Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: 2 Chronicles 18 and Augustine's Treatise on Profit of Believing 21

2 Chronicles 18 – Jehosphaphat had great riches. He made a marriage alliance with Ahab – had his son Joram marry Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah. A few years later, he goes to visit Ahab. Ahab offers sacrifice for him and asks for Jehoshaphat’s help in fighting to recover Ramoth-gilead.  The Jerusalem Bible note says the unlawful sacrifice—not at the authorized sanctuary, will prove disastrous.  

 

Jehosphaphat asks Ahab to consult “the word of the Lord” (18:4) to see what they should do. Ahab calls together four hundred prophets to advise them.  But Jehoshaphat is not satisfied. He asks if “there [is] no other prophet of the Lord here of whom we may inquire?” (18:6)

 

Ahab says there is Micaiah, son of Imlah, “but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything favorable about me but only disaster” (18:7). They are sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor before the gates of Samaria with the prophets all around them. The messenger who has gone to get Micaiah advises him to “speak favorably” about the proposal like as the others have, but Micaiah says, “As the Lord lives, whatever my God says, that I will speak” (18:13).

        

When he arrives, he does as he has ben advised; but Ahab knows him and says, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” (18:15) And Micaiah respond, in that case, “I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing to the right and to the left of him. And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice King Ahab of Israel, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Then one said one thing, and another said another, until a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ The Lord asked him, ‘How?’ He replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ . . .So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets; the Lord has decreed disaster for you” (18:18-22). 

        

Zedekiah slaps Micaiah, and Ahab orders him returned to Amon, governor of the city and to Joash, the king’s son to be put in prison “until I return in peace” (18:26). Micaiah tells him if he returns, then the Lord has not spoken through him. So they go up to Ramoth-gilead.

Ahab convinces Jehoshaphat to put on his robes while he (Ahab) disguises himself to go into battle. He is slyly acting on the truth he heard from Micaiah, trying to avoid the fate Micaiah has prophesied. The king of Aram, has instructed his men to only go after the king of Israel, so it looks at first as if Ahab’s strategy will save him. The Aramaean soldiers come after Jehosphaphat, but the Lord helps him (18:31). The captains see it is not the king of Israel and turn back.  Then “unknowingly, a man draws his bow and [strikes] the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. . . .” (18:34). At sunset he dies. Chronicles focuses more on Jehoshaphat than Kings does—Kings focuses more on Ahab. His focus is on the Judaean monarchy.

Augustine’s Treatise on the Profit of Believing

21 - This, you will say, is ridiculous – to turn to the church Augustine calls "Catholic" for instruction on the teaching “that has flowed down from Christ Himself through the Apostles even unto us” - whereas all profess to hold and teach this: all heretics make this profession, I cannot deny it; but so, as that they promise to those whom they entice, that they will give them a reason concerning matters the most obscure: and on this account chiefly charge the Catholic [Church], that they who come to her are enjoined to believe; but they make it their boast, that they impose not a yoke of believing, but open a fount of teaching. You answer, What could be said, that should pertain more to their praise? It is not so.

So, OK – this is not easy stuff to unravel – he has just spoken in the last section of having turned to the church that teaches what has flowed down to us through the apostles and teaches it in a certain authoritative way, not open to a lot of speculation or personal interpretation. While they – Augustine and Horatius – have been similar in the past in not wanting to trust to “a yoke of believing” now Augustine believes that this yoke is more to be trusted than an “open fount” which the Manichees boast of having.

For this they do, without being endued with any strength, but in order to conciliate to themselves a crowd by the name of reason: on the promise of which the human soul naturally is pleased, and, without considering its own strength and state of health, by seeking the food of the sound, which is ill entrusted save to such as are in health, rushes upon the poisons of them who deceive. For true religion, unless those things be believed, which each one after, if he shall conduct himself well and shall be worthy, attains unto and understands, and altogether without a certain weighty power of authority, can in no way be rightly entered upon. What Augustine calls “true religion” rests in an essential way on the authority of those who have come before us – their testimony.

Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 22 and Luke 4:31-44

1 Kings 22 - Israel and Syria (Aram) continue at war. Jehoshaphat of Judah, Asa’s son and another good king, comes to confer with Ahab; he wants their help in reclaiming Ramoth-gilead from the Syrians. JB note says this town was captured by the Syrians (same as Aramaeans) during or before the reign of David and had not been handed back in the Treaty of Aphek (chapter 20).

Jehoshaphat agrees, but wants Ahab first to consult the Lord.  Ahab gathers 400 of the Lord’s prophets together and asks them what the Lord thinks. They all tell him to go ahead and attack.  Jehoshaphat, wanting to be very sure it is God’s will, asks if there is not yet another prophet in Israel they should consult. Ahab says there is - there is Micaiah, son of Imlah – but he adds, “but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything favorable about me, but only disaster” (22:8). They call on him anyway.

                 

Everyone gets together at the threshing floor at the entrance gate to Samaria, and the prophets there are all doing their thing.  Another false prophet, Zedekiah, assures Ahab and Jehoshaphat that they will certainly destroy the Arameans.

The men who get Micaiah – the only prophet who really knows God’s truth - tell him that everyone is predicting success and that he should too; Micaiah says he will rely on the Lord alone.  At first he does tell the king the thing he knows the king wants to hear; but Ahab knows him too well. He says to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” (22:16) Another instance where Ahab kind of surprises me. He’s a king who may not always DO what is right, but he has a complex mind. He wants to KNOW what the Lord really thinks. Ahab has a frustrating mix of insight and passiveness when it comes to leading his people. So Micaiah lays it on him: “I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These men have no leader; let them go home in peace’” (22:17). When he hears this, Ahab turns to Jehoshaphat and says that this is more like the Micaiah he knows.

Micaiah elaborates: “I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him. . .And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’” (22:20) The angels of the heavenly court argue back and forth until a spirit appears who says he will make Ahab go forth to the battle by putting lying words into the mouths of his prophets. Zedekiah slaps Micaiah for saying this and says, “Since when did the Lord’s spirit leave me and speak to you?” (22:25) Micaiah tells him he will find out one day when he goes into a back room to hide. 

Ahab orders Micaiah taken away and thrown into a prison until he [Ahab] returns safely. Micaiah says to him that if he [Ahab] returns safely from this campaign, then the Lord was indeed NOT speaking through him. The truth is NO ONE knows the true will of God until the fruits of our actions can be seen over time.

                 

They go into battle. Ahab—believing the words of the prophet Micaiah even though they have not pleased him and trying to escape the predicted fate—gives Jehoshaphat his kingly robes and disguises himself so the enemy will kill Jehoshaphat instead of him.  When the enemy sees that the man in the robes is not Ahab, though, they stopped their assault on him. Ahab, on the other hand, despite his disguise is hit by accident and dies. He is returned to Samaria where the dogs do in fact lick his blood from the chariot he was in. This story is in 2 Chronicles 18 too.

                 

As for Jehoshaphat, he reigns over Judah for 25 years. He does what is right except not removing the high places. He makes peace with the king of Israel, Ahaziah, and has ships made to engage in trade, but they are wrecked at Ezion-geber before they can be used. In Israel, Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, succeeds and reigns for two years; but he too does what is evil just as his parents did.

Luke 4:31-44 - Jesus encounters a “demoniac” in Capernaum (also told of in Mark 1:21-26).  As in Mark, we must wonder why it is that demons and evil spirits Jesus encounters are able to recognize Jesus even before the people generally recognize his identity.  In Luke, the spirit says, “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (4:34). The same exact words are used in Mark. Jesus rebukes these evil spirits, and people are “amazed” at the power of Jesus’ command, his voice or word.

The different translations of the peoples’ response to what they see here are interesting:

·          The NRSV has them asking “What kind of utterance is this?”

·          The NAB has the fascinating and rich “What is there about his word?”

·          JB has “’What teaching!’”

·          The German has “’Was ist das fur ein Ding?’”

·          The King James also has “word” in the clause. 

