January 4, 2022
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 2 Kings? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Kings 8 (NIV)
The Shunammite’s Land Restored
1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” 2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.
3 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.........Continue Reading
2 Kings 8
It’s always good to have a man of God looking out for you and Elisha warns this Shunamite woman of the upcoming famine that will happen in her area. After 7 years she returns and finds her property possessed presumably by the king. But when the king of Israel is told of the miracles performed for this woman, he decides to return the land and any profits received from it to her. It just goes to show that even the ungodly can be moved to generosity when confronted by the power of God.
And how unfortunate that Jehoram, the son of a righteous king, follows the ways of the kings of Israel because he married one of Ahab’s daughters. The people we choose to associate with have great influence in our lives and the more intimate the relationship, the greater the influence is. We must therefore be careful who we allow to be an influencer over us because as Pail says, bad company corrupts good morals. And his son follows In the same pattern and it is also because of evil family influence. We can learn from the negative example of those who do wrong as well as the positive example of those who do right…..
2 Kings 8
Clearly this king saw that God had taken favor on this woman and so why should he not do the same and repaid her for her land. However, is this the same Gehazi that was stricken with leporsy? Strange that he stayed on as servant or is the timeline off?
Hazael clearly took some liberties with the information Elisha gave him. Either he expediated the process of him becoming king through assassination or maybe that is what Elisha actually saw happen to get him on the throne.
It is crazy to me how many of these kings continue a tradition of evil despite what they see comes as a result! Power, wealth, and worldly desires really blind them to obedience to God and what is really best for their people.
I believe it is the same Gehazi…..
I was wondering the same thing about Gehazi.
We were talking last night about the Holy Spirit’s activity in the Old Testament and I thought of it again here when Elisha prophesies what will happened to the king of Syria. We are in judges and the HS comes upon Samson to give him miraculous strength to defeat the Philistines in various ways. The Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to care about the righteousness of those he uses in the Old Testament. I suppose that it true now in the NT, but I would like to think that the heart inclination to believe and obey leads to sanctification at the very least. Louise brought up that the prophets seem to be righteous men, but then there is also Balaam.