Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey family. Welcome to day 173. We are continuing our trek through the book of second kings. Today. We got two kings, chapters six through eight. We got chapter six, chapter seven, chapter eight. If you've already done the reading, shout out to you all of the context clues, all of the nerdy nuggets, and our timeless truth at the end will make total sense to you. If you haven't done the reading, that means you don't even have context for, for the context clues, the nerdy nuggets, or the timeless truth. So stop the video, stop the audio, go do the reading. Only three quick chapters on the reading plan for the day, so let's dive in. This whole section really centers around the conflict between Aram, which, for those of you who may not know, is modern day Syria. Okay, so Aram or Aram is Syria, okay? Modern day Syria and Israel. So the northern nation or the northern tribes of Israel and Aram, the king of Aram or the kingdom of Aram are at conflict. So there's going to be two massive stories that kind of deal with that conflict. But before we even get into those stories, as chapter six starts, says, now, the company of prophets said to Elijah, Elisha, as you see, the place where we live under your charge is too small for us. So that's great, okay. Elisha is leading a guild of prophets, okay? The same way that you could have a, you know, a guild of barbers, I don't know, or guild of masons or guild of stonemasons, not freemasons, just so that everybody knows. Or, you know, you could have a guild of bricklayers, whatever. You got a guild of the prophets, okay? And they've outgrown their gathering place, and so they need to build one. And so they do. And so Elisha says, hey, thumbs up on this. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. As one was felling a log, his ax head fell into the water, okay? So he goes to swing the axe. The axe head comes off of probably its wooden shaft that it's on, and the axe head flies back and it's in the water and it's gone. Now, what you need to know is that we are in the Middle of the Iron Age. And so the value of iron is insanely valuable. This would be like someone saying, man, I really need a car, so I go to work. So I can't work without a car. So I gotta have a car in order to work. But man, I don't have enough money to lease a car or finance a car or buy a car, so I should borrow a car. So I'm gonna borrow my friend's car and you know, my friend's car's 30, 40, $50,000. They let me borrow their car and on the way to work to actually make money, I get into a car accident and I wreck my friend's car. Total damage, no insurance on the car. And now I owe them. I couldn't even afford a car to go to work in the first place. I definitely can't afford to pay them back. So this guy's in dire straits, okay? If Elisha does not do something, and of course Elisha miraculously causes the axe head to float contextually, you just need to know, hey, we're in the late March, the late Iron Age, and iron is insanely expensive. Very, very, very valuable. Once we get to verse eight, now we are at what's going to be the theme for a long time. Once when the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he took counsel with his officers. And so what's going to happen is he keeps telling his officers the plan. And every time he tells the officers the plan, Elisha tells the king of Israel exactly what the king of the king of Aram has said. Obviously that makes the king of Aram believe that there's a mole. There is not a mole, there is a prophet. And now the king of Aram says, send the army to wherever Elisha is. We are going to kill Elisha. Verse 15. Now Elisha has a new servant because Gehazi wanted to while out and be full of greed and try to get money from Naaman, gifts, clothing and all that from Naaman. So we got a new servant when an attendant of the man of God. So the man of God is Elisha. We don't know who the attendant is at this point. Rose early in the morning and went out. An army with horse and chariots was all around the city. So he's in a town called Dothan. Things you need to know, this is not a military city. This is not a fortified city. The image is quite hilarious. Okay, you got a massive army surrounding like a tiny little town to get an old guy. Now, okay, I forgot to tell you this Days ago. But there's this moment where Elisha gets called bald, bald head. Go on up, bald head. And he get the kids that are saying this get mauled by bears. So there's a couple things that you need to know. Okay? First of all, the text interprets the word as youth's. But. But youths is a broad ranging term. They could have just been. They could have been in their 30s. Youth doesn't mean children, okay? Second of all, an assault, an insult on the prophet is an insult on God, okay? So that's why bears come and maul them. Third, what they are actually saying is you don't have the spirit of Elijah. Why? Because we know Elijah has wild hair, okay? Elijah has really long hair. And so what they're saying is, you're bald. What, what can you do? Okay? The reason that baldness is even a thing is because it's juxtaposed to his predecessor's wild caveman like hair. Okay? So all that to say, Elisha ain't one to mess with, okay? Because bear, bears came out of the woods in mauled these 40 some odd young people to death, okay? Because you don't mess with the prophet. So now the king of Iran has sent his entire army to go get this prophet. I love this. Because the prophet's attendant is stressed, worried. Verse 16 or Alas, master, what shall we do? Verse 16. He