King Ahaziah of Israel sufffers a fall and is sick/injured. He sends his men to inquire a false god about his recovery. God sends Elijah to intervene, so Elijah sends word to Ahaziah that he will not recover, but die, because he is petitioning Baal'zebub, rather than the true God. The king sends three groups of fifty men after Elijah, but at Elijah's word, God sends down fire upon them. So at any rate, Ahaziah dies, as Elijah prophecied. Jehoram (son of Ahab, Ahaziah had no son) reigns in his place.
Elisha and Elijah are walking together, and they know it is time for God to take Elijah up to heaven by whirlwind. Elijah tells Elisha to stay behind in Gilgal, and that he will carry on to Bethel, but Elisha refuses to leave him. The same thing happens in Bethel, as Elijah is about to carry on to Jericho. It happens again from Jericho to the Jordan. Every time it happens, the sons of prophets are prophecying to Elisha that Elijah is about to be taken away from him, and his response is "Yes, I know it, keep quiet." I wonder if he was perhaps dismayed, and just trying to enjoy his last few moments with Elijah. Or, perhaps he was trying not to draw the public's attention to what was about to happen. Elijah parts the Jordan with his cloak, and he and Elisha cross over. Elijah asks Elisha what he would like Elijah to do for him before he leaves, and Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah's spirit to be on him. Elijah confesses that this is a difficult request, and says that if Elisha can see Elijah as he ascends, it will be given to him, but if not, than it will not be granted. They continued on, when, suddenly, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah went up in the whirlwind up to heaven. Elisha cries out, "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" I ponder that statement, and I think..... Maybe it was like Elisha was describing what he saw as a way to tell Elijah, "I see it! I see you!" Elisha leaves, taking Elijah's cloak with him, and parts the waters of the Jordan with it as he goes.
Fifty men (sons of prophets) come to Elisha and they're like, "Here we are. We're your students, now. Hey, we better check around and make sure Elijah really ascended and didn't just get *poofed* onto a mountain or cave somewhere." Elisha is like, "Umm, yeah, no, don't bother." But they insist.Obviously, they couldn't find him. Some of the townspeople come and complain that their water is bad, and so he heals the water. He goes up to Bethel, and a large gang of unruly young boys jeer at him, saying, "Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!" (I guess Elisha was bald.....). He cursed them in the name of the Lord, and two Momma bears come and tear up forty-two of the boys.
So Jeroham is king over Israel, and he doesn't follow the Lord. He did, at least, put Baal's pillar away, and isn't as bad as his parents, but still lives in sin. The Moabite king (who had many sheep) stops sending Israel the wool they had previously arranged upon, and so Jeroham enlists the help of Judah (through king Jehoshaphat) to battle Moab. So they head to Edom to battle, but decide to confer with Elisha before pressing on. Elisha is like, "What do you want with me? Go ask your idol's prophets." But they insist it is THE Lord who has brought them to fight Moab. Elisha tells them that the Lord will send them water (they were lacking water to drink...) and give the Moabites into their hands, and that they are to ransack all the towns, chop down the trees, ruin the fields, etc, etc. The Moabites see all the water God sent, but they see it as blood red, and assume that the two kings have turned on each other and fought amonst themselves, and so they head that way, expecting to get alot of loot. Instead, they come up against the armies, and Israel & Judah's armies give them a good beating, and destroy all the towns, like God commanded. The Moabite king offers sin son as a burnt offering, and then there came a great wrath against Israel. (not sure I understand this part...). So the armies withdraw and everyone goes home.
A widow of one of the sons of the prophets comes to Elisha because creditors are threatening to take her children since she cannot pay her debt. He asks her what she has. All she has is a jar of oil. He tells her to round up lots of empty vessels, and start pouring oil into them. Miraculously, the oil doesn't empty from the jar until she's poured enough oil that she can sell for enough profit to pay her debt, and still have some leftover for her family.
