40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 2 Kings 2:23-3:15 (Episode 323)

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

Some young men mock Elisha and are torn apart by two she bears. The king of Israel and the king of Judah team up against the Moabites without asking the Lord if it is a good idea. And Elisha needs a musician. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! HWSS National Conference 1517 Podcast Network 1517 YouTube Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast to check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, make sure you go to the events page and register for the Here We Still Stand National Conference that is in San Diego, California, October 13th through the 15th. Everyone's going to be there, including Chad and myself. We don't want everyone but you to be there. We want everyone, including you, to be there. So there's a link in the show notes.

You can click on that, see the whole roster, see the whole schedule. Come hang out with us for three days in California in October. it's going to be a good time. Or you can just go over to 1517.org, find that event and get all the information. Chad, today we are going to start off, right? I mean, this is one of those episodes where we get to have something super interesting right from the jump. We don't have to ease into it. We don't have to work through, you know, some weird narrative that nobody cares about to get to the interesting part. We don't have to work through genealogy. There's none of that. We're just jumping right into it. Elijah has been taken to heaven. Elisha has got the cloak. He has parted

some water. He is the man of God at this point. And we jump right into a crazy story where some boys, but we'll say some young men, I don't think they're children, we'll get into that. They have some choice words for Elisha and he's going to flex his newly acquired prophetic status on them and uh it's going to be bloody yeah it is going to be bloody this is a it might kind of sound strange to say this but this is one of my favorite stories from uh from first and second kings only because it's let me explain why it's one of my favorites not because i'm all into young men getting mauled by bears but because uh when you when you look at it in the broader of context i mean you look at it in detail but also in its broader context it's one of these

stories which uh illustrates some some great theological truths and when it's explained in the way that i think is the proper way to explain it then it clarifies a lot of the misgivings that people have about this because this is the one of the stories that people will go to to talk about how you know how terrible the old testament is and how bloodthirsty god is and basically it becomes uh weaponized in the hands of those who want to in some way disparage disparage the old testament so uh hopefully by the time we uh we go through this uh things will be will be cleared up so yeah we uh we left off with elijah elijah in heaven elijah's taken over uh he's parted some waters he's healed some very toxic waters there in jericho and he's going to go up to bethel and

That's where we're going to start out here. This is 2 Kings 3.23. But, you know, one of the things that's weird about this is that he's not— I mean, one thing, if, like, Elisha got the mantle from Elijah, and then he immediately went on a tirade against, you know, all the idols that everyone was worshiping, and he started, like, being disruptive, you know, to everyone's way of life because he's telling them they have to get rid of everything.

That's not what he's doing. like he just got done making a place that was like really nice to live but had really bad water that was apparently causing miscarriages and all kinds of other things he ends up fixing that problem for them so he's he's not the first first act uh now that elijah's gone is something that's really great for for people doing a good thing yeah you know yeah it's it's a good thing yeah we're actually going to see that a lot with elijah he does a lot of wonderful miracles and healings for healings for people i mean he's gonna have some choice words to say with regard to idolatry and and bad kings just like elijah did but yeah he starts out with uh this wonderful act of of healing there in

the in the city of jericho yeah this is there's there's no reason yet for anyone to have a problem with him that's what i'm saying like yeah he hasn't spoken this harsh word from the lord about how destruction's coming or anything like that he's the only thing he's done so far is a thing that I would assume everyone can be down with. Everyone's good with this. He's made life better for a bunch of people. And now he's just traveling along and some young men, they decide

that they gotta go have some words with him. Yeah, one of these no good deed goes unpunished kind of situations. First of all, let's make sure we know where we're at geographically. So he was down in Jericho and now he's going to go up to Bethel. So he went up from there, that is, went up from Jericho to Bethel.

Now, what do we know about Bethel? Well, Bethel, of course, goes way back in biblical story. The name itself, Beit El, means house of God. We encountered that back in Genesis 28. That's where Jacob has his vision of the stairway with angels going up and down. So the place itself goes way back in patriarchal history, But more recently, beginning with the split between the north and south, Bethel has become a place where you have this rank idolatry. So that's a vital part of the story to understand.

