Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 24-25 and Luke 17

2 Kings 24 – King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Jerusalem Bible calls Nabu-kudur-usur founder of the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, which succeeded Assyria from 605-562. The expedition to Palestine described here took place around 602. He defeated Pharaoh at Carchemish in 605. He comes to dominate Judah. Jehoiakim “became his servant for three years,” but then Jehoiakim rebels. “The Lord” sent against them bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites “to destroy” Judah “for the sins of Manasseh, for all that he had committed, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to pardon” (24:4).

When Jehoiakim dies, his son Jehoiachin (598-597) succeeds him. He was 18 and reigns three months; he did what was evil as his father had done.  The King of Babylon takes him prisoner, carries off all the treasure of the king’s house, cuts up the vessels of gold in the temple and carries off “all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land” (24:14). He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah. He reigned 11 years (597-587). Apparently he was Jehoahaz’ brother or half-brother.

2 Kings 25 – Zedekiah rebels against Babylon in the 9^th year of his reign (589). The city is besieged for 3 years. There is severe famine. When a breach is made in the city wall, the king and his soldiers flee in the direction of the Arabah; but the army of the Chaldeans overtakes him in the plains of Jericho. All his army is scattered. They capture the king and bring him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. “They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah; they bound him in fetters and took him to Babylon” (25:6-7). In 587, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, servant of Nebuchadnezzar, comes and burns all the great houses of Jerusalem; they break down all the walls of the city and carry into exile everyone except the poorest people “to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil?” (25:12) They take the chief priest Seraiah and the second priest, Zephaniah and the three guardians of the threshold. They were put to death at Riblah in the land of Manath. He appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan as governor. He tries to get people to cooperate but he is struck down by someone in the royal family, and they flee to Egypt. Meanwhile, in Babylon, Jehoiachin lives well, having been released from prison.

Luke 17 – Do not cause others to stumble. “It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck. . .” (17:2). If a believer sins, you must rebuke him, and if there is repentance, you must forgive—even if the sins are repeated. The disciples beg Jesus to increase their faith.  He says if it is the size of a mustard seed, they could do anything.

Jesus is just teaching them what it is their duty to do.  Who among them would welcome their own servants back from the fields with a banquet?  Rather, they would tell the servant to serve them first and then satisfy themselves later.

On the way to Jerusalem, in the region of Samaria and Galilee, Jesus is approached by ten lepers. He heals them and tells them to show themselves to the priests.  But only one turns back to thank Jesus—a Samaritan leper.

Jesus is asked about the coming kingdom and the “last days.”  He tells the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed . . .the kingdom of God is within you” [another translation is “among you”](17:21). To the disciples, however, he goes into other things.  He says they will look for “one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it” (17:22).  Do not pursue it. “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day” (17:24). He must endure much suffering and be rejected “by this generation” (17:25—the 2^nd prediction of his passion). As in the days of Noah, there will be eating and drinking until the floods come.  You must be ready to follow and not look back when the time comes.  When the time does come, people will be plucked away and some will be left.  Where to? He says, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (17:37). 

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 22-23 and Luke 16

2 Kings 22 – Josiah is just eight years old when he comes to the throne.  He will serve 31 years (640-609), and he will do “what [is] right in the sight of the Lord” (22:2). He begins another restoration of the temple (the last was done by Joash of Judah during his reign about two hundred years earlier). Hilkiah reports that (in the process of restoration?) they have found in the Temple the book of the law. 

This is almost certainly the book of Deuteronomy, or at least that part of it that recites the law.  It had either been lost or forgotten during Manasseh’s reign according to The Jerusalem Bible note. Judging from what is in the narrative, however, it sounds as if they had been without it for most of the time the monarchy existed, for about 500 years. 

It says they hadn’t celebrated the Passover since the time of the judges, some 400 years earlier!!!

Shaphan, the king’s secretary tells Josiah about the find. When he learns of it, the king “tears his clothes” and commands Hilkiah to inquire of the Lord on behalf of him and all the people, what they should do. So the king’s men go to Huldah, a prophetess, in the Second Quarter in Jerusalem; and she declares that the Lord will indeed bring disaster on Jerusalem as it says in the book they have found, but that “because [the king’s] heart was penitent, and [he] has humbled [himself] before the Lord. . .I also have heard you. . .Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place” (22:19-20). The fact that it is a “prophetess” who authenticates this amazing find is very interesting to me – it seems an unusual role of authority for a woman at this time.

