Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Kings 1:1-18. Let’s go!

2 Kings 1:1-4 (NIV) 
1 After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel.
2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, “Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.”
3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’
4 Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!'” So Elijah went. 

On verses 1-4: Ahaziah king of Israel falls and injures himself.  He wonders whether he will recover from this accident or die from it.  He decides to consult Baal-Zebub the god of Ekron on the question.  The Lord’s prophet Elijah brings a message to Ahaziah, stating that Ahaziah’s actions have offended the Lord.  By seeking another god for help and not consulting the Lord first, Ahaziah showed that he places his hope in other things more than he does in God.  Elijah also tells Ahaziah that Ahaziah will not recover but will certainly die.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 22:29-40.  Let’s go!

1 Kings 22:30 (NIV) 
30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. 

On verses 29-40: King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah get ready to fight the King of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. Knowing that the Lord’s prophets had prophesied that he would die instead of the King of Aram (e.g. 1 Kings 20:42), King Ahab disguises himself so that people cannot readily recognize him to be the king.  Despite that, “someone” (we don’t know who — it could have been an Aramean, and it also could have been a newbie Israelite soldier) draws his bow at random and ends up hitting King Ahab, wounding him fatally.  The king dies and dogs lick up his blood, just as the prophet Elijah had predicted (1 Kings 21:19).

What can we learn from this?  You can try to run from God, but you can’t hide from Him. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 22:1-12.  Let’s go!

1 Kings 22:1-3 (NIV) 
1 For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. 
2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. 
3 The king of Israel had said to his officials, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?” 

On verses 1-3:  For years Israel and Aram had been at war with one another.  Then God gave Israel an amazing victory over Aram.  However, in the heat of victory, instead of executing Ben-Hadad King of Aram and disabling the Arameans as a future threat, King Ahab signed an economic treaty with the Arameans and let their king go free (1 Kings 20:30-34).   

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 21:1-14. Let’s go!

On verses 1-14:  In these verses we see Ahab’s selfishness and Jezebel’s cunning in full bloom. Ahab wants to take the vineyard of another man, Naboth.  This vineyard was a precious family property that Naboth’s ancestors had passed down to him.  It was likely Naboth’s main source of income, whereas Ahab merely wanted to use it for a vegetable garden!  When Naboth refuses to sell the vineyard to Ahab, Ahab sulks. Ahab’s wife Jezebel devises an evil and elaborate plan to call a fast (using religion as a means to do evil) and have two scoundrels falsely accuse Naboth of cursing God and the king.  The plan is executed and Naboth is stoned for treason which he did not commit.  Presumably there is no one left in Naboth’s family to inherit Naboth’s vineyard.  (Or, if Naboth had heirs, Ahab and Jezebel find a way to bypass them.)  Ahab is then able to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.  

What can we learn from this?  Similar to Naboth’s time, we live in a period in history where at times it seems evil runs rampant and unchecked. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 20:23-34. Let’s go!

On verses 23-34:  The officials of Ben-Hadad King of Aram had no idea whom they were dealing with.  They assumed that the reason why the outnumbered Israelites unexpectedly defeated the Arameans at the first battle was because the Israelites were experienced at fighting in the mountains.  “But if we fight them on the plains, we will surely have the upper hand,” the Aramean officials reasoned.  Little did the Aramean officials know that regardless of where they fought, the Israelites were a force to be reckoned only because the Lord was with them. 

So in the next battle, the Israelites overpower the Arameans on their own flat home court, killing 100,000 Aramean soldiers on the plains.  Another 27,000 Aramean soldiers are killed when a city wall in Aphek collapses on them.  The remainder, including King Ben-Hadad, flee.  King Ben-Hadad pleads with King Ahab to spare his life.  Seemingly without giving it a second thought, Ahab receives Ben-Hadad, who had wanted to destroy Ahab and his people, as one receives a brother.  Ahab enters into an economic treaty with Ben-Hadad and lets Ben-Hadad go free.  This would prove to be a fatal mistake on King Ahab’s part.  Three years later in 1 Kings 22, the King of Aram would once again go to war against King Ahab of Israel and this time would succeed in killing Ahab.