Sabbath Sermon - How to live in a world God is angry with (2 Kings 6:24-7:20)

Boxing Day tsunami
Hurricane Katrina
Flooding in New Orleans
Hurricane Rita
Earthquake in Pakistan
Famine in Africa
Mudslide in Guatemala

We live in a world that is full of tragedy and accident. Yet many of these ‘accidents’ were called acts of God by an older generation. They weren’t trying to pin the blame on God, simply describing it as something outside of man’s control.

But we don’t call them that any more – we call them ‘natural disasters’. That seems perfectly reasonable, because they involve nature, but at the same time calling them ‘natural disasters’ misses out on a key lesson.

Disasters aren’t natural. Death isn’t natural. Destruction isn’t natural. And in a world where God is in complete control there are no accidents. We need to realise that we live in a world which is full of billions of people whose every breath is constant rebellion against God.

And so we live in a world that is under God’s just wrath for its rebellion. But how are we to react when things go wrong around us, or even in our own lives?

In this passage we see this truth set out for us, and how to live demonstrated.

We live in a world that God is angry with
Despite the fact that Elisha had spared and feasted his troops, and cured his general Naaman, Ben-Hadad, the King of Syria is determined to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Never has there been a people that has been so harshly treated for so long. Even right into the present day.

Ben-Hadad comes with his army and lays siege to Samaria. The price of food rises. And as the price of the food has risen the quality of the food has dropped. And here a donkey’s head is a high priced delicacy. There can’t be much meat on it, but if you wanted a donkey’s head for your dinner, you would have had to pay somewhere around 6 years wages!

And although the NIV translates it seed pods, literally the phrase is dove dung – which apparently has been eaten by people in really dire circumstances. A half pint of dove dung would have cost 5 months wages.

And if you think that is bad – that is not the worst. Mothers had resorted to killing and eating their children.

This should have rung warning bells in the people’s minds. Why was this happening? Was it the fault of Ben-Hadad at the gate? Well yes at one level it was. He was the one stopping food getting through. But several times in his word God had warned the people about what would happen if they persisted in ignoring him, and disobeying his laws. In Deut 28:52 we read:

52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you. 53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating.

Is it that God is sick and twisted? No, this only comes at the end of a long list of threats, each one increasing in severity, and in Leviticus 26:27 they are prefaced with “If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile towards me, then…”

This is God saying, if you wish to live without me, then I will gradually and increasingly withdraw my presence, and as I do you will see what it is like to live with out me. For without God all sorts of evil fester. Our world, even after the bloodiest century in the history of mankind, where even when you rule out wars, we still managed to murder and exterminate more people that died in any other century – even after the 20th century, man still believes that mankind is basically good. We are not, the only thing that keeps us from the most awful of crimes is the restraining hand of God. And here it is being withdrawn – beware those of you who want nothing to do with God. This is what can happen.

This is what is happening to our world. People say, “We want nothing to do with God” and God gives us what we ask for. Not only that but he ends what he said he would send – famine, disaster, war to alert us to the fact that we cannot cope at all without him.

But why is God angry? Two answers:

Our continual sin – Just like Samaria
Our rejection of Jesus Christ – how much more angry should he be with our world?

How should we live in a world under judgment?
The circumstances within Samaria should have acted as an alarm bell in the minds of the people. This isn’t just hardship, this is living under the judgment of God. And as the months progress under this siege more and more boxes are ticked that prove that it is the judgment of God. But do they change their ways? No! They persist with ignoring God. And we see here three reactions to God’s judgment:

How are we to live in such a world – the person who is a Christian must have substantially different reactions to those of others.

Don’t just put your head down and get on with it
Two women of Samaria had made a pact. They would kill and eat their children to hold of their own starvation. So they murder one child and the next day the first woman returns to see the bargain fulfilled but the second woman, having feasted, has hidden her son.

Gross foul sinfulness. Here are people who are utterly oblivious to God’s judgment. They don’t care. They’ll do it their way. They’ll solve their problems themselves thank you very much. They don’t need God, they don’t want God.

And we see many people like that today. They may not have descended as low as this, yet, but their reactions to problems in their lives is not to throw themselves at God’s feet and plead for mercy – and he is a God who delights to show mercy – instead they try to sort it out themselves.

If you think God is trying to tell you something – listen, before he withdraws himself even further, and things become even darker.

How do you react?

Now we need to be careful, because not every problem is a result of our disobedience. Let me say that again – not every problem we face is a result of our disobedience. God may send problems into our lives so that we may grow stronger in our faith. Or to enable the glory of the gospel to be seen more clearly.

But even so – when we face problems we should ask “why”. In a world where God is sovereign nothing happens by accident. And if repentance isn’t the necessary response, there are other responses that are necessary. It might be “Lord help me to hang in here. Lord keep my faith strong. Lord help me to make do without such and such.”

Don’t get angry at God
Then we come to King Jehoram. We read something interesting about him in v 30

30 When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and there, underneath, he had sackcloth on his body.

Surprising! Sackcloth was the sign of humbling yourself before God. And Jehoram seems to be going about it in a right way – he doesn’t display his sackcloth or all to see. Indeed no-one would have known about it except he is so distressed at the awfulness of the situation that he tears the royal robes which were covering the sackcloth.

The Bible condemns outward show of religion, and the king certainly wasn’t putting on an outward show. But sadly his words in the next verses demonstrate that this wasn’t a humbling that led to repentance. We see him take an oath that his own life would be forfeit if Elisha wasn’t executed that day. And in v33 you can hear his impatience, “Why should I wait for the Lord an longer?”

It would seem as if Elisha has already told him to wait on God, to humble himself and to turn back to God. And Jehoram has come along with that. But its only skin deep. Its not repentance, its bargaining with God. Its almost as if he’s saying, “You told me that if I put on this sackcloth stuff, that God would sort it all out in his time. Well I’ve done all that, and it hasn’t worked.”

He’s like someone who says, “my wife was ill and I prayed and prayed, but God didn’t answer my prayers, so therefore he doesn’t exist. I’ve tried religion and it doesn’t work.”

But God isn’t impressed with bargaining. If I do this, will you me happy with me. Look at what I’ve done. I’ll pray to you, but you give me what I want. Why should God give you what you want? You haven’t given him what he wants – he wants a broken and contrite heart, he wants you to repent and trust him.

And what is missing from it all is genuine biblical repentance.

And amidst the judgment Jehoram gets angry at God. And we see a man more concerned about starving people, than about sinful people. And we see a man shake his fist at God and blame God. And things haven’t changed. In our world God has promised that if we ignore him he will pull back his hand, and then when he does exactly what he said he would do, and there is a disaster, an explosion, people start shouting and blaming God. When if they would humble themselves, and repent of their sin God would return. In Zec 1:3 we read

3 This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Return to me,' declares the LORD Almighty, `and I will return to you,' says the LORD Almighty.

Have you been angry at God over something? Anger at God is never right. You may need to humble yourself and repent, and seek God’s forgiveness. Perhaps some of you think you can bargain with God. God hates to be bargained with. Bargaining only works when you have something the other person needs. God does not need you. You on the other hand need God. And you must come on his terms.

Trust God amidst judgment
There is a third reaction to the judgment. It is that of Elisha. And here we see that God’s people aren’t exempt from trial, or from experiencing God’s judgment on the ungodly. Christians die in earthquakes, are starved in famines, and killed in bomb-blasts. But there is a difference between being under God’s judgment and being caught up in it.

The believer may well be caught up in it. Daniel of whom there is nothing wrong recorded was in Babylon. Elisha, again of whom nothing wrong is recorded, is caught up in this siege. Suffering does not mean for are under God’s judgment. This book was written to the people of God in exile, and here is encouragement and instruction for them. Elisha doesn’t appear to be panicking, from what the king says, it appears that Elisha is waiting on God’s timing. He isn’t ranting and raving, instead he is sitting calmly with the elders of the city.

There is a quiet trust here. And when God speaks, there is a trust in the promise that God gives. What a great example for the Christian. We live in a world that is under God’s judgment. At times we may experience more of God’s judgment than at other times. At times there may be specific ways that a country or a community come under God’s judgment. And if not, then we all still live in a world that suffers the general judgment of God when Adam disobeyed. And we suffer illness and bereavement, and disappointment, and have to worry about cancer diagnosis, and accidents, and depression. And how are we to live?

In quiet trust, depending on the promises of God and waiting on his time. And like Elisha in v32, if there is anything that we can do to prolong our life, or to alleviate the problems we face then do it.

Do you know the promises of God? Which promises are precious to you?

Amidst wrath there is Grace
The word of the Lord comes to Elisha and it is a startling promise. v1
Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."

There will be food, at the gate, tomorrow. Here is an astonishing promise, and one that is astonishingly specific. Elisha foretells the prices and the quantities.

The people don’t deserve this, but God isn’t going to bring deliverance. That’s grace. Mercy where their should be judgment. Blessing where there was cursing. That’s what the gospel is. And these people are going to live in a time of God’s grace.

We live in a strange world. It is a world that is simultaneously under judgment and yet living in a time of grace. The bad news of sin is all around us. Yet the good news of the gospel has arrived. How do you react to this good news?

