Read: 2 Kings 3:1-4:17; Acts 14:8-28; Psalm 140:1-13; Proverbs 17:22
Israel’s capital was Samaria and Judah’s capital was Jerusalem. At the time, Jehoram, who was an evil king was the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, who was a godly king was king of Judah. The king of Moab was Mesha who had been supplying Israel with wool every year as tribute, but decided to rebel and not pay. Jehoram asked Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom to join him in attacking Edom. They both agreed and took their armies to Edom. After traveling 7 days they ran out of water. Jehoshaphat asked if their was a prophet in Israel they could ask for help. (This is a flashback to Ahab and Jehoshaphat when Elijah was the prophet.) This time Elisha was the prophet so they sought for him.
Elisha told Jehoram that if it wasn’t for the fact that Jehoshaphat was with them, he wouldn’t have given them the time of day, but because Jehoshaphat feared God and worshipped him, he would help them. He called for some praise music and prayed. God told him to have the soldiers build trenches to hold the water because he would fill it but not with rain. Then he told them that they would totally overthrow every city in Moab.
The next day, everything happened just as he said it would. Water flowed down from Edom and when the Moabites saw the water, they mistook it to be blood and thought they could just take the plunder. They were surprised by three armies and lost badly.
Elisha did the same thing on an individual scale. There was a widow and a prophetess that was about to lose everything because she couldn’t pay her debts. All she had was one cask of oil. Elisha told her to borrow as many jars as she could and start pouring the oil into them. The oil was like the rain that God sent on the battlefield. She was able to sell the oil and pay off all her debts. God is just as concerned with our individual problems as he is national problems.
Elisha often came through Shunem where he was invited to eat at the house of a wealthy woman and her husband. This woman wanted to honor Elisha and give him a place to stay so she had a small suite built onto her own house just for Elisha and his servant Gehazi.
During one visit, Elisha asked Gehazi to find out what he might do for this kind woman who had everything money could buy. Gehazi noticed that her husband was old and they had no heir. So Elisha called her in and told her that in a year she would be holding a son. It happened just as Elisha said.
The armies of Israel, Judah and Edom needed water, the widow needed money and the wealthy Shunamite needed an heir. God took care of all these needs. Can he not take care of what concerns us?
In Acts, there was a man in Lystra who had been lame since birth. He came to listen to Paul preach and Paul perceived that he had faith to be healed. Paul called him out and told him to stand up. He leapt to his feet and began to walk! When the people saw this they attributed this great power to the gods they served. They thought Paul was Hermes incarnate and Barnabas was Zeus. Paul tore his shirt and exposed his chest which was covered with scars from beatings he had received for being a Christian to prove to them that he was a human being.
Jews came down from Antioch to sway the crowd away from Paul and Barnabas so they ended up stoning them instead of sacrificing to them. If you live for the praises of people you will come to find out they are a very fickle crowd.
Paul and Barnabas lived through the stoning and left for Derbe. They returned to Lystra, Antioch, and Iconium to encourage their people there. Paul preached that they had to go through hardships to enter the kingdom of God. They were not afraid of persecution or trouble. Reading this makes me ashamed of the things I complain about.
Lord, help us to desire your kingdom above our comfort. Thank you for loving us through eyes of grace.
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