The great thing about the history of these two kingdoms being established is that there are so many great anecdotes to tell of God’s faithfulness through different chapters of history. Elisha is such an awesome prophet. Though he has only a fraction of the power that Elijah had, we have more cool stories about him. So many flexes. Kings respected the man, and he was able to handle the kings who didn’t, as we see in this reading.
Time and again, we get stories of an ancient context in which death was closer, and humans lived meaner lives. The invitation to us is to recognize our commonality, and to understand that we are not different from them. We are the same creatures. We are prone to the same sins in the same ways. The deck chairs on this titanic called the world are constantly being rearranged, but the story doesn’t change. The response expected is that we get our houses in order and put all our trust in the One who can save us from this mess. Put your trust in him.
2 Kings 6
Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Please take note that the place where we meet with you is too small for us.
Please let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a log so we can build ourselves a place to live there.”
“Go,” said Elisha.
Then one of them said, “Please come with your servants.”
“I will come,” he replied.
So Elisha went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they began to cut down some trees.
As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water. “Oh, my master,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”
“Where did it fall?” asked the man of God.
And when he showed him the place, the man of God cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron float.
“Lift it out,” he said, and the man reached out his hand and took it.
Now the king of Aram was at war against Israel. After consulting with his servants, he said, “My camp will be in such and such a place.”
Then the man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Be careful passing by this place, for the Arameans are going down there.”
So the king of Israel sent word to the place the man of God had pointed out. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
For this reason the king of Aram became enraged and called his servants to demand of them, “Tell me, which one of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”
But one of his servants replied, “No one, my lord the king. For Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
So the king said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send men to capture him.”
On receiving the report, “Elisha is in Dothan,”
the king of Aram sent horses, chariots, and a great army. They went there by night and surrounded the city.
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early in the morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. So he asked Elisha, “Oh, my master, what are we to do?”
“Do not be afraid,” Elisha answered, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Then Elisha prayed, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.”
And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
As the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.
And Elisha told them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are seeking.” And he led them to Samaria.
When they had entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O LORD, open the eyes of these men that they may see.”
Then the LORD opened their eyes, and they looked around and discovered that they were in Samaria.
And when the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?”
“Do not kill them,” he replied. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and then return to their master.”
So the king prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. And the Aramean raiders did not come into the land of Israel again.
Some time later, Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army and marched up to besiege Samaria.
So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.
As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
He answered, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?” Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?”
And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’
So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”
When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by on the wall, the people saw the sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin.
He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”
Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door to keep him out. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”
While Elisha was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, “This calamity is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”
2 Kings 7
Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the LORD says: ‘About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel.’ ”
But the officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?”
“You will see it with your own eyes,” replied Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it.”
Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate, and they said to one another, “Why just sit here until we die?
If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ we will die there from the famine in the city; but if we sit here, we will also die. So come now, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.”
So they arose at twilight and went to the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the outskirts of the camp, there was not a man to be found.
For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel must have hired the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us.”
Thus the Arameans had arisen and fled at twilight, abandoning their tents and horses and donkeys. The camp was intact, and they had run for their lives.
When the lepers reached the edge of the camp, they went into a tent to eat and drink. Then they carried off the silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid them. On returning, they entered another tent, carried off some items from there, and hid them.
Finally, they said to one another, “We are not doing what is right. Today is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until morning light, our sin will overtake us. Now, therefore, let us go and tell the king’s household.”
So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city, saying, “We went to the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a trace—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents were intact.”
The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported to the king’s household.
So the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “Let me tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will take them alive and enter the city.’ ”
But one of his servants replied, “Please, have scouts take five of the horses that remain in the city. Their plight will be no worse than all the Israelites who are left here. You can see that all the Israelites here are doomed. So let us send them and find out.”
Then the scouts took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, “Go and see.”
And they tracked them as far as the Jordan, and indeed, the whole way was littered with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown off in haste. So the scouts returned and told the king.
Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. It was then that a seah of fine flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.
Now the king had appointed the officer on whose arm he leaned to be in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king had come to him.
It happened just as the man of God had told the king: “About this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria, two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour will sell for a shekel.”
And the officer had answered the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?”
So Elisha had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!”
And that is just what happened to him. The people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
2 Kings 8
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land.”
So the woman had proceeded to do as the man of God had instructed. And she and her household lived as foreigners for seven years in the land of the Philistines.
At the end of seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to the king to appeal for her house and her land.
Now the king had been speaking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please relate to me all the great things Elisha has done.”
And Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought the dead back to life. Just then the woman whose son Elisha had revived came to appeal to the king for her house and her land. So Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is the son Elisha restored to life.”
When the king asked the woman, she confirmed it. So the king appointed for her an officer, saying, “Restore all that was hers, along with all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the country until now.”
