Medicine Hat Joe

Week 18  2 Kings 15

The northern kingdom of Israel didn’t just suddenly disappear. It’s more like it did a long and slow swansong fading to a whisper. Then gone.
I was reminded of that today in my reading: during (Pekah’s) reign King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria attacked Israel again, and he captured the towns of Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, and Hazor. He also conquered the regions of Gilead, Galilee, and Naphtali, and he took the people to Assyria as captives. I checked a not-too-detailed map and found two of the cities – Kedesh & Hazor. I also spotted the region of Galilee and the tribal territory of Naphtali. All of them are in the geographic north of the northern kingdom.
The territorial losses reminded me of something I read a couple of days ago: at about that time the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel’s territory. King Hazael conquered several sections of the country east of the Jordan River, including all of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh. I checked another map that was not-too-detailed but it was detailed enough for me to see that a huge central chunk of Israel east of the Jordan was lost during that time.
There’s maybe fifty or sixty years between the Jordan East losses to Hazael and the Israel North losses to Tiglath-pileser. Israel is slowly sinking in the international sunset. Slowly but surely.
I also read chapter 17 today. Good-bye Israel.

Note: quotes from 2 Kings 15:29 & 10:32-33 (NLT)

Week 18  2 Kings 13

Yesterday was the end of April so it was time to do a reading-progress check.
2022 is 33.3% in-the-books now so I needed to be 33.3% of the way through the bible to be on-track. I add up the numbers (Genesis-2 Kings 12 plus 121 psalms = 446 chapters).
That means I’ve read 37.5% of the bible. I don’t think staying-ahead is any easier than catching-up…but being ahead definitely feels better.
So if someone asked me ‘how’s your reading going?’ I’d say ‘okay’.
But if someone asked me ‘how’s your Kings reading going?’ I’d likely say ‘okay…I guess’. Because Kings – the second book especially – is an Attentiveness-Demanding book and a minefield for a careless reader.
One example: 2 Kings says that Joash the son of Ahaziah was king of Judah. Then it says that during Joash’s 37th year as king Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel.
And then in the next chapter it referred to Joash the son of Joahaz king of Israel. I logically infer that Jehoash & his father Jehoahaz (in chapter 13) are a different son-father than Joash & his father Joahaz (in chapter 14). But an added note in my bible says that the name Jehoash is a variation of the name Joash. Jehoash (in 13) = Joash (in 14). So now I’m guessing that Jehoahaz is likely a variation of the name Joahaz…which makes Jehoahaz (in 13) = Joahaz (in 14).
And that’s just one example that I happened to read today.

Note: see the Joash story in 2 Kings 13:1-14:1 (NASB). Especially 13:9-10 & 14:1

Week 17  2 Kings 9

The story catches me by surprise. Elisha tells one of his men to go to Ramoth-gilead with a message for an army commander named Jehu. Here’s the exact message Elisha dictated: this is what the Lord says: I anoint you to be king over Israel. That’s it – a 14-word message.
But when Elisha’s man goes and speaks to Jehu he gives him a longer message – five-verses long – about 110-words. There’s an obvious discrepancy and I think about what to make of it.
Maybe Elisha gave the young prophet a 14-word message but then his man went off half-cocked and added a bunch of extra gobbledygook when he met Jehu.
Or maybe Elisha gave the young prophet the brief 14-word message but the man was able to expand & develop it – which he could do because he was a prophet too.
Or maybe Elisha gave the young prophet the full 110-word forecast but the writer of 2 Kings didn’t want to repeat the 110-words twice so be abbreviated Elisha to 14-words (and assumed I’d figure it out).
The last option makes good sense to me.
And it’s a reminder that the writer’s decisions are part of the reading mix. He has to make editorial choices – what to include…what to exclude. I need to keep the writer in mind. He had his own limitations & requirements.
I usually figure the bible is plenty long as it is but I sometimes wish the writer added some detail.

