1 Kings 13: Trying to Avoid a Lion.

Presented the Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 03 October 2021, by Captain Michael Ramsay [1] 

 

I think this is a very significant passage. A prophet, a person of God, is used mightily by God to do amazing things (like we have been here) [2]. He was even used to shrivel up the king’s hand and then restore it! God told this prophet that then he was supposed to go straight home without stopping. The king, the government, they wanted the prophet to stay and have dinner with them.[3] The prophet said ‘no’. He was faithful to God in the face of the Government. 

Part way home, an older prophet tells the younger prophet that God has told him that he is supposed to stop and have dinner with him. The younger prophet, who had just successfully stood up to the government and refused to be delayed in returning home, now defers to the senior prophet and does the opposite of what God wants him to do. He follows a man of God instead of following God – because of this, the younger prophet suffers the consequences. In this case, he is killed by a lion [4]. 

This is important: The message of this story isn’t about the senior prophet. Even if he was lying, he was still used by God. This story isn’t about a bad prophet who lies. The story does not say that the senior prophet was bad at all. This story is about a young prophet who, instead of doing what God tells him, does what a man of God tells him and so is killed by a lion. 

We serve in an hierarchical organization. I have great respect for people who are in my upline. Our AC is very competent. She knows a lot. Our DC and his wife are both amazing officers. They are two of the best preachers in The Salvation Army world. We served together in BC years ago; we then served together on the prairies; and then in Toronto and now in BC again. Jamie was instrumental in bringing Susan and I here to Port Alberni. I have a lot of respect for he and Anne and I have nothing bad to say about either of them. Our current Personnel Secretary, we also served with in BC and the Prairie Division as well as in Toronto. His wife, Lynn was a major support to my wife and I during some very significant times in our lives. I have nothing bad to say about them. God used the Braunds and the Armstrongs in our lives and in our ministries. They are amazing people. 

The younger prophet in this story respected the senior prophet; however, in his case he knew in his heart what God wanted him to do and he didn’t do it.  

The Salvation Army plans to implement a policy that troubles me greatly whereby people who are unable to be vaccinated will no longer be able to be a part of our community: they can no longer work or volunteer with us. This vaccine mandate seems to go against what I believe the Lord is speaking to me. I don’t believe that whoever proposed this policy is necessarily disobeying God, but I do believe God is telling me not to have any part of it – maybe at the risk of being killed by a literal or a metaphorical lion. I need your prayers as all of us Officers try to figure out what to do about this vaccine mandate that troubles so many of us. 

The vaccine mandate objectifies people: anyone can come to church, the store, and the soup kitchen to spend money or be waited upon, but only some people are deemed worthy enough to actually participate in our community. The policy will require our employees and volunteers to be injected with two doses of one of the government-approved vaccines by November 14, 2021. If they are not injected, they can be removed from the premises, they can be placed on unpaid leave of absence, they can be in essence fired without even receiving severance pay (because they will technically still be employees).  

Clients, as well, will be removed from our team here. One of the strengths of The Salvation Army is that those of us at our lowest points are able to find a place where we belong and where we can contribute. The proposed mandate states that conscientious objectors to the vaccine, people with legitimate health concerns, and people with mental health barriers that interfere with their ability to be injected with government approved drugs will be longer be able to be part of our community. They will be free to drink coffee across the table from us, but they will not be permitted to serve the coffee or clean up someone’s spill for them. We can do things to them but not with them. We will thereby objectify them. 

We just had orange shirt day in our country. This Thursday we heard many horror stories of people who were told they were no longer invited to be a contributing part of society. 

I am double vaccinated. I am because I work with vulnerable people, many of whom cannot or will not be vaccinated for many different reasons.  

I, like every Officer across this country I am sure, am praying and thinking about this a lot.  I have no condemnation for THQ. If they are doing something wrong that is between them and God, if not then all is good for them. I am concerned about my obedience to God. If I implement the proposed vaccine mandate, am I disobeying God the same way the younger prophet did in our story today? Am I liable to be eaten by a real or metaphorical lion? I don’t want to disobey God. 

This is my Officer Covenant that I signed with God 15 years ago this June. It reminds me that I promised, among other things, “to care for the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, love the unlovable and befriend those who have no friends.” Who has less friends these days than those who hold minority opinions about vaccinations?  

I am struggling. I want to obey my senior officers, but I don’t believe I can remove those from our community who cannot be vaccinated. They are, in many cases, those who have no friends. Those that work for me are under my care. Can I deprive someone who is under my care access to a community of Christ? 

I had a close friend in Toronto who died of AIDS. The discrimination that he suffered due to his health should be in the memories of any of us who lived through the AIDS scare. Our society was terrified. People with HIV/AIDS, a contagious health condition, lost so much, including their jobs, their volunteer work, and their ability to participate in society.   Maybe we have now forgotten what it was like. People with HIV serve all over this country today; maybe even here in this ministry unit; we do not ask for proof of their taking medication. We are not even allowed to ask about their medical status. How can we now be asked to discriminate against even healthy people who do not want to share their medical history with us and/or do not wish to be injected with government approved drugs? 

I do not believe that I can morally remove someone’s employment, volunteer work, ability to be part of a team simply because they make a health decision that might be disagreeable to some, or even to most.  By removing someone from their job for making different medical choices than my own, I would be doing to them what was done to my friend years ago.   

In Winnipeg, I volunteered alongside a senior gentleman in prison ministry at Stony Mountain Penitentiary. The reason he was involved in prison ministry was that during WWII, he was a conscientious objector. They locked him in that very same jail because his values and beliefs were different than the majority of people – and he suffered in the ways that people who are in jail suffer!    