Don’t mock God’s grace
When Elisha had spoken to the king the promise of deliverance from God the officer with the king laughed. It’s always someone on the fringe, isn’t it? Some smart-alec in the background that opens their mouth and mocks. It’s rarely the person you’re speaking to.

2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?"

This is wicked scornful unbelief. Elisha is renowned for speaking God’s words. What he says happens. But this man sees the man of God as an easy target. But God will not tolerate his word being mocked.

Men have mocked it down through history. They have denied it. They have claimed that parts cannot be true –

John gospel wasn’t written by John in C1. Written in C2. Then a fragment of John’s gospel found wrapped with a mummy in Egypt from C1.

Those who say you can’t trust to Bible say so in spite of the evidence. Those who trust God’s word have nothing to fear. It is always trustworthy. Never be ashamed of trusting God’s word. God will not tolerate his word being mocked.

Or his grace being scorned.

And Elisha speaks quickly and forcefully to him:

"You will see it with your own eyes," answered Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it!"

These are shattering words. There is a promise of great blessing. But he will see none of it.

What solemn words. This man choose to disbelieve not because he had any evidence that Elisha had ever been wrong before.

I fear that there may be some in this congregation
I fear that there are many in churches across this land

For whom this could be said. You have heard the promise you have refused to believe it, you will see it fulfilled, but you will taste none of the blessings yourself.

Think on what it must have been. To be starving. To be at the gate, people are rushing out to get food, maybe you’ll be able to go soon, maybe you’ll get some of those coming back in. And then to be knocked down, and in the crush feet pound over you, you can see food, you can smell it, and yet not to taste of it. And last things you see as your eyes close is the sight of people rejoicing as the darkness closes in around you.

Part of the great sorrow of Hell it would appear is that you will see the joy of the believers, enjoying what could have been yours. And you will weep tears of bitter bitter rage. And the saddest cry will be the sound of your voice saying - “It could’ve been me.”

And this is something that is utterly absolute. When God gives a promise of salvation and you refuse to believe it, and you mock the grace of God – God will not excuse you. Look at v16 – it happened exactly as foretold. And then God underscores the whole incident so that there will be no mistake. V17 – the mocker is identified, his fate recorded. And then in v18-20 the whole incident is restated so that we can be very clear on this. Then in v20 we read “And that is exactly what happened, for the people trampled him to death in the gateway and he died.”

God will not tolerate his grace being mocked. God hates to be distrusted. As the writer to the Hebrews says, “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation”. Hebrews 2:1

Seize the day
There were four other characters in this account. At the gate to Jerusalem there were four lepers teetering on the brink of starvation.

So they make their way to the enemy camp only to find it empty. In the last passage God had enabled someone to see an army that was there. In this passage he causes an army to hear another army that wasn’t there. And we see again how easy it is for God to throw the plans of men and women into disarray.

And the interesting thing is this – the army was gone. It is dusk, evening time when the lepers go out – the army had probably been gone from before the sun rose that morning, for the people of the town would have heard or seen them go. And so for the most of a whole day in Samaria desolate people were pulling their belts tighter around their waists, going to bed hungry when they had no need to be hungry. Had they known it, they were free, free to feast and eat and enjoy the blessings of the abandoned camp. They were starving in the midst of plenty, when they might have been feasting.

God works, and God has provided for man’s great need. Is it not a strange thing – a city under siege and yet not under siege, starving and yet with easy access to food? We see how easily God bewildered the Syrian armies, but do you also see the lesson here?

Isn’t it like so many around us? The Lord Jesus has come into the world to save sinners from the awful punishment that is theirs. The good news is that people don’t have to die in their sins. Salvation is available. They are living under judgment when they could so easily be living under grace. Part of the very reason that God is angry with them is the key to their salvation. God is angry because they reject the salvation he has provided.

Come out, come and find food for your souls. Come and find life giving water, come and find the bread of life. That the message we take.

And there are lepers at the gate of Samaria. Not allowed in, not wanting to move away. Usually they probably got food from the city. But now they feel that they have nothing to lose. Perhaps the enemy will have pity on them because hunger certainly won’t.

They seize the moment. And move from having nothing on the brink of death, to having everything, and life opening up before them.

And here we need to encourage people to think like these lepers. “We have everything to gain, and not very much to lose” they say to each other, “We have everything to gain.” This was what he French mathematician and genius Blaise Pascal said, “If I am wrong and you are right, and God does not exist, I have enjoyed life, and lost nothing. On the other hand if I am right and you are wrong, and God does exist, I have gained everything, and you have lost everything.”

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Sabbath Sermon - How to live in a Godless World (2 Kings 6:8-23)

How do you feel about this world we live in? There are some Christians who are like Eeyore the depressed donkey in the Winnie the Pooh stories. They are always lamenting the state of the world.

They are other Christians who have a really positive outlook and that’s great, but when trouble strikes in their lives, and they are diagnosed with cancer, or when they are wiped out financially, they find that their optimism was just that, it wasn’t based on God’s word, and now that trouble has come they flounder in their faith, and in fact some are so badly shaken that they don’t recover.

And then there are those who come to church and they can’t see the point in joining the church, because from where they stand it seems to be doomed.

And there are others who when they look at the church they see either a group of misery-guts who talk about joy and whose face looks as if it would crack if they ever smiled, or they see another group who are so filled with a shallow joy that falls apart when trouble comes – and they wonder what’s the point?

So how are you to live in a world that ignores God, defies God, where Christians get cancer, where children of Christians get knocked down – how are we to live? Because on this hinges the questions – is Christianity real, has it anything to offer when live falls apart?

Paul answers that question for us in 2 Corinthians 4:18:

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

He gives us a new perspective, and that verse in 2 Cor sums up wheat we learn from 2 Kings 6:8-23. Here we see three principles for living in a godless harsh world before Christ returns.

See the Futility of defying God v1-14
Can you picture the scene here? First of all we should notice the wickedness of what is happening here. The King of Aram was at war with Israel – What is wrong with that? Well his general Naaman has recently been healed of leprosy. The Bible tells us that it is a great sin to return evil for good. And here the King of Aram attacks the country that was responsible for helping their great general.

It may be that Naaman refused to be part of it, for v8 strictly should be translated, “He conferred with his servants”.

And he insists on carrying out this wickedness – flying in the face of God’s goodness to Naaman. And as he pores over the maps of Israel he decides to set up an ambush in a particular location, knowing that the king of Israel would be passing close by. But he waits and he waits and nothing happens.

So he chooses another venue, and waits and waits. And nothing happens.
So he chooses another venue, and waits and waits. And nothing happens.
So he chooses another venue, and waits and waits. And nothing happens.

And at this point you can see him standing in his tent with his servants and officers around him, and he slams his gloved fist down on the table and shouts, “Well who is the traitor?” and he walks around the tent glaring at each one of them in turn.

Eventually one of his men says, “Please sir, its none of us, its Elisha the Prophet, he knows everything we do. Even the very words you speak in here”.

You see you can’t defeat God. You can’t outwit him, you can’t out think him, you can’t out manoeuvre him, you can’t out last him, you can’t out run him, you can’t surprise him, you can’t defy him forever. He knows your actions, he knows your thoughts, even before you think them.

How do you live in this world if you are a Christian? Don’t envy the ungodly – Because God will frustrate their plans. God is always one step ahead. They may seem to get away with everything. Nothing happens without his say so. God runs no mopping up operation. Like a master chess player he knows what way you are going to move even before you move.

How do you live in this world? If you aren’t a Christian – you aren’t ever going to outsmart God. It shows the folly of trying to outthink God. Look at the king’s words in v13. Elisha is the source of all the problems, God reveals to him everything that the king is thinking, all his plans, so in the face of such an invincible weapon what does the king do – go home and resign himself to the greatness of Elisha’s God. No, we read in v13:

"Go, find out where he is," the king ordered, "so that I can send men and capture him."

As if Elisha isn’t going to know about it!! Do you see how futile it is to defy God? Defiance of God never works. It always ends in defeat. Every secret thing will be revealed. The very thoughts you have right now as I preach this.

How comforting that is for the church – Nothing the world can do will frustrate God’s plans. Nothing will stop the growth of his kingdom. We could be depressed at how the media always twist things to uphold sinfulness, and to hide righteousness, and to make Christians seem narrow minded. But nothing they do will halt God’s kingdom. Politicians and councils may make things hard for churches but only if God the supreme commander allows. No-one and nothing can harm, or hinder the church unless our supreme Defender allows.

We should note that there are times that he does allow trouble to come to us. But that is always for our good. But no plan of Satan catches God unawares. How depressing that must be for the enemies of God.

Any wonder the Psalmist says in Ps 2:

1 Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. 3 "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters." 4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

As you live in this godless world, remember that there is no chaos, God is guarding his people.

Don’t focus on the evil around you v15-17
The forces descend on Dothan. Elisha’s servant is going out to chop wood for the fire for breakfast or something similar, and as he opens the door you can almost picture him shutting it again in shock, and then opening it a crack and peering out. Then he runs to Elisha,

15 "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.

Here is a young believer. He is Gehazi’s replacement. He hasn’t been with Elisha long. He is new to the job. And he is afraid. Young believers are often taken aback by opposition. Things can go so well at eh start for the first few months, but then the Devil comes with some attack.

