2 Kings 2: 19 - 25 - the third sermon on the life of Elisha
Below is the outline of the sermon, I preached on 18 September 2011 at West Ewell Evangelical Church, Surrey:
We are continuing the occasional sermon series on Elisha (‘God saves’).
The second narrative of the two , in particular, is difficult to understand; however: as 1 Timothy 3: 16 states: ‘All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.’
In his prophetic ministry, Elisha brought not only blessing but also curse from God –as seen in these two narratives.
1. Mercy
The water was, in the original Hebrew, ‘evil.’
The reason for the evil water was that Jericho was still under a covenant curse pronounced by Joshua (Joshua 6: 26, see also Deuteronomy 28: 15 – 18 – curses for disobedience).
Jericho rebuilt by Hiel of Bethel in the reign of Ahab (1 Kings 16: 34) at the cost of the lives of the builder’s two sons.
This situation can be seen in society, where the bad news of materialism and self has replaced the good news of God reaching out to people.
The evil can also be seen in the Church with issues such as false doctrines (including rejecting virgin birth, the sufficiency of Jesus’ work on the cross, the resurrection of Christ, heaven and hell), not weeping over the sin in God’s house.
In middle class suburbia, the effect is more subtle where we can observe consumerism which can be seen in what I want from church, and it is how easy to see that we are owed holidays, nice cars, etc. which can be a block to God being predominant in our lives.
The men recognised that Elisha was prophet of God and that they needed God’s blessing.
It was the Lord who healed (verse 20), not the water changing in response to Elisha.
Salt represented purity, which is equated to the holiness of God coming on the area which had been cursed (see Leviticus 2: 13 – where told to add salt to all offerings).
People had to step out in faith in providing the salt in obeying what God had said. Society needs to do step out in faith today, as we need to do as well.
The action showed God’s mercy to a community in time of stress
In verse 22, the cure was lasting as the water was cleared from impurity.
Only God can
- Bring broken sinners to Himself
- Restore the members of the broken Church so that they can step out in His anointing and enable them to be sanctified by the power of His blood
2. Judgement
The word 'youth' (naarim) literally means servants or men in the early years of life or in marriageable years - e.g. Absalom (2 Samuel 14: 21) to seventeen year-old Joseph (Genesis 37: 20 or trained soldiers in Abram’s army (Genesis 14: 24) –wide age range from a thirty year-old Joseph (cf. Genesis 41: 12, 40, 46) to Joshua when he was nearer forty-five to fifty (Exodus 33: 11, Joshua 24: 29).
It was not innocent childish behaviour, since same word appears in 2 Chronicles 36: 16, regarding the Lord warning Judah before they went into exile – ‘But they mocked God’s messengers, despised
His words and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.’
Bethel (literally ‘house of God’) had been given over to idolatry and worship of the Canaanite god Baal, so Hosea changed its name to ‘Bethaven’ (‘house of wickedness’ – 4: 15, 5: 8, 10: 5). In the same way, the UK has gone from worshipping God to nation of worshipping wealth, fame and fortune.
The young men may have been questioning Elisha’s claim to prophethood, despite the school of the prophets in Jericho (earlier in chapter) acknowledging him as successor to Elijah. The taunts for him to ‘go up,’ that is for him ascend into heaven (as Elijah, his master, had done).
The reference to baldness is:
- Not sign of inferiority or infertility, see Elijah (2 Kings 1: 8), nor did long hair be seen as sign of strength, see Absalom (2 Samuel 14: 26) or Samson
- Not a sign that tonsure was a sign of a prophet
- However, we do know that youths used Elisha’s outward appearance to mock his prophetic status
Elisha did not – a) run from them, b) argue or plead with them, c) compromise his message, d) act or react in self-interest, anxiety or self-defence, e) complain to God or resign his commission as a prophet.
It is important to note that curse was in the name of the Lord and not Elisha getting the huff – ‘Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.’ (Galatians 6: 7). We need to remember that only God had power over nature in sending the bears.
The role of the prophet was to forthtell to speak out the words that God had given him or her (in cases like Deborah), not the looking into a crystal ball.
The retributive justice was to be against anyone belittling a prophet as it was the equivalent of belittling God Himself – Deuteronomy 18: 19: ‘if anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.’
As there had been a school of prophets at Bethel, the youths had plenty of opportunity to repent; so they could have mocked previous exultations
They could have acted out of ignorance, apathy, hostility, rebellion or a combination of these factors.
John 3: 19 – 21: ‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light because his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.’
Curse equated to the removal of God’s blessing, protection.
Like one finger pointing forward and three pointing back, as a church, we should also heed when God is speaking to us: no action is like outright rejection – we need to be aware in case we should grieve the Holy Spirit as He speaks to us. We are reminded in 1 Timothy 1: 20 of Hymenaeus and Alexander, ‘whom I handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme [i.e. denying that God has spoken or speaking words that falsely attributing to God].’
We should be aware of when people speak out God’s words – ‘The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, because they are spiritually discerned.’ (1 Corinthians 2: 14)
Interestingly, as Jericho had curse that was removed by mercy and blessing remained; Bethel had protection of God removed and wickedness and judgement remained
Conclusion
God is motivated by love – reaches out in mercy but, when that is rejected, He will act in judgement
There will people in one of two categories:
-Those who have never turned to Jesus
- Those who have asked Jesus to be their Saviour, but at the moment He is not the Lord of all of their lives and they are rejecting the mercy He wants to extend to them – if He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all
