Kings
These historical books chronologically follow First and Second Samuel, detailing the end of David's reign, the split between the 10 northern tribes (Israel) and the two southern tribes (Judah), and each successive king until both kingdoms were taken into captivity as judgement from God in 722 B.C. (Israel) and 587 B.C. (Judah).
Devotions in 1 Kings
1 Kings 3:9 - Wisdom
1 Kings 3:9 - Where Wisdom is Found (Holy Day Lesson - Pentecost)
1 Kings 3:28 - Wisdom in Everything
1 Kings 4:20 - Through His Faith He Still Speaks
1 Kings 6:7 - Building the House
**1 Kings 6:7 - Dedication of the Temple (Holy Day Lesson - Feast of Tabernacles)
1 Kings 8:57 - Leave or Forsake
1 Kings 8:60 - That You May Know
1 Kings 11:4 - Choose Wisely
1 Kings 17:4 - Elijah!
1 Kings 18:21 - Don't sit on the Fence!
1 Kings 19:14 - The Only One
1 Kings 19:18 - What You Don't See
Devotions in 2 Kings
**2 Kings 4:2 - What Do You Have?
**2 Kings 6:6 - Only God Can Do Miracles
**2 Kings 6:17 - Open Our Eyes
2 Kings 9:3 - What He Says We Will Do
2 Kings 13:21 - That You May Have Life
2 Kings 17:14 - Beans in Your Ears
2 Kings 19:27 - Give Glory to God
2 Kings 24:4 - Innocent Blood
Wisdom
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people? 1 Kings 3:9
If you could have anything you wanted, what would you ask for? Let’s assume that food and water, clothing, shelter, family - all those are a given. What would you ask for?
Solomon, when told to ask for whatever he wanted by God, asked for wisdom. He showed incredible humility before Jehovah as the new king of Israel, acknowledging that he didn’t feel adequate to the task God had given him. Do you know how God responded? God was pleased. I don’t know how that makes you feel, but when I read that God was pleased about something, it fills me with joy. It’s also interesting that the author of Kings uses Adonai here. In verse 7, Solomon addresses God as Jehovah my Elohim. The word Adonai is #136, exclusively used as a divine name for God, and is the emphatic form of #113, which means “lord” or “master.” It is this word, #113 Adon, which is used in verse 17 when the women are addressing Solomon. It makes me wonder if the author used Adonai intentionally in the narrative to underline the fact that it was indeed God, Adonai, who gave Solomon, Adon, his wisdom.
At any rate, God was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom; he hadn’t asked for long life or riches or the life of his enemies. Solomon had asked for the tools needed to complete the task that God had given to him. In addition to granting Solomon wisdom, God blessed him with riches and honor, “so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days” (vs. 13). These were the golden years of Israel. The land was prosperous and at peace. The king was wise, able to discern between good and evil.
This word evil is #7451, “ra’ah,” which has “ten or more various shades of the meaning of evil according to its contextual usage. It means bad in a moral and ethical sense and is used to describe, along with good, the entire spectrum of good and evil; hence, it depicts evil in an absolute, negative sense, as when it describes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Baker’s Complete Word Study Dictionary, Old Testament, 2003, pp. 1062-1063). Basically, God gave Solomon wisdom, not only to administer godly justice, but understand how things work. 1 Kings 4:29 - 33 says, “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. . . He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish.” Solomon’s wisdom and understanding was expansive. People came from all over to hear his wisdom!
There are a number of lessons here for us.
First, it pleases God when we ask for the tools we need to accomplish the task He’s given us. If we ask for ourselves, for temporary things, it shows an absorption with the self and our agenda instead of having our mind on being God’s servant to the best of our ability.
Secondly, asking for wisdom is a reasonable request. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
Third, you have to ask; God won’t necessarily automatically bless you for what you need. Matthew 7:7-11 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; . . . If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
And finally, when you do ask, God may fulfill your request far beyond that request, beyond your wildest dreams!
So, ask God for wisdom to accomplish the job He’s given you to do, and may He bless you with abundant wisdom.
Where Wisdom is Found
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people? 1 Kings 3:9
There are some great wisdom quotes. Ron has a couple of them on the wall in his study:
Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age;
sometimes age shows up all by itself.
and:
Everyone is a fool for at least five minutes every day.
Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.
We find the subject of wisdom throughout the Bible too:
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 1 Corinthians 1:30
And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. Psalm 119:98
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, Romans 1:22
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Romans 12:16
and
For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:8
But what do these have to do with Pentecost?
There’s reason to believe that the Law was given to Moses and the Israelites from Mt. Sinai on Pentecost (Exodus 19). That law was not an arbitrary law; it was an expression of the very mind of our great God. That isn’t to say that our God is summed up in the Law; the Law is a reflection of His character, just as we say God is love (1 John 4:16) or He is our peace (Ephesian 2:14), the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). In the same way, 1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Jesus Christ is for us wisdom from God.
But how do we get that wisdom? There is a wisdom of man which ends in death (Romans 1:22). There is a pseudo-wisdom which God’s wisdom always trumps (Psalm 119:98). And then there’s a wisdom which comes from God because we are His, because we obey His law, and because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which was given on Pentecost (1 Cor. 12:8).
But there’s another tie between wisdom and Pentecost that you don’t “get” unless you’ve been looking forward to Pentecost, unless you’ve been counting down the days to Pentecost. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). I don’t know if Moses intended this psalm to be a foreshadowing of Pentecost, but, in reality, when we number our days (really considering the time), when we count down to Pentecost (more than just going through the superficial motions of marking days), when we’re seeking Jesus Christ with our whole heart, what we get is Jesus Christ who is for us wisdom from God.
So on this Pentecost, ask for wisdom as Solomon did (1 Kings 3:9); ask for Jesus Christ to be more powerfully present in your life through the gift of the Holy Spirit; and praise God for His Holy Days which remind us of God’s plan in our lives, giving us wisdom to number our days.
Wisdom in Everything
And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. 1 Kings 3:28
When we talk of people who are wise, Solomon’s name always enters the conversation. It’s interesting that this single account is given as evidence of his wisdom:
Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. 19 And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king. 23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” 24 And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” 27 Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.”
This is the event which people cite to showcase Solomon’s wisdom. Solomon used Godly wisdom to render a Godly judgment, to do justice. That particular word is #4941 mispat, and has a meaning almost a page and a half in length documenting the various shades of justice and judgment. According to the dictionary, the word “just,” when used as an adjective, means “based on or behaving according to what is morally right or fair.”
I believe Solomon executed justice and righteousness judgment, that God gave him wisdom beyond anyone before or after (except Jesus Christ). But God didn’t force Solomon to act wisely, to be wise in all his decisions. The ability was there. The wisdom and direction from God was there; Solomon was still free to decide to apply it or not. We know what happened: Solomon multiplied wives and they turned his heart away from God (1 Kings 11:2-4). I would definitely put that in the “not wise” category.
It’s a good lesson for us. We can seek God. We can ask for wisdom from Him. But God won’t force us to use it. Even if we use Godly wisdom most of the time, God won’t force us to use His wisdom in every situation. We are still free to do what many people do - whether they mean to or not: we can compartmentalize our lives and then give only a part of our lives to God. It’s almost as if we say, “God can be involved in my life when I’m going to church, reading the Bible, doing my work, but when I want to have fun - going to a movie, watching tv, reading a book, playing with my friends - I’d just as soon God left me alone in those situations.”
It’s shocking to us to hear it put into words. We’d never really say that, would we?! Probably not, but we say it in our actions. We watch tv shows that you’d be embarrassed to watch with a minister. We say things to our friends we wouldn’t want our parents to hear. We read books that we wouldn’t want opened before God on the day of judgment. But because we don’t see any consequence to our choices, we think we’ve gotten away with them, and we continue down that road, making less and less wise choices all the time.
I don’t think Solomon’s heart was turned away from God all in one choice. After all, it takes a while to marry 700 wives and to build altars for all the foreign gods of his wives. One not-so-bad choice leads to another, because God hasn’t struck you with lightning yet, which leads to another bad choice. Down the road, your choices have led you away from God.
Make every effort to apply the wisdom God has granted you to all of your choices, to every part of your life, to. . . . take every thought captive to obey Christ, . . .(2 Cor. 10:5). Give yourself wholly to the Lord.
Through His Faith He Still Speaks
Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. 1 Kings 4:20
As many as the sand by the sea - what Biblical phrase does this bring to mind? I think of Genesis 22:17: “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,” This is the covenantal promise made to Abraham by God - that Abraham would be the father of nations.
In this verse in Genesis 22:17 is the other promise made to Abraham: that God would give the land to Abraham’s descendants. Under Solomon’s rule, the land had rest. The people ate and drank and were happy. David had subdued all the enemies; the people were no longer at war. God had given them the land promised to their forefather Abraham. They were happy.
But were they really? The people, although prosperous under Solomon, were still primed to complain. After Solomon’s death, 2 Chronicles 10 records that all Israel came to Rehoboam and said, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” That doesn’t sound like the people were happy. It sounds like they were tired of the taxes and building projects under Solomon’s rule.
Consider this verse again: Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy (1 Kings 4:20). Is this the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham? Have they arrived?
I believe that Solomon’s rule was a type, a picture pointing to a still-future fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. I believe that life in Israel under Solomon was the best it was going to get until the time of Christ. The two kingdoms were still united. Solomon had the wisdom from God to render godly justice. The land was at rest from war. Prosperity and contentment reigned along with Solomon. But. Solomon was human; he sinned; he married hundreds of wives and they led his heart away from only worshipping God. Solomon was fallible, and the consequences of a human ruler reigning over humans - in all of their carnality - is life, culture, society that starts to unravel, come apart at the seams, becoming increasingly sinful and unsettling. The physical rest they enjoyed did not translate into spiritual rest in God because of that old heart problem: their hearts were not completely fixed on God and His ways. In fact, because they were all carnal, they could not be wholly devoted to God. They needed the Savior to come to save them from their sins. They needed the indwelling of the Holy Spirits to change them into new creatures.
Still, in type, Solomon’s golden years point to the Messianic rule - a time after Jesus Christ returns to set up His kingdom on this earth.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
It will be a time when we will all eat and drink and be happy.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).
Solomon, in reigning as king over Israel, despite his sins and imperfections, is another example of a person whose entire life was a testimony, a witness, to what is yet to come. . . . And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks (Hebrews 11:4).
That’s our goal too. We don’t want to be among the group who ascribe to the adage, “Let’s eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32, Luke 12:19). We want to be among the group who live their lives in such a way that Jesus Christ is seen in their lives. We want to point others to the One who made them, the One we all so desperately need as Savior. We want our lives to be a witness of the God we serve. If we are wholly dedicated to Him, to serve Him, to be witnesses to His glory and honor through the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit, if - through our faith in God - our lives speak loudly of Him, then we can eat and drink and be happy.
Building the House
When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. 1 Kings 6:7
Imagine for a moment that we all decide to prepare our church potluck dishes here at the church Sabbath morning before church begins. What would that look like?! It would be total chaos. We’d be in each other’s way, so we wouldn’t be able to work as efficiently. We’d be talking to each other, distracting each other, so we’d slow each other down even more. And think about the dishes!! It would be a frustrating experience. The church kitchen is not the place for each of us to build our portion of the potluck meal, and Sabbath morning certainly isn’t the time to do it. It works much better if we do as much as possible before we get to church.
I think that’s what 1 Kings 6:7 is about. When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. There was enough activity in just constructing the temple. The noise level would have been very high simply with the construction. Having the stones shaped to the exact dimensions needed, right there on site, would have added incredible noise and chaos to the site! It made much more sense to prepare the stones at the quarry so that they could be moved into place when they were done. It worked so much better to do as much as possible before they got to the building site.
That’s all reasonable. Prepare for potluck before church. Prepare the stones for building before bringing them to the construction site. So why are we talking about this verse today? Is there something else here to consider?
I believe that God gives us the physical so we can understand the spiritual - because we are physical human beings and we have a lot of trouble understanding the spiritual without the concrete examples! So what application to our lives can we see in this verse?
1 Corinthians 3 talks about us being God’s building. 1 Peter 2:5 picks up that same theme. Peter says, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, . . .”
Consider for a moment the analogy of being a living stone (1 Peter 2:5) and compare it with the stones that were being prepared at the quarry (1 Kings 6:7). Both were being prepared to be part of God’s house. The stones for Solomon’s temple were prepared on site at the quarry - right where they were dug out of the earth. The builders knew what each stone had to look like so that it would fit right into place in the temple. Similarly, each of us are being prepared on site in our lives, right where we are when God calls us. God doesn’t wait until the kingdom to knock all of our rough edges off so that we’ll fit into His plan. He’s doing it right now. God knows what we need to look like to fit into the place He’s prepared for us in His kingdom. God also knows that it works so much better to shape us and form us into the image of His Son right now, as much as possible, before He gets us to the building site, His kingdom.
That’s incredibly encouraging to me. The sign that you see occasionally as a bummer stick or a t-shirt - Be patient. God’s not finished with me yet - is profoundly true. This life is about our preparation as His people for being placed in a specific position in His kingdom. The rough edges, the contours, the aspects of me which don’t quite fit are being chiseled away, formed into shape, smoothed and polished and perfected.
Think about the work that God is doing in each of our lives so that we’ll be ready to be placed into His house. It’s a good thing to remember when we experience some growing pains, when we realize we’ve just gone through something to teach us a lesson, when we are being disciplined and discipled. None of those experiences are fun or easy; they are often painful. Nevertheless, the concrete realization that God is working in our lives should also bring the realization that we have to stop resisting Him, stop working against Him because of the pain and difficulty, stop struggling against the shaping that He’s employing to form us according to His plan. We have to learn to submit to His will, to acknowledge that He is sovereign, to accept His discipline. God is building His house. It’s going to be a magnificent house - and you and I want to be part of it!
**Dedication of the Temple
And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry . . . 1 Kings 6:7 (NKJV)
Materials: rocks, chisels, hammers
Do you remember on the first day talking about building a tabernacle? God commands us to build a tabernacle and to dwell in it for seven days as a picture of the Israelites dwelling in the wilderness for 40 years. Eventually, however, the Israelites moved into the Promised Land and settled down. They were no longer wandering. Centuries later, King David had it in his heart to build a house for God, a more permanent place in which to worship God, a temple. God allowed King David’s son Solomon to do just that. Solomon’s temple was absolutely magnificent! It took seven years to complete. Although it was finished in the eighth month of the year (1 Kings 6:38), Solomon waited almost an entire year, until the next Feast of Tabernacles, to dedicate it.
