40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 2 Kings 6:8-31 (Episode 328)

Episode Date: September 11, 2022

The king of Syria is thinking about war, but Elisha knows what is going on behind closed doors. Chariots of fire come to the aid of God's people and Elisha has a feast for their enemies. And a famine strikes the land resulting in terrible desperation. 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 and check out all the their podcast. They're living over there. Chad, we are in 2 Kings 6. We had an interesting story last week about an axe head being made to float. God doing miraculous things just for the sake of helping people out was our conclusion on that story. And now Elisha is going to do something a little bit different. He's going to get involved with some rulers, some kings, and he's going to He's going to start giving advice to try to hopefully avoid bloodshed and this kind of thing. So we get to see him not just do miraculous things, which is what we've kind of seen him do so far,

but see what kind of wisdom Elijah has. Yeah, there's a, well, beginning here with this section and really into the next couple chapters, we have him dealing a lot with kings. So in the last miracle that we saw, he was dealing with one of the sons of the prophets. Like you said, he had need of recovering his axe head. But yeah, the shift is going to be to kind of more national concerns. There's really some, there's some very instructive narratives coming up where you see, you see Elisha really acting in a way that is, is paralleled quite a bit in, in the gospels.

We're going to see kind of Jesus as the, as the new Elisha, because the way that the prophet's going to deal with his enemies is exactly the same way that Jesus taught us to deal with our enemies. and we're also going to see how uh one of my favorite stories in kings where it's it's not the the leadership it's not the soldiers it's not even kind of the common people but it's the outcasts it's the lepers who are going to be the heroes heroes of the day so we'll either get to that in this episode or the next episode but some uh some fun stuff coming up so what's happening beginning with second king six eight is that you're going to have uh the king of syria along

with all his army invading Israel. And we'll see how Elisha deals with them. Just as a reminder, at this point in Israel's history, it's the Syrians who are the dominant threat. So back in the days of the judges, back in the days of Saul, and then into the days of David, the major threat came from the coastal area where the Philistines had settled. Of course, Saul and David were always fighting against the Philistines. But it's kind of faded into the background now between David and Solomon, they were kind of put to rest, as it were, with regard to any threat they posed to Israel. But as we've seen multiple times, it's the Syrians or sometimes called the Arameans from north of Israel who are posing a threat. We've already encountered them multiple times.

Most recently, we saw how Naaman, who was a Syrian general, came down for healing of his skin disease. Now we're going to see in verse 8 where the king is going to declare war against, the king of Syria is going to declare war against Israel. That's the way this starts out. Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants saying, at such and such a place shall be my camp. But the man of God, and here we're talking about Elisha, but the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are going down there. And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him so that he saved him there more than once or twice. So basically,

Elisha is telling the king, hey, this is what's going on with the Assyrians. They're camping here, they're camping there, they're going to attack here, they're going to attack there. And so every time that the Assyrian general thinks that he's going to get the upper hand against the king of israel then it falls apart and unbeknownst to him at the time anyway he he thinks he's got a spy but he doesn't realize that really what's going on is elisha is uh is telling the king of israel what's what's going on with the syrians yeah and we're not told how this exactly works right just that just that he knows yeah it's kind of it is really kind of a strange thing like he as we'll see in just a second uh we're we're told that the uh that the prophet hears the words that you speak

in your bedroom yeah how yeah how exactly does this work uh i mean it's sort of a uh you know it comes across as like he's clairvoyant or something uh it's not the case uh but you know just god just come and say hey this is what's going on this is what the king is thinking this is what the king is saying this is what his plans are how does this actually work i i don't know we're not told. We are told, verse 11, that the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing. Yeah, I bet he was. Every time he tries to be successful in an attack, it falls apart. So he calls his servants and he says, will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel? So in other words, he thinks he's got a mole. Somebody knows what's going on in Syria.

Here's what's happening when the king of Syria talks. And then they're an informant. They're letting the Israelites know what's going on. So his servants reply, that's not the case. They say, nobody. So there's nobody who is for the king of Israel that's in our group. It's not like we have a spy in our midst. But Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.

