BIBLE STUDY -- ELISHA DIES
THE DEATH OF ELISHA
From 2 Kings 10:35; 13:1-25; 14:15-16
After a reign of twenty-eight years, King Jehu of Israel died and was buried in Samaria. Thus, while King Joash of Judah was repairing the temple and doing other things in Judah and Jerusalem, Jehoahaz became the new king in the northern kingdom of Israel. In fact, it was the twenty-third year of King Joash’s reign when this took place. Jehoahaz then ruled for the next seventeen years over Israel. Jehoahaz was an evil king and followed the practice of idolatry which Jeroboam had begun, causing Israel to sin. This made Adonai angry with Israel and He permitted King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-hadad to defeat them. Hazael made life so miserable for the Israelites that Jehoahaz prayed to Adonai for help. Adonai listened to him and rose up able leaders to rescue Israel from the Syrians. But as soon as things settled down, Israel began to sin again. They kept on worshiping idols, as Jeroboam had led them to do and they also kept the Asherah idols in Samaria. Before long Jehoahaz had only fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten-thousand-foot soldiers left, for Syria had destroyed all the others, trampling them like dust under their feet. Then in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of King Joash of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign along with his father in Samaria and continued as king for sixteen years. At last, Jehoahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in Samaria. The rest of his adventures are recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. After the death of Jehoahaz, his son Jehoash (Joash) ruled as sole king over Israel. He also was an evil king and followed the idolatry which Jeroboam had introduced into Israel, causing Israel to sin. During the reign of Jehoash, Elisha was confined to his home with the illness which caused him to die. Jehoash went to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he sobbed. “You are as important to Israel as our chariots and horsemen.” Then Elisha told the king to do something. “Take your bow and arrows,” Elisha said and the king did as he was instructed. “Now put your bow in your hands,” Elisha added. When the king did that, the prophet put his hands on the hands of the king. “Open the window toward the east,” said Elisha. When the king did that, Elisha ordered him to shoot, which he did. “That was Adonai’s arrow!” Elisha shouted. “He will give you victory over Syria, for you will conquer them at Aphek. Pick up those other arrows and strike the ground with them.” Jehoash picked up the other arrows and struck the ground three times. That made Elisha angry. “You should have struck the ground five or six times,” he said. “Then you would have completely defeated Syria. Now you will have only three victories over them.” After that, Elisha died and was buried. Some time later, a band of Moabites was coming through the land as they frequently did in the spring. They came near Elisha’s tomb as some men were burying a friend nearby. When these men saw the Moabite band, they quickly slipped their friend’s body into Elisha’s tomb so they could hurry away. As soon as the man’s body touched Elisha’s bones, he came back to life and stood on his feet. Throughout the reign of King Jehoahaz of Israel, the Syrians had oppressed them. But Adonai graciously kept Israel from being totally destroyed by King Hazael of Syria, for He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When Hazael died, his son Ben-hadad became king of Syria in his place. As predicted by Elisha, King Jehoash of Israel had three victories over Ben-hadad and recovered the cities which Israel had previously lost to the Syrians. The other adventures of King Jehoash are recorded in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. When he died, he was buried in Samaria with the previous kings of Israel and his son Jeroboam II reigned in his place.
COMMENTARY --- TOMBS OF PALESTINE
The earliest tombs found in Palestine, from thousands of years before the Israelites, were simply graves dug in the floor of cave dwellings. These were usually communal graves, with food, weapons and tools buried alongside individuals. Much later, people placed the dead in large pits with plastered sides. Flat stones covered the top, and stones marked it as a tomb. The same pit was used for burials over many years. Stone tombs called “dolmens” were the first ones built above ground. Stone slabs were braced together to form a three-sided room; a fourth slab across the top formed a roof. The tomb was covered with earth and never reopened. Eventually people began digging graves into the soft limestone hills, and they became the major type of tomb. Bones of the dead were placed in small chests called ossuary’s and then set in the cave. The same cave continued to be the collecting place until it became full. A simpler type of burial chest was the “cist” grave; a burial chamber cut to fit the individual and lined with stone slabs, forming a kind of underground chest. By Old Testament times, tombs were cut directly into rock-veined hills. The most common type was the shaft grave, in which a deep tunnel led to an underground cavern. The shaft was sealed at the bottom with a large stone. The Israelites carried the body into the tomb on a bier and placed it in the centre of the chamber. The bones were moved aside for each new burial. The need for more space led to the use of benches along the chamber walls, where funeral biers were placed. These benches eventually developed into niches hollowed into the walls. The shafts also disappeared, becoming steps leading to a main chamber room. Passageways inside the vault led into other rooms containing these burial niches. The great expense of cutting such tombs limited their use to families of wealth. The poor buried their dead as they had for centuries in shallow graves, cists and open caves.