And it isn’t just young believers that falter – we all can if we forget one simple lesson. Elisha hasn’t forgotten it though, and he tells the young man the most startling of truths. “Things are not what they seem, Those that are for us are more than those who are against us.” It must have seemed like madness to this young believer. He could see the chariots, the tanks of the day lined up outside the village. Probably hundreds of soldiers. And there he stands with a frail old man with long white flowing beard beside him.

More of us than them?!?

But Elisha could see what the young man couldn’t see. He could see the armies of Heaven arrayed in majesty all around them. And Elisha prays and this young man learns a lesson that has been recorded in scripture for us to read so that we will not forget it either.

There are realities that the natural eye cannot see – the soldiers couldn’t see the heavenly host
There are realities which the untrained spiritual eye cannot see – the young believer couldn’t see them

But they are realities nonetheless. And God will enable you to face fear and danger and a godless world with courage when you lift your eyes from what is seen to what is unseen.

How we may ever actually see fiery chariots and horsemen, but that makes them no less real. And we need to remember the reality. We tend to think of angels as nice willowy feminine creatures with soft and gentle complexions, but how is it that every time in scripture that they appear, they have to say, “Don’t be afraid.” The Angel of the Lord visited the Assyrian camp later on in 2Kings and he dispatched with 185,000 soldiers in one evening.

And we see further the futility of defying God here. The lives of those soldiers hung by a very slender thread, at a word from the commander of the heavenly hosts they would have been swept off the face of the earth.

Friend, if you are not a Christian – God holds your life in your hand right as we speak, he can cut the silver cord of your life. He could place his finger on your heart and stop its beat and summon you into his presence to give account. You could be swept into eternity in a split second.

Christian friends, remember this lesson – Invisible spiritual realities are far greater than visible problems and circumstances. Whatever problems you face, you may not see the chariots, but they are there nonetheless. Scripture tells us in Psalm 34:7 “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”

In Hebrews 1:14 we read “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

This is how much God cares for his children. Billy and Anne and Esther – cruise. Ministering servants there to take care of needs.

An ocean liner left a British port during WWII and headed for a harbour in the U.S. Enemy ships were everywhere. The captain was given secret directions charting the route. Added were these instructions: “Keep straight on this course. Turn aside for nothing. If you need help, send a message in code.” After a few days at sea, the crew spotted an enemy cruiser on the horizon. It appeared to be trailing them. The captain immediately sent a coded message: “Enemy cruiser sighted. What shall I do?” The reply came from an unseen vessel: “Keep straight on. I’m standing by.” No friendly ship could be seen, but the captain kept the liner on course until it safely reached port. Within a short time, a British submarine glided quietly into the same port. Although it had been out of sight, it had been present all the way.

There is an unseen army watching over the people of God

On this morning Elisha was aware of this level of protection. That explains the perfect peace that surpasses understanding that he had. It didn’t make sense in human terms to be calm in the circumstances. That’s why he was untroubled.

Have you ever seen that in an older Christian – facing illness or death, completely at ease? Its because they are conscious of the level of God’s protection for them.

If he has given his Son for you – he isn’t going to lose you at this stage.

And there will be times when you will need to lean of the fact of v16, when you can’t see the chariots of v17.

Remember the legions. Peter forgot the legions of Angels. He thought he had to do it all himself. He lashed out with the sword in the Garden and Christ said, “Could I not call more than 12 legions of Angels to rescue me?” That’s 72,000 angels. God’s protection and care of you is more real than you can ever imagine. And its ok to ask him like Elisha did for a glimpse – sometimes we are like the young fearful believer and we need a glimpse – it may come through a verse of scripture, a promise, it may come through another believer, it may come through a passage like this, where suddenly you are made aware that you are not alone.

Lift your eyes from the problem – it may be serious surgery, it may be illness, it may concern for family, it may be farming problems – lift your eyes from the problem and look beyond them to the provision and providence and care of God. Bunyan in Pilgrims Progress has Christian approaching the Castle Beautiful – on the path are two great lions, and they are fearsome, and there was only a narrow pathway between them. And they frighten young Christian, and Bunyan adds, “The lions were chained, but he saw not the chains.” How much worry and fear would we be freed from if we learned to see the chains that restrain evil, or the angelic hosts that are arrayed around us.”

And there may be a need for you to be like Elisha to others and to

Help other believers to see the invisible
Notice what the prophet doesn’t do. He doesn’t rebuke the fearful believer harshly. He is gracious
Notice what he did do – he assured him – do not fear, and gave him a reason – he teaches him this great truth
Then he prayed that the young believer would be able to see this for himself.

Here’s how to live in a godless world with a deep contentment – not a naïve jollyness that is unaware of the difficulties, but a peaceful calm that acknowledges the difficulties but sees beyond them to the God who is in control.

Display Christ’s love to those who would wrong you v18-23
There is a danger that as we live in a world that ignores God, and as we see the futility of defying God, and as we see the awesome forces arrayed on the side of God, the great danger is that we become self righteous. The Christian can look down their noses at unbelievers, as if they are stupid – forgetting that God had to open their eyes before they could see the truth also.

Or there is the danger that the Christian who loses sight of these previous two great truths can become frustrated and seek to take matters into his own hands.

But that is not how God wants us to live. In this chapter we have seen what our attitude to God should be, what our attitude to problems should be, and now in v 18-23 we see what our attitude to those around us should be.

How do we react to those who deliberately and defiantly flout God’s laws, and seek to harm, insult or persecute God’s people?

In 1 Peter 3:9 we read “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

And that is what we see Elisha doing here. We are to do nothing but good to those who are outside of Christ. The soldiers are arrayed outside Dothan. And Elisha prays for another miracle. It is the reverse of the first. In it he had prayed for a young man’s eyes to be open, here he prays for an armies eyes to be blinded. I don’t think that it’s the case that they couldn’t see, for they were able to travel the 10 miles to Samaria, but rather that they couldn’t see what they should have seen.

Do you see how easy it is for God to confuse those who would oppose him?

Now some would accuse Elisha of lying in v19 when he says,

"This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria.

But who was it that they had been looking for originally v8-9. They had been looking to attack the king of Israel. They had only been looking for Elisha because he had spoiled their attacks so often. It was the king they wanted. And in any case – here is a man of God, who has just prayed for God to work a miracle, and then another one, and in a minute or two will seek a third miracle. Is it likely that God honours a man who speaks lies?

So he leads them to Samaria, and he prays for their eyes to be opened. And suddenly they realise that having been in a position of power they are now in the enemy stronghold.

And the King of Israel is beside himself with vengeful glee, “Shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?”

And Elisha teaches him this great lesson – Don’t retaliate to the ungodly. Do not repay evil with evil.

How easy it can be for the Christian to get fed up being the subject of mockery, of being passed over, of being ripped off, or being ignored, and to want to seek some form of revenge. We want people to know what it feels like.

But here, Elisha, the man whose life had been threatened shows us how to react.

He sets the men down to a feast. And now can you imagine the story that these men tell as they go back home? “We suddenly found ourselves in the palace of the King of Israel with his soldiers all around us, and we thought we were dead men, but the man of God the one Naaman had told us about ordered that we have a feast!”

Friends that should be our response. Paul writes in Romans 12:17-21

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

And why should we treat people like this? Because this is how we have been treated ourselves. God has every right to wipe us off the face of the earth, but instead of the wrath we deserve we are invited to sit at the Kings table and feast at his expense.

How can we display anything less to those who frustrate, mock, irate, tease us.

How should we respond?

Prayer – not "Lord, make them nice, but save them, bless them, give me a love for them."
Show kindness when they are needing sympathy, politeness that is genuine not cold, loe that acts.

And as we live in this world, with these three attitudes of heart we will be a witness to the unseen God, who spares those who deserve death.

2 Kings 6:1-7 - Do not be anxious about anything

Sorry for the long absence - things are always fairly busy in January, and along with that, I have decided that I don't want to become mastered by the need to blog. "Everything is permissable, but I will not be mastered by anything."
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What lessons do we learn from this passage? Perhaps as we read through it you were wondering - what are we going to learn from this today?

Are there any lessons? Don't chop wood near a river with borrowed tools. That we should be as conscientious as this man was when we do borrow from others? Don't involve ministers in building projects? Use professionals?

Part of our problem when we come to read the Bible, and especially these Old Testament stories is that we are constantly looking to find ourselves in them. What should I learn from this? How does it apply to me? Is there an example for me to follow or avoid?

Those are good questions and they have their place. But instead the first question we should ask is, "What does this tell me about God?"

And when we ask that question we see the lesson straight away. God cares about axe heads. Or God cares about things that happen to us, that in the big scheme of things aren't really that important. This lesson that God cares is one that the writer of 2 Kings has been driving home for quite some time now. This is the same sort of miracle as the five in ch4. There we saw God provide when someone was in great need - the widow who was in debt, he provided when a woman was is despair - she was childless, he provided when she was in deeper despair, and her beloved son had died, he provided when there was danger in the pot of stew, and he provided when there was a shortage in the dinner menu.

God is a God who provides. And the writer of 2 Kings wants us to really get this. Why does he tell 6 stories when one would have done?