Of all these, I like the NAB best. What an interesting question it becomes!  Something in Jesus’ voice demonstrates power.  Not only his voice, but his presence and his touch bring healing, first of all to the man with the unclean spirit and Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, but also to others. Luke has Jesus curing Simon’s mother-in-law before we see Simon’s call to discipleship—the order is better in Matthew.

Reflection:  All of us whom Jesus encounters are blind or ailing in one way or another.  These healings were not isolated instances but the general work he came to do.  Let us see how we are blind or deaf or filled with the evil spirits of this world who, though they can recognize Jesus, cannot be banished entirely from the world.  Help move away every impediment that the world gives to Christ’s work in us or that we bring to our encounter with the living Word.

Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 20 and Luke 3

1 Kings 20 – It is around 868 BC. Ben-hadad II, is king of Syria (Aram). He gathers 32 kings [Jerusalem Bible note says they were princely vassals] to march against the kingdom of Israel under king Ahab’s rule.

He sends a message to Ahab saying, “Your silver and gold are mine; you may keep your wives and children.” This is the Jerusalem Bible translation. The NRSV version is, “Your silver and gold are mine; your fairest wives and children also are mine” (20:3). This makes no sense in the context of the story, so I assume the Jerusalem Bible translation is to be preferred here. He agrees to this message, but whatever the words actually said, the meaning of his reply is that, Ben-hadad, may have all his treasure, but his wives and children are not to be touched. 

Ben-hadad sends back a message, this time saying that everything he and his men want they will take, so Ahab goes to the elders and confers with them. They will resist. Both sides get ready for a fight.

At this point a prophet comes to Ahab and a rather complex interaction takes place between the “secular” and religious principles of the time. The unnamed prophet says that the Lord will give Ben-hadad’s men into their hands (20:13). They do beat them. The king of Syria interprets this as a victory brought about by the Israelite god whom he believes is a “god of the mountains.” But he thinks if they were to fight on the plains, they (the Syrians) would win.

In the spring, when the Syrians challenge them again, they go to the plains, near Aphek.  The prophets see this as an opportunity to proclaim that their god is the ONE GOD, the God of mountains, valleys and plains. They tell Ahab, “Because the Syrians have said, ‘The Lord is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,’ therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord’” (20:28). Needless to say, they win again. 

The surviving princes of the Syrian forces flee into Aphek and appeal to Ahab for mercy. Ahab perhaps sees this as an opportunity to make peace with his war-hungry neighbors and says something conciliatory, referring to Ben-hadad as his “brother.” To us modern Christian readers, this seems like it should be a good thing; but it isn’t in the context of the times and the author’s understanding of what God wanted Ahab to do. The prophets have said that God wants them defeated and killed. It is not for Ahab to do this HIS WAY.

                 

The narrative shifts to a short parable, similar to the parable Nathan uses in 2 Samuel 12 with David to help him SEE the terrible thing he has done in seducing Bathsheba. Here, we are told that the Lord tells one of a community of prophets (prophet A) to order another prophet (prophet B) to strike him (prophet A). If the Lord orders it the other prophet should DO it even though he (prophet B) may rationally see the order as stupid, something that should NOT be done. When the prophet B refuses to strike prophet A, prophet A says, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, as soon as you leave me, a lion will kill you,” (20:36) and so it happens.  Then prophet A goes to another (prophet C) and tells him to strike him, and this prophet (C) does as he is told – he hits and wounds him. 

OK, now the parable shifts back to the “worldly” setting of kings and military officers. Prophet A leaves and hides himself along the road, now posing as a soldier (soldier A) who’s been wounded. When the king passes and asks what has happened to him, he tells the king he was injured when a fellow soldier, the soldier’s officer, gave a prisoner into his keeping and ordered him to guard the man or die for failing to do so. When the prisoner escapes on the soldier’s watch, the king responds by saying that he must die –the penalty was set by the officer in charge. 

