Articles
Elijah And Elisha – 2 Kings
Elijah And Elisha – 2 Kings
As we now turn to 2 Kings, we encounter the end of Elijah's life and the account of Elisha. The time period is the 800's BC and things are good politically and economically. However, religiously things are a mess. Omri had arranged for Ahab, his son, to marry Jezebel. She almost single handedly destroyed the worship of God as she supported and championed the worship of Baal.
God then steps in a big way. We see one of the three main eras of miracles recorded in the scriptures (the time of Moses and the time of Jesus being the other two). God had sporadically intervened in such a way, but not on this scale. With Elijah there was the multiplication of flour and oil (1 Kgs 17:16), feeding of Elijah by ravens (1 Kgs 17:2–6), resuscitation of son of widow of Zarephath (1 Kgs 17:17–24), parting of the Jordan (2 Kgs 2:8), two companies of 50 soldiers each are consumed by fire from heaven (2 Kgs 1:10, 12, 13), fire on Mt Carmel consumed the prophets of Baal (1 Kgs 18), wind, earthquake, and fire at Mt Horeb (1 Kgs 19), and his translation to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kgs 2:11).
With Elisha there was the multiplication of oil (2 Kgs 4:1–7), feeding of 100 people (2 Kgs 4:42–44), resuscitation of the Shunammite’s son (2 Kgs 4:8–37), parting of the Jordan (2 Kgs 2:14), 43 youths cursed by Elisha are consumed by 2 bears (2 Kgs 2:23–25), healing of waters (2 Kgs 2:19–22), purifying of food (2 Kgs 4:38–41), healing of Naaman (2 Kgs 5), leprosy on Gehazi (2 Kgs 5), the floating ax head (2 Kgs 6:5–7), Syrian soldiers’ loss and recovery of sight (2 Kgs 6:18–20), and the resuscitation of a dead man when his bones touch Elisha’s (2 Kgs 13:21).
Even with all these miracles, people didn't convert en mass and God was able to save only a remnant of them. WHY? Interesting, this question can actually be asked of all three times of great miracles. Having seen all the signs with Moses, Israel was constantly unfaithful to the LORD. We see Jesus being rejected: "But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him” (John 12:37).
Miracles, while giving evidence of God's immediate interaction with our world, did not override people's will and judgment. All such evidence gets filtered through the human mind. There it must compete with prejudices, presuppositions, social pressures, jealousy, misconceptions, etc. We can see from our reading of the Bible that, unfortunately, many times these other things override the proper judgment concerning the data. People are just wrong when they think that if they could only see a miracle that they would then believe.
In John 17:20, Jesus prayed for those who believe through the apostle's words (where they recount the miracles that they had observed). In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, when the rich man asked Abraham to send one back from the dead to warn his brothers of the judgment awaiting them, Abraham responded: "f they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead" (Luke 16:31).
We have the record of all of the things God did through Moses, all the acts of Elijah and Elisha, the miracles and signs of Jesus, and the confirming signs that the apostles did. These are written that you might believe. They not only establish our initial faith, they strengthen our continued faith. Are you feeding your faith?
Hugh DeLong