So Bethel has the golden calves. This is a place of rebellion against Yahweh, a place of this illicit worship going on. So keep that in mind as we're going through this. So he goes up from there to Bethel. And while he was going on the way, so he's in that direction, some, well, the ESV has small boys. And this is what we need to talk about. So these quote-unquote small boys came out of the city and jeered at him or mocked him, saying, go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head.

So that's the first thing that we have to figure out. Who are these na'ar katanim in Hebrew? The first part of that, na'arim, is the plural of na'ar. And a na'ar can be translated any number of ways. it's kind of a general term for a, we'll say, a male human being. How's that? And this male human being can be a kid or it can be a much older man. So naar is capable of covering a wide range of ages. All right. So that's one part of this phrase. So the naarim. But the second part is the adjective, katanim, which can be translated as young or little. So where else is it used?

That's what we got to ask ourselves. What other reference can we use to kind of get some clarification here? Well, for me, one of the most convincing clarifications comes in 1 Kings 3. This is right after Solomon has taken over the throne from his father David. He's certainly a grown man. But in the prayer that he prays in 1 Kings 3-7, when he's asking God for wisdom, for a hearing heart, he describes himself this way, as a naarkaton, which is just the singular form of that phrase that we have here in 2 Kings 3. So most of it is sometimes translated little child or can also be translated as young man. So Solomon, who's a grown man, describes himself as a Naarkaton. Same phrase that is used here in second Kings three, which leads me to think

that what we have here in this, this group that comes out of the city, these aren't, you know, elementary age kids. These aren't like, they're not, didn't just get out of kindergarten and they see the prophet and they're like, Hey, let's all go out and mock the prophet. Uh, my thinking, the best way to translate this, in my opinion, would be as young men, or if you want another translation, teenagers, perhaps. So don't picture a bunch of 40-year-olds, but also don't picture a bunch of five-year-olds either. So who knows? High school age, college age, young men is probably the best way to translate this. This also does seem like something that young men would do. This is First of all, we're going to get the number. There's 42 of them, apparently.

I don't know the last time you saw 42 seven-year-olds just wandering around. But this seems like a group of young men. So this is an assembly of people who are old enough to be meeting together, hanging out together, gathering together. but also impetuous enough and stupid enough to do something like this and who know who elisha is too yeah they they know who he is and they know they know what has happened to him and they also know how to very specifically insult him so that's what we'll get to next so they're coming out of this idolatrous city this group of 42 young men and they mock the prophet and what do they what do they say specifically? They say, go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head. The verb

translated there as go up is Allah. It's a very common Hebrew verb, but it is also the verb that was used earlier in this chapter for when Elijah went up, was taken up or went up to heaven in the whirlwind. So my thinking is contextually that what's happening here is basically they're saying, why don't you just go away the same way that Elijah did? Why don't you go up to just get away from here, get away from Bethel, and just disappear into the heavens like your master did? So that's the way that I'm reading it contextually. Now, what about the insult? Well, the noun that's translated as bald head, kereach in Hebrew, is only used in two places, here, and then in Leviticus 13, verse 40, which is a section of Leviticus all about skin disease.

It's usually translated as leprosy. It's really not leprosy. It's not that particular form of skin disease. It's kind of a generic skin disease, but that's the context here. So they're insulting him with a word that's connected with uncleanness, possibly. Another way that you can understand this is more metaphorical and that is who how how was elijah described elijah was described as a man of hair literally a ball of hair lord of hair either because he was hairy himself or because he had the hairy mantle whatever the reason was elijah was closely connected with with hair what's happened to elijah he's been taken away and so elijah has lost his hairy master if you will he's lost the one who was over him and so perhaps there's a chance that this actually is meant more metaphorically

so leave you who you who have lost your master you've been balded as it were by the loss of by the loss of elijah i'm not saying that's what it means i'm just saying it's another another possibility so maybe they mean it literally maybe they mean it metaphorically maybe they mean it both who knows whatever they mean it's certainly an insult a mocking of mocking of the prophet Yeah, I mean, so sort of having a head, that would be like a hierarchy, right, is not something that is strange in this culture. So they would understand that Elijah was on top of Elisha, that he was working underneath him, and he's gone, and he has left him uncovered.