I do not believe I can discriminate against people who conscientiously object to the vaccine. To force someone to go against their deeply held convictions or to lose their employment, and ability to contribute as part of a team because they stand by a deeply held conviction that might be disagreeable to some, or even to most, I don’t believe I can do that.   

We have an employee who was double vaccinated. She has lost her sense of smell and her sense of taste. In tears she told me that if she had the choice again to be vaccinated or not, she would not under any circumstance. We have another employee who’s relative was previously fit, healthy, and active, who is now a paraplegic due to the vaccine. We have staff and employees who are not willing to take that risk. Who am I to take away their livelihood, their inclusion in our team here, because they are unwilling to risk their lives?  

We have many members of our team here who are on the margins of society; we have people who are coming out of addiction; we have friends with mental health issues; we have friends with deeply held convictions; we have many people who we have been walking alongside. Our friends have come from just receiving our services, to volunteering as they are able, some to employment, and all to being fully contributing members of our community here. I cannot tell our friends that they are no longer welcome to contribute alongside us helping others in need. I cannot tell them they are no longer part of us, can I?   

I have no condemnation for those who disagree with me. I also have no condemnation for those above me in the hierarchy. I do, however, feel I have a duty to protect those I am responsible for in our structure to include the outcast, to include the excluded.

My Officers’ Covenant is very important to me. This covenant that I made with God requires me to ‘love the unlovable’. The vaccine mandate will remove from our community people who need you, people who need me, and people who need Christ. Like many other Officers across this country, right now I do not believe that I can be faithful to God and the oath I took to Him and at the same time support the vaccine mandate.    

I don’t know what is going to happen. Maybe God will permit me to turn away the people THQ wants me to turn away. Maybe God will change THQ’s minds before the policy is fully implemented; but as it stands, I feel that if I stay with the mandate, even at DHQ’s insistence, rather than go with God’s leading, I will need to be on the lookout for metaphorical, if not literal lions.  

It is my hope that whatever choices any of us make about anything - and they may be different than others' choices - that we always do so without hesitation and under the direction and guidance of our Lord.

Let us pray. 

[1] See Captain Michael Ramsay, "1 Kings 13: Lion for Prophet" for a more in-depth analysis of this pericope, (Sheepspeak.com, The Salvation Army, 25 November 2012) Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/11/1-kings-13-lion-for-prophet.html

[2] R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Kings/Notes to First Kings/First Kings 13 Notes/First Kings Note 13:1, Book Version: 4.0.2: If Josephus's suggestion (Antiq. VIII, 240-41 [ix.1]) that the prophet's name was Yadon is accepted, he may perhaps be connected with the Iddo mentioned as a chronicler of the events of Abijah's day (2 Chronicles 13:22).

[3] Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1993 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 9), S. 158: If the man of God were to make an agreement or show fellowship (‘eat bread’, vv. 7, 18) with the king, that would have been tantamount to a withdrawal of judgment. The king’s motive could have been ‘to link himself in fellowship with him as a form of insurance’ (Robinson, p. 161; cf. Noth, p. 298), and so to seek for the prophet’s endorsement of his new royal position. The ban on the return route might serve to avoid further contact with a cursed place and people.

[4] Cf. Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings, (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), 108.

Devotion 3.30/131: 1 Kings 13: Lion, Lying in Wait

Read 1 Kings 13. It is about a young prophet whom God uses to deliver a great message from the Lord to the king of Israel. He then stops for dinner with an older prophet and is killed by a lion.

God uses the young prophet to do some amazing things before the king. He obviously has full confidence in what the Lord has told him to do as he is standing before the king. The king then tries to detain him but the prophet tells the king that the Lord told him not to delay in returning home. The young prophet then begins his journey home...

On his way home an older prophet seeks him out and invites the younger prophet to have dinner with him. The young prophet tells him that God told him to go straight home and not even stop to eat until he gets home. The older prophet then lies to him. He tells him that an angel told him to have the young prophet over for dinner. The young prophet then doubts what he knows was God's message to him: Go home and don't stop even to eat! The young prophet instead of believing what God told him believes the old prophet when this senior prophet tells him that God gave him a different message. The young prophet, in deferring to the senior prophet, neglects what God told him to do and suffers the consequences: in this case, being killed by a Lion.

I am a member of the clergy in an hierarchical organization. I have made the mistake of the young prophet before (praise the Lord my life was spared); have you? I have known that God operates in a certain way and thus wanted me to do a certain thing and then wrongfully deferred to another. There are consequences. Have you ever known that the Lord has asked you to do something and then doubted and/or disobeyed God by wrongly deferring to someone's influence or authority? Have you ever second guessed your own relationship with God because someone appearing to represent God - by words or Office- has - by accident or design - given you false direction?

This I think is an important lesson. Sometimes pastors, leaders, and officers can be wrong. Sometimes pastors, leaders, and officers can lie (hopefully very rarely!). If you know that God is telling you to do something, do it. Do not be deterred. Who knows? Your obedience to Christ may even provide a path to experience the full blessing of the Lord's salvation to your pastor, leader, officer, or another with spiritual position.

Let us all resolve to keep close to God  so that we can tell what is from Him and what is from something else.And when we know God has given us direction let us not shrink back from following it, no matter what tricks the Enemy may employ or who he may even unwittingly press into service.

Let us pray: Lord help me to stay close to You and always follow Your leading and direction in my life. Amen,

More daily blogs at

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2 Kings 23:29-30: 888,246 Ceramic Poppies

Presented on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #56 to the Community Remembrance Day 11 November 2014 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan and to Warehouse Mission and Corps 614 Regent Park, Toronto on 13 November 2016 by Captain Michael Ramsay

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This is the Toronto version, to view the original click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/11/2-kings-2329-30-lest-we-forget.html

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On this day in 2014 there were 888 246 ceramic poppies encircling the famous Tower of London in England; they create a powerful visual image to commemorate the centennial of the commencement of the First World War. The 888 246 poppies filled the Tower’s moat. Each poppy represents a military fatality during the war. We Canadians fought as part of the empire; our family members and our countrymen lived, served, and died in the ‘Great War’, the ‘war to end all wars’, the First World War.

