2 Kings 13:10-25The Death of Elisha The next king of Israel, Jehoash, was like those who came before: he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, reigned for a while, and died. The only remarkable thing about Jehoash is that he was involved in Elisha’s final prophetic words when he visited...
2 Kings 13:1-9Jehoahaz Reigns in Israel Pastor Dave taught that this week’s passage displays the collision of three attributes of God. He is sovereign: He gave Israel continually into the hand of the king of Syria (v3). He is merciful: He listened to King Jehoahaz, even though he sought...
2 Kings 11:21 – 12:21Jehoash Reigns in Judah The little boy Jehoash (or Joash), rescued as a baby from his evil grandmother Athaliah, turned out to be one of the better kings of Judah. “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD,” says verse 2 of the passage. For one thing...
2 Kings 11:1-20Long Live the King When David was king, the Lord promised to establish his throne forever. (2 Samuel 7:13) Across the centuries, the Jews came to understand that the promise was about more than ordinary human kings; the Messiah would come from the line of David. But within seven...
2 Kings 2:15-25Elisha Succeeds Elijah This week’s passage contains three mini-stories, each one stranger than the one before. Fifty “sons of the prophets” spend three days searching for Elijah, though he was taken up to heaven. Elisha, the successor to Elijah, throws salt in a...
2 Kings 2:1-15Passing the Mantle On Elijah’s last day on earth, he asked his young protégé what he could do for him, and Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Elijah knew that was up to the Lord, not him, and told Elisha that the sign the Lord had...
How smugly we can read the Old Testament! When the Israelites ask Aaron to make a god for them because Moses was taking too long on Mt. Sinai, we condemn them. When they grumble about manna, manna, and more manna, demanding meat, we call them ingrates. When King Ahaziah keeps doing the same...
Psalm 121The Creator’s Unfailing Help Tyler Anderson returned as our guest preacher on Sunday. Psalm 121 is part of a collection of 15 psalms called “songs of ascent.” They were most likely sung by pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for one of the three mandatory feasts, as they...
Psalm 23The Lord Who Is Worthy of Our Trust Tyler Anderson, a student at The Master’s Seminary, was our guest preacher. Tyler stressed that Psalm 23 was birthed from David’s life experiences. That reminder led me to imagine a scene from David’s life when he was a fugitive from...
Psalm 11The Lord as Our Refuge Sometimes it seems like the chair has been kicked out from under you. Psalm 11 describes it as the foundations being destroyed, what you had relied on being stripped away. Mario Coronado, our guest preacher, cited as an example the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths...