“Assyria dominated the ancient world in the centuries before the exile of Judah. Sometime during the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel (832–792 bc), and probably toward the latter part of that reign, the Israelite prophet Jonah had been used by God to convert the city Nineveh and all its citizens to the worship of the true God. Jonah 3:5 and 4:11 indicate that God showed His mercy to the children of the city, so that we are entitled to assume that there were God-fearing people alive for the next seventy or so years in Assyria…

Eventually, however, Assyria returned to the path of war. The great Assyrian warrior Tiglath-Pileser III ruled from 745–727 bc. When he turned westward to conquer the region of Palestine, Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Northern Israel formed a coalition against him. Evidently they sought to enlist Ahaz (“He Upholds,” probably from Yeho-Ahaz, “Yahweh Upholds”), King of Judah, but Ahaz refused. Rezin and Pekah invaded Judah, and against the advice of Isaiah, Ahaz turned to Tiglath-Pileser for help, sending him a large gift. Tiglath-Pileser immediately responded, conquering Syria and Israel, and making Judah a vassal state (2 Kings 15:29; 16:5–9; Isaiah 7; 2 Chronicles 28). Ahaz was required to introduce some Assyrian religious practices into Judah, and he was happy to do so (2 Kings 16:10–18). Meanwhile, Northern Israel rebelled against Assyria, and in 722/1 bc Tiglath-Pileser’s successors sacked and destroyed Samaria (2 Kings 17).

Notice the position of the people of Judah. They were both religiously and nationalistically disposed to oppose Assyria. Thus, the political conservatives and the religious conservatives could and did join hands against the internationalists and idolaters. The political conservatives wanted national freedom, while the religious conservatives wanted idolatry extirpated. 

This union of nationalistic conservatives and religious conservatives, which can be seen today in the United States, eventually caused the destruction of Judah, for it resulted in the corruption of a large part of the Remnant, leaving only a handful of faithful believers around such men as Jeremiah.”

James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall, p. 39-41.

“And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.”  Zechariah 14:4

Surprising as His ways are, the Lord always follows procedure. Like Ahasuerus in the book of Esther, anything that is done is done by decree. Although, in the case of Ahasuerus, he needed to consult his elders, whereas God only consults his maturing elders (like Abraham and David–and now the church) to bring us to greater maturity.

A decree is written in the Most Holy, the king’s garden court (head). The elders in the Holy Place respond with liturgy (body). And then they ride out into the world on the swiftest horses to incite a Holy War that divides the world to bring about a New Creation.

In the case of Christ, He is the Word from the throne made flesh. As the Word-Man, He spoke and an earthly priesthood gathered around Him, then rode out into the world and turned it upside down. Then Jesus returned to assess the infant New World and divide the sheep from the goats throughout the empire.

Whatever the Lord does as Word is carried out in His body. Jesus was the rock “divided” to allow living waters to flow into the Land of Israel, which was barren through her harlotry with Greek philosophy and Roman political power. As the husband in Numbers 5 brought his wife to the priest for inspection, Jesus not only sent the cup of testing, He was the cup, the bitter-sweet sword-water. A faithful remnant was made fruitful, a harvest of many children, and the rest were blinded–in fact, cursed with spiritual miscarriage forever.

What we miss is that this same scenario structures the book of Zechariah, and it helps explain one of the most debated texts in the Bible. I have already commented on it here, but have another point to add.

In Zechariah’s visions, a New Covenant (reviving the one made with David and Solomon) is measured out liturgically in the Garden court of the King. The High Priest is given clean robes by the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Christ. This results in a new priest-king crowned in the Land (as the High Priest becomes the caretaker of David’s crown until the Messiah comes). As with the consecration of Aaron, this imputed ‘clean’ came from the future death of Christ (as did the reckoning of Abraham’s faith as righteousness, etc). So there is a subtle reference to Christ as the rock broken in the wilderness to make revived Judah fruitful again. Remember, at the time of Haggai and Zechariah, Israel was again in the Land but still alienated from it.

Before the kingly vision, the prophet sees horses and chariots riding out into the New (Restoration) Covenant world between two bronze mountains. The old Ark-Israel has been split in two so the new Lampstand-Israel can govern the world as mediator. Solomon’s two bronze pillars have become Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, split to allow the living water in the Temple chariots to flow into the empire, which had become the new Promised Land, a bigger territory to conquer.

Chapters 12-14 of Zechariah follow the same pattern. Only here, in chapter 14, it is the fiery bronze legs of Christ, greater Solomon, that split the rock, and the rock is the poor old, worn out, abused and compromised Restoration Covenant, the final form of the Old Covenant ready to pass away.

Just as Christ was split to allow living waters to flow, so the Altar-rock of barren Judah was also split until AD70 to allow the gospel to flow into the entire World, as Jesus had promised. Sinai was finally thrown into the sea by the faith of the apostles (Matthew 21:21; Revelation 8:8).

The Word was spoken as a decree (Christ), echoed by the elders (first century church) and the Holy War culminated in a New World Order. And, as in Esther, all Israel was saved.

As the saints minister the gospel water and baptism throughout the world, we come from the side of Christ. The blood of Herod’s old Adam (High Priest) split in the garden was followed by a marriage feast.

