Goodbye Jehu. Hello Jesus.

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 10:18-36.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Kings 10:18-36 (NIV)
18  Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.
19  Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his ministers and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.” But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the ministers of Baal.
20  Jehu said, “Call an assembly in honor of Baal.” So they proclaimed it.

On verses 18-36:  Having gotten rid of the house of Ahab along with a slew of others, Jehu now focuses on erasing the worship of the idol Baal in Israel. He invites all the prophets of Baal to the temple of Baal under the auspices that he is going to hold an assembly in honour of their god. Jehu even gives each prophet of Baal a special robe, which seems like a gift when in fact it just makes them an easier target (v22). 

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Not One, But Both: Two Areas Where We Need To Be Strong

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 10:1-17.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Kings 10:1-17 (NIV)
1  Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab’s children. He said,
2  “As soon as this letter reaches you, since your master’s sons are with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons,
3  choose the best and most worthy of your master’s sons and set him on his father’s throne. Then fight for your master’s house.”
4  But they were terrified and said, “If two kings could not resist him, how can we?”

On verses 1-17:  Having assassinated Joram king of Israel and Jezebel the queen mother, Jehu continues his mission to eliminate the remaining sons in Ahab’s house.  Instead of a sneak attack, Jehu issues a formal challenge to the high officials in Israel’s capital city as well as those in charge of Ahab’s sons.  Jehu challenges them to put one of Ahab’s sons on Ahab’s throne and to fight Jehu and his troops.

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The Best Way to Prepare for Eternity

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 9:30-37.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

2 Kings 9:30 (NIV)
30  Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.

On verse 30:  Having heard that Jehu has killed her son King Joram, Jezebel expects that she is next, so she paints her eyes and does her hair.  Why?  Some scholars think she was trying to seduce Jehu.  I think the more likely scenario is that she’s getting ready to die as dignified a death as possible.  Jezebel may have thought to herself, “If I’m going to die a queen mother, I better look the part!”  Ironically, despite her efforts to look good in death, Jezebel would end up being killed in the most undignified way, as we will see.

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Sometimes God Needs To Disturb the Peace So A Greater Peace Can Result

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 9:14-29.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Kings 9:14-29 (NIV)
14  So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead against Hazael king of Aram,
15  but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, “If this is the way you feel, don’t let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.”

On verses 14-29:  These verses describe how Jehu assassinates Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah.  Jehu travels from Ramoth Gilead to Jezreel where Joram king of Israel is nursing his wounds from battle and where Ahaziah king of Judah has gone to visit Joram (v14-16).  When Joram’s guards spot Jehu approaching in his chariot, twice Joram sends a horseman to ask Jehu, “Do you come in peace?”

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If You Want to Hear from God, Make THIS Your Habit

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 9:1-13.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Kings 9:1-6 (NIV)
1  The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead.
2  When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room.

On verses 1-6:  Elisha sends one of his junior prophets to speak to Jehu and anoint him as the next king of Israel.  Notice Elisha’s instructions to that junior prophet: “Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room” (v2).

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God Is At His Best Even When You’re At Your Worst

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 8:16-29.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Kings 8:16-18 (NIV) 
16  In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. 
17  He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 
18  He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. 

On verses 16-18:  Jehoram succeeds his father Jehoshaphat as the king of Judah.  But instead of being a humble, wise, God-fearing king like his father Jehoshaphat was, Jehoram is said to have “walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done” (v18).  In other words, like Ahab, Jehoram worshiped other gods. 

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The King Has Spoken and You Are Restored

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 8:1-15.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Kings 8:1-6 (NIV)
1  Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the LORD has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.”
2  The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

On verses 1-6:  Elisha the prophet tells the woman whose son he had raised back to life to move away from Israel temporarily because a seven year famine was coming to Israel.  After living away from Israel for 7 years, the woman returns to Israel, but by this time the government has taken over her land.  So the woman goes to the king of Israel in hopes of getting her land back.

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Faith Doesn’t Need To Be Blind

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 7:1-20.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Kings 7:1-20 (NIV)
1  Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
2  The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

On verses 1-20:  Samaria is in the middle of siege and famine where food resources are increasingly scarce and expensive.  Yet Elisha the prophet predicts that within 24 hours the finest flour and barley will be sold for extremely cheap (v1).  An officer of King Joram does not believe it.  In response to the officer’s unbelief, Elisha states that this officer will see it with his own eyes but will not eat any of it (v2).  Meanwhile, four lepers stand at Samaria’s city gate and reason that they’ll die from starvation if they stay at the city gate or go into the city, so they might as well go to the Aramean camp and surrender, since the worst that could happen to them is that they die there too. 

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Remember Who Your Real Enemy Is

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 6:24-33.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

2 Kings 6:24-30 (NIV)
24  Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria.
25  There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.
26  As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”

On verses 24-30:  King Ben-Hadad of Aram has laid seige to Samaria, Israel’s capital city.  Without access to food, Samaria suffers a severe famine.  The Israelites in Samaria are so desperate that in verses 26-29 we read about two Israelite mothers who apparently agreed that they would eat their sons to survive.  Now that one mother’s son has been eaten, the other mother refuses to let her own son suffer the same fate. 

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Don’t Lose Your Edge + The Importance of Vision

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 6:1-23.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Kings 6:1-6 (NIV)
1  The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us.
2  Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to live.” And he said, “Go.”
3  Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?” “I will,” Elisha replied.
4  And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees.
5  As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh, my lord,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”
6  The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.

On verses 1-6:  The number of prophets Elisha is discipling is growing, so Elisha’s disciples propose that they build a new facility for them to meet near the Jordan River.  They begin to cut down trees in the Jordan.  While one of the young prophets is cutting, his ax head flies off its handle and falls into the water.  The young prophet is distraught because the ax head was not his, but was borrowed. 

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