Things don’t just happen. There’s a very special reason the temple was dedicated during the Feast of Tabernacles with much pomp, circumstance, and celebration. It’s a picture of you and me - having tabernacled in these bodies, these temporary dwellings all of our lives, we are also called temples of the living God, the place where God’s Spirit dwells. And in that day, when Christ returns, there will be a special dedication of our lives as temples of the Holy Spirit forever.
You see, just as David had a heart to build a house for God, God told David that He, God, would build a house for David. David’s house, David’s family, would extend all the way to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
In a similar way, we dedicate our lives to God, looking forward to our place in God’s kingdom. God tells us that the place He has prepared for us, the house where we will dwell forever, is His house, His family. We will be adopted into the family of God. In effect, we’re not building a house for God; God is building a house out of us.
Today, in preparation for that eventuality, we are being shaped and molded. The stones which were shaped and hewed out of the rock at the quarry were not chiseled to fit on the temple grounds. The stones were shaped, molded, and chiseled right where they were. Similarly, we are being formed into the image of Jesus Christ now so that we will fit directly into place in His house, that house built with the lively stones of mankind.
So as we have some of our rough edges shaved off and we go through difficult things in this life, we keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ. We desire more than ever to be molded into His image so that we can slide into the position God is preparing for each one of us.
Another fantastic reason to rejoice!
Leave or Forsake
“The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us,” 1 Kings 8:57
The word “forsake” is Strongs #5203 (natash) and means, in this context, “to disperse, scatter, reject, leave, give up, to cast off.”
I have in my mind someone flinging something away from them as hard as they can. It’s kind of like when you look down and there’s a spider crawling on your hand. You shake it - vigorously. You want rid of that spider. For those who are afraid of spiders, it’s more than just not wanting to be bitten. It’s being repulsed. They’re yucky. You want to fling something disgusting as far away from you as you can!
It grieves me to think that I could ever act so repulsively that my parents would want to fling me away. I would never want to behave so repulsively that Mom and Dad would not want to have anything to do with me.
That’s what King Solomon is praying in this prayer: that Jehovah their Elohim would be with them, that He would not leave them or fling them away like a repulsive thing.
Something has to make the spider, or us, less repulsive. What could it be? E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web has made spiders much less repulsive to children. But that’s probably not going to work with your parents. With Mom and Dad, it’s primarily something you have no control over: you are their son or daughter, and they love you. But in a family setting, it’s all about the closeness of the relationship. Some children have so damaged the relationship that the parents don’t want to see the kids again. They can hardly wait until they are out of the house. But, for most families, it’s the degree of relationship. How does that improve? Obedience, spending time together, working of projects together, being involved with whatever Mom and Dad are doing, seeking them out, preferring them over your likes and dislikes.
Now take this physical example and lay it over the spiritual. First, you have to belong to God. You have to be part of the family. That only happens through accepting the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His work at the cross on your behalf. Is He your Savior? If he is, then you’ve been adopted into the family of God and there is great rejoicing in heaven! But where do you take the relationship from there?
Are you obedient? Do you spend time with God in prayer and Bible study? Do you following His leading to be His hands in this world? Do you seek Him continually? Do you prefer God and His ways over your own agenda?
The reality is that God chose Israel and made her into a great nation. But Israel continually, time after time, rejected God. She walked away from the relationship she could have had with the Creator of the world. She served other gods, those who were not gods. They chose to sin. That’s why, hanging on the cross, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” His sin cut that relationship with God - for our sake.
I love my parents so much. It grieves me to think of having that relationship severed because of my actions. I think sometimes we look at the suffering of Jesus and think the physical torture and humiliation was the worst part. I don’t think so. I think it was the impairment of his relationship with the Father, on our behalf, because of the sins for which He was willing to atone for us.
Solomon prayed that God would never leave them or forsake them, those people whom God had saved out of Egypt. If you’re ever tempted to pray that same prayer, remember that you’re family. God has promised that He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God is faithful and true.
But He is also the loving Father who allows you free will to sin and chose the wrong if you so desire. He doesn’t force you to make the right choices. He wants you to so greatly desire a relationship with Him that you willing bring every thought into submission to Jesus Christ.
How’s that working out for you?
That You May Know
that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. 1 Kings 8:60
What was it that God did for the Israelites that they, and the world, would know that the God we serve is God, the only God? If you didn’t know the scripture reference of 1 Kings 8:60, it could be any number of things because this phrase is repeated numerous times throughout the Bible. It’s found in Exodus chapters 6 through 18 numerous times when God sent the plagues on Egypt, redeeming His people from slavery, and drowning the Egyptian army in the Red Sea but saving the Israelites. He fed them with manna and quail. (Exodus 6:7; 7:5; 7:17; 8:10; 8:22; 9:14; 9:29; 10:2; 11:7; 14:4; 14:18; 16:6; 16:12; 18:11) This list is reiterated in Deuteronomy 4:32-39. All of these things God did that His people would know, that Pharaoh would know, that the world would know, that He alone is Jehovah!
Exodus 29:46 says that God dwelt among His people that they might know He was God.
Exodus 31:13 says that God commands us to observe the Sabbath, that we might know He is God.
1 Samuel 2:2 is Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving to God for giving her a son. In it, she acknowledges that there is no one besides our God.
2 Kings 19:19 tells of Hezekiah’s prayer to God that He would deliver Judah from the Assyrians under Sennacherib - that all the kingdoms of the world would know that Jehovah is God!
Isaiah 43:10 relates God telling His people that they are His witnesses - that all may know that He is God.
Joshua 4:24 says that the Israelites passed over the Jordan dry shod so that all peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful.
Deuteronomy 29:6 says that their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out the 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, and they ate neither bread nor fermented wine (God fed them with manna) - that they might know that the LORD is God.
Even in 1 Samuel 17:46, David says that not just Goliath would fall, but the carcasses of the Philistine army would be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field that the whole world would know that Jehovah is God.
And we could go on. Time and time again, God’s hand is evident in the lives of His people that they, the people around them, even the whole world, would know that the God we serve is God, the only God.
So. Do you know? Do you know in your heart, beyond any doubt, that the God we serve is the only God, that there is no other?
Your answer to that question determines all the actions in your life. If you know that God is God, and especially that you are not, then you treat Him as God. You acknowledge Him as sovereign. That means you do what He says. You don’t change His laws to suit yourself. You keep God’s laws because He says to.
And you trust Him - because He’s Sovereign, because He’s God, because He’s trustworthy.
Your actions demonstrate what you believe about who God is; your actions speak loudly about your relationship, or lack of relationship, with God. I believe that, if you have eyes to see, God is working in the lives of His people, even today. I am confident that God’s hand works in our lives today that we may know that He is God; there is no other.
Choose Wisely
For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 1 Kings 11:4
One day almost ten years ago, I decided to take a short cut to St. Clair. At least, that’s what I told the kids I was doing when they asked why I was going the wrong way. We hadn’t lived here very long, and truthfully, I was exploring - but thought that perhaps the road I was taking would end up being an alternate route to where I wanted to go. It wasn’t a short cut. When we did finally meander our way back to St. Clair, Jonathan called it a “long cut,” and it was! We saw some beautiful country, however, and we did, eventually, end up where we had wanted to go. But it doesn’t always work out that way.
Solomon married 700 wives and had 300 concubines. That’s not only not a good idea, it’s against God’s perfect will! But Solomon went farther than that. Some of the wives that he married were from foreign countries, worshipped pagan gods, and, according to 1 Kings 11:4, when he was old, they turned Solomon’s heart away from the one true God.
The choices we make have far-reaching consequences - and we rarely recognize the full extent of the effects. When Christopher broke his jaw, I thought that was a terrible time in our lives. And it was. But I thought that when the wires came off, it would be over; it’d be in the past. I never figured on braces. And I never figured on having to move one molar just to end up having to pull it because it was so damaged, which led to having to have braces again for another round of 18 - 21 months.
But that’s the way life is. One little choice here, today, can start a chain reaction that has enormous impact on the direction your life goes.
So why doesn’t God stop us in the beginning of making those wrong choices - before we’re too far down the wrong road? I believe that God does lead us. I believe that He gives us direction, if we are only attentive enough to heed it. I don’t mean an audible voice, at least, I’ve never heard an audible voice that I knew was God’s. But the Holy Spirit in our lives can guide us. Sometimes we call it our conscience. Sometimes we call it coincidence. Sometimes we get advice from a friend or relative that changes our direction - and they were used by God. But there’s another reason, I think, that God doesn’t just stop us in our tracks when we start the go wrong. I think, He wants to see what we’re going to do. When we realize we’re on the wrong path, what do we do?
When I was taking that long-cut to St. Clair, I started thinking about turning around. I was becoming more aware of how easily I could get lost. But as long as I knew how to get back to my starting point, I was willing to go a little farther to see where the road would lead. Eventually, we ended up in the right place. It took more time, more gas, and more wear and tear on the van to get to where we should have been, but we didn’t stay lost. However, taking that long-cut wasn’t a decision that was contrary to God’s word - as Solomon’s decision to marry foreign wives was. There was no sin involved in me traveling that alternative route. But Solomon’s route was sinful. Nevertheless, I could have become very lost, and Solomon was, at least for a time, very lost. His wives turned his heart away from God. He was worshiping pagan deities! Nevertheless, I think that it’s possible that Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s book of repentance, that he came to believe that this world is vanity. Only God, and having a relationship with Him, matters.
I don’t recommend taking long-cuts to where you need to go; you can waste a lot of time. And I very much counsel against going contrary to God’s ways; you can find yourself in a place you don’t want to be - outside of God’s will and with a serious breach in your relationship with Him. Make wise choices. Stay on the right path. Choose God’s ways always. Seek God with all your heart. Choose wisely.
Elijah!
You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. 1 Kings 17:4
When you think of the prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah is likely one of the first to come to mind. After all, Jesus said that Elijah had already come, speaking of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:12-13). Furthermore, the last two verses in the Old Testament say, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
And then there are the acts of Elijah himself.
We’re first introduced to Elijah during the reign of Ahab. Ahab, king of Israel, “did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him” (1 Kings 16:30-31).
It’s against this backdrop that we are introduced to Elijah. Do you know what Elijah’s first recorded act was? He called for drought. “Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’ ”
Then God told Elijah to leave, to hide himself, and here’s where we find this verse: “You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” (1 Kings 17:4).
Isn’t it interesting that God would send ravens to bring meat and bread to Elijah morning and evening, and to specify which brook Elijah was to drink from? For a period of time, until the brook dried up because of the drought, God provided daily sustenance for Elijah’s existence. Morning and evening, every day, Elijah was given the opportunity to solidify his reliance totally, exclusively, on God. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s not normal behavior for ravens to bring bread and meat morning and night to a specific person, or to any person. This was totally God’s provision, and eventually Elijah would have had no doubt about God’s provision for him.
We don’t know how long it took, but eventually, the brook did dry up. God told Elijah to go to Zarephath, that God had commanded a widow to feed him. The widow had little flour and oil left. In fact, when Elijah met her, she was gathering sticks to build a fire over which to bake the last of the flour and oil into bread after which she and her son would starve to death. Elijah told her to use the flour and oil to make something for him to eat first, and then to feed her son and herself, that the flour and the oil would continue until the drought was over. Elijah had total confidence that God would provide, daily, miraculously, the sustenance they needed to survive.
“After this,” the author of 1 Kings records, so we’re not told how long the flour and oil had been continuing daily, the widow’s son died. Elijah took the child to his upstairs room, lay him on his bed, stretched himself on the child three times, and prayed to God to give the child back his life. God heard Elijah, and Elijah carried the resurrected child back to his mother.
In this short chapter, 1 Kings 17, we have very powerful witness to God’s provision and power over life and death. God is sovereign. He alone is God.
It’s also an illuminating description of how God prepares someone for His service. God didn’t immediately put Elijah into the position of asking for a resurrection. God taught Elijah in two very different ways that He is the One who provides. The ravens obeyed God. The flour and the oil were miraculously multiplied. God is the One who can do all things. 1 Kings 17:24 records, “And the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.’ ” So our first question is, “What? The multiplying of the flour and oil wasn’t enough? She had to see someone raised from the dead before she believed?”
But we aren’t too different from the widow of Zarephath. We, too, have to learn the lesson of depending on God for His provision. And God knows our heart. Once we’ve learned that lesson, He can build on it. He can continue to put instances in our lives to grow us, to show us who He is, that we can have the faith to serve Him with wholeness of heart.
So think about what God has done in your life. Think about His provision and the things He has shown you, that you might know that He alone is God, that you might know that He is sovereign. Have eyes to see that the provision of what you have comes from God. Learn those lessons. Then once you’re solidified in your belief of God and your relationship with Him, He can use you for greater works, to show His glory, to manifest who He is to others around you.
Don’t Sit on the Fence
And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 1 Kings 18:21
When I was lifeguarding for the Sioux City municipal pools, I would occasionally see a kid who was just learning to dive. He would stand in line to go off the diving board all afternoon. First he’d jump off, feet first. Then he’d dive. Eventually, exhausted, but unwilling to do something else, he’d run to the end of the diving board and do what looked to be a combination of diving and jumping: his body was shaped in an upside-down U, committing neither hands nor feet to being first, which resulted in a painful belly flop. He had halted between two opinions. He had not fully committed to a dive or to a jump, and the consequence was enough to make him stop going off the board for the rest of the day.
The people of Israel, to whom Elijah was speaking that day on Mt. Carmel, were similarly conflicted. They were trying to serve the Eternal while simultaneously serving Baal. Elijah told them they couldn’t do that. The first of the Ten Commandments says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). Maybe the people knew that; maybe they just thought that our God and Baal could be served equally.
But Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Loving God with everything you have and everything you are leaves no room for another pagan, false god alongside! The people should have known better.
We know better. We often make intelligent evaluations . . . when looking at the situation, actions, and choices of others. But, unfortunately, when it’s our choices, our actions, our situation, we have a harder time making an intelligent call. Oh, we may not be serving Baal, but we pander to others gods: ourselves, money/possessions, or anything else which we set up in importance before the only true God. Think about it: you know what you’re supposed to do to follow God and to serve Him only, but you sometimes choose differently. Why? We have all these excuses: It’s not convenient. It’s not comfortable. God understands. It’s just a little thing. I’ll only do it once.