We're very good at finding things to worry about aren't we? It isn't enough to be told "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear" for we'll think "what about family, or my job - he didn't mention those.

But there are no loopholes in God's care policy. He cares for us in every way. That's what these stories drive home - they're the foundation for Paul's command, "Do not be anxious about anything."

God cares for us in every aspect - be it in need, in personal pain, or grief, or danger or shortage, or in this case, just an ordinary every day accident. God cares.

We're going to look at this passage from three directions

God cares for his people in every circumstance
Three aspects to God's care:

God is concerned about the simple needs of his people
Can you imagine the scene?

There is a theological college - that's what the company of the prophets was. They are tight for space. And these men of God are practical men, they decide that they would like to built larger premises. But rather than just head off and do their own thing, they seek the guidance and permission of their teacher - Elisha. He gives them his wholehearted support, and they ask him to accompany them.

So off they go down to near the Jordan river and they are busy chopping trees. One man has shown initiative and gone and borrowed an axe. And as he swings at the tree trunk with all his might the axe head hurtles off and there is distant splash. And as the axe head sinks so does his heart - for it wasn't his, it was borrowed.

And he laments his case to Elisha, the man of God. Note that is what he is called in v6. The author wants us to realise that it is not Elisha who is the focus, it is God who is about to act.

And Elisha chops down another branch and throws it in, and as it sinks, the axe head floats. It is a miracle for heavy iron axe heads do not float.

God is concerned about an axe head. The laws of physics, the laws of the universe, are temporarily suspended because an axe head has fallen in a river. What does that tell you about your God?

No concern is too small for him. It might be a relatively simple need, but it still matters to God. On a world scale there might be trouble brewing in Assyria, the King of Israel might be flouting God's law at every turn, there might be a famine in the country, but down by the Jordan one of God's people has had a simple accident, nothing traumatic - just a lump of metal fallen in the river.

But that matters to God. I find that immensely comforting. I've found that, have you? - God is concerned about roofboxes - Expand - Start with sitting in café reluctant to spend €1 on the Dealer. Begrudged spending the money because not likely that there would be a roofbox in it

Tomorrow your car might not start - is it worth praying about?
Your washing machine might break down just as you are about to start 5 loads of washing.
You may have some mundane ordinary task to do on the farm - clipping of fencing, and you need to get it done, but things keep getting in the way - is that something you can bring to God?
Your heaters may not come on on a cold morning …

Surely we should be able to cope with these sorts of things?

Do not be anxious about anything. Why - not because these things don't wind us up - but because we don't have to be anxious.

God is concerned for the Genuine needs of his people
Having emphasised the simplicity of the need, we need to be balanced and emphasise that this was a real need.

The axe head has flown off the handle and sunk out of sight into the river. And the man is conscience stricken. Why so? It was borrowed. What's the big deal - can't he pop next door to Diver's hardware and get a replacement?

It's not quite so easy. Although the Iron Age had been around for about 2-3 centuries, Israel had struggled with this new technology. Iron implements weren't that common. It took a tremendous amount of effort to smelt the ore. Many hours had to be spent. Huge numbers of trees had to be felled to light the fires to heat the furnaces. The ore needed to be quarried. The tools had to be shaped and sharpened.

This was a Rolls Royce of tools. And your man has just heaved it into the river!

And there isn't much spare cash floating about in these times - these are the men that go out scavenging for food. This man has borrowed and lost something that he has no hope of replacing.

This is a genuine need. This wasn't that he would have liked an iron axe head for himself. That would have been luxury. This is a man going into quite a sizeable debt. And what do we learn about God? God is concerned about our genuine needs.

Here is why you don't need to be anxious about anything - if there is anything that would genuinely be for your good for God to do - he will do it.

Of course our problem is that we often have different ideas about what would be good for us - or what we need. But here God demonstrates that he is not blind to our distresses or our emergencies, or genuine needs.

In fact sometimes it is in our distresses, emergencies or genuine needs that we see God act in the most marvellous ways.

God cares in advance of our needs
The key issue for the man on the bank of the Jordan was that when he turned to look for the man of God - Elisha was there.

The presence of the man of God was the crucial factor in this incident. Why was Elisha there? Look at v 3. Well done that prophet who asked Elisha to accompany them on a building expedition! Where would they have been if that question hadn't been asked? And yet God had prompted that man to ask that question at that time, so that later on in the day, or maybe even a day or two later - we don't know how long they were at this task - Elisha was there when he was needed.

So much hangs on such an insignificant detail. But God had the answer in place long before the problem arose.

Have you found that? I have - let me go back to that roof box - God had had a man in Belfast buy a roof box, for a car very similar to ours, and leave it at a camp site in Kerrykeel, and then in the week that I decide to look for one - he tells the campsite manager to put it in the Dealer.

I remember another time when I was in this situation that this man finds himself in - I had borrowed a car. I removed a chunk of the paintwork up the side of the car. Distraught - how could I ever afford to pay for that. I got home, and found a cheque that had been posted two days previous sitting on the table.

Here is another reason we shouldn't be anxious about anything - God often provides in advance for the needs of his people. And seemingly insignificant details and decisions can turn out to be the very things God uses to provide. And so often we find that God had his provision in place long before we needed it.

God cares for his people. Let me emphasise that God cares for his people. These are his prophets. This level of care and attention isn't bestowed on everyone. The person who refuses to put their trust in Christ has every reason to be anxious about everything. For they do not have a heavenly father looking after them in every circumstance in life.

You see for those of you who are Christians when Christ died at the cross for you he did much more than wipe out your debts. He brought you into his family. He purchased for you all the rights and privileges of the sons and daughters of God. What father can sit by and see his children anxious about anything? It may be a simple need - Eva is upset because Piglet has fallen below the bed. Do I tell her not to be silly - its only a stuffed toy, and she can have breakfast without it?

Here too is the depth of his care for us. Everything you need for life and godliness has been purchased for you at the cross. All that you will need is available. God has prepared it all in advance.

Perhaps you look at your life and you can identify more with the axe head than the man who lost it. You feel as if you are at the bottom of the muddy old Jordan. You feel that things are hopeless. God cares and God is able to raise you up out of whatever depths your soul may have plunged to. It may be that in your discouragement it seems to you that God doesn't care, and that things are too bleak, that the situation is hopeless. Here we see a God who specialises in turning hopeless situations around.

Don't lose hope - do what this man did take your request to God. He who wouldn't let the prophet lose an axe head certainly wont allow you to be lost.

But it would be wrong simply to look at this passage in terms of our personal needs - there is more to it than that.

God cares for his church in dark days
This passage shows God's care - not just for his individual people, but also for his people as a body - the church.

As we look at this passage and ask the question, "What do we learn about God here? Or What is God doing here?" we see something else.

And we need to bear in mind the people that this book of 2 Kings was written for. They were in exile in Babylon. The author of Kings is being guided by the Holy Spirit to select accounts that will be not only of help to us, but also of help to them in the dark and discouraging days in which they live.

And so what do they see when they read this passage?

What has just happened? Gehazi, the servant of the man of God has just been dismissed. The cause of God in Israel would seem to have taken another blow. The heart of Elisha's right hand man was not set on the things of God after all.

But look at how ch 6 starts off:

The company of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us.

Gehazi may be gone, but God's work is flourishing. Bishop Hall writes:

"There was no loss of Gehazi; when he was gone the prophets increased. An ill man in the church is but like some shrubby tree in a garden, whose shade keeps better plants from growing. The view of God's just judgments doth rather draw people unto him than alienate them."

Gehazi may be gone, but the theological college has to be extended. What may seem loss to man is not loss with God.

The people in exile could identify with this, many of their people had been lost, the true remnant was being whittled down. The question in their minds was, "Is there a future for us? Does God still care?" In this passage both those questions are answered. Even while God is removing the godless from among the church, he will also be extending it, bringing others in to fill the seats of those who once sat there.

Not only has this happened in the context of Gehazi being removed, but also in the context of an idolatrous godless nation. And amongst this godless nation God is building his church. God still cares for his people although the nation may have forsaken him.

It would have been encouraging for another reason. Look at the miracle itself. How often does the church seem to be like that axe head? All seems lost, we seem sunk in the depths of muddy old Jordan. If we knew our church history - how much help there is there.

I mentioned last week about the revival in 1859 in Ulster and we may wish that we lived in such days - days when spiritual issues were discussed in public, and people went to church en masse. But those days started among bleak dark days. And it is in the darkness that God often starts, because it is in the darkness that his true and faithful people get really down to the serious matter of prayer, and begin to take seriously the command to reach out.

When the church seems sunk, when the world pronounces the death of the church, or pronounces it to be irrelevant, God raises the axe head to the surface again.

Look at it from another perspective - here are the people of God working at some great scheme. As they work, an accident happens, something unforeseen that would seem to be a great hindrance to the work. And yet events that to all would seem to signal the end of the work, are not a hindrance to God. God may take away men from congregations, but if his work is truly being done he will provide and the work will flourish.

A key figure in the life of a church may be taken, but God will provide. So let us be encouraged - God cares for and builds his church even in the darkness.

