Miracles of Elisha

Elisha worked a LOT of miracles. Seems we hear more about Elijah, but my goodness, Elisha was also used mightily of the Lord. There are so many good stories in today's reading, that I want to highlight several. First, I heard an excellent message regarding Naaman's healing given by Priscilla Shirer in her study "Discerning the Voice of God". Her main point was that Naaman delayed his own healing because Elisha (and therefore God) was not healing him in the manner he expected. He felt entitled to a flashy miracle and wanted Elisha to come out to meet him and wave his hand over his leprosy to cure him. Washing in the Jordan (a dirty river that in Naaman's estimation paled in comparison to those in Aram) seven times seemed simplistic and ridiculous to him. Priscilla noted that we often miss out on God's blessing when we question the sanity or legitimacy of something we feel God has told us to do. We talk ourselves out of things that don't fit our expectations of God when we would be better served to simply trust and obey.

In the same Priscilla Shirer study, she spoke of the incident involving the four lepers raiding the deserted Aramean camp. They were feasting on what God had provided (by scaring the Aramean soldiers away from their own camp) after months of starvation when they suddenly realized that it was selfish to keep the blessing to themselves. The parallel she drew compared this to a believer who keeps the good news of salvation to himself instead of returning to his friends and neighbors to share the blessing.

The last story I want to highlight is that of Hazael murdering ben-Hadad. Did Elisha tell Hazael to lie to the king about his fate? No. Elisha spoke the truth, that ben-Hadad would not die of his illness. Under normal circumstances, he would have recovered. But Elisha was aware of the intent of Hazael's heart and knew what he would be willing to do to assume the throne. The servant acted surprised and unsuspecting... "How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a task?" But remember in 1 Kings 19, God had told Elijah to annoint several people... Elisha as his successor, Jehu as the king of Israel, and Hazael as king of Aram. It took years for these people to assume their positions, but Hazael surely knew that he had been chosen as the next king and was probably getting tired of waiting. He saw an opportunity and seized it.

Tomorrow's reading; 2 Chron. 21:8-20, 22:1-9; 2 Kings 8:23-29, 9:1-37, 10:1-31