Calling ourselves a Christian, when we excuse ourselves from doing what we know God has said we should do, with any of these reasons or the myriad of other reasons which we invent spontaneously to fit the situation, we have, in essence, done a huge belly flop. We haven’t whole-heartedly served our God. We haven’t submitted our will completely to Him. We haven’t truly acknowledged Him as Sovereign, as the Lord of our lives. We’ve tried to put one foot into a relationship with God and leave one foot in the world. That doesn’t work any better for the Christian than it does for the kid who tried to do a dive and a jump simultaneously, or for the person who tries to put only one foot on the elevator.
You can’t halt between two opinions. You can’t do a dive and a jump. You can’t put only one foot on the elevator. You are either wholly devoted to God or you’re not. Here’s what Jesus said, “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:14-16). God’s reaction to not being wholly committed to Him is pretty definite: He will spit you out! You have to be wholly devoted to God; that’s our reasonable worship!
Here’s another idiomatic expression to encourage us to make a decision and then live that decision: Don’t sit on the fence. During the Revolutionary War, a prominent New Jersey jurist, Judge Imlay, hadn’t yet committed to either the revolutionaries or the loyalists. So when Washington encountered one of Imlay’s slaves he asked him which way the judge was leaning. Washington was so amused by the response that he retold it enough times for it to become part of our language. He said, “Until my master knows which is the strongest group, he’s staying on the fence.” (superbeefy.com)
Don’t go limping between two opinions. Serve God only. Don’t belly flop. Be wholly devoted to God. Don’t sit on the fence.
The Only One
I am the only one left, 1 Kings 19:14 (NIV)
An out-of-towner drove his car into a ditch in a desolated area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his big strong horse, named Buddy. He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!" Buddy didn't move.
Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" Buddy didn't respond. Once more the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!” Nothing.
Then the farmer nonchalantly said, "Pull, Buddy, pull!" And the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch.
The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.
The farmer said, "Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn't even try.”
I love this story. It touches a chord because of the truth that we as human beings don’t want to do something we think is hard unless we’re sure we’re not the only ones working on it. We want the assurance that someone else is helping us pull, encouraging us to succeed, and commiserating with us if we aren’t immediately victorious.
But this is nothing new. Think about Elijah in I Kings 19. He had just shown our God to be the one true God on Mt. Carmel. He’d just destroyed 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. God had used Elijah to show His glory to the Israelites. But when Jezebel said she was going to kill him, Elijah fled for his life. He met with God on Mt. Horeb. He told God how zealous he’d been for God and how the people of Israel had rejected God, and that he, Elijah, was the only one left.
This is the famous passage where Elijah witnesses a strong wind which broke the mountain and rocks into pieces, an earthquake, and a fire. Elijah heard all of these incredibly powerful and destructive forces, but God was not in any of them. Then Elijah heard the sound of a low whisper.
God told Elijah what he should do next - and then, startling to Elijah, God told Elijah that there were 7000 people in Israel who were still true to God. Elijah was not the only one.
You may feel like you’re encountering powerful destructive forces (tornadoes, floods, fires) or people who are actively fighting against you to harm you. You may feel like you are the only one is who standing up as a Christian, the only one who is working for the Lord. Don’t let that feeling stop you from doing the job that God, your God, has set before you to do. Who knows, there may yet be 7000 Christians around you, even if you can’t see Nellie, Buster, or Coco.
What You Don’t See
“Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” ~ 1 Kings 19:18
In October 2010 my family visited a local alpaca farm. We were impressed with the soft hair, the unique noises, and the social behavior of these llama-like animals. You see, when one has to go to the bathroom, they all follow her out to “the spot.” They watch her go, then they take turns relieving themselves in the same spot. Now that’s taking social behavior to the extreme!!
Social creatures, because they are so social, are easily led astray. Sheep are notorious for being led astray!
It’s not only animals either. Because humans are basically social creatures, Satan’s lies work really well. You know, the ones like:
1. You’re alone.
2. You’re the only one who understands.
3. No one else has ever experienced this.
Even Elijah experienced these doubts: he was sure he was the only one left. But God told him, in 1 Kings 19:18, that there were 7000.
Where were they?
Because you know that people are subject to these kinds of doubts, it’s your job to strengthen, encourage, and comfort others.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us that we are supposed to comfort others with the same comfort that we’ve received from God. It’s one of the ways that God can touch someone who really needs Him; we can be His hands.
We need to remind those who might not otherwise hear of the message in Hebrews 13:5. God will never leave or forsake those who belong to Him. And Jesus is preparing a place for us in His house (John 14:2) - a perfect place for those who truly want to belong.
**What Do You Have?
And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” 2 Kings 4:2
Materials: turkey feather
There’s a fascinating story in 2 Kings 4:1-7:
1Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” 5So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
The widow was in a desperate situation: creditors coming to take her children and she had no way of paying the debts. She first took the problem to someone who could help. Isn’t Elisha’s response interesting?! He didn’t offer to help her; he asked her what she wanted him to do. Then he asked her to inventory what she had. She didn’t think she had very much - just a jar of oil.
I found a turkey feather a couple of weeks ago. I was reminded of this story in 2 Kings; we often don’t see the full potential of what we have. So what could we do with a turkey feather? I thought of a few ideas, but google it! You’ll be amazed at the ideas: diapers, pillow stuffing, insulation, upholstery padding, paper, plastics, and feather meal are all commercial uses(!!); turkey feather wreaths, decorations, wedding bouquets, boutonnieres, and turkey feather lamp shades are home use ideas. I was simply thinking of using it as a quill!!!
So there are three main points I want to think about today: 1) when you have trouble, don’t sit and worry about it. Actively address whatever the problem is. Go to someone who can help. That can be a parent or friend, but remember that God can always help. 2) Be specific in asking God for what you want. Neither Elisha nor Jesus acted before the person stated what it was they wanted (Mark 10:51). 3) Accurately access what you have. You might think you just have a jar of oil or a turkey feather. But with God, you have everything you need.
Greater
He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 2 Kings 6:16
There’s a scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where the Narnians are dismayed by the enormous army coming against them. The centaur sternly says, “Numbers do not win a battle.” Peter response, “I’ll bet they help.”
I never hear that line without thinking of this instance in 2 Kings 6. Elisha had told the king of Israel where to move to avoid the king of Syria. After the king of Israel had changed his plans a couple of times, the king of Syria was sure there was a traitor in their midst. But one of the servants - of the king of Syria - said, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” The king of Syria thought he should do something about that; he sent his army to surround the city of Dothan by night. The next morning Elisha’s servant looked out to see this vast army of horses and chariots all around the city. He asked Elisha, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” Here’s where we get this verse: “He said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ “
Then Elisha prayed that the young man’s eyes would be opened. Do you know what he saw? He saw angelic armies, the army of the Lord, all around Elisha. Elisha knew they were there, but his servant had not been able to see them.
I love this story. I love that Elisha had the confidence to know that God was with him, and more than that, the implication is that Elisha had the eyes to see that God was with him. A great sense of peace washes over me as I put myself in the place of Elisha’s servant.
In a very similar way, we are surrounded by hordes who would destroy us. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). Sometimes we see the evil forces arraying themselves against us - in society, as we’re going about our daily activities - and we feel that dismay. We see the giants in the land that we are to take, and we are afraid. We need a reminder, like Elisha’s servant needed a reminder: “He said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ ” That’s one of the reasons I really like Mercy Me’s “Greater.”
"Greater"
Bring your tired
Bring your shame
Bring your guilt
Bring your pain
Don’t you know that’s not your name
You will always be much more to me
Every day I wrestle with the voices
That keep telling me I’m not right
But that’s alright
‘Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I’ll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
In the world
In the world
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
Bring your doubts
Bring your fears
Bring your hurt
Bring your tears
There’ll be no condemnation here
You are holy, righteous and redeemed
Every time I fall
There’ll be those who will call me
A mistake
Well that’s ok
There’ll be days I lose the battle
Grace says that it doesn’t matter
‘Cause the cross already won the war
He’s Greater
He’s Greater
I am learning to run freely
Understanding just how He sees me
And it makes me love Him more and more
He’s Greater
He’s Greater
It’s such a great song to remind us to open our eyes to see God’s greatness, to hear His voice among all of those who would say that “I”ll never be enough.”
There’s just one other distinction that we need to emphasize. It isn’t that we’re in a battle against the enemy and God’s on our side. Rather, we’re in a battle with the enemy and we need to be very sure that we’re on God’s side. Do you remember when Joshua came face to face with the commander of the armies of the LORD and asked him if he were for the Israelites or for their adversaries? He was for neither side; he was the commander of the armies of the LORD.
At one point in the Civil War, a minister commented to Abraham Lincoln that he hoped God was on the side of the North. Abraham Lincoln responded,
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”
There is a battle raging all around us, and the adversaries are fighting more fiercely because their time is short. Don’t be afraid. God will win. Let’s just strive to make sure we’re fighting on God’s side.
**Only God Can Do Miracles
. . . he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. 2 Kings 6:6b
Materials needed: Various liquids (corn syrup, dish soap, water, oil, rubbing alcohol) and various tiny items (cork, paperclip, penny, raisin, eraser, eraser tip, piece of apple)
There’s a very interesting story in 2 Kings 6. Elisha was with a group of prophets. They had outgrown their meeting place and decided to go to the Jordan, cut down some wood and build a dwelling place there. As one of them was chopping down a tree, the head of the ax flew off and fell into the Jordan. The man immediately told Elisha that the ax had been borrowed. Elisha threw a stick into the water where the ax head had gone in and it floated. The man was able to get the ax head back.
We can experiment with all kinds of liquids and substances. Some of them will float in all of the liquids. Some of them will float in none of the liquids. And some of them will float in some of the liquids. But iron - the metal out of which the ax head was made - will not float in water. The iron is much too dense. And we know it wasn’t a thin piece of metal; the man had been using it to chop down a tree!!
The only explanation is that God performed a miracle through Elisha.
Will God always give you a miracle when you need it? Probably not. But you should never doubt that He could if it were the best thing for you. There is nothing that is too hard for God.
It’s also interesting that this was a lost tool. On the continuum of importance, it doesn’t seem very important to us that God perform this miracle. But maybe that’s the point. No matter how big or how small your problem is, you can always take it to God. Sometimes He will perform a miracle because He wants the very best for you. And sometimes the answer is no because He wants the very best for you.
So what is it that we take away from this lesson? 1) God is able to do things that no one else can do. He can perform miracles! and 2) Take your concerns to God. He loves you and He’s interested in all the big and the small problems in your life.
**Open Our Eyes
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” . . . 2 Kings 6:17a
Materials needed: magnets
There are invisible forces at work all around us. Two of them come immediately to mind: gravity and magnets. We are so very glad that gravity exists; it’s what keeps us from floating off into space - which is a very good thing. Magnets are likewise a significant invisible force. Who doesn’t like playing with magnets?
If I place two magnets together and they repel each other, we say that we two ends were of the same polarity. The converse is also true. If I place two magnets together, they will be attracted and come together - as in opposites attract. If we had iron fillings we could show the lines of polarity coming off each magnet. (We could also make a big mess.) But in normal, every day life, those lines of polarity are invisible; we just feel their effects on the magnets.
There are other invisible forces around us. Think about the story in 2 Kings 6:8-23. The Syrians had been raiding Israel, or at least, they had been trying to. But every time they planned something, Elisha told the king of Israel those plans, warning him and keeping him out of harm’s way. It became so prevalent that the king of Syria was certain there was a spy in his own army who was warning Israel and frustrating the Syrians’ plans. One of his servants told him what was happening, that Elisha was warning the king of Israel. So the king of Syria decided to capture Elisha who was in Dothan. During the night, the Syrians surrounded the city so that when Elisha’s servant looked out the next morning, the city was completely surrounded by enemy soldiers. He cried out to Elisha. Elisha told him not to be afraid; that those who were with Elisha were greater than those with the Syrians. And the servant’s eyes were opened to see horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Then Elisha prayed that the soldiers would be struck with blindness. He led the blind soldiers into the city of Samaria. The king of Israel wanted to know if he should kill all of them. Elisha told him to feed them (It was a great feast!!) and send them home. And Syria quit bothering Israel.
Sometimes we see difficulties and problems in our lives and we cry out to God, much like Elisha’s servant did, “Ah, my Master! What shall we do?” We should never forget that God is greater than all of the difficulties and problems surrounding us. Pray that God will give you the eyes to see His will for your life, the path you should take for His glory and honor. That doesn’t mean you will always escape the difficulties and problems, but you know God can use them for your good. He is still sovereign. He is always good.
What He Says We Will Do
Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, “Thus says the LORD, ‘I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not linger.” 2 Kings 9:3
We sing the hymn, “God Will Take Care of You:” Be not dismayed at whate’er betide; God will take care of you.
We sing songs based on Psalm 91. He’ll lift you up on eagles’ wings . . . You need not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day; though thousands fall about you, near you it shall not come. I know of four songs that are based on Psalm 91 - and there are probably more.
As we sing these songs, we can gain the impression that God grants His people unconditional security and safety. Many Christians believe this. I’ve heard stories of the situations people have placed themselves in because they believed God would not let them be hurt.
But the incident in 2 Kings 9 would indicate that unconditional security for those who belong to God is not necessarily so, at least not in the temporary and the physical. In 2 Kings 9, Elisha sends a son of the prophets to anoint Jehu king over Israel. This is going to initiate a bloodbath of those who are part of the house of Ahab and of those who serve Baal. You get an idea of the violence and extreme danger associated with Jehu’s rule by Elisha’s statement to the messenger: Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, “Thus says the LORD, ‘I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not linger.”
This is not a situation where he was to casually saunter in, joke and fellowship with those assembled there, have a meal and stay overnight. The messenger went into an inner room with Jehu, did what Elisha said, and got out of Dodge.
What would have happened if he had delayed? We don’t know. But we do have the scriptural record of what happened to the prophet who went to Jeroboam in 1 Kings 13. He was told what to say to Jeroboam, then to leave, not to stay or to eat anything while he was there, and he was to leave by a different route from which he arrived. His prophecy against Jeroboam came true. But when he disobeyed God, a lion tore him apart. God hadn’t just made a suggestion; He commanded the prophet to act in a certain way. When the prophet disobeyed, there were serious consequences.
We need to wrap our minds around several important facts:
1) God loves us. He loves us so much He sent His Son to die for us, while we were yet sinners, so that we might be reconciled to Him, be adopted into the very family of God, and have eternal life.
