Bible In One Year Day 170 (2 Kings 1, 2 Chronicles 24, Psalm 69)

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Day 170 Joash's Downfall 

Agape Bible Study 

2 Kings 1

Part I: The Divided Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (2 Kng 1:1-17:41)

1. The Reign of Ahaziah king of Israel (2 Kng 1:1-18)
2. The end of the Elijah cycle and beginning of the Elisha cycle (2 Kng 2:1-25)
3. The Reign of Jehoram king of Israel (2 Kng 3:1-27)
4. The Mission and Miracles of Elisha (2 Kng 4:1-8:15)
5. The Reign of Jehoram king of Judah (2 Kng 8:16-24)
6. The Reign of Ahaziah king of Judah (2 Kng 8:25-9:37)
7. The Reign of Jehu king of Israel (2 Kng 10:1-36)
8. The Reign of Queen Athaliah in Judah (2 Kng 11:1-16)
9. The Reign of Joash/Jehoash king of Judah (2 Kng 11:17-12:21)
10. The Reign of Jehoahaz king of Israel (2 Kng 13:1-9)
11. The Reign of Joash/Jehoash king of Israel and death of Elisha (2 Kng 13:10-25)
12. The Reign of Amaziah king of Judah (2 Kng 14:1-22)
13. The Reign of Jeroboam II king of Israel (2 Kng 14:23-29)
14. The Reign of Azariah king of Judah (2 Kng 15:1-7)
15. The Reign of Zechariah king of Israel (2 Kng 15:8-12)
16. The Reign of Shallum king of Israel (2 Kng 15:13-15)
17. The Reign of Menahem king of Israel (2 Kng 15:16-22)
18. The Reign of Pekahiah king of Israel (2 Kng 15:23-26)
19. The Reign of Pekah king of Israel (2 Kng 15:27-31)
20. The Reign of Jotham king of Judah (2 Kng 15:32-38)
21. The Reign of Ahaz king of Judah (2 Kng 16:1-20)
22. The Reign of Hosea the last king of Israel (2 Kng 17:1-41)

After a long period of decline at the beginning of the first millennium, the ancient kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia experienced a resumption of their former vitality under gifted rulers of new dynasties. The Kingdom of Assyria, with its capitals at Calah and Nineveh on the east bank of the Tigris River, began to recover its former glory under the leadership of Assurnasirpal II (884-859 BC) and eventually achieved dominance over the regions of Mesopotamia, Syria and the Levant in the 9^th " 7^th centuries BC, in what historians refer to as the Neo-Assyrian era. In the beginning of their resurgence, the Assyrian rulers were intent on controlling the trade routes through northern Syria and into the mineral rich mountain country of Anatolia (Turkey). Eventually their ambition spread to the south.

King Omri and his son Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (like David and Solomon) had control over Israel's traditional territories on the east side of the Jordan River in the Gilead and as far south as land north of the Arnon River, an area that was disputed with the state of Moab. According to 2 Kings 3:4-5, King Mesha of Moab continued to bring tribute to the Northern Kingdom during the reigns of Omri and Ahab, but rebelled when Ahab died. A Moabite inscription, known as the Mesha Stela, found at Dhiban, a site c. 20 miles south of Dibon (modern Ammon, Jordan), King Mesha's capital, records that "the land of Medeba" (region about 18 miles SW of Ammon) was under Israelite control "during Omri's days" and "half the days of his son," indicating that King Ahab maintained control of central Transjordan until the later part of his reign.⁽¹⁾ When Israel was defeated in the battle against Ben Hadad II of Damascus and King Ahab was killed (1 Kngs 22:29-38), Israel lost the lands in the northern Transjordan and soon the Moabites in the south were ready to revolt and break away from Israelite control. The exception was the state of Edom that was still controlled by the Southern Kingdom of Judah. By the time Ahab's son Ahaziah succeeded him as king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (853 BC), it was clear to all the nations in the Levant that the balance of power was shifting in the region and that the growing power of the Assyrians was going to be a greater threat to the region than the Aramaean kingdom of Damascus with whom King Ahab had fought three wars.

