Medicine Hat Joe

Week 20  Psalm 127

Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is useless.
I don’t think Solomon is saying that a) the Lord actually builds houses or that b) home builders’ work is futile.
I think Solomon is talking about doing a project and either a) making the Lord part of the mix or b) disregarding the Lord. My choice of a) or b) will determine the project’s Degree of Usefulness.
He says: IF I do something BUT I give zero consideration to the Lord THEN what I do is useless.
Let’s say there’s Project X:
Project X – the Lord = a Useless Project
Project X + the Lord = a Useful Project.
(There’s likely a fairly big middle ground between 100% Uselessness and Total Usefulness. There’s likely many points along a continuum that measure a greater or lesser inclusion or exclusion of the Lord in the project.)
I thought back to the Tower of Babel. I’m guessing those builders solicited roughly zero input from the Lord. The result was a building that registered close to zero on the Degree of Usefulness Scale.
I remember the Lord’s story about two builders. One guy built a house on a sand foundation. The other built on rock. Initially both guys successfully got their houses built and they moved in. And both showed high initial Degrees of Usefulness. But eventually inclement weather would be the real test of the build.

Note: quote from Psalm 127:1 (NLT)

Week 18  2 Kings 17

The kingdom of Israel was finished by chapter 17. Kaput.
At the end of the story the writer goes back to the beginning and says something about the first king: Jeroboam drew Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin. And the people persisted in all the evil ways of Jeroboam. Jeroboam stands out as a beacon of darkness and his (bad) influence comes up again-and-again. For instance Jeroboam’s son: Nadab did what was evil in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of his father, continuing in the sins of idolatry that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.
I wondered about the other 17 kings – Baasha Elah Zimri Omri Ahab Ahaziah Jehoram Jehu Jehoahaz Jehoash Jeroboam II Zechariah Shallum Menahem Pekahiah Pekah & Hoshea. How many of them imitated Jeroboam?
I did a quick 27-chapter scan looking to see if it was definitely spelled-out whether a king followed Jeroboamism. And what I found was that Baasha Zimri Omri Ahab Ahaziah Jehoram Jehu Jehoahaz Jehoash Jeroboam II Zechariah Menahem Pekahiah & Pekah all did (Elah Shallum & Hoshea were the exceptions.)
The kings who followed Jeroboam might have rung-up some of their own individual religious-isms. But the starting point was Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12. He got the ball rolling. The others added momentum.
I don’t know if that makes Jeroboam 1 the worst king (that’s not what I was looking for). But I think he’s a warning about the power of a bad influencer.

Note: quotes from 2 Kings 17:21-22 1 Kings 15:26 (NLT)

 

Week 18  2 Kings 1-8

Jehoram was Ahab’s son. He became king in the first chapter of 2 Kings.
At first I figured that Jehoram’s story was long because he was a contemporary of Elisha – a king hanging-around in the shadow of the prophet. So I needed to check that:
Chapter 1 Jehoram becomes king
Chapter 2 Jehoram isn’t mentioned
Chapter 3 Jehoram is named in the battle against Moab
Chapter 4 Elisha miracle-stories. Jehoram isn’t named
Chapter 5 Naaman miracle. A ‘king of Israel’ is mentioned 3 times. Jehoram isn’t personally named
Chapter 6 Arameans. A ‘king of Israel’ is mentioned about 8 times. Jehoram isn’t personally named
Chapter 7 Ben-had. An unnamed ‘king of Israel’ is mentioned twice
Chapter 8:1-6 a ‘king of Israel’ anecdote. Jehoram isn’t named
Chapter 8:16-24 Jehoram is named. His career is summarized. And then he dies.
Jehoram is only identified clearly in about 35-verses. But I think that he’s probably the (unnamed) king-of-Israel. So in that case 2 Kings devotes about 185-verses to Jehoram’s monarchy. But…when push-comes-to-shove I think he stays mostly in the shadows. A bit of an anonymous phantom.
Both (father) Ahab and (son) Jehoram get a lot of coverage. The big difference between them is that I think Ahab was a star whereas Jehoram was a third-rater. Both were bad. Ahab was Capable Bad. Jehoram seemed more Inept Bad.
At first I thought that Ahab was a marquee guy because Elijah was his contemporary. Now I don’t.
And I thought that Jehoram was only a marquee guy because of Elisha. And I still do.

