{"id":63308,"date":"2019-09-23T07:28:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T04:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63308"},"modified":"2023-04-16T10:58:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T07:58:45","slug":"looking-for-cures-in-all-the-wrong-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/looking-for-cures-in-all-the-wrong-places\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking For Cures In All The Wrong Places"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[931,390],"acf":{"old_id":"63308","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33692,"related_cahpter":"314","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"As opposed to Aram, an Israelite prophet is not subordinate to a king. If anything it\u2019s the opposite.","content":"

Why does the king of Aram address his letter to the king of Israel; should he not have dispatched Naaman directly to the prophet? And why does Elisha need to direct the king to “let him come to me”? Why would the king not have thought of that?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The king of Aram sent the letter to the king of Israel…for he thought that it was contingent upon him and that the prophet would not function unless under [the king’s] instructions. (Malbim)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The king of Aram presumes that prophets function in Israel as they would in Syria and in any royal court in the ancient Near East, whereby they are underlings of the king and under his command. Israel, however, is an environment in which the prophet operates independently, answerable to none but God, frequently critiquing royalty and certainly unwilling to bend to its authority. The king of Aram was incapable of imagining a scenario in which the prophet would not be fundamentally subordinate to the king, and so he sought the prophet by means of the latter. By contrast, the king of Israel couldn’t conceive of a situation in which the prophet would be responsive to his control, and so he failed even to entertain the prospect of appealing to Elisha!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elisha hears that the king has torn his clothes. Is this something he heard via prophecy, or did the king’s despair become public knowledge? Whichever is true, Elisha acts in his characteristically supportive role as he offers to assist Naaman, thereby relieving the king of his misery. The king had asked: “Am I God to deal death and give life, that this fellow writes to me to cure a man of his leprosy?” And indeed, as God’s envoy, Elisha’s role is precisely to mediate life and death: The leper is equivalent to the dead (as implied by Num. 12:12),8 and in the selfsame manner that our previous chapter narrates Elisha’s resuscitating a dead boy, here he will restore life to Naaman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Israel, II Kings: In a Whirlwind, Maggid Books, 2019, The Transformation of Naaman\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63310,"id":63310,"title":"Alex Israel - 2_kings_cover","filename":"Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hairy-prophet\/alex-israel-2_kings_cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alex-israel-2_kings_cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63117,"date":"2019-09-23 13:43:41","modified":"2019-09-23 13:53:01","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1711,"height":1821,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-282x300.jpg","medium-width":282,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-768x817.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":817,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-962x1024.jpg","large-width":962,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1443,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1711,"2048x2048-height":1821,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-1128x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1128,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-395x420.jpg","home_baner-width":395,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts from: II Kings - In A Whirlwind","main_caption":"Looking For Cures In All The Wrong Places","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"As opposed to Aram, an Israelite prophet is not subordinate to a king. 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