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When World War One broke out Canada was a very small and sparsely populated country of just over 7 million people. Most were farmers or involved in other primary industries. Many boys and young men left their family farms and businesses here to serve in the war there. I have read stories of bankers and teachers and minors and scientists and athletes and farmers and very young men from across this country and Newfoundland who put their jobs, their careers, their parents, their girlfriends, their new wives, their young children, and their whole lives on hold until they returned home from the war - only many never did return home from the war. They were never to be seen again by their wives, their children, their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers.

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Almost 7% of the total population of our country – 619 000 Canadians served in this war and 66 976 Canadians never returned. That was almost 1% (0.92%) of our country's whole population and it was almost 1-out-of-every-5 boys aged 16-24: meaning that in a community the size of Regent Park (Cabbage Town) now, 150 (120) people would have been killed in the war. If you lived in Canada then, you would know more than one person who did not return. On River Street alone in the few blocks where 614 is today from just past Dundas to Queen St., seven young men gave their lives – and many more on the side streets here too. In the very short walk down Parliament St. from the Warehouse Mission to the food bank, were the homes of five more young men who gave their lives. I want to share one of the many stories I happened read about young people who left their homes here in our city to serve in the mud of Europe:

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Allan McLean “Scotty” Davidson was one of Canada’s early hockey heroes. As captain of the Kingston Frontenacs, he led the team to the Ontario Hockey Association’s junior title in 1909 and 1911. During the 1912-1913 season he joined the National Hockey Association, playing for the Toronto Blueshirts, scoring nineteen goals in twenty games. The following year, as team captain, he led the Blueshirts to Toronto’s first-ever Stanley Cup title.

Lance Corporal Davidson was the first professional hockey player to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force in September 1914 serving with the 2nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (Eastern Ontario Regiment). He was 24 years old when he died in France on 16 June 1915 and is one of over 11 000 Canadians whose remains were never found or positively identified. He was only 24. He lived and worked in our city and he was killed in the mud in France. He is just one of the almost 20% of Canadian young men aged 16-24 who never returned from his European service. Let us not forget.[1]

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We remember just before Remembrance Day in this country a couple of years ago too: a couple of young service people had their lives cut short in Ottawa. Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, who along with Curtis Barrett and others, acted to save many in confronting a gunman on Parliament Hill, said “On behalf of all members of the House of Commons Security Services team, I would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. Our prayers are with you.  Our thoughts are also with Constable Son, who … suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.” I also heard reported that Kevin Vickers when asked about the gunman, said, “All I could think of was his mother.” Let us remember her and let us remember Kevin Vickers, and let us remember Curtis Barrett (the one who delivered the fatal shot that saved many) and all that he is going through. He has suffered serious PTSD since the event. Let us remember all our service people and let us remember everyone affected there here today.

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Today in the Scriptures we read about King Josiah. Josiah was the last great King of Judah. He was a good man, used by God to do good things and he was the last significant ruler of his country. Josiah, when he was 26 years old, this young leader marched out to battle and never returned. Josiah’s life was over. Josiah’s reign was over. Two chapters later, the two books of the Kings are over. And two chapters later the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah are over.[2] They are destroyed. Lest we forget the tragedies of war. Let us not forget.

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Like Josiah, so many of our Canadian soldiers of the 20^th  and 21^st  Centuries, left their families behind, left their work behind, left those who loved them behind. Let us not forget the many good people who marched out to battles from Canada all risking and some laying down their lives for God, for King and for country.

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When World War 2 broke out, Canada was a country of 11 million people and we sent more than one million of our family members to serve in the military and of those more than 100 000 sustained casualties; 45 000 gave their lives. Many of us have friends and family who marched out of Toronto here to offer their lives up in service to us. I met one such man at Kiwanis last week.  My own grandmother’s brother who left the family farm to serve overseas never did speak of the day they were surrounded by the Germans in the war. We who have not served in that way can’t possibly even imagine what he and others experienced on that day.

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My grandfather returned home to Canada from California where he was working when war broke out so that he could serve God, King and country in the Second World War.

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I have these cards from my family members who served in both world wars. These are some of my treasured possessions. This one from April 2, 1917 says:

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Dear Sister, Just a line to let you know that I am alive yet, and hope to continue the same. Tell Albert when he gets time to drop me a line. Bye, Bye, Love from Frank.

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These are some of my cherished possessions. I look at these and I remember my family. I remember all those that risked their lives for us. I remember. I hope I never forget. I hope my daughters never forget. I hope we never forget. Let us never forget their sacrifices and let us not sacrifice the peace that they won for us. Let us not forsake them and let us not forget them

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            Our bothers and sisters, our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, our comrades-in-arms who are veterans all lived and some died so that we would not have to live through the horrors of war. I have been a legion chaplain for many years and was honoured to hear their remembrances as clear as if they were yesterday: What they lived through. They lived and their friends died so that we wouldn`t have to live and die in war. Many cry when they see how cheaply we treat the peace that they bought us at such a high price. They lived and died fighting for an end to war. When we refuse the peace they died for, I have been told we devalue their life; we make their sacrifice mean less. Jesus Christ himself died so that we could be reconciled to God and each other. He rose again so that we could serve Him, the Prince of Peace, whose government will never stop ruling and whose followers will never stop being peaceful. And that is my hope for each of us here today – that we would, honour the sacrifices of our veterans as well as our Lord and Saviour by living in peace with one another.