Week 18  1 Kings 16-22

I’ve been wondering why the Big Four kings of Israel got so much coverage (while the other fifteen only got about seven-verses each).
At first I thought that King Ahab was featured because his story was told in tandem with the life of Elijah – a bit-player behind the main man. That might be true but looking at the Ahab-specific content I see he was pretty important too (of the 209-verses 167-verses are about Ahab). But there’s more to it. The Lord actually communicated with Ahab using the prophets:
• Elijah forecast the three-year drought
• There were the miraculous and shocking events at Carmel
• a prophet gave Ahab battle intel for his fight with the Arameans
• Elijah lowered-the-boom on Ahab because of the murder of Naboth (to his credit Ahab did repent for that)
• Micaiah forecast Ahab’s doom in battle.
So at least five times Ahab bumped into some pretty big signposts. And so now I’m thinking that Ahab was one of the featured Big Four because he was given more first-hand & personal & specific & convincing info from the Lord than any other king of Israel.
In spite of all that he didn’t make the best use of those benefits. In the end the verdict on Ahab was: no one else so completely sold himself to do what was evil in the Lord’s sight as did Ahab.

Note 1: quote from 1 Kings 21:25 (NLT).
Note 2: Ahab connected with prophets in: 17:1 18:16-46 20:13-28 & 35-43 21:17-29 & 22:6-28.

Week 18  1 Kings 9-10

Jehu is the last member of the club that I’m calling the Big Four (I’ll come back to Ahab & Jehoram later).
Jehu’s story covers 73-verses – two full chapters – so it’s pretty thorough. It starts with Elisha forecasting that Jehu will be the linchpin in the destruction of the Ahab-family.
I’ve read the story of Jehu the Annihilator before and words like thug liar conspirator deceiver murderer & executioner come to mind. Jehu looks like an all-round Bad Guy.
But there are two contrary things going on:
First. When the Ahab-family was gone and Baal-worship in Israel was eliminated the Lord’s verdict to Jehu was this: you have done well in following my instructions to destroy the family of Ahab. Because of this I will cause your descendants to be kings of Israel. The Ahab-family had crossed the line and Jehu had become the Hammer of the Lord. Sure…he had something personal to gain from it. But he still got credit.
Second. Later on: Jehu did not obey the law of the Lord with all his heart. He refused to turn from the sins of idolatry. So he was discredited.
I think that Jehu – way more than any other king of Israel – did what he was told to do. But like all the others he latched onto things he was told not to do. And the not-to-dos outweighed the to-dos.

Note: quotes from 2 Kings 10:30 31 (NLT). End-of-month reading report: I’ve read 443 chapters. Reading is 37% completed in 33% of the year.

Week 18  1 Kings 11-14

Out of the nineteen kings of Israel there’s only four that had actual stories told about them (not just summaries). I wasn’t sure why that was but I decided to slow down for a couple of days to see if I could find out why the Big Four – Jeroboam Ahab Joram & Jehu – were treated big.
Jeroboam was the first king of Israel. He began his career as a hard-working official of Solomon until the relationship broke down (Solomon tried to kill him).
After Solomon died Jeroboam led the anti-Rehoboam faction that split away ten tribes from the southern kingdom of Judah-Benjamin.
One of the first things Jeroboam did was to create a new state-religion for the north (a good practical decision but a bad religious one). An unnamed prophet gave Jeroboam a pretty solid negative-prophecy about that. Later another prophet (Ahijah) gave him another dire warning. Jeroboam disregarded both.
The Jeroboam story covers about 80-verses (way more than the 7-verse average of the 15 “obituary-column” kings). I think there’s two reasons Jeroboam got the coverage he did: a) because he was the very first king of Israel and b) because he re-invented religious practices in the north and reoriented everyone away from the Lord.
There isn’t much doubt that Jeroboam was a bad king. Ahijah told him: you have done more evil than all who lived before you…Since you have turned your back on me (the Lord), I will bring disaster on your dynasty.

Note: quote from 1 Kings 14:9-10 (NLT)

Week 18  1-2 Kings

All the kings of Israel are mentioned in the two books of the kings. But with fifteen of them the accounts are very short.
(I wondered if the length-of-the-story corresponded to the length-of-the-reign. But I don’t think so. Jeroboam the Second – for instance – had a long reign (41-years) but his story is told in just seven verses.)
I decided to list the king’s names on a sheet of paper and then add the number of verses allocated to them:
Nadab 7 verses. Baasha 14. Elah 7. Zimri 6. Omri 6. Ahaziah 12. Jehoahaz 9. Jehoash 4. Jeroboam II 7. Zechariah 5. Shallum 3. Menahem 7. Pekahiah 4. Pekah 7. Hoshea 4.
That’s an average of about 7-verses per king. I get the feeling that with these 15 I’m getting something like an obituary column. For example:
Nadab son of Jeroboam began to rule over Israel in the second year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Israel two years. But he did what was evil in the LORD’s sight and followed the example of his father, continuing the sins that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.
That’s pretty much what I get with all fifteen – give or take:
1. Name
2. Family Line
3. Length of Reign
4. Religious Performance
The stories of the other four kings of Israel are different. With Jeroboam I Ahab Jehoram & Jehu I’m getting multiple chapters tracking their stories. I wonder what’s going on with the Big Four.
So I think I’ll have to look at them a bit more carefully.

