I was really unprepared for my brother’s
confession that day.
I had grown up the youngest in a family of four
boys. And none of us were Christians, neither my grandparents, who were our
legal guardians, nor my brothers.
Tim was the closest to me in age. But he really
surprised me when he told me that he liked reading the stories in the Bible.
I never would have guessed that the Bible would
become important to me years later.
Since my brother Tim died when he was 18, I can
only wonder now which particular stories in the Bible he read. And did they
inspire faith?
I wonder if he ever read the last story
of Elisha? Do you know what that story is?
In that last story, recorded in Second Kings,
chapter 13, Elisha was actually dead.
In fact, there was not a prophet of God in
Israel at all at that time. There were just the dead bones of Elisha.
The nation of Israel had rejected the messages
that God had sent through His prophets.
And by the time the Bible records this story
there had been a lot of oppression and war.
Small raiding armies from Moab would invade
villages in Israel every spring to steal the food and the wealth that the
Israelites had produced.
They would steal from homes; they would take
their goats and sheep. They would steal anything. And they would kill anyone in
their way.
Well, the raiders were on the war path one day
in a village at the same time a funeral was going on. The people looked
up from their funeral procession, they saw them coming.
Now, you may realize that in those days
middle-eastern custom, people usually wailed loudly at funerals. So there was
probably wailing with loud cries of mourning going on here.
My guess is that when they saw these soldiers
coming, they discovered that they had abundant reasons, additional
reasons for wailing. And reason to run.
And, of course, when you’ve got to make tracks
really fast, the last thing you want slowing you down is dead weight.
So they quickly stuffed the body into the
nearest tomb they could find and ran away to hide. It just happened to be
Elisha’s tomb where they did that.
And as soon as the dead body touched the bones
of Elisha, the man came back to life.
Now I can’t help but wonder what that
newly-resurrected man thought. What about you?
He comes back to life, sits up, and looks at his
surroundings. There’s just enough light to see what’s around him.
Brushing back the cobwebs, “Huh. . . Where am
I?”
“What’s that fluttering sound I hear? Are those
bats?”
“What are these strange sticks? Eeew, I’m in a
pile of bones.”
Now if that had been you, what would have been
your first thought?
Oh, let’s stick around.
No, man!
Get out as fast as you can.
He scrambled out of that tomb, and what did he
see? All his family and friends running off in the distance.
Waving and yelling, “Hey everyone, I’m here. I’m
alright. I’m not sick anymore. Where are you going?”
Just then he heard a noise behind him. Turning
around, he noticed a bunch of scary-looking soldiers coming his way.
“Oops, I think I’ll get back in that tomb.”
What a very strange story! It’s easy to think
about the humor of the situation. After all, doesn’t God have a sense of humor?
But seriously, it’s amazing to me that even
after Elisha’s death, God used his dead bones to raise someone from the dead.
Of course, Elisha had, really, nothing to do
with it. God did.
And one day Elisha will learn the story of what
his bones were up to after he died.
But those dead bones were not just any dead
bones, and if we had been there, we would naturally guess that they had
belonged to someone important, wouldn’t we?
Someone who was connected with God?
Someone who God must have used for a special
purpose and message while he was alive?
It’s true, Elisha was no ordinary person. He was
someone who was endowed with a double measure of Elijah’s spirit.
And just as we can understand something about
the designer by studying what He has designed, wouldn’t the book of Second
Kings, wouldn’t the life of Elisha tell us something about the God behind him?
I believe, definitely, that God used those dead
bones so we would examine the ways in which God used him to bless people’s lives,
and then. . .
Well, what could be the messages from these
stories of Elisha’s life?
One very beloved and familiar story involving
Elisha tells us about a poor woman and her little jar of oil. It’s in Second
Kings, chapter 4.
And you remember that she had recently become a
widow.
I can only imagine how that last week passed
before her like a nightmare, so unreal and yet never ending. And so painful for
her.
Her husband, her companion, her friend, the
father of her boys, her provider, was dead.
After the funeral, friends and family left and
she was all alone, except for her two boys.
Now her husband had gone to the schools of the
prophets, which meant that he was a prophet, or at least a prophet in training.
And that meant that made her the wife of a prophet. But now that was all
gone. She was a widow, one of the
lowest positions in society. Automatically poor.
But at least she had her sons.
