Living Water Community Church

We worked our way through the first 16 verses of chapter 9. In this section we see Elisha providing the final fulfillment of God’s command to Elijah to anoint Elisha in his place, to anoint Hazael as king over Syria and to anoint Jehu as king over Israel. As our story opens Elisha commissions a son of the prophets to take a flask of oil to Ramoth-gilead and anoint Jehu as king over Israel in a private ceremony, and then leave with haste. This son of the prophets does exactly what Elisha instructs him to do, and Jehu is anointed as king. When Jehu comes from the inner room and encounters his fellow commanders they ask what has happened and his response is you know the fellow and what he said. This statement indicates Jehu thinks they are in on it and it may be a set-up or joke. Their response however dispels this idea because they tell Jehu they don’t know what has happened. Jehu then tells them the man has anointed him in the Lord’s name as king over Israel. The military commanders who were present removed th

We are turning our attention to what properly might be called the mechanics of prayer. We continued our study of prayer by looking at the how people in the Bible focused on God’s actions as a basis for engaging with Him in prayer. We looked at a bunch of passages where we see prayers or praise rooted in things like His love, faithfulness, and judgements which are cast against His creation. His love extends to the heavens. His love is like the mountains of God. His judgements are like the great deep. What we see again and again is the writers of scripture taking the time to think about God and His works and actions in ways that a vivid to our imagination. This kind of thinking can begin to infuse our own prayers with a deeper sense of connection and awe as we engage our imagination in the pursuit of God in prayer. 

We explored the lives of the descendants of Jehoshaphat. They knew the promises of God because of their father Jehoshaphat. They were supposed to lead the people in following God but instead they led the people away from the Lord. This resulted in the judgement of God. Jehoshaphat’s son married the daughter of Ahab, and began to follow the sinful path of the people of Israel. Edom revolted from their rule and set up their own king. Joram went down with an army to quell the rebellion and was routed by the Edomites and had to flee. Libnah which was one of the cities of the Levites rebelled and separated from following Joram as well. Joram did not live long and Ahaziah his son reigned over Judah. He also led the people of Judah in the path of the house of Ahab king of Israel. The king of Israel was wounded in a battle with Hazael the king of Syria and Ahaziah went to see him in Jezreel while he was recovering. This is where we ended the last time. 

We looked at two stories at the beginning of chapter 8 which show us how God orchestrates all things. The first story demonstrates God taking care of those who are His. The wealthy woman of Shunam whose son had been raised from the dead returned to the land of Israel to find her property had been taken over during a time of famine. She went to the king to plead her case and Elisha’s servant was with the king recounting the works of Elisha. He had just talked to the king of this woman and her son’s resurrection when she appeared in the court to plead her case for the property. The king heard her story and granted her the property back as well as the revenue generated from the property while she was gone. We would typically call things like this a coincidence. But there is no such thing. God is working behind the scenes to direct people and even conversation to provide for the needs of His people. The second situation involved Hazael a commander who served king Ben-hadad of Syria. Ben-hadad had been sick and se

We worked our way through the story of the siege on Samaria. The king of Syria had come down with his entire army and they besieged Samaria. This blockade of the city eventually caused a famine. The writer tells us the famine was so bad the people were willing to pay 80 shekels for a donkeys head. He even reported how the people were resorting to eating their own children. The king of Israel on hearing about these things blamed God for the problems and swore he was going to kill Elisha. He sent his military captain to kill Elisha and Elisha told the elders who were with him to bar the door and not let him in. Elisha proceeded to tell the captain through the door that the Lord was going to provide flour and barley by the next day about this time in abundance. The man scoffed at the word of the Lord and Elisha told him because of his unbelief he would see it but would not get a chance to see it with his own eyes. That evening the Lord caused the Syrian army to believe they were under attack. They fled leaving e

Our wants can easily be justified as needs. At the same time we can look at people who accumulate things and think how good they have it. Even wondering sometimes why they have  it so good and we have to struggle so much. The up and coming generation certainly is marked by an attitude of entitlement as a general characteristic when it comes to work and the workplace. Entitlement however is not an exclusive domain held by those growing into adulthood. It is easy for all of us to fall into the trap of entitlement. It is easy for us to simply think more highly of ourselves then we ought to think. Greed and selfishness creep into all of our lives. People do not normally lay down their lives for each other. To the contrary we usually find it easy to demand more from others. We have an uncanny ability to mistake greed for need. We live in a society which is preoccupied with justifying feeling satisfied and safe. We are encouraged on every side to be preoccupied with our own well being. In this kind of environment w