That's kind of a creepy revelation. Yeah. Hey, yeah, whatever you say, you know, your pillow talk with your wife or your secret counsel with your highest generals, there's somebody listening all the time, and it's a prophet who is in Israel. So he says, go and see where he is, and I may send and seize him. And then he was told that he is in Jotham. Talk more about that in just a second. so verse 14 tells us that he sent their horses and chariots and a great army and they came by night and and surrounded the city so uh first of all this this location dothan or dothan or

however you want to want to say it we've only heard about this place one other time uh it's back in genesis in chapter 37 so you remember when uh when joseph was a young man and his his dad jacob sent him to check on his brothers and so he goes trying to find him and this he's lost or he's just wandering in a field and God comes up to him and he inquires and this guy happens to know oh yeah they were here but they left and they're in now in in Dothan or they're in Dothan and that then is where Joseph's brothers sees him rip off his his coat of many colors throw him into the dry pit and then sell him into into slavery which is how of course he ends up in Egypt so this place is already a place that's associated with betrayal with violence with uh with with

doing evil to, to a brother. And we're going to see, I think that's so fitting because what we're going to see happen is that Elisha in this case, it's going to be kind of like Joseph. He's going to actually provide for those who are his enemies, just like Joseph ended up providing for, for Egypt. So it's kind of a interesting geographical tie in between what happened back in Genesis. And now what's going to happen in the case of, case of Elisha. so uh that's where they go now i don't think the king of syria is really thinking this through

because if elisha knows the words that he speaks in his bedroom then it's not like elisha is going to be somehow unaware of the fact that this guy is going to send his horses and chariots and they're going to surround his city it's not going to catch him by surprise in other words yeah it's very hard to surprise someone who knows what you're thinking yeah it's not gonna not gonna work out very well but you know that's that's what he's gonna that's what he's gonna shoot for he thinks well if i can just if i can take out the prophet then i can finally be uh successful against the king of israel so uh verse 15 tells us that the servant of the man of god so elisha's servant gets up early in morning and uh you know grabs himself a cup of coffee and thinks he's going to step outside see

what kind of day uh it's it's going to be and behold an army with horses and chariots was all around the city so he runs back inside and uh he says to elisha alas my master what shall we do so he's scared to death and you know understandably understandably so uh but listen to this is a great response of Elisha. He says, don't be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Yeah, I love that verse. It just so perfectly encapsulates the unseen armies of God that are around His people. Yeah, this is probably not extremely comforting if you're the servant. effort you're like dude there's two of us here like what army are you are you speaking of right now yeah have you looked around there's me there's you it's those who are with us are certainly not

more than those who are with them i mean look you've got you got a whole city a whole town surrounded by these uh syrian syrian soldiers with the horses and their chariots in other words the servant, like all of us, was living by sight, right? His eyeballs told him, hey, this is the situation, and you're outgunned, you're outnumbered, there's absolutely no way that you can win this. And Elisha is living not by what he sees, but by what his ears have told him. And that is that God is with him. God's armies are there. And then as we're going to see in just a second, he's going to actually open his eyes so that he can see the unseen, that he can see beyond the visible to the invisible, which of course is just as real. It's just hidden from our

sight. So verse 17 says that Elisha prayed and he said, oh Lord, please open his eyes that he may see. That, by the way, is going to become a repeated theme that we're going to see in just a second in some other episodes where there's an opening of eyes, and then all of a sudden, one is able to see a reality that before was hidden. So he prays this, and the Lord answers it. The Lord 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. Of course, this harkens back to what we saw in the second chapter of 2 Kings where Elijah

is still with Elijah. Elijah hasn't been taken up to heaven yet and so they travel here, they travel there, they finally cross the Jordan on dry ground and then 2 Kings 2.11 says that as they were going on and talking behold chariots of fire and horses of fire separated

the two of them and then Elijah was taken up into a whirlwind into heaven. So these same angelic armies that took Elijah up into heaven are now surrounding his replacement, Elisha. The mountain was full of these horses and chariots of fire. So you got the angelic army surrounding him and what Elisha knew was there,

now his servant also sees. So these are the ones that are with us that are more than those who are with them. So verse 18 tells us that when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prays again. So he first prays that his servant's eyes will be open. Now he's going to pray to the Lord again.

