Eucharistic meditation, first lent

2 Kings 14:25: Jeroboam restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-Hepher.

Not too long ago, Israel was dying. During the reign of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, the Lord reduced the army of Israel to fifty horsemen, ten chariots, 10,000 footmen, and they were like dust at threshing, ridden over by the threshing wheel of Aram (13:6-7). Yet, the son of Jehoahaz, Jehoash of Israel, recovers cities from the Arameans, and Jeroboam restores the borders of the Northern kingdom and exercises authority over what amounts to a reunited kingdom. What happened?

Well, what did not happen was repentance. Jeroboam II continues in the sins of his namesake, as did all the kings in the line of Jehu. And we know from the book of Jonah that during Jeroboam's reign, or thereabouts, the Lord sent Jonah to Nineveh to call them to repentance. When the Lord sends a prophet to the Gentiles, it's a sure sign that He;s judging His people.

What happened was the sheer mercy of God. Jehoash is able to defeat Aram because "Yahweh was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Jeroboam restored the borders of Israel because "Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, which was very great, and Yahweh saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash."

But there is something more. Dale Ralph Davis has suggested that 2 Kgs. 13-14 is organized concentrically, tracing the revival of the Northern kingdom, and the dynasty of Jehu, from its brush with dusty death to its restoration under Jeroboam II. At the center of this arrangement is the death of Elisha. That is the turning point in the fortunes of the dynasty of Jehu. Elisha's dead bones give life to the corpse thrown into his grave, and as soon as Elisha dies Israel's fortunes begin to change.

This points to a wisdom deeper than that communicated in 2 Kgs. 14, the wisdom that comes with the gospel, for Israel will someday be renewed by the death, and the resurrection, of a Greater Prophet. And that is the wisdom, the foolish wisdom of the cross, that we celebrate at this, the table of wisdom.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, March 05, 2006 at 08:16 AM

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