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It is said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Two years ago today, across the ocean, there were 888 246 ceramic poppies to remind us of the terrible price of war. Today we are wearing poppies as a pledge that we will never forget our friends, our family, our loved ones, and our veterans who offered their lives in service to us. Let us not forsake them. Let us not forget. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

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Let us pray.

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www.sheepspeak.com 

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[1] COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION – Canadian Agency http://www.cwgc-canadianagency.ca/a128/Canadian+War+Dead+from+the+Sporting+World.pdf

[2] Choon-Leon Seow, The First and Second Book of Kings, in NIB 9, ed. Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1999): 287 points out that salvation is not meted out on a basis of works.

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2 Kings 23:29-30: 888,246 Ceramic Poppies

Presented on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #56 to the Community Remembrance Day 11 November 2014 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan by Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the original text. To view the 2016 Toronto version click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2016/11/2-kings-2329-30-888246-ceramic-poppies.html 

Today there are 888,246 ceramic poppies encircling the famous Tower of London; they create a powerful visual image to commemorate the centennial of the commencement of the First World War. The 888,246 poppies fill the Tower's moat. Each poppy represents a military fatality during the war. We Canadians fought as part of the empire; our family members and our countrymen lived, served, and died in the ‘Great War’, the ‘war to end all wars’, the First World War.

When World War One broke out Canada was a very small and sparsely populated country of just over 7 million people. Most were farmers or involved in other primary industries. Many boys and young men left their family farms here to serve in the war there. I have read stories of bankers and teachers and minors and scientists and athletes and farmers and very young men from across this country and Newfoundland who put their jobs, their careers, their parents, their girl friends, their new wives, their young children, and their whole lives on hold until they returned home from the war - only many never did return home from the war. They were never to be seen again by their wives, their children, their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers.

Almost 7% of the total population of our country - 619,000 Canadians served in this war and 66,976 Canadians never returned. That was almost 1% (0.92%) of our country's whole population: meaning that in a city the size Swift Current now, 170 people would have been killed in the war. If you lived in Canada then, you would know more than one person who did not return. I want to share one of the many stories I happened read about young people who left their homes here on the prairies to serve in the mud of Europe:

Stanley Richard Shore (Private, 27th Battalion, CEF) was born on December 16th, 1896. He received his education in part in the King Edward School, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was employed by the National Trust Company, Saskatoon, for a short period, but in order to complete his education he resigned and returned to school. In October 1915, at the age of 18, he entered the service of the Bank of British North America in Saskatoon. He enlisted in April 1916, as a Private in the 183rd Battalion, Canadian Infantry, and headed overseas. He then proceeded to France with a reinforcement draft for the 27th Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He was killed during the attack on Passchendaele Ridge on November 6th, 1917.[1]

He was only 20. He was a banker. He lived and worked in Saskatchewan and he was killed in the mud on Passchendaele Ridge. He is just one of the almost one percent of the population of Canada who never returned from his European service. Let us not forget.

Recently in our country a couple of young service people had their lives cut short. Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, who acted to save many in shooting the gunman on Parliament Hill, said “On behalf of all members of the House of Commons Security Services team, I would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. Our prayers are with you.  Our thoughts are also with Constable Son, who … suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.” I also heard reported that Kevin Vickers when asked about his shooting of the gunman, said, “All I could think of was his mother.” Let us remember her and let us remember Kevin Vickers and all that he is going through. Let us remember the service people and let us remember everyone affected there here today.

Today in the Scriptures we read about King Josiah. Josiah was the last great King of Judah. He was a good man, used by God to do good things and he was the last significant ruler of his country. Josiah, when he was 26 years old, this young leader marched out to battle and never returned. Josiah’s life was over. Josiah’s reign was over. Two chapters later, the two books of the Kings are over. And two chapters later the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah’s are over.[2] Lest we forget the tragedies of war. Let us not forget.

Like Josiah, so many of our Canadian soldiers of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries, left their families behind, left their work behind, left those who loved them behind. Let us not forget the many good people who marched out to battles from Canada all risking and some laying down their lives for God, for King and for country.

When World War 2 broke out, Canada was a country of 11 million people and we sent more than one million of our family members to serve in the military and of those more than 100,000 sustained casualties; 45,000 gave their lives. Many of us have friends and family who marched out of Saskatchewan here to offer their lives up in service to us. My grandmother’s brother who left the farm in Saskatchewan never did speak of the day they were surrounded by the Germans in the war. We who have not served in that way can’t possibly even imagine what he and others experienced on that day.

My grandfather returned home to Saskatchewan so that he could enlist to serve God, King and country in the Second World War.  I have these cards from my family members who served in both world wars. Theses are some of my treasured possessions. This one from April 2, 1917 says:

Dear Sister, Just a line to let you know that I am alive yet, and hope to continue the same. Tell Albert when he gets time to drop me a line. Bye, Bye, Love from Frank.

These are some of my cherished possessions. I look at these and I remember my family. I remember all those that risked their lives for us. I remember. I hope I never forget. I hope my daughters never forget. I hope we never forget. Let us not forget their sacrifices and let us not sacrifice the peace that they won for us. Let us not forsake them and let us not forget them.

It is said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Today, across the ocean, there are 888, 246 ceramic poppies to remind us of the terrible price of war. Today we are wearing poppies as a pledge that we will never forget our friends, our family, our loved ones, and our veterans who offered their lives in service to us. Let us not forsake them. Let us not forget. Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Norm Christie, For King and Empire: The Canadians at Passchendaele October to November 1917 (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: CEF Books, 1999), 36.

