Good and Bad Kings in Israel and Judah...... and King Josiah (2 Kings 8-23)

  Since Israel split in two after King Solomon died (1 Kings 11 and 12), the two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south, there were many kings. Every single king in Israel was bad, and most of the kings in Judah were bad, with a couple of good ones sprinkled in. What do I mean by good and bad. The Bible answers this question. Bad king: He did what was evil in the Lord's sight. example..... 2 Kings15:9  Good King: He did what what pleasing in the Lord's sight. example .....2 Kings 15:3  The king had a lot of responsibility, including leading the people according to God's law. When the king went away from the Lord..... the whole country did the same. When the king followed the Lord.... the whole country did the same.
  Many years before this, God told Moses. "If you sin, I will scatter you among the nations." Well since Israel was led by one bad king after another, God finally did what He said He would do. In 2 Kings chapter 17, God swept the Israelites from the land. Assyria attacked Israel, set up their own kings, and sent many of the Israelites out of the land. God had warned them over and over, but the Israelites refused to turn back to Him. Since Judah was led by a good king every few years, God held off scattering them.... for now.
  At the end of 2 Kings 21, we meet the new king of Judah, Amon. He was a bad king, however, he only reigned for 2 years because a few of his servants killed him. So the people made Amon's son king. His name was Josiah and he was a good king. But the amazing thing was his age. How old do you think Josiah was when he became king? He was 8 years old! Some of you reading this are probably older than that right now! The Bible says that Josiah did not turn to the left or the right when it came to following God's law (2 Kings 22:2). Then when he was 26 years old, Josiah had a plan to restore the Temple of the Lord. The temple had been neglected for many years because the people just didn't care about the things of the Lord.

  A high priest named Hilkaih supervised the work. One day he noticed a scroll that was rolled up and stuck in the wall. Hilkaih knew what it was right away. It was The Word Of The Lord! He sent one of the men to go read the scroll to the king.
   When the king heard what was written on the scroll, he became very, distressed. The scroll said, "If you sin, I will destroy the city and I will scatter you among the nations." Right away King Josiah called the High priest. "Go to the temple and pray to God for me and for all the people of Judah."
  In those days, the high priest had direct access to God, Now through Jesus, we can go directly to God in Jesus' name. Josiah not only prayed for himself and guidance, he also prayed for all the people of Judah. What a great example for us! 
 When Hilkaih the high priest returned after praying in the temple, he had this message from God for Josiah. "When you heard what I said in the scroll about destroying the city and scattering the people , you were very distressed and filled with repentance. I have heard your prayers and I will not bring judgement on Judah while you are still alive.
  Josiah called all the leaders, all the priests and all the people of Judah together. He read the whole scroll to everyone. Josiah pledged to follow the entire scroll with his whole heart soul and mind. When the people heard what was written and Josiah's pledge, they pledged as well.
  Right away Josiah ordered that anything to do with idols and false gods be destroyed. He traveled to entire land looking for anything that went against God and destroyed it. Then the land of Judah celebrated the Passover, just as the scrolls had stated.
                                                                               
        We are so blessed to have the Bible. All of God's Word in one book!  The more we read His Word, the more our hearts and minds are transformed. Then we will have a desire to remove all ungodly things from our lives, just as Josiah cleared Judah of the ungodly things. Being good, as we saw earlier, is doing things that are pleasing in God's sight. The Bible speaks to our hearts in such a way, that we know what is pleasing to the Lord.  (Heb 11:6) (Rom 12:1) (1 Thes 2:4) (Phil 4:18)

The Four Lepers and The Enemy Camp (2 Kings 6- 7)

