The two kingdoms emerge The country was in a mess even under Saul its first king. We are about 1060bc. Surrounding nations like the Philistines kept attacking. David, the youngest of a big family and in common with others who may feel they have been overlooked or isolated, naturally took chances when they showed up when a little caution may have been wise. You will remember him as a teenager hearing about Goliath and immediately offering to challenge him against advice. David ridicules Goliath who laughs so much that he lifts his helmet in mirth. That proved fatal. The sling stone cracked the skull. In honour David is brought into society where he meets a very wise lad called Ahithophel. They grow up together and become so close that we read that David never set out on any enterprises without talking it over with his friend. Indeed in “those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who enquires of God”. Saul thinks David wants to kill him and be king himself, but David saves Saul’s life several times. Saul dies and David was now king and finally lived in Jerusalem. Apart from some local skirmishes, there was reasonable peace among the population but not among the royal family. Do not forget that in those times it was not unusual for a man to have several wives.<br>Reputations It is recorded that “in all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom”, one of David’s sons.. And so he was very popular and people loved him and he thinks he ought to be king. But he went wrong and had to live in another country until David forgave him. Absalom is now very clever and gets David’s chief adviser Ahithophel to become his chief of staff. David is no fool and realises that with this man Ahithophel advising Absalom, he is on a loser and so runs away to prevent civil war. He prays that God will turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness now he has sided with Absalom. David had relied on Ahithophel’s advice for years. They had grown up together. He trusted him. It is said that their relationship is reflected in some of the Psalms. And yet, in this moment of crisis, Ahithophel changes sides. We may well ask why. But David loved his sons and, in the process of time, allowed Absolom to come back to the city but not to the palace. Now Absalom who was very good looking, married and had a daughter who also was quite pretty. One of David’s younger sons fell badly for this daughter and raped her which made Absalom a bit cross and two years later he gave a party and when the wine flowed, had this younger brother murdered. David is not pleased with Absalom who runs away, gets a following by flattery and even persuades Ahithophel to join him and give more advice. Meanwhile Ahithophel has had a niece called Bathsheba who had married one of David’s army generals but had a habit of bathing on a roof overlooked by David. David effectively murders her husband and marries her himself. So Ahithophel has a grievance against David. Absalom is not pleased with David. And he plots to take over the kingship using that professional advice. David prays that Ahithophel should now give bad advice to Absalom<br>Obvious outcomes Now we have some complications. A popular uprising in favour of Absalom prompts David to run away from Jerusalem before a battle occurs. Then Absalom is caught in an oak tree by his hair and is killed. David is devastated by Absalom’s death. We can read his thoughts said to be recorded in Psalms 55 and 56. David is perhaps the most clever king the Hebrews ever had. Solomon of course the wisest, as he prayed for wisdom. David was clever in that he withdrew rather than face a battle with his own people. He had at last learned to be cautious. But Absalom thinks he has a grievance which festered for several years before he had his brother murdered for seducing his daughter. Ahithophel had a grievance because David seduced his niece before marrying her. Absalom was murdered while leading an insurrection. Ahithophel we read put his house in order before hanging himself because his advice had not been taken. The difference was perhaps that David had remorse and pleads for forgiveness. The other two seek to exact their own retribution. Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king . But he proposed higher taxes and forced labour, and so the northern kingdom revolted and became independent based on Samaria.. They became known as Samaritans. Jeroboam became king in Samaria, and the two kingdoms never respected each other. Rehoboam was king of the small area round Jerusalem called Israel. They are now known as Palestinians and Israelis.<br>Questions? Piecing together all the relationships in these histories is complex and I am indebted to several learned commentators for some details. Even then they do not always seem to agree with each other on details and time scales but the lessons put over are clear for our learning. What grievances may people have now which define their attitudes and actions? Should there have been more forgiveness taking account of their experiences? What would a modern judge say? Or even the papers? Do attitudes derange logical thought? What do these rather sordid histories teach us? What might be the results of our actions?<br>Bob
