After 2 Kings 16, about King Ahaz of Judah, we’re back to the Northern Kingdom…and its end.

In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel. He ruled in Samaria for nine years. As far as GOD was concerned, he lived a bad life, but not nearly as bad as the kings who had preceded him. Then Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked. Hoshea was already a puppet of the Assyrian king and regularly sent him tribute, but Shalmaneser discovered that Hoshea had been operating traitorously behind his back—having worked out a deal with King So of Egypt. And, adding insult to injury, Hoshea was way behind on his annual payments of tribute to Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and threw him in prison, then proceeded to invade the entire country. He attacked Samaria and threw up a siege against it. The siege lasted three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took the people into exile in Assyria. He relocated them in Halah, in Gozan along the Habor River, and in the towns of the Medes. (2 Kings 17.1 – 6, MSG)

Done. Kaput. Unlike the Babylonian captivity of Judah, which we’ll come to shortly and again in 2 Chronicles, there was no return from exile for the northern tribes.

GOD was so thoroughly angry that he got rid of them, got them out of the country for good until only one tribe was left—Judah…In the end, GOD spoke a final No to Israel and turned his back on them. He had given them fair warning, and plenty of time, through the preaching of all his servants the prophets. Then he exiled Israel from her land to Assyria. And that’s where they are now. (2 Kings 18, 23, MSG)

The text makes the WHY clear:

GOD had taken a stand against Israel and Judah, speaking clearly through countless holy prophets and seers time and time again, “Turn away from your evil way of life. Do what I tell you and have been telling you in The Revelation I gave your ancestors and of which I’ve kept reminding you ever since through my servants the prophets.” But they wouldn’t listen… They threw out everything GOD, their God, had told them, and replaced him with two statue-gods shaped like bull-calves and then a phallic pole for the whore goddess Asherah. They worshiped cosmic forces—sky gods and goddesses—and frequented the sex-and-religion shrines of Baal. They even sank so low as to offer their own sons and daughters as sacrificial burnt offerings! They indulged in all the black arts of magic and sorcery. In short, they prostituted themselves to every kind of evil available to them. And GOD had had enough. (2 Kings 17.13, 14, 16, 17, MSG)

There is grace until there’s not, and if anyone thinks the United States gets a special pass, they need to read about the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. (I do not think the US is a fulfillment, or reincarnation, or whatever of God’s chosen people, but there are those who do.) There is no question that the US has been blessed…but the lesson here is that blessings aren’t permanent.

He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing. (Proverbs 29.1, ESV)

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life… (Deuteronomy 30.15 – 19, ESV)

2 Kings 15 lists in rapid-fire a number of kings of both Judah and Israel. We’re still in parallel, the Northern Kingdom of Israel (many dynasties, no good kings) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah (one dynasty (David) and a few good kings). Then there’s a pause to talk about Ahaz, king of Judah, not a good king:

In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t behave in the eyes of his GOD; he wasn’t at all like his ancestor David. Instead he followed in the track of the kings of Israel. He even indulged in the outrageous practice of “passing his son through the fire”—a truly abominable act he picked up from the pagans GOD had earlier thrown out of the country. He also participated in the activities of the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that flourished all over the place. (2 Kings 16.1 – 4, MSG)

Remember, this is Judah, where Solomon’s Temple is, and it turns out that Ahaz is more impressed with how the Assyrians worship their false gods:

King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria in Damascus. The altar in Damascus made a great impression on him. He sent back to Uriah the priest a drawing and set of blueprints of the altar. Uriah the priest built the altar to the specifications that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. By the time the king returned from Damascus, Uriah had completed the altar. The minute the king saw the altar he approached it with reverence and arranged a service of worship with a full course of offerings: Whole-Burnt-Offerings with billows of smoke, Grain-Offerings, libations of Drink-Offerings, the sprinkling of blood from the Peace-Offerings—the works. But the old bronze Altar that signaled the presence of GOD he displaced from its central place and pushed it off to the side of his new altar. (2 Kings 16.10 – 14, MSG)

The text goes on to say that Ahaz made other modifications to the Temple:

Then King Ahaz proceeded to plunder The Temple furniture of all its bronze. He stripped the bronze from The Temple furnishings, even salvaged the four bronze oxen that supported the huge basin, The Sea, and set The Sea unceremoniously on the stone pavement. Finally, he removed any distinctive features from within The Temple that were offensive to the king of Assyria. (2 Kings 16.17 – 18, MSG)

There’s not even a commentary like, “This was really bad!” Or, “God was angry about these actions.” Nope. Those judgments are so obvious they’re not even recorded.