and he prays, please strike this people with blindness. So God answers that prayer too. He struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. And then there's kind of a gap here between verse 18 and 19. Presumably what happens is after Elisha prays, after God strikes this whole army with blindness, then Elisha comes out to them and uh he says this is not the way and this is not the city follow me and i will bring you to the man whom you seek and then he leads them from dothan all the way to to samaria so a few a few miles down the road it's almost a comical scene yeah this prophet leading this leading all this whole army of blind guys who have to be like stumbling along not knowing where they're going

just super confused yeah i mean i do like the contrast of elisha praying that his servant would have spiritual eyes opened and then praying that these soldiers would have physical eyes closed yeah yeah it's a yeah it is a it's wonderful contrast there so the servant now sees the sees the unseen and the enemies uh don't see anything at all yes they're drawn into uh drawn into darkness now if we if we if we didn't know the story if we were just reading along and uh we saw what was happening we might think ah i know what's gonna happen so uh elijah has these guys. He's leading them like a dog, like a blind dog, and is going to take these enemy soldiers to their death. I mean, this would be the perfect chance in order to wipe them out

completely. So, I mean, that's kind of what we might assume, but as we'll see beginning with verse 20, that is not what happened. So he leads them to the capital of the northern kingdom, to Samaria, takes them to the gates. It's kind of the amazement of the people in Samaria, must have been pretty overwhelming too. They see Elisha's walking along, all these people or all these enemy soldiers are behind him stumbling along and they go through the gates of the city

and leads them into the city itself. Verse 20 says that as soon as they entered Samaria, then Elisha prays again. So this is the third prayer in a row that we have recorded. And this time the prayer was, O Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. So this is almost exactly the same kind of prayer that he prayed for his servant, except he prayed that a servant might see the unseen. And here, he's just simply praying that these guys might regain the very eyesight that beforehand he had prayed God would take away.

So they're inside the city, says the prayer, God answers the prayer, open their eyes, and they saw and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. Yeah, no doubt surrounded by the Israelite soldiers. And then as soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, my father, it's a pretty common term of respect used for the prophets, they're called fathers. So my father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down? The repetition, you can kind of catch the anxious excitement in his voice, right?

What do I do? What do I do? So do I kill him? Do I mow him down? What do you want me to do? Do I strike him down? Elisha answers him, no, you shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those who may have taken captive with your sword and with your bow?

So are you going to like, when you have POWs, are you just going to kill them? No, that's not the way that we treat our enemies. And then the real shock comes after he says, no, you don't strike them down. He says, here's what you need to do. Give them some bread and water. set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.

Now, to the king's credit, he actually does even better. So the prophet says, well, give them some bread, give them some water, kind of give them these bare essentials of survival. Give them a little something to eat and something to drink.

Oh, no, that's not enough. The king decides that he's going to prepare for them a great feast. yeah which is just awesome so he bears this great feast and when they'd eaten and drunk he sends them away and they go back to their master and we read at the end of that little section that the syrians did not come again on raids into into the land of israel that's pretty incredible yeah i mean this is a this is like a narrative if you ever you know you're reading through Romans 12, and you read about what Paul is telling the Roman Christians there. Well, then

think of this narrative. So, Paul, this is Romans 12, 19 through 21. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink for by so doing you will heat burning coals on his head do not overcome by evil but overcome evil with good yeah so this is a this is a perfect romans 12 uh illustration oh i mean this is not a move that would enter the the average human mind to do this is no i mean that's not what you do at the very least you're going to keep them captive right yeah yeah this the the image of uh this whole this whole scene feels like it could be like

lifted from the gospels yeah you've got some yeah you got some situation here where uh uh jesus could you know take vengeance upon his enemies uh and it says and it said he says oh i've got a better idea to what let's uh let's get the very best wine out let's get the very best food out and let's just prepare a feast. And we're going to sit down at table with these guys that came to kill us and we're going to break bread with them. We're going to have table fellowship

with people that wanted to take us out. And then we're going to send them on their way at peace, at peace with us. I mean, it's such a, it sort of is like the gospel that's acted out because it is the exact reversal of what you would expect. Instead of the man of God taking vengeance, he shows mercy.

Instead of the enemy receiving what they deserve, they receive the exact opposite of what they deserve. They receive mercy. They receive grace. They receive food and food and drink. So this table is prepared for them to which they were completely unworthy. So those who sought to kill, those who were enemies are actually then brought into this great feast of celebration. Yeah, I think psychologically, this move does make you—I mean, they had to have come back from there being like, I don't think you want to mess with those people. So they, because the confidence that that at least portrays, even if you don't actually have it, is that that will shake you a little bit. You're like, well, so you go back and you're like, what happened?