  Last time we saw that the Aramean army was led into Syria by Elisha after God had confused them. The king of Israel wanted to destroy them, But Elisha told him to feed them and send them back home.
  Well some time later, the king of Aram decided to surround Syria in an attempt to take it over. As a result, there was a terrible famine in the land. The king of Syria walked down the streets, becoming more and more distraught seeing the suffering of the hungry people. As he continued to witness the effects of the famine, the king became more and more angry at Elisha.... and God. "I should have destroyed the Aramean army when I had the chance!" He said. "I want Elisha arrested and put to death this very day!"
  Elisha was at  his home with some of leaders of Israel. God revealed the king's plan to Elisha and he told the men, "One of the king's men is on his way to arrest me, but don't open the door. I want the king to show up here personally so I can speak to him."
  Sure enough, a short time later, the king showed up at Elisha's house and angrily shouted, "It is the Lord who has brought this terrible situation on our land and people! Why should we wait on Him any longer? The people are without hope and starving!"
  Elisha calmly said. "The Lord has said that by this time tomorrow, the people will have more than enough food. They will have horses and livestock, and plenty of silver and gold!" One of the kings men replied. "Even God himself could not make that happen, even if He opened the floodgates of heaven." Elisha looked at him and said. "You will not be able to share in any of it."
  That evening, four men with leprosy were outside the city gates talking among themselves. Lepers were not allowed to live inside the city because of their contagious condition. "Why should we sit here waiting to die? We will starve if we stay here, and will starve if we go into the city." One of them continued. "We may as well surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway."
  Little did they know, but God had caused the whole Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses, so that it sounded like a huge army was approaching! The Army fled for their lives, leaving behind everything, including their gold, silver, horses and livestock. So when the four lepers entered the Aramean camp that evening, no one was there! They entered one tent after another, eating, drinking  and carrying out all the silver and gold. Then one of the lepers said. "Wait a minute.....this is not right. This is good news! We should go back and tell all the people about this. We should not keep this to ourselves when there are people on the other side of that wall who are starving to death."
  So they went back and told the gatekeeper the good news. He relayed the message to the king who thought it may be a trap. He sent a couple men to check it out. When they returned, they informed the king that it was true. Then all the people made a mad dash to the Aramean camp and ate and drank till they were satisfied. They carried out all the silver and gold. They also took the horses and all the livestock. So it was just as Elisha the prophet had foretold. The Syrian economy was booming and the people were overjoyed. But remember the guy that said that this was impossible, even if God opened the gates of heaven, and Elisha told him that he would not eat any of it?...... well he was trampled to death as he stood near the city gate!
  The four lepers had good news. They knew it was not right to not tell anyone about it. Did you know that the word "Gospel" means good news? The four Gospels are the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. So the story of Jesus is good news! If we know the good news of Jesus, it is not right for us to keep it to ourselves. Just as there were people starving in Syria because they didn't know the good news of the food that was just outside the walls of the city, there are people all around us "starving to death" and without hope because they don't know The Bread of Life, Jesus. The life-giving promise of Jesus is a free gift for all who believe and take the step of trusting Him. Jesus wants us to tell the whole world about Him. (The good news)  Matthew 28:16-20

Elisha, the Floating Ax Head and God's invisible Army (2 Kings 6 & 7)

 The place that Elisha and the prophets would meet, was getting too small. So they decided to go down to the Jordan River, chop some logs and build an addition onto their meeting place. One of the men was chopping down a tree, when the ax head flew off his ax and landed in the water. The man was very upset. "That was a borrowed ax!" He cried. Elisha could see how upset the man was. He walked over to him, put his hand on his shoulder and told him not to worry. Elisha picked up a stick and asked the man to point to where the ax head went into the water. Then he tossed the stick into the river. The heavy ax head floated to the top! "Now reach in and grab it." Elisha told the man. So he did. God cares about us and He cares about the little things. Don't ever decide not to pray about something because you think it is too small for God.
   Meanwhile the king of Aram was up to his old tricks. He planned to attack Israel. He sent his troops in, but Israel was waiting for them and the Aramean army retreated. The king of Aram waited a couple weeks and tried again, but the Israelites were waiting again! This happened again and again. Finally the king of called all his officials together and demanded that the traitor step forward. But one of his men said to him. "It is not one of us, my lord. It is that prophet in Israel, Elisha! Apparently he is hearing from his God and relaying the message to the king!"
 "Alright! We know what we have to do. Get rid of the problem! I want one of our spies to find out where that niusace is staying, and tomorrow all our troops will decend upon him and destroy him!"
The next day, all the Aramean troops headed to where Elisha and his servant were staying. Early in the morning Elisha's servant heard a thundering off in the distance and went to the rooftop to see what is was. He screamed in fear for Elisha to come to the roof! "Look master! There are more horses, chariots and men than we can count and they are advancing toward us!"

 "Don't worry." Elisha said with a slight smile. "There are far more on our side than on theirs."
 The servant looked confused. He looked again, but all he saw were the Aramean troops.... and they were closing in! Then Elisha prayed. "Oh Lord! Please open my sevant''s eyes so he can see." When the servant looked up, the hillside was filled with heavenly horses and chariots of fire!
  We are in the middle of spiritual warfare.  We cannot even imaginine the angels and demons that are around us each day. But just as Elisha told his servant. " There are more on our side than against us.  Greater is He who lives in us than he who is in the world (1John 4:4)  Remember, when you are feeling fearful, God is on your side!
 Then Elisha prayed that God would blind the Aramean army. The Aramean army became confused and Elisha led them to Samaria. The king of Israel saw the army being led into Samaria by Elisha ansd he was so surprised. "What should we do with them?" The king asked Elisha. "Should we kill them?"
"Of course not!" Elisha answered back. "Feed them and give them something to eat and send them home." So the king fed them well and sent them back to Aram.
 In the first part of today's post, we see that God cares about the little things. In the second part we see that He cares about the big picture as well. In any situation we are in throughout the day....God cares. (1 Peter 5:7)