Fri.’s Devo - God’s Faithful Servants

Read: 2 Kings 1:1-2:25; Acts 13:42-14:7; Psalm 139:1-24; Proverbs 17:19-21 King Ahab had died and his son, Ahaziah was ruling. The land of Moab rebelled against Israel. Ahaziah hurt himself seriously when he fell through the latticework of his palace and sent messengers to the temple of Baal-zebub to ask if he would recover. *** An angel told Elijah to go and confront the messengers and ask why they were going to ask some foreign god. Was there no God in Israel? Then he told them to go back and tell the king that he would not recover, but die. *** When they told King Ahaziah what Elijah said he figured out who had said it and sent 50 men with a captain to arrest Elijah. They found him on top of a hill and commanded him to come down. Elijah sent fire from heaven and it destroyed them. Ahaziah sent another captain with 50 men and the same thing happened. The third time the king sent a captain with 50 men, the captain didn’t command Elijah to come down. He humbled him self on his knees and begged for mercy and favor. Elijah went with him to see Ahaziah. *** Elijah told the king that because he asked advice from Baal-zebub instead of God, he would never leave the bed he was lying on. He did die and didn’t have a son to succeed him, so his brother, Joram took his place as king. *** God was about to take Elijah to heaven and Elijah and Elisha knew it. Elijah told Elisha to stay at Gilgal; he was going to Bethel. Elisha refused to let him go alone, so they both went to Bethel. A group of prophets met Elisha and asked him if he knew God was going to take Elijah that day. He told them he knew. *** Elijah tried to get Elisha to stay there while he went to the Jordan but he refused to stay and followed him. There he met other prophets who told Elisha that Elijah was leaving that day. *** When Elijah got to the Jordan he folded his cloak and struck the water with it and the river divided and the two of them walked across on dry ground. *** Elijah asked Elisha what he wanted from him and he said he wanted to have a double portion of his spirit. Elijah said that if he saw him depart, he would get it. *** As they continued walking, a chariot of fire came between the two men and it took Elijah up in a whirlwind and Elisha saw it. Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak and returned to the Jordan and struck it just as Elisha had done and cried out, “Where is the Lord the God of Elijah?” The river divided and he walked over on dry ground. A group of prophets watched from afar and saw that Elisha now had the spirit of Elijah. *** Some from this group of prophets begged Elisha to let them go and search for Elijah’s body. He finally gave in to them and let them go search but they found nothing just as Elisha had told them. *** Later one of the leaders of the town of Jericho came to Elisha and told him the water in their town was making the women and the ground unproductive. He put some salt into the water supply and it became pure. This was a picture of what Elisha’t ministry would do. It would purify the land. Elisha left Jericho and went to Bethel. Along the way a group of boys began moving him. Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord and two bears came out of the woods and killed tow of them. Elisha then went to Mount Carmel before he returned to Samaria. This was another picture of what Elisha’s ministry would do. It would put the fear and respect of the prophet back in the land. *** In Acts, Paul and Barnabas left the synagogue and the people begged them to come back the next week and teach them more. The following week, almost the whole town came to hear them preach. The Jew became very jealous of the crowds they were getting and argued with what they were preaching. Paul and Barnabas told them that it was necessary that they preach first to the Jews, but since they had rejected their preaching, they would offer their services to the Gentiles. They would offer them salvation. The Gentiles were glad to hear this but the Jews stirred up the influential women and leaders of the city and incited a mob and ran Paul and Barnabas out of town. They shook the dust off their feet and went to the town of Iconium. *** The same thing happened there. They preached their message but were stoned and fled to Lycaonia and began preaching the Good News. *** Lord, may we have the tenacity that Paul and Barnabas had to fulfill their mission. May we not look as opposition as a reason to quit, but a reason to continue spreading the Good News.