They were so full of energy. They had spunk.
They brought joy to her heart.
Both of them reminded her of her late husband.
They had his smile and his eyes.
I picture her washing dishes one day when she
heard knocking at the door. As soon as she opened it, a mean-looking man pushed
his way inside.
“Woman,” he yelled. “Your husband owed me a lot
of money. You must pay me back. And I don’t want to wait much longer.”
“But sir! All I have are my two sons and this
little jar of oil. I don’t know how we can ever pay you.”
He snarled back at her. “Well, then I will just
have to take your two sons and sell them into slavery to pay your debt to me.
And don’t think I won’t do it. Give me my money in three days, or I’ll sell
your sons.”
And then he left her, all slumped down at the
kitchen table, sobbing.
“What am I going to do? I’ve lost my husband. I
can’t bear the thought of losing my boys. God, I need your help!”
And then a thought came to her. “The prophet of God, Elisha, he’s in the
village. I will go to him for help.”
So she went to Elisha. Told him the whole sad
story.
About her godly husband dying. But also about
him owing money.
And the harsh creditor demanding payment. And
that if she didn’t pay him, he would sell her two sons.
Elisha prayed. “Okay, God, what’s the answer?
What can I tell her?”
And then the idea immediately came to him. “Wait
a minute!” he said. “What do you have in your house of any value?”
“Sir, I have nothing but a small bottle of olive
oil.”
“Perfect,” Elisha told her. “Ask your neighbors
for their empty jars. And after you’ve borrowed as many as you can, go home and
shut the door behind you and your sons, and then begin filling the jars with
oil and set each one aside as you fill it.”
So the woman did exactly as Elisha told her.
She went down the street one way and her sons
went down the other way, knocking on neighbor’s doors.
There you have it. Right there in the Bible, the
first ingathering campaign. Yes.
Knock, knock. “Excuse me, sir! Would you be so
kind to loan me your empty jars?”
And her sons did the same. “Hello. Excuse us,
sir. Our mother would like to borrow any empty jars you have. Please!”
And so that’s how it went, from house to house.
Soon they collected so many they didn’t have enough room for them all.
And then they shut the door, and then the widow
began filling the jars, one by one, from that small bottle of olive oil. She
filled the first one. It filled all the way up. And then the next jar after
that. And then the next. And the next after that.
“Bring me another jar,” she said.
“We don’t have any more,” her sons said, looking
around at all the bottles and jars full of oil cluttering the floor of their
house.
It really was amazing! It was a miracle!
What the prophet said would happen, happened.
So the woman went right away to Elisha for
further instructions. “Alright,” he replied. “Now go sell the oil and use part
of the money to pay what you owe the man. And then you and your sons can live
on what’s left.”
I love that story... and there’s another great story, you remember, when Elisha
stopped an invasion of the Syrian army. It’s in Second Kings, chapter 6.
The Bible tells us there that the king of Syria
was at war against the Israelites.
And so he’d get together with his officers and
huddle and give them the game-plan. And they would set up camp at a certain
place to lay an ambush.
But each time, Elisha would send a warning to
the king of Israel. “Don’t go near that place. That’s where the Syrian army has
set up camp to ambush your troops.”
And so the king of Israel would warn his troops
to be on guard. And the danger would be averted.
Well, the king of Syria was furious when he
found out what was happening. He called in his officers and asked, “Which one
of you has been telling our plans to the king of Israel?”
“None of us, Your Majesty,” they replied. “It’s
an Israelite named Elisha. That’s what we hear. He’s a prophet, so he can tell
his king everything—even what you say in your room.”
“Find out where he is!” the king ordered. “I’ll
send soldiers to bring him here.”
So they learned that Elisha lived in the town of
Dothan and they reported that to the king
(2 Kings 6:11-13 CEV).
So he sent a detachment of highly-trained
commandos, to capture Elisha.
During the night, his troops surrounded the
small hill where Elisha lived.
And the next morning, Elisha’s servant saw the
Syrian troops surrounding the place. Running to his master, “Elisha! Sir! What
are we going to do?”
“Don’t be afraid,” Elisha answered. “There are
more troops on our side than theirs.”
And then his servant’s eyes were opened to see
all the fiery horses and flaming chariots from heaven just waiting for Elisha’s
command to strike them down.
And then some very interesting things began to
happen.
