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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Today's Passage : Today'sPassage:Israel after Solomon (12): Elisha BibleVerse 2 Kings 2:15-25 (ESV) "Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke. He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria." Message:
Even among Christians who attend a Bible study, many have hardly heard of Elisha, and few know who he was with any certainty. Part of the problem is that he followed Elijah and had an unfortunately similar name. And also, he does not have to his credit Elijah’s spectacular departure from earth. Yet he is enormously important in two very different ways. First, he is simply a prominent figure in the heart of the history of the Northern Kingdom; he is a major figure in both Judaism and Islam.
Second, and probably more significant to us, is that he is even more an embodied precursor of Christ than Elijah. This comes later in Elisha’s life, so we will revisit the subject in our next installment.
Icon of the Prophet Isaiah.
The Prophet Isaiah
We see two very different types of people lumped together as “prophets” in the Bible. The more famous were those who fulfilled the role of teachers and prophesiers. When we think of “prophet,” we naturally think of prophecy. But after Moses, who died (very approximately) around 1300 B.C., until Amos and Hosea appear in about 750 B.C., there are no books of prophecy.
Instead, we see prophets, such as Nathan (who berated David over the Bathsheba affair) and Ahijah (who told Jeroboam’s wife that her son would die), whose predictions of the future are short-term and local, e.g. predicting the outcome of a battle, or the death of a king, or a time of famine. They cooperate with the judges and (later) the kings, performing a function within the Hebrew theocracy. But as the kings draw away from Yahweh, the prophets, who are driven by the spirit of God, become inimical to them. God moves over long spans of time; and if we step back, we can see His wrath building slowly from the time of Solomon to the fall of Judah; and as his wrath grows, a class of prophets — the prophets we know as “prophets” — act as His voice, declaring His wrath and ultimately predicting the final destruction of the Temple and the coming of Christ.
Because Ahab was so extremely wicked and murdered prophets of Yahweh, Elijah was a spectacular enemy of the king. But Ahab has died, and he will be followed by a motley of kings whose obedience to the law of Moses varies. Thus Elisha slips back into the mainstream and will actually assist the kings he lives under, a forgettable list of names: Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Jehoash. When the kings are only somewhat idolatrous, the prophecies are only somewhat dire. Jehu, for example, will destroy all of the idols except the two golden calves.
Today's Scripture gives several early miracles of Elisha as a taste. We don’t really see a precursor of Christ yet; Elisha curses and kills a group of blasphemous children, which isn’t Christlike at all and shocks the modern reader. We are reminded once again that our sensibilities are different from the mind and will of God.
The last line in this passage is important to note, for Elisha returns to Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom (Kingdom of Israel). The prophets no longer need hide themselves from the kings.
Meditation : Prayer : Lord God, let me not put my trust in the words of men, for their minds are weak and their tongues are tainted by the world; but let me test everything having to do with faith against our only true teacher, Jesus Christ, and the true Word of God that was inspired through the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
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