2 Kings 23 – The king gathers all the elders and people, “small and great,” before the house of the Lord, and there he reads “in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found. . .The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book.  All the people joined in the covenant” (23:2-3).

                 

After this, the king goes throughout the land removing all the offensive sites and remnants of idol worship that have plagued the land: he removes the vessels made for Baal and Asherah and “all the host of heaven”; he deposes the idolatrous priests who made offerings on the high places in the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those who made offerings to Baal, the sun, moon and constellations; he destroys the image of Asherah; breaks down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the Temple where the women did weaving for Asherah; he brought the priests out of the towns of Judah and defiled the high places; he defiles Topheth in the valley of Ben-hinnom “so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech” (23:10). He “removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance” to the Temple; burned the chariots of the sun.  He took down altars the kings of Judah had made; he defiles the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon had built for Astarte, Chemosh, and Milcom; he burns the sacred poles and covers the sites with human bones.  All the idolatrous worship sites and practices he uproots and destroys. The Jerusalem Bible notes that it was Josiah who completely centralized the worship, eliminating the Yahwist high places entirely.

The king then commands that all the people begin to keep the Passover. It had not been observed since the time of the judges in Israel. They begin again in the 18^th year of King Josiah. “Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him” (23:25). “Still, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. . .’I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there’” (23:26-27).

                 

During Josiah’s reign, Pharaoh Neco went up to the king of Assyria, and King Josiah went to meet him. The Pharaoh killed Josiah at Megiddo; he is carried back to Jerusalem and Jehoahaz (609), his son becomes king. He reigns only three months and does what is evil. The Pharaoh confines him at Riblah in Hamath and imposes tribute on the land.  Then he makes Eliakim, son of Josiah, king and changes his name to Jehoiakim. He takes Jehoahaz away to Egypt where he dies. Jehoiakim pays tribute to Pharaoh and taxes the people to pay it. Jehoiakim reigns eleven years, but he does what is evil.

Luke 16 – Another puzzling parable—the manager of a rich man’s property is accused of “squandering his property” (16:1).  The master demands an accounting.  The manager, seeing he will lose his job, ponders how he will live without it.  Suddenly he realizes he may have to depend on the charity of people he knows, so he considers how he could change his relations with them.  He will reduce the debt burden each owes to him and in this way secure the “friendship” of each one.  The master commends him for his shrewdness.

And Jesus concludes by saying “the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light” (16:8). The available translations of Jesus’ next words are all difficult to understand. He says, “I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity. The man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great. . . No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’” (16:10-13). I’m not sure I want my politicians to live by this advice!

Reflection: Challenged by this reading every time I have to tackle it, and doing a little research on it with “google,” it occurred to me that Jesus is responding to the shrewdness of this servant the same way I responded to an experience I had in Rome back in the spring of 2000. I had just arrived in Rome and gotten my first Italian money out of an ATM machine. I broke one of the large bills to buy a subway token and put the money in a small, traveler’s purse I wore that hung from a string around my neck and under a fleece I had, so it would be secure. On the very crowded subway I got onto, I found myself approached by a woman with a baby, and I – of course -- was completely attracted to the adorable child for the entire subway ride. When I got out and later went to get more money out of my purse, I discovered I had been robbed. While I was distracted, someone had gone under my fleece, unclipped the purse, unzipped the slot where the money was, taken out ONLY the large, unbroken bills AND my airline ticket and left the small bills behind. The purse was zipped, clipped and under my fleece when I finished my ride.  My reaction was just like Jesus’ – wow!! I had to admire the cleverness involved even though I had been robbed. If we could just be as SMART about spiritual things as we are about worldly things!

                 

You may be incredibly intelligent and shrewd, but you have to choose the “master” you serve. You cannot serve both God and money” (16:13). The Pharisees are said here to be lovers of money and not happy at this teaching. They look for external and present rewards—not inward, invisible or eternal things. “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God” (16:15).

