Tag: 2 Kings

2 Kings 15:3-4 (KJV)
And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done;
Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.

Would someone please remove the high places?

I am thankful for the faithfulness of God In preserving His promise to David that one from his seed would always sit on the throne in Jerusalem. It’s a testimony to the faithfulness of God and not of men. That’s especially true because it finds its fulfillment ultimately in Jesus Christ.

I am also thankful that, through the history of Judah, there were some very good kings. Uzziah Jehoshaphat, Josiah, and, in the era I am currently reading, there was Amaziah and then Azariah. “did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done; Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.”

The Bible says that they did right in the sight of the Lord. Praise the Lord! But the Bible also says, “Save that the high places were not removed.” 

What were all the reasons the high places remained we might only be able to speculate.

Perhaps it never occurred to them they were a problem
When a culture is used to a thing, even those who long to live for God and not the culture can have a hard time seeing the trouble.

Perhaps it was just not a priority in the reign of the king
With as many pressures as leadership presents, they might have felt like leading people to do right in the sight of the Lord was enough of a battle they should be thankful they could do that.

Perhaps it was a way to appease the people
They did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but they may have thought they would lose the following of the people if they took from them what they really loved.

Whatever the reason, this was a recurring problem. Seldom did the kings ever remove those high places.

And God noticed.

God blessed them and acknowledged what they did right, but He also remembered what they did wrong, or rather, what they didn’t do right. One might argue it was not wrong to leave the high places; it was just that they did not take the right thing to the fullest end.

This, I believe, is a vivid portrait of modern Christianity. We have a world filled with professing believers who are proud to say they do what is right in the sight of the Lord. The trouble is that very few of them carry their faith to the fullest end. We obey the Lord but do not follow Him to the extreme. I would even go so far as to say most Christians would consider extreme Christianity offensive and maybe dangerous.

That was Israel’s complaint with Jesus. His brand of faith was extreme. He preached that they needed to remove the “high places” of religion and tradition and return to a pure walk with God. The practice of religion had replaced faith in God. Jesus dangerously attacked the established practices of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and lawyers.

• Those who trusted Christ were born again.
• Those who did not hung Him on the Cross

What we need today is not a popular Christianity but an absolute Christianity. We need a kind of faith that refuses to walk the safe line between religion and faith. We need someone to answer Jesus’ call to forsake all and follow Him.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

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2 Kings 15:3-4 Someone, Please, Remove the High Places

2 Kings 13:18 (KJV)
And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed.

The setting of this event is essential for the interpretation. By now old, and on his deathbed, Elisha had just instructed the king to shoot an arrow out the window. When the king had done it, Elisha explained that this represented “the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance from Syria.” The next instruction was to take the arrows and “smite them upon the ground.” The arrows represented God’s deliverance from Syria. It should not have been a massive leap from that to view smiting them upon the ground to represent the battle with Syria.

Whoever wants to just barely win a battle?

The passionless response of the king signified his heart.

He did not fully believe the prophet
Though he had come to visit him when he was sick, it was out of kindness and not out of respect. Many people are friendly with the pastor, but wrestle with the idea that he speaks to them for God. Of course, they love him, and they appreciate him. But it’s because he serves them and not because of his service to God.

Or else he did not fully trust God
This was the Lord’s deliverance. But the king of Israel was, at best, a half-hearted believer in God. We know his reign was an evil one. He had no faith in God’s deliverance.

Christians often struggle in these same areas. We want to be on friendly terms with the man of God and with the concept of God. We want to hope in God’s deliverance.^[1] But in truth, we put little faith in God as our victor. Our faith is in our resources. Therefore, we obey what the Bible teaches, but only to a degree. We always save enough of ourselves to manage without God.

In truth, the king should have smitten those arrows until they broke to pieces. They would not give him victory. 

His only true hope was in God.

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^[1] As a means to “hedge our bet,” just in case He can help.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5900 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Kings 13:18 Smash Your Arrows

2 Kings 5:10 (KJV)
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

Elisha was indeed a man of God.

He was willing to aid the King of Israel regardless of his evil standing before the Lord. He was willing to help Naaman the leper despite his position as a captain in Syria and the thief of a young Israeli girl. He judged Gehazi for his sin regardless of his being his personal servant.

• Elisha reached out by a letter to the king of Israel
• Elisha sent his servant to give a message to Naaman
• Elisha refused payment from Naaman

Elisha was, may I say, passionless.

