1 and 2 Kings - Lesson 13

Dr. John Oswalt
1 & 2 Kings
th630-13
Elisha and Joram
Lesson Transcript

Let's remind ourselves where we are in the story. We are in the second main division of the book, and that is the period from the division after Solomon's death to the fall of Samaria. That's book one, chapter 12 to book two, chapter 17. In that division, we are in the second subdivision. The first subdivision was from the division to Ahab, book one, chapter 12 through chapter 16. The second division is the Elijah-Elisha narrative, large section in the middle of the book, from book one chapter 17 to book two, chapter 13. We have seen the first section of that, which is the Elijah portion of the narrative, and that extends from Book one chapter 17 to book two, chapter 2.

We're turning now to the second section, and that is the Elisha portion of the narrative. And as I tried to say in the previous lecture, I see 2 Kings 1 and 2 as transitional. It's the end of the Elijah and the beginning of the Elisha, but it is interweaving the two in a way to make us, the reader or the hearer, understand we're not talking about one prophet and then another prophet. We're really talking about one prophetic ministry. So I would say that the Elijah section ends with 2 Kings 2, and the Elisha section begins with 2 Kings 2. That second chapter especially signals the end of the one and the beginning of the other.

In the Elisha narrative, the first section that we see is Elisha and Joram, Life and Death, 2 Kings 2 through 2 Kings chapter 8, verse 6. The second part of the Elisha section then is Nemesis, chapter 8, verse 7 through chapter 12, verse 21, when finally the Baal cult is fully defeated and it is clear Yahweh is going to remain the king, the God of Israel. The final section of the Elisha narrative is Jehoahaz, Jehoash, and Elisha, chapter 13. So in the Elisha section we have three parts, the Elisha and Joram Life and Death, Nemesis, and Jehoahaz, Jehoash, and Elisha. I wanted to give you that sort of roadmap here as we embark into this Elisha section of this second division.

One of the things that we first encounter as we look at this section in 2 Kings 2 and chapter 3 is an issue with dates. In 1 Kings 22:51, we were told that Ahaziah would begin to reign during the 17th year of Jehoshaphat and he would reign two years. In 2 Kings, chapter 3, verse 1, we're told Joram, and remember, Joram is a Ahaziah's brother, "Joram, son of Ahab, became king of Israel in Samaria in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah." And remember, as we talked again and again, that's not a problem. Ahaziah began to reign in the 17th year. He reigned two years and Joram began to reign in the 18th year.

What that's telling us is Ahaziah reigned in parts of two years, and perhaps only for a matter of six months or more. So no problem there. Let's continue. If you look over at 2 Kings, chapter 8, verse 16, we read that, "In the fifth year of Joram, son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, began his reign as king of Judah." So Jehoram began to reign in Joram's, Jehoram the southern king, Joram the northern king, in his fifth year. That's okay, all is well to this point. But now here comes the problem, book 2, chapter 1, verse 17 says, Joram, northern king, succeeded Ahaziah as king in the second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. Well, now wait a minute. Did the northern king, Joram, begin to reign in Jehoshaphat's 18th year, or did he begin to reign in Jehoshaphat's successor, Jehoram's, second year?

The best solution to that problem is that there must have been a co-regency between Jehoshaphat and his son Jehoram. And so what was also Jehoshaphat's 18th year was his son Jehoram's second year. That seems to be the best solution. Now, as we talked several lectures ago, this suggestion of co-regencies is oftentimes questioned because there's no statement of that fact. We're not told anywhere that Jehoram became a co-regent with his father Jehoshaphat. But if we accept that possibility, then it solves the problem. And I would call your attention to an interesting statement that we read there in 2 Kings 8, verse 16. "In the fifth year of Joram, son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, began his reign as king of Judah." Well, now wait a minute. When Jehoshaphat was king, Joram began his reign. That certainly suggests the possibility of a co-regency. And as I say, if we allow it, then all of these dating issues come together. When did the northern king, Joram, began to reign? In Jehoshaphat's 18th year and in Jehoshaphat's son Joram's fifth year.