                 

On the Law: Jesus says, “The Law of Moses and the writing of the prophets were in effect up to the time of John the Baptist; since then the Good News about the Kingdom of God is being told, and everyone forces their way in. But it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest detail of the Law to be done away with” (16:17). Why are Jesus’ parables uses to teach us SO HARD TO PENETRATE? Is Jesus saying that the Law is no longer important? Or he is just saying that it’s the legalistic Pharisaic approach that is outdated? He seems to be saying that the Law can no more be done away with than “heaven and earth,” but then what is it that’s changed with the coming of John the Baptist?

                 

Jesus’ teaching on divorce is given briefly and without putting it in the context of Genesis as in Mark.

                 

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus follows: A rich man lives side by side with a very poor man who lays at his gate “covered with sores” (16: 21). He “longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores” (16:21). These lines in the parable open a little light on the difficult story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman who also tells him that she will readily live on the crumbs that fall from the table set for the Jews.  She is like Lazarus too and will get her reward at the heavenly banquet.  When they die, however, it is Lazarus—the poor man—who is at the side of Abraham, not the rich, important man.  The rich man is the beggar there, begging Father Abraham to have mercy on him.  Abraham tells him it is Lazarus’ time to be comforted. “Between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us” (16:26). The rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers still alive so that we may warn them. But Abraham says, “’They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’” (16:27-30).

Here the lesson of the earlier readings is extended to the situation where the punitive justice of God is extended not only to the active evil-doer but the careless and selfish who go through life seeking or accepting their own material comfort and never thinking about the needs of their fellow men, especially those in their path whose needs are visible to them on a daily basis.  The overall lesson is that if we want to do the will of God and plant our lives by the streams of living water, which God offers us, we must not only avoid doing evil and persecuting the righteous but we must care for our brothers and sisters in need.  Also the scope of blessing and curse are seen to run beyond death into an eternal dimension we may not reckon with in our day-to-day calculations.

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 20-21 and Luke 15

2 Kings 20 – Hezekiah becomes sick—he has some kind of boil—and Isaiah comes to tell him he should set his house in order; he is going to die.  He turns “his face to the wall” and prays that the Lord will “remember . . . how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight” (20:3).

As Isaiah is leaving, the Lord comes to him and tells him to go back and say to Hezekiah that He has heard Hezekiah’s prayer, seen his tears and will add fifteen years to his life (20:6). Furthermore, he will deliver Jerusalem and the king out of the hands of the Assyrians. Hezekiah wants some kind of sign from the Lord that this prophecy will be realized, and Isaiah tells him the shadow on the sundial will retreat rather than advance for ten intervals as a sign that God fully intends to make the prophecy come true.

                 

The king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan, sends letters and a present to Hezekiah when he is ill. Hezekiah responds by showing his envoys all the treasure he has – foolishly revealing everything of any value he has. Isaiah asks him about it and tells him at the end that in the future Babylon will carry everything away, even his sons.  Rather than getting disturbed by this prophecy, Hezekiah gives a rather short-sighted [and self-centered in my opinion] answer: “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” (20:19). When Hezekiah dies, his son Manasseh succeeds him.

2 Kings 21 – Manasseh is just twelve years old when he succeeds his father; he will serve 55 years (687-642) as king and will do what is evil.  He backtracks on everything his father did. He rebuilds the high places, erects altars for Baal everywhere (21:3). He even makes his son “pass through fire” (21:6); he practices soothsaying, augury and other such magical arts. 

The Lord sends his prophets to tell him that because of these things, “I will bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will be stunned. I will punish Jerusalem as I did Samaria, as I did King Ahab of Israel and his descendants. I will wipe Jerusalem clean of its people, as clean as a plate that has been wiped and turned upside down. I will abandon the people who survive, and will hand them over to their enemies, who will conquer them and plunder their land” (21:13-14).

Manasseh also sheds much innocent blood.  When he dies, he is succeeded by his 22 year old son Amon (642-640). He also does what is evil. He is killed by servants of his, but they are caught and killed by the “people of the land” so his son Josiah comes to the throne.