Well, they captured us basically. And then they had this huge feast and they fed us and then they sent us home. and if you if your enemy did that if you're like the leader you would be like okay i don't know what this guy's up to but i'm not sure i want to find out i think i'm just gonna yeah i think i'm just gonna put this whole thing on hold yeah it had to be one of the most confusing things and the most confusing thing that ever happened to these people yeah i mean everybody has they all have their war stories but they're like uh yeah let me tell you about a war story that you've never heard the like so before yeah you here's what happened if you're the commander you're

sitting there trying to figure out what is happening like what does he what does he do like and you would be convinced that this person is doing something and if somebody's doing something have you i mean i assume if you're at war with someone and then they do something and you're very confused by it and you and you can't figure it out that's going to give you pause because You're going to feel like I'm being outsmarted here because I can't figure out this move. And that's what it seems like happened and worked. It was so confusing that you just sort of end up being too freaked out to continue. Yeah.

And in that way, too, it is like the gospel because it completely throws us off balance. Yeah. What do you mean? So I come as an enemy, but you treat me as a friend? I come to kill, but instead you feed me and you give me this great feast and send me away in peace. Yeah, that'll throw your view of the world completely off. You're like, oh, I guess this is what grace feels like. To expect the worst and then to receive the best instead.

Well, the gospel is like that. I mean, the gospel, Paul kind of speaks of the gospel in three ways, which is a stumbling block, so that is that it's offensive, as foolishness, that is, it makes no sense. In fact, when you actually look at it, this sounds ridiculous, like only a fool would do this. And then the third way he describes it is the power of God to salvation. so that's that's what you got and this that's kind of how this i'm sure feels to those trying to figure it out being like this is a this is really stupid and uh but also uh i can't figure it out and that's and the gospel is very much like that you try to figure the gospel out and it doesn't make any sense yeah and i think that's why this this narrative so perfectly encapsulates

that because none of this makes no this makes any sense and you know to a lot of the the israelites it had to have been a stumbling block what do you mean you're you've got the enemy right here why don't you kill them you know or at least hold them captive and then make you know the king of syria pay a ransom to get them back or something anyway you don't just you certainly don't give them a feast you don't let them just walk away with with bellies full uh you have to do something that's more in accordance with uh with the rules of war but again that's uh that's a something walking that's a foolishness and that's the power of god at work in this in this story too that's right so um now this is going to be kind of a jarring transition uh having having covered all of that

and reading at the end the syrians did not come again on raids into the land of israel So a little bit of a jar in contrast with what we read in the very next verse. So this is verse 24. Afterward, Ben-Hadad, we've encountered him and his father several times in 1 Kings. Afterward, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria. so i think there's a couple of different ways that we can that we can uh deal with the the contrast here either they ceased coming on raids like just kind of skirmishes here and there and decided to mount a full attack all right we're going to get the entire army and we're going to

attack this time or some time passed so you had this astonishing episode with the great feast and the release of the soldiers. But then, as always happens, you have a time gap between this miraculous show of grace and the current day, and memory begins to fade, right? You know, you forget about the grace that was shown. You forget about the shock of the mercy that was given to them. And yeah, political calculations come into play again. Whatever it is, some time passes, and you're like, well, you know what? They are our enemies, and we do stand to gain a lot if we invade them, and so let's go ahead and do just that. So whatever the case is, there's a time difference between verse 23 and 24, and certainly it's going to be a changing tactics with the

syrians yeah i don't i don't read this as i don't i don't read this as immediately following this like this happened in like two days later they decided to make this move i i assume that there is a decent amount of time that has elapsed here yeah uh and however long that was uh this time anyway uh at least initially it was it was successful so they go up and they they besiege samaria and uh yeah with with sieges in the ancient world it was always basically the goal was to make sure that the the inhabitants uh were restricted to where they couldn't get any water or any food except what was what was in the city i mean that was the whole purpose of the siege and we'll see in the verses that follow that this this goal of the siege was working very well

In fact, it was working in a grotesque sort of way, as we'll see in just a minute, because people were reduced to eating not only the grossest of foods, but even reduced in some cases to cannibalism. Well, I mean, you have this next line where, I mean, it says that there was a great famine in Samaria, and a famine is not something that happens overnight. You're not like, oh, you wake up one morning and you're like, oh, a famine has hit us. A famine takes a little time to accumulate, right? It's like a drought. You don't have one day without rain and then say, we're in a drought. Well, it's been one day. That's not a drought.