He no longer has that covering over him, so he's bald in that sense. And maybe he's just bald in general. This might be a very clever insult. They're like, hey, Elisha's bald. His master's also gone. Let's tell him to follow his master because he no longer has a covering. And we'll call him bald head. And this will just be the best insult ever.

Yeah. Very creative. Yeah, it would be. It would be very creative. So all those possibilities. But whatever exactly is meant, it certainly is an insult against a prophet. It also tells you, I also have to tell you that seven-year-olds are not that creative with their insults. No.

You got to be a little bit older to have that, to achieve that level of creativity. So, yeah, I mean, this would be a great insult coming from an 18-year-old or a 22-year-old. Right. Somewhere in that age span. So they issue the mock, the insult. Verse 24, Elisha turns around. And when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. So exactly what he said, we're not told, is that he cursed them in the name of the Lord.

What happens next is that two mama bears, two she bears, came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys. Now, what exactly does this mean? Well, it means that they got mauled. These weren't just scratches. The verb that's used there is bakah. It's the verb that's used for when it's a horrific thing that did happen in some wars where the bellies of pregnant women were ripped open. I mean, that was something that sometimes happened in war, and the Bible talks about that. And that's the verb that's used there, is they were torn. So this tearing or this mauling wasn't simply a scratch or two. This was, no doubt, if not fatal, then very close to that.

Yeah, so these barons came out and split 42 boys wide open. Yeah, yeah, just tore them up. So what's the connection between these two? Elisha curses him in the name of the Lord and then the bears come out. Well, I don't think there's any other way that we can read this besides the fact that the curse when he cursed them, God responded

by sending the sheep bears. And this would be consistent with what God does on a number of occasions where he uses animals to inflict those who have rebelled against him. In fact, within the last couple of months, I think we encountered that episode where

a lion killed a man. uh we certainly see that happening with a number of plagues where god uses uses insects uh back in the book of numbers who use the the fiery serpents in the wilderness to punish the grumbling israelites so god uses multiple times uses animals in order to inflict punishment or discipline upon upon rebels and that's what's happening here happens to use she bears instead of instead of lions but they came and they tear 42 of these boys. And then the chapter ends by saying from there, he, that is Elisha, went on to Mount Carmel,

which of course was connected with his master, with Elijah. And from there, he returned to Samaria. So overall, what I think is happening is this. So Elisha comes near Bethel. You have 42 of these young men connected with this idolatrous city. Some commentators even speculate that they might have been serving there at that idolatrous shrine. And so they see Elisha, they know who he is, they know what's happened to him, and so they craft this perfect insult against him, attacking, of course, not only him, but also Elijah, and then, of course, because they're prophets, attacking God himself, mocking God himself.

And then Elisha responds by putting this curse upon them, which God listens to and responds to by sending these bears to maul 40, 42 of them. So, if you look at this in the bigger context, I think it fits with exactly what happens with the earlier conquest of the land. I think I talked about this in the last episode. So, where do Elijah and Elisha go? They go in the Transjordan. They go on the other side of the Jordan to the place where Joshua had been with the Israelites prior to the conquest. And then what do they do? Well, they split the Jordan River.

