Jesus in 2 Kings: Enriched By God’s Word
Jesus is revealed in very unique ways in 2 Kings. One of the most prevalent types of Christ speaks of Jesus and the church as Elijah is taken away. Elijah’s mantle falls to the earth for Elisha to carry on Elijah’s work.
In the same way Jesus’ mantle fell back to the earth for the church to carry. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father but the Christ never left the earth. We are the body of Christ carrying the mantle of Jesus to bring further transformation to our world.
The kings who reigned under God’s authority remaining faithful to the Law experienced God’s blessings. But the kings who neglected God’s perspective suffered consequences.
Prophets became more and more important as those who spoke for God. The priests were supposed to teach God’s Word to the people but most failed to do so and became less and less important. God raised up prophets to give His message to the nation and to kings.
2 Kings 22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. NIV
2 Kings 23:3-5The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD--to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul…Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal…He did away with the pagan priests…who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts. NIV
Josiah went to great lengths to address the world’s damaging philosophies that had slowly entered in to the Israelites way of thinking.
It’s only when we renew our minds and get God’s word seeded deeply in our hearts that we begin rising above the world’s damaging philosophies.
The world’s ideas get deeply embedded in our lives. The fallen nature naturally defaults to these perspectives fostering confusion. We are inclined to identify with dysfunction. We are designed to identify with destiny. It’s only when we renew our minds & get God’s word seeded deeply in our hearts that we begin rising above the world’s attractive and seductive ideas.
Darkness and ignorance have the same word origin. Light and knowledge have the same word origin. Obviously God wants us to move from darkness into light out of ignorance into the greater knowledge of the life of Christ. Truthproblems are the true problems behind our issues. To stop defeating ourselves we have to stop deceiving ourselves. Just because we think it doesn’t make it true.
The kings who reigned under God’s authority remaining faithful to the Law experienced God’s blessings. But the kings who neglected or even abandoned the Law suffered consequences.
In 1989 a 7.0 earthquake hit San Francisco and sixty-three people were killed. Yet a 7.0 earthquake hits Haiti and more than fifty thousand are killed! Poorly constructed housing and buildings were terrible contributors to this devastating loss. In comparison our willingness to apply God’s Word to our lives provides the structurally sound wisdom of God to sustain us through life’s circumstances and storms. Biblically impoverished people live poorly constructed lives.
GP4RL: Every day turn the page. Journal dates at the top of your Bible as you read it through.
GOING DEEPER:
Really not a specific theme in Kings. It’s basically a history of the kings of Israel and Judah in respect to God's covenants. The well-being of Israel depended on their submission to God, obedience to the covenant and their response to God's prophets.
2 Kings continues the history of the divided kingdom, picking up the story around 853 BC. In 722 BC, the powerful nation of Assyria invaded the northern kingdom, scattering and taking captive the people of Israel. Only Judah remained intact. But then Assyria suffered a fall to the Babylonians, who took the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612 BC. Babylon would dominate Judah within just a few years. In 586 BC Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and took them into captivity.
2 Kings has several very unique events. Two people were raised from the dead (2 Kings 4:32–37; 13:20–21). The prophet Elijah left earth without dying (2:1–18). The waters of the Jordan River rolled back twice (2 Kings 2:8, 14).
Rev 11 speaks of two witnesses who will prophesy in the streets, be killed and be raised from the dead for all to see after three days. Many have taught that these two people will be Elijah and Moses.
On the Mount of Transfiguration we see Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus in Matt 17:2.
We do know for certain that Elijah is one of these two witnesses as revealed in Mal 4:5.
I believe this will not be Moses with Elijah but rather Enoch. We see in Gen 5:21-24 where Enoch was also taken from the earth without dying. Since Heb 9:27 tells us that “it is appointed unto men once to die” it makes sense that these two men will return to the earth to fulfill this appointment.
The mantle of Elijah was the official garment of a prophet. 1 Kings 19 showed how Elijah called Elisha by throwing his mantle over him. This was a symbolic act expressing an invitation to the office of the prophet. For Elijah to do this was to announce that the gift of prophecy had been given to Elisha. It was a clear communication that was clearly understood by Elisha even without any conversation. I’ve written more on this and other insights below for those who want to go deeper.
1 The Mantle Was An Outer Garment: The mantle of God’s anointing is not the first garment worn. This outer garment can only be added to those who have first been clothed in salvation’s robe.
2 The Mantle was commonly made of wool or even sheep skin: It could only be provided by the sacrifice of a Lamb.
3 The Mantle had slits not sleeves. Contrary to what people may think the anointing is not some possession that takes place where man loses control to God. The anointing is discovered most readily in the place where we feel the freedom to be the person God wants us to be. No two anointed people are the same.
4 The Mantle had blue fringes on the border to remind them of the command to remember God’s commandments Num 15:38-39. If we want to be anointed, we need to be reminded..
It is important to note that Elisha understood the call of God on his life and never saw Elijah as a hindrance but rather a part of his destiny. Elijah was to provide a strong foundation for the new thing God was doing through Elisha. The Holy Spirit utilized the old-school Festival of Pentecost to kick off something new. The disciples launched out from the Temple. Paul started in synagogues.
None of the kings of Israel are described as having done right in God’s eyes; each led the people deeper into idolatry. Several of Judah’s kings were righteous like Joash, Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah.
Hezekiah held off the Assyrians by trusting in the Lord for deliverance. Josiah brought about a great spiritual reformation. These efforts, however, were not enough to escape judgment of the disobedience from other kings as expressed in the Mosaic Covenant (Deuteronomy 28).