There is always the temptation to fit in. In the days of the early church, some wanted not to get too far away from Old Testament law keeping, they wanted to lessen the “offense” of the cross, and they were attracted to new, complex teaching. Who wants a plain, bronze altar, when we can have something fancier?

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. (Hebrews 13.8 – 13, ESV)

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— (Galatians 1.6, ESV)

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸  Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,  and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. (Colossians 2.16 – 19, ESV)

We are beginning recognize July 20 as National Moon Day in honor of the first moon landing, July 20, 1969. I remember it well, and I was privileged to meet several of the astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin about whom I wrote two blogs. Please check them out:

• Magnificent Desolation
• Humility

Buzz Aldrin preparing to salute the flag after the first moon landing

The moon landing was a magnificent achievement by tens of thousands of people over a remarkably short period of time: it was less than seven years from President John Kennedy’s “We Choose to Go to the Moon” speech until the first manned landing.

We choose to go to the moon. We chose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept. One we are unwilling to postpone. And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone. – John Kennedy, September 12, 1962

“That goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.” There’s power in attempting something hard…together, something God recognized way back at the building of the tower of Babel:

And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11.6, ESV)

Are there worthy goals to attempt today? Either as a community of nations, the United States, or even the Church? It would require unity…which we’re not good at today at any level.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4.1 – 6, ESV)

This blog originally appeared July 20, 2023.

Back to 2 Kings, we’re entering the period leading up to Israel (the Northern Kingdom) being scattered in 2 Kings 17. The text mentions a lot of kings of both Israel and Judah but not much detail about each. (We’ll get some additional detail about pivotal kings of Judah when we go through 2 Chronicles.)

However, there is this interesting aside in the story of Jeroboam II (no relation to the first king of Israel):

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel in Samaria. He ruled for forty-one years. As far as GOD was concerned he lived an evil life, never deviating an inch from all the sin of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into a life of sin. But he did restore the borders of Israel to Lebo Hamath in the far north and to the Dead Sea in the south, matching what GOD, the God of Israel, had pronounced through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher. (2 Kings 14.23 – 25, MSG)

It’s the only mention of Jonah outside the book of Jonah, and it confirms he’s a real guy from a real place, Gath Hepher, a town near Nazareth:

Today the site, at latitude 32° 44′ 30″ N and longitude 35° 19′ 30″ E in the Galilee, is a small set of ruins on a hilltop near the Arab village of Mashad five kilometers north of Nazareth and one kilometer from Kafr Kanna. – Wikipedia

And where is Gath Hepher? Galilee! Which gives one pause when reading about one of the attacks against Jesus:

The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” (John 7.47 – 52, ESV, emphasis mine)

But there was a prophet from Galilee: Jonah!

Don’t confuse me with facts; my mind is made up!

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” (Matthew 21.9 – 11, ESV)

One last, odd story about Elisha. His miracles don’t even cease after his death:

Then Elisha died and they buried him. Some time later, raiding bands of Moabites, as they often did, invaded the country. One day, some men were burying a man and spotted the raiders. They threw the man into Elisha’s tomb and got away. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came alive, stood up, and walked out on his own two feet. (2 Kings 13.20 – 21, MSG)

Really? “When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came alive…” I told you in advance that there were a lot of miracles in the story of Elisha, many of them pretty far-fetched like this one. But the only reason I can think of that this story would be included in scripture is that it’s true! I wonder what happened to the guy?

We’re back to God is real! God is here! It’s the only explanation for this miracle-dense section of scripture: 1 Kings 17 (Elijah’s entrance) – 2 Kings 13 (Elisha’s death). Is it a lesson in times and seasons? This set of miracles was done in Israel, the Northern Kingdom, where there were no good kings and people were not encouraged in the true worship of the true God. There is another set of miracles in Daniel – signs to a pagan kingdom(s). Then Jesus, the apostles, and others. God is alive and well and can act as he chooses.

There are those who believe that these kinds of miracles don’t happen today. I don’t agree. Please see these blogs:

• Falling Iguanas
• Power Today?

You do not have because you do not ask, (James 4.2, ESV)

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us… (Ephesians 3.20, ESV)

Back to 2 Kings, the second half of chapter 13 records the death of Elisha and includes, I think, poignant instruction on prayer.

Jehoash, King of Israel, visits Elisha on his death bed:

Elisha told him, “Go and get a bow and some arrows.” The king brought him the bow and arrows. Then he told the king, “Put your hand on the bow.” He put his hand on the bow. Then Elisha put his hand over the hand of the king. Elisha said, “Now open the east window.” He opened it. Then he said, “Shoot!” And he shot. “The arrow of GOD’s salvation!” exclaimed Elisha. “The arrow of deliverance from Aram! You will do battle against Aram until there’s nothing left of it.”