Chapter 1: The Short Reign of Ahaziah son of Ahab of Israel and the Last Mission of the Prophet Elijah

2 Kings 1:1-8 ~ King Ahaziah seeks a prophet

King David conquered Moab in the 10^th century BC and had made it a vassal state. When Israel lost the war against the Aramaean King Ben-Hadad II and King Ahab was killed in 853 BC, Mesha, king of Moab decided to take advantage of Israel's political instability to end Moab's vassal status. His success was recorded on a stela he commissioned that was discovered near the ancient Moabite capital, and the story will be told in detail in 2 Kings Chapter 3. The whole narrative between 2 Kings 1:1 and 3:5 is bracketed by the statement confirming Moab's revolt after Ahab's death.

2 Kings 1:9-18 ~ Ahaziah sends for Elijah and the destruction of 102 men

The pagan people of the ancient Near East thought that the magical power of curses could be nullified either by forcing the person who made the curse to retract the statement or by killing the person so the curse would accompany him/her to the grave. King Ahaziah probably sent the commander and his men to capture or kill the prophet in the hope that he could nullify the prophecy before it could come true. However, one cannot escape God's divine judgment uttered by a true prophet. The king will send three groups of 50 men and their commander. Two times the king sends his soldiers and two times fire from heaven consumes them as a sign that Elijah is a true prophet. Ever since his defeat of the prophets of Baal, fire had become Elijah's prophetic signature. In the Bible fire can be a symbol of both consecration and judgment.
Question: In what other events has fire from heaven been an instrument of divine judgment? For example see Gen 19:24; Lev 10:1-2 and Num 16:35.
Answer:

1. The wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed in fire (Gen 19:24).
2. Fire from heaven consumed the two elder sons of Aaron for improperly offering incense (Lev 10:1-2).
3. Fire from heaven consumed the 250 Levites who demanded the authority of chief priests and attempted to offer incense (Num 16:35).

Elijah will ascend to heaven in fire at the conclusion of his mission, and fire will also mark the eschatological judgment at the end of time as we know it as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah (see Is 34:1-4, 8-10 and also Rev 14:9-14).

After the deaths of 102 men, the third commander understood the power of God's true prophet and approached Elijah with fear and reverence, referring to himself and his men as Elijah's "servants." At God's command, Elijah accompanied the soldiers back to the palace in Samaria and delivered God's judgment against the king for rejecting Yahweh in favor of a false god.

Ahaziah died and was succeeded by another son of Ahab and Jezebel, Ahaziah's younger brother Jehoram. The new king of Israel has the same name as the Jehoram king of Judah who has ruled for two years prior to Jehoram of Israel's coronation. In Matthew's Gospel, King Jehoram of Judah is called Joram and is an ancestor of Joseph of Nazareth (Mt 1:8, 16).

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 170 How Judas Iscariot Died

CHALLENGE: “Matthew and Luke contradict each other. Matthew says that Judas hanged himself (Matt. 27:5), but Luke says that “falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18).”

DEFENSE: The accounts preserve different aspects of the event, but they do not contradict each other. Both agree Judas died shortly after the Crucifixion. Matthew says Judas hanged himself after returning the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests, while Luke has Peter speaking of the event during the period between the Ascension and Pentecost (between forty and fifty days after the Crucifixion). The fact that they agree on the timing, but describe the death differently, shows independent traditions in circulation that affirmed Judas’ death very shortly after the Crucifixion.

That indicates Judas did die at this early date. Judas probably began accompanying Jesus while in his twenties (Jesus began his ministry when about thirty; Luke 3:23). This suggests Judas died a sudden and remarkable death (i.e., not an ordinary death due to old age). Matthew’s report of his suicidal hanging accounts for this, leaving us to explain Luke’s reference to him falling and bursting open.

The earliest explanation is found in the second-century historian Papias, who wrote around A.D. 120. His works are lost but partially preserved in other writers. According to the fourth-century writer Apollinarius of Laodicea, Judas survived the hanging by being cut down before he choked to death, but he quotes Papias as saying Judas suffered severe swelling (edema) of the head and body, eventually causing him to burst open (see Monte Shanks, Papias and the New Testament, chapter 4, fragment 6). We now know that edema of the neck and body can be a consequence of strangulation, so Papias’s account may be based in fact.

Others have proposed that Judas remained hanging on a tree branch until his body began to decompose and swell due to the gases decomposition produces. The rope then broke or slipped, causing his body to burst from the force of impact.

Some have noted that the traditional site of Judas’s death features trees along a high ridge where strong winds occur. The winds may have caused the rope to slip, and the height of the ridge may have added to the force of impact, causing the body to burst.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist