Elisha In His Early Ministry – Part 2 - The Water Is Bad Series

ELISHA IN HIS EARLY MINISTRY – PART 2 - THE WATER BAD

SERIES – MESSAGES ON ELISHA – HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY Number 4

[B]. THE WATER IS BAD

2Kings 2 v 19 [[Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” 2Kings 2:20 He said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it,” so they brought it to him, 2Kings 2:21 and he went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘I have purified these waters. There shall not be from there death or unfruitfulness any longer,’”2Kings 2:22 so the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.]]

(a). The Setting. There was a certain city that was an appealing place to live in. That city was Jericho and the aspect was very appealing. In fact Elisha was invited to confirm that, when the men of the city approached him. They had a problem. Their water was bad. What use is a fine location and splendid views and all things pleasant, but the water is just so awful? It is no good if the water is awful; no good for man or beasts or for crops. In fact the Hebrew word for the state of the land means bereaved and miscarrying, not producing properly. The Jordan valley was noted for bitter and brackish waters that the KJV calls “naughty water”.

In some ways this represents the lives of people. They have splendid outlooks. Their jobs are secure. Their incomes are great. All the things considered aspects of status, belonged to them. What more could they want? Well they will tell you they want nothing. One might say he just changed the car last year. Another will say he paid off the mortgage. These material aspects are the platforms men use to judge their condition. However, God looks on the hearts and He judges the heart to be bad. If the heart is bad, materialism will be in vain. Unlike the people from the town who saw Elisha and knew they had a problem, modern man does not realise he has a problem. Our water is bad. We need fixing. We drink at broken cisterns and the water is polluted. We wonder why we have wars and discord, and hate and calamity and misery, and international treasury problems, and unbalanced budgets, inflation and food shortages. It is because our water is bad. We can not fix our own bad water.

The men of the city were wise. They had bad water but they recognised they had a problem and they went to the right place to remedy that problem. That is because they were wise. They went to the man of God. What a different world this would be if men went to the correct place to fix the problems. God is the only solution, not men’s devised solutions. That means about 40% of people can’t even start to have their problems fixed because these are confessed atheists who think they just appeared from nowhere, and the solution to their own problems rests in their own hands. They drink their own bad water and will keep drinking the bad water. The rest of mankind will look for solutions to their problems from sources of disguised water, or coloured water, or sugared water, or medicinal water, but they are all variations on a theme. It continues to be bad water and bad water will never heal men’s problems. The men of the city were wise. They knew the answer lies with God and they went in a delegation to meet with the man of God. Can you remotely imagine what a blessing it will be if our city leaders met with a godly man and heeded his instruction!

When the problem of sin exists as it does or did for every person, the land remains unfruitful. What a person achieves in life in the long run, will count for nothing unless the water is right. What a farmer sows, even on the best prepared land, will count for nothing unless the water is clean and wholesome. Jesus warned His hearers to work for righteousness, not mammon. A common misconception is that a man is measured by his achievements – by his wealth, his status, his degrees, his popularity, his job, his possessions. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. It is what counts in the sight of God that really counts. In the long run, a man is measured by the blood of Christ, and on the measure of Calvary, a man stands or falls. Man measures fruitfulness by success. God measures fruitfulness by the achievements made through the Holy Spirit. The men who saw Elisha recognised that the unfruitfulness of their land was caused by the bad water, and that the solution lay outside their own hands.