2 Kings 10 – Jehu sends letters to the people
responsible for overseeing the 70 sons of Ahab (Jerusalem Bible notes 70 is the number
indicating “entire” and that sons here means all males heirs, particularly the
sons of Joram) asking them to select one of
them as king and get ready to “fight for your master’s house” (10:3). But they
all respond that if he could beat the two kings he has already beaten – Jehoram
and Ahaziah -- there is not much chance they will prevail against him. He tells them if they really want to
cooperate with him, they will send him the heads of Ahab’s sons the next
day. They do it and send him the
heads at Jezreel. Jehu heaps the heads at the gate into the city, assembles all
the people and announces, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my
master and killed him; but who struck down all these?. . .So Jehu kills all who
were left of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his leaders, close friends, and
priests; he leaves no survivor” (10:11). It’s
like the Hatfields and McCoys here at this time. That must be why they cited
Kings in the movie.
Jehu goes to Samaria. On his way there he meets relatives of King Ahaziah of Judah
on their way to visit the “royal princes” (of the house of Ahab or Joram). Jehu
kills all 42 of them. Then he meets Jehonadab,
son of Rechab (an ardent Yahwist). Jehu asks him to show his loyalty by
coming with him to “see [his] zeal for the Lord” (10:16). They go into Samaria
where Jehu kills “all who were left to Ahab. . .” (10:17).
He
calls together the people and says Ahab offered Baal only small service
compared to what he will do. He
calls together all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and priests on the
pretext that he has a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. When they are all
together in the temple of Baal, and Jehu has assured himself that no worshiper
of Yahweh is in with them, he orders them all killed. Afterward, they throw out the pillar that was in the temple
and burn it and then make the temple itself into a latrine. “Thus
Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel” (10:28). He does not do away with the
calves, however, that Jeroboam set up in Bethel and Dan. The Lord praises Jehu for doing well in getting rid of Ahab’s house, so
he rewards him with a promise of four generations of kings in his line.
One
of the problems Israel has during these days was the trimming off of certain
parts of the country. Hazael of
Aram picks off Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites and the Manassites (all east
of the Jordan). After Jehu (842-815 BC),
his son Jehoahaz succeeds.
2 Kings 11 – Athaliah, Ahaziah’s
mother, intends to slaughter all the royal family (why??); but Jehosheba, Joram’s daughter and
Ahaziah’s sister—also wife of the chief
priest Jehoiada—takes Ahaziah’s baby
son, Joash (or Jehoash) and hides him away in the temple. Athaliah rules
over the people for six years (843-837). In the 7th year, Jehoiada
summons the captains of the Carites (mercenaries from Asia Minor, the
cherithites of David’s guard—1 K 1:38) and the guards and brought them to the
king’s son. He has a plan to
protect the young king, using the shifting of the guards that occurs on the
sabbath (JB says that on weekdays 2/3rds of the guard is on duty at the palace
and on sabbaths 2/3rds are at the temple). He gives them spears and shields
that belonged to King David, and when the day comes, he brings forth the boy
and crowns him with the protection of the guard (11:12).
When
Athaliah sees it, she tears her clothes and cries treason, but Jehoiada has her
killed when she leaves the temple.
Jehoiada makes a covenant between
the Lord and the king and people “that they should be the Lord’s people” (11:17).
They all go to the house of Baal and tear it down [the one in Judah] The priest
of Baal, Mattan, is killed. The king is escorted to his palace and the people
rejoice (JB
says it is mostly the people of the countryside who are behind this renewal.
The people of the city are compelled to accept it). Joash is seven years old.
Luke 10:1-24 – Jesus appoints 70 (other accounts say 72) disciples to go
out, telling them “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (10:2).
He sends them out like “lambs into the midst of wolves” (10:3). They are to do what he has done—cure
the sick and say “The kingdom of God has come near to you” (10:9). If people do
not want to hear, they should wipe the dust from their feet “in protest” and
Jesus then in a rather harsh tone that sets Luke apart from the other gospels, tells
them a judgment hangs over towns that refuse to receive them (10:12): “I assure
you that on the Judgment Day God will show more mercy to Sodom than to that
town!” (10:12).
When
the 72 return, they are full of joy.
Presumably they have met with great success. “Lord, in our name even the
demons submit to us!” (10:17) The word they bring has great power, especially
over evil. Jesus says, “I watched
Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning” (10:18) I never really heard this sentence before this reading. This
statement places Jesus with God before the creation of the world according to
the Jewish story about the fall of Lucifer. The statement about
giving them power to “tread on snakes and scorpions” also brings back the
addendum to Mark (16:18), which seems to us moderns so “beneath” the text in a
way—that his disciples will “pick up snakes in their hands,” and so on. But Jesus is simply trying to say that
the spiritual power he has bestowed upon them will give them amazing
power. But the power on earth they
will have is nothing compared to the fact that their “names are written in
heaven” (10:20).
Jesus also adds a word of thanks to his Father that he has seen
fit to give knowledge of Him to “infants,” to the simple ones of the earth.
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the
Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom
the Son chooses to reveal him” (10:22). This sounds pretty much like the
Jesus we meet in John.
Then Jesus says, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For
I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did
not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it” (10:23-24). All of these passages have great “claims”
embedded in them—claims to pre-existence, to power over evil, to participation
of the Son in the Father’s being, to fulfillment of ancient prophecies and
promises. How can theologians
claim the gospels make no claim to divinity for Jesus??
Luke 10:25-42 - A lawyer in the crowd
asks Jesus the same question the man in Mark 10:17 did—“What must I do to
inherit eternal life?” (10:25) But instead of telling him he must give up
everything, Jesus simply affirms the answer he gives, “You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (10:27). The
challenge comes not in pushing self-denial to the point of giving up all
possessions, but in realizing that one’s neighbor may include people one has
not been taught to love—here the Samaritans.
The lawyer pushes Jesus by asking him “And who is my neighbor?”
(10:29) The parable of the Good
Samaritan follows: A man going from Jerusalem to Jericho (a steep road
descends 17 miles, providing many opportunities for brigands) falls into the
hands of robbers, who beat him and leave him on the road half-dead. A priest passes by him without doing
anything to help him and then a Levite.
Finally a Samaritan comes by and is “moved with pity” (10:33). He helps
bandage the man, brings him to an inn and pays the innkeeper to take care of
him. When Jesus asks the lawyer
which one of the people in the story was a neighbor to the man, he rightfully
answers the “one who showed him mercy” (10:37). Jesus tells him to go and “do likewise.” Again, we see the focus change here from the
“ontic” concerns of Mark (concern for the state or spiritual condition of the
believer—ascetic, self-denying) to the more practical, service-oriented model
of redemption Luke is encouraging.
There follows the story of Mary and Martha, a story not in Mark at
all. Mary is the listener in the story, the one who sits at Jesus’ feet and
attends to his words. Martha is
the worker, the one who waits on him, gets the food. When Martha complains that her sister has left her to do all
the work, Jesus tells her she is “worried and distracted by many things; there
is need of only one thing.” (v. 41-42) Mary has “chosen the better part,” he
says. This contradicts somewhat what I have said about the “doing”
focus of Luke’s gospel, so he is not telling us to only do. We must put Jesus first and what he
teaches us when we attend to him with our whole selves.
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