5. Lesson One of Baal

Lesson One of Baal

 

There was a difference between the kings of Judah and of Israel over worship. Ahab of Israel went after Baal, but sought alliance with Judah to take Ramoth-gilead away from Syria by war. But Ahab had bad luck with prophets, especially Elijah (21.20), who said Ahab got stirred up by his wife Jezebel and sold himself "abominably" (Baal Peor being a particularly disgusting worship). That's no way to celebrate Christmas. To convince Judah in this alliance Ahab brought in four hundred prophets of his own to foretell a good result. These four hundred said that "Adonai shall deliver it," but Adonai is a word for Baal. Jehoshaphat of Judah said, Is there not here a prophet of Yahweh besides, that we might inquire of him? I Kings 22.7. There was  one, Micaiah, but not a cooperative man.

These big kings put on their royal robes in the Samaria gate, sat down their thrones on the threshing floor as Micaiah told them of a similar counsel of Yahweh, surrounded by the "host of heaven" (19). Micaiah says he saw Yahweh seeking someone to persuade Ahab to his destruction, since Judah was preventing it. "A lying spirit" volunteered. Good to know these are always around. Back at the Samaria gate Micaiah says "Yahweh has put a lying spirit into the mouth of all these prophets" (22.23). Zedekiah, the the prophet's leader, hits Micaiah in the face and Ahab puts him in prison. The two kings go to battle with Syria, but Ahab in disguise is killed. The lying spirit brings many more colorful fulfillments of Micaiah's speech at the end of I Kings. Jehoshaphat of Judah survived, but did not take away "the shrines" where incense was burned. But give him credit. He did remove the "male temple prostitutes" but got kicked off Facebook for it. These had remained from the reign of his father, Asa. Can you imagine America taking away its male prostitutes, porn shops and child murder stores?

Lessons in Baal

In those days the healing ministries and prophecy were much sought. Prosperity had not yet been invented. You would think Israel a righteous, faithful nation except it was governed by the son of Ahab, Ahaziah, "King of Samaria," who sent to "Baal-zebub the idol of Ekron" to get healed.  An "angel of Yahweh" tells Elijah to  message the heralds of Ahaziah before they arrive at Baal. His text was, "is it not because there is not an Elohim in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal?" (II Kings 1) He tells the messengers Ahaziah will die and sits down on top of a hill. Two troops of fifty are burned up before a third seeks him to be brought before the king. Elijah goes and the king dies.

Notes on Baalim

Do you think it odd that after Ahab, not Captain Ahab from Moby Dick, but the original, died, his son Ahaziah fell through a lattice in the upper chambers and got "sick" and sent to ask if he would recover? Healing again. Zoharites have a field day with lattice and "sick," as if lattice were a time/space matrix and sick the condition of life for those who do what they want.  Ahaziah asked Baal-zebub, idol of Ekron, [Akron!) to foretell the future.

Irenaeus

For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at noonday, and Akron shall be rooted up. That is how the Zephaniahs read the global captivity where merchants multiplied above the stars and strongholds fell like figs only D. H. Lawrence would eat. To hide the rest, the eater and the eaten dispute the Gates of the mind set open before its enemies- which no fig wants to hear. There is no talk then of titanium alloys in defense, but simple water drawn for the siege.

Go into clay, tread mortar, make strong  brick.

Locusts and worms and canker-worms of multiplied merchants (Nahum 3), cast lots for the ownership of the honorable men of No-Cleveland and No-York that bought and sold  for the glory of their time. They whirled away to the voices of doves, beating their breasts as the Queen stripped them (2.7). So it was that Shaker Heights was fallen and Ohio lost. The outland toward the sea, corpses to stumble over and over under the whip, the wheel, the chariots, the trains, the horns, the dreadful desolate barbs like antennas of grey dawn. The chains long.

He didn't have a web bot on, or an I Ching or decks of cards, what else could Ahaziah do? Some people foretell by numbers, some letters, some tea leaves or the way sticks fall, flights of birds, shadows in the mall. It goes on. But the angel of Yahweh intervened. An exhaustive list is forthcoming with all the interventions done with double negatives posed by Elijah, sent by the angel: is it not because there is not an Elohim in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub the idol? Somebody has underlined Israel in this text and written over next to it, America. Is it not because there is not an Elohim in America that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub the web bot? Yes, it is. But Ahaziah got his answer: "your goose is cooked. Go die."
This isn't just about divination, idols, kings, prophets with a hairy mantle and a leather girdle. Elijah the Tishbite burned up two companies of fifty before a third, humbler, took Elijah back to the king, where he told him he would die. And he died. II Kings 1. Lesson One of Baal.

Now go to Alien Saviors