Luke 15 – The Pharisees and Scribes who spend their lives dedicated to the Law and the religious life of the community, complain that Jesus is always eating with sinners and outcasts.

Jesus responds with a beautiful parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them – what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost” (15:4). And if you find it, of course you rejoice! “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (15:7). Likewise, a woman with ten coins who loses one, will “light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it” (15:8).

                 

Then Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son: A man has two sons. One of them asks for the property that will one day be his, and he goes off and squanders it “in dissolute living.” When it is all gone, a famine comes and he is reduced to dire need.  He ends up caring for pigs and envying the pigs their food. But he finally “comes to himself” and thinks of his home—how even the hired hands there have bread to spare.  So he resolves to get up and return in shame. “I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands’” (15:18-19).

He returns home, and his father sees him coming. Seeing him, his father is “filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him” (15:20). Then the son says the words he has rehearsed, and the father throws a lavish party.  At this the elder son become angry (15:28) and refuses even to enter the house.  When he speaks to his father, he complains that he never did what the younger son did but his father never threw him such a joyous party.  The father says, “’Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found’” (15:31-32.)

The father tries to make him appreciate the miracle of his brother’s repentance and return, but one is left with a feeling that those who are habitually obedient will never understand the miracle of repentance and return that can happen after making terrible life-choices, or the depth of love in people, parents especially and in our Lord, that makes it possible.

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 18-19 and Luke 14

2 Kings 18 – Hezekiah (715-686 BC), begins his reign in Judah. He is 25. His mother was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He removes the high places (finally), breaks down the sacred pillars and cuts down the sacred poles. He breaks the bronze serpent Moses was said to have made in the desert (it was called Nehushtan or “thing of brass”); it had become an idol over the years. It is interesting to ponder the thought that even in Moses’ mind, there might have been “minor gods” – it seems pretty scandalous for MOSES to have made a bronze figure to use as a cure for snakebites.

Hezekiah trusts in God. He rebels against the king of Assyria and attacks the Philistines as far away as Gaza. It is during his reign that Israel is captured by the Assyrians. In his 14^th year, King Sennacherib of Assyria (705-681 BC) comes against Judah. Hezekiah sends a submissive letter: “’I have done wrong [in rebelling? not paying tribute?]; withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me, I will bear’”(18:14). The Assyrian emperor demands ten tons of silver and one ton of gold; and Hezekiah strips all the gold and silver he can find from the Temple and the palace treasury.

Despite sending all this, the king of Assyria sends emissaries to Hezekiah to find out why this king (Hezekiah) seems so confident that he will be able to resist Assyrian might.

                 

Three of Hezekiah’s chief officials go out to meet the Assyrian commander. The commander – speaking in Hebrew so that everyone in hearing distance can understand him - ask them what it is that makes the king of Judah so confident that he can resist the Assyrians. “Do you think that words can take the place of military skill and might? Who do you think will help you rebel against Assyria? You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that is like using a reed as a walking stick – it will break and job your hand. . . Or will you tell me that you are relying on the Lord your God? It was the Lord’s shrines and altars that Hezekiah destroyed when he told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship only at the altar in Jerusalem” (18:20-22). He is assuming that the local “high places” and other places of idol worship that Hezekiah [faithfully] took down were really dedicated to YHWH. Scholars are still debating this one.  

                 

Hezekiah’s officials want the Assyrian emissary to speak Aramaic so he doesn’t foment discord among the people standing around, who might form a separate view of how to respond to the threat.  The commander refuses to do this and calls out even louder to the people, “Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. . .the king of Assyria [says] make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree, and drink water from your own cistern” (18:31). He reminds them of the disaster and defeat that has fallen all around in other nations.  The people are silent though; they do not take the bait. Hezekiah’s officials report back to him,  tearing “their clothes in grief” (18:37).

2 Kings 19 – Hezekiah tears his clothes in grief too when he hears what the king of Assyria’s emissaries have said.  He sends his three officials to consult with the prophet Isaiah – this is his first appearance in the story. Isaiah tells the officials to return and say to Hezekiah not to fear, that the king of Assyria will hear a rumor that will cause him to return to his own land, and there the Lord will have him die by the sword. 

