Sunday, September 20, 2009

1 King 20-21 2 Chron.18

I actually read 21 first because I scanned for Jezebels name. Her story continues in this chapter. Ahab finds a garden he takes a liking to. He asks Naboth to give it to him and Naboth tells him, no. He says that God told him not to give Ahab anything.

Ahab goes home and pouts, refusing to eat and everything. Really? Men can be such babies.

Jezebel tells him to get up for goodness sakes, he's the king after all! Ahhh the voice of reason......kidding, calm down.

Jezebel takes matters into her own hands and writes a letter in Ahabs hand to the town elders. She tells them to have two guys say that they heard Naboth renounce God and the king. Then have them stone him to death. Isn't she just trying to help her husband get the vineyard he;s always wanted. Going about it in COMPLETELY the wrong way, but was her heart in the right place?

She comes home happy as a lark to tell her husband that he may have his vineyard now, for poor Naboth is dead. I think he's really excited. But not for long. God is super dooper angry. He tells Ahab that where the dogs licked up Naboths blood, so shall they lick up his....that's hella gross.

Ahab totally freaks out and strips down and covers himself with sack cloths...humbling himself before the Lord.....it works. God decides not to punish him right now, but instead to punish his son's. Isn't that worse??

ok so now back to 20.. Here's what I loved about 20: The visual of the kings drinking in booths. THEY even prefer a booth. This chapter had a lot going on and I had trouble following it all. I read through it a couple of times trying to figure out who was fighting whom. What I also liked was how the Syrians kept thinking that God was only the God of hills, or mountains, or valleys. Therefore they tried to fight them were God could not help them....but alas, God is everywhere.

In 2 Chron.18 Ahab has died in battle as a strange prophet predicted.

2 comments:

Jamie said...

Of course her heart wasn't in the right place. She's just plain evil (pron. E-vil).

I'm a booth person myself. I think someone with too much time on their hands actually did a study on this and found out most people are. Anyway,..

The kings of Israel and Judah finally buddy up again to fight against the Syrian king to reclaim some town. And Ahab knowing that God is after him, thinks if he disguises himself that God won't be able to use the Syrians to kill him in battle. Yeah, I know, pretty dumb. But really what's the diff between him trying to outsmart God that way and us when we don't sincerely pray, hoping we can fool him into giving us our way. Answer: nothing really. Anyway, the interesting thing here is that a soldier randomly fires an arrow and hits Ahab between his armor! While he's riding in his chariot. TOO many coincidences! You can fool men, but you can't fool God. Prophesy fulfilled.

Jamie said...

Tomorrow's reading (and from now on) will be signif. shorter. Tomorrow is 2 Chron. 19-23.