We explored the story of how Elisha tells the king of Israel to avoid certain places at specific times because the king of Syria has laid a trap or planned a raid. The king of Israel would send scouts to verify it and discovered Elisha was saving him from these plans. This frustrated the king of Syria who became convinced there must be a spy in his court feeding his plans to the king of Israel. But the servants of the king know it is Elisha who is aware of the Syrian plans and alerts the king of Israel. The servants tell the king, “Elisha hears all of his plans even those made in secret.” This revelation frustrates the king and he sends his army to capture Elisha who lives in Dothan. The army surrounds the city and Elisha’s servant is frightened by the development. Elisha prays and God opens the servants eyes and he can see the horses and chariots of fire on the surrounding hills are greater then the Syrian army which surrounds Dothan. Again Elisha prays and God strikes the army with blindness. Elisha then le

We explored a passage which many see as fantastic or legendary. In it Elisha causes an iron ax head to float. From our perspective it seems almost like an extraordinary action for something we would consider a minor loss. But we need to consider the day in which this happened. The iron age had recently come into its own. This was probably about 200 to 300 years after what we would see as the start of the iron age. The amount of time and effort which the creation of iron implements in this day made it a really expensive metal especially when compared to copper, bronze or brass. The loss of an iron ax head in this day may have been similar to wrecking a car in our day. So while this reads as insignificant because of our context it was a great loss in their day. Even with our understanding of the cost it seems to raise the question of why record this event. In the context of the book of Kings this story is the 6th in a series of stories about God meeting the needs of His people. We had the widow who was about to

We explored 2 Kings chapter 5 and in it we saw the Lord orchestrating events to bring Naaman the Syrian commander to Himself. God did not simply bring this man facing the death sentence of leprosy to healing he brought a man who was facing the death sentence of sin to faith. It is a remarkable and because of this a famous story which starts with the faith a young girl. A girl captured from Israel during a raid and carried into slavery and captivity. This young girl lives much like Joseph when he was sold into slavery. She serves her mistress as best she can. She sees her role in slavery as an opportunity to do good. She believes by faith that God can use Elisha to heal her master Naaman and she tells her mistress what she believes to be true. You could say the faith of this little girl is the catalyst which God uses to bring Naaman to faith. Naaman goes to the king of Syria with the news of this potential cure for leprosy is Israel. The king sends Naaman with letters to seek this cure from the king of Israel.

We continued our study in prayer by examining how the Psalmist and other writers expressed joy in the midst of difficulty. How did they get to joy and what are some common traits of the journey to joy in a not so joyful situation. This is one of those areas where the Biblical writers give us a variety of examples for doing this. It is also something do not naturally  do and so it becomes something we need to practice and work on. We see this type of expression again and again throughout the Bible. We see it in the Psalms and wisdom books as well as commands by Paul to rejoice in the Lord always. David even appointed a whole section of the priests to do nothing but give thanks to God. This priority of giving thanks and praise to God in the Old Testament should certainly inform our own thoughts as we consider how we approach God and what the content of our prayers should include. We are not saying it should only be joy and thanksgiving but if we don’t find this theme being a part of our prayer life we should co

We worked our way through two stories about Elisha which on first glance appear disconnected accounts of things he did. The first story was about a visit to the sons of the prophets during a famine. Elisha told his servant during the visit to prepare a large pot of stew for the men. One of the sons of the prophets was helping and ended up gathering a poisonous gourd and cutting it up in the stew. Some of the men recognized this poisonous gourd and cried out that death was in the pot. Elisha asked them for some flour and he tossed it in the pot and it made the stew safe to eat. The second story involved a man who brought his firstfruits offering to Elisha. He brought 20 barley loaves. Again they are with the sons of the prophets and Elisha commands his servant to feed the men. His servant objects stating there was simply not enough to feed the over 100 men present. But Elisha restates the command to feed them and says there will be enough and food left over. While these seem disconnected stories they both invo

We explored the story of the rich woman in Shunem. This woman provided meals and a place to stay for Elisha when he was passing through the area. Elisha was grateful and asked the woman if there was anything he could do for her as he traveled about. She replied that she dwelt among her own people. She was basically saying she was secure and in need of nothing. After she left as Elisha was talking with Gehazi his servant they discussed the fact that her husband was old and she had no son. Elisha then called her back and told her she would have a son about this time next year. She found it hard to believe but in a years time she gave birth to a son. He grew and began to go to the fields with his father. One day in the field he declared his head hurt and his father had a servant carry him to his mother. He ended up dying in his mothers arms around noon that day. She hurried to Elisha because she was in great distress and needed God’s help. This is the real beauty of this story and sets it up as a comparison cont

We worked through the first 7 verses of chapter 4. In this passage we have a clear example of God taking care of the needs of His children. In this story a widow of one of the sons of the prophets is going to lose her children to a creditor who is coming to get them. They will become his slaves to settle her debt. In this situation in that day she would not only lose her sons but would probably be left destitute because her sons probably produced an income to support her. The question Elisha asks the woman is almost the same question Jesus asks blind Bartimaeus as He was leaving Jericho. “What shall I do for you?” It is a good question when you are dealing with someone who doesn’t have a problem or has not expressed the problem. In the case of Bartimaeus he was blind and people were taking him to Jesus after Jesus stopped the crowd and invited him to come to Him. The widow in 2 Kings has already told the prophet what she needs. In both cases what they need is clearly seen. But in both cases the people coming

The idea of resurrection is seen throughout our world in how God made it. Even in the things that men do/create we see ideas of resurrection pop up. If the resurrection didn't happen then Christians of all people are the most to be pitied. Our sins were paid for in their totality by Jesus. Our flesh has been put to death in Christ and now the life we live we live by faith in the Son of God who died on our behalf for His glory. 