2) God expects to be obeyed. There are more references to God’s judgement in the Bible than there are references to His love. But as the Righteous God dealing with sinful man, you would hardly expect anything different. God doesn’t give out second chances; He doesn’t say, “Oh you didn’t obey Me, but decided to stop and have something to eat when I told you not to. Well, that’s o.k. Maybe you’ll listen next time.” God doesn’t say, “I want you to go to Nineveh. Oh, you don’t want to. O.K. Maybe after you get done in sailing around you’ll be ready to come do what I want you to.” He doesn’t excuse us, “Oh, you want to worship me by making a golden calf. I know your heart so building a golden calf is a good idea.” When we look at these examples, we see how ludicrous they are, and yet, we sometimes have a hard time applying that in our own lives, being very careful to obey exactly what God says. Sometimes it’s hard to do exactly what God says. It’s not convenient. It’s not popular with people around us. It’s not the easiest path; it’s a whole lot easier to walk than to run. But obeying God means submitting our wills to His, doing what He wants instead of doing what we want - no matter what. Think about it: you don’t even want to do what your mom or dad says sometimes. God gives us the physical to help us understand the spiritual. When you can learn to submit to your parents’ will (as long as they are obeying God), you are learning the principle of submitting to God’s will.
3) As Christians, we are not automatically given immunity or exemption from pain and problems. Sometimes the pain and problems are for our growth. Sometimes they are so that we can glorify God anyway. Sometimes they are so that we can empathize and encourage someone else who’s going through something similar. Sometimes the pain and problems are because we sinned; we did not obey God whole-heartedly. So if disobedience is one of the reasons we have pain and problems, then we can minimize the pain and problems in our lives if we obey God. We have this example in 2 Kings 9 to remind us. I don’t think the son of the prophets who anointed Jehu wanted to find out what was going to happen if he didn’t run for his life. Similarly, the prophet who went to Jeroboam (1 Kings 13) probably wouldn’t have been killed by a lion, if he had obeyed God. Jonah might not have had to spend three nights in the belly of a great fish, if he had gone to Nineveh as God had said.
I like the hymns “God Will Take Care of You” and “On Eagles’ Wings.” I still sing them. But there’s another song which really resonates with me: “Trust and Obey,” especially the last verse: “Then in fellowship sweet, we will sit at His feet, or we’ll walk by His side in the way; What He says we will do, where He sends we will go; never fear, only trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” When our relationship is right with God, we do what He says and we go where He says to go. We do it whole-heartedly, trusting and obeying Him. For there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus! Trust and obey!
That You May Have Life
And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. 2 Kings 13:21
Can you imagine the scene? You have to bury this dead man, but you look up and see your enemies coming. You have to just toss him in the grave. You turn to leave and you feel the proverbial tap on your shoulder. “What’re you doing? Why are we in this grave? Why do you have shovels? Hey, where are you going? Wait for me!” The people who had come to bury him would have had an incredible mix of emotions: joy, fear, shock, fear. They would have been afraid of the marauding band coming. They would have been overjoyed at seeing the man alive. They would have been shocked almost beyond belief that he was alive - once they got over being scared out of their skins when he stood up behind them.
As interesting as these two verses are, what’s not here is extremely interesting too. Did you notice: we’re never told the man’s name. Then, we’re never told what happened to him after that. These two verses about this resurrection are like a side note in the story of Syria’s oppression of Israel during the reign of Joash, king of Israel.
So, why did the author include them? What’s their purpose?
John 6:63 (NASB) says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” The goal of our lives is not about what we can accumulate or achieve for right now; our goal is the kingdom of God. This life and all our activity in it is temporary - and meaningless if we don’t have a relationship with God.
Perhaps the author of 2 Kings wanted to emphasize the downward spiral, the hopelessness of Israel’s existence apart from God versus the possibilities, the hope inherent in being close to God, having a double portion of the Spirit of God (2 Kings 2:9). Israel’s apostasy only brought pain and death; obedience to and reliance on God would have meant peace and prosperity and life. After all, all the man did was touch Elisha’s bones, and he was resurrected - and he didn’t even do it on purpose; he was dead! God’s power is so great!
So many people in our world today reject God and His ways. They want to live life on their terms. They are on a downward, hopeless spiral. This life is temporary! Choosing to live life apart from God just ensures that you’ll do it wrong, suffer pain and sickness and trouble - with no hope. Those who follow Christ, who belong to Him, still suffer pain, sickness, and trouble at times, but the difference is that they have hope!! We know this life is not all there is.
God, in His mercy, highlights the hope that we can have if we belong to Him: He has resurrected people to physical life, raised them from the dead, so that we can know that it’s possible. In seeing the miracle, we believe (John 11:15)!!
It’s extremely interesting that there are seven clear resurrections foreshadowing Jesus’ resurrection. God made it abundantly clear that He has the power over life and death; He can bring the dead back to life.
We don’t know what happened to any of these seven people after they were resurrected. Their resurrection is the point, an illustration of God’s power for our benefit. Their physical resurrections were, and are, an undeniable testimony to God’s power to raise Jesus Christ from the dead, and then, because of Jesus’ resurrection, we too have that hope.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” 1 Peter 1:3
Furthermore, this particular resurrection in 2 Kings 13 strongly foreshadows Jesus’ death and resurrection. Just as one man was resurrected when he touched Elisha’s bones, so many people will be resurrected through touching Jesus.
We don’t want to be like the Israelites of old who walked contrary to God’s law, who didn’t rely on Him or seek Him with their whole heart. Rather, in the words of Paul in Philippians 3:10-11, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
There’s only one way to be resurrected from the dead and to gain eternal life. It’s through the acceptance of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again, as your personal Savior. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). There’s no other way to be resurrected to eternal life - not even if you were thrown onto the bones of Elisha.
Beans in Your Ears
But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. 2 Kings 17:14
There was a comic strip years ago: The owner was calling his dog. Here, Rover. Come here, Rover. The dog paid absolutely no attention, but kept wandering farther from his owner. In the last block, the dog thinks, “It’s amazing how well sound travels on a clear day.”
Did you notice? It wasn’t that the dog couldn’t hear his owner; he just didn’t want to listen to his owner and obey him.
But it’s not just dogs who have this problem. Have you ever heard your mom say, “Listen to me. Stop that”? You likely don’t have a hearing problem; you have a listening and obeying problem.
The listening problem is not limited to kids and dogs. There’s an old song called “Beans In My Ears.”
My mommy said not to put beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
Now why would I want to put beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
You can't hear the teacher with beans in your ears,
Beans in your ears, beans in your ears
What's that you say, let's put beans in our ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
You'll have to speak up I got beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
Say mommy we've gone and put beans in our ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
That's nice boys just don't put those beans in your ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
I think that all grown ups have beans in their ears
Beans in their ears, beans in their ears
The author’s point is that most people listen very poorly; they may as well have beans in their ears.
That’s the connotation of this verse in 2 Kings 17 as well. But they would not listen, but were stubborn. That indicates Israel knew what God wanted them to do; they just didn’t want to do it.
Why don’t people listen well? Why didn’t that dog come when he was called? Why don’t children listen to their parents? Why didn’t Israel listen to God? Why does everyone put beans in their ears?
It’s right here in the second half of the verse: they did not believe in the LORD their God. Believing in God is more than just affirming that God exists. The dog knows his master exists. Children know their parents exist. Israel knew that God exists.
Believing the LORD their God means they believed God would do what He said. It means they trusted in God with all their heart. It means they had the relationship, the love in every part of their being, the complete devotion, to listen to and obey God no matter what.
Think about what would have happened if the dog in the comic strip had thought the owner could come make him obey. What if the dog trusted and loved the owner for more than just the dog treats he’d get? The dog would obey because he loved his owner.
Think about kids. Children who obey their mom the first time she says something probably have had some negative consequences applied to the seat of their pants a few times. They know that Mom means what she says. They trust her, and eventually, as they keep growing, the relationship develops to the point where the child obeys because he doesn’t want to impair the relationship. It’s not about getting a spanking any more; it’s about not disappointing Mom.
That was Israel’s problem: they knew God existed. But they didn’t believe that He was going to punish them for disobeying Him, and even that God was corrupt and evil like they were. (Psalm 50:21) They made God in their image. We read the history and we are appalled and amazed that they turned away from seeking the one true God, chose to serve false idols, and abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God (2 Kings 17:15-17). Looking back in history, we can see it so clearly. But the question is: if the people of Israel didn’t listen, if the dog doesn’t listen, if children don’t listen, what about us? How well do you listen to God? How well do you hear and obey what He says to do? Do you truly believe in God? Do your actions prove that you believe God? Or are you walking around, doing whatever strikes your fancy because you have beans in your ears?
Give God the Glory
“But I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.” ~2 Kings 19:27
This is part of the prophecy against Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, who was besieging Jerusalem, under King Hezekiah’s reign.
The KJV translates “sitting down” as “abode.” I guess in the vernacular it could be translated, “I know where you live.” More than that, God was quite aware of all of Sennacherib’s activities and His arrogance and blasphemy against God.
You see, Sennacherib thought he was god, that he brought judgment, ascended the heights to look God in the face, brought and withheld fertility, created water supplies and dried up rivers, and was responsible for his military successes.
We live in a society that could rub elbows in Sennacherib’s category of arrogance. Bob the Builder says, “Can we build it? Yes, we can.” The baseball outfielder believes he can catch anything that comes his way. The Little Red Hen says, “I’ll do it myself.” There’s even an American phrase which tells people to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
But Sennacherib didn’t put himself in power. Romans 13:1 says that the powers which exist have been instituted by God. Our God is Sovereign. There’s nothing which happens that He does not intentionally direct, or at the least, permit to happen.
It’s a good lesson for us. When we start to feel like we have a reason to feel prideful, we need to remember that God is the One who is truly in control. All that we have and all that we are, all of it comes from God. We haven’t pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps.
When looking at the incredible successes of Sennacherib, it’s important not to condemn him and his arrogance without reminding ourselves not to be prideful. God hates pride. (Proverbs 6:16) We must give God the glory!
Innocent Blood
And also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon. 2 Kings 24:4
I once knew a man who bought several trees from a small, family nursery. The owner quoted a price for each tree and then calculated the total price in his head. When the owner told the buyer how much he owed, he had made a $20.00 error in adding it all up. The buyer knew it, but he figured it was the owner’s error. He figured he was getting a really good deal. The problem was, however, the buyer had agreed to pay a certain price for those trees. In knowingly allowing the nursery owner’s mistake, he was stealing from him.
A short time later, my sister, my brother-in-law, and I checked into a motel in Reno, NV late at night after flying from Cedar Rapids, IA on our way to the Feast of Tabernacles in Lake Tahoe. We were staying overnight, waiting for Mom and Dad to pick us up there for the last leg of the trip over the mountain. It was late. The motel clerk was tired. When he gave us our change after we paid for the motel, he gave us back $20.00 too much. Dave never hesitated. He immediately pointed out the error and handed the money back to the clerk. The clerk was very grateful. He knew how much trouble he could be in if he didn’t have the right amount of money in his cash register at the end of the night.
Do you think God cares about justice, about being honest, doing what is right, protecting the innocent?
Micah 6:8 - He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Genesis 18:19 - For I have chosen [Abraham], that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, . . .
God drove out the people who lived in the Promised Land because they became so wicked (Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 18:9-14). God gave the Promised Land to the descendants of Abraham, with the caution that they should obey God’s commandments and not follow the ways of the nations who lived there before them. But eventually, Manasseh, king of Judah, did the very same things which caused God to drive out the nations before the people of Israel (2 Kings 21:2-9) In fact, God said that what Manasseh had done was more evil than all the Amorites who were before him (2 Kings 21:10-11).
Twice God states that Manasseh shed innocent blood (2 Kings 21:16, 2 Kings 24:4). What does it mean to shed innocent blood? It means putting people to death who have done no wrong deserving that death. It means convicting someone of a crime they didn’t commit and punishing them with death. It means sacrificing your own children as a burnt offering to a false god (2 Kings 21:6). It means not doing justly, as God commands.
Our God, who is righteous and just and good, cannot allow people, especially people who are called by His name, to conduct themselves in that way. Manasseh’s actions were soiling God’s reputation.Think about it. The nations around Israel associated Israel with the one true God (2 Kings 17:27). God could not allow the wickedness to continue (2 Kings 17:18-20; Deuteronomy 28:62-63). Our righteous God could not allow sin to continue. Not then and not now.
So here we are today. Do you wonder if you’re living a life that will be blessed by God? Look at Micah 6:8 again, and apply it to yourself. Do you act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?
Walk humbly with your God: Do you acknowledge that He is Sovereign. He gets to decide what’s right and wrong because He’s God. He gets to determine the direction of your life and what happens to you because He’s your God and He cares for you. Do you take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ? (2 Corinthians 10:5) Is He truly Sovereign in your life?
Love mercy: Do you give people the benefit of the doubt, to forgive people for wrongs they’ve committed against you? Do you hold grudges and want to get even? Think carefully. Sometimes it’s harder to show mercy to those who are closest to you - like your older brother or your sister. Do you love mercy?
Do justly: If order for you to love mercy, you have to do justly. Without justice, there can be no mercy. There has to be a standard of right and wrong (God’s standard of right and wrong) and recognized, corresponding rewards and punishments for adhering to or for transgressing those standards. Doing justly means doing what is right according to what God has decreed - because He’s Sovereign; He gets to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. Doing justly also means that you share with others what God’s standards are. If people around you know that you believe in God and yet you approve of ungodly things, then you are doing what Manasseh did: you soil God’s reputation. You give the impression that God would approve of something that He has condemned.
When the opportunity arises, if you call yourself a disciple of Christ, a Christian, then you have to tell people that the shedding of innocent blood is wrong. You have to tell them that abortion is wrong. You have to tell them that worshipping false gods or worshipping God however they want to (rather than the way God has decreed) is wrong. You have to tell them that God has a set standard. God gets to decide what is right and wrong; He doesn’t leave it up to each individual person. And you have to give $20.00 back to the motel clerk and to the nursery owner when they make a mistake. It’s not free money for you. It’s a manner of doing justly and not shedding innocent blood.
These historical books chronologically follow First and Second Samuel, detailing the end of David's reign, the split between the 10 northern tribes (Israel) and the two southern tribes (Judah), and each successive king until both kingdoms were taken into captivity as judgement from God in 722 B.C. (Israel) and 587 B.C. (Judah).