The next paragraph is a little unclear. Apparently the rumor the king of Assyria hears is that the king of Cush (an Ethiopian king—Tirhakah who is now Pharaoh) has attacked him at Libnah, so he goes there to meet him. He sends a threatening message to Hezekiah repeating much of what he said—that his armies are invincible, that they have beaten numerous kings and the gods who have defended those kings.

                 

Hezekiah receives this message and reads it; he takes it up to the Temple and spreads it out before the Lord, saying: “O Lord the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God” (19:16).  And he begs the Lord for help: “So now, O Lord our God, save us, I pray you, from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone” (19:19).

Isaiah sends Hezekiah a message that is God’s response to Hezekiah’s prayer. It’s a rather lengthy and personal snub of Assyria’s pride.  Bottom line is Sennacherib will not come into Jerusalem, for the Lord will defend it “for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David” (19:34).

That night a plague hits the Assyrian camp and 185,000 are struck down (19:35). Sennacherib goes home and is killed by two of his sons; another son, Esar-haddon, succeeds him.

Luke 14 – Jesus is eating a Sabbath meal at the home of one of the leading Pharisees and there are a number of Pharisees there with them – SURPRISING! A poor man with swollen arms and legs comes up to Jesus and everyone watches to see what he will do. Will he do another miracle? He asks again about what the teaching should be about healing people on the Sabbath. “If any one of you had a child or an ox that happened to fall into a well on a Sabbath, would you not pull it out at once?” (14:5)

Jesus notices that people [still at the Pharisee Sabbath dinner?] are gravitating toward the places of honor.  He tells a parable about a wedding banquet—how one should not take seats of honor there because the host might embarrass you by making you give your place up to someone of higher rank. It is better to take the seat of less honor and then be asked to move up when the host arrives. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (14:11). And to his host, Jesus says he ought not to invite friends and relatives to a lunch or a dinner—they will repay you in kind.  “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death” (14:13-14).

                 

One of the guests responds by saying, “How happy are those who will sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God!” (14:15) Jesus tells him another story about a banquet, how when everything was ready the master sent for the guests he was inviting, and they started to make excuses for why they couldn’t come. The master gets angry at this and says to his servant, “’Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said. . .’Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner’” (14:21-24).

                 

Crowds follow him, but Jesus is very demanding about who can call themselves disciples of his. “Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well” (14:26). Also, whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (14:25-27).

Giving up possessions is essential too; it is one of the costs of completing the work that needs to be done.

And his disciples also must not lose the distinctive identity that they must have. Like salt, like the yeast that makes bread rise, if they lose their distinctive character, they will be useless.  

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 16-17 and Luke 13

2 Kings 16 – King Ahaz of Judah is 20 when he becomes king and rules for 16 years (732-715). He does what is not right, walking “in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even sacrifices his own son as a burnt offering, imitating the practices of the ancient Canaanite people of the region (16:3-4). During Ahaz’ reign, the kings of Syria (Rezin) and Israel (Pekah) join in an alliance against him – they are angry that he would not join with them in an alliance against Assyria - but they do not conquer him.

The King of Edom recovers Elath (Aqaba) and drives the Judeans out. Ahaz turns to the king of Assyria for help against them all, saying “I am your devoted servant. Come and rescue me from the kings of Syria and Israel, who are attacking me” (16:7). He even gives tribute of gold and silver from the Temple to win him as an ally. It works - the King of Assyria, who is known as one of the most warlike and feared of all rulers of the region, comes and defeats the Syrians at Damascus, carrying off its inhabitants to Assyria (to Kir). This assistance of the king of Judah to the building up of Assyrian power HAS to be one of the worst things Ahaz could have done in the sight of God.

Ahaz visits Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BC) in Assyria and admires one of the altars he has. He sends the priest Uriah to study it so that he can have one built like it before he returns to Jerusalem. He makes sacrifice on this altar, removes the bronze altar that was there before, moving it to the north. All the blood sacrifices that were traditional are now to be offered up on the new altar.  The old one will just be for the king “to inquire by” (16:15). He made changes in the bronze altar and in the inner sanctuary as well. When he dies, he is succeeded by his son Hezekiah (715-686).