Elisha and blindness<br>We are about 850 years BC and the Hebrews had split into a northern kingdom based on Samaria and a southern state based on Jerusalem, about a hundred years before Samaria was destroyed. Neither kingdom was very stable as there were neighbours who looked at that land by the sea with jealousy. Jehu was the king of the northern lot and he had a reputation for fast driving as he rushed around quelling infiltrations by those neighbours. Ben Hadad was the king of Syria, a country further North, and he was rather upset that on each occasion he tried to take over a bit of Israel, young Jehu was there ready for him. We read that he had a top level meeting with his officials and asked them who was giving away the military secrets. The answer he got surprised and annoyed him when they said that there was this “prophet” who tells Jehu the “very words you speak in your bedroom”. God knows people’s thoughts.<br>The threat<br>Elisha was the prophet then and he lived near a small village called Dothan, about eleven miles north of Samaria. We read that time and again he warned king Jehu of attacks, so the army was on guard in such places. Ben Hadad heard about this and sent a strong force of horses and chariots to capture this prophet. Of course, Elisha had already told Jehu that the Syrians were on their way so they were prepared. One morning Elisha’s servant had got up to cook breakfast when he saw all these Syrian soldiers surrounding the village with Juhu’s little force hopefully on their way and panicked. “Don’t worry”, Elisha tells him, “There are more with us than there are with them”. That was silly because Jehu’s army was very small in comparison. But he prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened. He then saw what the Syrians had seen - the hills full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha. Then we read that Elisha prayed that God would make the invaders blind and walked up to them and explained that they must have lost their way. “Just follow me and I will take you to the man you are looking for”..<br>The joke<br>We are not told how this blindness was caused. It may have been a sand storm or lightning strike or an infection. If we pray to a God that is almighty, we don’t need to know the “hows”. Then follows one of those hilarious events which must have caused laughter and relief. Don’t tell me that God does not have a sense of humour. Elisha leads them eleven miles down the road into the main square in Samaria before asking God to restore their sight. I have no evidence for it but I suspect most of them had by now discarded their swords spears and armour while trying to walk. I can imagine most of them were rather surprised and afraid knowing the usual treatment of invading forces who had been disarmed.<br>The soft answer<br>Jehu, in common with common practice, proposed to kill them all which would be easy on exhausted and confused soldiers who were without weapons. Elisha is wise and tells the king to prepare a “great feast” for them. When they had finished eating and drinking the king sends them away back to their master. But that was not the end of the small raids on Israel. Elisha’s closeness to God is shown in a number of other incidents.<br>The harder answer<br>Some years later the Syrians came down in big force and besieged Samaria. The town ran out of food and people were so starving that some were even cooking children. The town official tells Elisha that only if God opened the floodgates of heaven could they be saved. Elisha says he will see it but not benefit from it. Elisha’s cure this time is by sound, not sight, but only at the last minute. Now there were some men with leprosy in isolation outside the city gate who said to each other one night “we might as well try to beg off the Syrians than die out here” and went into their camp. They found it deserted, so helped themselves before telling the town gate keepers. Scouts went out and found the road strewn with weapons, clothes and other baggage and no Syrians. They had heard the sound of an approaching army and panicked. The town people came out with such a rush that they trampled on the official who had doubted Elisha and he died.<br>The question<br>This is just one of a series of extraordinary events that God did through Elisha. In these ones we see that gentle answers can turn away wrath. A lesson not learned by the Syrians and resulted in disaster. Each event gives a different lesson. We will see later that the Syrians ignored these two lessons and suffered a fatal approach. Was God teaching Jehu a lesson, or Elisha, or Ben Hadad or us? We often pray “And lead us not into temptation”, but how else does God teach us? That promise “There are more with us than there are with them” is always encouraging, but we may not always see them.<br><br>Bob<br><br>
The Lord shall guide you continually and shall satisfy your soul in dry places; your strength shall be renewed,and you shall be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never disappoint.Your sons shall rebuild the ruins of former years and shall revive the foundations of old,and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets in which to dwell.Isaiah 58:11 – 12 (Revised Berkeley Translation)18th June 2026Dear friends,I have been back in Zimbabwe for just over 3 weeks and what a whirlwind of activity it has been! Did I really have abreak away?! Seems an eternity ago, but it was really good and I am so very grateful to family and friends who sograciously hosted me and helped me to unwind and refresh. The weather wasn’t it’s best while I was in the U.K. and Ireturned to very-cold-for Zimbabwe weather…so I seem to have missed out on summer weather all round!Shortly before I left for the U.K. I had the joy of meeting our newestgrandson, Jaylen, arrived safely in early March, delighting Hannah &Josephat as well as big sister Amari, who is absolutely besotted with him!As you know, a week before I flew out, Taffy left for the heart ablationprocedure in Italy. He’s been there longer than originally anticipated dueto the extensiveness of the treatment he needed, but overall things havegone well. He is due back in early July. It’s been a long three months forhim but part way through, our friend Silke from Germany, who has knownhim since hewas very young,paid him a shortvisit and theyenjoyed sightseeing together. Taffy has been really well lookedafter by the folk in Rimini and has made some good friends. Inbetween medical appointments he’s been assisting students inan afterschool club with their homework as well as doing quitea bit of translating for the medical charity. He’s also acquired ataste for Italian gelato and been swimming in the sea! Do prayfor him as he returns to Zimbabwe. He’ll probably experienceconsiderable reverse culture shock after his Italian adventure.A few days before I returned toMontgomery, 5 day old Tanatswa(We have been made beautiful/Weare blessed) joined the family.