Note: quote from 2 Kings 9:3 (NLT)

Week 17  2 Kings 1

A guy once told me you can prove anything you want from the bible. I figure that if bible writers had decided to compose a bland encyclopedic document that was endlessly reader-editable then maybe it’s true. But I’m not exactly convinced the bible is that gelatinous.
Of course reading the bible isn’t a walk-in-the-park. Last week I read the story of a troop that came to arrest Elijah and – in a divinely-mandated strike – was instantly incinerated. I’m asking myself: what do I do with that?
If – like the guy said – I can do anything I like then I can say: that’s unfair. Cruel. Terrible. God is brutal-unfeeling-disgusting. Like that. But if I can’t just do anything I like then I try a couple of other things: a) admit I don’t know and b) file it for now and c) realize that not knowing now isn’t the same as not knowing.
Anyway Elijah’s story was in memory when I read psalm 119 today. The writer said about the Lord: you are good and only do good. And later: your decisions are fair.
A few days ago it looked like the Lord acted in an unexplained and unfair and arbitrary way. But today I read that he has reasons and he’s fair and acts with purpose.
He acts – and apparently only acts – in good ways.
Today was a bible-reader’s reminder: I’m not just reading…I’m trying to correctly jigsaw bits-and-pieces together.

Note: quotes from Psalm 119:68 & 75 (NLT). The Elijah story’s in 2 Kings 1.

Week 17  2 Kings 5

Naaman was an outsider – an Aramean – a non-Israel guy. So generally-speaking he was in the broad classification of being foreign & oppositional & a danger to Hebrew life and health. An enemy. But he travelled to Israel in search of a miracle.
It’s hard to know whether he thought he would definitely get his miracle or whether he was just thinking I’ve-got-nothing-to-lose. But he did have at least three expectations: a) I thought (Elisha) would come out to meet me! b) I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and c) (I expected him to) call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me. (Naaman also threw in a water-quality comparison question – aren’t the Abana River and the Pharpar River of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel put together? – but that was more an annoyed add-on.)
Anyway when Elisha didn’t a) meet him personally or b) wave his hands or c) publicly call on God Naaman was furious. He could also have been a bit self-conscious about his degenerative disease. Maybe irritated at coming to his ethnic-inferior cap-in-hand. Used to giving orders and now having to take them.
But when Naaman’s expectations didn’t materialize he came this-close to going home. Losing his status. Becoming a social outcast. Dying prematurely. Because of what he thought.
Lucky for Naaman that one of his men respectfully floated the idea of giving his expectations a second thought.

Note: quote from 2 Kings 5:11-12 (NLT)

Week 17  Psalm 114

This psalm is an extreme condensation/summary of a 140-chapter chunk of the bible (Exodus 1 to Joshua 4). Hard to believe he’d even try…but the writer did a pretty nice job of squashing it into 8 verses. Hundreds and hundreds of details are skipped in the process but the writer got away with it because he was really just trying to make one main point: when the Israelites escaped from Egypt – when the family of Jacob left that foreign land – the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel became his kingdom.
I tried to visualize the point by drawing a simple diagram/map – a small box inside a big box. In the small box I wrote Israel – God’s Sanctuary. Then in the big box I wrote Outside-Israel – Not God’s Sanctuary (and since I had room I penciled-in a couple of geo-political territories: Egypt & states of Africa & tribes of Europe & kingdoms of India & Chinese dynasties. Like that.) I don’t think this Sanctuary-&-non-Sanctuary distinction is a case of Better vs. Worse. Not Superior vs. Inferior. It’s more like The Safety Zone vs. The Danger Zone.
The Promised Land became the geographic unit where Israel would be safe & protected & secure. In OT Bible World it was Israel’s safe territory. All the rest was unsafe territory in a state of slow degradation.
Unfortunately I remember what’s coming. Non-Sanctuary-type life will be imported into Sanctuary Land. Corrosive renovation’s on the move. Soon enough nowhere will be safe anymore.

Note: quote from Psalm 114:1-2 (NLT)

Week 16  Psalm 106

It’s difficult not to come away from 106 thinking that the point of the psalm is that: both we and our ancestors have sinned. We have done wrong! We have acted wickedly!
The writer hammers away on that idea…gives eight historical instances where Israel acted wickedly. I recognize the eight stories. I’ve been reading them over the last couple of months…
Egyptian slavery
Sea of Reeds
Dathan & Abiram
Gold Calf
Spying Canaan
Baal-Peor
Meribah’s water
Worshipping idols.
Eight readily recallable and indisputable historical events. Eight open-ended opportunities where Israel could act in one way or another. Eight times where they made a choice and acted wickedly.
41 of the 48 verses make that point.
When 85% of a psalm’s content emphasizes We Have Done Wrong then I’d tend to think that’s a high enough percentage to qualify it as a Negativity Psalm.
But the remaining 15% of the psalm carries weight too. Verse one says: give thanks to the Lord for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
And the psalm ends: blessed be the Lord…from everlasting to everlasting.
So maybe 106 is more a Contrastive Psalm. We have acted wickedly…but the Lord’s faithful love endures forever.

