Sat.’s Devo - Count the Cost

Sat.’s Devo - Count the Cost 6-23-18
Read: 2 Kings 4:18-5:27; Acts 15:1-35 Psalm 141:1-10; Proverbs 17:23
The story of the Shunemite woman is so interesting to me. She was blessed with a son because of her kindness to Elisha and now the son was dead. She didn’t panic or even tell her husband. She went straight to Elisha and refused to leave without him.
When Elisha got there he found the boy dead on the bed. Gehazi had already placed his staff on him and it didn’t change his situation so Elisha got as close to the boy as he could. He wanted his spirit to be passed to the boy. It worked and the boy sneezed seven times and was healed and alive.
Gehazi was to Elisha as Elisha had been to Elijah. He would get Elisha’s mantle if he kept serving him and kept his heart pure.
Sadly, in the next story lost Gehazi the mantle.
A Jewish girl had been taken captive by the Armenians and became the slave of Naaman, the commander of the Armenian army. Naaman had leprosy and the young slave mentioned that there was a prophet in Israel who could heal him. He took 10 talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold and 10 sets of clothing. He sent a letter to the king of Israel to heal his leprosy. The king was distraught and tore his robe thinking that Aram was picking a fight with Israel. Elisha heard about it and sent word to the king to send Naaman to him.
Elisha didn’t even come outside to see him. He sent Gehazi out to tell him to wash in the Jordan 7 times. Naaman was outraged that Elisha didn’t even give him an audience and that he sent him to the muddiest river in Israel to wash in. He stormed off mad until his servant talked some sense into him. It was a small thing that the prophet had asked him to do. He was to dip in the dirt and come out clean. It was a dichotomy but God is the God of mystery and opposites. He did and was miraculously cleansed. He wanted to pay Elisha but he wouldn’t hear of it. Gehazi decided that he wanted some of that loot so he lied to the commander saying that Elisha had sent him to get 2 talents of silver and two sets of clothing for two young prophets. Then he lied again to Elisha about it. This cost him his prophetic mantle and he died of leprosy. How he thought he could trick Elisha showed how deceived he was. He sold his destiny for a little money and clothes! How sad.
The church in Acts was dealing with wrong teaching. Some thought that the Gentiles should be made to get circumcised. Circumcision was just a picture of salvation. Peter met with the apostles and elders and they decided that they didn’t need to be circumcised by they did need to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality and meat of strangled animals. (Where was PETA, then?)
Lord, we pray with the Psalmist, “Set a guard over our mouths and keep watch over the door of our lips. Let our hearts not be turned to evil and let us not take part in anything evil.”