This, of course, is not earthshaking by any means. On the other hand, as I've said to you before, if we recognize the extreme accuracy and the care that the author, editor, narrator has taken to get these dates in alignment, that is a strong argument that indeed he has been equally careful with the other historical data. And again, please forgive me if this is boring, but I want to say again, does it matter whether the biblical account is historically accurate or not? Yes, it does, because the Hebrew writers link together the accuracy of their theology and the accuracy of their history. If their history is in fact really sort of made up, what's to say their theology is not made up as well? But what they tell us is in these events, in these persons, God revealed himself, and therefore this theology is reliable. So the two are linked together, and it's an important issue that we deal with as we face what the text is telling us.

So we notice that according to the text, we're looking now at 2 Kings, chapter 3, we notice something that is said a about this northern king, this son of Ahab, Joram. Look at verse 2 of 2 Kings 3. "He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made." How interesting. I suspect he had learned something from his brother Ahaziah's demise. Ahaziah had rejected what Elijah had said to him, and the result was he died very soon after taking the throne. I suspect Joram has learned a little bit. It may well be that Joram has also learned something from the encounter on Mount Carmel. You just can't dispense with Yahweh. In fact, Yahweh is probably our God and not Baal. Has he learned enough? No, I don't think so. But he's learned something, and that's implicit here in the account.

We turn then to the first part of the Elisha narrative, and that is the Moabite rebellion. Moab, remember, is on the east side of the Dead Sea, and we're told here that Moab was a very important contributor to the Israelite economy, giving thousands of sheep and thousands of skins to Israel for sale. But now, with the death of Ahab, Moab has rebelled. This was often the case across the Near East that when a dynasty is in trouble, when a king dies, very often the vassal states, the states that have been under the thumb of the kingdom, revolt in the hopes that the next king will not be as strong as the one who died. So here, Moab rebels, we're not going to serve Israel anymore. We're not going to give that huge tribute of wool and of sheep, and we're done with it. So Joram decides, "Well, I've got to recapture Moab, I've got to take it back." And he turns to Jehoshaphat, he says, "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?" And Jehoshaphat has not learned anything from the death of Ahab.

"I will go with you," he replied, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." This has led some to suggest that in fact this is more than just a friendship, more than just an alliance. That Jehoshaphat really is a vassal of the northern kingdom, that Ahab brought him into dependency and that he's continuing in that dependency. I don't know that we can prove that from this statement, but certainly Jehoshaphat says, "Yeah, I'm with you. I'll go. Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, I'll go with you." So then the question was, all right, how are we going to carry out this attack? The simplest way from Samaria is to cross the Jordan Valley and go down the Highway of the Kings and attack Moab from the north.

However, they make the decision, no, they're going to go down through Judah and Edom, from your perspective, down through Israel, through Judah, through Edom, around the southern end of the Dead Sea, and then attack Moab from the south. Well, we might suggest a couple of reasons why they would do that. One is it's a surprise attack. The Moabites would be expecting an attack from the north. They wouldn't be expecting an attack from the south. A second possibility is you notice the king of Edom joins Judah and Israel. At this point, Edom is a vassal of Judah. So by going down through Judah and Edom, they're picking up this Edomite king's support. And so that might be the reason. Again, the care of the narrator, he's telling the story in this interesting detail. So they go, but somehow or other, either the journey takes longer than they plan or they didn't plan well enough, they run out of water. Now, I want you to notice the two different responses of Joram, the northern king, and Jehoshaphat, the southern king.

What does Joram say when this thing happens? Verse 10 of chapter 3, "What," exclaimed the king of Israel, "has the Lord called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?" God's out to get us. He distrusts God. "Oh, yeah, I got rid of the Baal stone in favor of Yahweh. But you can't really trust Yahweh. Yahweh's not on our side, Yahweh's not for us." How easily that kind of attitude slips into our thinking. When something bad happens, "God, what are you doing here? You're out to get me." But look at Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the Lord here through whom we may inquire of the Lord?" Let's ask God what he's doing here. No assumption that God is out to destroy them. No assumption that God is somehow their antagonist who's looking for a chance to give them trouble. No. I think that's very telling. That's very telling. It is a watershed, if you will. The fascinating thing about watersheds is two drops of water may fall inches apart, but one will end up in the Atlantic, the other will end up in the Pacific.