So that's one of the reasons why I think that a significant amount of time has passed because you don't hear anything about a famine. And then you hear that there's a famine. Well, famines, it takes time to establish that you are now in a famine. Yeah, and now that I think about it, it could be the case that famines usually are not restricted to a very small area, right? These are typically larger areas that are affected by this. So what might be going on is this famine stretched into Syria as well. and uh in order to obtain food they decided that they were going to attack samaria yeah and take basically take the food from from their enemies you know when there wasn't a famine

when they had a huge feast yes i mean so time has elapsed here i'm that's what i'm saying is like you don't go from you know what let's uh let's throw a massive feast to now we're gonna we're going to we're going to do this while we're in a some kind of massive famine which you're going to hear the details of this is at a different time i would think has to be yeah and so if you're wondering well how bad a famine was it you know and how bad had the siege of the syrians affected the people of samaria well we're told at the uh at the end of verse 25 so if you wanted a donkey's head. A donkey's head would cost you, we're told, 80 pieces of silver. ESV has shekels. Shekels is not actually in the Hebrew. Maybe it was shekels, but whatever it was, 80 pieces or measurements of

silver. And then, I mean, that is shocking in and of itself, price gouging that's out the roof. But also if you wanted a fourth part of a cob which is probably like a quart or a liter of doves dung then you had to pay five pieces of silver for that not i've eaten some gross things or what some people consider to be gross things in my life but uh i never had donkeys never had donkeys i'm assuming you have not either dan i've not and i've certainly never had like thought of bird poop as uh something i wanted to buy yeah much less buy in order to to consume no there are some people who think this is like a i don't know sort of a slang term for uh like the husks of seeds that's it's partly based upon uh a similar terminology in in acadian another

another language but that's i think it's basically conjecture i think it's probably just best to stick with what we read here uh you got so you got you got doves done and then you've got a donkey's head and uh i suppose you know the brains there and a little bit of meat here and there but uh it's we're talking about the the the base level grossest starvation foods and those are being sold for these exorbitant prices yeah that tells you how that tells you how bad things were yeah The inflation is real high in Samaria. Yeah. So, I mean, that's bad enough.

But as we'll see in just a minute, people had been reduced to eating the unspeakable foods. So, this is verse 26. The king of Israel is walking along the wall of the city. And as he does, a woman cries out to him. And she says, help my Lord, O King. And in Hebrew, that is Hoshia, which could be translated also as save. I mean, it's from Yashah, which means to save, to rescue, to deliver, can mean help as well. So Hosanna.

It's where we get that word Hosanna, right? Yes, exactly. Yeah. So Hosanna is in Hebrew, Hoshia, nah, it's two different words. the na at the end is like please or you know it's a it's a term of entreaty so save now or save please uh so hoshia or hoshiana is is a cry for deliverance cry for help uh so she says help or save or rescue my lord oh king in other words do something you're the king uh do something to help us. And he responds, if the Lord will not help you, and that's that same verb there, if the Lord

won't yasha, save, rescue, help you, then how shall I help you? And then he kind of gets sarcastic, I suppose, from the threshing floor or from the wine press. In other words, what do you think? I'm going to go to my threshing floor and get you some grain and then go to the vineyard and wine press and get you some wine and take care of you. I don't have those resources. There's no wine press. There's no threshing floor. I mean, go to the market. They're selling donkey's heads for all these pieces of silver or a cup of pigeon dung for five pieces of silver. There's no way that I can do anything for you. I am beyond the possibility of being your source of help. but then after kind of being sarcastic and responding that way he asked her what is your

trouble and she answers and this is a kind of a somewhat of a parallel to what we saw earlier with Solomon where he has the two women the two prostitutes that come to him they're disputing about the babies so this is another two women it's another two babies except in this case the situation is, is much more dire. So she says to the king, this woman said to me, give your son that we may eat him today and we will eat my son tomorrow. So, God, this is so, it's hard even to read, much less to, to, to even think about. Verse 29 says, So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day, I said to her, give your son that we may eat him.