The prophet tells Ahab this story to show him he was wrong in letting the Syrian king go. When a SUPERIOR decides something, you can’t make changes in what that authority has determined. God wanted the Syrians to die and you (Ahab) screwed up when you decided to show mercy. This very convoluted story basically means that God is not happy that Ahab comes to terms with the enemy God for him to defeat.  Ahab let his captives go just as the man in the parable did. A Jerusalem Bible note says, “all who disobey the word of God or of a man of God, even for good motives, will be punished. This idea is not perfect and is not that of the great prophets, but it reflects the mentality of the ancient prophetic communities” (449).

King Ahab returns to Samaria “resentful and sullen” (20:43).

Luke 3 – In the 15^th year of Tiberius’ reign (Pilate is governor of Judea, Herod of Galilee and his brother Philip of Ituraea and Trachonitis), when Annas and Caiaphas are high priests, John begins his ministry in the Jordan region. He proclaims “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (3:3), in accordance with the words of Isaiah:

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God’” (3:4-6).

John’s message to his people is that they are all caught up in the outward show of religion. Faith in God isn’t about being descendants of Abraham in the flesh. “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (3:8). The people ask him what they need to DO. They must bear “good fruit” in their lives (3:9). They must share their excess with those who have nothing. 

Tax collectors want to know what they should DO, and John tells them to be honest in their work, collecting only what they are authorized to collect. 

Soldiers ask what they should DO, and they are told likewise to be honest and satisfied with the wages they get (3:14). This emphasis is different from in Mark, where what one is to do barely registers on the screen.  There, the emphasis is on people believing the “good news” and coming into relationship with Jesus, coming to know him—who he is. It is also interesting to me that the ones with the jobs people thought unworthy are not told to leave those jobs but simply to bring a sense of integrity to them.  People in military service are not told it is wrong to engage in war.  They are simply told to not oppress and be happy with the wages they have.

                 

As in Mark, the people who flock to John are “filled with expectation” and all wondering if he (John) might be the Messiah (3:15). John lets them know he is only preparing the way for the one who will baptize them “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:16). He will come with a winnowing fork to gather the wheat and throw the chaff into the fire (3:17). Herod, upset at John’s rebuke of him for having married his brother’s wife, has him thrown into jail.

                 

Here after all the people had been baptized and Jesus as well, the Holy Spirit descends on him “in bodily form like a dove” and a voice from heaven proclaims, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (3:22). Jesus was about thirty.  People take him to be the son of Joseph (and Joseph’s lineage is traced back to Adam through 75 generations (David is 41^st back in the line; Abraham 55th and Adam 75th). It is interesting to me that Adam is called the “son of God” (3:38).

There are a few other things I would like to point out about Luke’s gospel and how it different in focus from the other gospels. He continues in this chapter to show his commitment to linking Jesus in very concrete ways to historical time – placing the beginning of his ministry in the context of all the local and regional authorities as well as the Roman Emperor of the time. He is equally meticulous in reciting Jesus ancestral line, name by name from Joseph all the way back to Adam. Matthew will recite the lineage as well but only back to Abraham and with a few other changes as well. Clearly, Luke is set upon placing Jesus in all of “human history” while Matthew is more interested in locating him in “Jewish history.”

The tone of the gospel also has an “edge” I find missing from the other gospels. I will point the instances where this tone is most prominent. For this chapter I see it in John’s message that “the ax is lying at the root of the trees” – you had better bear fruit (3:9), and John’s reference to the one who will come after him, baptizing with the Holy Spirit and with fire, coming with a “winnowing fork” to separate the wheat from the chaff. The “chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (3:17).

Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 16-17 and Luke 1:39-80

1 Kings 16 – For modern readers, the cast of characters in Kings can be very challenging. We have Ahijah the prophet from Shiloh – a good man who prophesies against Jeroboam and his line because of their unfaithfulness to the one God. Then there is the Ahijah from the tribe of Issachar – a different man apparently – whose son Baasha takes over the northern kingdom and has all of Jeroboam’s line killed. It is tempting to think they might have been related Ahijahs but apparently they are not.

Now we have a prophet named Jehu – son of Hanani who speaks God’s word to Baasha, telling him that he too has provoked God’s anger and that he too will be “consume[d]” (16:3). Later there will be another Jehu, a different man, who will become king of Israel for a while. The prophet Jehu sends a message to King Baasha, telling him he has also led God’s people into sin and will also die – with his whole family – just as Jeroboam was eliminated. It is interesting that one of the sins listed against the house of Baasha is his killing of Jeroboam’s “house.” So even though this was prophesied, it was not seen as the will of God.