Note: quote from 1 Kings 15:25-26 (NLT)

Week 17  1-2 Kings

Last year I spent some time looking at the 15 kings of Judah. I wanted to try ranking them to get a comparative idea of how they each graded-out – Best-to-Worst. One thing that impressed me was the poor overall quality of Judah’s kings.
Anyway at the time I had zero interest in the kings of Israel. But this year I decided to balance things out and take a look at the northern kings.
I read through pretty quickly and found 19 kings: Jeroboam I Nadab Baasha Elah Zimri Omri Ahab Ahaziah Jehoram/Joram Jehu Jehoahaz Jehoash Jeroboam II Zechariah Shallum Menahem Pekahiah Pekah & Hoshea.
I noticed an expression that was used about quite a few of them: he did what was evil. That exact phrase described Nadab Baasha Zimri Omri Ahab Ahaziah Jehoram/Joram Jehoahaz Jehoash Jeroboam II Zechariah Menahem Pekahiah Pekah & Hoshea. 15 of 19 kings did what was evil.
That didn’t exactly make the other 4 kings model citizens:
Jeroboam 1 sinned and made all of Israel sin along with him
There’s a sentence about all the sin Elah led Israel to commit
Jehu did not obey the law of the Lord…with all his heart and he refused to turn from the sins of idolatry
And Shallum murdered Zechariah to take the throne.
So this meant all 19 of them were evil kings.
Which seems pretty clear-cut. Even so there’s a couple of things I figure I’ll circle back to and think about.

Note: quotes from 1 Kings 14:16 16:13 2 Kings 10:31 (NLT)

Week 17  Psalm 113

Today I read: our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes. Usually I don’t think too much about how exactly the Lord is spending his time. If I did this verse wouldn’t be too much help. It just says that a) the Lord is in heaven and that b) he’s doing whatever he decides to do.
But the reason the verse registered with me was because just yesterday I also read about the Lord in heaven: who can be compared with the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? So 113 confirmed 115 about the Lord’s position of strength. His elevation. His incomparable ability. But 113 also supplemented 115 by saying that from heaven the Lord stoops to look.
And not only that. 113 says a couple of things that the Lord – having stooped to look – takes action on:
He lifts the poor from the dirt
He lifts the needy from the garbage dump
He sets them among princes
He gives the barren woman a home so that she becomes a happy mother.
So when I compare 113 & 115 there’s two things they agree on. But 113 then adds several concrete example of how the Lord acts:
1) Fact: the Lord is in heaven (113 & 115)
2) Fact: the Lord has unbelievable capacities (113 & 115)
3) Outcome: the Lord helps people in need of help (113)

Note: quotes from Psalm 115:3 & 113:5 6 7-9 (NLT)

Week 17  Psalm 109

The middle (grisly) section of this psalm (verses 6-15) is a prayer-list of bad things that David hopes will happen to the people who are attacking him. He’s basically praying they’ll be cursed with calamity.
This looks like an actual prayer (praying is communicating with the Lord and that’s what David is doing here). But it would have to be classed as a pretty intemperate unrestrained excessive prayer. Let’s face it – it’s a pretty vengeful and hateful prayer. A bible reader instinctively knows that something bad is going on.
And another thing a reader gets tipped-off about is that it’s possible to pray hateful prayers. 109 shows that I can basically say whatever I want in prayer – for example, if I can pray that the Lord will let my enemy’s children wander about and beg then that opens the door to all sorts of possibilities. 109 shows me a couple of things that might develop:
a) I can be really angry with people kicking me around
b) I can pray while I’m angry
c) My angry prayers might mutate into murderous prayers.
I think the real question is whether this is a model prayer for me to imitate or whether it’s an example of a substandard prayer – a prayer that’s  definitely possible and definitely understandable…but a prayer that’s not recommended.
Since I’ve read what Jesus says about what my reaction should be when I’m faced with violence I figure 109 isn’t a model prayer.

Note: quote from Psalm 109:10 (NIV)