As I move into 2 Kings for this series on "Calvinism Everywhere," I'm going to turn a corner and back away from trying to include as many statements as I readily see about God's absolute dominion. There's just so much there, on every page really. And a lot of this material is repetitive, including elements of God's reign already pointed up in Judges through 1 Kings (e.g., a king dies "according to the word of the LORD," 2 Kgs. 1:17; or an army is given victory from the LORD, 2 Kgs. 5:1; or YHWH calls for a famine, 2 Kgs. 8:1). Not that going over these things is unprofitable. It would be. But I simply want to focus on texts that angle in on the subject in certain ways. So I'm going to highlight certain passages only, those that are particularly striking or relevant or insightful for us, as I see things.
One thing to be duly reckoned with is how God's spokesmen (in this case, first Elijah, then Elisha) say that something will come to pass, and then it does (e.g., 2 Kgs. 4:16-17, where the Shunammite woman bears a son to her husband in his old age according to the word of Elisha; cf. 2 Kgs. 4:42-44). The prophetic word and God's will are one.
Another thing to take note of is how a man of God prays that God will do something remarkable and unusual, and he does it (e.g., 2 Kgs. 4:32-37, where Elisha asks YHWH to raise the Shunammite's son from the dead, and he is raised; or 2 Kgs. 6:18, when Elisha asks YHWH to strike the Syrians with blindness, and he does so).
Next, there's the divine sending of a deluding influence to cause the Syrians to flee before Israel: "the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, 'Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.' So they fled away . . ." (2 Kgs. 7:6-7).
And then there's the divine prophetic prediction of Elisha that Ben-hadad king of Syria would die and Hazael would take his place and work great evil (2 Kgs. 8:7-15). For YHWH had shown this to Elisha (2 Kgs. 8:14; cf. 2 Kgs. 10:32). There's also the predication of the man of God from way back in 1 Kgs. 13:1-2 that Josiah would throw down idolatry in his zeal for the law of God, which came to pass (2 Kgs. 23:13-16). And this prediction comes 300 years before its fulfillment! (Never mind the incredulous scholars who scoff; what else would we expect from their unbelief?)
Where, please tell me, can anyone legitimately perceive a second or an inch or an action where the God and Father of the Lord Jesus does not reign by his almighty Spirit? I confess (willingly and freely, choosing my words advisedly, without any coercion) that I perceive none. This God—the God of the Bible—he reigns among the nations! And there is no other!
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