[2] Choon-Leon Seow, The First and Second Book of Kings, in NIB 9, ed. Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1999): 287 points out that salvation is not meted out on a basis of works.

Numbers 21:1-9, 2 Kings 18:1-4, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, John 3:13:16: No Nehushtan; Salvation comes from Christ Alone.

Presented to Swift Current corps of The Salvation Army, 21 September 2014 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay; Toronto's Warehouse Mission 614, 13 November 2017; and Alberni Valley Ministries, 07 May 2023

This is the original version. To view the 2017 Toronto version, click here:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2017/11/numbers-211-9-2-kings-181-4-john-31316.html

 

To view the 2023 Alberni Valley Version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2023/05/numbers-211-9-2-kings-181-4-1.html 

 

Elements of this sermon were incorporated into Major Michael Ramsay's sermon to the Alberni Valley Community Lenten Service, John 3:16-21: Snake Clowns, 10 March 2024 which you can view here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2024/03/john-316-21-snake-clowns.html
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The following is allegedly from the US Government Peace Corps Manual for its volunteers who work in the Amazon Jungle. It tells what to do in case an anaconda attacks you:

1. If you are attacked by an anaconda do not run. The snake is faster than you are.

2. Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another.

3. Tuck your chin in.

4. The snake will come and begin to nudge and climb over your body.

5. Do not panic.

6. After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from your feet and always from the end. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic.

7. The snake will now begin to swallow your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.

8. When the snake has reached your knees, slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake’s mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg, then suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake’s head.

9. Be sure you have your knife.

10. If at this point you notice that you have forgotten your knife, you may wish that you had paid attention in class; and now would be a good time to pray if you aren’t already.

Our pericope today is also about snakes. It is actually a passage that has interested me for quite a while, Numbers 21:1-9. We notice in Numbers 21:1-3 that the Israelites are on a spiritual high. They have just made a vow to the Lord and the Lord has given them a victory against the Canaanites.

This would be like after next weekend when all of the men who are going will be returning from Men’s Camp. We will all have great stories of not only fishing but of praying and encountering God together. Men’s camps always have such a strong spiritual component that you have the opportunity to come home filled with great spiritual food. It was at a men’s camp a few years ago where Dusty acknowledged that he was called by the Lord to Officership and he is now a Lieutenant in The Salvation Army. Men’s Camp, like youth councils and I assume women’s camp, often leaves people on fire for the Lord, on a spiritual high.

It is very much this kind of feeling that the Israelites have at this moment, verses 1-3, but there is even more than that. They have just won a military victory, a physical contest. That would be akin to and even greater than winning a significant football game, hockey game, or soccer match: the adrenaline is flowing. They are excited. The Lord has delivered them. They are celebrating and telling all the stories, I imagine.

And then, verses 4-9, the people revert to the complaining we spoke about last week that led to the Exodus generation forfeiting the salvation of the Promised Land.[1] They complain against God and against Moses and they even refer to the very bread from heaven that God has been lovingly sending to them to keep them alive. They refer to this bread from heaven through which God is saving them from starvation, they refer to this bread from heaven – to which the Lord Jesus Himself is compared (John 6:22-59) – they say about this sustenance and salvation from the Lord – they say, “We detest that miserable food” (Numbers 21:5). How does that make their Heavenly Father feel?

Just like there were consequences for their parents complaining consistently about the Lord so too there are consequences for this generation rejecting their bread of God’s salvation. This time the consequence is a plague of snakes. Who here likes snakes? Who here likes big snakes and poisonous snakes? And there is even more. “The Hebrew phrase hannehashim hasserapim, [here means literally] ‘the burning snakes’ or, better, ‘the snakes that produce burning’. The ‘fire’ was in their venom, of course… The poison in these snakebites must have been particularly virulent, leading to horrible, agonizing deaths.”[2] The Lord sends these poisonous serpents among the Israelites and they bite them and the bitten Israelites die probably painfully. They perish from the venom of the serpents. Just as Adam and Eve died at the hand of the serpent – so to speak - (Genesis 3) so too the children of Israel.

At this point they realize what they are doing in blaming God and complaining and rejecting the very life that He is providing for them. They realize their sin and they repent of it. They call out to Moses; they beseech him to speak on their behalf to God, saying that they are sorry and they ask for deliverance from the consequences of their sins.

God then tells Moses that He will yet again deliver these people. God will save them still. Verses 8-9, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’  So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.”

This is great and this is exciting. This deliverance from the serpents meant so much to the Israelites that they actually kept that bronze snake around for a long time to remember this miracle. They kept this symbol of what God had done with them their whole time in the desert. They kept this bronze snake with them throughout the whole life and leadership of Joshua, son of Nun during the conquest of Canaan. They kept the bronze snake safe and secure for generations. They kept it through the roughly 400 years of alternating oppression and liberation in the time of the Judges. They kept this bronze snake with them through the entire existence of the United Kingdom: through the reigns of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon. They kept this bronze serpent during the divided kingdoms, using it during worship, through many kings and political administrations, through many wars and trials and tribulations and throughout all these generations. They used this snake in worship for much longer a time period than the time between today and when the Europeans first organized in Quebec, Montreal, or later landed on Plymouth Rock. For hundreds of years they used this bronze snake that Moses had made in the desert as a part of their worship and then, 1 Kings 18:1-4:

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father [ancestor] David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

This is the snake that God had Moses himself make hundreds of years earlier in the desert to deliver the people from the serpents. This is a heritage item, an historic artifact; this is a part of worship. This snake is a symbol of the healing that God did in the desert and this snake was originally a symbol of salvation and now the King of Judah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord by breaking it into pieces, destroying it forever. Why would God have this originally powerful symbol of salvation created by Moses destroyed after the people of God had gone to great effort over hundreds and hundreds of years of adversity and affluence to preserved it? Why would God have destroyed this powerful symbol of salvation that He Himself ordered created in the first place?

