Elisha

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2 Kings 9:5 You Have A Message To Deliver

When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. “I have a message for you, commander,” he said. “For which of us?” asked Jehu. “For you, commander,” he replied. 2 Kings 9:5

Prior to the days of cellphones, if a person had a message for someone else, he had to go to him to present it or else send someone to pass the message on. In large corporations, many of the top leaders will have others working under them to pass on information to others. The expectation is that the person will pass the message on correctly and timely.

Elisha had one of the young prophets go to Jehu, an army commander, to give him a message. This young prophet brings the message to Jehu immediately.

When someone has some very important or exciting message to pass on, he will try to get it passed on as quickly as possible. The person wants whoever needs to hear it, to hear it right away.

In order to get the message to the person clearly, one may have to pull that person aside to remove all distractions. This is so that the message may be heard clearly and completely.

Believers have a message that Jesus has told them to pass on to others. It is the gospel message that God loves people, Jesus died and rose again, and God wants to forgive the people and for them to live with Him forever.

This message is a timely one that needs to be delivered as quickly as possible. Every day people are dying without hearing that message. They are not given the opportunity to believe in Jesus and be saved and are heading to hell.

Many believers are sitting on that message and not passing it on. Each one needs to go out and deliver that message to everyone they meet.

Someone at some point brought the gospel message to you. Now it is your turn to pass that message on to others. As long as you have breath, God has a mission for you to tell others about Jesus. He does not want anyone to perish but have everlasting life.

Do not wait or hold back on giving that message. It may be their last day on this planet. Go and give this life-giving message to every person you can as quickly as you can. It is a matter of life and death.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will know the message God has for you to pass on to others; that God will give you boldness to tell others about Jesus; and that many will believe in Jesus because of your message.

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2 Kings 6:22 Treating The Enemy Correctly

“Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and go back to their master.” 2 Kings 6:22

Throughout history there have been many different wars with various nations against other nations. In every war there have been soldiers who have been captured. Many of those who did the capturing would torture those they had captured with severe painful torture. The torturing was done out of anger and vengeance against their enemies and to instill fear into their enemy.

The king of Aram sent soldiers to find and capture Elisha. Elisha had those soldiers blinded then led them into the king of Israel. When the king of Israel wanted to kill them, Elisha said not to, but to feed them food and water and sent them home.

Very few people will ever be in a position of capturing an enemy and being able to deal directly with that enemy as in an army with a nation against another nation. The enemies that the average person has are those people who treat them badly and lie, cheat or even physically harm them.

When a person is caught in the act of doing something wrong, most people may not want to physically kill the person, but they do want to strike back and often harshly. People want their enemies to pay a severe price for doing wrong.

Years after Elisha told them not to kill the enemies, Jesus told the people to love their enemies and do good to them. Believers are to provide for the needs of their enemies to show and represent God’s love to them. Love, in this way, will turn their hearts away from their sin and to God, rather than angering them more.

You most likely have someone who has done you harm. When you have caught them in doing the harm, you have a choice to make as to how you deal with them.

Keep in mind the love Jesus had for you when you sinned against Him and did Him harm. He loved you and treated you with respect providing abundantly for all of your needs, despite your deserving death. In this same way, treat those who harm you with love. Give them food and water, things that they need, to win their hearts over to God.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will know the love God has for you and your enemies; that you will treat your enemies with God’s love; that God will guide you in providing what your enemies need; and that you will be a witness of God’s love to this world.

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2 Kings 5:12 Being Unwilling And Missing Out

“Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. 2 Kings 5:12

Getting directions from someone else does not always make sense to a person. Since the directions do not always make sense, many people choose to not follow them and do their own thing. Pride gets in the way and causes them to go their own way. In the process of going their own way, many will often miss out on the goal that they were seeking.

Naaman had leprosy and had gone to Elisha to be healed. Elisha told him to dip in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman was angry and did not want to dip into a dirty river and stormed off in a rage.

People are very quick to put God in a box and expect Him to work a very specific way. If God does not work in the expected way, they get angry.

This is commonly seen when it comes to healing. Many want to see God heal a very specific, miraculous way or they feel God did not listen to their need and meet it.

God’s ways are so far above the ways of man, that often they can appear as ludicrous. Sometimes in order for God to provide what one desires, God has him do something that is out of the ordinary and does not make sense.

Many believers often miss out on blessings when they choose to not follow God’s commands completely out of pride or just not believing and trusting. They go away angry and miss what God has for them.

Believers need to do everything God says to do, regardless of how little sense it may make.

There may be something in your life that you are seeking God to take care of. God may be asking you to step out in faith and do something that sounds ridiculous and makes no sense to get the situation taken care of.

Do not let your not understanding or pride get in the way of God meeting your need. If you don’t step out in faith, you may never know what God was going to do. Trust that God knows what He is asking of you and that He will do what He has promised.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will know what God is asking you to do; that you will step out in faith and obey God’s commands to you; that you will allow God to remove any pride in your life; and that you will see God’s hand of provision and miracles in your life.

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2 Kings 4:42 What Do You Have?

A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said. 2 Kings 4:42

People who have very little struggle with knowing how to provide what is needed for themselves or for others under their care. All that they can see is what little they have and how much they need. Often, they will turn to others for handouts to gather up enough for what is needed.

A man had brought Elisha twenty loaves of bread and was told by Elisha to give it to a hundred men to eat. They ate and had some left over.

Very few people will be completely responsible for feeding a hundred other people with their own supplies. However, many are responsible for feeding themselves and their family.

Families will go through times of financial struggles in which they have very little money or supplies to provide for their own basic needs. It is common for people in great need to run to the government or other people for assistance. Rarely do people turn first to God to see how He wants to supply their needs.

Supplying needs begins with using what a person has. God has a way of taking a little tiny bit that a person has and multiplying it greatly or making it last longer than normal.

Doing something like this takes first a seeking God’s direction in what to do. Then it takes stepping out in faith and trusting God to meet the need with the little that one has. He may bring it in from others, or He may multiple what one has. Either way provision is met through trust in God and doing it God’s way.

There will be times in your life when you will need to supply something greater than what you have to help those under your care. This can occur in your home, your workplace or your community.

Begin by using what you have and trusting God to meet the need. Seek God as to how to use what you have. There is nothing that is too little for God to use to meet any need no matter how large the need is. God can work miracles of provision as you step out in faith obeying His word.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will seek God for all of your needs; that you will see God provide abundantly what is needed; that you will use what you have to God’s glory; and that you will trust God with what you have.

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No Turning Back: The Epic Lives of Elijah and Elisha (book review)

Title: No Turning Back: The Epic Lives of Elijah and Elisha
Author: Joseph Szabo
Print: Amazon Kindle, 2021

This is a short novel covering the lives of Elijah and Elisha. This author does an excellent job at keeping the story inline with the Biblical narrative of the two main characters and those they interact with.

It begins with Elijah getting ready to anoint Elisha as the next prophet. As it goes along, there are some flashbacks to various events in the life of Elijah.

As a novel based on some biblical characters, the author does take some liberty to add in words and events that are not found in the Bible. With this liberty, however, the author does keep true to the biblical narrative.

The story moves along with a good pace, never getting boring or dry, but not overloaded with extreme excitement or adventure. It also gives what the characters may have been feeling or thinking in during the various events.

This is an early first edition that does have a few grammatical and spelling errors. The author is in the process of correcting these and getting the online version updated correctly.

I highly recommend reading this book, if you like short novels and narratives of biblical characters. It is a good book for middle school and higher aged children to read for a look at the lives of Elijah and Elisha that covers between the lines of the Bible’s narrative.