July 21, 2013
Scripture:
Hymn 330 - A message came from heaven
Prayer
This will be our last story with Elisha. Our previous story was in 2 Kings 8; today’s story is in ch. 13. That is a forty-year gap where we don’t hear anything about Elisha. During this time, I’m sure that he was praying for the king.
2 Kings 13:1 - 5, 10, & 14 - 21
Shortly before Elisha died, the king came to see him. Although the kings of Israel lived in sin, they felt a security in having a prophet of God on their side. During the visit, Elisha asked the king to shoot an arrow through the window, with Elisha’s hand on the bow over the king’s hand as he shot. This was a symbol of God’s deliverance of Israel from the Syrians. Even though Israel had sinned, God was going to deliver them from their enemies. Elisha then told the king to shoot some arrows into the ground, so the king shot three arrows into ground. It displeased Elisha that the king shot only three; he could have shot five or six. Little did the king know that the number of arrows that he shot was the number of Syrian cities that he would conquer. The Lord wants to bless our lives. We shouldn’t be content with “just” salvation; instead, we should seek out all the blessings that we have in Christ.
And so, Elisha died. Some time after, the Moabites came into the land. This happened while some men were burying another man. They saw the Moabites coming and instead of digging a new grave, they just threw the body into Elisha’s grave, so they could run. Miraculously, when the dead man’s body touched Elisha’s body, the man was brought back to life. This is a picture of how we were dead in trespasses and sins; it took the Lord’s death to give us life.
This brings us to the end of the story of Elisha. We have learned many lessons from the stories of his life.
Luke 24:31-53
The Lord walked quite a distance with these two disciples, opening the scriptures and showing them Himself; but they didn’t realize Who He was. He opened the scriptures, but then He had to open their eyes, and later would open their understanding. We can covet these openings for ourselves.
We need all of scripture; and we can find the Lord in it all. Each and every passage is connected, and we need to ask the Lord to open our understanding of them. These two had the physical Jesus with them, while we have the Lord in the midst and the Holy Spirit within.
As soon as the Lord opened their eyes, and they knew Him, He vanished. As Christians, the most sure and secure things that we have are the things that we can’t see. It’s the things that we have by faith. II Corinthians 4:18. We need two sets of eyes. Our physical eyes may wear out as we get older, but our eyes of faith should grow sharper. II Corinthians 5:1 gives us the assurance of our eternal home in heaven, and Colossians 3:1-2 tells us what to be looking at with those eyes of faith. These things are so important.
These followers were distressed because the Lord was gone. They didn’t see Him with their eyes of faith. They could see Him as they walked along together, but when the Lord opened their eyes of faith, they saw Him in a whole new way.
The Lord talked with them “by the way”. We are on the way, too, and the Lord wants to talk to us. He speaks through His word, and we speak through prayer. Our hearts can burn as we hear from Him. The song says, “He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own”. Is that a reality for us? Are we walking with Him? Talking with Him?
These two had a heart for the Lord. He was the One that they were talking about, and it must have delighted the Lord. He wasn’t happy that they were leaving Jerusalem, but happy that their love for Him was the cause of this sadness. He would be able to set them straight by making Himself known in the scriptures and letting them know that He was the One that had told them these things. He is not here physically with us, but He has given us His Spirit to reveal Himself to us and we, too, have His word.
God has made it possible for us to have fellowship with Him. None of His other creatures have that. People deny that God exists, but have it hard-wired into their system to experience Him. Blaise Pascal said that our hearts have a God-shaped vacuum that only He can fill. We try to fill that emptiness with other, temporal, things. “Dove’s dung and asses’ heads” is what Mr. McDowell would call them. (See 2 Kings 6 and 7—the famine of Samaria, and the four lepers.) Instead, we need to fill ourselves with the meat of the word of God.
This story demonstrates the truth that the scriptures are spiritually discerned. The natural man doesn’t accept them. They are foolishness to him! We can’t expect closed unbelievers to accept or understand them.
Besides not understanding the scriptures, many unbelievers discount faith as unscientific. Contrary to popular opinion, though, faith isn’t blind. Your faith doesn’t change reality, either. What your faith is in is what matters. It doesn’t matter how much faith you put in thin ice; you’ll still break through. If the ice is thick, though, it doesn’t matter how timid and fearful you are; it will hold your weight. It’s what our faith is in that matters, and we are encouraged to put our faith in the infallible, omnipotent Creator.
Hymn 234 – Saviour lead me lest I stray
Prayer