replied, do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them. Verse 17. Then Elisha prayed, O Lord, please open his eyes so that he may see. So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw the mountain was full of horse and chariots of fire all around Elisha. When the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, strike this people, please, with blindness. So he struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked. So Elisha prays that God would open the eyes of the servant. His eyes are open. What does he see? He sees the spiritual reality as well as the physical reality. Prior to the prayer, the servant could only see what was there in the natural. Now he's able to see what's there in the natural and in the spiritual. And this is an apocalypse, okay? An apocalypse is not a world ending event. An apocalypse is a revelation. Which is why the book of Revelation is not about the end of the world. It's about eyes being opened. Nero. It feels like Nero's in control. It feels like Domitian is in control. But God opens John's eyes so that John will see that it doesn't matter who's on the throne here in Rome. God is seated on the throne. Okay, so let me give you an apocalypse, an unveiling. Let me take the veil off your eyes, okay? This moment right here is a famous Old Testament apocalypse. Apocalypse does not mean zombies are coming. Apocalypse does not mean the end of the world. It's crazy how an entire word has gotten totally redefined based on dispensational theology. Essentially. It's crazy how the word apocalypse in Greek, like literally that word means to see. That God would take the curtain that is closed and he would pull back the curtain to give you the eyes to actually see what's going on. I believe there are angels in this house right now. I can't see them, but, man, I pray that there are angelic hosts here, that there are angels protecting me, that there are forces of heaven that are fighting against forces of darkness on my behalf. And so sometimes we have to ask, do I have an anxiety problem or do I have a sight, an eyesight problem? And if God were just open my eyes, would it actually make my anxiety go away? Because now I can finally see the full picture. And I want us to, like, I don't want us to skip ahead to the timeless truth, but the timeless truth really is there's more happening that than what meets the eye. There's always more happening than what you can see. And just easy examples of that. You can't see WI fi, can you? But it's there and it's working. There's all types of things you can't see. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean that it's not real. Doesn't mean that it's not affecting reality. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold, literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All Right back to the episode. An army of horses and chariots that are surrounding the army of the king of Aram. They're blind. They get led all the way to Samaria. The king of Samaria wants to kill him, but God is Merciful. Verse 22. No. Did you capture with your sword in your bow those whom you want to kill? Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and let them go to their master. So Elisha doesn't even let the king of Israel kill them. So he prepared a great feast. After they ate and drank, he sent them on their way, and they went to their master, and the Arameans no longer came raiding into the land of Israel. Okay, that's the end of that episode. Now, sometime later, King Ben Hadad of Aram mustered his entire army. He marched against Syria and laid siege to it. So now we get a second episode of this conflict between Israel in Aram. And now there's going to be a siege. Okay? The siege is so bad that it's going to cause starvation, which is really the ultimate goal of a siege, is to get the city that you're sieging to surrender because you're not letting anything go in or out of the city gates. Okay? So to siege a city means you cut the city off from its supply. And that is always what the enemy wants to do to you and I. He wants to isolate you, and he wants to cut you off from the supply that you need from the Holy Spirit, from God's church, from other Christians. He wants to isolate you and siege you, make sure that nothing is getting in or out. But anyway, I keep getting ahead of myself in the timeless truths, but here we go. The Bible says that a donkey's head is sold for 80 shekels of silver and a fourth of a cab of doves, Doves, dung for five shekels of silver. Okay? Now, why would anyone buy a donkey's head or dove's dung? Nobody would buy those things. Those things are totally worthless. But in this economy, they're valuable because we have sunken into an economy of cannibalism. Okay, so there's a mom who's upset. Her and another mom had a pact. This woman said to me, give up your son. We will eat him today and we'll eat your son tomorrow. So we cooked my son and ate him the next day. I said to her, give up your son and we'll eat him. But she has hidden her son. So this woman has gotten another woman to cook her own child so they can eat this child in agreement that we're going to cook your son tomorrow. And now the woman's nowhere to be found. So this is the level of depravity. This is the level of hunger. This is the level of desperation, okay? This is what a siege does. Now, cannibalism is completely connected to the curse of God on the people of Israel if they don't obey the law of Deuteronomy. So Deuteronomy, chapter 28, verse 53 to 57. Deuteronomy, chapter 28. We can go there really quick. In the desert straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you. Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, giving to one of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter, begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs. He said, you'll eat the placenta. You won't even share the placenta and the children that she bears because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else. So Deuteronomy tells us that you'll know that I am beginning to lift my hedge of protection off of you and send an enemy to punish you because you've broken covenant with me when there starts to be cannibalism against your own children. Verse 58. If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God. So, okay, the moment we see this happening in Second Kings, we're immediately supposed to go back to Deuteronomy and go, oh, this is bad. Like this, exactly what God said would actually happen. All right. Also, there's tons of details with this siege. And essentially God is going to miraculously lift the siege. The Arameans are going to think it says this in verse six of chapter seven. For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army so they said to one another, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to fight against us. So the Arameans just flee, okay? And four lepers, they go out. And the four lepers are the lowest status members of society, but they're acting better than mothers and fathers who are eating their own children. So it's a foil again, okay? So they're like, hey, we should share verse nine. What we are doing is wrong. This is the day of good news, and if we are silent and wait until the morning light be found guilty. Therefore let us go and tell the king's household. So exactly as if. As exactly as Elisha prophesied, the siege lifts and they're actually good. Okay, now one last nerdy nugget. Chapter eight, we're going to get into. The Shunammite woman is going to come back and Elijah is going to tell her, hey, there's going to be a famine for seven years. Go escape the famine. Come back. Well, when she comes back. Well, of course, the king of Israel has sold this woman's land. Okay, but verse five, chapter eight. While he was telling the king how Elisha had restored a dead person to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. Gehazi said, my lord king, here is the woman and here is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. When the king questioned the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, restore all that was hers, together with all the revenue of the fields from the day that she left the land until now. First of all, we know that this is not an order, like sequential order, because Gehazi's back. But this would have happened before the issue with Naaman, but for the narrative, it fits here. Second thing that we need to realize is that relying on enemy power is a bad thing. Okay? So being in the land of the Philistines is not good. When David does this, this is not good. So there's something interesting happening here. What's happening here is that the woman is in Israel. She goes to a foreign country and she comes back and gets restoration. What is being communicated? What's being communicated is prepare for exile. Y' all are gonna get carted off. Y' all are gonna be out of here. But even in God's justice, there is mercy. And one day I will bring you back into the land and there will be restoration. So this whole episode with the woman becomes a thing that's supposed to foreshadow the restoration of the people of God, coming back to their land after exile and experiencing the restorative power of God's grace and mercy. And so this episode is not just an isolated thing. This episode is actually here as a demonstration or an illustration of what God is going to do for the entire people of Israel later. The rest of chapter eight is actually context for tomorrow, so we'll leave it there as context for tomorrow. Our timeless truth comes out of 2 Kings 7, 19, 20. There's this moment in 2 Kings chapter 7 where Elisha, he declares that the siege is gonna lift and that there's gonna be food. And one of the officials says, there's no way that that's possible. And Elisha's response is, well, it's gonna happen, and you're not gonna be able to enjoy it because of your doubt. And sure enough, the next day, those lepers, they come back into the city, they announce that the Arameans are gone and that their tents are able to be raided. And this official is gonna get trampled in the city gate as people are rushing out to see the good news. And so I can either be a participant in the good news of God or I can get trampled by the good news of God. That is a timeless truth. My doubt is not going to stop what God is going to do, but it is going to stop my participation in what God is going to do. And that is a timeless truth. I could be a hater. I could doubt that God is going to bring revival or that God can do miracles. It doesn't mean that it's going to stop what God is determined to do, but it does mean that I don't get to be a joyful, willing participant in the thing that God has already willed to do and decided to do and determined to do. And so, really, faith costs me nothing, but doubt could cost me everything. And so I want to have a posture of faith. I want to be a person of faith so that I don't end up like this gentleman in 2 Kings chapter 7, verses 19 to 20. All right, fam, I'll see you right here tomorrow for day 174 as we continue our check trek through Second Kings. If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. Keep up the good work. I love you so much. See you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.