“Now pick up the other arrows,” said Elisha. He picked them up. Then he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground.” The king struck the ground three times and then quit. The Holy Man became angry with him: “Why didn’t you hit the ground five or six times? Then you would beat Aram until he was finished. As it is, you’ll defeat him three times only.” (2 Kings 13.15 – 19, MSG)

A picture of prayer? The arrow of GOD’s salvation! The arrow of deliverance! But the king needed to strike more than three times. Do we often not persist long enough? Do we not defeat the enemy enough? He always comes back. For example, as we wrote a few weeks ago:

The commandos poured out of the city with the full army behind them. They hit hard in hand-to-hand combat. The Arameans scattered from the field, with Israel hard on their heels. But Ben-Hadad king of Aram got away on horseback, along with his cavalry. The king of Israel cut down both horses and chariots—an enormous defeat for Aram.

Sometime later the prophet came to the king of Israel and said, “On the alert now—build up your army, assess your capabilities, and see what has to be done. Before the year is out, the king of Aram will be back in force.” (1 Kings 20.19 – 22, MSG, emphasis mine)

Back to Elisha…Maybe the king didn’t strike the arrows more than three times because he saw hitting the ground with arrows as a pointless exercise. Maybe we don’t pray persistently because praying appears pointless. But God’s Word is clear:

…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. (Ephesians 6.18, ESV)

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you… (1 Samuel 12.23, ESV)

We’ll get to the death of Elisha tomorrow.

We wrote yesterday about Storming the Gates of Hell as presented powerfully in The Chosen, Season 4, Episode 2. I hope you’ve been watching from the beginning. I’ve found that the carefully crafted back stories enliven events in the life of Jesus, enhancing my understanding of stories I’ve heard my whole life.

The second half of Season 4, Episode 2, brings to life this simple exchange:

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18.21, ESV)

Peter has hated Matthew from the beginning. When Jesus called Matthew as presented in The Chosen, Season 1, Episode 7, we have this exchange:

Simon: “I don’t get it.”
Jesus: “You didn’t get it when I chose you either.”
Simon: “That was different. I’m not a tax collector.”
Jesus: “Get used to different.” (Text from The Chosen, Volume 1 by Jerry Jenkins, the novelized version of the video series)

Peter still carries resentment from Matthew’s days as a tax collector and Peter’s days as a fisherman trying to pay his taxes. Peter has made life difficult for Matthew, and therefore Matthew, in Season 4, Episode 2, is having a hard time accepting that Jesus might be elevating Peter to a position of responsibility: “The Rock.”

Jesus explains to Matthew that he must confess his specific actions against Peter in the past and ask for forgiveness. Matthew does, but Peter doesn’t want to forgive. Hence the conversation with Jesus. It’s not a hypothetical; it’s real. Matthew has sinned against Peter (in the past) at least seven times.

At the end of the episode, Peter embraces Matthew in front of everyone:

I forgive you. It’s over.

I’m reminded of someone who had offended me in our early days with The Navigators, back in 1969. Several years later, this guy has no idea I’m carrying this resentment. Another Navigator counseled me to forgive him, and I said, “I don’t even know what that means! He doesn’t know he offended me, and I’m not even around him anymore.” The answer:

It means you no longer hold him accountable.

Bingo. It’s what Peter had to do with Matthew’s past transgressions, and it’s what I had to do. In the text, following Peter’s “7 times?” question, Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving servant (see Matthew 18.23 – 35) and ends it this way:

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. (Matthew 18.33 – 35, ESV)

I was profoundly impacted by The Chosen‘s presentation of Peter’s confession (Season 4, Episode 2):

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16.13 – 18, ESV)

This fits with our readings in 2 Kings. Caesarea Philippi is not far from the city of Dan where Jeroboam set up the golden calves. Here are excerpts from That the World May Know website, which The Chosen episode depicted exactly.

Caesarea Philippi, which stood in a lush area near the foot of Mount Hermon, was a city dominated by immoral activities and pagan worship. Caesarea Philippi stood only twenty-five miles from the religious communities of Galilee. But the city’s religious practices were vastly different from those of the nearby Jewish towns.

In Old Testament times, the northeastern area of Israel became a center for Baal worship. In the nearby city of Dan, Israelite king Jeroboam built the high place that angered God and eventually led the Israelites to worship false gods. Eventually, worship of the Baals was replaced with worship of Greek fertility gods...Years later, when Romans conquered the territory, Herod Philip rebuilt the city and named it after himself. But Caesarea Philippi continued to focus on worship of Greek gods. In the cliff that stood above the city, local people built shrines and temples to Pan.

Here’s an artist’s rendition, very similar to what I saw on The Chosen:

Picture from Caesarea Philippi: The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail by Donna Gawell. Another good article saying essentially the same thing as Ray Vander Laan, whose article continues:

Interestingly, Jesus chose to deliver a sort of “graduation speech” to his disciples at Caesarea Philippi. In that pagan setting, he encouraged his disciples to build a church that would overcome the worst evils…

The pagans of Jesus’ day commonly believed that their fertility gods lived in the underworld during the winter and returned to earth each spring. They saw water as a symbol of the underworld and thought that their gods traveled to and from that world through caves. To the pagan mind, then, the cave and spring water at Caesarea Philippi created a gate to the underworld. They believed that their city was literally at the gates of the underworld: the gates of hell...

When Jesus brought his disciples to the area, they must have been shocked. Caesarea Philippi was like a red-light district in their world and devout Jews would have avoided any contact with the despicable acts committed there...

Jesus presented a clear challenge with his words at Caesarea Philippi: He didn’t want his followers hiding from evil: He wanted them to storm the gates of hell...

Jesus continued, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16.18, ESV)

I wrote back in 2022 that we get this verse backwards, especially the part about “the gates of Hell not overcoming the church.” The church isn’t huddled up on defense against the attacks of Hell. It’s the other way around.

I’m not alone: here’s how the Ray Vander Laan concludes:

But Jesus challenged his followers to be on the offense: to proclaim the truth without shame.

Our schools and churches should become staging areas rather than fortresses; places that equip God’s people to confront a sinful world instead of hiding from it. Jesus knows that the pagan world will resist, but he challenges us to go there anyway, and to build his church in those very places that are most morally decayed. – Ray Vander Laan, The Gates of Hell, emphasis mine. I recommend the article in its entirety.

Yesterday, as we all know, there was an assassination attempt on Former President Donald Trump, campaigning in Butler, Pennsylvania. A few observations:

• God is in control. It appears to me that if Former President Trump had not looked to his right, the shot might have gone right through his temple.

It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. – Donald Trump

• Secret Service agents on the ground were phenomenal and largely worked with little verbal coordination. They knew what to do and how to do it together. This is my favorite scene, which I shot from broadcast video. You can’t see Mr. Trump. He is behind the female agent, and the agent to her left has raised his arm to cover Mr. Trump’s face. Incredible teamwork and self-sacrifice.

• I’m a bit concerned that the building from which the shot came was not cleared. I was at Offutt Air Force Base (near Omaha, Nebraska) when President Ford came to town in 1975 or 1976. NO ONE was permitted on the second floor or higher of any of the buildings near where the president would be. What happened yesterday?
• Both parties are guilty of inflammatory rhetoric. Maybe a version of Wesley’s Rules for Voting needs to be in effect all the time. Something like:
  • Support the person you think most worthy.
  • Don’t run down the other guy.
  • Don’t run down people who support the other guy.

The nation’s civic debate, now casually referred to as political combat, has driven the country to new levels of partisan distrust, with nearly two-thirds in each party believing those in the other party are immoral, dishonest and close-minded, the Pew Research Center has found. – A Nation on Edge…, WSJ, July 14, 2024

The best word may come from Chuck Blakely, a 60-year-old tile installer from Butler, PA, where the shooting occurred. Blakely was interviewed for the article cited above, which closes with:

Blakeley, the tile installer, said that what gave him hope in this fraught moment is the fact that he believes Americans are the most resilient people on earth. “Tomorrow’s another day,” he said. “And come Monday, I will still be putting tile in.”

Just go out and put in tile…

LORD, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. (Psalm 131.1, NLT)

Two stories from the sports world with the same lesson. See what you think.

The first comes from the US Men’s National Soccer Team, competing in the Copa America a couple of weeks ago. Tim Weah hit a Panama player with his fist in the back of the head off the ball. Here’s the video and a fuzzy photo.

He was not only ejected from that game, forcing his team to play a man short, he was suspended for the next two games, resulting in the US being eliminated from the tournament.

What I find incredible is this statement, typical of this kind of story:

I think I’m getting painted to be like a violent person which I’m not. – Timothy Weah, after deliberately striking an opponent with his fist.

Not a violent person? Yes you are. We have it on video!

Then just a couple of days ago, a pitcher with the Chicago Cubs, frustrated over a bad outing, punched the wall of the dugout and broke his hand. He’ll be out for six weeks.

Again, the same statement, this time from the manager:

It’s not who he is, but it’s a mistake that he made. – Cubs Manager Craig Counsell

I appreciate the manager’s attempt to support his player, but I’m not sure that what he said was true.

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. (Matthew 12.33, ESV)

The good news for believers is that even if we are violent or given to violent outbursts, there is hope.

…be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12.2, ESV)

…to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4.22 – 24, ESV)

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit… (Titus 3.3 – 5, ESV)