Today’s Scripture Reading (December
15, 2019): 2 Kings 9
I have
never been very fast. I also have no middle gear. My two speeds have always
been as fast as I can go and a dead stop. I remember playing football and having three-quarter speed drills; I never did master that talent. All I had was
everything or nothing. It is still that way. But I don’t want to leave the
impression that I am fast. My full speed is probably slower than most people’s
three-quarter speed. (Although there are a couple of times, when the adrenaline
was pumping, that I surprised even myself.)
Elisha
needs someone to go to Ramoth-Gilead to anoint Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat of
Israel, King over Israel. But he needs speed. So he calls a man, likely one
that he thought was fast, to go to Ramoth-Gilead where Jehu and all of Israel
was defending the city against the advances of the King of Aram. The phrase “tuck
your cloak into your belt” indicates the need for speed. The act of tucking
your cloak into your belt was the only way that someone could run. It got the
garment away from the legs of the person so that he would not trip while he was
running. The drawback was that it was a very undignified way to move because
your legs would be exposed. It is one of the reasons why we see great love
shown between the father and his youngest son in Jesus’s story of “The Lost
Son.” Luke clearly says that the father ran to his son when he saw him on the
horizon (Luke 15:20). That means that the father would have tucked his cloak
into his belt to get to his youngest son as fast as possible. It was a very undignified
way for an older man of means to move.
So a
man from the company is found and given a flask of oil for anointing Jehu and
told to run to Jehu, the commander of army at Ramoth-Gilead, and then turn and
run away from him as fast as possible (2 Kings 9:3). It is likely that Elisha
knew the prophet that he was giving this task to, and believed that the prophet
would follow Elisha’s orders to the letter. What Elisha needed at this moment
was obedience. And he chose a young prophet who Elisha believed would give that
to him.
We are
not told who this mysterious prophet might be who was given this task to run
to, and then away from, Ramoth-Gilead. But rabbinical literature gives us an
interesting suggestion. The rabbis believe that this prophet, who was sent to
Ramoth-Gilead by Elisha, was none other than Jonah, the son of Amittai. If this
is true, it makes Jonah disobedience when God sent him to Nineveh even more critical.
Jonah was not a Prophet known for his independent thinking. He was one who was
trusted by Elisha to obey even in the most sensitive of situations.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings
10
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