The Syrian troops, armed with their best, shiny
swords and shields, riding on tough looking chariots with spikes coming through
the wheels, were coming closer and closer and closer.
They were about 30 feet away when Elisha decided
to have a little godly mischief.
He prayed, “Lord, make those soldiers blind!” So
the Lord zapped them blind (and stupid). Well, maybe they were stupid already.
Then Elisha walked over to these now confused
and disoriented troops. “Uh, hello. Excuse me, gentlemen? What is it you’re
looking for?”
“Hmm. Ah, I see. No, you’ve come to the wrong
place. This is not where you need to be. Come and follow me and I’ll lead you
to the man you’re really looking for.”
So he grabbed one hand and all those strong,
fearsome soldiers were fumbling around to find a hand, or maybe it was a
shoulder to hold on to.
Isn’t that sweet? Big, bad, brave soldiers.
And Elisha led them straight to the capital city
of Samaria.
And what a sight that must have been to those
manning the city gates.
Elisha, the prophet of God—they knew who he
was—there at the beginning of a long column of blinded, enemy soldiers, crying
out, “Open the gates.”
So the big, heavy wooden doors creaked open.
And he led the men into the center of the city
square and presented them to the king of Israel.
“Uh, uh. Should I kill them, sir?” the king
asked.
“No! You didn’t capture these troops in battle,
so you have no right to kill them. No. Here’s what I tell you. Give them
something to eat and drink and then let them return to their leader.”
So the king ordered a banquet for Syria’s best
troops, his enemies, mind you. After they finished eating, they were free to
go.
And for a long while after that, the Syrian
troops stopped invading Israel’s territory. Imagine that.
Don’t you love that story? I certainly do.
What conclusion could we possibly come to when
we think of all those experiences and the ways in which God used Elisha to
bless people’s lives?
There’s this story of Elisha leading blind,
enemy soldiers to where they could be fed—could that be describing God’s way of
turning His enemies into friends?
There’s that story of God miraculously supplying
oil so that a poor widow could pay off her dead husband’s creditor and then
have some left to live on. Does that tell you about the kind of God who cares
for the disadvantaged, the powerless and the weak?
And then that very strange story about the dead
bones of Elisha and the man coming back to life—is that a picture of a creative
God who will try to get the attention of His rebellious people any way He can
in order to communicate with them?
There are so many other stories from Elisha’s
life that I haven’t even touched on.
These stories about Elisha and all the prophets
of God, in fact, they’re not just about a bunch of dead bones, dead men and
dead women, dead stories, dead sermons, long since past. I believe they speak
powerfully to a living God that we can trust today.
Elisha’s ministry is like a billboard with a
bold, clear message on it.
It’s like God is shouting out in neon colors,
“Hey folks, don’t forget, I’m still around. I’m still here.”
Prophets and messengers may come and go. But
friends, the truth about God is still the same.
I invite you to read the stories and draw your
own conclusions from them.
These stories are the evidence that God lays out
for us to consider and thereby know what He is like.
In fact, read all the stories of the Bible.
Some of us might even ask ourselves if we spend
more time doing other things than the time we spend reading the Bible. Things
like watching sports or TV in general, or spending time on the Internet or even
just simple, mundane things like thinking about the faults of others. I don’t
know. You name it.
Folks, let’s read the Bible. Let’s spend time in
the Bible with God.
And once you’ve read the stories, ask yourself
the question, “What does this story tell me about the kind of God I believe in and
love?”
After all, what God wants most is not our
religiosity. Certainly not our pretensions. “Oh yeah. I’m fine. I’m doing
alright. Yeah.”
No. God wants us to know Him in a spiritually
intimate way. As a close Friend.
Jeremiah 31 and Hosea 6 tell us that what He
wants most of all is steadfast love and the knowledge of God.
Jesus tells us that what God wants is for us to
be His trusting friends.
These stories help us to know God. And not only
to know God and to love Him, but also to like Him. And then trust Him. And then
be healed.
There is no substitute. There is no substitute
for reading the Bible!
That’s where the power of Christianity is. And I
want that power. What about you?
Let’s sing hymn number 547, “Be Thou My
Vision,”.
Hymn of Praise: #60, Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word Scripture: 2 Kings 2:8,9 Hymn of Response: #547, Be Thou My Vision
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 3/3/08