Then Elisha came to Damascus while Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and the king was told, “The man of God has come here.”
So the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift in your hand, go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD through him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”
So Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him a gift of forty camel loads of every good thing from Damascus. And he went in and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ ”
Elisha answered, “Go and tell him, ‘You will surely recover.’ But the LORD has shown me that in fact he will die.”
Elisha fixed his gaze steadily on him until Hazael became uncomfortable. Then the man of God began to weep.
“Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.
“Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”
“But how could your servant, a mere dog, do such a monstrous thing?” said Hazael.
And Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”
So Hazael left Elisha and went to his master, who asked him, “What did Elisha say to you?”
And he replied, “He told me that you would surely recover.”
But the next day Hazael took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king’s face.
So Ben-hadad died, and Hazael reigned in his place.
In the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab over Israel, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat succeeded his father as king of Judah.
Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.
And Jehoram walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done. For he married a daughter of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD.
Yet for the sake of His servant David, the LORD was unwilling to destroy Judah, since He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.
In the days of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against the hand of Judah and appointed their own king.
So Jehoram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. When the Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, he rose up and attacked by night. His troops, however, fled to their homes.
So to this day Edom has been in rebellion against the hand of Judah. Likewise, Libnah rebelled at the same time.
As for the rest of the acts of Jehoram, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
And Jehoram rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. And his son Ahaziah reigned in his place.
In the twelfth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab over Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.
Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
And Ahaziah walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.
Then Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram.
So King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab, because Joram had been wounded.
2 Kings 9
Now Elisha the prophet summoned one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, “Tuck your cloak under your belt, take this flask of oil, and go to Ramoth-gilead.
When you arrive, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go in, get him away from his companions, and take him to an inner room.
Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and declare, ‘This is what the LORD says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run. Do not delay!”
So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead, and when he arrived, the army commanders were sitting there. “I have a message for you, commander,” he said.
“For which of us?” asked Jehu.
“For you, commander,” he replied.
So Jehu got up and went into the house, where the young prophet poured the oil on his head and declared, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the LORD’s people Israel.
And you are to strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the LORD shed by the hand of Jezebel.
The whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, both slave and free, in Israel.
I will make the house of Ahab like the houses of Jeroboam son of Nebat and Baasha son of Ahijah.
And on the plot of ground at Jezreel the dogs will devour Jezebel, and there will be no one to bury her.’ ”
Then the young prophet opened the door and ran.
When Jehu went out to the servants of his master, they asked, “Is everything all right? Why did this madman come to you?”
“You know his kind and their babble,” he replied.
“That is a lie!” they said. “Tell us now!”
So Jehu answered, “He talked to me about this and that, and he said, ‘This is what the LORD says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ ”
Quickly, each man took his garment and put it under Jehu on the bare steps. Then they blew the ram’s horn and proclaimed, “Jehu is king!”
Thus Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram.
(Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram,
but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he had suffered at the hands of the Arameans in the battle against Hazael their king.)
So Jehu said, “If you commanders wish to make me king, then do not let anyone escape from the city to go and tell it in Jezreel.”
Then Jehu got into his chariot and went to Jezreel, because Joram was laid up there and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see him.
Now the watchman standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troops approaching, and he called out, “I see a company of troops!”
“Choose a rider,” Joram commanded. “Send him out to meet them and ask, ‘Have you come in peace?’ ”
So a horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Have you come in peace?’ ”
“What do you know about peace?” Jehu replied. “Fall in behind me.”
And the watchman reported, “The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.”
So the king sent out a second horseman, who went to them and said, “This is what the king asks: ‘Have you come in peace?’ ”
“What do you know about peace?” Jehu replied. “Fall in behind me.”
Again the watchman reported, “He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the charioteer is driving like Jehu son of Nimshi —he is driving like a madman!”
“Harness!” Joram shouted, and they harnessed his chariot.
Then Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah set out, each in his own chariot, and met Jehu on the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.
When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”
“How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”
Joram turned around and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!”
Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot.
And Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, “Pick him up and throw him into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember that when you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab, the LORD lifted up this burden against him:
‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares the LORD, so will I repay you on this plot of ground, declares the LORD.’ Now then, according to the word of the LORD, pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground.”
When King Ahaziah of Judah saw this, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan.
And Jehu pursued him, shouting, “Shoot him too!”
So they shot Ahaziah in his chariot on the Ascent of Gur, near Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo and died there.
Then his servants carried him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his fathers in his tomb in the City of David.
(In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king over Judah.)
Now when Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked down from a window.
And as Jehu entered the gate, she asked, “Have you come in peace, O Zimri, murderer of your master?”
He looked up at the window and called out, “Who is on my side? Who?”
