Just outside the walls of Samaria sat four lepers having a conference. The topic was death—theirs. In the strange fellowship of suffering, four lepers discuss their three options. Option 1: “Why are we sitting here until we die?” (2 Ki 7:3). They could stay where they were and die of their disease. Question: What must […]
The doubter proved his ignorance of heaven’s architecture. Make windows? See Malachi 3:10. How fickle is the world! The Syrian troops who came to assassinate Elisha had been temporarily blinded and led helpless into Samaria where, instead of executing them, Israel’s king, on Elisha’s instruction, “prepared a great feast for them” (2 Ki 6:23). After […]
The Syrians were at it again, Israel’s constant aggressor, moving in from the northeast to plunder. The Syrians had a problem. Every time the king ordered certain troop movements, the Israeli army was waiting for them. When this happened “not just once or twice” (2 Ki 6:10), the king presumed there was a traitor in […]
“Does iron float?” might seem to be in the same category as “Do pigs fly?” But don’t be too sure! We sometimes come across curious incidents in the Bible and wonder what they’re doing there. The story at the beginning of 2 Kings 6 seems to be one of those. The “sons of the prophets” […]
Silver, Gehazi’s plunder, pictures redemption in the Bible. Do we charge for God’s gracious gifts? We ended our last episode thinking about Naaman’s faith in God, evident on his return to Elisha’s house. He confessed, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel” (2 Ki 5:15). He wanted […]
Not a king; a prophet. Not a prophet; a servant. Not Abana, but Jordan—seven times! Down, down, down. Elisha had performed many miracles, but skeptics might doubt. Healing bad water with salt was unlikely, though they do use salt in water softeners today. Raising a dead boy? It looks like resuscitation to the doubter. But […]
You can see how Elisha’s care for the hurting and hungry reflects the gracious ministry of Christ. Elisha’s home was a place of hospitality. So we read that “a man came from Baal Shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain” (2 Ki […]
This wasn’t just bad cooking! It was a case of bad practice—tossing in some mystery food! At Elisha’s base of operations at Gilgal, he interacted with a school of the prophets. In this episode, another famine had gripped Israel, perhaps a judgment from the Lord. “Now the sons of the prophets were sitting before him,” […]