A kind, wealthy Shunammite woman gives lodging and food to Elisha, and he wishes to thank her. He gives her a blessing by which she will conceive a son, which was quite providential for her, as she had no son and her husband was very old. One day, the boy is helping his father in the field, when he suddenly cries out, "Oh, my head! my head!" (he's having an anerism maybe?), and he's taken in to his mother, and dies in her lap. She lays him on Elisha's bed, and sets out on donkey to find Elisha. She finds him at Mt. Carmel, and bows down and grasps his feet. Elisha's servant Gehazi starts to pull her away, but Elisha tells him to stop...that something is very wrong, and God has presently kept it hidden from him. She explains in so many words, and Elisha gives his staff to Gehazi and tells him to go to the child and touch the staff to his face. Gehazi came back to Elisha and told him that it didn't work. So, Elisha goes to the house, lays on the child until the body is warm, and then the child sneezes seven times and wakes up.
Elisha goes to Gilgal, where there's a famine. He orders a servant to get a stew going for everybody. (the sons of the prophets were with him.) One of them goes off and gathers some gourds and herbs for the stew, but unknowingly gathered poisonous ones. As the men eat, they quickly realize the mistake. Elisha throws some flour in the pot, and it's cured of it's poison.
The Syrian king - Naaman - who was a mighty king - happened to get leprosy. His wife's little servant girl (who was captured from Israel) tips them off that Israel's got a prophet who can heal his unpleasantry. Naaman immediately leaves for Sumaria, to go find the prophet, and has one of his guys take a letter to Israel's king, explaining that he is on his way there to be healed. The king gets the letter, and goes into a panic, thinking that Naaman expects HIM to do the healing, and that this is going to turn ugly very fast. Elisha hears about it, and tells the king to calm down and send Naaman to him, instead.
So Naaman comes to Elisha, and Elisha tells him to go wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman scoffs at this, saying that there are far better healing waters elsewhere, and he expected a mightier show of power from Elisha. His servants plead with him to give the Jordan a try, so finally he does, and, of course, is healed. Naaman returns to Elisha, and confesses that the God of Israel is the true God, and offers Elisha a gift, but Elisha refuses it. Gehazi, Elisha's servant, gets a little greedy, and chases after Naaman, who is leaving, and asks for reward, which Naaman happily gives. Elisha confronts him about it, and then curses Gehazi and all his descendents forevermore with leprosy.
Now Elisha is garnering quite a following, and the sons of the prophets decide they need to build a bigger house. So they are chopping down some trees for the lumber when someone loses the head of their ax into the water. That person laments to Elisha that the axhead is gone, and it was a borrowed ax. Bet it was a good one, too, not easily replaceable. Something like the *Bethlehem Swingsharp 2000.*(I hate when that happens, you know.... When you ask to borrow somebody's something and you accidentally ruin/break it!!!) Elisha asks him where it fell, and then he threw a stick into the water, and axehead miraculously floats up. Elisha tells the guy to go ahead and take it, and he does. I sense there's some deep spiritual truth in this story, but it isn't super clear to me. The axe is the tool they need to be effective in their work, and they lose it, but God helps them pick it back up again.. To me, it seems to say - if you falter and lose your way in God's work, He can help you get back on track... Even against odds, like finding an axehead at the bottom of a lake.
The Syrian king gets ticked off because every time he strategizes where to place his camp (he's at war with Israel), Elisha keeps warning Israel, spoiling his element of surprise. He sends some guys to find Elisha, and he has the city surrounded by army and chariots, ready to pounce. One of Elisha's guys is panicking, he's like, "What are we gunna do now??", but Elisha tells him not to fear, for there is actually more fighting with them than against them. Elisha prays for the man's eyes to be opened, and the man looks up and sees the Lord has placed chariots of fire all around. Makes me wonder what kind of heavenly help has been assisting me throughout life, without my knowledge.... Anyway, Elisha asks for his enemies to be blinded, and he leads them to Samaria. Once there, they are unblinded, and finding themself now in Israel's royal city, they are vulnerable. The Israeli king asks Elisha if they ought to go ahead and kill them, but Elisha says "No.... we've captured them. It's enough. Give them some food to eat and send them away." And so that's what they did.