He had it destroyed because instead of using it as a tool to worship God; they began worshiping the bronze snake itself.[3] It had become an idol. Are there things like this in the churches today? In Bible study this week we had a great discussion around 1 Corinthians 10 and what exactly are baptism and communion.[4] Are these tools that help us to worship God or can they become ‘Nehushtan’? Can people come to think that they are saved by being baptized or taking communion rather than or as well as by Jesus? Can people take good things that may have even been ordained and commissioned by God Himself – like the snake and maybe like some contemporary church practices - and adore those things more than, instead of, or as well as God?

Worship roughly means to adore. Are there things in the churches, in our religions, in our lives; are there things – or people - that maybe God has used to great effect in our lives that we now adore as we are supposed to adore God? For those who grew up in the Army here: what if we removed the flag? What if we removed the uniform? What if we removed the Mercy Seat, the very spot where we are to come to meet with God Himself? Would we grumble every time we came here? Do we love these articles as well as we love God? Is there an author or a theologian or a pastor or a person that you follow so closely that whatever he, she or they say must be correct; so much so that you don’t even bother to test their words against the Scriptures or to refine them through the fires of prayer anymore? But just accept them blindly? Returning to our Bible study on 1 Corinthians, I have even heard some people say that it is necessary to be baptized in water to be saved. The water of baptism – just like any of these other great rituals in the churches - is Moses’ snake:[5] It was ordained to point us to the power of Christ; it is meant to point us towards Christ’s Salvation. As soon as we start thinking that salvation comes through any item like the Mercy Seat; or food like communion; or a rite like baptism we are in trouble. If we think that without that rite, item or other than we are going to hell, when we are supposed to know that salvation comes from Christ alone, then that symbol of God Himself could very well become ‘Nehushtan’ in our lives and need to be removed.

So hear me correctly: it is when we start to adore things in and of themselves that are meant to help us adore God that they need to removed from our lives; when good things that used to help us worship God become things we worship, then we need to remove them – no matter how important they are to us: no matter how long we have used them as part of worship, if we start to adore them alongside God than they become ‘Nehushtan’. (That is one reason why we don’t take communion here on Sunday mornings.)

Now that being said – listen carefully to me here - communion, baptism, the Mercy Seat, and any other aid to worship as it is a very important aid to bring us close to God and as any of these aids help us express our love of Christ and our joy at communing with Him, as these things bring us close to God and lead us to think of and adore Christ than these are very important but anything or anyone who we adore alongside or worship instead of Christ needs to be removed from our life so that indeed we can worship Christ alone for Salvation indeed comes from Christ alone.

There is one more thing that I want to point out here. Just like 1 Corinthians 10 points out that water is a symbol of our very important baptism into Christ; so John Chapters 12 and 3 point out that that snake in the desert is a symbol of our all important salvation in Jesus Christ.[6]

Jesus says, John 12:32: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 3:13-16: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man [Jesus] must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

This bronze snake that God used was cast aside and destroyed after centuries of use because it began to compete with the Lord -whom it foretells- for the very hearts and minds and adoration of His people.[7] But what that bronze snakes represents is alive and well and that is our salvation through Jesus Christ, through Christ alone. So today I encourage us all that if there is anything – even something in the church or a good person or a good mentor in our lives – if there is anything that we have come to see as our salvation other than Christ, I invite us to leave it here in the sanctuary or even on the altar today and never to pick it up again. There is only one who can handle all of our problems and there is not a single thing that we can face in our lives that God cannot handle; so I invite us here today in all that we are going through, in all that we experience, in all that we do; to always look for our salvation from Christ and from Christ alone. 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com 

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[1] Captain Michael Ramsay, Exodus 14, Numbers 14: Let It Go! (Sheepspeak: 14 September 2014: Swift Current, Sk.) Available online at http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/09/exodus-14-numbers-14-let-it-go.html

[2] Ronald B. Allen, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Numbers/Exposition of Numbers/I. The Experience of the First Generation in the Desert (1:1-25:18)/B. The Rebellion and Judgment of a Fearful People (11:1-25:18)/2. A climax of rebellion and hope and the end of their dying (21:1-25:18)/b. The bronze snake (21:4-9), Book Version: 4.0.2

[3] Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1993 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 9), S. 291

[4] Cf. Simon J. Kistemaker, ‘1 Corinthians’ in New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 324. They are ‘spiritual food’ every bit as much as manna and water from the Rock.

[5] Cf. J. Paul Sampley, ‘1 Corinthians’ in New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 10, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2002), 916.

[6] Cf. Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/II. The Public Ministry of the Word (1:19-12:50)/A. The Beginning Ministry (1:19-4:54)/6. The interview with Nicodemus (2:23-3:21)/a. Nicodemus's visit (2:23-3:15), Book Version: 4.0.2 

[7] Cf. Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 112

2 Kings 22:1-23:30 (2 Chronicles 34-35): Josiah’s Preparation for Israel’s Life after Death

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 10 November 2013 by Captain Michael Ramsay
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 Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. I trust that many of you will be marching in with us at the Comp High School at 10:30am. You are invited also to join us for the 8:30am service at the Cenotaph. The Salvation Army will be leading both services as, of course, we have been providing the chaplaincy for RCL Branch #56 for the previous 5 years.

