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2 Kings 1 - 25

The king wanted to consult Baal instead of God about his illness. Because of that, he died. Elijah prayed and fire consumed the man that came to "enquire" of him. Only when the men came in humility did the fire stop. Wow!

God Takes Elijah up in a whirlwind with Elisha watching. Elisha vowed not to leave the side of his master. Elijah struck the water and it parted. The only thing Elisha wanted was to be just as his master with his spirit. Elisha did the same thing and it was done as such.

Elisha was called a "bold head" and called upon curses upon them and two bears came and devoured them. The funny part was that it was because he was called a "bold head". The kept performing miracles one of them was the overflowing oil until there was no jar left to fill it with oil.

Then the story of a woman who was blessed with a boy but then he died. She went grumbled against Elisha and gave him "I told you so" speech. Sometimes even when we're blessed from God we can hold on to cynicism in our hearts even after God had shown himself to us.

The story of Naaman was cured from leprosy but required faith on what God says. For sometimes, the solution is not a grand plan that we've seen happen or we've thought about. It's simply do what God says. Yet Elisha's servant disobeyed God for money and he got the leprosy of Naaman.

Elisha taught his new servant the lesson of surrendering to the power of God for deliverance and mercy. Even when we're surrounded on all sides, God's army is much bigger than our problem but we need to have spiritual eyes to see that we only need to trust in the Lord.

Then Elisha asked Jehu to be anointed with oil to become king of Israel and avenge the death of the people because of Ahab and Jezebel. Jehu killed everyone in the city of Jezreel. He showed zeal for God and his promise. He even killed all the minister of Baal. But yet he wasn't careful in observing ALL the laws of God. So he's compared to his ancestor Jeroboam.

The temple of the Lord needed to be repaired and restored durin the reign of Joash. Money was used not for nice ornaments and gold bowls and plates but was given to the workers to repair the temple. This shows to us that sometimes our effort needs to be repairing what we have instead of going as normal. But it takes men of vision to start such a process and trust in God.

Elisha died and his bones raised a man from his death. This is reprentative of how coming in touch with Jesus' body brings about salvation. These were all stories of things to come. WOW!

King Menahem started the invasion of Assyria by making a treaty with him and commanding the wealthy of Israel to give money for the Assyrian kingdom. So instead of crying out to the Lord, you subject your kingdom in making a treaty with the enemy. By this time, God's words were far from their hearts.

King Ahaz showed how wicked he was in the sight of the Lord. He even took the accessories of the temple and gave it as a gift for the King of Assyria. He even changed the way the offerings were done since that day.

With the king of Hoshea, Assyria besieged Israel for 3 years. For the Lord warned Israel but they didn't listen and followed their own ways. In Chapter 17 it show how much Israel was moved away from God's laws and decrees. The people of Israel was taken into captivity and were replaced by the people of Babylon.

Hezekiah did was right in Lord's eyes and his righteousness was compared to David. Then Assyria attacked Judah and Hezekiah gave a ransom of gold to leave him. The king of Assyria says that God himself told him to attack Judah. WOW! For God works even in those we consider wicked and evil.

The king of Assyria mocked the God of Israel, but the prophet of the time, Isaiah said to Hezekiah not to worry but hold fast on the promises of God. As soon as he got a letter from the commander of the Assyrian army, Hezekiah went to the temple and proclaim God's deliverance. That night over 185000 Assyrians were killed by one angel.

Hezekiah gives a prayer to God because of his illness and God brings back time so he could live longer. But then the very people of Babylon he brought as guest will trigger the demise of the Judah years to come. Manasseh rebuilt the high places. He even put Asherah poles in the temple. How crazy is that? God says "i'll wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish". Now that's anger!

The 8 years old Josiah became king and restored the law and repaired the temple and gave the money freely. Josiah tore his clothes when he heard the book of the law. For surely Leviticus and Deuteronomy must have impacted him. He destroyed everything he could destroy. The scary thing is mentioned about how since the time of Judges and the kings before him, the passover wasn't observed! That's a almost 800 years of disobedience! But yet the Lord's anger still prevailed against Judah.

During the reign of Jehoiakim, the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar besieged Judah. It says that God was not willing to forgive because of sins due to the blood of innocent people. Zedekiah reigned under the rule of Babylon but rebelled. The walls of Jerusalem was broken and the temple of the Lord was ransacked and burnt. It must have been sad sight in Jerusalem for God had forsaken his first love - Israel!

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