That's exactly what happened with Joshua. Joshua leads the Israelites across on dry ground. He brings them into the land to do what? To conquer the idolaters, all these various Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites. Now, what we see happening with Elijah and Elisha is Elijah, the Moses figure, is taken up into heaven. Who's left? Elisha, the Joshua figure. Joshua then crosses back over the Jordan on dry ground, following the same pattern that Joshua did. and then what's the first thing that he encounters once he crosses into the promised land he

encounters a group of idolaters and what does he do well he conquers them by cursing them in the name of the lord and they end up getting destroyed same thing that joshua did joshua leads israelites across they encounter the idolaters what do they do well in the name of the lord they begin to conquer them so if we if we look at this very small story what is it uh three verses in light the bigger context of scripture i think that's really what's what's happening here so that uh takes us to the end of chapter two and we'll shift gears back uh to hear more about the kings here in chapter three so in the 18th year of jehoshaphat king of judah we've already heard about him in the past jehoram the son of ahab became king over israel in samaria and he reigned 12 years we've

We've also heard about him. So after Ahab dies, his first son takes over, whose name is Ahaziah. But he doesn't make it very long. We heard all about his injury when he fell out of the window through the lattice and ended up dying. So Ahab's first son who reigns in this place dies, but he doesn't have an heir. He has no son. And so his brother, Jehoram, the other son of Ahab, he takes over. So, also a son of Ahab, just the second one to take the throne.

So, we've got two kings. We've got Josaphat from the south. We have Jehoram from the north. Reigns 12 years. We're told that he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. nevertheless he clung to the sin of jeroboam the son of dabat which he made israel to sin he did not depart from it so it's it's kind of hard to understand exactly what uh what the criticism is

seems to seems to me that he's certainly not as bad as his as his father mother that's clear that made that's made explicit but because it says he still clung to the sin of jeroboam either he did participate in Baal worship, or he at least tolerated it. Maybe that's what's going on. He certainly didn't do away with the idolatry that Jeroboam had brought in, but he did do away with whatever the pillar of Baal was. I wasn't able to find out any more information about exactly what that was. I mean, I know that it's a matzevah, which the Hebrew word usually translated here as pillar, and that was forbidden by the Torah in Deuteronomy 16. So maybe this was a significant pillar connected with Baal worship that he did away with. He certainly didn't do away with all

the Baal worship, because that's what the sin of Jeroboam was. But he did, as it were, lessen it, or maybe lessen its influence, or didn't actively propagate it. Whatever it was, his sin is is reduced down as it were so he's still an idolater but uh he's not not quite as bad as his parents had been yeah what he didn't do certainly is uh you know go full you know josiah or something and institute a revival of worshiping yahweh or anything like that so he got rid of a pillar that's great uh he didn't replace it with anything good yeah and so he you know i guess it's good if you if you take away a pillar uh but taking away a pillar doesn't mean you're not an idolater yeah you know there's there is a sliding scale here with these kings where

you're gonna have the worst and you have the best right and who who's always the best david david's always the best and who's the worst well it kind of depends on where you're at in the stage of history uh but there are certainly worse kings than others and so somewhere within the spectrum is where we find this king, Jehoram. So he's definitely on the bad side. He's just not on the bad, bad, bad side, I guess is the way we could put it. It's one of those things where things might have not got worse under him,

but they didn't get a lot better. Definitely did not get better. Yeah, you're kind of stuck in neutral with regard to idolatry at this point. So that's just kind of the introduction as to who he was and the critique of his reign with regard to worship. now the very next verse really introduces the what the rest of the chapter is going to be about we are introduced to the king of moab whose name is is mesha now this is this story where the verse

fourth at the end of the chapter is is fascinating on many different levels because it's one of those stories in the scriptures where you have a surprise ending and uh it's one of these where once you get to the end what's that movie six cents where you get to the end you have to go rewatch the whole thing, uh, to really understand what's going on. This is a sixth sense kind of chapter because when you get to the very end, you're, you're surprised and it makes you go back to the beginning and reread the whole thing being like, okay, so what exactly was going on here? I mean, so was God promising them victory or was he promising them a partial victory? Uh, was he, as it were leading them into a trap? What exactly is going on here? So as we're going

through it we're going to pretend like we don't know the end so that when we get to the end we can go back and kind of think about what was what was happening here the basic situation is this so we're introduced to Mesha tell you more about him in just a second who's the king of Moab we're told that he was a sheep breeder there's only one other place where that word is used Amos came from Tekoa and he was among the the sheep herders the sheep breeders there and that's the same hebrew noun is used in that context so a guy with a lot of sheep i mean a lot of sheep because we're told that he had to deliver to the king of israel a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams uh my guess is those those uh those numbers are hyperbolic uh that's that's a but

