Join us as we reflect on God’s faithfulness through the accounts of Elisha and his astonishing miracles. From resurrecting the dead to predicting outcomes far beyond human comprehension, Elisha’s life demonstrates God’s extraordinary ability to provide and protect His people. Through engaging storytelling and thought-provoking insights, this episode encourages us to trust in God’s higher ways and embrace His blessings, just as the Israelites did thousands of years ago.
00:00:08 Introduction to Add Bible and Today’s Reading
00:00:23 Senator Kevin Grantham Reads 2 Kings 7 and 8
00:03:12 The Lepers and the Fleeing Syrians in 2 Kings 7
00:08:32 Elisha’s Prediction and Its Fulfillment in 2 Kings 8
00:09:58 Personal Reflections and The Lessons from 2 Kings
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
SPEAKER 01 :
Today we are in 2 Kings chapters 7 and 8, more about Elisha and his miracles. We’ll listen to our guest reader, Senator Kevin Grantham, former president of the Colorado State Senate, as he reads both chapters 7 and 8.
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2 Kings 7 But Elisha said, Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a sea of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seas of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria. Then the captain, on whose hand the king leaned, said to the man of God, If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be? But he said, You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, Let us into the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. If we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall but die. So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us. So they fled away in the twilight. and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king’s household. So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied and the tents as they were. Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king’s household. And the king rose in the night and said to his servants, I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city. And one of his servants said, Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel who have already perished. Let us send and see. So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. So they went after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a sea of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seas of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said, when the king came down to him. For when the man of God had said to the king, Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria, the captain had answered the man of God, If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be? And he had said, You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it. And so it happened to him, For the people trampled him in the gate, and he died. 2 Kings 8 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, Arise and depart with your household and sojourn wherever you can. For the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years. So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done. And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, And when the king asked the woman, she told him, So the king appointed an official for her, saying, Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields, from the day that she left the land until now. Now Elisha came to Damascus. Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, was sick, and when it was told him, The man of God has come here, the king said to Hazael, Take a present with you, and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord through him, saying, Shall I recover from this sickness? So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel loaves. When he came and stood before him, he said, Your son Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, has sent me to you, saying, Shall I recover from this sickness? And Elisha said to him, Go, say to him, You shall certainly recover. But the Lord has shown me that He shall certainly die. And he fixed his gaze and stared at him until he was embarrassed. And the man of God wept. And Hazael said, Why does my Lord weep? And he answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with a sword, and dash in pieces their little ones, and rip open their pregnant women. And Hazael said, What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do such a thing? Elisha answered, The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria. Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And he answered, He told me that you would certainly recover. But the next day he took the bedcloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face till he died. and Hazael became king in his place. In the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign. He was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever. In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own. Then Joram passed over to Zair with all his chariots and rose by night, and he and his chariot commanders struck the Edomites who had surrounded him, but his army fled home. So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libna revolted at the same time. Now the rest of the acts of Joram and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?” So Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his place. In the twelfth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Joram, king of Judah, began to reign. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah. She was a granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel. He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done. For he was son-in-law to the house of Ahab. He went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to make war against Hazael, king of Syria, at Ramoth Gilead. And the Syrians wounded Joram. And King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of Ahab, in Jezreel, because he was sick.
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When I look at my journals in 1989 and 1997, there is no documentation of anything related to these chapters. So let’s go on to 2011, when I was 56 years old. I read 2 Kings 6-8 on the same day with a portion of the New Testament reading out of the Gospel of John, as I was reading the whole Bible that year. Related to 2 Kings 6-8, I wrote, From floating axe head in a river to hearing the words of the king of Syria miles away to seeing armies of angels, Elijah, a man of God. God can provide even through our enemies. The Syrian army flees by hearing four lepers walk their way and Israel plunders their camp. God’s ways are way higher than man’s ways. Years ago, there was a Christian comedian named Bill McKee. He did a performance on Second Kings that’d make you laugh your head off. He talked about these four lepers, Harley, Farley, Charlie, and Claude, walking toward that Syrian camp. Verse 6 out of chapter 7 reminds us, “…for the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army.” Yet the comedian Bill McKee said it was just four lepers walking toward them. Verse 8 tells us what the lepers found when they got to the Syrian camp. And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank. And they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. These starving lepers had it all. But they felt compelled to go share the good news with everybody else. I believe that’s how God is. The day before, everybody was starving. There was no hope. But Elijah the prophet said, Tomorrow everything will be different. And it was for four lepers. When God blesses you, are you selfish or do you share? Do you spread the good news of the Lord’s blessings in your life to others? These lepers were not selfish. Are you? And this story reminds us that God’s provision is abundant. In one day, the Israelites went from starvation to plundering the Syrian camp. I love these stories that remind me that God is more than enough. And he won’t just do it for four lepers or the Israelites. He’ll do it for you and me. His intent is to bless us, but he blesses those who hear his voice, who follow him, who obey him. Is that your pattern of life? Let it be so today, so the Lord can bless you with more than enough. Father, we thank you for the story of Harley, Farley, Charlie, and Claude. A reminder that one day things can look very bleak and the next day we can have more than enough. You are Jehovah Jireh, our provider. May these chapters remind us of your love for us and your blessings toward us as we look to you. Be our provider. We ask it in your name. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. It’s not too late to get your copy of the writings of the Old Testament historical books to follow along with this AdBible program. The book contains our studies on Job, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. We’ll be in those books for the next several weeks. The book has comments on every chapter, applications for your life, and a place for you to record your thoughts on each chapter of each book for future reference. Visit EzraProject.net and order the writings of the Old Testament historical books today so you can get more out of these radio programs and more out of your Bible. I know you’re going to enjoy it.