The Jews of Jesus' days on earth would see Jesus entering Jerusalem as another picture of a King entering their city. This was part of the reason it was so troubling to the Pharisees since this was something familiar to them from the Scriptures. Solomon foreshadows the coming into Jerusalem of Jesus who was not simply just a King, but also a prophet and priest. Solomon was the shadow of a greater King who would reign forever over His people. 

We explored the section where Jehoram decides he is tired of Moab not paying the tribute they were supposed to send to Israel. Jehoram enlist the help of Jehoshaphat to join him in going to battle against Moab. They decide to march south and come into the territory of Moab from the south. During this journey they enlist the help of the army of the Edomites. The march is long and so after 7 days they are literally dying of thirst and can’t really proceed. Jehoshaphat asks if there is a man of Yahweh who they can seek to get direction from God. Elisha is found and Jehoram proceeds to blame Yahweh for bringing the three armies out here into the wilderness to deliver them into the hands of the Moabites. Elisha dismisses Jehoram by simply stating if it were not for the presence of Jehoshaphat he would not be here at all. Basically he tells Jehoram there is nothing in him which merits God’s blessing and attention. Elisha proceeds to tell Jehoshaphat God is going to supply water in abundance for him and the army and

We wrapped up the short section which introduces us to Elisha as the prophet to the 10 northern tribes. What we saw was Jericho coming to Elisha in order to seek help from God. It was a relatively young city. While it was a beautiful location it had been cursed at its founding. The city had come to realize the water was causing their animals and wives to miscarry. The Bible describes the city as bereaved. Elisha asks for a new bowl. This is important because a new bowl would not have been used for anything so it would not be contaminated in any way and would be ceremonially clean. Elisha also told them to put salt in the bowl. Salt is symbolic of God’s cleansing and preserving power. But the thing to keep in mind is Elisha could not just handle the salt. Elisha was not a pure enough vessel. The bowl foreshadows the greater and better vessel of Jesus. He would enter into time and He would be able to contain the preserving and purifying power of God. Elisha uses the bowl to cast the salt into the water source f

We walked through the calling of Elijah to heaven and the transfer of spiritual leadership from Elijah to Elisha. There are many layers to this story and the parallels are important to pick up. In this last story of Elijah’s life there is a strong parallel with Moses. He journeyed from Israel and their captivity to the world and idolatry to the Jordan. On the way they stopped at places where the schools of prophets had been established and some of them even join them on the last leg of their journey. Elijah then leads Elisha through the Jordan on dry ground like Moses led Israel through the Red sea. They went into the desert Moses ascended Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive the law. Elijah is carried by a whirlwind up to meet God. Moses dies and enters God’s presence and never enters the promised land. Elijah is carried into heaven and does not enter back into the promised land. Both of their bodies are never found. Joshua then journeys through the Jordan on dry ground back into the promised land after

We continued our study in prayer by examining how the Psalmist and other writers expressed joy in the midst of difficulty. How did they get to joy and what are some common traits of the journey to joy in a not so joyful situation. This is one of those areas where the Biblical writers give us a variety of examples for doing this. It is also something do not naturally  do and so it becomes something we need to practice and work on. We see this type of expression again and again throughout the Bible. We see it in the Psalms and wisdom books as well as commands by Paul to rejoice in the Lord always. David even appointed a whole section of the priests to do nothing but give thanks to God. This priority of giving thanks and praise to God in the Old Testament should certainly inform our own thoughts as we consider how we approach God and what the content of our prayers should include. We are not saying it should only be joy and thanksgiving but if we don’t find this theme being a part of our prayer life we should co

We explored the first chapter of 2 Kings and the last days of Ahaziah. In this section we have Elijah coming back into focus. The passage tells us Ahaziah is injured pretty badly in a fall. He is concerned he will not recover and he sends servants to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of the Philistines about his recovery. God sends Elijah to meet the servants and tell them Ahaziah is pursuing false gods and will certainly die. When the servants return so quickly with bad news Ahaziah deduces, by their descriptions of the messenger, it was Elijah. Ahaziah sends a captain of 50 men and his men to go get Elijah. This must have been a life threatening situation and when the men demand Elijah come down Elijah declares if he is a man of God may fire come down and consume them. Just as he says this fire comes down and consumes them all. Somehow Ahaziah hears of this and send another captain with fifty men. This captain demands Elijah come down quickly and again God sends fire from heaven to consume them. Ahaziah sends y