Later on, Ben-hadad (king of Syria) is beseiging Samaria, at a time when Samaria is in a horrible famine. The price of food has skyrocketed to the point that a donkey's head sells as food for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cup of bird poop sells as food for five shekels of silver. (chapter 6, verse 25). Tasty....... An Israeli woman (we'll call her Lady A)cries out to the king, saying that Lady B made a bargain with her that yesterday they'd eat Lady A's son that day, and Lady B's son the next. So they boiled and ate Lady A's son, and now Lady B has hidden her own son, and it isn't fair, is it? The king is extremely disturbed, tears at his clothing, and decides...dag nab it, this is all Elisha's fault and he's going to have Elisha's head for this!!
Elisha is sitting with some of his guys, and says, "Oh, look, he's sent someone to have me murdered." The messenger arrives and demands help. Elisha says that tomorrow, flour and barley will be aplenty. A captain, in doubt, mocks Elisha, and Elisha says that it's true, but that he (the captain) will not get to eat any.
Four lepers who are seated at the gate decide that they're going to give up their assigned leper-post in search of whatever might sustain them, since they're going to die one way or another. They come to the Syrian camp and discover the Syrian army has fled their camp, and left all kinds of food and loot behind. (God made the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and horses, and they chased after the noise, abandoning their camp.) So the lepers, after some debate, decide to share the good news with the king's household. So Israel went and plundered the Syrian camp, and the next day, flour and barley was indeed plentiful. The captain was trampled to death at the gate when the people rushed for food. Thus, he didn't get to eat any food, only dirt, which, in my humble opinion, may be a few degrees tastier than bird poop.
The Shunammite lady (the one who provided for Elisha and whose son Elisha brought back to life) comes back from the land of the Phillistines. (Elisha tipped her off that the famine was coming, so she left). Elisha orders that all her land go back into her posession. Obviously, he hadn't forgot her kindness.
Ben-hadad falls ill, and sends Hazael to Elisha to ask if he'll recover. He makes Hazael take "a present" for Elisha. Sometimes, in the Bible, when someone takes a present, I probably haven't gotten a clear view of the situation. When I hear "a present", I think of a little box with a bow, and that it probably contained a dozen figs and maybe a couple containers of spices. This passage actually describes the "present" as being "forty camel loads" worth of "present." At any rate, so Hazael asks Elisha if Ben-hadad will recover, and Elisha is like, "Well......about that..... No, he's definately going to die, but go ahead and tell him that he'll be fine." And then Elisha just sits there staring at Hazael, and then starts crying. Hazael is like, "Dude, what ails you?" And Elisha tells him that he weeps because Hazael will be king, and do horrible and awful things to Israel, like dash their children to pieces and tear open their pregnant women. Hazael is like, "Oh, please. Little old me? How could you think that?" He goes back to Ben-hadad, who is like, "Well? What did Elisha say??" And Hazael responds, "Oh, right, right.....He said you'll get better!" The next day, Hazael suffocates Ben-hadad to death and becomes king.
Now, Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram is reigning over Judah, and he's not following the Lord, especially because he's married to Ahab's daughter. Edom revolts and sets up their king, as does Libnah. Jehoram dies, and his son Ahaziah reigns over Judah next. (this gets really confusing, we have alot of the same names in the two royal families...). OK, so we have Ahazariah over Judah, Joram over Israel, and together they are battling Hazael, who is over Syria. Joram gets wounded, and Ahaziah goes to visit him.
Elisha orders one of his students to take a flask of oil and go and anoint Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, as king of Israel. Then open the door and run like crazy!