Here is a comment I posted on another blog. The blog accuses God (and the Bible) of cruelty as a basis to reject the Scriptures:

And he [Elisha] went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. 2 Kings 2:23-24

Hello Steve

Interesting site. Though with all due respect, you unbelievers are like 2D creatures trying to make sense of a 3D object as it passes through your world. The Bible, like Jesus’ parables, was written to be wrestled with. If you believe, the Spirit will guide you to make sense of it. If you don’t, it will confuse you. It is a sword that divides the sheep from the goats.

There is a lot more going in this passage than is immediately apparent. Those who are offended by the events it records seem to ignore the context. This is not a game of totem tennis. It’s part of a cricket test match.

Firstly, it takes place within the Covenant. Israel was a nation of priests mediating before God for the rest of humanity. Depending on their obedience, this would bring great blessings or great curses (read Deut 28 and Lev 26). Judgment begins at the house of God. God’s people are MORE accountable to Him, and when they rebel, their sin is high-handed because they have more to rebel against.

Secondly, after the showdown between Ahab and Jezebel’s Baalism, and Elijah, Ahab still did not repent. Elijah became a new Moses. He did not run away as many suppose, but walked straight to the same mountain, the same cave, where Moses saw the glory of God. Elijah became the Moses of a new interim covenant with a remnant of believers (Paul and Revelation refer to this 7000 remnant as the pattern repeats itself in the first century). That is why, in the passage in question, there are two ‘water crossings’. Covenant makings always follow a seven point pattern, which not only corresponds to the seven days of the Creation week, but also the annual feasts as recorded in Leviticus 23. You also see the ‘head and body’ of the sacrifice ritual from Leviticus 1:

EXODUS FROM THE NORTHERN KINGDOM

Sabbath - God’s word comes as initiator
The prophets are told that Elijah will ascend

Passover - Elisha follows Elijah into the wilderness. Elijah parts the Jordan with his cloak, and the two parts of the “sacrifice” are washed (Leviticus 1)

Firstfruits - Elijah, who is the flaming chariot, ascends to heaven as the head of the “sacrifice”

Pentecost - Elisha receives Elijah’s robe (the skin of the sacrifice given to the priest), and a “double mouthful” of the Spirit

Trumpets - Elisha’s house is established when Elijah cannot be found

Atonement - Elisha tips a bowl of salt water into the bitter spring of Jericho and lifts the curse of barrenness from the Land. False prophet interns (or children) threaten Elisha and are eaten by beasts (bears) as the ‘scapegoat’ sent to destruction

Booths - Elisha returns ‘home’ as a new Joshua (Booths)

So, you can see the entire Exodus, wilderness, Jordan, promised Land pattern here. The pattern is also the deep structure of the entire New Testament, where Jesus as Moses and Elijah ascends to God (as head of the church – the Adam captain) and sends the Spirit upon the church (Elisha – the body – the Eve army). In this case, Jericho was the corrupted religion of Herod’s temple, and Jesus came in judgment in AD70, vindicating His predictions. This explains a lot of the symbols used in Revelation, which predicted these events.

Regarding the insult, perhaps this had to do with the ascension of Elijah as the ‘head.’

Regarding the bears, being torn in two by scavenging birds and wild beasts was a curse of the Covenant that is often repeated throughout the Bible, beginning with the raven sent out by Noah, that fed on the floating bodies until the waters went down. Tearing one’s robes symbolised this also. If you remember, Jezebel was eaten by dogs, Saul’s sons were hung high but one of their mothers chased the birds away. Abraham chased the birds away from the divided animals that purified the Land, etc. There are many more examples.

The Lord’s throne is often described as coming from the north (Ezek. 1). In the stars, His throne is polar north, and there are two bears guarding it (I would also mention that the woman and the dragon of Rev 12 are also in the stars, and that the order of the tribes around the Tabernacle followed the 12 constellations, the ones that bowed to Joseph). Elisha is simply extending the dominion of God’s throne over the Covenant breakers. In AD70, 6000 women and children died when cloisters collapsed at the end of the Roman seige. Like the Amorites in Canaan, Jezebel’s time was up. The curses of the Old Covenant fell for the last time.

There is a spiritual war going on. One thing you must understand is that committing one sin brings the death penalty. God is within His rights to destroy us instantly – and He does this a few times in the Bible to remind us. The miracle is that He doesn’t. Our problem is that we use His mercy and patience to compound our sin.

So these children or youths are the “children of Jezebel”, and the point is that the idolatrous/adulterous woman will have no children (read Numbers 5), but the faithful woman will have many. God applied this test to Israel when they worshipped the golden calf. The generations of the wicked will be cut off. Israel’s time had run out, and the attack by the bears simply prefigured God’s use of the Assyrian and later the Babylonian invaders to ‘flood in’ and wipe out the unfaithful ‘sons of God’ (Gen 6) who should have been faithful priests.

I hope that helps. If we use peace-time morality to judge war-time measures (ie. sticking a knife in someone is bad unless you are cutting out cancer) we will misinterpret the Scriptures.

We are free to reject the Scriptures, but I think we ought to do our homework first.

[Previous to this post, there was discussion about the merit for the argument that the 'little children' were actually young men, interns in the worship of Baal. It is possible, but cannot be proven. The argument above makes this irrelevant anyway.]