Baasha manages to live out his life as king. His son Elah succeeds him. Elah only reigns for two years in Israel.  It is through Zimri, the commander of Elah’s forces that the prophesy of Jehu s comes to pass. Zimri kills Elah when he is drunk one day, and then Zimri has all of Baasha’s family killed. “Because of their idolatry and because they led Israel into sin, Baasha and his son Elah had aroused the anger of the Lord” (16:13).

Zimri rules for only seven days in Tirzah. Israelite troops fighting in Philistia, learn of Zimri’s coup and they plot against him. When Zimri learns of their plot, he “went into the palace’s inner fortress, set the palace on fire and died in the flames” (16:18). They set their chief commander, Omri, as king. This revolt ends with the people of Israel are divided—half loyal to one Tibni, and the other half to Omri.  But Tibni dies, so Omri is left in charge. 

Omri reigns for 12 years.  It is Omri who builds the city of Samaria on a hill that he buys. Around 875 BC, Omri’s son Ahab becomes the king of Israel. Ahab “sinned against the Lord more than any of his predecessors” (16:30). He takes as his wife Jezebel, daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon. “He built a temple to Baal in Samaria, made an altar for him, and put it in the temple. He also put up an image of the goddess Asherah” (16:32-33). A Jerusalem Bible note says Ethbaal was a priest of Asherah (Astarte) who seized power in Tyre at the same time as Omri in Israel.  They allied themselves to each other. The “effects on the religion of Israel of this association with the Philistines were to be increasingly felt throughout the reign of Ahab.

During Ahab’s reign a man named Hiel builds (or rebuilds) the city of Jericho—and sacrifices his eldest son Abiram as part of it.  The gates of the city are consecrated with the sacrifice of his youngest son Segub.

1 Kings 17 – This first appearance of Elijah the Tishbite (of Tishbe in Gilead). He goes to Ahab and prophecies drought.  He himself goes, at God’s command, to live in the Wadi Cerith, east of the Jordan.  There the ravens feed him bread and meat every morning and evening; and he drinks from the wadi. Soon it dries up, so he goes to Zarephath where the Lord tells him a widow will feed him.  He meets the widow at the gate gathering sticks and asks her for bread.  She has nothing—only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil.  She is gathering sticks to prepare one last meal for her and her son.  Elijah tells her not to fear, to do as she planned, but to give him a little something first—that the meal and oil will not fail until the day the Lord sends rain to the earth again.  It happens.

                 

After, the widow’s son becomes ill.  She yells at Elijah for bringing this problem on them by “bring[ing] [her]sin to remembrance” (17:17). He takes her dying son to his (Elijah’s) room and lays him on his bed; he asks the Lord why he has brought this calamity on them.  He lies on the child three times and begs the Lord to let the child live. The Lord “listened to the voice of Elijah” (17:22). She acknowledges then that he is a man of God.

Luke 1:39-80 - Mary visits Elizabeth and when Elizabeth hears Mary coming in to their home, “the baby [John} moved within her” (1:41). Mary’s “Song of Praise” follows. This “Magnificat” is among a number of hymns that appear in New Testament writing. Brown notes that the “canticles reflect the style of contemporary Jewish hymnology” of the time, that “every line echoes the OT so that the whole is a mosaic of scriptural themes reused for a new expression of praise” (232). This hymn is patterned on the hymn of Hannah, Samuel’s mother in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.

She remains with Elizabeth and Zechariah until the birth of John, then returns to Nazareth. Zechariah, filled with the Holy Spirit to prophecy, speaks of the “mighty savior” God is sending to save his people “from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us” (1:71). The savior expected is one who will rescue his people “from the hands of [their] enemies” so that they can “serve him without fear” (1:73). The purpose of his own son John will be to “go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins” (1:77).

                 

So both John and Jesus are introduced here before they are born as fulfillments of the promises God has given his people over the years.