anyway whatever the numbers were that's a lot that's a lot of wool a lot of lambs this guy is really good he's really good at breeding sheep yeah yeah he can he's got it figured out he's got some trick like jacob had you know with this track and spotted and speckled and all that going on something man he's he's uh those sheep are fertile they're definitely fertile so why is he doing this why was he delivering all this to the king of israel well this is of course uh a tribute so he's he's he's under he's a vassal under under the the king king of israel but verse 5 says, but when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. So we've already actually, in an odd sort of way, we've been told about this. So if you go back to

the very opening verse of 2 Kings, it's a strange way for the whole book to begin. 2 Kings 1.1 says this now moab rebelled against israel after the death of ahab and then it just completely leaves that story just one verse inserted there at the beginning we're not told anything else about it why when well when we're told but nothing else well now we're going to pick up the story and we're going to hear more about what what's happening here and this is where things if you're into archaeology this is where things get just get very fascinating so uh you'll have to do this on your own because we're not going to we could we could actually spend the rest of the the podcast talking about this but there is a famous archaeological find it was discovered in the

1860s i believe by an anglican missionary and it's known either as the mesha stele or the moabite stone refers to the to the same to the same find it's a black stone that's about i think three feet high, something like that. And it's named after this king. And this is the only place in the Bible where he's named, Mesha, who's the king of Moab. It's written in the Moabite script. It's 34 lines long. And the reason it's so fascinating is because it tells part of this same story that we are now reading about in 2 Kings 3. And the basic gist of it is, first of Well, it comes from, so we're reading, of course, from the biblical Israelite perspective, the Moabite stone is written from the Moabite theological perspective.

And just like we're hearing about the God of Israel, so the Moabite stone, the Mesha Stele, talks about the Moabite God, Kamosh, or Kamosh, however you want to say his name, and tells about the victory that he gave to the Moabites. So I'll just summarize real quickly what it tells us. First of all, it informs us of kind of the past history leading up to this. The stele says that during the reign of Omri, so that was Ahab's father, we talked about him a few chapters ago, during the reign of Omri, that Omri subjected the Moabites, so

they were under his power. and then they remained that way until finally jehoram came along the one that we're talking about now when they were able basically to to throw off that yoke so the moabites blessed by their god kamosh were able to throw off the dominion of of the northern kingdom of the omride dynasty and so there's a whole lot more to it but that's kind of that's kind of the gist of it. So they're telling the story from their perspective. The Bible, of course, is telling us the Israelite perspective. But this is a fascinating case where you have the same events described from two different theological perspectives. So if you Google that

and read about it, it's pretty fascinating to see how these two stories intersect and depart from each other. But back to the biblical narrative. So verse six tells us that after this rebellion took place, that King Jehoram from the north marched out of Samaria. At that time, he musters all Israel together. They're going to have to go to battle against him. So he doesn't want to go alone. So he sends word to his fellow king in the south, Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat is also the king that teamed up with Ahab in 1 Kings 22. So this isn't the second, this isn't the first time that the southern king and the northern king have gone to battle together. So he sends word to Jehoshaphat and says, hey, the Moabite king rebelled against me. Will you go with me to

battle against Moab? And Jehoshaphat says, yep, I'm on board. I will go. I am as you are. My people as your people, my horses as your horses. Now that is almost verbatim the same response that jehoshaphat gave to ahab back in first kings 22 4 that was when uh ahab wanted him to go about to battle with him and joseph joseph says you bet i am as you are my people is your people my horses as as your people as my horses as your horses then he said by what by which way shall we march and jehoram said by way of the wilderness of edom so verse 9 tells us the king of israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom all teamed up together. So if you can kind of picture the map of Israel in your mind, what's happening is this. The straightest shot would have been to

