Tues.’s Devo - God’s Faithfulness to His Servants

Read: 2 kings 8:1-9:13; Acts 16:16-40; Psal 143:1-12; Proverbs 17:26
Elisha warned the woman who had been so hospitable to him to flee Israel and go to the land of the Philistines for 7 years because a famine was coming. She obeyed and left.
As you recall, Gehazi had leprosy from lying to Elisha and was no longer his mentee. Sadly, he went from being trained to wear his mantle to being just a story teller because he didn’t learn to steward his appetite. He was telling “Elisha stories” to the king and was telling the one about the widow and how he prayed her son back to life when she walked into the court of justice to ask for her land to be restored. She not only got her land back but all the money that had been made from the produce from her land while she was gone.
Elisha traveled all the way to Damascus on an assignment from God. Ben-Hadad, king of Aram was sick and when he found out Elisha was near he sent his officer, Hazael to ask him if he would recover. Elisha told him to tell the king that he would recover but he would die. That is a riddle! Then he told Hazael what he saw in his future. He would become the king of Aram and do despicable things to Israel’s people.
Hazael returned to Ben-Hadad and told him he would recover. He did that night and the next morning Hazael killed him and became the king.
In Israel, Ahab’s son, Joram had become king while Jehoram, Jehoshaphat’s son became the king of Judah. This gets complicated, but Jehoram married Joram’s sister bringing all of Ahab’s demons to Judah. This began Judah’s decay. The king of Edom and Libnah rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. Jehoram tried to restore his power to no avail.
Jehoram was succeeded by his son Ahaziah as king of Judah. Ahaziah went to visit his uncle, king Joram in Israel when he heard he was wounded. Elisha sent one of his student prophets to anoint Jehu, one of Jehoshaphat’s son as the king of Israel. He would destroy the house of Ahab and avenge the blood of the prophets and God’s servants that had been shed by Jezebel.
The prophet was told to say all this and run. He did, and Jehu was immediately proclaimed the king by his companions.
In Acts, we find the reason for the angel telling them to come to Macedonia. Already a group of women had been saved, but there was a spirit of divination that needed to be cast out. It resided in a young woman who could predict the future. When Paul cast it out of her it caused a scene because the men who owned her stood to lose a lot of income. They had Paul and Silas put in prison.
That night as Paul and Silas were singing praises to God, an earthquake shook their chains off and opened the prison doors. (This is a picture of what happened in Sheol when Jesus had died and went down to preach freedom to the captives.) The jailer went to kill himself because he thought he would be tortured the next day for letting his prisoners escape. Paul stopped him and preached the good news to him. His whole family came to believe. He next day, Paul and Silas were escorted out of prison and set free. They went by Lydia’s house to encourage her and let her know what God had done for them and left.
Lord, thank you for your Word that instructs us and leads us in the way of righteousness.