Ahab's body was taken home and buried. Dogs licked his blood just as God had told him. His son Ahaziah became king. Jehoshaphat, son of Asa was king of Judah and he ruled for 25 years. (Jesus was from the tribe of Judah.) Jehoshaphat obeyed the Lord and was at peace with Israel. When Jehoshaphat had been king for 17 years, Ahaziah became king in Israel. Ahaziah worshiped Baal and made the Lord angry as his father had done.
2Kings begins with the Lord's condemnation of Ahaziah. Somehow the king fell through some wooden slats and badly injured himself. He sent messengers to a nearby town to ask the god Baalzebub if he would get well. Meanwhile an angel sent Elijah to tell these messengers that their king was on his deathbed. They went back to the king and told him what happened and the king asked them what he looked like. They told him that he was hairy. Immediately he knew it was Elijah! At once he sent an officer with 50 men to Elijah. The officer told Elijah the king ordered him to talk to him. Elijah told the officer that because he was a man of God, that God would send down fire on him and his 50 soldiers. Immediately they were burned up. So Ahaziah sent another officer and 50 more soldiers to Elijah. The same thing happened again. The third time, the officer knelt down and begged Elijah to not burn them. The angel of the Lord told Elijah to go with this officer. He went to Ahaziah and told him that because he inquired of Baalzebub about his injury, he would die. Then he died. Ahaziah had no sons, so his brother Joram assumed the throne. By now Jehoshephat had died and his son, Jehoram had been king of Judah 2 years.
The time had come for the Lord to take Elijah away. He kept telling Elisha to stay behind, but he insisted on going with him. They came to the Jordan river, Elijah took off his coat, rolled it up and smacked the water with it and the river opened up so they could walk across on dry ground. There was a crowd of 50 prophets watching them. When they reached the other side Elijah told Elisha that it was almost time for him to leave and wanted to know if there was something he could do for him. Elisha asked for twice Elijah's power, so the other prophets would know he had taken Elijah's place. Elijah told him it wouldn't be easy and that it would only happen if he saw Elijah as he was taken away. As they walked along, a flaming chariot and horses appeared and in a whirlwind carried Elijah up to heaven. Elisha picked up Elijah's coat which had fallen to the ground and went back to the Jordan and rolled the coat and tapped the water and it parted just as before. The other prophets, still watching, realized he had Elijah's power and bowed down to Elisha and told him they had some men who could go find Elijah. Elisha told them they wouldn't find him. They kept bugging him, so finally he let them go. They searched 3 days and never found Elijah. Elisha purified the water at Jericho. Some boys started making fun of Elisha because he was bald. Elisha cursed the boys and two bears ran out of the forest and ripped 42 of them to pieces.
Joram became king during Jehoshaphat's 18th year as king of Judah. He reigned for 12 years. He did evil, but not as bad as his father. During the reign of Joram, the people of Moab rebelled against Israel. He asked if Jehoshaphat would help him and he told him he would. They marched and met the king of Edom and his army and they all went out to attack Moab. Seven days later there was no water and they were all panicking. Jehoshaphat asked for a prophet and was told that Elisha was with them, so he had him come to him. Elisha told them to find someone to play the harp, so accompanied by harp music Elisha prophesied that not only would they be given water, but they would defeat Moab's army. In the morning water began to rise up, and the Moabites thought it looked like blood in the sunrise and they thought that the three armies had killed each other. When they investigated they were surprised by the three armies and fled back to Moab with the Israelites in hot pursuit. They overtook towns all day and when they came to the last one, the king sacrificed his son and heir to the throne and put him on the wall of the city. There was such fury against Israel they went home.
Elisha helps a widow pay her debt by blessing her with a bottomless bottle of olive oil. She and her sons filled as many jars as they could find until they had no more jars, then the oil stopped. They sold part of the oil to pay off the debt and lived on the rest. There was a woman and her husband in a town who had no children. They took Elisha into their house whenever he was in their city. They even made him his own room. One time while Elisha was there he promised her she would have a son next year even though her husband was very old. It happened just as he said. Some time later the boy and his father were out in the field and the boy's head hurt really bad. The boy's father took him home to his mother where he lay on her lap all morning and died at noon. She took him up and laid him on Elisha's bed. Then she traveled to Carmel where Elisha was and grabbed him by the feet.
Tomorrow read 2Kings 4:29-8:15
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