28. They Will NEVER Turn Away from Me! Grace in 2 Kings

28. They Will NEVER Turn Away from Me! Grace in 2 Kings
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Show Notes ⧐

Ep 28. The double-directionality of favor! Though grace is only mentioned twice, in 2 Kings we discover the heart of grace: God’s love for his people, his favor, and the power he gives for us to always lean in toward him as well.
June 21, 2022
Terms to Know

GRACE

Old Testament

chen: favor, grace Original Word: חֵן

chanan: beseech Original Word: חָנַן

The greatest promise

They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that

they will never turn away from me

I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

Jeremiah 32:38-41

My Daily Prayer For You!

Lord, the goal of us as believers is Christlikeness, so our diet must be the Bible, because it is the Bible that you use to make the child of God more like the Son of God (John 17:17).

Therefore, I pray that My Readers would be people who hunger for hearing from God in their private devotions, public gatherings, and conversations with other believers.

I can only imagine the impact of Readers who wake up eager to come and hear the Word preached on Sunday morning. I imagine Readers that long to open the Bible each morning to discover anew the truth of God’s character and conquests. And I imagine hearts so overflowing with the Bible that their text messages, conversations, and meditations just drip with the Scriptures. Everything pivots on what we do with the Bible.

Our Father, give my Readers—give me—an ABIDING DELIGHT in your Word. Cause us always to hunger for the truth while being ever satisfied with the truth. Lord, make us a Bible-saturated people.

REVIEW:

Old Testament use of grace

GRACE

There is no word in Hebrew that can represent all the meanings of charis, and in the Septuagint charis itself is used, practically, only as a translation of the Hebrew chen, “favor,” this restriction of meaning being due to the desire to represent the same Hebrew word by the same Greek word as far as possible. And chen, in turn, is used chiefly only in the phrase “find favor” (Genesis 6:8, etc.), whether the reference is to God or men, and without theological importance. Much nearer Paul’s use of charis is ratson, “acceptance,” in such passages as

checedh https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2617.htm

ratsah https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7521.htm 

racham https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7355.htm

But a mere negative granting of pardon is a most deficient definition of the Old Testament idea of God’s mercy, which delights in conferring positive benefits. The gift to Abraham of the land of Canaan, liberation from Egypt, food in the wilderness, salvation from enemies, deliverance from exile-all of Israel’s history can be felt to be the record of what God did for His people through no duty or compulsion, grateful thanksgiving for such unmerited blessings filling, for instance, much of the Psalter. (from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

 

chanan: beseech

Original Word: חָנַן

Part of Speech: Verb

Transliteration: chanan

Phonetic Spelling: (khaw-nan’)

Definition: to show favor, be gracious

2 Kings 1:13
HEB: לְנֶ֣גֶד אֵלִיָּ֗הוּ וַיִּתְחַנֵּ֤ן אֵלָיו֙ וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר
NAS: Elijah, and begged him and said
KJV: Elijah, and besought him, and said
INT: before Elijah and begged and said

13Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him, “O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight. 14Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties, but now let my life be precious in your sight.” 15Then the angel of the LORD said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So he arose and went down with him to the king 16and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?—therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’”

2 Kings 13:23
HEB: וַיָּחָן֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֹתָ֤ם
NAS: But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion
KJV: And the LORD was gracious unto them, and had compassion
INT: was gracious the LORD to them

22Now Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. 23But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence until now.

 

Resources:

Bible Hub: use this resource site to discover the original Greek and Hebrew for the words in the Bible.

PrayerMate App: this is a fantastic app to keep yourself organized and faithful in prayer, and it also has free downloadable devotionals. 

 

 Question of the Week:

(Open mike: Share your thoughts on grace, send audio files to whatsapp)

Please share your thoughts below by audio or text…

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About The Author

Darlene Böcek

Author and pastor's wife, Darlene Bocek in on a search for grace. She has lived on the Aegean coast in Izmir, Turkey for twenty years. Darlene is the mother of four young adults. The family has six dogs and thirty-something farm cats.

Join me for an interactive study of the Hebrew and Greek occurrences of Grace in the Bible

--Darlene

On Grace and Mercy Podcast we are working sequentially through the entire Bible, reading every verse where GRACE or one of its conjugates are found.

Starting at Genesis and Matthew, we alternate between Old and New Testaments. Episodes build on to earlier lessons, so if you like what you're hearing, start at Episode 1!