Devotions in 1 Kings
1 Kings 3:9 - Wisdom
1 Kings 3:9 - Where Wisdom is Found (Holy Day Lesson - Pentecost)
1 Kings 3:28 - Wisdom in Everything
1 Kings 4:20 - Through His Faith He Still Speaks
1 Kings 6:7 - Building the House
**1 Kings 6:7 - Dedication of the Temple (Holy Day Lesson - Feast of Tabernacles)
1 Kings 8:57 - Leave or Forsake
1 Kings 8:60 - That You May Know
1 Kings 11:4 - Choose Wisely
1 Kings 17:4 - Elijah!
1 Kings 18:21 - Don't sit on the Fence!
1 Kings 19:14 - The Only One
1 Kings 19:18 - What You Don't See
Devotions in 2 Kings
**2 Kings 4:2 - What Do You Have?
**2 Kings 6:6 - Only God Can Do Miracles
**2 Kings 6:17 - Open Our Eyes
2 Kings 9:3 - What He Says We Will Do
2 Kings 13:21 - That You May Have Life
2 Kings 17:14 - Beans in Your Ears
2 Kings 19:27 - Give Glory to God
2 Kings 24:4 - Innocent Blood
Wisdom
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people? 1 Kings 3:9
If you could have anything you wanted, what would you ask for? Let’s assume that food and water, clothing, shelter, family - all those are a given. What would you ask for?
Solomon, when told to ask for whatever he wanted by God, asked for wisdom. He showed incredible humility before Jehovah as the new king of Israel, acknowledging that he didn’t feel adequate to the task God had given him. Do you know how God responded? God was pleased. I don’t know how that makes you feel, but when I read that God was pleased about something, it fills me with joy. It’s also interesting that the author of Kings uses Adonai here. In verse 7, Solomon addresses God as Jehovah my Elohim. The word Adonai is #136, exclusively used as a divine name for God, and is the emphatic form of #113, which means “lord” or “master.” It is this word, #113 Adon, which is used in verse 17 when the women are addressing Solomon. It makes me wonder if the author used Adonai intentionally in the narrative to underline the fact that it was indeed God, Adonai, who gave Solomon, Adon, his wisdom.
At any rate, God was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom; he hadn’t asked for long life or riches or the life of his enemies. Solomon had asked for the tools needed to complete the task that God had given to him. In addition to granting Solomon wisdom, God blessed him with riches and honor, “so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days” (vs. 13). These were the golden years of Israel. The land was prosperous and at peace. The king was wise, able to discern between good and evil.
This word evil is #7451, “ra’ah,” which has “ten or more various shades of the meaning of evil according to its contextual usage. It means bad in a moral and ethical sense and is used to describe, along with good, the entire spectrum of good and evil; hence, it depicts evil in an absolute, negative sense, as when it describes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Baker’s Complete Word Study Dictionary, Old Testament, 2003, pp. 1062-1063). Basically, God gave Solomon wisdom, not only to administer godly justice, but understand how things work. 1 Kings 4:29 - 33 says, “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. . . He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish.” Solomon’s wisdom and understanding was expansive. People came from all over to hear his wisdom!
There are a number of lessons here for us.
First, it pleases God when we ask for the tools we need to accomplish the task He’s given us. If we ask for ourselves, for temporary things, it shows an absorption with the self and our agenda instead of having our mind on being God’s servant to the best of our ability.
Secondly, asking for wisdom is a reasonable request. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
Third, you have to ask; God won’t necessarily automatically bless you for what you need. Matthew 7:7-11 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; . . . If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
And finally, when you do ask, God may fulfill your request far beyond that request, beyond your wildest dreams!
So, ask God for wisdom to accomplish the job He’s given you to do, and may He bless you with abundant wisdom.
Where Wisdom is Found
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people? 1 Kings 3:9
There are some great wisdom quotes. Ron has a couple of them on the wall in his study:
Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age;
sometimes age shows up all by itself.
and:
Everyone is a fool for at least five minutes every day.
Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.
We find the subject of wisdom throughout the Bible too:
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 1 Corinthians 1:30
And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. Psalm 119:98
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, Romans 1:22
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Romans 12:16
and
For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:8
But what do these have to do with Pentecost?
There’s reason to believe that the Law was given to Moses and the Israelites from Mt. Sinai on Pentecost (Exodus 19). That law was not an arbitrary law; it was an expression of the very mind of our great God. That isn’t to say that our God is summed up in the Law; the Law is a reflection of His character, just as we say God is love (1 John 4:16) or He is our peace (Ephesian 2:14), the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). In the same way, 1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Jesus Christ is for us wisdom from God.
But how do we get that wisdom? There is a wisdom of man which ends in death (Romans 1:22). There is a pseudo-wisdom which God’s wisdom always trumps (Psalm 119:98). And then there’s a wisdom which comes from God because we are His, because we obey His law, and because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which was given on Pentecost (1 Cor. 12:8).
But there’s another tie between wisdom and Pentecost that you don’t “get” unless you’ve been looking forward to Pentecost, unless you’ve been counting down the days to Pentecost. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). I don’t know if Moses intended this psalm to be a foreshadowing of Pentecost, but, in reality, when we number our days (really considering the time), when we count down to Pentecost (more than just going through the superficial motions of marking days), when we’re seeking Jesus Christ with our whole heart, what we get is Jesus Christ who is for us wisdom from God.
So on this Pentecost, ask for wisdom as Solomon did (1 Kings 3:9); ask for Jesus Christ to be more powerfully present in your life through the gift of the Holy Spirit; and praise God for His Holy Days which remind us of God’s plan in our lives, giving us wisdom to number our days.
Wisdom in Everything
And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. 1 Kings 3:28
When we talk of people who are wise, Solomon’s name always enters the conversation. It’s interesting that this single account is given as evidence of his wisdom:
Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. 19 And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king. 23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” 24 And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” 27 Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.”
This is the event which people cite to showcase Solomon’s wisdom. Solomon used Godly wisdom to render a Godly judgment, to do justice. That particular word is #4941 mispat, and has a meaning almost a page and a half in length documenting the various shades of justice and judgment. According to the dictionary, the word “just,” when used as an adjective, means “based on or behaving according to what is morally right or fair.”
I believe Solomon executed justice and righteousness judgment, that God gave him wisdom beyond anyone before or after (except Jesus Christ). But God didn’t force Solomon to act wisely, to be wise in all his decisions. The ability was there. The wisdom and direction from God was there; Solomon was still free to decide to apply it or not. We know what happened: Solomon multiplied wives and they turned his heart away from God (1 Kings 11:2-4). I would definitely put that in the “not wise” category.
It’s a good lesson for us. We can seek God. We can ask for wisdom from Him. But God won’t force us to use it. Even if we use Godly wisdom most of the time, God won’t force us to use His wisdom in every situation. We are still free to do what many people do - whether they mean to or not: we can compartmentalize our lives and then give only a part of our lives to God. It’s almost as if we say, “God can be involved in my life when I’m going to church, reading the Bible, doing my work, but when I want to have fun - going to a movie, watching tv, reading a book, playing with my friends - I’d just as soon God left me alone in those situations.”
It’s shocking to us to hear it put into words. We’d never really say that, would we?! Probably not, but we say it in our actions. We watch tv shows that you’d be embarrassed to watch with a minister. We say things to our friends we wouldn’t want our parents to hear. We read books that we wouldn’t want opened before God on the day of judgment. But because we don’t see any consequence to our choices, we think we’ve gotten away with them, and we continue down that road, making less and less wise choices all the time.
I don’t think Solomon’s heart was turned away from God all in one choice. After all, it takes a while to marry 700 wives and to build altars for all the foreign gods of his wives. One not-so-bad choice leads to another, because God hasn’t struck you with lightning yet, which leads to another bad choice. Down the road, your choices have led you away from God.
Make every effort to apply the wisdom God has granted you to all of your choices, to every part of your life, to. . . . take every thought captive to obey Christ, . . .(2 Cor. 10:5). Give yourself wholly to the Lord.
Through His Faith He Still Speaks
Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. 1 Kings 4:20
As many as the sand by the sea - what Biblical phrase does this bring to mind? I think of Genesis 22:17: “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,” This is the covenantal promise made to Abraham by God - that Abraham would be the father of nations.
In this verse in Genesis 22:17 is the other promise made to Abraham: that God would give the land to Abraham’s descendants. Under Solomon’s rule, the land had rest. The people ate and drank and were happy. David had subdued all the enemies; the people were no longer at war. God had given them the land promised to their forefather Abraham. They were happy.
But were they really? The people, although prosperous under Solomon, were still primed to complain. After Solomon’s death, 2 Chronicles 10 records that all Israel came to Rehoboam and said, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” That doesn’t sound like the people were happy. It sounds like they were tired of the taxes and building projects under Solomon’s rule.
Consider this verse again: Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy (1 Kings 4:20). Is this the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham? Have they arrived?
I believe that Solomon’s rule was a type, a picture pointing to a still-future fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. I believe that life in Israel under Solomon was the best it was going to get until the time of Christ. The two kingdoms were still united. Solomon had the wisdom from God to render godly justice. The land was at rest from war. Prosperity and contentment reigned along with Solomon. But. Solomon was human; he sinned; he married hundreds of wives and they led his heart away from only worshipping God. Solomon was fallible, and the consequences of a human ruler reigning over humans - in all of their carnality - is life, culture, society that starts to unravel, come apart at the seams, becoming increasingly sinful and unsettling. The physical rest they enjoyed did not translate into spiritual rest in God because of that old heart problem: their hearts were not completely fixed on God and His ways. In fact, because they were all carnal, they could not be wholly devoted to God. They needed the Savior to come to save them from their sins. They needed the indwelling of the Holy Spirits to change them into new creatures.
Still, in type, Solomon’s golden years point to the Messianic rule - a time after Jesus Christ returns to set up His kingdom on this earth.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
It will be a time when we will all eat and drink and be happy.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).
Solomon, in reigning as king over Israel, despite his sins and imperfections, is another example of a person whose entire life was a testimony, a witness, to what is yet to come. . . . And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks (Hebrews 11:4).
That’s our goal too. We don’t want to be among the group who ascribe to the adage, “Let’s eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32, Luke 12:19). We want to be among the group who live their lives in such a way that Jesus Christ is seen in their lives. We want to point others to the One who made them, the One we all so desperately need as Savior. We want our lives to be a witness of the God we serve. If we are wholly dedicated to Him, to serve Him, to be witnesses to His glory and honor through the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit, if - through our faith in God - our lives speak loudly of Him, then we can eat and drink and be happy.
Building the House
When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. 1 Kings 6:7
Imagine for a moment that we all decide to prepare our church potluck dishes here at the church Sabbath morning before church begins. What would that look like?! It would be total chaos. We’d be in each other’s way, so we wouldn’t be able to work as efficiently. We’d be talking to each other, distracting each other, so we’d slow each other down even more. And think about the dishes!! It would be a frustrating experience. The church kitchen is not the place for each of us to build our portion of the potluck meal, and Sabbath morning certainly isn’t the time to do it. It works much better if we do as much as possible before we get to church.
I think that’s what 1 Kings 6:7 is about. When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. There was enough activity in just constructing the temple. The noise level would have been very high simply with the construction. Having the stones shaped to the exact dimensions needed, right there on site, would have added incredible noise and chaos to the site! It made much more sense to prepare the stones at the quarry so that they could be moved into place when they were done. It worked so much better to do as much as possible before they got to the building site.
That’s all reasonable. Prepare for potluck before church. Prepare the stones for building before bringing them to the construction site. So why are we talking about this verse today? Is there something else here to consider?
I believe that God gives us the physical so we can understand the spiritual - because we are physical human beings and we have a lot of trouble understanding the spiritual without the concrete examples! So what application to our lives can we see in this verse?
1 Corinthians 3 talks about us being God’s building. 1 Peter 2:5 picks up that same theme. Peter says, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, . . .”
Consider for a moment the analogy of being a living stone (1 Peter 2:5) and compare it with the stones that were being prepared at the quarry (1 Kings 6:7). Both were being prepared to be part of God’s house. The stones for Solomon’s temple were prepared on site at the quarry - right where they were dug out of the earth. The builders knew what each stone had to look like so that it would fit right into place in the temple. Similarly, each of us are being prepared on site in our lives, right where we are when God calls us. God doesn’t wait until the kingdom to knock all of our rough edges off so that we’ll fit into His plan. He’s doing it right now. God knows what we need to look like to fit into the place He’s prepared for us in His kingdom. God also knows that it works so much better to shape us and form us into the image of His Son right now, as much as possible, before He gets us to the building site, His kingdom.
That’s incredibly encouraging to me. The sign that you see occasionally as a bummer stick or a t-shirt - Be patient. God’s not finished with me yet - is profoundly true. This life is about our preparation as His people for being placed in a specific position in His kingdom. The rough edges, the contours, the aspects of me which don’t quite fit are being chiseled away, formed into shape, smoothed and polished and perfected.
Think about the work that God is doing in each of our lives so that we’ll be ready to be placed into His house. It’s a good thing to remember when we experience some growing pains, when we realize we’ve just gone through something to teach us a lesson, when we are being disciplined and discipled. None of those experiences are fun or easy; they are often painful. Nevertheless, the concrete realization that God is working in our lives should also bring the realization that we have to stop resisting Him, stop working against Him because of the pain and difficulty, stop struggling against the shaping that He’s employing to form us according to His plan. We have to learn to submit to His will, to acknowledge that He is sovereign, to accept His discipline. God is building His house. It’s going to be a magnificent house - and you and I want to be part of it!
**Dedication of the Temple
And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry . . . 1 Kings 6:7 (NKJV)
Materials: rocks, chisels, hammers
Do you remember on the first day talking about building a tabernacle? God commands us to build a tabernacle and to dwell in it for seven days as a picture of the Israelites dwelling in the wilderness for 40 years. Eventually, however, the Israelites moved into the Promised Land and settled down. They were no longer wandering. Centuries later, King David had it in his heart to build a house for God, a more permanent place in which to worship God, a temple. God allowed King David’s son Solomon to do just that. Solomon’s temple was absolutely magnificent! It took seven years to complete. Although it was finished in the eighth month of the year (1 Kings 6:38), Solomon waited almost an entire year, until the next Feast of Tabernacles, to dedicate it.
Things don’t just happen. There’s a very special reason the temple was dedicated during the Feast of Tabernacles with much pomp, circumstance, and celebration. It’s a picture of you and me - having tabernacled in these bodies, these temporary dwellings all of our lives, we are also called temples of the living God, the place where God’s Spirit dwells. And in that day, when Christ returns, there will be a special dedication of our lives as temples of the Holy Spirit forever.
