TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
2 Kings 8:1-9:13
Acts 16:16-40
Psalm 143:1-12
Proverbs 17:26
2 Kings 8:4 — Sometimes we think Gehazi was mistreated. In our mind, he was just running errands for Elisha (2 Kings 4:12). In spite of this, though, the Shunamite woman had ignored him (2 Kings 4:26), he had shoved her away (2 Kings 4:27), and he couldn’t heal her sick child (2 Kings 4:31). He doesn’t even get to talk to Naaman the Captain of the Host of Syria (2 Kings 5:10). When he tried to improve his financial condition, he became a leper (2 Kings 5:27). Remember, though, he was in communication with the king of Israel at the same time.
2 Kings 8:8 — The king of Syria recognized that the man of God transcended national limitations – he spoke for the LORD that transcended borders. Yet at the same time, Elisha wept (2 Kings 8:11) because he had been made aware of what Hazael would do to his people (2 Kings 8:12). That is a delicate balancing act – empathy for your own nation and still maintaining integrity before the world.
2 Kings 8:10 — Is Elisha trying to deceive the king? From Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers:
Elisha sees through Hazaeľs character and designs, and answers him in the tone of irony which he used to Gehazi in 2 Kings 5:26, “Go, tell thy lord—as thou, the supple and unscrupulous courtier wilt be sure to do—he will certainly recover. I know, however, that he will assuredly die, and by thy hand.”
This use of irony is prevalent throughout the books of 1 & 2 Kings, and can be difficult to catch especially since we don’t have a widespread “sarcasm font” yet. GotQuestions.org has a good discussion of irony vs. sarcasm – irony can be appropriate, but sarcasm isn’t.
2 Kings 9:13 — Well, it seems the captains of the host of Ahab weren’t too loyal to the house of Ahab. Were they loyal to the LORD and grumbling over the new Baal worship? Or were they just upset that Ahab’s boy got wounded by the Syrians (2 Kings 8:29)?
Acts 16:25 — What did Paul and Silas sing in the prison? Patch the Pirate wrote a song that pulls from Old Testament verses that express the themes that Paul & Silas may have sung:
Acts 16:27 — The keeper of the prison was asleep. It wasn’t the music that saved him – it was the testimony of the prisoners that led him to ask how he could be saved (Acts 16:30). Yes, even his house heard the word of the Lord (Acts 16:32) and was saved (Acts 16:31). They were baptized too (Acts 16:33).
Listen to Earl Martin sing “Sirs, What Must I Do:”
Acts 16:37 — Interestingly, Paul didn’t make full use of his Roman “passport.” Paul gladly suffered so he could reach the jailer.
Psalm 143:2 — The psalmist wants mercy, not justice.
Psalm 143:5 — Note the similarity between this passage and Psalm 119 – the psalmist asks for God to listen because he knows that God does not hear the prayer of the iniquitous (Psalm 66:18, Proverbs 15:29, 1 Peter 3:12).
The psalmist says he meditates on God’s works, muses on them (Psalm 143:5), reaches for God, thirsts for God (Psalm 143:6), and because of that, he can request that God hear him (Psalm 143:7).
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