And two or three eunuchs looked down at him.
“Throw her down!” yelled Jehu.
So they threw her down, and her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses as they trampled her underfoot.
Then Jehu went in and ate and drank. “Take care of this cursed woman,” he said, “and bury her, for she was the daughter of a king.”
But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.
So they went back and told Jehu, who replied, “This is the word of the LORD, which He spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘On the plot of ground at Jezreel the dogs will devour the flesh of Jezebel.
And Jezebel’s body will lie like dung in the field on the plot of ground at Jezreel, so that no one can say: This is Jezebel.’”
2 Kings 10
Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying:
“When this letter arrives, since your master’s sons are with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weaponry,
select the best and most worthy son of your master, set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house.”
But they were terrified and reasoned, “If two kings could not stand against him, how can we?”
So the palace administrator, the overseer of the city, the elders, and the guardians sent a message to Jehu: “We are your servants, and we will do whatever you say. We will not make anyone king. Do whatever is good in your sight.”
Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: “If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.”
Now the sons of the king, seventy in all, were being brought up by the leading men of the city.
And when the letter arrived, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.
When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, “They have brought the heads of the sons of the king.”
And Jehu ordered, “Pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.”
The next morning, Jehu went out and stood before all the people and said, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him. But who killed all these?
Know, then, that not a word the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail, for the LORD has done what He promised through His servant Elijah.”
So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his great men and close friends and priests, leaving him without a single survivor.
Then Jehu set out toward Samaria. At Beth-eked of the Shepherds, Jehu met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, “Who are you?”
“We are relatives of Ahaziah,” they answered, “and we have come down to greet the sons of the king and of the queen mother.”
Then Jehu ordered, “Take them alive.” So his men took them alive, then slaughtered them at the well of Beth-eked—forty-two men. He spared none of them.
When he left there, he found Jehonadab son of Rechab, who was coming to meet him. Jehu greeted him and asked, “Is your heart as true to mine as my heart is to yours?”
“It is!” Jehonadab replied.
“If it is,” said Jehu, “give me your hand.”
So he gave him his hand, and Jehu helped him into his chariot,
saying, “Come with me and see my zeal for the LORD!” So he had him ride in his chariot.
When Jehu came to Samaria, he struck down everyone belonging to Ahab who remained there, until he had destroyed them, according to the word that the LORD had spoken to Elijah.
Then Jehu brought all the people together and said, “Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him a lot.
Now, therefore, summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. See that no one is missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Whoever is missing will not live.”
But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.
And Jehu commanded, “Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.” So they announced it.
Then Jehu sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; there was not a man who failed to show. They entered the temple of Baal, and it was filled from end to end.
And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring out garments for all the servants of Baal.” So he brought out garments for them.
Next, Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rechab entered the temple of Baal, and Jehu said to the servants of Baal, “Look around to see that there are no servants of the LORD here among you—only servants of Baal.”
And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside and warned them, “If anyone allows one of the men I am delivering into your hands to escape, he will forfeit his life for theirs.”
When he had finished making the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guards and officers, “Go in and kill them. Do not let anyone out.”
So the guards and officers put them to the sword, threw the bodies out, and went into the inner room of the temple of Baal.
They brought out the sacred pillar of the temple of Baal and burned it.
They also demolished the sacred pillar of Baal. Then they tore down the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine, which it is to this day.
Thus Jehu eradicated Baal from Israel,
but he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
Nevertheless, the LORD said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in My sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel.”
Yet Jehu was not careful to follow the instruction of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit.
In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory
from the Jordan eastward through all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh), and from Aroer by the Arnon Valley through Gilead to Bashan.
As for the rest of the acts of Jehu, along with all his accomplishments and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
And Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place. So the duration of Jehu’s reign over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
Psalm 140
Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men.
Protect me from men of violence,
who devise evil in their hearts
and stir up war all day long.
They sharpen their tongues like snakes;
the venom of vipers is on their lips.
Selah
Guard me, O LORD,
from the hands of the wicked.
Keep me safe from men of violence
who scheme to make me stumble.
The proud hide a snare for me;
the cords of their net are spread along the path,
and lures are set out for me.
Selah
I say to the LORD, “You are my God.”
Hear, O LORD, my cry for help.
O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation,
You shield my head in the day of battle.
Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked;
do not promote their evil plans,
lest they be exalted.
Selah
May the heads of those who surround me
be covered in the trouble their lips have caused.
May burning coals fall on them;
may they be thrown into the fire,
into the miry pits, never to rise again.
May no slanderer be established in the land;
may calamity hunt down the man of violence.
I know that the LORD upholds justice for the poor
and defends the cause of the needy.
Surely the righteous will praise Your name;
the upright will dwell in Your presence.
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