• He held no animosity toward the king
• He held no respect toward the captain
• He held no lust toward wealth
• He held no favor toward Gehazi

But 

• He held great faith in and commitment toward God

A man of God is a man of God and not of men. And because of that, he is of the most good to all men.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5900 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Kings 5:10 When A Man of God Is Able To Do The Most Good

2 Kings 23:6 (KJV)
And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.

While I would not call it an agreement, I would say that Bible students have a consensus that “the graves of the children of the people” is a reference to those children that had been sacrificed to the gods whose idols Josiah was now burning to powder. 

It’s intriguing to me to think that those same people who sacrificed their children cared enough to then bury them. It is truly an inordinate affection that will kill a child you love for devotion to an idol the living God has called an abomination. Man’s hatred of the True God motivates the grossest of deeds. 

I think right now of the parent who, claiming to love their children, effectively sacrifices them to the gods of this world. 

• Refusing to trust the Lord as Saviour. 
• Rejecting His Word as the source of life direction. 
• Hating the very idea of surrendering to God

they turn their children over to the prince of the power of the air. 

And then they grieve when that sacrifice costs them their child’s life. Or worse. 

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

2 Kings 23:6 A Child’s Grave

2 Kings 22:11 (KJV)
And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.

Israel had been a people for thousands of years. They had possessed the words of the book of the Law for a thousand or so. They had experienced great revivals and had known days of evil and spiritual darkness. Therefore, Josiah, the king, could not have known something of the Word of God. Yet when they discovered the Word of the book of the Law in the Temple, and read it before him, he rent His clothes and repented.

Some say that Christianity has reached its zenith, and it cannot have the impact it once had. They argue that, at least in the United States, its message has been told and retold until people know it and are immune to it. 

I say that Josiah repented not because he was so shocked at this message from God that he had never heard before but because God brought upon him a sense of conviction. 

That’s what we need today. That’s my prayer for America. 

“God, lead our leaders to ‘rend their clothes.’ O Lord, guide our nation to revival before You.”

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

2 Kings 22:11 O Lord, Guide Our Nation

2 Kings 20:2 (KJV)
Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,

Ahab turned in a sullen mood when not give his way.^[1] Hezekiah turned perhaps on his bed, to pray in as private a manner as possible. Matthew Henry writes, “When we cannot be so private as we would be in our devotions, nor perform them with the usual outward expressions of reverence and solemnity, yet we must not therefore omit them, but compose ourselves to them as well as we can.”

There is no such thing as a time when a believer, one who loves the Lord, can’t find some means of communion with the Lord. Circumstances may be different for each of us. In different circumstances, how we find that private communion may take on its own character. The believer privileged with time, may have an hour or more alone. The prisoner may find they must be content in the privacy of their mind. One may find they have books, notepads, and other resources at their disposal. Another may find that they must rely on what has been committed solely to memory and that which the Holy Ghost recalls to mind.

It is a matter of heart and of spirit. Those who love the Lord will have a way, and find a time, to meet with the Lord.

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^[1] 1 Kings 21:4 (KJV)
And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

2 Kings 20:2 A Matter of Heart

2 Kings 18:4 (KJV)
He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

It is a very common practice in my day for statues and monuments, meant to memorialize great leaders or significant points of history, to be torn down and destroyed. 

Some of them, I think, ought to come down 
Those of Stalin and Saddam Hussein, for instance. 

Some of them are a tragedy to have them come down 
Statues of Robert E Lee and other Confederate leaders are a demonstration, not so much of their rebellion, but of our nation’s willingness to forgive and unite. Those tearing them down do not understand the significance of them to US solidarity. 

It is tragic that the serpent Moses had made needed to be destroyed 
From an historic point of view, it marked a major milestone in Israel’s history. But history is not our God. When an historical figure evolves into something more than an academic or moral lesson, it is completely appropriate to remove it from our presence. 

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

2 Kings 18:4 Remove It From Our Presence

2 Kings 16:16 (KJV)
Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

God’s patience with northern Israel is one of the hopeful things I see in the Old Testament. They strayed so far from Him, rebelled so wickedly against Him. And yet, because of His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He was merciful to them. 

But there came a time when this compassion and mercy came to an end. Likely we could list several reasons why God finally cast them away. One of those major turning points was here, in this passage. 

Urijah, the priest, the man whose responsibility was before God, did according to all that the wicked king commanded. 

It seems to me that this is the final stroke for any people. When those who are called to be the spiritual leaders are merely political followers, a people are doomed. 

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

2 Kings 16:16 Political Followers