go directly across the Jordan and to attack Moab, which lies to the east of the Dead Sea. That's not the way they go. Probably because they had military units stationed there along their northern and western borders. What they do instead is they go south through Judah. They pick up Jehoshaphat there. They continue going south to the country of Edom. Edom is directly south of the Dead Sea. We're told that the king of Edom, we learned this in the last chapter of 1 Kings, we're told that the king of Edom is basically a vassal of Judah. He doesn't have any kind of independent power, so he basically has to do whatever the king of Judah tells him to do. They had a deputy for a king. So this king of Edom is a king in name only. He's not

really the powerful one in Edom. He has to swear all his allegiance to the king of Judah. So you get these three kings. They go through Edom then, and they're going to march north, and they're going to attack the Moabites from the south. But there's a problem. To do this, they've got to go through this long stretch of arid country of course that's a problem because how are you going to find water so we're told that they made this circuitous march seven days there's no water for the army no water for for the uh the animals that they have with them at this point verse 10 the israelite king says alas the lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.

In other words, he thinks this is a setup and that God is somehow against him, that God has brought him in this situation to destroy him. Now, this is where things, again, get interesting because I think we're meant to read 1 Kings 22, the story of Jehoshaphat and Ahab, and that was the story of the prophet Micaiah and the divine counsel and the lying spirit

in the mouth of the prophets and all that stuff going on there. I think we're meant to read that in light of what's happening here. And one of the differences between these two situations is before Jehoshaphat said, I want to talk to Yahweh's prophet before I go to battle. Here he doesn't do that. As soon as Jehoram says, hey, will you want to go to battle with me? He's like, sure, let's do it.

So he didn't stop to say, wait, let's find a prophet of Yahweh to find out if we should even do this or not. He just said, I'm with you. My horse is your horse. So they take off and they wait until they get to them, wait until they get into a bad situation where they're out of water before they stop to think, you know what, maybe we should consult God before we do this. Maybe we should see if there's a prophet of the Lord before we proceed any further. And that's what they end up doing. So verse 11 is when Jehoshaphat, as it were, comes to his senses, he says, is there no prophet of the Lord here through whom we may inquire of the Lord? one of the servants of the king one of the servants of the king of israel says well there

is elisha the son of shafat he's here he's the one who poured water on the hands of of elijah that's a that's a hebrew idiom that's probably used here on purpose uh that i'm assuming that what is being described as some sort of servant's act where they pour water on the hands of of their master. But it's so fitting here because what's the issue? What are they lacking? Water. So let's get Elisha, the one who poured water on the hands of Elijah, and we'll ask him. So that's kind of the situation so far. They didn't stop to ask the prophet what they should do. They stopped to ask Yahweh through the prophet what they should do. They're engaging also in a battle that I'm not convinced they should have been engaged in. First of all, that was a huge tribute that they're

requiring from this Gentile king, all the wool and all the lambs. So have they been acting contrary to what God wanted them to do all along? Should these Moabites have ever been subjected to them? And if they were, should they have been forced to pay such an exorbitant amount? I don't know. We'll have to wait until we get to the end to find out if God is going to bless their endeavors or not. And this definitely seems like something—this is one of the tricky things about idolatry and stuff, right? So there's this weird thing that goes on where you're worshiping other gods and all this kind of stuff. But then when you get in the bind, you're like, hey, is there any prophet of Yahweh? Because that is who they're talking about here.

It's almost as if you have kings set up idols as a way for them to really be the one in control and really be the one who has power, because I don't know how much they really believe these gods can do anything. But when they actually need something, they've got to go find a prophet of Yahweh. Yeah. Yeah, and another thing that's happening here is, notice that the kings seem to be sort of oblivious.

This actually becomes a theme that we see in several other places in 1 Kings. Well, other places in Scripture too, but who should be the ones who are making sure that they're doing God's will, that they're inquiring of the prophets, that they know where the prophet is, you know, should really be in touch with

what needs to be happening? Well, the kings, they're the leaders, right? And yet, they're like looking around like, hey, Does anybody know if there's a prophet of Yahweh anywhere around here? Yeah, you should know that. You should know that. You should know that, yeah.