                 

2 Kings 17 – KEY CHAPTER: In Israel, Hoshea, son of Elah comes to power. “He did what was evil. . .yet not like the kings of Israel who were before him” (17:2). King Shalmaneser V (727-722 BC) of Assyria comes against him, and Hoshea becomes his vassal, paying him tribute. But when Hoshea seeks Egyptian help and stops paying the tribute, Shalmaneser has him imprisoned (17:4).

Assyria invades the land again and besieges Samaria for three years. In 722, Samaria falls and the Israelites are carried away to Assyria—to Halah on the Habor and to the cities of the Medes. Later the Assyrians will also move people from other Mesopotamian cities and settle them in Samaria, so the ethnic, cultural and religious unity of the region will be destroyed permanently.

                 

“This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. . .They had worshiped other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. . .The people of Israel secretly did things that were not right against the Lord their God. . .they served idols. . .They would not listen but were stubborn, as their ancestors had been who did not believe in the Lord their God. . .They went after false idols and became false; they followed the nations that were around them. . .They rejected all the commandments of the Lord. . .and made for themselves cast images of two calves; they made a sacred pole, worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. They made their sons and their daughters pass through fire; they used divination and augury; and they sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah alone” (17:7-18).

This has to be the centerpiece of the entire book of Kings—the prophetic explanation for the failure of the Promised Land project begun by Moses. The next paragraph also warns that Judah is not being faithful either.

                 

“Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced” (17:19). The writer repeats in brief the history of the kings. After carrying the people of Israel off, the king of Assyria settles foreigners on their land—people from Babylon, Cathah, Avva, Hamath, etc. “When they first settled there, they did not worship the Lord; therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them” (17:25). The king is warned that the misfortunes they are suffering there are due to the fact that people there “do not know the law of the god of the land” (17:26), so Shalmaneser orders a priest in exile to be returned to Israel, to Bethel, so that he can teach the settlers how to worship the Lord.

                 

Still the worship that comes is not pure. The customs of the foreigners mingle with the Yahweh worship on the “high places.” The various gods set up there are listed: Succoth-benoth (Bablyon); Nergal (Cuth); Ashima (Hamah); Nibhaz and Tartak (Avvites); Adrammelech and Anammelech (Sepharvaim), with child-sacrifice. But they also worship Yahweh and appoint priests for his worship. “So these nations worshiped the Lord, but also served their carved images; to this day their children and their children’s children continue to do as their ancestors did” (17:41).

Luke 13 – Jesus moves on to tell the crowds that when you see people who are killed by the powers that be, you should NOT think that those people have somehow brought God’s wrath down on themselves. It’s easy to see the pain others suffer as the consequence of some sin they have committed. We all kind of assume that people who are punished by those in power MUST have done something bad, but all of us suffer and all of us will die. We should not assume always that these things imply some misdeed. But then he says something that seems to undercut this message. He says, “If you do not turn from your sins, you will all die as they did” (13:5). Does anyone understand how all of this is consistent??

                 

Then comes the parable of the fig tree:  The owner of the fig tree comes to see if it has born any fruit, but even after three whole years, there is none.  So the owner tells the gardener to cut it down.  The gardener asks him to be patient and give him a little more time to fertilize it and encourage it.  If after that it still bears no fruit, then he will cut it down. Here, I think, Jesus is the gardener, asking God for just a little more time for him to get the tree to bring forth fruit.

                 

Jesus on the meaning of the Sabbath: A woman with an evil spirit that had kept her crippled her for 18 years, unable to stand up straight, is cured by Jesus on the Sabbath.  He is criticized for “breaking the Sabbath” by “working” this miracle. Jesus puts his critics to shame for their superficial righteousness.  “You hypocrites,” Jesus says, “ . . .ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” (13:16)

                 

Jesus’ teaching on God’s Kingdom: Jesus compares God’s Kingdom to a mustard seed – a tiny plant that eventually will grow into a tall tree that will be able to “house” many “birds” (13:19).

                 

Then he compares the Kingdom to “yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened” (13:20). Though tiny, the presence of God’s kingdom, will leaven our reality and change it fundamentally over time.