God cares for sinners in hopeless lostness
I want to finish by addressing those of you who haven't put your trust in Christ yet. By now you know all the facts, you may even believe the facts to be true. If anyone said that Jesus didn't exist, or that he was a liar you would argue with them that they were wrong. But yet you still haven't come to that point where you have thrown yourself before him and said, "I need you to save me."

There is encouragement for you. For you are like this man in this story. There has been placed on you an enormous debt that you cannot hope to pay off. It is your debt. For you have borrowed something from God - your life. It isn't yours, it is on loan from God. Every breath you take, every step you make, is a gift from him. And one day you will have to give an account of what you did with your precious God given life.

And if you haven't placed it in his care and in his service for safe keeping, you have lost it at the bottom of muddy old Jordan. It doesn't matter what you are doing, whether you are living at decent life, or living a foul life, when you're on the bottom of a river bed it doesn't really matter.

But the day of reckoning will come when the owner will seek the return of what was leant. And like this man there will be an enormous debt to pay.

The good news is that just as for this man God had his provision in place long before it was needed. God has had his provision in place long before you needed it. Jesus Christ will redeem your life, rescue you from the depths of rebellion and lift you out of the miry clay of judgment. The good news of the gospel is that God has already provided the answer - Come to him. Come now.

Be like this man, turning to the man of God he said, "Alas it was borrowed." "Alas, my life is borrowed, alas I will have to give account and I cannot pay." And when you turn to the Man of God, God the Man, he will raise you up, and pay your debt.

Here is reason to praise God.

Why? Because God cares, not just for his people and for his church, but for lost sinners.

Sabbath Sermon - Dangerous Amazing Grace (2 Kings 5:19-27)

Let me introduce to you 4 men:

Fritz Saukel - Nazi Head of Labour and Supply, described as the greatest and cruellest slave driver since Pharaoh, who worked millions of slave labourers to death without mercy.

Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel - Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed forces. His unquestioning obedience to Hitler led to his being responsible for more deaths than anyone could count.

Wilhelm Frick - Minister of the Interior, a vicious hard-line Nazi who title covered up his reign of terror.

Joachim von Ribbentrop - Hitler's Foreign Minister, who had greeted King George VI with a "Heil Hitler".

Each man was on trial at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. Each man was found guilty of the most horrendous crimes against mankind. Each man was sentenced to be hanged.

As Ribbentrop was asked for his last words by the executioner, he said, "I place all my confidence in the Lamb who made atonement for my sins." And he turned to the Christian who had been assigned to be chaplain to the condemned men and said, "I'll see you again."

Saukel the slave driver, and Keitel the head of armed forces made similar statements, and Frick the man who terrorised hundreds of thousands informed the chaplain that he too had come to faith in Christ.

The chaplain was a man called Henry Gerecke, who wrote, "I have had many years experience as a prison chaplain and I do not believe that I am easily deluded by phoney reformations at the eleventh hour."

It would seem that these conversion were genuine.

And these men, despite their hands being red with the blood of millions are going to be in Heaven, and your very nice neighbour who would do anything to help you, and who is the picture of decency and moral integrity is going to Hell.

That is the shocking nature of the gospel. It cuts both ways. It is so wonderful and powerful that if a mass murderer accepts it, they will be saved. But it is so important and precious that the most decent person cannot get to Heaven without it.

The Gospel is a sword that cuts both ways. It cut Naaman free from his idolatry and pride, but it also cut Gehazi out of the people of God. With Naaman we see the transforming power of the gospel, but now with Gehazi we see the exposing power of the gospel.

It is amazing grace, but it is dangerous amazing grace.

And we learn a great truth and two very important warnings

God IS too easy on us!
Gehazi was right in v20

After Naaman had travelled some distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, "My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him."

Let me remind you of the story… Naaman had his sins forgiven and his leprosy washed away, Elisha wouldn't allow him to give him anything.

Gehazi is outraged because it is outrageous! And although Gehazi is a wicked and greedy man he still makes a profound statement here. Of course he doesn't react in a right way to what he says, but nevertheless it is still true.

Think about it for a moment. God is far too easy on us. Every day for all of your life you have disappointed and disobeyed God. One sin is enough to see you cast out of his presence. But we haven't just sinned once, we have sinned many times each day in what we have thought, in what we haven't thought that we should have thought, in what we have said and what we haven't said, in what we have done and what we haven't done. So there's an absolute bear minimum of 6 sins per day. That's over 2000 per year. Take your age and multiply it by 2 and add the word "Thousand" at the end. If you are 10 that's 20,000 sins, if you're 25 that's 50,000, if you're 40 that's 80,000, if you're 75 that's 150,000. And those numbers are the based on the ridiculous idea that we only sin once in each of these areas each day. They're far too small. So before the perfect holy God is the vast mountain of your personal sin.

And then add to that the fact that for those of you who are Christians - your sins are against knowledge - you should know better. Your sins committed each day as a Christian are in a sense even worse, even more of a slap in the face to God. And given that it is worse to know the truth and reject the truth than to be a filthy pervert, according to Jesus is Matthew 11:22 - many of us knew the gospel and rejected it for years before coming to Jesus.

And we need to remember that each sin is a personal offence against God. It is a personal insult to him.

And what does he do when you come seeking forgiveness for this vast mountain of wrong? What does he require of you?

To come and repent. To say and be sorry. And to believe what he says about himself

And for that he removes all the guilt and all the punishment that was waiting for us. Gehazi was right! God is far too easy on us!

It was his complaint - it should be a source of unending wonder for us.

Think of what we get - we get eternal life. At most we follow him for a few short years, and he gives us eternal life! The reward is vastly out of proportion to the service. And all the more when we realise that those who turn to Christ at the end of their lives receive the same eternal life! So it's not as if we earn the eternal life by following.

We who are dust get to live in eternity forever - we who are an offence and a stench to the nostrils of God - that's ridiculous, wonderfully ridiculous. Gehazi spoke the truth, but he didn't see the wonder of it.

Those of us who are Christians need to take this opportunity and stop to wonder at the greatness of God's grace. It is utterly stunning. He could ask the world of us, and it still wouldn't be enough to pay for one sin. Yet all he asks of us is that we repent and believe. Turn away from our sin and trust him.

God has been far too easy on us. It is a magnificent, wonderful, soul-enriching truth.

And that explains what happens in this passage. Since his grace is such a magnificent and amazing act

God will not tolerate his grace being distorted
That's main thrust of this section.

Elisha has laboured with Naaman to make the point that God's salvation costs nothing. It is just as free to Naaman as it is to any Israelite. That's the whole point of him refusing Naaman grateful reward. He knows that when Naaman arrives in Damascus, people will ask the obvious question, "What happened to you?" He wants Naaman's answer to be, "The God of Israel saved me, he made me clean." "How much did it cost?" "Nothing the God of Israel saves people for free."

Gehazi is livid that Elisha has taken nothing from Naaman. Gehazi is determined to make Naaman pay. It doesn't matter to him that Elisha has been trying to teach Naaman a very important biblical truth.

And so he goes off after Naaman who this made up story about two prophets arriving in great need. And of course Naaman gives him the money and the clothing, he's so thankful for his new life, and his new salvation that he'd do anything for God, and for God's people.

And in a moment Gehazi undoes all that Elisha had taught in v16. In a moment he distorts the grace of God.

Now we may think that we would never do that.

But if we found yourself thinking about the Nazi war criminals, "That's not fair, they should be made to pay" then you need to watch because you are in danger of making the mistake Gehazi made.

The grace that is amazing is also dangerous. It is dangerous if we forget that we didn't deserve it either.

The simple truth is none of us deserves anything from God. The Gospel is monumentally unfair. It is unfair to God - that he should have to pay for something he didn't do so that we could get something that was never ours.

We need to watch when we find ourselves being judgmental about others - because we are guilty too. We should be made to pay.

How can we do it?

We do it when we meet someone who has problems - say an alcoholic - and we make them feel as if they are sub-standard, as if they have to work even harder than the rest of us to be accepted by God. When we look down our noses at them, as if they aren't really whom the church is for. We're saying like Gehazi, "It isn't enough that you come to God, we want more from you."

We distort God's grace every time we add anything to the gospel.

You've got to be a Christian and wear the right clothes
You've got to be a Christian and come from the same background as us
You've got to be a Christian and be the same colour of skin as us
You've got to be a Christian and not done anything really terrible in your past.

Have you ever done that - assigned someone to a second class Christianity because you find out that they did something awful before they became a Christian? Or because they have been divorced? Or because they married someone who isn't a Christian? Or because they don't have the same theology as you? Or because they don't have the same pedigree in the church that you have?

That is a despicable thing. And that is what Gehazi was doing. And God does not tolerate people who add to his grace. We see what happened Gehazi, and similar will happen to anyone who adds to God's grace, and has higher requirements of others than God has.

No matter what background a person has - all God requires is repentance and faith. And you are a child of God, equal with every other child of God. There are no second class citizens of Heaven.

And pride has no place in the believers life. The only thing a Christian can say is "That could have been me."

Let me apply this in two specific ways

When God starts bringing people into this church - he'll bring all sorts. And when he does that we must be ready to welcome them and integrate them, displaying to them the amazing truth of God's grace - that even if you are a Nazi murderer, or a child abductor (like Naaman), you are now my brother or sister in Christ, and if God doesn't hold your past against you, then I certainly am not. And whether they become brothers and sisters in Christ or not, they need to see God's willingness to accept mirrored in us.