< She was very tiny upon arrivalbut has settled really well and,as you can see, now 6 weeks old,she is thriving, alert and gainingweight rapidly! >It continues to be such a joy andprivilege to watch these little liveschange in an environment of Godlylove and care.Just a week after I arrived back, our friends Gail and Deborah from America arrived for a short visit. They ministered inour church services and Bible studies and the children enjoyed spending time with them after school and learning somenew songs. I am rather embarrassed to say though that the hi-light for the children was a series of bubble-gum blowingcompetitions that the two ladies organised. Bubble-gum is something we don’t normally allow at Montgomery due topast experiences of finding it stuck everywhere! Yuk! However we made an exception on the condition that after thecompetitions the ladies collected every single piece from the participants, which they assured me they did, and so farthere’s no evidence to the contrary! The ultimate final between the winning boys and the winning girls was wild andraucously loud. Quite surprisingly the girls beat the boys. No photographs of the event were taken though as I think theywould have been pretty disgusting!!!!Way back in 1992 we were blessed with the gift of a ToyotaLandcruiser which has given us remarkable service in all kinds ofconditions for the past 34 years. Not surprisingly in recent years ithad begun to ‘act its age’, frequently letting us down, often whenwe needed it the most. The increasing costs of getting it towedhome and repaired each time it broke down were really ‘biting us’,not to mention the inconveniences caused. So last year, when acharitable trust in England offered to help us by funding a brandnew Toyota Hilux Twin Cab 4 wheel drive vehicle, we weredelighted. It has been a long, drawn-out battle cutting through allof the bureaucratic red tape this side, but finally, on June 4th,Danniel collected this much needed vehicle from the showroom.As you can see there was enough red tape left for the Toyotadealers to gift wrap it for us!This new vehicle is going to make such a difference to us in somany ways. With the rural roads getting worse every day it iscritical that we have a reliable 4 wheel drive vehicle with amplepassenger and goods carrying capacity.We are so grateful for the Lord’s provision of this vehicle and somuch more through His people.He continues to prove that He will not forsake the righteous nor leave their children begging for bread (Psalm 37:25).And even in the unlikely event that actual bread should run out, our children certainly won’t go hungry. Our daily ‘bread’comes in all sorts of forms. We were recently notified of a donation, through the government, of 9 tonnes of rice fromChina! The logistics of how to collect it and where to store it have been something of a challenge, but with the help of alocal businessman friend things are working out and one of his huge trucks is collecting it from the depot in Hararetoday. Meanwhile we’ve converted an empty bedroom in our boys’ house into a suitable rice storage space. Even with allof our hungry mouths to feed it will take a very long time to eat through 9 tonnes!And His provision for our children does not just come through overseas donors. We’ve recently been blessed withdonations of various fruits and vegetables from local farmers, including blueberries last week and now this week a hugedonation of guavas; both such great sources of vitamin C for the children during these colder winter months.One little chap who is not yet old enough to benefit from these donations of‘bread’ is our newest family member, Benjamin, who came to us just over aweek ago, aged 4 weeks.Benjamin had an awful start in life and in addition has a corneal ulcer on hisleft eye, which must be incredibly painful. Since being in our care he hasspent 24 hours as an inpatient at the specialist eye hospital in Harare, withone of our care staff staying with him. He is now home with us, beingtreated with regular prescribed eye drops. The ulcer has responded well tothe treatment and seems to have healed. He also occasionally opens hiseye which he did not do before and appears to be less stressed.However when he was reviewed at the hospital this morning the front of hiscornea is still cloudy and opaque, which could mean his sight will beseverely affected. He is due to be reviewed again in two weeks.Please will you pray with us that his eye clears and that he has full sight.The same Heavenly Father who provides ‘bread’ for His children is also theOne who gives sight to the blind.Finally, for those who are not already aware, the website for Montgomery Heights Zimbabwe Children’s Foundation,our U.K. supporting charity, has recently had a complete makeover. We are so grateful to our friend Sheeba (who taughtherself web-design during the covid lockdown!) for assisting with this. Please do check it out and share the link with yourfamily and friends. www.montgomeryheights.orgThank you for continuing to walk this exciting journey with us through your interest, support and prayer.LesleyP.O. Box 75, Concession, Zimbabwe E-mail ljmzim@gmail.comPhotos can be seen in the attached file.