So we got trouble here. Jehoshaphat doesn't say, "Oh, it's no problem." No, no, it's a problem. But let's find out what God is doing. God is at work here, and His purposes are not necessarily to punish us, not necessarily to give us difficulty. Let's find out what God's doing here. To me, this is one of Jehoshaphat's best hours, and it's one of the sad hours for Joram, and tells us something about his underlying attitude. So someone says, "Well, Elisha, son of Shaphat, is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah". That's an interesting idiom, isn't it? He used to serve Elijah, he helped him wash his hands. Now, I find it interesting, what's Elisha doing here? Why is he with the armies of Israel and Judah and Edom? We don't know the answer to that. And again, I think that's indicative of the Bible. The Bible doesn't exist to answer all our questions.

The point is he was there. And interestingly, one of the Israelite officers knew it. Joram, king of Israel, didn't know it, but this officer did. And in this crisis moment, Elisha was there. And so they said, "Let's call him." Notice Elisha's pretty sharp response to the king of Israel, to Joram, "Why do you want to involve me? Go to the prophets of your father, the prophets of your mother." You got a lot of prophets in the north. You've probably got official prophets here with you with the army. Why don't you go to them? No, the king of Israel, I'm coming to you. And he repeats his negative attitude, because it was the Lord who called us here, these three kings to deliver us into the hands of Moab. I'm talking to you because this is Yahweh's fault. Elisha said, "As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would pay no attention to you."

You have not lived for Yahweh. You have not served Yahweh. Why should I ask Yahweh on your behalf what's going on here? But since Jehoshaphat is here, I'll help. Now, there's a phrase here that is interesting. He says, "Bring me a harpist." In the ancient world, a prophet sought to be possessed by the God, sought to become a mouthpiece where they lose their own identity, where they lose their own personality and are possessed by the God. Scholars who believe that Hebrew prophecy is not really any different from pagan prophecy land on this sentence and say, "Aha. See there, he's going to seek to be possessed by God because somebody will play music." I think that's building a pyramid upside down on the point. We don't know at all what this means. And the clear mark of prophets in the Old Testament is they are not possessed. They are not mere mouthpieces.

God does not wipe out a prophet's personality. Look at Jeremiah or Isaiah, two different personalities, or Ezekiel, a different yet, or Daniel, a different yet. God speaks with the prophet. There's a dialogue going on. God does not possess the prophet, He fills the prophet. And I like to think of that. Here is a beautiful goblet, and a golden elixir fills it and takes on the shape of the goblet. Here is a misshapen mug, and that same golden elixir fills that mug and takes on the shape of the mug. That gives me a lot of hope. The Spirit, the same Spirit, Spirit of truth, the Spirit of reliability, the Spirit of holiness fills two different people and takes their shape. So I want to make that point. This sentence, "Bring me a harpist," does that in fact point to the fact that he prophets, like pagan prophets, seek to lose their own identity and become possessed by the God? I think all the evidence is no, that's not what's going on. Whatever is going on, seeking possession is not it.

So while the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came on Elisha and he said, "This is what the Lord says." Now, notice he doesn't speak as the Lord. He's reporting what God says. And he says, "I'm going to fill this barren valley." Now, if you have been to Israel, you know that the valley, the Arabah, south of the Dead Sea is just about as barren a spot as you will ever find. If it rains once in a decade there, it's remarkable. God says, "I'm going to fill this valley with water." God delights in doing the impossible. And so in the morning, there it is. And so the Moabites, "Oh, my goodness, they've come around against us from the south. Get up early, let's attack. Hopefully we can catch them while they're at breakfast and maybe we can overcome them."

And they look across the valley, the sun from their rear shining across it, it's red. "The valley is filled with blood, attack, attack. We'll go get the spoil. They've killed each other." And of course, the opposite is true. The Israelites and the Judeans and the Edomites are waiting for them, and they attack and the Moabites are driven back. Now, once again, commentators are troubled, and I think rightly, by the rest of Elisha's prophecy, he said, "God is going to fill this valley with water." That's the hard thing. "And then he's going to deliver the moabites into your hand." That's the easy thing. And look at verse 19, "You will overthrow every fortified city, every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones."