The other application is this - just as we must not distort God's grace with regard to others, so we must not distort it with regard to ourselves. There are some Christians who are immensely hard on themselves, they look at who they are and they feel that they couldn't possibly be accepted by God. They feel that they are some sort of second class Christian. We're not to do that to ourselves. God has said that we are his children, and we must not distort that grace.

God's grace is utterly amazing. We are all undeserving, and he makes any repentant sinner a son or daughter with all the rights and privileges of a son of God. We must not distort something so wondrous, for God does not treat lightly those who slander him or distort his grace.

And the second warning is this:

God will not tolerate those who ignore his grace
In this chapter we see that you can be amongst the godly and be ungodly yourself. You can have experienced all sorts of blessings, like Gehazi - he had seen countless miracles, he had heard countless sermons, he had lived in close proximity to a very godly man. Yet he was far from God.

And that is a solemn truth, you can be far from God while at the same time being very close to God's people. You can attend church, live in a home with other Christians, your closest friends can be Christians, and you still be far from God. You can have seen and heard about God's grace and ignore it.

And you may even fool many people. I'm sure the other prophets didn't suspect Gehazi of being anything other than a full-bodied believer. I'm sure that the woman at Shunem, or the widow thought Gehazi was a cert for being a believer.

But God was not fooled. And we see that he made it clear to Elisha that Gehazi was a deceiver (v26).

But Elisha said to him, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants?

Not only did God see what Gehazi had done when no-one was looking, but he knew exactly what he planned to spend the money on. And he revealed all of this to Elisha.

This is a great New Testament warning - Look how close you can be to the kingdom of God and yet not be in it. We see it with Judas, with Simon the Sorcerer, with Ananias and Sapphira. You can sit as Gehazi did, comfortable in the church for a long time, but God will weed you out. And he will replace you wqith ythsoe you currently look down your nose at.

Do you see what has happened in this chapter?

We started with Naaman the Syrian, the leper, and Gehazi the Israelite. Now we end with Naaman, the true Israelite, and Gehazi with his heart set on the things of Syria, the leper. There has been a complete reversal.
The Israelite receives the curse, and the pagan receives the blessing. And the story that started with an unconverted pagan and a professing believer, ends with the roles changed, and Naaman professing faith, and Gehazi condemned.

God will not tolerate those who ignore his grace. He will deal with you. And if there are people in this congregation who are ungodly amongst the godly, he will remove you. Your place is no more indispensable than Gehazi's was. God will provide a Naaman to sit in your seat.

So here is the warning - If you continue to ignore God's grace and your heart isn't set on the things of God, then you will find that God's heart is not set on you. God may say to some of you, perhaps some of you young people, perhaps some of you older people, "Enough is enough, you have sat in that pew long enough, I am going to take my grace to those who have never heard of it." And I tell you this, when you see people starting to come into this church from outside, from this community you will know that God is passing over you if you have not responded.

Conclusion
Some of us need to go home today and marvel that God has dealt so easy with us.
Some of us need to go home today and repent of wrong attitudes and superior feelings
Some need to need to go home today and repent of ignoring God's grace.

God's grace is amazing, but the grace that is amazing is also dangerous if we distort or ignore it.

Sabbath Sermon - Our All-Sufficient Saviour - 2 Kings 4:38-44

Gladys Aylward, missionary to China more than fifty years ago, was forced to flee when the Japanese invaded Yangcheng. But she could not leave her work behind. With only one assistant, she led more than a hundred orphans over the mountains toward Free China.

"During Glady's harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng ... she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.

"But I am not Moses," Gladys cried in desperation.

"Of course you aren't," the girl said, "but Jehovah is still God."

When Gladys and the orphans made it through, they proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel, God is still God, and we can trust in him.

There are times in the Christian's life when he or she feels utterly inadequate. There are times as we saw a few weeks ago when we looked at the start of ch 4 when trouble comes and we simply can't cope, we are in too deep, and we learnt then that "My God will meet all your needs out of his glorious riches in Christ."

But there are other times when our inadequacies show through in different ways, other than just being inadequate to face trouble.

Alice is on a mission team. They have been doing door to door work, and later that evening you find Alice sitting with a tear stained face. You ask her what is wrong and she responds, "I just feel so inadequate. I just keep messing up. And they had an opportunity to hear the gospel and I didn't know what to say, or how to answer them." What would you have said to her?

Brian has just given a talk to a group of young people, and he knows it wasn't great. In talking with an older Christian afterwards he finds out he even said some things that were wrong. And he is gutted. What would you say to him?

Carla has just had a conversation with a friend. She's sought to explain the gospel, and she is so nervous that she stumbles and stutters and gets herself muddled up. And she comes away thinking "I should have said this, or put it that way." And she feels inadequate. What do you say to her?

If we let this sense of inadequacy get to us, then the devil will have been successful, and we will be driven to despair, and not attempt anything again.

It's refreshing to hear the apostle Paul, and man immensely gifted, and experienced - he was trained as well as anyone could be trained, its refreshing to hear him ask,

"And who is sufficient for these things?" - 2 Cor 2:16

The passages we deal with today deal with times when our labour is marred by our mistakes, and when our labour is insufficient due to our shortcomings. And in both cases, we see what Paul later went on to write:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." - 2 Corinthians 4:7

Gods provision extends to our inadequacies as well as our needs. In these two Old Testament miracles we find pictures of two New Testament truths.

Christ can overrule our mistakes v38-41
There was famine in the land. Famine was God's judgment on the wicked nation of Israel. Is famine always God's judgment on any nation? No. But in Israel's case it was part of Israel's national constitution - the covenant. In it God had decreed blessings for obedience and curses for abandoning God's ways. Famine was one such sign of God's wrath.

And so there was famine in unbelieving Israel. But here we see that the godly prophets also experienced the famine. God's people are not exempt when God's judgment strikes a land. In Ireland we are ripe for God's judgment, and when it comes, whatever form it takes, financial collapse, job losses, natural disasters, God's people will be caught up in it. "God doesn't usually evacuate his people beforehand," Dale Ralph Davis writes, "We need to know this lest we expect of God something he's never promised."

This also should challenge us to pray for our fellow believers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Pakistan, India, and wherever else natural disaster, or war has struck.

So here in this famine struck region, Elisha arrives and is teaching the prophets and he instructs his servant to put on a big pot of stew. One of the prophets heads out into the fields looking for extra herbs, or vegetables to put in to bulk it up a bit, and to add some flavour. And perhaps he is from another area, or perhaps just because he is a male, he doesn't really know what's what. And he see a vine growing with these plump looking yellow fruit, and he gathers as many as he can in the folds of his cloak and he hurried back to the kitchen. And he chops them up and dumps them into the stew.

Then the rest of the prophets come in, and the meal is served out, and its not hard to imagine the pleasure on the face of the prophet as they get a little extra in their bowls. But then a shout goes up, "There's death in the pot". Whether someone recognised the poisonous vegetable, or whether they had taken a taste we don't know. But in an instant they go from having a great meal to eat to having nothing.

And that doesn't sound too serious to us, can't they just prepare another one? But these are days of famine. Food is scarce. Providing food isn't a matter of spending a few moments in a supermarket and a minute in front of the microwave. It may take a large part of the day to gather enough food together to make a meal. And now all that effort has been wasted.

Precious food was spoiled.

How do you think that scavenging prophet feels now? "I should just have stayed in bed today. I can do nothing right. Now everyone's upset with me. I'm always get it wrong."

And then Elisha stands up. He takes asks for flour, he dumps the flour into the pot and he stirs it in. And they are wondering, "what difference will that make?". The vegetables are still in the pot. We shouldn't think of this as some sort of magic, nor should we think of Elisha as some sort of early scientist who has figured out that the properties of this flour can neutralise the effects of this poison. I don't believe that that is the case. It is just another visual symbol, the same as he did with the salt and the bowl at Jericho. It was a symbol that it wasn't Elisha that changed the stew, it was from somewhere else. It was a symbol that the men would remember all their days, as they ground the corn to make flour, as they used flour to bake bread, you can almost hear them saying, "Do you remember the time Elisha threw the flour into the stew, isn't God great?" And then the man of God, to whom they have cried out for help, speaks again, "Serve it to the people to eat."

And as they start to, perhaps somewhat cautiously, nibble at the stew again, they find that there was nothing harmful in the pot!

I wonder how the scavenging prophet felt now? The meal was no longer wasted it had been redeemed, rescued from the rubbish pile. Can you feel his gratefulness? His labour had been marred, ruined, but it had been a sincere mistake.

Have you ever found that?

You have sought to act in a Christian manner towards someone, and you have only succeeded in alienating them. You thought you were doing something right by someone, and you have only succeeded in hurting them all the more. And you think to yourself, "I should just have stayed in bed, I can do nothing right."

Perhaps as you have tried to live out the Christian life as a witness in front of family or friends or work colleagues, you have made mistakes, and you feel, "I've blown it, that's that ruined."

Perhaps you have set an example to other Christians, and now you realise that you were wrong in what you did. And its too late to undo it.