But she has hidden her son. So apart from just the inhumanity of what is going on here, just think about this. And what the woman is appealing to the king to do is for him basically to issue a ruling in which that second woman has to give up her son that she has hidden so that they can consume that child today. I would think you're talking about young children here, too, because you're going from one day to the next day. This isn't like you're a teenager or something, I wouldn't think. Yeah, exactly. yeah if they if they consume one child one day and then or can consume the next child the next day then uh probably we're talking about infants here we're not even told they were we're not

even told they were dead we're not even told that they that they died i mean did they i guess possibly were they killing their children not possibly i mean either way they were they're reduced to these horrific circumstances in which cannibalism was taking place. And this was not unknown in the ancient world. In fact, if you go back to Deuteronomy 28, 53 through 57, you can read where this is part of the curses. So Deuteronomy 20 has a lot of those curses. If you rebel against God, if you're unfaithful, if you break the covenant, basically, then here are all these terrible things that are going to happen to you.

Your crops will fail. There's going to be disease. And one of these curses in Deuteronomy 28 is you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters. So Israel, of course, the northern kingdom especially, has been involved in idolatry for quite a while now. They've been rebelling against the covenant this whole time. And we can see in the midst of the siege, the worst effects of that, where you have these two mothers who are making a deal, basically, we'll eat your kid today, and then you can eat my kid tomorrow. And the Lamentations, in Lamentations 2 and Lamentations 4, also speaks about this happening

later on when the Babylonians had besieged Jerusalem. so these things did happen uh as hard as it is even to think about uh cannibalism did take place when people were pushed to the extreme limit of of hunger yeah now i mean either way i think i'm just uh starving to death in this situation but man you gotta hope that the i don't know that these kids already starved to death themselves or or something who knows like but uh you're not we're not told but uh also i mean you're hiding your it it reads like this woman's son is alive and she's hidden him that's what at least if you were just reading it and like that's what that's what it sounds like to me maybe not maybe she's just hiding a body here or something but

yeah i suspect uh her her son is alive i mean otherwise then why would she you know she's already reduced herself to the point of consuming one child and consuming another is is probably that it's already died, uh, is probably not, uh, an impossibility. So, uh, moving past that, uh, verse 30 says when the King heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes as well. He, as well, he should, I mean, this is the worst. And so it's, it's this tearing that sometimes connect with mourning, but also connected with, you know, just, uh, an intense emotional, emotional scene. So he tears his clothes. He was passing by on the wall. The people looked up and And they could see that, I guess, after he tore his clothes, they could see that he had sackcloth on underneath his body.

So he's in mourning. He's in grieving. And you would think as a result of this that the next words out of his mouth would be something that's more like a prayer, right? May God finally yasha' us. May he finally help us, deliver us. But that's not what he says. Verse 31 says that he said, May God do so to me and more also. So this is an oath. Actually, in the Hebrew, we've seen this, I think, on three different earlier occasions.

Twice David swore this oath, and once Solomon swore this oath. So, may God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, remains on his shoulders today. Not an oath you want to be taking. No, and also, you know, something that you're like, is this, this seems like not only, yeah, do you not want to do that? It also seems kind of like, what? yeah it's like he's i guess he's blaming elijah is that the idea here either for either for causing it or for what doing nothing to to end it yeah one of those two maybe it's that uh you know there'd be they've been sieged and uh maybe this probably it seems like took a while to happen but

he's like you know what i really don't know which move i am now thinking i shouldn't have made when i gave all that food when i threw a feast uh to my enemies who are now under their siege and we have no and we have no food you could see why he might be angry with elisha that is not that maybe that he made me not think that the famine is is his fault but uh he could certainly say you know what uh i don't think this worked out the way it could have yeah maybe maybe i should not have listened to elisha back in the day maybe i had my chance to at least take out some of these soldiers Maybe instead of showing mercy, maybe I should have acted with vengeance in that scenario. But either way, that's kind of the situation that they're in.

You got the terrible famine, you got the siege, you got women eating their own children. And now you have the king swearing an oath that he's going to behead the prophet before the day is over. So that's not the best of ways to end an episode. but but that we are at the 40 minute mark uh it's not over uh in fact uh hang tight and and and come back on the next episode because we're going to see a dramatic transformation that's going to to take place where we go from the worst of situations to the to the very best of situations yeah awesome well yeah there's your cliffhanger so make sure you come back for the for the next episode. Elisha has had a threat made against his head. And so we will see if that comes to

fruition or not. Chad, I will see you next episode. All right. See you then.