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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Hey, this is a year in the Bible with daily grace. This is Shelby and Paul. Today we are jumping into the Book of Two Kings. And so if you've been following along with us, you know that One Kings is really just continuing on into this second book, Second Kings. But Paul, we'd still love if you could give us just a little bit of an intro since we're starting a new book.
- [00:28]
B
Yeah. So like you said, there's a lot of continuity here, and I've mentioned this before, but first and Second Kings were once one book, or they are considered one book in the Hebrew Bible. And so it's usually considered to be one author that wrote the whole thing. But what we're going to see here is in 2 Kings, an increasing deterioration of these two kingdoms. And so that's kind of the big theme from 2 Kings that's not as present in 1st Kings. And then also we're going to see a whole lot more of Elisha, particular narratives of Elisha doing prophetic activity throughout the kingdoms. So.
- [01:04]
A
Yeah, great. So I know that there's a really peculiar story in this book.
- [01:10]
B
Yes.
- [01:11]
A
Can you walk us through that? Because it might have been alarming to read if you haven't read it before. It's definitely difficult to understand, but involves Elisha, a group of young kids and bears.
- [01:23]
B
Yes. Yeah. So the context for this comes from chapter two. So we have what's basically this narrative of passing the torch from Elijah to Elisha, where the mantle of prophecy passes to Elisha, and Elijah actually ascends into heaven and doesn't really die necessarily. He ascends kind of like Enoch in Genesis. And so that's essential context here. And there's another piece of important context in 2 Kings 1:8 that describes Elijah's appearance as being a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist. So then we get Elijah's mantle passing to Elisha. And so he encounters these youths when he's on his way back from Jericho to Mount Carmel, and he's at Bethel. And if we remember, Bethel was one of the central places in the Northern kingdom of pagan worship. So there's probably not a whole lot of people that are really, like, committed to Yahweh here. And so when the youths come out and call Elijah bald, bald, which is kind of funny to our modern consciences, this wouldn't have been an attack on, like, his manliness or even his appearance. Instead, it's actually saying, you're not in the line of Elijah. It's basically denying that he is actually the true Prophet, because Elijah was hairy, so you're bald, so you're clearly not the next prophet. And the interesting thing is Elijah, Elisha probably would have been wearing some kind of head covering. So it's kind of. It's meant to be more of a direct attack on his prophetic ministry here.
- [02:52]
A
Okay, thank you for providing all that context. I feel like the pieces are already starting to come together more than just reading it through. And I'll be honest, this is one of the stories in Scripture that for the longest time was hard for me to make sense of. But why does Elijah curse them for that comment? I mean, couldn't he just have been like, hey, guys, cut it out. Would that not have been enough?
- [03:16]
B
Yeah. So it's the fact that they are denying his prophetic ministry as a person that communicates God's words, and he's bringing a curse not unlike one that we find in Leviticus 26, 21, 22, which says, if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will let loose the wild beasts against you. So not listening to God's prophet is basically not listening to God. And so by denying his prophetic ministry, Elijah's calling a curse that the Bible kind of says, hey, this is going to happen to you. Right. And one commentator actually quipped that these are covenant bearers, that they're enforcing the covenant. And so, you know, even though we've seen kind of some more humorous moments throughout first and Second Kings, and this might seem to be that way initially, it's actually not. It's actually a pretty intense moment of, hey, they were not being committed to the covenant and listening to God's words.
- [04:12]
A
Yeah. And I'm sure that this served as a signal to anyone who heard about it or maybe even was there that, hey, Elisha is God's mouthpiece to us and we should take his word seriously. Thank you for explaining all of that. We've got just like a minute left of this episode. So what do we take away from this passage?
- [04:33]
B
Yeah, so even though we may not be walking around calling God's prophets bawled ourselves, there is kind of an impetus of the young boys that we might find within ourselves. And I think it's similar to what we see from Ahaziah from the beginning of this section of 2 Kings. And it's that, you know, he calls for his messengers to ask BAAL whether he will recover from an injury rather than asking God and thereby, you know, rejecting God's true prophet, Elijah, who he should have asked, just like the boys reject Elisha, God's true prophet. And so I think in that I see my own impetus to prefer certain helps before I think about Jesus. And so this might be things that are actually good things like self help books or asking a mentor or you know, considering, you know, what the Internet might even have to say sometimes, which may not be as helpful, but I do that before I pray or before I talk to Jesus. And unlike them, you know, we, we don't just show preference to someone or something other than a human prophet, we show preference to something other than God himself. Because Jesus is fully God. And the thing to take away there for me at least, is that Jesus does provide everything we need. Colossians 2:10 tells us that we are complete in Christ. And I've mentioned this in a few episodes, 2 Peter 1:3 says that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And so again, it's not that self help books and asking advice from friends is bad, it's just that, hey, going to Jesus first is often the better option.
- [06:15]
A
Yeah, absolutely. Just coming out swinging on this first episode. My toes are a little tender at the moment, even stepped on. But no, that's a great reminder and that's gotta be my takeaway from this episode. What is my gut instinct when I need wisdom, when I need strength, when I need help, when where am I going? And if it's not to the Lord, what might it look like to rearrange those priorities in my life? So great reminder. Thanks for walking us through a difficult text. We are going to continue walking through two Kings, so we'll be back tomorrow to talk through the next few chapters.