                 

On entering God’s Kingdom: Teaching in villages on the way to Jerusalem, someone asks if only a few will be saved. “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able” (13:24). Once the owner has shut the door, you will stand outside and knock, but he will say “I do not know where you come from” (13:25). “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God” (13:28-29). These are very tough words directed in a prophetic voice to the people of Israel who are not accepting Jesus—I think.

                 

Jesus’ yearning for acceptance by his people: And yet another plea: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing” (13:34). This combines both the hard edge and the loving plea.  The hard edge comes from a recognition of the great love that is behind Jesus’ appearance and the hurt and frustration that comes from seeing it rejected by those who looked forward most to its coming.

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 12-13 and Luke 11

1 Kings 12 – Joash (Jehoash) of Judah reigns 40 years (837-800). His mother is Zibiah of Beer-sheba. He “did what was right in the sight of the Lord all his days, because the priest Jehoiada instructed him” (12:2). They kept the high places, but that appears to have been seen as a shortcoming of a different order than the Baal worship, etc.

Joash set about trying to set up a revenue fund to make repairs on the house of the Lord.  The money from the assessment of persons, the money from voluntary offerings was to be set aside.  But 23 years after setting up this fund, no repairs had actually been made so Joash calls the priests together and asks them why they are not doing it.  He tells them they will not be permitted to keep the money they receive; they will have to hand it over so repairs can be made (12:7). This sounds as if the “state” is taking charge of the money to assure that it is used as intended. Jehoiada takes a chest and puts it next to the altar and the priests guarding the threshold put offerings into it, and when it is full, they empty it into bags and turn them over to workers—masons, carpenters, stonecutters, timber sellers, etc. Nothing like silver bowls, trumpets or other vessels of gold of silver are purchased with this money—only basic repairs.  The priests continue to get money from sin and guilt offerings. There was no accounting demanded of the workers, for they dealt honestly (12:15).

                 

King Hazael of Aram (Syria), meanwhile, takes the city of Gath and then turns to attack Jerusalem. King Jehoash takes “all the votive gifts” of his ancestors, his own and the gold that was in the treasuries of both Temple and palace and sends everything to Hazael to get him to withdraw.  Then Joash is killed in a conspiracy of his servants Jozacar and Jehozabad in the house of Millo. There is more to Joash’s story that is not told here. You can find more at 2 Chronicles 24. Once Jehoida was dead, he apparently went back to the worship of idols and also was involved in the killing of Jehoida’s son Zechariah. His son Amaziah succeeds him (800-783).

2 Kings 13 – In Israel, Jehoahaz, son of Jehu begins his 17-year reign (815-801). He does what is evil. Because the Lord is angry with him, he gives them “repeatedly into the hand of King Hazael of Aram, then into the hand of Ben-hadad son of Hazael” (13:3). There is a brief period of relief, which the writer attributes to an appeal by Jehoahaz to the Lord, but most of the reign is troubled. His son Joash (Jehoash) succeeds him. His reign is for 16 years (801-786). But he does what is evil too.

                 

During Joash’s reign, Elisha is dying. The king goes down to see him and seems terribly grieved. He says to Elisha, “My father, my father! You have been the mighty defender of Israel!” (13:14) Elisha tells him to take his bow, open an eastern window and shoot.  He exclaims, “You are the Lord’s arrow, with which he will win victory over Syria” (13:17). Then he tells the king to strike the ground with the arrows, and he does, but only three times. Elisha tells him that if he had struck five or six times, they would have completely prevailed; but now they will only beat them three times (13:19).

Elisha dies and is buried. To show the power and holiness of Elisha in the memory of the people, the writer tells a story about some invading Moabites who were in the process of burying someone when they were attacked.  They throw the body hurriedly into the grave without noticing that there is another body there—Elisha’s—and when the body touches Elisha’s, it comes back to life (13:20-21).

                 

Hazael oppresses Israel throughout Joash’s reign. The fact that they are not utterly destroyed is attributed to God's faithfulness to his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Joash succeeds in retaking the towns Hazael took but only after Hazael’s death.

Luke 11 – Jesus teaches his disciples to pray. It is the Lord’s prayer but very short—hallow the Lord’s name and pray for his kingdom to come. Give us each day the bread (of heaven) we need and forgive us as we forgive those who “owe” us. Do not “bring us to the time of trial” (11:4).