Oh, my goodness, environmental disaster. Is that what God wants to happen? Is that what God is directing them to do, cut down all the trees, stop up all the springs, ruin every field with stones? Is that what God's directing? No. Notice he doesn't say you shall, but you will. That's a difference. This is not a command. This is not a directive. This is simply an observation. Elisha sees what they're going to do. Does he want them to do it? I don't see any evidence that he does. Does God want them to do that? I don't see any evidence that He does. He simply says, "I'm looking out into the future and I see what you're going to do." Now we might say, "Well, He could tell him not to do that, couldn't He?" Yes, He could, but He doesn't.

But I want to make the point here that this is not a command of God. God is not directing them to do this. Elisha is simply seeing that He's going to do it. Later on, when Elisha anoints Hazael, the king of Syria, he weeps. And Hazael said, "What were you weeping about?" And Elisha says, "Because I see what you are going to do to my people." Once again, that's not a directive of God. That's not something that God is commanding him to do, but simply the prophet, with divine sight, is seeing is going to happen. I think that's the same here. I don't think this is a command of God to destroy the Moabite land. It's simply a recognition the Israelites in their rage are going to do this. Good? I think we can say in the light of the whole text, "No, it's not good." But it's something they're going to do.

So they attack, and excuse me, as Elisha had said, they are very successful and the king of Moab tries various devices to stop them. It's not working. Finally, he sacrifices his son on the walls of his capital city. And this is what he said, we're right at the end of the third chapter, verse 27, "He took his firstborn son who was to succeed in his king, offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great. They withdrew and returned to their own land." Who's fury? The fury of Chemosh, the God of Moab? Well, that's not said, is it? The fury of the Moabites? I mean, did this galvanize the remnant of the Moabite army, and did they in fury attack the Israelites, and the Israelites sort of withdrew in embarrassment, if you will?

There is another possibility that intrigues me, the fury against Israel, not Israel, Judah, and Edom. Israel. I think it's possible that Judah and Edom are furious with Israel because Israel got them into this mess and produced this horrible result. And that it is possibly Judah and Edom who are furious. And as a result, the coalition breaks apart and they withdraw. I don't know. But it is a picture once again of Elisha and Elisha's ability to hear the word of God and as a result to bring God's power to bear upon the situation. That's the Moabite rebellion.

Now we have in chapter 4 two women, one of the things that we're going to see as these next chapters, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, develop, we're going to see evidences of Yahweh's power over life and death. And that's what emerges here in chapter 4 with these two women, one, a powerless woman, a widow, the other, a very powerful woman who clearly has a good deal of wealth at her command. So the two ends of the spectrum, and in both cases they are helpless before death. And in both cases, God, operating through Elisha, is able to bring life. This is the bottom line of the conflict in the world, the conflict between life and death. This is what was going on in Egypt. What are the plagues about? The plagues are attacks on the gods. The Egyptians believed that their gods could produce life. The Nile goddess, she could bring new life every year.

And God says, "No, apart from Me, anything you think is the source of life is the source of death." And the Nile turns to blood. The frogs, the frog god was very significant for the Egyptians because frogs can live in two worlds at once. They can live in the water, they can live in the air. Ah, we need to be able to live in that next world after we die. And to have the frog god on our side, who knows how to live in both worlds, yes. And God says, "You want frogs? Have some frogs. Frogs that are dying in your beds, in your cupboards. No, no, no, no. Whatever you think is the source of life in this world is the source of death." It is only Yahweh who gives life. And that's the theme that runs through. Does Baal give life? No, never. Baal can only give death, but Yahweh can take death and turn it into life. This, of course, is the biblical storyline. This is the great climax of the resurrection.

We have killed God. No, you haven't. God has conquered death and given life. So you say, "Is Jesus in the Old Testament?" Oh, yes, He is. Not always evident, not always named, not always specified, but the theme of which Jesus is the ultimate reality is the theme that runs all the way through. So it is here, a widow and a wealthy woman, "The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, your servant, my husband is dead. You know that he feared the Lord, but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves." Death.

Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a small jar of olive oil." Again, we think of Moses. What is that in your hand? What do you have? Well, I got my shepherd's staff. Let's use it. What do you have? A little jar of olive oil. That's enough. What do you have? And that's the question that God addresses to you and me. What do you have? Oh, I don't have genius. I don't have wealth. I don't have possibilities. I don't have strength. I didn't ask you what you don't have. I'm asking you what you do have. And God is able, God is able.