Perhaps someone has come to you for advice, and you have sincerely given them advice, and when you check with another Christian you find that you have told them the wrong thing. And you feel so discouraged.

Or perhaps you have dealt with your children in a certain way - you thought it was the right way at the time, but now with hindsight you see that it was detrimental.

Is there anything you can do in these circumstances?

Do exactly what the prophets did - v40 "O man of God". They cried out to God's official representative. We are to do the same - Cry out to our great prophet, the one who intercedes for us before God. Cry out to Jesus.

It seems awfully ineffective doesn't it? You've been talking to someone and trying to explain the gospel and you are so nervous that you garble the whole thing, and it's all topsy-turvy and you waffled in places, and you left out bits you shouldn't have, and I say to you, Go home and call out to Jesus.

What's the point? Surely what has been said has been said? What good will praying do? It's about as ineffective as throwing flour into a pot of stew. The vegetables are still there. But we have a God who is powerful, and who delights to show his power through our weakness. And you can pray to him, "Lord, Take what I said and make them remember the bits that are important, and make them forget the bits that aren't."

"Take what I did and bring good out of my mistake Lord."
"Take what I said and use the good."
"Lord you know I was only trying to serve you, I thought I was doing what was best, but now I see how wrong it was. Please overrule my mistake."

And here is the wonder of having Christ as our Saviour. This is part of what Paul means when he writes, "God works all things for the good of those who love him".

This isn't to say that we can be careless or even sin with abandon, and God will follow around after us, like some sort of parent of a spoilt child, and tidy up. But when we have sincerely sought to serve him, and in our weakness, or ignorance, have got it wrong, we can come to God and the power of God can overcome our mistakes as surely as he overcame this cooks blunder.

"What a relief it is to see that the Lord does not allow our errors to derail his kingdom or destroy his people. How many times does Christ cushion our folly, redeem our errors, and neutralise our stupidity?" - D.R. Davis

And there is a wider application here. Even the mistakes that we have made in sinfulness, perhaps before we became Christians, or even when we were Christians, Christ can overrule them and turn them for good. Some of you may have made wrong decisions in your past and you have to live with the consequences of those decisions, but you have a Saviour who doesn't undo the past, but who overrules the past, and can turn these things for good. So don't despair, get on your knees and seek his intervention.

Christ can supply our inadequacies
There are other times when we haven't made mistakes, and we aren't in trouble, but we are overwhelmed with a feeling of our utter inadequacy. Perhaps you are talking to someone, and as they pour out their heart to you and tell you of what they are going through or have come through, you feel, "Lord what have I got that can help this person?" And if they aren't a Christian, and you listen to all their troubles, you find yourself thinking, "Lord, all I have is the gospel" and it seems very small and very inadequate. Their problems seem to swamp your experience.

Or perhaps you get an opportunity to speak to someone about Christ, and as you talk they have more questions than you have answers and you find yourself wishing you knew more, and thinking "I'm so inadequate."

Here is hope and encouragement for us in this miracle.

A man comes from Baal-Shalisha. It used to be called Shalisha, but it had become a place of Baal worship, a pagan town. Yet even in this pagan godless town there was a godly man. And this godly man is out harvesting his grain, and the way the two miracles are joined together here it would seem still to be the time of famine. Yet as he harvests his grain, and as he grinds the corn to make flour, he is reminded that the first-fruits belong to God. And because he is a godly man he is determined to obey. Now God had said that the first-fruits were to be taken to the temple, and given to the priests. Yet the land was now following Baal, and the king was sponsoring the priests of Baal, and had forbidden the worship of the Lord. So what is he to do? He decides that since he can't obey the letter of the law, he will obey the spirit of the law. And he takes some bread and some grain and treks quite a distance to the servants of God at Gilgal. And there he presents it to Elisha.

That is faithful service. And here we see sometimes how God provides - help can arrive to God's beleaguered people from unexpected source. There was a famine, food was hard to come by, although over at Baal-Shalisha things seem to have been a bit easier, and from the place where there is food, God sends to the place where there isn't. And here we see also the duty of believers who are experiencing plenty to look out for those who are in need, not just nearby, but far off.

Here is faithful and thoughtful service. He has already made some of his grain offering into bread, so that it is of immediate use to the prophets. And he has left some as corn so that they will be able to make bread as the days go on, because if he made it all now, it might have been stale. Here is a thoughtful believer.

And yet when he arrives, he finds that his thoughtfulness in serving God has backfired a bit. Perhaps he should have made all the grain into bread after all. Perhaps even then it wouldn't have been enough.

But he is about to learn a marvellous lesson: What looks impossible to us, is not impossible to God. Where our resources are at their end, God's haven't even begun to be exhausted.

Elisha says to his servant, "Put the bread before the men". The servant hesitates because unlike Elisha his faith is weak. He sees with his eyes, and they are eyes that see the limitations, they are not the eyes of faith which see the possibilities. He sees the shortage of 80 leaves, these loaves were no bigger than a fist. Elisha hears what God has said. "There is enough." And faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

And the impossible met God's word, and the servants, and the man from Baal Shalisha and the prophets found out that God's word is more certain than what is before our eyes.

God supplied. God provided. The inadequacy of the man's offering was overruled.

And we learn that when we give to God, or when we seek to serve God with what little we have, we just don't know what sort of a miracle we will end up involved in.

We learn that when we labour for God and we are disheartened by our inadequacies, our insufficiencies, our shortfall, our complete lack, that our God is able to supply what is lacking.

When we stand before someone whose life is falling apart and the gospel seems such a paltry thing to be telling them, we learn that God can take that gospel and use it to fill all their needs.

When we bring our 20 loaves of Bible knowledge to a person who has a 100 deep and searching questions, we learn that God is able to take our answer and make them sufficient. Go ahead and speak, God can take what you say and use it to start someone thinking, he can take it and apply it to their conscience and their conscience awakes and starts to accuse them, he can take what you say and bring to mind things they heard long ago. Christ can supply our inadequacies.

When stand and look over the town of Letterkenny/Milford and we look at ourselves, small in number, short on abilities, we learn that when we are weak then God is strong.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. - 2 Cor 12:9

When we are insufficient then we are in an ideal situation to find that God is sufficient. But how? By calling on God, by acknowledging our weakness and our inability.

There are so many parallels with the feeding of the 5000. The people were in great need, someone was fond with a little food, a disciple was unbelieving, God multiplied the loaves, the people all ate, and there was food left over.

Yet at almost every turn we see that our Saviour is much greater. Elisha fed 100 men. Jesus fed 5000. Elisha had 20 loaves. Jesus had 5. Elisha gave them bread. Jesus gave them fish as well. Elisha had some left over, Jesus had 12 basketfuls. Elisha did it by God's power, Jesus did it by his own power.

And as Gladys Aylward was reminded, we may not be Moses, or in our cases Elisha, but God is still God. And he is the same yesterday today and forever. And when we are in need, or inadequate, or mistaken he will provide.

And we see here also in these two miracles a picture of the gospel. A man whose deadly mistake is covered over by God, and a man whose offering was utterly inadequate and God provides what is needed.

Some of you here this morning need to hear this. How you are living your life at present is like this man in the first miracle. You think you are doing good, but in fact you are in grave danger. You think you are gathering up treasure for yourself in Heaven, when in fact all the good that you do will condemn you to Hell. You need God to work a miracle. You wouldn't be foolish enough to eat poisonous plants, but you are gobbling the poisonous leaves of the tree of good works. You are badly mistaken. And the poison will kill you forever. You need Christ to transform what is poisonous into what will give life. You need to go to him like the prophets did and beg for a miracle. Lord change me, save me, rescue from this death. Cover over my mistakes, my errors, my faults, my sins.

Like the man in the second miracle you bring your life's efforts to God and say, here Lord, here are all my decent works that I have done with my life. And they are insufficient. And they will never be sufficient to please God. Had you a hundred lives to live and fine tune each one of them, you could never get it right. You need God to provide for you the righteousness that you have failed so badly at. You need to look at your life and ask yourself, "How can I set this before God?" And then cry out to God, "Provide for me too!"

And if you do, you will find that God will provide, and Christ will cover your sins, and will replace your good works with his perfect righteousness and you will be able to stand before God.

Conclusion
We learn here that our daily needs, whether its bread, or stew matter to God.

And we learn here again that "My God will need all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

We learn that he will not always do it in the same way.

And these five miracles that we have looked at in this chapter point us forward to the day when we will see the wonderful richness of God's provision in all its glory:

• When we will see that our debt has been cleared, on the day of judgment
• When we will have every tear wiped away from our eye, and there will be no secret aches in our hearts
• When the dead in Christ will be raised
• When the effects of sin on this planet will be removed and there will be no more famine, no more poisonous plants.
• When we will enjoy the delights of Heaven forever and ever, and there will always be some left over to enjoy.
  

Amen, Come Lord Jesus.

Hope does not disappoint (Part 2) - 2 Kings 4:8-37

Faith clings to and pursues God despite discouragement v18-28
Here is the balancing point to the first (yesterday). The Christian life isn't one unending stream of happiness. Sorrow also comes to God's people.

Happiness descended on that little house in Shunem. And then one day the boy, probably between 8-10, went out with his father to the fields and took ill. His father didn't think it too serious and sent a servant back with him to his mother. But it was serious and in a few short words we read that the mother nursed the young boy, until he died a few hours later.