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 Last year it was bitterly cold outside on Remembrance Day. I remember it quite vividly. A number of us got frostbite on our ears including myself, the mayor, and Maxine. I always looked forward to seeing Maxine at Legion events. The poppy tea was yesterday but, as far as Legion events go, it is the Mothers' Day tea that I'll always remember because every year they had a door prize of some flowers. I think each year I told Maxine that if my daughters won the flowers she would have to come to church in the morning to present them with their prize and, as far as I remember, we won every year; so we knew that Maxine would be in church at least that one Sunday each year. Many of us miss Maxine as she received her 'Promotion to Glory' just a month or so after Remembrance Day last year. I am sure she was met with, "well done my good and faithful servant."

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 Along these lines, in my preparing for both today and tomorrow's ceremonies I ran across some interesting pieces of information about a number of people who lived and died in Canada’s wars - especially the 'Great War', the 'war to end all wars', the 'first world war'.

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 When World War One broke out Canada was a very small and sparsely populated country of just over 7 million people. Most people were farmers or involved in other primary industries. Many young boys headed off the farms here to serve in the war. I also read stories of bankers and teachers and minors and scientists and athletes and very young men from across the country who put their jobs, their careers, their parents, their girl friends, their new wives, their young children, and their whole lives on hold until they returned home from the war - only many never did return home from the war. They were never to be seen again by their wives, their children, their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers.

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 66 976 Canadians died in World War 1. That was almost 1% (0.92%) of our country's population: meaning that in a city then with a population of 17 000, like Swift Current is now, 170 people would have been killed in the war. If you lived in Canada during the war, you would know more than one person who did not return. I want to share one of the many stories I happened read about people who left their homes here on the Canadian prairies to die in the mud of Passchendaele:

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Stanley Richard Shore (Private, 27th Battalion, CEF) was born in Manitou, Manitoba, on December 16th, 1896. He received his education in the Brandon schools and in the King Edward School, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was employed by the National Trust Company, Saskatoon, for a short period, but in order to complete his education he resigned and returned to school. In October 1915, at the age of 18, he entered the service of the Bank of British North America in Saskatoon. Previous to his enlisting for overseas service [in the war] he was attached to the 105th Regiment. He enlisted in April, 1916, as a Private in the 183rd Battalion, Canadian Infantry, and headed overseas. On the 183rd Battalion being disbanded in England he proceeded to France with a reinforcement draft for the 27th Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He was killed during the attack on Passchendaele Ridge on November 6th, 1917.[1]

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 He was only 20. He was a banker. He was a prairie boy. He was killed in the mud on Passchendaele Ridge. He is just one of the almost one percent of the population of Canada who never returned from his European adventure.

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 Today on Remembrance Sunday, quite by providence, certainly not through any intent or design on my part, we are looking at a good man, who like Stanley Richard Shore, and like so many other good men throughout history, was killed in battle when he was still young.

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Today, in part, we are going to eulogize King Josiah. Josiah was the last great King of Judah and Israel. He was a good man, who was used by God to do many good things and he really was the last significant ruler of Judah or Israel. Not long after Josiah was killed, his country was wiped off the face of the earth forever. It would never stand as an independent nation again.

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So who is this King Josiah that we have added to our branch of the lineage of Christ that we are growing above the altar in the sanctuary here? Who is this King Josiah whom we are going to commemorate what the Lord has done through him today?

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Josiah had an interesting home life growing up to say the least. When he was born, his grandfather was the King of Judah. His grandfather, King Manasseh, was the longest reigning of all of the kings of Judah. He was popular with many of the people and Manasseh was among the most evil of all of the kings to ever rule Judah (but cf. 2 Chronicles 33:10-13).^[2] 2 Kings 21:9 records that Manasseh even led the Israelites (Judeans) to do more evil than even the people who lived in Canaan before God removed them because they were evil. And now because of the evil in the kingdom of Judah during Manasseh's reign, God decides to remove Israel from this land just like He removed the nations before them (Genesis 15:7-15).

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King Manasseh died when Josiah was about six years old and then Josiah’s dad, Amon, became the king of Judah. Amon - 2 Kings 21:21-22 - did evil just as his father had done and King Amon abandoned the LORD, the God of his ancestors (cf. Chronicles 33:21-25). His servants then, only 2 years into his reign, murdered this evil king. This evil King Amon however was also very popular with the people of Israel/Judah, so they killed those who plotted against him and they placed the young  Josiah on the throne.

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Josiah was only eight years old when he became the last significant king of Judah (ca. 640 BCE). Then in the 18^th year of his reign, when he was 26 years old, he sent a servant to the Temple, to the House of the LORD, to collect some money, to pay for repairs to the building. It was then that the High Priest told Shaphan, Josiah's servant, that he had found the Book of the Law in the House of the LORD.[3] This is interesting because in all of the years of the evil reigns of his father and grandfather - 57 years - plus all of the years of Josiah's reign to date - 75 years altogether - somehow they had lost the Scriptures. Probably for at least a half of a century, I would guess; they didn’t even really know about the Book of the Law anymore let alone the Scriptures contained within them. Israel and Judah had become so evil that they seem to have forgotten the Lord altogether.[4]

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When they find this book, they read it and they then franticly try to figure out what to do with the Word of God. They read it and they realize just how evil their nation has become; they read it and they fear for their lives; they read it and they fear God. The King, 22:18, is penitent; he humbles himself before the LORD; He tears his clothes and he weeps before the LORD. He seeks out any remaining prophets of the LORD to ask what he can do for the LORD.

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As part of Josiah’s coming to faith here, as part of and as a result of his repentance, he is better than any of the kings before or after him (2 Kings 22:25). He reads the Scriptures to the elders of his people. He makes a covenant with the LORD to follow the LORD - 23:3 – “keeping His commandments, His decrees and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant.”