You see, just as David had a heart to build a house for God, God told David that He, God, would build a house for David. David’s house, David’s family, would extend all the way to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
In a similar way, we dedicate our lives to God, looking forward to our place in God’s kingdom. God tells us that the place He has prepared for us, the house where we will dwell forever, is His house, His family. We will be adopted into the family of God. In effect, we’re not building a house for God; God is building a house out of us.
Today, in preparation for that eventuality, we are being shaped and molded. The stones which were shaped and hewed out of the rock at the quarry were not chiseled to fit on the temple grounds. The stones were shaped, molded, and chiseled right where they were. Similarly, we are being formed into the image of Jesus Christ now so that we will fit directly into place in His house, that house built with the lively stones of mankind.
So as we have some of our rough edges shaved off and we go through difficult things in this life, we keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ. We desire more than ever to be molded into His image so that we can slide into the position God is preparing for each one of us.
Another fantastic reason to rejoice!
Leave or Forsake
“The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us,” 1 Kings 8:57
The word “forsake” is Strongs #5203 (natash) and means, in this context, “to disperse, scatter, reject, leave, give up, to cast off.”
I have in my mind someone flinging something away from them as hard as they can. It’s kind of like when you look down and there’s a spider crawling on your hand. You shake it - vigorously. You want rid of that spider. For those who are afraid of spiders, it’s more than just not wanting to be bitten. It’s being repulsed. They’re yucky. You want to fling something disgusting as far away from you as you can!
It grieves me to think that I could ever act so repulsively that my parents would want to fling me away. I would never want to behave so repulsively that Mom and Dad would not want to have anything to do with me.
That’s what King Solomon is praying in this prayer: that Jehovah their Elohim would be with them, that He would not leave them or fling them away like a repulsive thing.
Something has to make the spider, or us, less repulsive. What could it be? E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web has made spiders much less repulsive to children. But that’s probably not going to work with your parents. With Mom and Dad, it’s primarily something you have no control over: you are their son or daughter, and they love you. But in a family setting, it’s all about the closeness of the relationship. Some children have so damaged the relationship that the parents don’t want to see the kids again. They can hardly wait until they are out of the house. But, for most families, it’s the degree of relationship. How does that improve? Obedience, spending time together, working of projects together, being involved with whatever Mom and Dad are doing, seeking them out, preferring them over your likes and dislikes.
Now take this physical example and lay it over the spiritual. First, you have to belong to God. You have to be part of the family. That only happens through accepting the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His work at the cross on your behalf. Is He your Savior? If he is, then you’ve been adopted into the family of God and there is great rejoicing in heaven! But where do you take the relationship from there?
Are you obedient? Do you spend time with God in prayer and Bible study? Do you following His leading to be His hands in this world? Do you seek Him continually? Do you prefer God and His ways over your own agenda?
The reality is that God chose Israel and made her into a great nation. But Israel continually, time after time, rejected God. She walked away from the relationship she could have had with the Creator of the world. She served other gods, those who were not gods. They chose to sin. That’s why, hanging on the cross, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” His sin cut that relationship with God - for our sake.
I love my parents so much. It grieves me to think of having that relationship severed because of my actions. I think sometimes we look at the suffering of Jesus and think the physical torture and humiliation was the worst part. I don’t think so. I think it was the impairment of his relationship with the Father, on our behalf, because of the sins for which He was willing to atone for us.
Solomon prayed that God would never leave them or forsake them, those people whom God had saved out of Egypt. If you’re ever tempted to pray that same prayer, remember that you’re family. God has promised that He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God is faithful and true.
But He is also the loving Father who allows you free will to sin and chose the wrong if you so desire. He doesn’t force you to make the right choices. He wants you to so greatly desire a relationship with Him that you willing bring every thought into submission to Jesus Christ.
How’s that working out for you?
That You May Know
that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. 1 Kings 8:60
What was it that God did for the Israelites that they, and the world, would know that the God we serve is God, the only God? If you didn’t know the scripture reference of 1 Kings 8:60, it could be any number of things because this phrase is repeated numerous times throughout the Bible. It’s found in Exodus chapters 6 through 18 numerous times when God sent the plagues on Egypt, redeeming His people from slavery, and drowning the Egyptian army in the Red Sea but saving the Israelites. He fed them with manna and quail. (Exodus 6:7; 7:5; 7:17; 8:10; 8:22; 9:14; 9:29; 10:2; 11:7; 14:4; 14:18; 16:6; 16:12; 18:11) This list is reiterated in Deuteronomy 4:32-39. All of these things God did that His people would know, that Pharaoh would know, that the world would know, that He alone is Jehovah!
Exodus 29:46 says that God dwelt among His people that they might know He was God.
Exodus 31:13 says that God commands us to observe the Sabbath, that we might know He is God.
1 Samuel 2:2 is Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving to God for giving her a son. In it, she acknowledges that there is no one besides our God.
2 Kings 19:19 tells of Hezekiah’s prayer to God that He would deliver Judah from the Assyrians under Sennacherib - that all the kingdoms of the world would know that Jehovah is God!
Isaiah 43:10 relates God telling His people that they are His witnesses - that all may know that He is God.
Joshua 4:24 says that the Israelites passed over the Jordan dry shod so that all peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful.
Deuteronomy 29:6 says that their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out the 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, and they ate neither bread nor fermented wine (God fed them with manna) - that they might know that the LORD is God.
Even in 1 Samuel 17:46, David says that not just Goliath would fall, but the carcasses of the Philistine army would be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field that the whole world would know that Jehovah is God.
And we could go on. Time and time again, God’s hand is evident in the lives of His people that they, the people around them, even the whole world, would know that the God we serve is God, the only God.
So. Do you know? Do you know in your heart, beyond any doubt, that the God we serve is the only God, that there is no other?
Your answer to that question determines all the actions in your life. If you know that God is God, and especially that you are not, then you treat Him as God. You acknowledge Him as sovereign. That means you do what He says. You don’t change His laws to suit yourself. You keep God’s laws because He says to.
And you trust Him - because He’s Sovereign, because He’s God, because He’s trustworthy.
Your actions demonstrate what you believe about who God is; your actions speak loudly about your relationship, or lack of relationship, with God. I believe that, if you have eyes to see, God is working in the lives of His people, even today. I am confident that God’s hand works in our lives today that we may know that He is God; there is no other.
Choose Wisely
For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 1 Kings 11:4
One day almost ten years ago, I decided to take a short cut to St. Clair. At least, that’s what I told the kids I was doing when they asked why I was going the wrong way. We hadn’t lived here very long, and truthfully, I was exploring - but thought that perhaps the road I was taking would end up being an alternate route to where I wanted to go. It wasn’t a short cut. When we did finally meander our way back to St. Clair, Jonathan called it a “long cut,” and it was! We saw some beautiful country, however, and we did, eventually, end up where we had wanted to go. But it doesn’t always work out that way.
Solomon married 700 wives and had 300 concubines. That’s not only not a good idea, it’s against God’s perfect will! But Solomon went farther than that. Some of the wives that he married were from foreign countries, worshipped pagan gods, and, according to 1 Kings 11:4, when he was old, they turned Solomon’s heart away from the one true God.
The choices we make have far-reaching consequences - and we rarely recognize the full extent of the effects. When Christopher broke his jaw, I thought that was a terrible time in our lives. And it was. But I thought that when the wires came off, it would be over; it’d be in the past. I never figured on braces. And I never figured on having to move one molar just to end up having to pull it because it was so damaged, which led to having to have braces again for another round of 18 - 21 months.
But that’s the way life is. One little choice here, today, can start a chain reaction that has enormous impact on the direction your life goes.
So why doesn’t God stop us in the beginning of making those wrong choices - before we’re too far down the wrong road? I believe that God does lead us. I believe that He gives us direction, if we are only attentive enough to heed it. I don’t mean an audible voice, at least, I’ve never heard an audible voice that I knew was God’s. But the Holy Spirit in our lives can guide us. Sometimes we call it our conscience. Sometimes we call it coincidence. Sometimes we get advice from a friend or relative that changes our direction - and they were used by God. But there’s another reason, I think, that God doesn’t just stop us in our tracks when we start the go wrong. I think, He wants to see what we’re going to do. When we realize we’re on the wrong path, what do we do?
When I was taking that long-cut to St. Clair, I started thinking about turning around. I was becoming more aware of how easily I could get lost. But as long as I knew how to get back to my starting point, I was willing to go a little farther to see where the road would lead. Eventually, we ended up in the right place. It took more time, more gas, and more wear and tear on the van to get to where we should have been, but we didn’t stay lost. However, taking that long-cut wasn’t a decision that was contrary to God’s word - as Solomon’s decision to marry foreign wives was. There was no sin involved in me traveling that alternative route. But Solomon’s route was sinful. Nevertheless, I could have become very lost, and Solomon was, at least for a time, very lost. His wives turned his heart away from God. He was worshiping pagan deities! Nevertheless, I think that it’s possible that Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s book of repentance, that he came to believe that this world is vanity. Only God, and having a relationship with Him, matters.
I don’t recommend taking long-cuts to where you need to go; you can waste a lot of time. And I very much counsel against going contrary to God’s ways; you can find yourself in a place you don’t want to be - outside of God’s will and with a serious breach in your relationship with Him. Make wise choices. Stay on the right path. Choose God’s ways always. Seek God with all your heart. Choose wisely.
Elijah!
You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. 1 Kings 17:4
When you think of the prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah is likely one of the first to come to mind. After all, Jesus said that Elijah had already come, speaking of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:12-13). Furthermore, the last two verses in the Old Testament say, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
And then there are the acts of Elijah himself.
We’re first introduced to Elijah during the reign of Ahab. Ahab, king of Israel, “did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him” (1 Kings 16:30-31).
It’s against this backdrop that we are introduced to Elijah. Do you know what Elijah’s first recorded act was? He called for drought. “Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’ ”
Then God told Elijah to leave, to hide himself, and here’s where we find this verse: “You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” (1 Kings 17:4).
Isn’t it interesting that God would send ravens to bring meat and bread to Elijah morning and evening, and to specify which brook Elijah was to drink from? For a period of time, until the brook dried up because of the drought, God provided daily sustenance for Elijah’s existence. Morning and evening, every day, Elijah was given the opportunity to solidify his reliance totally, exclusively, on God. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s not normal behavior for ravens to bring bread and meat morning and night to a specific person, or to any person. This was totally God’s provision, and eventually Elijah would have had no doubt about God’s provision for him.
We don’t know how long it took, but eventually, the brook did dry up. God told Elijah to go to Zarephath, that God had commanded a widow to feed him. The widow had little flour and oil left. In fact, when Elijah met her, she was gathering sticks to build a fire over which to bake the last of the flour and oil into bread after which she and her son would starve to death. Elijah told her to use the flour and oil to make something for him to eat first, and then to feed her son and herself, that the flour and the oil would continue until the drought was over. Elijah had total confidence that God would provide, daily, miraculously, the sustenance they needed to survive.
“After this,” the author of 1 Kings records, so we’re not told how long the flour and oil had been continuing daily, the widow’s son died. Elijah took the child to his upstairs room, lay him on his bed, stretched himself on the child three times, and prayed to God to give the child back his life. God heard Elijah, and Elijah carried the resurrected child back to his mother.
In this short chapter, 1 Kings 17, we have very powerful witness to God’s provision and power over life and death. God is sovereign. He alone is God.
It’s also an illuminating description of how God prepares someone for His service. God didn’t immediately put Elijah into the position of asking for a resurrection. God taught Elijah in two very different ways that He is the One who provides. The ravens obeyed God. The flour and the oil were miraculously multiplied. God is the One who can do all things. 1 Kings 17:24 records, “And the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.’ ” So our first question is, “What? The multiplying of the flour and oil wasn’t enough? She had to see someone raised from the dead before she believed?”
But we aren’t too different from the widow of Zarephath. We, too, have to learn the lesson of depending on God for His provision. And God knows our heart. Once we’ve learned that lesson, He can build on it. He can continue to put instances in our lives to grow us, to show us who He is, that we can have the faith to serve Him with wholeness of heart.
So think about what God has done in your life. Think about His provision and the things He has shown you, that you might know that He alone is God, that you might know that He is sovereign. Have eyes to see that the provision of what you have comes from God. Learn those lessons. Then once you’re solidified in your belief of God and your relationship with Him, He can use you for greater works, to show His glory, to manifest who He is to others around you.
Don’t Sit on the Fence
And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 1 Kings 18:21
When I was lifeguarding for the Sioux City municipal pools, I would occasionally see a kid who was just learning to dive. He would stand in line to go off the diving board all afternoon. First he’d jump off, feet first. Then he’d dive. Eventually, exhausted, but unwilling to do something else, he’d run to the end of the diving board and do what looked to be a combination of diving and jumping: his body was shaped in an upside-down U, committing neither hands nor feet to being first, which resulted in a painful belly flop. He had halted between two opinions. He had not fully committed to a dive or to a jump, and the consequence was enough to make him stop going off the board for the rest of the day.
The people of Israel, to whom Elijah was speaking that day on Mt. Carmel, were similarly conflicted. They were trying to serve the Eternal while simultaneously serving Baal. Elijah told them they couldn’t do that. The first of the Ten Commandments says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). Maybe the people knew that; maybe they just thought that our God and Baal could be served equally.
But Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Loving God with everything you have and everything you are leaves no room for another pagan, false god alongside! The people should have known better.
We know better. We often make intelligent evaluations . . . when looking at the situation, actions, and choices of others. But, unfortunately, when it’s our choices, our actions, our situation, we have a harder time making an intelligent call. Oh, we may not be serving Baal, but we pander to others gods: ourselves, money/possessions, or anything else which we set up in importance before the only true God. Think about it: you know what you’re supposed to do to follow God and to serve Him only, but you sometimes choose differently. Why? We have all these excuses: It’s not convenient. It’s not comfortable. God understands. It’s just a little thing. I’ll only do it once.
Calling ourselves a Christian, when we excuse ourselves from doing what we know God has said we should do, with any of these reasons or the myriad of other reasons which we invent spontaneously to fit the situation, we have, in essence, done a huge belly flop. We haven’t whole-heartedly served our God. We haven’t submitted our will completely to Him. We haven’t truly acknowledged Him as Sovereign, as the Lord of our lives. We’ve tried to put one foot into a relationship with God and leave one foot in the world. That doesn’t work any better for the Christian than it does for the kid who tried to do a dive and a jump simultaneously, or for the person who tries to put only one foot on the elevator.
