Daily reading

Today’s reading is: 2 Kgs. 5-8

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2nd Kings Chapter Five

  1. Naaman is a gentile military commander, who is blessed by the Lord in temporal-life blessings (2nd Kgs. 5:1).
    1. Naaman = “pleasantness” (cf. Naomi), but his physical health was not pleasant.
    2. A Jewish slave-girl laments that Naaman can’t go to the Samarian prophet (Elisha) (2nd Kgs. 5:2-3).
    3. The King of Aram (Ben-Hadad II, 860-841BC) provided for Naaman to travel to Israel, and to offer a gift to the prophet of Samaria (2nd Kgs. 5:4-5).
    4. The King of Israel (Jehoram (Joram), 852-841BC) didn’t have the same faith that the gentile military man had (2nd Kgs. 5:6-7).
  2. Elisha provides instructions for Naaman’s healing, and teaches an important message of salvation by grace through faith (2nd Kgs. 5:8-14).
    1. Instructions were provided through a messenger (v.10).
    2. The method for cleansing was too easy for the gentile way of thinking (vv.11-12).
    3. Simple faith in the revealed message was all that was required (v.14).
  3. Naaman tried to reward Elisha with temporal-life wealth, but Elisha would not take it (2nd Kgs. 5:15-16).
  4. Naaman made an extraordinary request as a man who must fulfill his temporal-life obligations in the service of a pagan king (2nd Kgs. 5:17-19).
  5. Gehazi becomes greedy for the wealth that Elisha passed up, and fabricates a lie in order to obtain that wealth for himself (2nd Kgs. 5:20-27).

2nd Kings Chapter Six

  1. The sons of the prophets were outgrowing their facilities, and Elisha assisted them in their building program (2nd Kgs. 6:1-7).
  2. Jehoram was blessed to have a prophet in his kingdom to provide Divinely accurate intelligence in his war with Aram (2nd Kgs. 6:8-14).
  3. Ben-hadad II, King of Aram, determined to destroy Jehoram’s Divine intelligence agent by surrounding him at Dothan (2nd Kgs. 6:15-23).
    1. The Lord used this temporal-life circumstance to teach a spiritual-life principle regarding the angelic conflict (vv.15-17).
    2. Elisha took the army captive, and delivered them to Jehoram for yet another spiritual-life lesson (vv.18-23).
  4. With the marauding bands no longer available to him, Ben-hadad mustered the national army of Aram, and laid siege to Samaria (2nd Kgs. 6:24-33).
    1. The siege produced famine.
    2. Famine produced great evil.
    3. The great evil was blamed on Elisha.
    4. Jehoram determined to murder Elisha.

2nd Kings Chapter Seven

  1. Elisha delivers a prophetic message concerning the next day’s battle with Aram (2nd Kgs. 7:1-2).
  2. The Lord delivered Israel and provided for their feeding, according to the word which He sent to Elisha (2nd Kgs. 7:3-20).
    1. Human wisdom cannot comprehend the extent of Divine provision (vv.2,17,19).
    2. Helpless lepers are the messengers of Divine grace (vv.3-4).
    3. God took from the pagan Arameans to provide for the apostate Jews in Samaria (vv.7-8,15-16).
    4. Carnal believers tend to be as cynical as unbelievers in their failure to recognized Divine grace provision (v.12).

2nd Kings Chapter Eight

  1. Elisha prophesied a seven year famine, and warned the Shunamite woman to flee where she could (2nd Kgs. 8:1-6).
  2. Elisha went to Damascus, and undertook a prophetic ministry there to anoint Hazael as the next King of Aram (2nd Kgs. 8:7-15; cf. 1st Kgs. 19:15-16).
  3. (vv. 16-24 provided in Day 170) 
  4. The reign of Ahaziah is described (2nd Kgs. 8:25-29).
    1. Ahaziah had a short, one-year reign over Judah (v.26).  He is also known as Jehoahaz (2nd Chr. 21:17).
    2. Ahaziah was another wicked king of both Davidic and Omric descent, who followed after the evil of Ahab & Jezebel (v.27).
    3. Ahaziah allied himself with his uncle, King Joram of Israel, in a war against Aram at Ramoth-gilead (2nd Kgs. 8:28).  The war does not go well, and the two kings retreat to Jezreel for medical treatment (v.29).