I digress.
I really liked the devotion in my Bible that related to 2 Kings 8:16-24, so I'm going to just copy it down here so I can share the whole thing:
The story is told of a 91-year-old woman who said, "I spend about one hour each day with my Lord, reading my Bible and Christian literature. When people ask what good all my reading does if I can't remember what I've read, my answer is always the same: 'I'm in pretty good health, have a roof over my head and have plenty of food to eat. I also have two sons and one grandson who love me dearly. My cup runneth over.' I am not concerned about my memory. I just do my reading and God does the remembering."
God doesn't forget his promises; he remembers them regardless of how much time passes. King Jehoram, Judah's fifth king, reigned for eight years. Unlike his faithful father, Jehoshaphat, who worshiped the Lord, Jehoram "did evil in the eyes of the Lord" and incurred God's anger. God allowed the Philistines, Arabians and Cushites to invade and plunder the land. Jehoram died a painful death and was denied burial in the tomb of the kings.
Because of Jehoram's evil actions, his reign ended painfully and abruptly. But God allowed Jehoram's grandson to survive. God remembered his promise to King David that he would preserve a godly remnant so that a Savior, his only Son, could be born through the tribe of Judah.
The people waited years for the Messiah. There were good kings and bad kings, captivity and foreign occupation. But through it all, God was mindful of his promise to send a Savior through the line of Judah. Roughly 600 years after the final book in the Old Testament was written, God kept his promise by sending Jesus in his perfect time, in his perfect way.
The sad truth is that people do break promises. They fail to keep their word. And this breaks our hearts. But no matter how many promises have been broken, no matter how many people have let us down, God never will. He is faithful...even if his promises take time to come to fruition. As the apostle Paul says, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the golry of God" (2 Corinthians 1:20)
I just thought this was a really good scenario to go along with this chapter.
April 17th- 2 Kings 7-9
I read parts of chapter 2 twice. Not because it was hard to understand, I was just taken back with the imagery. Elijah, a faithful servant of God, knew that his time was coming to enter into Heaven. He was being shadowed by Elisha. Elijah tested Elisha's devotion to him several times. They traveled to a number of different places and each time they arrived at a location Elijah asked Elisha to stay behind and not continue on the journey. Each time Elisha told Elijah that he would not leave him. They traveled a long way. During the travels Elijah did an amazing thing. He rolled up his cloak and struck the water with it. The water split up and the men crossed through. Right before he was taken up to heaven Elijah asked Elisha what he would desire from him. Elisha could have asked for anything he wanted, but all he asked for was the same connection to God that Elijah possessed. Elijah thought Elisha made a difficult request but told him that if he witnessed him leaving into heaven then he would be given what he asked for.
As they were walking and talking a chariot of fire and horses separated the two men. In a whirlwind Elijah went up to heaven. Then all was gone. Can you see it. I wish that is still what happened today. What a beautiful, amazing site that would be.
Elisha was crying out. He tore off his own clothes. He then picked up the cloak left over from Elijah and struck the water with it. The water parted just as it did for Elijah.
There were witnesses to Elisha's actions. They knew the Lord was with him. Although they believed it was the work of the Lord they did not necessarily believe that Elijah was gone. They thought he was maybe taken somewhere else on the chariot. They wanted to get a search team together to search for Elijah but Elisha told them NO. They did listen and searched for 3 days. No luck.
While Elisha was traveling along some young people came out of the woods and starting making fun of him. Those kids made fun of he WRONG PERSON. Elisha called two bears out of the woods. 42 youths died in that attack. Hmmmm, good lesson.....Don't be a bully! -nic
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