In this episode, we journey through the miraculous accounts of Elisha in 2 Kings. Discover how this remarkable prophet, guided by God, brings hope and resolution in the midst of dire circumstances. Through transformative miracles like the provision of water in the wilderness and the multiplication of resources for a community, Elisha’s story empowers us to trust in the boundless possibilities of faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
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 02 :
Today we’re in 2 Kings chapters 3 and 4. We’ll learn more about the prophet Elisha. So let’s listen in to Faith Comes by Hearing’s reading of chapter 3 and our guest reader, Senator Kevin Grantham, on chapter 4. 2 Kings 3
SPEAKER 05 :
In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twelve years. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless, he clung to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. He did not depart from it. Now Misha, king of Moab, was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. So King Jehoram marched out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, The king of Moab has rebelled against me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Will you go with me to battle against Moab? And he said, I will go. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. Then he said, By which way shall we march?
SPEAKER 05 :
Jehoram answered, By the way of the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. Then the king of Israel said,
SPEAKER 04 :
And Jehoshaphat said, Then one of the king of Israel’s servants answered, And Jehoshaphat said,
SPEAKER 05 :
The word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. And Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do with you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother.
SPEAKER 04 :
But the king of Israel said to him, No, it is the Lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you. But now bring me a musician. And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he said, Thus says the Lord, I will make this dry stream bed full of pools. For thus says the Lord, You shall not see wind or rain, but that streambed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your livestock, and your animals. This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will also give the Moabites into your hand, and you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop up all springs of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones.
SPEAKER 05 :
The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom till the country was filled with water. When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to put on armor, from the youngest to the oldest, were called out and were drawn up at the border. And when they rose early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood, and they said, This is blood! The kings have surely fought together and struck one another down. Now then, Moab, to the spoil! But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose and struck the Moabites till they fled before them. And they went forward, striking the Moabites as they went. And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of land every man threw a stone until it was covered. They stopped every spring of water and felled all the good trees, till only its stones were left in Kir Haraseth, and the slingers surrounded and attacked it. When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him 700 swordsmen to break through opposite the king of Edom. But they could not. Then he took his oldest son, who was to reign in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel, and they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.
SPEAKER 06 :
2 Kings 4 Now 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. And 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. Then he said, Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels, and not too few. Then 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. So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons, and as she poured, they brought the vessels to her. When 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. She 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. One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. And she said to her husband, Behold, now I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way. Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there. One day he came there and he turned into the chamber and rested there. And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. When he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to him, Say now to her, See, you have taken all this trouble for us. What is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army? She answered, I dwell among my own people. And he said, What then is to be done for her? Gehazi answered, Well, she has no son and her husband is old. He said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway. And he said, At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your servant. But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about the time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her. When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, Oh, my head, my head. The father said to his servant, Carry him to his mother. And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out. Then she called to her husband and said, Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again. And he said, Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. She said, All is well. Then she saddled the donkey, and she said to her servant, Urge the animal on, do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you. So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi, his servant, Look, there is the Shunammite. Run at once to meet her and say to her, Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child? And she answered, All is well. And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came to push her away, but the man of God said, Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. Then she said, Did I ask my Lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? He said to Gehazi, Tie up your garment and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, And if anyone greets you, do not reply. And lay my staff on the face of the child. Then the mother of the child said, As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So he arose and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, The child has not awakened. When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Then he summoned Gehazi and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her, and when she came in, he said, Pick up your son. She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out. And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, Set on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. One of them went out into the field to gather herbs. and found a wild vine, and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. And they poured out some for the men to eat. But when they were eating of the stew, they cried out, O man of God, there is death in the pot! And they could not eat it. He said, Then bring flour. And he threw it into the pot, and said, Pour some out for the men, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. A man came from Baal-shalashah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, Give to the men that they may eat. But his servant said, How can I set this before a hundred men? So he repeated, Give them to the men that they may eat. For thus says the Lord, They shall eat and have some left. So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER 02 :
Due to the length of today’s readings, I will not refer to my personal Bible reading journals, but we will look at 2 Kings chapters 3 and 4. Let’s look at the four miracles Elijah performs in these two chapters. First, the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom go to war with Moab. They get out in the desert where they don’t have any water. Elisha’s first miracle is to provide water for the armies. Chapter 3, verse 16. Don’t you love it? It’s a light thing for the Lord to provide water out of nowhere. The second miracle from Elijah is in the beginning of chapter 4. It’s the widow whose husband has died and she cannot pay her debts. In verse 2, Elijah asks her, what have you in the house? She answers, nothing but a jar of oil. God, through Elijah, uses the jar of oil to fill vessel after vessel after vessel with the oil that she has. Then they can sell that oil to pay their debts and live off the rest. This is a great principle of God using what we have. Do you give to God what you have? Do you trust in him to stretch it as far as it needs to go? The third miracle is Elijah raising a boy from the dead. In chapter 4, verse 33, the word of God says, So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Verse 34 might give us the first illustration of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Amazingly, through the prayer to the Lord and through the actions of Elisha, the boy comes back to life. The final miracle has to do with food. A pot of stew made from wild gourds seemed to be poisonous. Elisha asked for some flour. In verse 41, he throws the flour into the pot of stew and then says, “…pour some out for the men, that they may eat, and there was no harm in the pot.” He also takes 20 loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain and multiplies it so that 100 men can eat with plenty left. I would say Elijah had a double portion of Elijah. In 2 Kings 3 and 4, he performs several miracles with a double portion of the Spirit of God. What do you believe God for? Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe that God can provide water and provide victory over your enemies? Do you believe God can take what you have and multiply it and meet your needs? Do you believe God can heal the sick, even raise the dead back to life? And do you believe God can provide food for you, more than enough, even leftovers? I doubt if Elijah could have performed any miracles like these without complete faith and trust in God. How about you? How’s your level of faith? How’s your level of trust in the Lord? Elijah believed in miracles. Do you? Father, we thank you for the example of miracles in chapters 3 and 4 of 2 Kings. By reading these stories, might you expand our faith and our trust in you. Your word tells us you are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Miracles happen in the Old Testament. They happen in the New Testament. They can happen today. Father, show us your hand extended. Show us your miracles. And may you receive all the glory and honor as you do. Amen. I know you’re going to like it and want to share it with others.
In this episode, we journey through the miraculous accounts of Elisha in 2 Kings. Discover how this remarkable prophet, guided by God, brings hope and resolution in the midst of dire circumstances. Through transformative miracles like the provision of water in the wilderness and the multiplication of resources for a community, Elisha’s story empowers us to trust in the boundless possibilities of faith.