You can’t halt between two opinions. You can’t do a dive and a jump. You can’t put only one foot on the elevator. You are either wholly devoted to God or you’re not. Here’s what Jesus said, “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:14-16). God’s reaction to not being wholly committed to Him is pretty definite: He will spit you out! You have to be wholly devoted to God; that’s our reasonable worship!
Here’s another idiomatic expression to encourage us to make a decision and then live that decision: Don’t sit on the fence. During the Revolutionary War, a prominent New Jersey jurist, Judge Imlay, hadn’t yet committed to either the revolutionaries or the loyalists. So when Washington encountered one of Imlay’s slaves he asked him which way the judge was leaning. Washington was so amused by the response that he retold it enough times for it to become part of our language. He said, “Until my master knows which is the strongest group, he’s staying on the fence.” (superbeefy.com)
Don’t go limping between two opinions. Serve God only. Don’t belly flop. Be wholly devoted to God. Don’t sit on the fence.
The Only One
I am the only one left, 1 Kings 19:14 (NIV)
An out-of-towner drove his car into a ditch in a desolated area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his big strong horse, named Buddy. He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!" Buddy didn't move.
Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" Buddy didn't respond. Once more the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!” Nothing.
Then the farmer nonchalantly said, "Pull, Buddy, pull!" And the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch.
The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.
The farmer said, "Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn't even try.”
I love this story. It touches a chord because of the truth that we as human beings don’t want to do something we think is hard unless we’re sure we’re not the only ones working on it. We want the assurance that someone else is helping us pull, encouraging us to succeed, and commiserating with us if we aren’t immediately victorious.
But this is nothing new. Think about Elijah in I Kings 19. He had just shown our God to be the one true God on Mt. Carmel. He’d just destroyed 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. God had used Elijah to show His glory to the Israelites. But when Jezebel said she was going to kill him, Elijah fled for his life. He met with God on Mt. Horeb. He told God how zealous he’d been for God and how the people of Israel had rejected God, and that he, Elijah, was the only one left.
This is the famous passage where Elijah witnesses a strong wind which broke the mountain and rocks into pieces, an earthquake, and a fire. Elijah heard all of these incredibly powerful and destructive forces, but God was not in any of them. Then Elijah heard the sound of a low whisper.
God told Elijah what he should do next - and then, startling to Elijah, God told Elijah that there were 7000 people in Israel who were still true to God. Elijah was not the only one.
You may feel like you’re encountering powerful destructive forces (tornadoes, floods, fires) or people who are actively fighting against you to harm you. You may feel like you are the only one is who standing up as a Christian, the only one who is working for the Lord. Don’t let that feeling stop you from doing the job that God, your God, has set before you to do. Who knows, there may yet be 7000 Christians around you, even if you can’t see Nellie, Buster, or Coco.
What You Don’t See
“Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” ~ 1 Kings 19:18
In October 2010 my family visited a local alpaca farm. We were impressed with the soft hair, the unique noises, and the social behavior of these llama-like animals. You see, when one has to go to the bathroom, they all follow her out to “the spot.” They watch her go, then they take turns relieving themselves in the same spot. Now that’s taking social behavior to the extreme!!
Social creatures, because they are so social, are easily led astray. Sheep are notorious for being led astray!
It’s not only animals either. Because humans are basically social creatures, Satan’s lies work really well. You know, the ones like:
1. You’re alone.
2. You’re the only one who understands.
3. No one else has ever experienced this.
Even Elijah experienced these doubts: he was sure he was the only one left. But God told him, in 1 Kings 19:18, that there were 7000.
Where were they?
Because you know that people are subject to these kinds of doubts, it’s your job to strengthen, encourage, and comfort others.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us that we are supposed to comfort others with the same comfort that we’ve received from God. It’s one of the ways that God can touch someone who really needs Him; we can be His hands.
We need to remind those who might not otherwise hear of the message in Hebrews 13:5. God will never leave or forsake those who belong to Him. And Jesus is preparing a place for us in His house (John 14:2) - a perfect place for those who truly want to belong.
**What Do You Have?
And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” 2 Kings 4:2
Materials: turkey feather
There’s a fascinating story in 2 Kings 4:1-7:
1Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” 5So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
The widow was in a desperate situation: creditors coming to take her children and she had no way of paying the debts. She first took the problem to someone who could help. Isn’t Elisha’s response interesting?! He didn’t offer to help her; he asked her what she wanted him to do. Then he asked her to inventory what she had. She didn’t think she had very much - just a jar of oil.
I found a turkey feather a couple of weeks ago. I was reminded of this story in 2 Kings; we often don’t see the full potential of what we have. So what could we do with a turkey feather? I thought of a few ideas, but google it! You’ll be amazed at the ideas: diapers, pillow stuffing, insulation, upholstery padding, paper, plastics, and feather meal are all commercial uses(!!); turkey feather wreaths, decorations, wedding bouquets, boutonnieres, and turkey feather lamp shades are home use ideas. I was simply thinking of using it as a quill!!!
So there are three main points I want to think about today: 1) when you have trouble, don’t sit and worry about it. Actively address whatever the problem is. Go to someone who can help. That can be a parent or friend, but remember that God can always help. 2) Be specific in asking God for what you want. Neither Elisha nor Jesus acted before the person stated what it was they wanted (Mark 10:51). 3) Accurately access what you have. You might think you just have a jar of oil or a turkey feather. But with God, you have everything you need.
Greater
He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 2 Kings 6:16
There’s a scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where the Narnians are dismayed by the enormous army coming against them. The centaur sternly says, “Numbers do not win a battle.” Peter response, “I’ll bet they help.”
I never hear that line without thinking of this instance in 2 Kings 6. Elisha had told the king of Israel where to move to avoid the king of Syria. After the king of Israel had changed his plans a couple of times, the king of Syria was sure there was a traitor in their midst. But one of the servants - of the king of Syria - said, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” The king of Syria thought he should do something about that; he sent his army to surround the city of Dothan by night. The next morning Elisha’s servant looked out to see this vast army of horses and chariots all around the city. He asked Elisha, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” Here’s where we get this verse: “He said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ “
Then Elisha prayed that the young man’s eyes would be opened. Do you know what he saw? He saw angelic armies, the army of the Lord, all around Elisha. Elisha knew they were there, but his servant had not been able to see them.
I love this story. I love that Elisha had the confidence to know that God was with him, and more than that, the implication is that Elisha had the eyes to see that God was with him. A great sense of peace washes over me as I put myself in the place of Elisha’s servant.
In a very similar way, we are surrounded by hordes who would destroy us. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). Sometimes we see the evil forces arraying themselves against us - in society, as we’re going about our daily activities - and we feel that dismay. We see the giants in the land that we are to take, and we are afraid. We need a reminder, like Elisha’s servant needed a reminder: “He said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ ” That’s one of the reasons I really like Mercy Me’s “Greater.”
"Greater"
Bring your tired
Bring your shame
Bring your guilt
Bring your pain
Don’t you know that’s not your name
You will always be much more to me
Every day I wrestle with the voices
That keep telling me I’m not right
But that’s alright
‘Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I’ll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
In the world
In the world
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
Bring your doubts
Bring your fears
Bring your hurt
Bring your tears
There’ll be no condemnation here
You are holy, righteous and redeemed
Every time I fall
There’ll be those who will call me
A mistake
Well that’s ok
There’ll be days I lose the battle
Grace says that it doesn’t matter
‘Cause the cross already won the war
He’s Greater
He’s Greater
I am learning to run freely
Understanding just how He sees me
And it makes me love Him more and more
He’s Greater
He’s Greater
It’s such a great song to remind us to open our eyes to see God’s greatness, to hear His voice among all of those who would say that “I”ll never be enough.”
There’s just one other distinction that we need to emphasize. It isn’t that we’re in a battle against the enemy and God’s on our side. Rather, we’re in a battle with the enemy and we need to be very sure that we’re on God’s side. Do you remember when Joshua came face to face with the commander of the armies of the LORD and asked him if he were for the Israelites or for their adversaries? He was for neither side; he was the commander of the armies of the LORD.
At one point in the Civil War, a minister commented to Abraham Lincoln that he hoped God was on the side of the North. Abraham Lincoln responded,
“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”
There is a battle raging all around us, and the adversaries are fighting more fiercely because their time is short. Don’t be afraid. God will win. Let’s just strive to make sure we’re fighting on God’s side.
**Only God Can Do Miracles
. . . he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. 2 Kings 6:6b
Materials needed: Various liquids (corn syrup, dish soap, water, oil, rubbing alcohol) and various tiny items (cork, paperclip, penny, raisin, eraser, eraser tip, piece of apple)
There’s a very interesting story in 2 Kings 6. Elisha was with a group of prophets. They had outgrown their meeting place and decided to go to the Jordan, cut down some wood and build a dwelling place there. As one of them was chopping down a tree, the head of the ax flew off and fell into the Jordan. The man immediately told Elisha that the ax had been borrowed. Elisha threw a stick into the water where the ax head had gone in and it floated. The man was able to get the ax head back.
We can experiment with all kinds of liquids and substances. Some of them will float in all of the liquids. Some of them will float in none of the liquids. And some of them will float in some of the liquids. But iron - the metal out of which the ax head was made - will not float in water. The iron is much too dense. And we know it wasn’t a thin piece of metal; the man had been using it to chop down a tree!!
The only explanation is that God performed a miracle through Elisha.
Will God always give you a miracle when you need it? Probably not. But you should never doubt that He could if it were the best thing for you. There is nothing that is too hard for God.
It’s also interesting that this was a lost tool. On the continuum of importance, it doesn’t seem very important to us that God perform this miracle. But maybe that’s the point. No matter how big or how small your problem is, you can always take it to God. Sometimes He will perform a miracle because He wants the very best for you. And sometimes the answer is no because He wants the very best for you.
So what is it that we take away from this lesson? 1) God is able to do things that no one else can do. He can perform miracles! and 2) Take your concerns to God. He loves you and He’s interested in all the big and the small problems in your life.
**Open Our Eyes
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” . . . 2 Kings 6:17a
Materials needed: magnets
There are invisible forces at work all around us. Two of them come immediately to mind: gravity and magnets. We are so very glad that gravity exists; it’s what keeps us from floating off into space - which is a very good thing. Magnets are likewise a significant invisible force. Who doesn’t like playing with magnets?
If I place two magnets together and they repel each other, we say that we two ends were of the same polarity. The converse is also true. If I place two magnets together, they will be attracted and come together - as in opposites attract. If we had iron fillings we could show the lines of polarity coming off each magnet. (We could also make a big mess.) But in normal, every day life, those lines of polarity are invisible; we just feel their effects on the magnets.
There are other invisible forces around us. Think about the story in 2 Kings 6:8-23. The Syrians had been raiding Israel, or at least, they had been trying to. But every time they planned something, Elisha told the king of Israel those plans, warning him and keeping him out of harm’s way. It became so prevalent that the king of Syria was certain there was a spy in his own army who was warning Israel and frustrating the Syrians’ plans. One of his servants told him what was happening, that Elisha was warning the king of Israel. So the king of Syria decided to capture Elisha who was in Dothan. During the night, the Syrians surrounded the city so that when Elisha’s servant looked out the next morning, the city was completely surrounded by enemy soldiers. He cried out to Elisha. Elisha told him not to be afraid; that those who were with Elisha were greater than those with the Syrians. And the servant’s eyes were opened to see horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Then Elisha prayed that the soldiers would be struck with blindness. He led the blind soldiers into the city of Samaria. The king of Israel wanted to know if he should kill all of them. Elisha told him to feed them (It was a great feast!!) and send them home. And Syria quit bothering Israel.
Sometimes we see difficulties and problems in our lives and we cry out to God, much like Elisha’s servant did, “Ah, my Master! What shall we do?” We should never forget that God is greater than all of the difficulties and problems surrounding us. Pray that God will give you the eyes to see His will for your life, the path you should take for His glory and honor. That doesn’t mean you will always escape the difficulties and problems, but you know God can use them for your good. He is still sovereign. He is always good.
What He Says We Will Do
Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, “Thus says the LORD, ‘I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not linger.” 2 Kings 9:3
We sing the hymn, “God Will Take Care of You:” Be not dismayed at whate’er betide; God will take care of you.
We sing songs based on Psalm 91. He’ll lift you up on eagles’ wings . . . You need not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day; though thousands fall about you, near you it shall not come. I know of four songs that are based on Psalm 91 - and there are probably more.
As we sing these songs, we can gain the impression that God grants His people unconditional security and safety. Many Christians believe this. I’ve heard stories of the situations people have placed themselves in because they believed God would not let them be hurt.
But the incident in 2 Kings 9 would indicate that unconditional security for those who belong to God is not necessarily so, at least not in the temporary and the physical. In 2 Kings 9, Elisha sends a son of the prophets to anoint Jehu king over Israel. This is going to initiate a bloodbath of those who are part of the house of Ahab and of those who serve Baal. You get an idea of the violence and extreme danger associated with Jehu’s rule by Elisha’s statement to the messenger: Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, “Thus says the LORD, ‘I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and flee; do not linger.”
This is not a situation where he was to casually saunter in, joke and fellowship with those assembled there, have a meal and stay overnight. The messenger went into an inner room with Jehu, did what Elisha said, and got out of Dodge.
What would have happened if he had delayed? We don’t know. But we do have the scriptural record of what happened to the prophet who went to Jeroboam in 1 Kings 13. He was told what to say to Jeroboam, then to leave, not to stay or to eat anything while he was there, and he was to leave by a different route from which he arrived. His prophecy against Jeroboam came true. But when he disobeyed God, a lion tore him apart. God hadn’t just made a suggestion; He commanded the prophet to act in a certain way. When the prophet disobeyed, there were serious consequences.
We need to wrap our minds around several important facts:
1) God loves us. He loves us so much He sent His Son to die for us, while we were yet sinners, so that we might be reconciled to Him, be adopted into the very family of God, and have eternal life.
