II Kings 8-9
Dear RTB’ers,
A long reading today, but mostly just narrative if you can keep the kings and their reigns straight – a particular problem when kings in both the Northern and Southern Kingdom have the same name, Joram/Jehoram. Our STS note helps clarify that. Elisha serves only as a messenger today — to the Shunamite woman; to Aram’s King Ben-hadad (by way of Gehazi); in predicting Hazael’s kingship; and in sending one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu as king of Israel. We won’t see Elisha again until his death in II Kings 18.
One particularly sad item today — And he [Jehoram, king of Judah] walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. (v. 8:18) The king of Judah following in the ways of Ahab, king of Israel… Sad. But he was married to Ahab’s daughter, so it’s not surprising.
Ahaziah, king of Judah went to war along with Joram, king of Israel. Sound familiar? A few chapters back we had Jehoshaphat, king of Judah going to battle along with Ahab, king of Israel (I Kings 22), and with a similar outcome — the death of the king of Israel. This time, though, we also see the death of the king of Judah, both slain by Jehu, who also sees to Jezebel’s death. Although his is a bloody legacy, he is simply carrying out God’s will, as prophesied by Elijah. We’ll see more of Jehu tomorrow.
Blessings!
See also: May 30 (2023) / II Kings 8:16-10:36.
By the way, we might note that it was Elijah, many years earlier, who anointed both Hazael to be king over Syria and Jehu to be king over Israel. (See I Kings 19:15-17.) They both “waited in the wings” for quite some time before ascending to their thrones.