Wed.’s Devo - The Wonders God Did Through Elisha

Read: 2 Kings 4:18-5:27; Acts 15:1-35; Psalm 141:1-10; Proverbs 17:23 One day the son of the Shunmite woman complained of his head hurting while working in the fields with his father. He was sent home to let his mother take care of him. He died in her arms by noon. She carried him to the bed that Elisha slept in and went to find Elisha. She rode a donkey to Mt. Carmel and refused to tell Gehazi what was wrong, but when she saw Elisha, she ran and fell at his feet. She told him about her son. When Elisha offered her his staff to lay on the child, she insisted that Elisha come in person. Elisha went into the child and lay on his body with his mouth on the child’s mouth, eyes on his eyes and hands on his hands. The life of Elisha flowed into the boy’s body and he sneezed seven times then opened his eyes. Elisha took the boy down and presented him to his mother who was overcome with gratitude. Elisha returned to Gilgal where there was a famine in the land. A group of prophets were cooking stew but had unknowingly gathered poisonous gourds. When they realized they couldn’t eat it, Elisha told them to throw some flour in the stew. Then, the stew was good. Another man came to give Elisha a gift. It was enough grain and bread for a few people but Elisha told his servant to feed all the prophets. There were over a hundred prophets. God multiplied the food so they all ate and there were left overs. The king of Aram had a loyal commander of his army named Naaman. Naaman had a young female captive from Israel as a slave. Naaman suffered with leprosy and the young slave told his wife that there was a prophet in Israel that could heal him. Naaman told the king of Aram what she had said, so he sent letters of recommendation to the king of Israel. When the king of Israel read the letter it said for him to heal Naaman’s leprosy. The king was irate and thought the king of Aram was picking a fight with him, but Elisha heard about what happened and sent word to send the man to him. When the man reached Elisha’s place, he was met by his servant, Gehazi with instructions to dip in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman was offended that Elisha didn’t come out and meet him face to face and also offended that he told him to dip in the Jordan River that was very muddy when there were much clearer rivers he could have chosen. He was about to leave angry but one of his men talked some sense into him. He pointed out that the instructions were very simple; he could have given him much harder things to do than just wash and be clean. So, Naaman agreed and did it. He came out totally healed of his leprosy. Naaman had come with gold and silver and ornate clothes to give as a gift but Elisha had refused them. As Naaman left, Gehazi got greedy and ran after him making up a story of why Elisha had changed his mind about receiving his gifts. He took them and hid them. When Gehazi came back to Elisha, Elisha asked him where he had been. Gehazi lied and Elisha told him that there was a time to receive gifts and a time not to receive gifts and because he disobeyed, the leprosy that had left Naaman would be on him and his descendants forever. This seems like a harsh curse, but to whom much is given, much is required. Gehazi walked with one of the greatest prophets of his time and had seen God provide and do so many miracles and yet he still yearned for the wealth of the world. In Acts, false teachers had come teaching the new Gentile converts that they had to be circumcised and follow the law to be Christians. Paul came and set them straight. He told the Gentiles to not eat food offered to idols, not to engage in sexual perversion, and not to eat the meat or blood of strangled animals. All of these things were present in worshipping idols so Paul was not telling them what to do to be saved, but what to abstain from to keep the presence of God in their lives. Salvation is free and is a gift that requires nothing but faith, but walking with God requires sanctification and death to self. Lord, we choose to give our desires and life to your service because we love you. Lead us by your Spirit to walk in your ways today.