with this poisonous gourd recognized the unique taste right off the back and exclaimed like many children in a school cafeteria, “There is death in the pot!” Elisha immediately threw in some meal and the stew was now safe to eat. Some try to argue that Elisha simply knew how to counteract the effects of these gourds using a wellknown remedy. But people had already eaten of the stew. Tossing in the meal also protected those who had already eaten some, hence tossing in the grain may have been only a symbolic action indicating that the stew had been purified from any harmful effects. 4:42-44 A man from the city of “Baal-shalishah” (BAY uhl SHALL ih shah), a village of Ephraim, near Gilgal, brings Elisha twenty cakes of bread made from the firstfruits of the harvest. Each loaf would be equivalent of what one person would eat at one meal. Along with these cakes, the man brought a few ripe stalks of grain. This was a great act of faith on the part of this unnamed individual, for this was given during a time when food was scarce. Normally such offerings were to be given to the priests (Numbers 18:13; Deuteronomy 18: 4-5). Because the religion in the northern kingdom was apostate, the loaves had been brought by their owner to one whom he considered to be the repository of
9
godly religion in Israel. Elisha’s servant—presumably Gehazi, didn’t believe that this food would do any good. The amount of food was a scarcely sufficient to suffice for a fifth of the hundred men living at Gilgal. Compare this section to Jesus’ feeding the multitudes (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-42; 8:1-21; Luke 9:1317; John 6:12-13). Notice that while these miracles helped preserve the faithful, they never effected permanent change in the nation.
10