                 

A parable follows—the one about a friend you ask for bread to feed another friend. Even though he is hard to get out of bed, if you are persistent, he will get up and give you what you need. “So I [Jesus] say to you, ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (11:9-10). God is a Father to us.  Like any father, he will give us good things if we ask, but the good thing we really need from him is “the Holy Spirit” (11:13), not stuff.

We must ask God for the things we need—not expect him to anticipate our every need or read our minds.  God is calling us into relationship with him, a relationship in which we realize our dependence upon him and his desire to be a friend to us—even though he sometimes seems silent and unresponsive.

                 

Jesus’ disputes with the crowd over the source of his power.  Some are saying that he is able to cast out devils because he is from the devil.  But Jesus argues that if Satan works what is good, he is working against evil rather than promoting it, which is the way he strengthens his kingdom.  Therefore, if he is doing good, his kingdom is divided and will fall.  Jesus wants them to see that the good he does flows from God, the source of all good. 

While I confess to feeling less than clear about the point of what Jesus says and does here, it seems to be that we must judge things by the fruits.  If a person does good, it makes no sense to say that person is evil. How we are to reconcile this with the idea that Satan can come dressed as an angel of light? (2 Cor. 11:13) I am not sure I understand how Jesus means us to discern this.  I think it was reasonable for the crowds to be skeptical.

Unclean spirits, when they are cast out, can sometimes return bringing with them “other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live [in the exorcised person] there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first” (11:26).

                 

Some woman in the crowd blesses the womb that bore Jesus, and he rather rejects this by saying, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (11:28) I don’t think this is meant to be a put-down of his mother as blessed, but the reason she is blessed is her obedience to God’s word, not her simply being the vehicle of Jesus’ birth in a physical way.  The blessing she is entitled to here is a blessing all those who respond to God’s word and join in.

                 

Jesus bemoans the fact that this generation (all generations) seem to need miraculous signs to have their eyes opened to God; but the only real sign they will get is the “sign of Jonah”—by this he seems to mean the sending of Jonah to a people outside the circle of God’s redemption, a responsive people.  He joins this to a reminder of Sheba’s recognition of Solomon’s wisdom—she too was an outsider.  He may here be prophesying about the response of the Gentiles as opposed to that of the Jews to him.

                 

Then there is the parable of the lamps—that when we light them, we don’t set them in the cellar but rather set them out where others can see them (11:33).  But the point he makes seems different than the point Mark makes, a point obvious from just these few words.  Here Jesus goes on to analogize the lamps to the eyes we see by.  If the eye is healthy, the whole body is full of light; but if it isn’t, the body is filled with darkness. This is a different point entirely—as the eye sees, so is light shed to the mind and the soul.  If you do not see as God would have you see, the soul will be continue to wander in the darkness. Mark’s version of this is early in his gospel, in 4:21. There it seems to say, the light that is Christ will not remain hidden.  A light is not lit unless one plans to put it on the lampstand.  The secretive aspect of Jesus’ identity and work will not always be. I guess the message could be reconciled by saying that Jesus’ hidden work will soon be public, and will if we see it properly, illuminate everything for us.

                 

The chapter goes on in its rambling way to Jesus dining with a Pharisee who is shocked that he does not wash before he eats.  Jesus uses the occasion to instruct him on the relative unimportance of outward things.  This too is a kind of commentary on what is important in our “view,” our way of seeing reality. It isn’t that Jesus doesn’t want the small details the Pharisees love to do right—“tith[ing] mint and rue”—but he wants these AND the important things too.  As it is they (the Pharisees) are “like unmarked graves” that people do not realize are full of death (11: 44).

                 

The lawyers see in Jesus’ criticism of religious legalism, a criticism of them as well. And Jesus’ acknowledges it: “For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them” (11:46). This generation, Jesus seems to say, will be charged with “the blood all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. . .Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation” (11:50-51).  All of these criticisms make them all mad at Jesus, so they lie in wait for him, “to catch him in something he might say” (11:54).

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 10-11 and Luke 10

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 7^th 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.