Mon.’s Devo - Signs That Make You Wonder -

Read: 2 Kings 3:1-4:17; Acts 14:8-28; Psalm 140:1-13; Proverbs 17:22 Jehoram, reigned over Israel for 12 years while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. Jehoram did evil in God’s eyes but he did put away the pillar of Baal. *** The king of Moab had been supplying Israel every year with 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams but when Ahab died, they rebelled and stopped sending tribute to Israel. King Jehoram enlisted the help of Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom to come help him fight the Moabites. *** These three kings took their armies and marched for 7 days. They ran out of water and the king of Israel despaired for their lives. Jehoshaphat asked for a prophet of the Lord that they could ask what was to become of them. *** They found Elisha who made it clear that they only reason he came to help them was because he had respect for Jehoshaphat. He would have left the others to die. Elisha asked for a musician to play while he waited for God’s spirit to talk to him. The Lord told them that water would fill the stream bed, but it would not come as rain. He would also give the Moabites into their hand and when he did, they were to attack every fortified city and cut down every fruit tree and stop up all their springs of water and ruin their land with stones. *** The next morning, water came from Edom and filled the country with water. The Moabites came to attack them and saw the reflection of the sun on the water and thought it was blood. They reasoned that the three kings had rose up against one another and battled. When they came to get the spoil and were attacked by the Israelites. The Israelites did everything to their land that Elisha had told them to do. *** In an effort to win the battle, the king of Moab took his oldest son who was to be the next king and sacrificed him on the wall of the city. Israel retreated and went back to their own land. *** One of the widows of the prophets under Elisha came to him for help. She was broke and afraid that her creditors would take her two children as slaves. Elisha asked her what she had of any worth in her house. She had one jar of oil. He told her to borrow jars from her neighbors. When she obeyed that, he told her the next step. She was to pour from her jar into the other jars. When she had done that, he told her to go and sell it and it would pay off her debts and be enough for her family to live on. *** That is just the way the Lord leads us - step by step. It is one act of obedience followed by another act of obedience and when we get to the end, we see the result. *** Elisha traveled through Shunem often and a wealthy woman who lived there would invite him in to eat. She convinced her husband to build Elisha a room on to their house and supply it with a bed, table, chair and a lamp so he could stay there on his travels. *** Elisha and his servant, Gehazi spent many nights in that room. Elisha wanted to bless the woman for her kindness and asked Gehazi to find out what she might want. Gehazi noticed that she didn’t have a son and her husband was old and when he died she would be alone. Elisha called her in and told her that about this time next year, she would hold a son in her arms. The next spring, she bore a son. *** In Acts, Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra and as they were preaching, Paul noticed a man in the crowd who was crippled and saw that he had faith to be healed. This man had been born crippled, but Paul told him to stand up and he jumped up and began walking. The crowd went wild and thought the gods had come down as men. They called Barnabas - Zeus and Paul - Hermes. *** The priest from the temple of Zeus brought all the supplies to offer sacrifices to them. Paul tore his garments and tried to prove to them that he was a man just like them. He tried to convince them that it was God they should worship but he was having a hard time. *** Then Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and persuaded the fickle crowds to help them stone Paul. They stoned him and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. The believers gathered around him and he got up and went back with Barnabas to Derbe where they preached and made many disciples. Then they returned to Lystra and Iconium and encouraged the believers there. They appointed leaders in the churches and prayed and fasted for them to be faithful to the Lord. *** They preached their way to Antioch and gave testimony of all they had experienced in their travels. *** Lord, you are the God of miracles and signs that make us wonder. May we see your signs and wonder. May we obey You in the small things so we can advance to the next step.