Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 3 and Luke 6:27-49

2 Kings 3 – Joram [or Jehoram in some versions], Ahab’s son, becomes king in Samaria and reigns 12 years [Jerusalem Bible notes says it was really only eight years—849 to 842 BC]. He did what was evil “though not like his father and mother, for he removed the pillar of Baal that his father had made” (3:2). Still, he “clung to the sin of Jeroboam” (3:3). It doesn’t say how – golden calves? high places?  

King Mesha of Moab, a sheep breeder, used to provide Ahab with lambs and wool, but now he rebels. Jerusalem Bible notes indicates that a stele, discovered at Dibon in 1868, 12 miles east of the Dead Sea and four miles north of the Arnon River, mentions this Moabite “war of liberation” but omits this episode. Joram secures the aid of Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom in this effort to subdue the Moabites.  Jehoshaphat says to him, “I am with you, my people are your people, my horses are your horses” (3:7).

They go by way of Edom, south and east of the Dead Sea. The king of Edom is an ally. Lacking water for seven days, they fear defeat at the hand of Moab, so they consult Elisha. Elisha tries to put Joram off by saying “What have I to do with you? Go to your father’s prophets or to your mother’s” (3:13). But Elisha finally yields to him because of his respect for Jehoshaphat (3:14).

Elisha asks for a musician, and while the musician plays, “the power of the Lord came on him” (3:15). He prophesies that the wadi would be filled with water (without wind or rain) and that the Lord will hand Moab over to them.  The next morning they see water flowing from the direction of Edom until it fills the country.  The Moabites prepare to fight, but see the reflection of the water “as red as blood” (3:22). They think it is because the three kings have fought amongst themselves, and killed one another, so the Moabites go against them.  When they arrive they are attacked and defeated. 

In a desperate attempt to halt the attack, the King of Moab offers up his first-born son as a burnt offering on the wall to the god of the Moabites [Chemosh]. Interesting differences arise in the translations at this point. Some say this act brought “great wrath” down on the Israelites; others say “great terror” struck them. The result is the same. The attackers halt their invasion. “[T]hey drew back from the city and returned to their own country” (3:27).

The Jerusalem Bible notes that some interpreters think that there is reference here to the fury of Chemosh, god of the Moabites; but that is problematic.  It is basically accepting that the Moabite god responded to the sacrifice of the king’s son by helping them fend off the Israelites. Isaac Asimov (359) indicates that most cultures at this time were “henotheistic,” that is they believed in the idea that each territory had its own powerful god to protect it; so that even if Israelites were not worshippers of Chemosh, they might have believed that the sacrifice to him in his own territory would likely bring that god into the fray in a powerful way. But you would think this an unlikely passage in the Old Testament – unless the firm monotheism of later generations of Jewish chroniclers was not yet firmly in place.

There are a multitude of complicated historical and theological questions related to this event, which you may read about in the following article posted on the internet: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bbr/2kings3_sprinkle.pdf

Luke 6:27-49 - The teaching goes on to speak of loving our enemies (6:27); blessing those who curse you (6:28) and praying for those who mistreat you.

Jesus speaks of those who hear his words and build on them as people who set their lives on a foundation of rock—when floods arise, the rivers will burst against them, but they will not be shaken (6:48). None of these teachings are in Mark.

The rewards promised to those who would be children of the Most High are not the rewards the world has to give like power, wealth, praise, status, but the rewards only God can give like deep joy, integrity, dignity, peace of mind and heart.

Jesus tells the people that now they must learn to see the splinters in their own eyes before they can see to correct the defects in others’ eyes.  There is an implied promise that when they are “trained” they will be able to see in a discerning way.  One knows what a person is by the “fruit” each produces.  We are to be doers of the word, not sayers only.  “The one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation.  When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed” (6:49). 

It is interesting in Luke that he focuses so intently on how important “the fruits” are in a person’s life—what it is they DO.  In Mark there is so little emphasis on this; it is remarkable.  Maybe this is one of the things Luke felt was missing from Mark.  Again Mark is really more Pauline in focusing on the ”gnosis” the gospel gives us and on the inner transformation it involves—Paul also talks about fruits, about behavior; but I think his emphasis is on the change in “being” that occurs in the person of faith, not primarily on the change in behavior.

Reflection:  For Luke, Jesus holds out for us a new way of life, a way of life built on sincerity of faith and obedience to God.  These are not just idealistic precepts or a way of life impossible for us to reach.  But we must learn to see in the way God meant for us to see and overcome the impediments to faithful action.  It is not what we feel or think that mark us as children of the Most High, but real differences in our lives.  The fruit, whether of deeds or words or work must grow from the tree of life Christ brings to fruition in us.

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Kings 1 and Luke 5

Introduction to 2 Kings: The original scrolls of what we call 1 and 2 Kings did not make any division. Together, they tell the story of the kingdom’s division after Solomon’s death, around 931 BC, and the series of kings who ruled over the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah). 2 Kings picks up the story around 853 BC with the rule of Ahaziah in the north and the continued rule of Jehoshaphat in the south. It will take us to the final conquest of Judah by the Neo-Babylonians (or Chaldeans) in 586 BC.

