This week, we shall continue to study
the book of 2 Kings in the Old Testament.
(1) Perhaps, Ahaziah did not have sons or they were too young at his death, and so his brother, Joram succeeded him:
a. Why would Joram dare to get rid of Baal worship, especially while his mother, Jezebel was still alive?
b. Why did he not get rid of the worship of the golden-calves as well? What was the biblical verdict about him?
(2) Since the death of Ahab and in the time of Ahaziah, Moab had already begun their revolt (1:1):
a. What reason, implied here, was their revolt due to?
b. What was Joram’s plan?
(3) Should Jehoshaphat join hands with Joram? Why or why not? (1 Ki. 22:2; 2 Chr. 19:1-3)
(4) Do you think Jehoshaphat did enquire of the Lord? (refer to 3:13; 2 Chr. 20:3)
(5) Presumably, the water source that they expected to depend on had dried up unexpectedly:
a. Why did Joram blame God for their plight?
b. Did this show that Joram was, after all, a believer of the Lord? Why or why not?
(6) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Why did Elisha pick on the king of Israel? (v. 13)
(2) Why did the king of Israel insist that the battle was the will of God?
(3) How should Joram feel and what should he do at the rebuke of Elisha? (vv. 13-14)
(4) Based on 1 Samuel 16:16, Keil & Delitzsch explains Elisha’s sending for a harpist was “to collect his mind from the impressions of the outer world by the soft tones of the instrument, and by subduing the self-life and life in the external world to become absorbed in the intuition of divine things” (K&D, 215). What do you think about this comment?
(5) How serious was the plight of the army of the three kings? (v. 17)
(6) What two promises were made by the Lord?
(7) Why was one called easier than the other one? (v. 18)
(8) How quickly was the first promise fulfilled? What might be the significance of the timing being “about the time for offering the (morning) sacrifice” at the temple in Jerusalem?
(9) How did God fulfill the second promise? (vv. 24-25)
(10) Why did the king of Moab offer his firstborn son as a sacrifice?
(11) Why was there fury against Israel? Whose fury was it? (see Lev. 18:21; 20:3)
(12) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
The spotlight now reverts back to Elisha, the prophet:
4:1-7—The Plight of the Widow and Orphans of a Prophet
(1) How does this story reflect the life of a prophet at the time of Elisha? (vv. 1-2)
(2) Why would God allow those who serve Him to live in poverty?
(3) What did Elisha ask the widow to do?
(4) How would you react to such words by Elisha?
(5) What did the widow do? And what does this say about her?
(6) What lesson(s) might you have learned from this incident?
4:8-17—The Hospitality of a Godly Woman
(7) How did this mother view what God had given her by her treatment of Elisha? How did it echo the teaching in Ephesians 4:28?
(8) How did this woman demonstrate her thoughtfulness in meeting the needs of Elisha? (4:10)
(9) Why did Elisha think of doing something for this woman? How influential was Elisha given his offer to the woman?
(10) What was the meaning of her answer? (v. 13)
(11) What did Gehazi mean by the words he spoke on behalf of the woman? (v. 14)
(12) Have you noticed how the conversation between Elisha and the woman took place? What do you think was the reason?
(13) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
We have no idea what kind of illness the child died of, maybe from sunstroke, but it was certainly sudden and unexpected:
(1) What might go through the mind of this mother at the time of her son’s sudden death?
(2) Why did she put the child on the bed of Elisha and then go to fetch Elisha?
(3) Why did she not tell her husband?
(4) What did she say to Elisha? (v. 28) What did she mean?
(5) What did Elisha ask his servant to do? (v. 29)
(6) Why didn’t he go himself?
(7) Did his staff save the boy?
(8) What did Elisha do upon entering the house?
(9) Why did it take his prayers and his twice lying over the boy before he was brought back to life?
(10) What did this mean to Elisha himself?
(11) What did this incident mean to the woman? (v. 37)
(12) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
While the spotlight continues to be on Elisha, the various events recorded concerning the school of prophets appear to tell us that these prophets were living in relative poverty:
4:38-41—Bitterness in the Food
(1) Gilgal was a seat for a school of prophets (2:1), and Elisha likely “returned” to reside there for a time: What was the particular situation faced by these prophets at the time?
(2) What did Elisha decide to do for them?
(3) “Death in the pot” probably means that it was very bitter; what was the cause of this bitterness?
(4) If there was no famine and they were not poor, what would they be eating normally?
(5) How did Elisha solve their problem?
(6) Was there any meaning to this miracle to them? What about us?
4:42-44—Feeding of a Hundred (Note: Baal Shalishah is west of Gilgal.)
(7) Again, what does this tell us about the plight of the prophets?
(8) What did this offering of bread baked from the first ripe grain by the man represent? (Prov. 3:9-10; Lev. 23:17)
(9) Did Elisha know that 20 loaves would not be sufficient to feed his fellow prophets when he directed his servant?
(10) What did the Lord tell Elisha in advance?
(11) How would you compare this miracle to the miracles of Jesus in John 6:1-13?
(12) The crowd that Jesus fed obviously knew this miracle of Elisha in the Old Testament, how might they think of Jesus because of His miracle? (Jn. 6:14)
(13) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) With the constant conflict between Israel and Aram, how would the people of Israel, including their prophets look upon a person like Naaman?
(2) Why was the girl so confident that Elisha could heal her master?
(3) What was the reaction of the king of Israel (Joram) to the letter from the king of Aram?
(4) Why was his reaction so different from that of the Israeli servant girl?
(5) What did Naaman expect Elisha to do in order to heal him? Was his expectation logical? Why or why not?
(6) Why didn’t Elisha do what was normally expected?
(7) What lesson can we learn about the "ways” of the Lord in performing His miraculous works?
(8) What was the advice of Naaman’s servant?
(9) What was the wisdom in his advice?
(10) What happened when Naaman did the less than spectacular act of simply dipping in the Jordan seven times?
(11) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) What did this less-than-spectacular healing mean to Naaman and all his attendants?
(2) From hindsight, was Naaman’s sickness a blessing or a curse? Why?
(3) What gifts had Naaman brought with him? (5:5)
(4) Why didn’t Elisha accept Naaman’s gifts?
(5) Should he not accept them, at least for the sake of the other prophets, because they were really poor?
(6) What if Elisha accepted those gifts? What impact might it have on Naaman or his attendants?
(7) What did Naaman wish to take home with him? Why? (v. 17)
(8) Now that Naaman knew that “there is no God in all the world except in Israel”, what dilemma did he face? How did he propose to resolve it?
(9) What was Elisha’s response to his proposal?
(10) What important lesson do we learn from Elisha’s response?
(11) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?