Then the Shunammite woman, forgive me for saying this so often, but again, the narrative is so fascinating. Elisha and his servant are passing through a countryside, and the lady asks him to come and stay in their house. And she says to her husband, "Let's make a little room for him so when he passes through here, he's got a place to stay and a place to rest." Thoughtful, hospitable, kind. So he said one day when they were visiting, to his servant, "We need to do something for this lady. What can we do?" And the servant says, "Well, she has no children and her husband is old." Good enough. Life. Life. Between the two of them, death, they can't produce life, but God can. God can. And so she has a son.

And in this world, in this world, death is the enemy of life. And so the little boy dies. And again, the narrative is so interesting. She saddles up the donkey. The husband says, "Where are you going?" She said, "I want to go see the prophet." "What for?" "Well, I'm just going to see the prophet." Why doesn't she tell him? We don't know. But again, we see human interaction, a kind of interaction we all understand and recognize. This is not myth. This is not something in never-never land, some endlessly recurring cycle among the forces of the cosmos. This is humanity. This is ordinary life where God reveals Himself.

So she goes, and Elisha says, "Well, that's that lady from Shunam. I wonder what her problem is." She comes, she says, "Why did you give me this little boy anyway, to kill him?" Elijah says, "Okay, Gehazi, I want you to run down there. Run to her house. Don't stop. Don't talk to anybody. Here's my staff. Lay my staff on the boy's face." But the woman says, "I don't want Gehazi. I want you." So he goes with her. And again, the details are so interesting. He shuts the door, he prayed, then he laid down on the boy, breathed into his mouth, and the boy sneezed and opened his eyes.

Now, again, unbelieving critics will say, "Oh, well, he wasn't really dead. He had a sun stroke and he collapsed and Elijah gave him CPR." Do you think that's what this story is about? No. The story's about life and death and the capacity of Yahweh to give life when the world, the Baals of this world have given death. So these two stories, a woman who has nothing and a woman who has everything, in both cases, mocked by death, and in both cases, Yahweh gives life.

We have then in chapter 4, two more illustrations of life and death. Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was famine in that region. I'm looking at verse 38 of chapter 4. "While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, put on a large pot and cooked some stew for these prophets. One of them went out to get some vegetables to put in the pot, and he got poisonous stuff." Again, we're talking about life. In life, there is death, ordinary life. Is there any answer for it? Is there any victory over it? Is there any hope when they close the lid of the coffin? "Man of God, there's death in the pot," and they couldn't eat it. Elisha said, "Get some flour." He put it into the pot and said, "Serve it to the people to eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot. Oh, my. We serve a God who is the Lord of life and death, and He is able even in the presence and the power of death to bring life.

Now, I don't have a lot of time to talk about all of the implications of that, but in the Sunday school class that I teach, a lovely young woman and her husband, two children recently went through a long, long adoption of two boys whose mother mistreated them, father gone. It had just been completed and she was tragically killed in an automobile accident. And we say to God, "What are You doing?" As a friend said in a similar situation, years ago, "If somebody had to die, God, I could have given you a short list." She didn't. Is there a simple answer to that tragedy? No, there is not. But we serve a God in whom we find life. And so that husband, with eyes full of tears, is going on, because he is confident that God is able to defeat even this thing, even this death. Oh, yes, finally, in the resurrection, yes. But even today, God has the power of life to enable us to face death and know that's not the end of the story. That's not the final word in the sentence.

That's what's going on all through these apparently rather fanciful, odd little stories. And then there's a case, as we come to the end of chapter 4, where we find the man from Baal-shal-ishah bringing the man of God 20 loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain along with some heads of new grain, "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said. "How can I set this before a hundred men?" His servant said. I think this is our friend Gehazi. Elisha answered, "Give it to the people to eat, for this is what the Lord says, They will eat and have some leftover." Well, we who know the gospels immediately think of the feeding of the 5,000, the feeding of the 4,000. Yes, God is able to take scarcity and turn it into abundance, and so He has done here.

"Then he set it before them and they ate and had some left over." Get these last words, "According to the word of the Lord," God had said, He doesn't say that every day. He doesn't say that in every circumstance, but he has said it over the universe, "My goal is abundance. My goal is blessing, and I'm going to produce it in a myriad of ways." So in this opening chapter, we see this picture which will be reflective of the next several chapters, God's ability to produce life out of death, God's ability to produce abundance out of scarcity.