Month: June 2016

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2 KINGS 3:1-4:17 | ACTS 14:8-28 | PSALM 140:1-13 | PROVERBS 17:22

Well, Ahab and Jezebel are no more, but their son, Joram, is the new king of Israel.  He isn’t any better than his parents, but life in the ancient land of Judea and Palestine somehow seems to continue. 

Soon it seems as though the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom are all quite chummy, and the three of them decide to go to war against their neighbor, Moab, who is apparently not honoring an old commitment to pay its annual tributes by way of the wool from their sheep. 

And so, they round up their forces and decide on a plan of action, first among that being a consultation of a prophet.  And who do you think fits that bill very nicely—why, Elisha, of course!  At first, Elisha is reluctant to offer his prophetic services, but soon gives in, and actually predicts a victory for them.  And so, it comes to pass that Moab is defeated.

This is the age of Elisha, and we now learn about his life and times in those ancient of days.  There are two incidents from this passage, both of which serve to demonstrate his powerful and miraculous words and actions. 

The first is concerning a poor widow woman who needs help to pay off her debtors.  Elisha instructs her to pour what little oil she has into jars—as many as she can find—and sure enough, the oil is never-ending which is a bounty for her so as to sell and pay her debts. 

The second has to do with a Shunamite woman who has shown kindness to Elisha over the years in inviting him into her home and in being a kind host.  Elisha asks what he can do in return for her, and knowing her desire for a child, he speaks the word that this time next year she will give birth to a child—despite the fact that her husband is an old man.  We shall see how this might work out. 

Is this not reminiscent of Abraham and Sarah in how they were promised a child when Sarah was at the ripe old age of 90? Stranger things have happened…

Turning now to our reading in the book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas are busy at work in preaching the gospel to the Greeks.  In the town of Lystra, Paul does something almost identical to what Jesus himself had done:  he gives healing to a lame man simply by commanding him to rise up and walk.  The people are awestruck, so much so, that they are convinced that these are the gods of Zeus and Hermes who walk among them! 

But Paul tells them otherwise.  He says this:  ¹⁵ “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. ¹⁶ In the past, he let all nations go their own way. ¹⁷ Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

But soon after this, some very self-righteous Jews arrive on the scene, and in the name of preventing sacrilege and abhorring blasphemy, they do what they do best:  they begin to persecute Paul by beginning to stone him to death.  Paul is driven out in this manner to the outskirts of the city, but Barnabas and some other believers help Paul to flee from that place to another town called Derbe.  In this way, Paul and Barnabas continue their missionary work throughout the areas of Greece and Turkey.

Turning now to our psalms for the day, we find one in which David, the psalmist, is distraught over his enemies.  He is praying that God will protect him and provide for him.  Here is one person who certainly knows how to heap curses upon the heads of his enemies! 

Sometimes, I wonder, is it not better to just speak one’s mind and vent one’s frustrations—if but only to God.  Here’s how David does it:

⁹ Those who surround me proudly rear their heads;
may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
¹⁰ May burning coals fall on them;
may they be thrown into the fire,
into miry pits, never to rise.
¹¹ May slanderers not be established in the land;
may disaster hunt down the violent.

Finally, one verse from the book of Proverbs that is worthy of reading, remembering and reciting to oneself because of the wisdom contained within it:

²² A cheerful heart is good medicine,
   but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Click Here For Today’s Reading

2 KINGS 1:1-2:25 | ACTS 13:42-14:7 | PSALM 139:1-24 | PROVERBS 17:19-21

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Elijah is still very much in action and seems to appear and disappear at the most expected and unexpected of times. 

After Ahab’s death, Ahab’s son, Ahaziah, continues in his father’s way of worshiping Baal, and there is the incident of Ahaziah sending messengers to inquire of Baal’s prophets concerning the prognosis for his health since he happened to fall down from a roof and injure himself. 

Elijah must have heard of this as well, because we learn that he intercepts these messengers with a message of his own:  ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ ⁴ Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’”

Is that sufficiently clear, Ahaziah?  

And perhaps just for good measure and great effect, he prays fire down upon two sets of fifty men with a captain each who come to fetch him as per the king’s orders.  Elijah is going nowhere and has nothing further to say to anyone! 

Does he not remind one of John the Baptist who many thousands of years later would go about in the wilderness in the same manner—speaking his mind, and speaking it loud and clear.

And just like John who is known for his preaching and his work at the Jordan river, there is a most wondrous and miraculous thing that takes place at the Jordan river for Elijah.  Here is one man who does not taste death:  Elijah is raised up into the heavens just like that, while Elisha, his disciple, is still with him and watches him being taken up by the “chariots and horsemen of Israel.” 

How amazing a sight would that have been!  One moment the two are talking, and the next moment, Elijah is swooped upward perhaps in a great wind.  Is this not reminiscent of the way in which our Lord Jesus himself was ascended into heaven?

A point of note here concerning Elisha.  This was a young man who left his home and family to follow Elijah, and appears to have been a most faithful and loyal disciple.  When Elijah asks him what he can do for him before he leaves for good, Elisha is a very wise man to ask for a “double portion of your spirit.” 

Here was an opportunity to ask for anything at all—after all, this was no ordinary man—if anything, Elijah was most extraordinary in performing the most amazing of miracles, even raising a man from the dead, and Elisha could have indeed asked for anything at all, but he chose instead to ask his master for a double-portion of his spirit so as to be filled with the power to be like Elijah himself. 

This ought not to be viewed as an act of challenging his mentor, but rather, as an act of humility.  And sure enough, we find two examples of Elisha using his powers:  one of his very first acts is to use this power for good of the people by bringing healing to the waters in a certain town, but next we find that Elisha also has the prerogative to use his power to call down curses upon a group of boys who are mocking him for his bald pate. 

May it be that this would serve as warning for anyone tempted to jeer at another, especially a man of God.  They would be better off to hold their tongue lest they meet a fate like those young boys who are mauled by bears that come out of the woods! 

And so ends the second chapter of the second book of Kings.

Turning now to our reading in the book of Acts, we find Paul and Barnabas busy in their mission to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to both Jew and Gentile in the region.  In some places they are welcomed; in others, they are not.  In such places where they were not welcomed, it is said that they shook the dust off their feet and continued on to their next destination. 

To the Jews who were unbelieving, this was their message:  “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷ For this is what the Lord has commanded us:“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

Turning next to our psalm for the day, we find the well-known and oft-quoted psalm 139.  I reproduce it here in its entirety because of the timeless quality of the emotion conveyed by the psalmist that translates to us even in these modern times where despite our knowledge of science and technologies, there is still an element of wonder in the belief that there is a God who is even more omniscient than all our imaginings.  The psalmist puts it like this:

¹ You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

 ¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Finally, three verses from the book of Proverbs, all of which are independent in their message, and serve as food for thought:

¹⁹ Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin;
whoever builds a high gate invites destruction.

²⁰ One whose heart is corrupt does not prosper;
one whose tongue is perverse falls into trouble.

²¹ To have a fool for a child brings grief;
   there is no joy for the parent of a godless fool.

May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word.