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Josiah turns his whole life and his whole country over to the Lord: he destroys the altars to and images of the false gods in his country; he deposes the idolatrous priests; he destroys the houses of the male shrine prostitutes; he removes the [war] horses that he, his father and his grandfather, the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun [god] at the entrance to the House of the LORD. He then burns the [war] chariots - his era’s equivalent of the tank. He burns the chariots of the sun with fire. He pulls down the evil temples and he defiles the evil high places. These are totally unparalleled reforms in all the history of Israel and Judah. He destroys the state sanctioned worship of false gods and he re-institutes the state sanctioned celebration of the Passover feast to commemorate the LORD’s saving the first-born sons and delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt. He puts away all the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and all the abominations in Judah and Jerusalem.[5] 2 Kings 22:25 records, “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.” Josiah is quite a king. This is an unparalleled repentance and a great testimony to God, to the LORD.

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But, all that being said, Verse 25 is followed by Verses 26 and 27: “Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. So the Lord said, ‘I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’” Then, Verses 29 and 30a, “While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo. Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb” (cf. 2 Chronicles 35:20-27).[6] Josiah's life here is over. Josiah’s reign in Judah is over. Two chapters later, the two books of the Kings are over. And two chapters later the two countries of Israel and Judah’s time is over. It is finished.[7]

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Josiah was a great king. Josiah loved God. Josiah served God like no one else in the histories of the countries of Israel and Judah. Josiah started his reign as an eight year-old boy and he finished it as a devout servant of our God. Josiah, like so many of our Canadian soldiers of the 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st Centuries (as before), left his family behind, left his people behind, left his work behind, left those who loved him behind. And Josiah left his reforms behind to march into a battle from which he and his reforms would never return. He marched out into a battle from which his country would never recover. Josiah’s son did evil in the eyes of the LORD. Josiah’s son only reigned 3 months. The very few remaining kings of Judah/Israel were then nothing more than vassals of Egypt and Babylon, until the LORD finally removed them from His land.[8]

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This is a sad story on this Remembrance Sunday. God used Josiah to accomplish so much good in reforming Israel and Judah. Josiah then marched off to a battle from which neither he nor his reforms ever returned. So many good Christians marched out to battles from Canada in the 20^th Century and now the country to which some never returned is no longer devoted to God the way it was when they laid down their lives for God, for King and for country.

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So what can we learn today from Josiah - the late great king of a long gone kingdom who marched out to war and never returned? So what can we learn from Josiah - the late great king of a long gone kingdom who marched out to a war from which his country never returned? I think what we can learn is this: Josiah experienced God’s blessing in the midst of the death throws of his nation and so can we experience God’s blessing in the midst of whatever we are experiencing.[9] And even more: Israel and Judah were evil for a long time before God wiped them off the face of the earth. Before the LORD scattered them away from God’s land forever, God used Josiah to bring God’s people back to the LORD. If God had not instituted Josiah’s reforms, no one today may have ever heard of the LORD at all. Remember that Israel/Judah had forgotten the LORD. But the LORD didn’t forget them; He reminds them who He is just when they need Him the most. Just before the people are deported to many parts of the world, they return to God and so God is with them in their deportations and God is with them in their suffering and God is with them in their captivity and God is with them in their slavery. Throughout all of their hardships for centuries to come God is right there with them. And through this they begin to look forward to Jesus. They begin to look hopefully, longingly and expectantly to the coming of Jesus, who is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings; He is the wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace whose government will never stop ruling and being peaceful (Isaiah 9:6).

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And this is the same for us. Just as we have been looking at Ruth and Naomi the previous few weeks in Bible study, so it is with the people after Josiah and so it is with us today. No matter what evil, no matter what hardships, no matter what trials, no matter what tribulations we suffer, Christ is right there with us.  He is our comfort and our strength. And one day, one day He is coming back and then every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and then there will be no more tears and there will be no more suffering forever more in His Kingdom to come.

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Many of us here have already promised God that we will serve Him forever but if there are any here today who have not yet bowed to Jesus as King and made Him Lord of our life, I invite us to do this today for God promises that no matter what is happening in our lives today and no matter what will happen in our lives tomorrow, God will never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus loves us.

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Let us pray.
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www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Norm Christie, For King and Empire: The Canadians at Passchendaele October to November 1917 (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: CEF Books, 1999), 36.

^[2]Cf. Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1993 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 9), S. 311 for an interesting discussion of this in light of 2 Chronicles 33.

[3] Cf. Nadav Na'aman, 'The discovered book and the legitimation of Josiah's reform,' JBL, no. 1 (2011): 47-62 for a good discussion around content and dating of ‘the Book of the Law’.

[4] Cf. Bruce C. Birch, Walter Brueggemann, Terence E. Fretheim, Daniel L. Peterson, A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2005) 322-323

[5] Cf. Jonathan Ben-Dov,' Writing as Oracle and as law: new contexts for the book-find of King Josiah.,' JBL 127, no. 2 (2008): 223-239 esp. p. 238 for an historical discussion of his reforms.

[6] Cf. 2 Chronicles 35:20-27 for a more detailed account of Josiah’s death in battle.

[7] Choon-Leon Seow, The First and Second Book of Kings, in NIB 9, ed. Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1999): 287 points out that salvation is not meted out on a basis of works.

[8] Patrick J. Wilson, 'Between Text and Sermon: 2 Kings 22:1-23:3,' Interpretation 54, no. 4 (2000): 415, “Beyond rewards and punishments God calls us to a particular way of life. Josiah understands this even as he stands by the pillar to read the book of the covenant, which consigns his kingdom as condemned property. But for those who hear, it is an invitation to life with God.”

[9] Patrick J. Wilson, 'Between Text and Sermon: 2 Kings 22:1-23:3,' Interpretation 54, no. 4 (2000): 415