Oh the pain she must have felt - to be given a gift by God, and for that gift to be taken away again.

Why does God give blessings only to take them away? Is he a mean God with no emotions, some sort of mechanical being who thinks, "I must strengthen their faith, so I'll give them something nice and then take it away and they'll learn to trust me more because of it."

Does God delight to make us glad only to cause us pain? What about the parents who learn with joy that they are expecting a child, only for that pregnancy to end with a miscarriage? What about a wife who learns that her cancer has gone and she and her family rejoice, and yet after several years of joy, the dark shadow of cancer returns and claims her life? Has he given a reward to this woman of Shunem in order to give her grief that she would not otherwise have experienced?

Why? I don't know that I can answer why. God's ways are not my ways - he is far above us, and there will be times when we are not able to understand what he does. His ways are deep, too deep for any man to fathom. And often we have to say as Elisha did in v27

"the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why."

But that doesn't mean we are left with nothing. This great woman shows us how to respond, because faith clings to God even when we don't understand.

Go straight to God v21, 22
Instead of burying her son immediately as would be the norm, she takes him to the prophet's room and lays him on his bed, almost saying, "This is your problem too." She is not for giving up on this. Then she tells her husband that she is setting off for Carmel 20 miles away to get the man of God. Her husband seems to have much less faith than she does. He doesn't see the point in going. He doesn't seem to have grasped the fact that God is personally interested in our lives and in our problems. For him God is someone only to be approached at set times and in set ways.

Not so with this woman. Her relationship with God is real. Her is a faith that does not disintegrate in the face of difficulties, no matter how severe. Her faith shows her how to respond when life falls apart.

Go straight to God. She doesn't delay. She doesn't even stop to tell Gehazi what the problem is. Does she lie to him in v26? The NIV translates her answer as "Everything is fine" - it's just the Hebrew word "Shalom" - their standard greeting, which means 'peace' or 'it is well'. She greets him, but she wants to get to Elisha, the man of God. When she gets there, her emotions break through and she forgets all respectability and throws herself at his feet and clings to them, and here again her faith is tried as heartless Gehazi is more concerned about etiquette.

Cling to God and to his promises v27-30
Her journey has been motivated by faith. And now that she comes to Elisha she reminds him that this child wasn't sought by her, it was given by God as a blessing. It was the reward God promises to those who look after God's people. And now the child is gone, and she returns to the one who had promised the child in the first place. God had promised her a child, and she knew that God does not mock us, and now that that child is taken from her, she refuses to believe that God promise would fail at this point.

She had no promise from God to say that dead children would be raised to life, but the child was the promise. And God was the giver. So she clings to the promise, and to the promise giver. She clings to God's representative, to Elisha. v30 "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you."

This is what we need to do is such times - we need not just to passively sit tight and wait for the storm to pass. We need to actively pursue God in faith. We need to cling to his promises. We need to plead his character to him. Whatever the difficulties, true faith keeps on believing.

We need to say, "Lord you promise grace… Lord you promise we will not be tempted beyond what we can bear… Lord you promise that your plans are not to harm us… Lord you promise that your grace is sufficient… Lord you promise peace… and I don't have any peace, any strength left."

On a wider scale: "Lord you promised to build your church…"

We need to know God's promises and plead God's promises. We need to know God's character and cling to his character: "Lord you are gracious and loving… Lord you are merciful and compassionate… Lord you are all-powerful."

Persist in pursuing God's promises v28, 30
Too often we give up. Too often we are satisfied with half an answer. There is a time to persist. The son was dead. Some Christians would have said to her at this point, "Well this is God's will, you just have to accept it." They would then shake her hand and say with Job, "The Lord gives, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21)

And that would have sounded very pious and very holy, and very wrong. In this situation would have been wrong. We know it was wrong because she receives her child back. It would have been fatalism - what has happened has happened and nothing can change it, you just have to learn to live with it.

Let's be clear: Job was right to accept the death of his children and this woman was right not to accept the death of her child.

There is a difference: The key issue here is that this child was promised by God. And where we have a promise from God we have no right to back off and be satisfied with anything less than complete fulfilment of that promise. And the strength of this woman's faith was that she grasped this.

And here is a great problem for Christians in Ireland we have been sucked in to a brand of Christian fatalism. We accept the situation that we live in, we shrug our shoulders, and we say, "Well times are hard, people aren't interested in the gospel. We would love it to be different, but we just have to hang in there."

And if this woman was in this congregation, she would stand up and rebuke us all. Because she knows that when God gives a promise, it is an insult to God to settle for anything less than seeing that promise fulfilled.

And she says to us, "You have settled for half a blessing because you aren't willing to pursue God. I rode 40 miles, I wore my heart on my sleeve, I pleaded, I prayed, and God honoured his promise."

Would she be right? Have you settled for half a blessing?

Think of the promises of God. Think of what God has promised to the believer, peace, contentment, fullness of joy, you will be my witnesses. Think of what God has promised the church - those who sow will see fruit for their labours, I will build my church. Think of what God has promised with regard to our children - I will be a God to you and to your children. Have you pursued God for these promises? Or have you settled for a comfortable half-way house?

We wonder why our Christian life is dull and lifeless, it is like a marriage that has lost all its joy. It may be because we have settled for half blessings.

There is a time to accept what God has given us, be it the death of a loved one, sickness, financial loss. When we have no specific promise from God, we must accept what God gives. But when we have a specific word from God that indicates otherwise, we are to pursue persistently the promise of God. Jesus teaches this in the parable of the persistent widow and the parable of the friend at midnight.

He's telling us that there will be times when we are to bombard the throne-room of Heaven with our prayers and we are not to give up. He is telling us that there will be times when we will need to battle to claim what God has promised.

This persistent faith is what he longs to find in his people. Not a half hearted fatalism.

Luke 18:8 "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

We learn here that there is no telling how far God will test our faith. But what will you do when that day comes? Will you crack, or give in, or keep on believing, and pursue God in faith?

We close with an encouragement to keep on believing.

Such hope does not disappoint v29-37
Am I just getting your hopes up, holding out the promise of reward for those who persist in their faith?

Surely the point of this passage is that precisely this:
Whatever limits God tests your faith to, if you keep trusting in him, you will not be disappointed.

The woman lies broken-hearted but believing at Elisha's feet. Elisha sends Gehazi to run to the boy and to place the symbol of the prophets authority on the boy in the hope that that might work. Gehazi goes. And as Elisha and the woman make their way towards Shunem, after a number of hours they se the figure of Gehazi returning. His report brings no joy.

Here the Shunemite's faith must have been stretched to breaking point - all seemed lost. And we learn that while we wait for God to answer our prayers, we may have to bear further disappointment.

But she keeps on believing. And we see Elisha enter the room. He closes the door. And he starts to pray because he knows that he doesn't have the power to do anything. He knows that the power must come from outside himself.

And he lies down on the corpse - a gesture that speaks of the intensity of his prayers. A gesture in which he says that if he could give his own life for that of the boy he would. And he gets up and he prays. And he paces because he's agitated, and he prays more, and he lies down on the corpse again. And we see the sort of persistence that God looks for in prayer - here is a prolonged agony of prayer. He doesn't care that to touch a corpse makes him ritually unclean.

Here we see a shadow in scripture of our Saviour. Elisha's willingness to become unclean, to give his own life so that another may live. For Jesus to rescue us from death he had to become unclean, he had to touch death, he had to bear our sins in his body. He did what Elisha could not, he gave his life so that we may live.

And Elisha prays on and on, with great intensity. And then from the bed there comes a sneeze, followed by another one, and another and another. And Elisha looks and the boy opens his eyes.

And we learn that when we have a promise from God, we are to pray until we get an answer.

And Elisha calls for Gehazi who calls the mother. And what a joyful reunion there is. And the mother learns that those who put their trust in the lord are never put to shame. She learns that hope in God's promises does not disappoint.

And in 800 BC God gives us a sneak preview that not even death will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We learn that death cannot hold the believer. We learn that God is serious when he says he will raise the dead. Oh how it gives us hope to believe the wildly improbable promise of our Saviour

John 14: 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Conclusion
She learns that God's power is good and that God's goodness is powerful.

She learns that God is a God who delights to amaze his people with his good gifts; who sometimes baffles us with the mysterious sorrow he brings, but who always delights those who persist in trusting him through all their trials.

And friends, we have a more certain hope and assurance than she had. We stand on this side of Calvary. And we see not a man of God interceding for us, stretched out for us. We see God himself, God the Man interceding for us.

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain in Christ. Elisha prays and asks for life from God for the child. Jesus passed through Nain, a town just over the hill from Shunem, and he stopped a funeral procession, went up to the coffin, and said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"

Here is the power of Jesus who made the promises. Where Elisha can only pray, Jesus had only to speak. What a Saviour! He will never disappoint us. He will never let us down. Hope in him will never disappoint.

Stuart Olyott quotes this poem:

Doubt sees the obstacles
Faith sees the way
Doubt sees the darkest night
Faith sees the day
Doubt dreads to take a step
Faith soars on high
Doubt questions, "Who believes?"
Faith answers, "I"