2 Kings 1 – Moab rebels against the northern kingdom of Israel. Moab was directly east of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan. The people of Moab were polytheistic, and Chemosh was their main god. Apparently Solomon [builder of the Jerusalem Temple and gifted with great wisdom] had constructed a “high place” near Jerusalem in honor of Chemosh – probably to satisfy one of his many [estimate 700] wives. Associated with Chemosh was the consort goddess Ashtar. Human sacrifice was part of the religion.

 

Ahab’s son Ahaziah is now king of the northern kingdom. He is injured in a fall from the balcony of his palace’s roof, and he wants his men to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, a Philistine town just west of Jerusalem, if he will recover or not.

 

An angel comes to Elijah and tells him he should go and meet the men and ask them “Is there no God is Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub. . .?” (1:3) and to tell Ahaziah that he will NOT recover.  They go back and tell him. Ahaziah knows it’s Elijah when they describe him.  He sends men out to talk to him, but the first two contingents end up consumed by fire called down on them.  The third contingent of fifty begs for Elijah’s favor and Elijah finally goes back with them to see the king.  He tells him he will not recover and he dies.  Ahaziah’s brother Joram [also called Jehoram] succeeds as king because Ahaziah has no son.

Luke 5 - Simon, James and John (the sons of Zebedee) are cleaning their nets after having been out fishing most of the night.  It has been a poor outing and they have little to show for their work.  But Jesus tells them to put out again and go to a certain place.  There they find the fish and haul in several loads, almost enough to swamp their boats.  Jesus does this as a way of demonstrating to them that he will make the harvest of men plentiful.  He asks them to follow him and become fishers of men and they go without looking back. 

This account expands somewhat what Mark tells us in 1:16 of his gospel. Jesus demonstrates here with fish what he knows will happen when he sends his disciples out to catch people in the net of faith.  Another difference is that before Peter follows him here, we hear him confess his unworthiness in the manner of Isaiah.

Jesus continues his ministry to the unclean and the sick by his cleansing of the leper. This too is taken from Mark (1:40). In both accounts the healed man is told not to tell, but here it is not recounted that he disobeys.

In Luke’s account of the man brought down through the roof, Luke makes sure to place Pharisees and teachers in the house where Jesus is; they just appear in Mark. They have come from everywhere.  The entire story is repeated here much as it is in Mark. The interesting thing to me is the fact that Jesus seems to equate the healing of disease with the forgiveness of sins.  We are kept in our blindness and our deafness and lameness by our sins.  This is the ultimate disability Jesus came to deal with.

Then comes the call of Levi, the tax collector, and the banquet in Levi’s home where Jesus mixes with the crowd of tax collectors, those in need of the physician God has sent, and the comment on fasting—that the guests will not fast until the bridegroom is taken away from them. Then follows the parable of the new wine in old wineskins, just as in Mark.

What is happening with Jesus’ ministry is a new thing.  It cannot be made to fit the old “pair of pants” or the “old wine.”  The creation of something new requires the introduction of things, which are totally new to contain them.  

Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 11 and Philippians 1

1 Kings 11 – Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to the Pharaoh’s daughter—he had “among his wives” 700 princesses and 300 concubines!! And it is through his love of women that Solomon comes to displease the Lord, for it is through them that he is lured into the worship of foreign gods in his old age—“his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David” (11:4). He built a “high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem” (11:7). He did it to please his foreign wives.

Molech was associated with the practice of child-sacrifice among Phoenicians and Canaanites. Chemosh was the Moabite deity who also in hard times might demand human sacrifice. Isaac Asimov’s Guide to the Bible suggests that the building of temples to foreign gods by Solomon was a probably seen as a policy of toleration in a country filled with foreign workers and subjects. But the policy “was viewed with dislike and hostility by the prophetic party, 333.

As a result of Solomon’s unfaithfulness, the Lord says, “I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime: I will tear it out of the hand of your son.” (11-12)—not the entire kingdom, though, only part.  The unity of Israel was never solid; there were always divisions between North and South; these divisions finally become permanent after Solomon’s death.

                 

The chapter goes on to tell the story of Hadad, an Edomite from the royal house in Edom.  When David was king, Joab was responsible for killing every male child in Edom.  But Hadad escaped to Egypt with some of his father’s servants.  He found favor there in the eyes of the Pharaoh and ultimately married a sister-in-law of the Pharaoh. The son they had, Genubath, grew up in Pharaoh’s household.  When David died, Hadad secured the permission of Pharaoh to return to his own country.

                 

Another enemy of Solomon’s was Rezon, son of Eliada, a man who had fled from King Hadadezer of Zobah and gathered around him a marauding band of men “after the slaughter by David” (11:24). A Jerusalem Bible note clarifies this a little by saying that it was the marauding band that was slaughtered by David.  This refers back to 2 Samuel 8, which tells about David extending his power in the direction of the Euphrates.  The Arameans came to Hadadezer’s aid and in response David killed 22,000 of them. He imposed governors on the Arameans.  Rezon came to be king in Damascus and was a life-long enemy of Israel. Clearly, some of the trouble that Israel was to have after Solomon’s death is rooted in wrongs perpetrated by David in the building and consolidation of his kingdom.

                 

Internally too Solomon had enemies.  Jeroboam, son of Nebat, was a servant that gained Solomon’s favor.  He was very able, so Solomon put him in charge of forced labor “of the house of Joseph” – in the territories of Manasseh and Ephraim (11:28). This would be the largest grant of land north of Jerusalem up nearly to Jezreel and taking in Megiddo if you look at the map.

The prophet Ahijah from Shiloh meets Jeroboam on the road just outside of Jerusalem; he “laid hold of the new garment he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces” (11:30), and says to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘See, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes’” (11:31). The division will come “because he [Solomon] has forsaken” God and worshiped foreign gods like Astarte (a Sidonian god), Chemosh (Moabite), and Milcom (Ammonite).

The Lord promises Jeroboam too that “if you will listen to all that I command you, walk in my ways, and do what is right in may sight by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you, and will build you an enduring house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.  For this reason I will punish the descendants of David, but not forever’” (11:38-39). Solomon tries to kill Jeroboam, but he escapes to Egypt where he stays until Solomon’s death.  Solomon reigns for 40 years and then died. He is succeeded by his son Rehoboam.

Introduction to the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians: Around the year 56-57 AD, Paul writes to the church at Philippi, the first congregation established by him in the region of Macedonia. Again, the letter is written while he is in prison somewhere - Ephesus, Caesaria or Rome. And Timothy is with him.  Paul had founded the church at Philippi in 50, during his second journey (Acts 16: 12-40) and revisited it twice during the third (in the autumn of 57 and again at Passover in 58 – so weird not to have to put an apostrophe before the number.

Philippians 1 – Paul greets “the saints in Christ Jesus” in Philippi along with the “bishops and deacons” (NRSV 1:1). The Jerusalem Bible says the word “episcopos,” which they translate as elders, has not yet come to have the meaning later associated with bishop.

He expresses thanks for them and prays “that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the Day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, . . .” (1:10). He uses the phrase “Day of Christ Jesus in verse 6 as well; the expectation of Christ’s imminent return is very key to his thinking at this time. He reassures them that while his imprisonment for Christ is something he must deal with, it has not hindered the spread of the gospel but has actually “helped” to spread it—among the imperial guard and others.

The word about Christ is getting out—in some cases by those who are acting “out of love” and in some cases by those who are actually trying to “increase [his] suffering” (1:16) by seeking to rival or compete with Paul.  It does not matter to Paul. Everyone who speaks about the gospel of Christ helps in the long run.  He does not even care if he must suffer death for Christ.  In fact, he even yearns for an end to his life: “my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.  Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith. . .” (1:24-25).                   

He ends this section by encouraging them to “live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, . . .” (1:27) or as it is translated in the Jerusalem Bible, “avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the gospel of Christ.” Any suffering they must endure is a privilege.

One of the things I appreciate so much about Paul is his emphasis on the importance of cultivating “knowledge” or “wisdom,” about the faith we have placed in Christ.  This “gnosis” is very important.  I think it is important to differentiate this “gnosis” or deep understanding with the “Gnosticism” that will soon become a challenge to the early church. It is this deep and very personal knowledge of Christ that early Friends were about in my opinion, not just an avoidance of “doctrinal arguments.” It is this very personal understanding of God’s redemptive love of ALL mankind that we must seek. The love Christ had for us was a love that went out to us not because we “deserve it” but despite the fact that we in varying degrees undeserving of God’s love. 

This is one of the biggest challenges for people, to learn to love not as we define love but to come to understand and enter into the love God has for all.  Forgiveness and compassion come from this kind of love instead of the fault-finding that comes from comparing your own worth with the shortcomings of others. 

I see the difficulty of learning this in talking to adolescents.  I have spent most of my life teaching kids from ages 13 to 18. They are generally very idealistic and they understand the virtue of love very well.  They especially understand its capacity to bring out the best in them.  They can appreciate instances where someone else’s patience or compassion for them helped them in some way.  But ask them to extend that same love to those who are unlikable to them in some way, however trifling, and you see that they have not yet grown to the point where they see that all people are in the same boat.  The obnoxious bus driver who drives them crazy needs to feel their love as much as they need to feel it from others.  The nerdy kid who just can’t attain what they consider to be “normality” also has a claim on their love if they would call their love Christian love.  The planting, watering, cultivation and growth of this love, all of it, is the work of the gospel in us.  And it is not a sudden burgeoning growth, but one of slow root development and continued examination in the light, which Christ gives us both inwardly and in the lessons his life and death teach us.  Grant, O Lord, that this love may be formed in us and made ever more profound and secure.  Keep the value of this love fresh in us and help it transform the details of our lives so that others may learn of it through us.  In unity with Jesus and with Paul who lived and died to plant this love in the world we pray.