TalentsApart from occasional mentions, we read about talents in three places in the Bible. The first is in the list of gifts made towards the building of the great temple and is followed by the words “of silver” or “of gold”. Just what was that weight and value is the subject of many learned guesses, but the one I like the best is “The load that a man could reasonably carry”. Others say about 38kg, but there are several different figures proposed. The second is in the gospels where Matthew 25 records Jesus’ parable about the men who were loaned different numbers of talents and what they did with them. Now we usually think of these talents as sums of money – in Luke’s account the investment could have been several years’ wages. There were well defined investment banks even in those days which would sell shares in projects and pay interest. However the word Jesus used “talanton” can mean “that which is weighed out or apportioned to anyone” so could apply to the Chambers definition of the word talent as “Any natural or special gift or aptitude”. The third is in 1 Corinthians 12-14 where Paul lists examples of nine of the “gifts” that different people may be given. Then he gives that amusing illustration of parts of a body which might consider their anatomy to be more important than others. In some translations the word “talent” is used instead of “gift”. Perhaps the subject for another month. Paul here says that the greatest gift is love. Money talentsThe inference is that Solomon’s temple was very grand as there were gifts of three thousand talents of gold and at least seventeen thousands of refined silver. Part of this was from David’s own treasury and probably about 20% from public gifts. We read that “the people gave willingly”. The idea seems to have been that the place where people could go to learn about God should be of the highest quality. It was reckoned as one of the wonders of the world for less than a hundred years before they started using bits to buy off invaders before what was left was broken up by unwelcomed visitors about four hundred years later in 597bc. Whilst the total weights of precious metals in the construction are given, no weights are quoted for the individual bowls, plates and candlesticks. It just leaves us with the impression that everything was of the best for God. Most of the metals and the jewels were bought with the profits of trading with other nations. Remember, Jesus was in business as a carpenter until he was thirty. He is realistic about skills, money and profit margins. Gift talentsThere are different types/amounts of talents or gifts given or loaned to people. These can be the abilities/skills/capital to do things as well as the opportunities. Jesus told his story of the different numbers of talents loaned to three people in that week between the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the Passover supper. It is one of His critical lessons to those who were to spread the gospel (good news) around the world. The capital sums/talents/gifts were freely given or loaned, not earned. But they were to be used to the best effects. All profits made were to the benefit of the master who had provided the “gifts”, not kept by the beneficiaries. The talents given to the three men was what they could reasonably manage with their skills. The one who had had doubled his investment of five got the same response as the two gifts bloke and both received the same thanks. “Well done you good and faithful servant”. Reward was not proportional to result. But the man who did not use his allowance is condemned for not using his loaned talent or even his own given abilities. A few weeks later after Pentecost the eleven disciples and others were each apportioned areas of the known world by lots to establish fellowships. Thomas got India and the East and founded Christian churches there. QuestionsWhy did Solomon think that the temple had to be so grand? In 520BC the Jews were allowed back into Jerusalem and Haggai castigates them for living in houses with ceilings fitted before the temple was rebuilt. Had they got their priorities wrong? Everyone should ask themselves what talents/gifts they might have and then use them. Talents as aptitudes or abilities or resources may need working on to be most effective. Martha with a gift for catering complained that Mary was not helping, but Jesus said that Mary’s gift of sitting listening was the better. In Jesus’ teaching everyone has some talents. They are not all the same, but it is not good if they are not to be used. Bob
