II KINGS 6-7

II Kings 6:24-27: The king is insulated from the problems of the people although he quotes the proper theology.

Jacques Ellul (The Politics of Man and the Politics of God) says, “He leaves it to God because he refused to be involved in the adventure himself. Note it is impossible for him not to be involved in it. For he is the king of Israel and this obviously means that he is the representative of God on earth. He is the Lord's anointed. He is the one who can take a divine decision. In declining to do so he is thus abdicating already as the true king of Israel. At this moment he loses his monarchy. Let us take note that this concerns us all, for now in Jesus Christ we are all invested with this power and we have no right to cloak ourselves in good theology in order to evade our responsibilities.”

II Kings 6:28-29: This is almost a parody of Solomon's judgment regarding the two woman and their babies.

II Kings 6:30-31: The king now becomes personally involved and reacts with grief and anger. Look at the various stages of grief here:

1. Denial (vv. 26-27)

2. Outward Anger (v. 27)

3. Inward Anger (v. 30)

4. Genuine Grief (vv. 31,33)

5. Resolution (none)

II Kings 6:32-7:2: Elisha does not use any miraculous means to save himself. Then the promised miracle happens, which we see through the eyes of lepers (compare to Jesus' comment on the Naaman story in Luke 4:27 regarding the lack of faith in Israel.) Notice that the lepers' response is two-fold: selfishness and doing the right thing out of fear (the lowest form of faith).

II Kings 7:12 gives the king's response.

What can we make of the tragic story of King Joram, who refuses to believe in a miracle when confronted with it? This is similar to many who do not believe in God or no longer have an active fellowship with Him. The root of their problem often lies in a tragedy in their own lives and how they dealt with it.