Note: quotes from Psalm 106:6, 1, 48 (NLT)

Week 15  2 Samuel 13

The book begins with the pathway open for David to become king of Israel. The skies are clear & blue. They stay like that for ten chapters.
But then the horizon begins filling with cumulonimbus after David’s sexual and homicidal gangsterism. From then on the book’s dark episodes impress on David the rule that evil actions come with vicious aftermaths.
One example: David’s first son – Amnon – had a goliath-sized lust for his half-sister – Tamar. Sexual intercourse with your sister wasn’t legal so…what to do?
A crafty guy named Jonadab doped out that Amnon was preoccupied about something. When he found out what it was then he began reflecting…what to do?
Jonadab could have advised in a couple of directions. For instance he could have said: there’s a law against that kind of sexual intercourse so you can’t do it. It’s illegal. But he affirmed Amnon’s sexual tilt: ok…so you want to have sexual intercourse with your half-sister…let’s figure out how we can make that happen.
With Jonadab’s bad advice in hand Amnon tried to seduce Tamar but then raped and humiliated her. Tamar’s brother – Absalom – found out and eventually murdered Amnon.
That’s an example of how the blue started washing out of David’s sky. From there the colours faded to late-evening greys.
In the end David did recover within his own spirit. But mentally & psychically & emotionally & domestically & nationally he lived his later life in the twilight.

Week 15  Psalm 103

For me it’s a slightly odd (but also helpful) way for David to begin the psalm: praise the Lord, I tell myself (another version says bless the Lord, O my soul).
What I notice is that David’s not saying praise the Lord. That would be saying something to the Lord.
David is saying praise the Lord, I tell myself. That means he’s speaking to himself…telling himself what he ought to say: praise the Lord.
On that day David needed to remind himself: praise the Lord.
But he didn’t leave it at that. Praising the Lord was an abstract thing to remind himself to say. So he spelt out several concrete details that answered the questions “how-&-why do I praise the Lord?”
He forgives all my sins
And heals all my diseases
He ransoms me from death
(He) surrounds me with love and tender mercies
He fills my life with good things…
It was a short but useful list of things the Lord had done.
(David wasn’t finished. He went on to list fourteen more things. The majority weren’t things the Lord had done. They were what he was like. His qualities. Mercy. Love. Grace. Even-temper. Like that.)
For now I’m sticking with the first five. All of them are benefits the Lord has given to me too. I shouldn’t need to remind myself to thank the Lord for them. But – like David – I do.

Note: quotes from Psalm 103:1 & 3-5 (NLT & NASB)

Week 14  1 Samuel 24 & 26

The trajectory of Saul’s life went from good to bad to terrible. I wondered if he could have turned things around.
There are two stories that look like potential turning points. Two incidents where Saul was hunting David in the Judean wilderness and he was brought-up-short. Given a bit of a shake-up. Offered some retrospection time.
First time was when Saul took a toilet-break in a cave. It was a bad choice of caves (since David was hiding there) but a perfect chance for David to assassinate the king. But David didn’t. When Saul was a safe distance away David revealed himself. Then: Saul called back, ‘Is that really you, my son David?’ Then he began to cry. And he said to David, ‘You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil.’
Saul went home. Reflection Opportunity #1.
Two chapters later Saul is back on-the-hunt. David had a second chance to assassinate Saul but didn’t. When David was a safe distance away he called to Saul. Then Saul confessed, ‘I have sinned. Come back home, my son, and I will no longer try to harm you, for you valued my life today. I have been a fool and very, very wrong.’
Saul went home. Reflection Opportunity #2.
Both times sounded like I’m-sorry. A kind-of a sorrow. Half-a-sorrow. But as thing turned out for Saul half-a sorrow was about equal to no real sorrow at all.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 24:16-17 & 26:21 (NLT)