2) God expects to be obeyed. There are more references to God’s judgement in the Bible than there are references to His love. But as the Righteous God dealing with sinful man, you would hardly expect anything different. God doesn’t give out second chances; He doesn’t say, “Oh you didn’t obey Me, but decided to stop and have something to eat when I told you not to. Well, that’s o.k. Maybe you’ll listen next time.” God doesn’t say, “I want you to go to Nineveh. Oh, you don’t want to. O.K. Maybe after you get done in sailing around you’ll be ready to come do what I want you to.” He doesn’t excuse us, “Oh, you want to worship me by making a golden calf. I know your heart so building a golden calf is a good idea.” When we look at these examples, we see how ludicrous they are, and yet, we sometimes have a hard time applying that in our own lives, being very careful to obey exactly what God says. Sometimes it’s hard to do exactly what God says. It’s not convenient. It’s not popular with people around us. It’s not the easiest path; it’s a whole lot easier to walk than to run. But obeying God means submitting our wills to His, doing what He wants instead of doing what we want - no matter what. Think about it: you don’t even want to do what your mom or dad says sometimes. God gives us the physical to help us understand the spiritual. When you can learn to submit to your parents’ will (as long as they are obeying God), you are learning the principle of submitting to God’s will.
3) As Christians, we are not automatically given immunity or exemption from pain and problems. Sometimes the pain and problems are for our growth. Sometimes they are so that we can glorify God anyway. Sometimes they are so that we can empathize and encourage someone else who’s going through something similar. Sometimes the pain and problems are because we sinned; we did not obey God whole-heartedly. So if disobedience is one of the reasons we have pain and problems, then we can minimize the pain and problems in our lives if we obey God. We have this example in 2 Kings 9 to remind us. I don’t think the son of the prophets who anointed Jehu wanted to find out what was going to happen if he didn’t run for his life. Similarly, the prophet who went to Jeroboam (1 Kings 13) probably wouldn’t have been killed by a lion, if he had obeyed God. Jonah might not have had to spend three nights in the belly of a great fish, if he had gone to Nineveh as God had said.
I like the hymns “God Will Take Care of You” and “On Eagles’ Wings.” I still sing them. But there’s another song which really resonates with me: “Trust and Obey,” especially the last verse: “Then in fellowship sweet, we will sit at His feet, or we’ll walk by His side in the way; What He says we will do, where He sends we will go; never fear, only trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” When our relationship is right with God, we do what He says and we go where He says to go. We do it whole-heartedly, trusting and obeying Him. For there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus! Trust and obey!
That You May Have Life
And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. 2 Kings 13:21
Can you imagine the scene? You have to bury this dead man, but you look up and see your enemies coming. You have to just toss him in the grave. You turn to leave and you feel the proverbial tap on your shoulder. “What’re you doing? Why are we in this grave? Why do you have shovels? Hey, where are you going? Wait for me!” The people who had come to bury him would have had an incredible mix of emotions: joy, fear, shock, fear. They would have been afraid of the marauding band coming. They would have been overjoyed at seeing the man alive. They would have been shocked almost beyond belief that he was alive - once they got over being scared out of their skins when he stood up behind them.
As interesting as these two verses are, what’s not here is extremely interesting too. Did you notice: we’re never told the man’s name. Then, we’re never told what happened to him after that. These two verses about this resurrection are like a side note in the story of Syria’s oppression of Israel during the reign of Joash, king of Israel.
So, why did the author include them? What’s their purpose?
John 6:63 (NASB) says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” The goal of our lives is not about what we can accumulate or achieve for right now; our goal is the kingdom of God. This life and all our activity in it is temporary - and meaningless if we don’t have a relationship with God.
Perhaps the author of 2 Kings wanted to emphasize the downward spiral, the hopelessness of Israel’s existence apart from God versus the possibilities, the hope inherent in being close to God, having a double portion of the Spirit of God (2 Kings 2:9). Israel’s apostasy only brought pain and death; obedience to and reliance on God would have meant peace and prosperity and life. After all, all the man did was touch Elisha’s bones, and he was resurrected - and he didn’t even do it on purpose; he was dead! God’s power is so great!
So many people in our world today reject God and His ways. They want to live life on their terms. They are on a downward, hopeless spiral. This life is temporary! Choosing to live life apart from God just ensures that you’ll do it wrong, suffer pain and sickness and trouble - with no hope. Those who follow Christ, who belong to Him, still suffer pain, sickness, and trouble at times, but the difference is that they have hope!! We know this life is not all there is.
God, in His mercy, highlights the hope that we can have if we belong to Him: He has resurrected people to physical life, raised them from the dead, so that we can know that it’s possible. In seeing the miracle, we believe (John 11:15)!!
- The widow at Zarephath (Elijah) 1 Kings 17:17-24
- The Shunammite woman’s son (Elisha) 2 Kings 4:18-37
- This unnamed man (Elisha) 2 Kings 13:21
- Jarius’ daughter (Jesus) Matthew 9:23-24; Mark 5:22-43; Luke 8:41
- Widow of Nain’s son (Jesus) Luke 7:12-15
- Lazarus (Jesus) John 11:1-44
- Dorcas in Joppa (Peter) Acts 9:36-42
- Eutychus in Troas (Paul) Acts 20:9-10 (It’s not clear whether this is a resurrection or not; I’ve included it in the list, but please note that we don’t have enough information to know one way or the other.)
It’s extremely interesting that there are seven clear resurrections foreshadowing Jesus’ resurrection. God made it abundantly clear that He has the power over life and death; He can bring the dead back to life.
We don’t know what happened to any of these seven people after they were resurrected. Their resurrection is the point, an illustration of God’s power for our benefit. Their physical resurrections were, and are, an undeniable testimony to God’s power to raise Jesus Christ from the dead, and then, because of Jesus’ resurrection, we too have that hope.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” 1 Peter 1:3
Furthermore, this particular resurrection in 2 Kings 13 strongly foreshadows Jesus’ death and resurrection. Just as one man was resurrected when he touched Elisha’s bones, so many people will be resurrected through touching Jesus.
We don’t want to be like the Israelites of old who walked contrary to God’s law, who didn’t rely on Him or seek Him with their whole heart. Rather, in the words of Paul in Philippians 3:10-11, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
There’s only one way to be resurrected from the dead and to gain eternal life. It’s through the acceptance of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again, as your personal Savior. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). There’s no other way to be resurrected to eternal life - not even if you were thrown onto the bones of Elisha.
Beans in Your Ears
But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. 2 Kings 17:14
There was a comic strip years ago: The owner was calling his dog. Here, Rover. Come here, Rover. The dog paid absolutely no attention, but kept wandering farther from his owner. In the last block, the dog thinks, “It’s amazing how well sound travels on a clear day.”
Did you notice? It wasn’t that the dog couldn’t hear his owner; he just didn’t want to listen to his owner and obey him.
But it’s not just dogs who have this problem. Have you ever heard your mom say, “Listen to me. Stop that”? You likely don’t have a hearing problem; you have a listening and obeying problem.
The listening problem is not limited to kids and dogs. There’s an old song called “Beans In My Ears.”
My mommy said not to put beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
Now why would I want to put beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
You can't hear the teacher with beans in your ears,
Beans in your ears, beans in your ears
What's that you say, let's put beans in our ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
You'll have to speak up I got beans in my ears
Beans in my ears, beans in my ears
Say mommy we've gone and put beans in our ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
That's nice boys just don't put those beans in your ears
Beans in our ears, beans in our ears
I think that all grown ups have beans in their ears
Beans in their ears, beans in their ears
The author’s point is that most people listen very poorly; they may as well have beans in their ears.
That’s the connotation of this verse in 2 Kings 17 as well. But they would not listen, but were stubborn. That indicates Israel knew what God wanted them to do; they just didn’t want to do it.
Why don’t people listen well? Why didn’t that dog come when he was called? Why don’t children listen to their parents? Why didn’t Israel listen to God? Why does everyone put beans in their ears?
It’s right here in the second half of the verse: they did not believe in the LORD their God. Believing in God is more than just affirming that God exists. The dog knows his master exists. Children know their parents exist. Israel knew that God exists.
Believing the LORD their God means they believed God would do what He said. It means they trusted in God with all their heart. It means they had the relationship, the love in every part of their being, the complete devotion, to listen to and obey God no matter what.
Think about what would have happened if the dog in the comic strip had thought the owner could come make him obey. What if the dog trusted and loved the owner for more than just the dog treats he’d get? The dog would obey because he loved his owner.
Think about kids. Children who obey their mom the first time she says something probably have had some negative consequences applied to the seat of their pants a few times. They know that Mom means what she says. They trust her, and eventually, as they keep growing, the relationship develops to the point where the child obeys because he doesn’t want to impair the relationship. It’s not about getting a spanking any more; it’s about not disappointing Mom.
That was Israel’s problem: they knew God existed. But they didn’t believe that He was going to punish them for disobeying Him, and even that God was corrupt and evil like they were. (Psalm 50:21) They made God in their image. We read the history and we are appalled and amazed that they turned away from seeking the one true God, chose to serve false idols, and abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God (2 Kings 17:15-17). Looking back in history, we can see it so clearly. But the question is: if the people of Israel didn’t listen, if the dog doesn’t listen, if children don’t listen, what about us? How well do you listen to God? How well do you hear and obey what He says to do? Do you truly believe in God? Do your actions prove that you believe God? Or are you walking around, doing whatever strikes your fancy because you have beans in your ears?
Give God the Glory
“But I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.” ~2 Kings 19:27
This is part of the prophecy against Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, who was besieging Jerusalem, under King Hezekiah’s reign.
The KJV translates “sitting down” as “abode.” I guess in the vernacular it could be translated, “I know where you live.” More than that, God was quite aware of all of Sennacherib’s activities and His arrogance and blasphemy against God.
You see, Sennacherib thought he was god, that he brought judgment, ascended the heights to look God in the face, brought and withheld fertility, created water supplies and dried up rivers, and was responsible for his military successes.
We live in a society that could rub elbows in Sennacherib’s category of arrogance. Bob the Builder says, “Can we build it? Yes, we can.” The baseball outfielder believes he can catch anything that comes his way. The Little Red Hen says, “I’ll do it myself.” There’s even an American phrase which tells people to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
But Sennacherib didn’t put himself in power. Romans 13:1 says that the powers which exist have been instituted by God. Our God is Sovereign. There’s nothing which happens that He does not intentionally direct, or at the least, permit to happen.
It’s a good lesson for us. When we start to feel like we have a reason to feel prideful, we need to remember that God is the One who is truly in control. All that we have and all that we are, all of it comes from God. We haven’t pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps.
When looking at the incredible successes of Sennacherib, it’s important not to condemn him and his arrogance without reminding ourselves not to be prideful. God hates pride. (Proverbs 6:16) We must give God the glory!
Innocent Blood
And also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon. 2 Kings 24:4
I once knew a man who bought several trees from a small, family nursery. The owner quoted a price for each tree and then calculated the total price in his head. When the owner told the buyer how much he owed, he had made a $20.00 error in adding it all up. The buyer knew it, but he figured it was the owner’s error. He figured he was getting a really good deal. The problem was, however, the buyer had agreed to pay a certain price for those trees. In knowingly allowing the nursery owner’s mistake, he was stealing from him.
A short time later, my sister, my brother-in-law, and I checked into a motel in Reno, NV late at night after flying from Cedar Rapids, IA on our way to the Feast of Tabernacles in Lake Tahoe. We were staying overnight, waiting for Mom and Dad to pick us up there for the last leg of the trip over the mountain. It was late. The motel clerk was tired. When he gave us our change after we paid for the motel, he gave us back $20.00 too much. Dave never hesitated. He immediately pointed out the error and handed the money back to the clerk. The clerk was very grateful. He knew how much trouble he could be in if he didn’t have the right amount of money in his cash register at the end of the night.
Do you think God cares about justice, about being honest, doing what is right, protecting the innocent?
Micah 6:8 - He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Genesis 18:19 - For I have chosen [Abraham], that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, . . .
God drove out the people who lived in the Promised Land because they became so wicked (Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 18:9-14). God gave the Promised Land to the descendants of Abraham, with the caution that they should obey God’s commandments and not follow the ways of the nations who lived there before them. But eventually, Manasseh, king of Judah, did the very same things which caused God to drive out the nations before the people of Israel (2 Kings 21:2-9) In fact, God said that what Manasseh had done was more evil than all the Amorites who were before him (2 Kings 21:10-11).
Twice God states that Manasseh shed innocent blood (2 Kings 21:16, 2 Kings 24:4). What does it mean to shed innocent blood? It means putting people to death who have done no wrong deserving that death. It means convicting someone of a crime they didn’t commit and punishing them with death. It means sacrificing your own children as a burnt offering to a false god (2 Kings 21:6). It means not doing justly, as God commands.
Our God, who is righteous and just and good, cannot allow people, especially people who are called by His name, to conduct themselves in that way. Manasseh’s actions were soiling God’s reputation.Think about it. The nations around Israel associated Israel with the one true God (2 Kings 17:27). God could not allow the wickedness to continue (2 Kings 17:18-20; Deuteronomy 28:62-63). Our righteous God could not allow sin to continue. Not then and not now.
So here we are today. Do you wonder if you’re living a life that will be blessed by God? Look at Micah 6:8 again, and apply it to yourself. Do you act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?
Walk humbly with your God: Do you acknowledge that He is Sovereign. He gets to decide what’s right and wrong because He’s God. He gets to determine the direction of your life and what happens to you because He’s your God and He cares for you. Do you take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ? (2 Corinthians 10:5) Is He truly Sovereign in your life?
Love mercy: Do you give people the benefit of the doubt, to forgive people for wrongs they’ve committed against you? Do you hold grudges and want to get even? Think carefully. Sometimes it’s harder to show mercy to those who are closest to you - like your older brother or your sister. Do you love mercy?
Do justly: If order for you to love mercy, you have to do justly. Without justice, there can be no mercy. There has to be a standard of right and wrong (God’s standard of right and wrong) and recognized, corresponding rewards and punishments for adhering to or for transgressing those standards. Doing justly means doing what is right according to what God has decreed - because He’s Sovereign; He gets to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. Doing justly also means that you share with others what God’s standards are. If people around you know that you believe in God and yet you approve of ungodly things, then you are doing what Manasseh did: you soil God’s reputation. You give the impression that God would approve of something that He has condemned.
When the opportunity arises, if you call yourself a disciple of Christ, a Christian, then you have to tell people that the shedding of innocent blood is wrong. You have to tell them that abortion is wrong. You have to tell them that worshipping false gods or worshipping God however they want to (rather than the way God has decreed) is wrong. You have to tell them that God has a set standard. God gets to decide what is right and wrong; He doesn’t leave it up to each individual person. And you have to give $20.00 back to the motel clerk and to the nursery owner when they make a mistake. It’s not free money for you. It’s a manner of doing justly and not shedding innocent blood.