II Kings
Please read as much as you can of I Kings for Tuesday, March 21. Please read especially closely the chapters on Elijah, Josiah, and Hezekiah. Does it seems to you that any of the stories in II Kings have the makings of good tragedy? Or is the II Kings account better viewed as history, biography, or prophecy rather than as tragedy. Cite below any passages/verses you think particularly support your view.
posted by Ancient Art at 4:23 PM
8 Comments:
Because of how 2 Kings begins and continues through several chapters, I would say this book is more prophecy than tragedy, history, or law. We begin the book by meeting Elijah who resembles greatly John the Baptist of the New Testament. He forewarns and sends fire upon the earth through God. He then testifies and predicts that the king will die... and he does. When he goes on his travels with Elisha, more amazing miraculous things happen including the splitting of the waters in ch.2 and Elijah going to heaven in a chariot of fire. Elisha is then left alone for the rest of the book to aid the kings and prophecy God's will. These prophecies are throughout the whole book, while Hezekiah only comes in ch.19 and Josiah in ch.22. The book is only 25 chapters long. I must say though, that Josiah starting his reign when he is only 8 is extremely impressive.
2 Kings is based on God's promise to punish those that did now follow in his ways and reward those who followed his commandments. 2 Kings is a continuation of 1 Kings and mixes history and prophecy.
Elijah & Elisha were prophets who lived in a time of chaos, preaching against kings who disobeyed God. Both performed miracles to proof the might and power of the one true God over Baal's gods. Elijah raises into heavean in a chariots while Elisha continues Elijah's prophecy to the people of Israel and Judah.
2 Kings details the continuous fall of both Israel and Judah. Israel went first because all of their kings were evil and God decided to seal their fate first and allowed them to be defeated by the Assyrians. Judah had a series of both bad and good kings. However, Judah fell to the Babylonians. 2 Kings ends with both nations in ruins.
2 Kings teaches us that obedience to God and not to the matters of the world would have saved them. However, their reliance on world desires doomed them in the end, trying to be just like their neighbors.
The story of Gehazi could be considered a minor tragedy in that the leprosy that was removed from Naaman was placed upon him. Elisha instructed Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan river and he would be clean.
At first Naaman was upset because he expected Elisha to come outside and "work his magic". Naaman was going to leave when his servant said that "if he had asked a great thing of you, you would have done so. But because this is a simple thing, why not perform it?" Naaman relents, washes, and becomes clean. Naaman then offers a blessing to Elisha, who refuses. Naaman departs and Gehazi, Elisha's servant, runs after Naaman and lies to him to get cloths and money.
When Gehazi returns home, Elisha asks him where he went. Gehazi replies that he did not go anywhere. Elisha then puts the curse of leprosy upon Gehazi and his seed forever. Of course his "seed" probably did not last very long.
I think that II Kings can be clasified as a tragedy. One story that i find tragdic is the one of Elijah. He got taken from his wife. He also showed that there was only one god by having the fire come down from the heavens and consumed and alter. all the people believed him and saw that there was one god but then people just went back to the old way because it was easyer and they liked more because they could do what ever they wanted.
In the book of II Kings I believe that Hezekiah is a writing of prophecy. He did great things as did his father David. He lived in the Lord's way. He demolished high places and built up the lower. Defeated many other kings in his years as king. and in a noble way he realized that he had done wrong when they didn't carry out the covenant with Moses. When this happened he knew he was in the wrong and offered King Assyria that he would pay him whatever he wanted if he withdrew from his kingdom. As so they did and Hezekiah kept his word. this is an excellent form of prophecy.
I would consider the II Kings more of prophecy more than anything. You really notice how first you have Elijah who makes his prophecies. Then you have the story of Hezekiah which he also made prophecies. Hezekiah does some prophesizing in Chapter 19:14-19. Then after that we hear about Josiah and he does prophesizing too. All three men mentioned were prophets. Now I could see tragedies, biographies, and definately history, but the one that sticks out clearly in my mind is prophecy.
I feel that much of II Kings is prophesy, along with many miracles. The stories of Elijah and Elisha are excellent examples of this. Both men are constantly prophesying and performing miracles through God throughout the book. This can be seen right from the beginning of the book when Elijah tells the king that he will not ever leave his bed (II Kings 1:16-17).
The story of Gehazi (II Kings 5:22-27) may be considered a tragedy, but at the same time I feel that he sort of deserved it. He was trying to get payment for the miracle God had performed through Elisha.
I think that the entire book is a tragedy. The people in Israel keep making the same mistakes over and over again. They deny their god, but then they complain when things are going bad and when he takes pity on them, they go back to worshipping idols. But in a way, this tragedy also serves as history and prophecy. It's history because we learn about how the kingdom of Israel fell and ended up being conquered by the Babylonians. It is prophecy in a way because those who do not learn from history and hte mistakes that people in the past have made, they will repeat the same mistakes. And the Israelites definately did not learn from the mistakes of their ancesters because they repeated them and ended up losing their independence because of it. Also, this gives the reader an idea of what is probably going to happen in the future.
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