Well, who knows? Who responds? Somebody anonymous. Verse 11 says, one of the king of Israel's servants. So this is one of the things that it's easy to just kind of slide past and miss. But who's the real one in the know here? Who's the one who is keeping up with where Yahweh's prophet is? Well, it's not the leaders.

It's a servant. you know just some guy it's the the no name it's just a guy yeah so a guy that we don't know anything else about except he's a servant he's the one who kind of kind of ends up being uh maybe not the hero of the story but certainly the the one who's able to point the kings in the direction they should be going and that way he's he's kind of like uh the maidservant we're going to get to the story of naaman the syrian and his skin disease uh in a few episodes but the maidservant who's from israel she's the one who says to naaman's wife hey my master should travel south because there's a prophet of yahweh down there who could heal his skin disease

again she's anonymous she's just a servant she's a she's a she's a girl but she ends up being the heroine of the story because she's the one by by her naaman is able to to go south and then we'll see a story later on about how four unnamed lepers are the only ones who know that the city of samaria has been spared from a foreign invasion. So a lot of times it's the no names, the anonymous, just the regular, regular people who end up being pivotal players in the stories themselves. And it's not the powerful, it's not the leadership, especially when the leadership is in one way or another embroiled in idolatry. So Jehoshaphat says the word of the Lord is with him, that is with Elisha. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom, will they go to inquire of him?

And here we're just kind of getting to know Elisha. I mean, we've been introduced to him when he was called, when he was out plowing the fields. We get to know him a little bit there. And we certainly learn he's a faithful servant of his master, a faithful disciple, because he won't leave his master until he's finally taken up into heaven. And we learn a little bit more about him at Jericho,

where he mercifully and miraculously heals the waters, the toxic waters there. We find out more about him with the confrontation of the 42 young men. But I feel like it's really in this story that we get to know more of his personality. And he sounds an awful lot like Elijah in what he's about to say. So they come to him, and Elijah says to the king of Israel, What have I to do with you? that's a that's a hebrew idiom too that works its way into the new testament and in greek so the greek just imitates the hebrew here so when the demons will often say to jesus

what do you have to do with us or what do we have to do with you that's a greek equivalent of this hebrew expression literally it's what to me and to you so what do we have in common what do you have to do with us so what have i to do with you go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother yeah this is amazing because it's sort of the exact thing that we just talked about which is this king doesn't even know if there's a prophet around they don't have a relationship and so now they're seeking him out elisha knows all this and he's like what are you doing here man like we don't we don't hang out we don't communicate you're not ever interested in what I have to say. Yeah, that's exactly it. And you put yourself in this situation. Why don't you

go talk to the prophets of Baal and Asherah that your mom and dad are all into? I mean, why aren't they here? Why didn't you bring them along? Why aren't they helping you? Why are you coming to me to ask what I have to say in the name of Yahweh? But the king of Israel said to him, no it is the lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of moab so he's basically he's whining he's uh he's repeating his complaint earlier the goddess as it were tricked them into this situation so elisha responds and we'll have to we'll have to wrap it up here with with this episode elisha responds as the lord of hosts lives before whom my stand. Were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I wouldn't even

look at you or see you. But now bring me a musician. So he's saying, Elisha's saying, listen, the only reason that I'm even giving you the time of day is not because of you. It's because of the other king with you. It's because of the king from Judah. It's because of Jehoshaphat. That's the only reason I'm even looking at you, the only reason I'm giving you this chance to have a word from me. And then he says at the end, bring me a musician. We've seen several episodes in the past where the prophetic gift is linked with music. In Hebrew, this is the same word that's used to describe David when he's brought as a musician

to perform for King Saul. So here, the prophet, once more, is going to be using music as an aid for him to bring the word of God, which we'll get to next time. Yeah, all right. Well, we will pause right there. We're in the middle of a weird story. Elisha is a little spicy, telling the king to go, hey, why don't you go talk to those gods of your fathers and mothers? Go ask them what's up and see what answer you get. Love it.

But he's going to give them a word, and we will find out what that word is next week. Chad, I'll see you then. All right. See you then.