Something that causes such confusion with the Paul’s letters today is, we are reading them through two thousand years of tradition and man made doctrine while trying to defend those same traditions and doctrines that have no defense. We can’t say on one had Paul writes the law was done away with while on the other hand he writes 1 Thessalonians 4:7— 8, “For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness. Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.” Paul is explaining how to apply Leviticus and Ezekiel to shelves of the people who would have first read his letter.
"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works."
Re 20
Thought for Today: Tuesday September 30
What is your fear today? Do you fear the future? Do you fear life’s burdens that sometimes seem almost overwhelming? Do you fear death? Most people -- including many, many believers – fear everything except YHVH! People even fear satan more than YHVH – fear of the creation rather than fear of the Creator! Yet it is Him whom we should fear most of all. Yeshua can put an end to fear for all who trust in Him. He is the answer to any fear you may have. After all, YHVH’s power is greater than the powers of evil, and “neither death or life, neither angels or demons, neither the present or the future or anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of Elohiym that is in Yeshua Moshiach our Adonai” (Romans 8:38-39)
When Elyon gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
Deuteronomy 32:8
Elyon (the Most High) and El Shaddai (God of the Mountain) are names for God that remind his people that the minor gods of their high places are nothing compared to Him. He is the Highest, the only true God of the Mountain.
The borders of Israel might be set by the number of God's people in relation to the world. Look at the map and remember this: "Narrow is the path and few who find it."
New episode, When What You ‘re Taught Doesn’t Match What You Read. Listen where you get your favorite podcasts, use the player on our homepage, watch on You Tube, Rumble or The Torah Network’s Torah Tube.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is...submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:17,21 ESV
Mutual submission within the body of Christ *because of Christ in the body*.
If you can't set your ego aside and be a team player once in a while, even when you think there's a better way, then you are creating an autoimmune condition in the body of Christ.
The Bible uses rain as a metaphor for a spectrum of good and evil. A #merism in a single word. At one extreme is drought. At the other is hail and fire. Righteousness and life are right in the middle. Moses prays that his speech will fall like light rain, the perfect good for Israel.
The Song of Moses begins and ends with praise for the God of Heaven. Much like the Lord's Prayer as taught by Yeshua.
Deuteronomy 32 #haazinu #biblepatterns
UPDATE POST:
It has been almost a year since my last update. There are a few things that have happened or are coming soon and I wanted to do another one.
- I hit 1,000 comics recently! I know I am excited about that fact. You can see the 1,000th comic here: https://thestraightandnarrow.cfw.me/comics/1000
- The new Torah 4 Churchies book is available in paperback or e-book! You can get it here: http://amazon.com/author/straight_n_narrow
- I have been working on the website again. I am hoping to have that up sometime this year.
- Portions Series 2 will be wrapping up with Sukkot. I will have completed the whole Bible at that point. I do not plan on starting another Portions Series at the moment. What I will do is change Fridays to another As The Torah Scrolls comic. Saturdays has been my random Throwback posts. I will change this to a Throwback Portion comic and move the random to Thursdays.
Thank you all for being part of this journey with me. I pray that the comic continues to bless you and yours. May YHWH bless you and keep you. Shalom!
#haazinu, the name of this week's #torah portion (Deuteronomy 32), means "give ear". Here are some corresponding Apostolic passages to study along with related commentary and videos: https://www.americantorah.com/....2021/02/18/parsha-ha
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