2 Kings 6-8 Deep Diving Bible Study

GOOD MORNING!
Today we read 2 Kings 6-8

Click here to ready today’s passages on BibleGateway.
Hang onto your hats because today’s reading is gonna burn some calories!

Rabbit Trails

The Axe Head 2 Kings 6:1-7
We begin our reading with an important lesson that the Father cares about what bothers us, matters both great and small. We should never feel that something is too small or trivial to bring it to the Father.

I have another great quote for ya about today’s passages:
“The story shows how keen was the sympathy of the great prophet for a poor man overtaken by an ordinary trouble, and how ready Elisha was to seek the help of God to redress the mischief. See Joh 2:1-14. It is right to go to God about matters of this kind, as well as greater issues. What wonders faith can do! Hearts may be as heavy as lead at the bottom of the stream, but when a splinter of the Cross of Calvary is inserted, they rise to the surface and swim.”
~F B Meyer

When you think something is too small to bother YHWH with, remember what the Word says about not leaning on your own understanding – take it to the Father. If it affects you, He is concerned with it. Besides, I’ve found that most of the time, all of these trivial matters end up being huge stumbling blocks, keeping us from having the time, mindset, and condition of the heart that we need to have as a child of the King. Take it to Him today! He cares for every nook and cranny of your life!

Moving on, I LOVE this passage – what a wonderful glimpse into the Spiritual world of our Father, coexisting around us each and every moment!

He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So YHWH opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 2 Kings 6:16-17

WOW!

Moving on to Chapter 7, I want to remind you of something:
Chapter and verse numbers were not part of the original text, they were added later by translators and they often cut a story off at odd points, such as in today’s reading. Don’t get too stuck on those numbers because they mean precious little other than giving us a reference with which to locate verses.

A King’s Horror 2 Kings 6:24
These verses are difficult to read – horrifying to the point that you likely had to stop, as I did, and catch your breath after a good and thorough shudder. Now just in case you haven’t been able to keep up with our story line (so much is going on, it is difficult to), these women were Hebrews. That makes it even more horrifying. Israel is at the height of their idolatry at this point. So in this city where they were selling a donkey’s head for an exorbitant amount, note that a donkey is unclean and therefore not considered food by YHWH for His people and they were well aware of this. His people even went further by resorting to cannibalism of their own children. I was right there tearing at my clothes alongside the king.

Note: this was foretold to happen if they did not follow in the ways YHWH had instructed them in Deut 28:53-57. When the Father tells us to stay on His path, it is important to realize that He knows where all other paths lead.

To his credit, at least the king was horrified, although, rather than cry out in repentance for his own sin or that of his people, which brought about the removal of YHWH’s blessing upon their land (it is plain to see YHWH’s hand of blessing had been withdrawn at this point), he instead looked to lay the blame on Elisha.

Now, in these days people thought prophets told the gods what to do in many cases, that they could pronounce blessings and curses of their own accord and the god they served would then bring this to fruition. It is likely that the king thought this was the case with Elisha – which shows a clear distance between the king and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

2 Kings 7:1 When Elisha told the king to listen, the actual word he used is very important for our context because it means more than just to listen. The word he used was “Shema”. Shema means to “Listen and obey”.

It is also the shorthand title used to refer to a very famous prayer in
Deuteronomy 6:4 in which Israel (Physical and Spiritual) is called to obey:

Hear O Israel, YHWH our God, YHWH is one. And you shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.”

Did this prayer sound familiar to you? It should. When Messiah was asked what the greatest commandment was, he replied by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4. (Mark 12)

So much of what Messiah taught, said, and all of what He lived by is found in the most neglected part of the Bible.
What a double treasure it is for us, then, to be able to discover, study, and partake of the blessing of reading these words, which were so precious as to form the path with which our Messiah walked!

Back to Shema…

So Elisha was telling the king he needed to do something. He was not merely saying “Listen up…”

He was saying “Hear me and respond appropriately to my Words.”

The king was to expect this miracle to happen and to respond in faith by assuring his people that food was on its way – but he did not. Instead, even his servant spoke out against Elisha in disbelief. Now Elisha had shown himself to be calm and wise, slow to offense as a wise person of YHWH should be (Proverbs 19:11) so had the servant spoken out against just him he would have likely ignored it. BUT the servant doubted the ability of YHWH to deliver what was promised – and this took things to a whole other level – blasphemy. His own words sealed his fate, which came about the following day as Elisha had predicted.

Mercy! I feel like I’ve ran a marathon after today’s readings. Let us thank the Father today for the gift of His wisdom and guidance given to us through His Word!

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