Jehu (who is an army commander) is busy in a meeting, and is interrupted by Elisha's student, who quickly anoints him as king of Israel, prophecys that he will destroy the entire house of Ahab, that dogs shall eat Jezebel, and then runs away. Jehu's guys come back to him and they're like, "Hey....what was that all about?" And Jehu responds like, "Oh, nothing. You know how those fellows are..." But the men persist, they want to know what happened. Finally he tells them, and the men immediately hail Jehu as their new king. Jehu's first order of business is to conspire against Joram, who is still laying in his sickbed from being wounded in battle, with Ahaziah at his side. Joram realizes that Jehu is coming for him, and the three kings meet up in their chariots on Naboth's property. Jehu kills Joram with bow & arrow, and they shoot Ahaziah, but he flees, and dies later of his wounds.
Jehu comes after Jezebel next. Her greeting to him is mockery, and he gets some nearby eunichs to help kill her. They trample her to death and leave her leave there on the ground for awhile. He sends men back to her body to take it to be buried, but alas.... They were only able to find her skull, and bits of her hands and feet, because... the dogs ate her.
Jehu decides to get down to business in obliterating the house of Ahab. He sends word for Ahab's sons to be brought to him to fight over the throne. Ahab's son's people were terrified, so Jehu simply asks for them to send the sons' heads in some baskets, instead. And so it was done. Jehu carried on killing Ahab's friends, priests, etc, till Ahab's entire circle was dearly departed. I'm thinking to myself - alas, Israel's got a king whose getting some good work done.... He comes across some relatives of Ahaziah's, and has them slaughtered as well. He makes friends with Jehonadab, son of Rechab, and brings him along, on his chariot, to show him acting in zeal for the Lord. Next, he takes out a great multitude of Baal worshippers. He tricks them by pretending to have a great sacrifice to Baal, and warns that if anyone present serves the Lord God, they'd best leave. Finally, he has guards storm the building and kill everyone. They burn Baal's pillar and demolish the house, and have it used as a latrine (public restroom) from then on. So Jehu wiped out Baal, but did not get rid of those pesky golden calves that Israel was quite fond of. God tells Jehu that his sons for the next four generations will sit on Israel's throne. God began to cut off parts of Israel. Syria defeats them and takes over lots of land. Jehu dies and his son Jehoahaz reigns over Israel next.
Ahaziah (whom Jehu had killed alongside Joram) is dead, and when his mother Athaliah finds out, she destroys all the royal family. But Ahaziah's sister hides little baby Joash, her nephew with his nanny in the temple, and they stay there together some six years. At that point, a priest calls for some military help, and shows them the late king's son who has survived, and puts them under oath to be quiet about it, but that they will now take shifts guarding the boy's life and crown him as king. They do so, and Athaliah hears the commotion and cries "Treason!", and the priest orders the captains to kill her, which they do. The priest (his name is Jehoiada) tries to put the people on the right path with Joash as their new king. They tear down Baal's tower and make covenants with God. Joash, bless his heart, was seven years old when he began to reign, and he did right in the eyes of the Lord, and this is credited to the fact that he was brought up by Jehoiada, the priest.
Joash decides it's time for the temple to have any needed repairs. It takes some twenty three years to get the ball rolling on this, but finally it gets done. Hazael decides to make war again, this time on Jerusalem, and Joash takes all the sacred gifts, gold and silver and whatnot, out of the temple and sends it to Hazael to placate him. It works and Hazael goes away. This sounds like a really bad thing to do, but this isn't the first time it's happened in the OT, and thus far I haven't seen the Lord respond in any kind of wrathful way to it. I wonder if God's intention for those "sacred things" was to be kind of like an insurance policy of sorts against unwanted war. I don't know.... One more on the list of things for me to google.... Joash's servants wind up conspiring against him, and Jozacar and Jehozabad (his servants) kill him. His son Amaziah reigns in his place.
such wisdom. your heart just shines, friend :) keep speaking TRUTH!
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