Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: Do you trust God? Do you really trust God? So many of us say we do, but when put to the test, how does our trust hold up?

Here's the bottom line here: God brought this kid back to life through the ministry of Elisha, which was a miracle. But it was a miracle that this kid was even born to begin with. God progressively brought more faith to this family. I think he brought a certain amount of faith there when they were able to have a child in their old age, and I think he brought more faith to their family when they went through this episode here.

They had to believe God for a certain amount, and now they're believing God for an even greater amount. As you go through life, God has you believing him for more and greater and bigger things. And the challenges get a little bit harder and a little bit harder. And here, this was a great challenge, but they believed the Lord for it. And this boy opened up his eyes.

Guest (Male): Calvary Chapel of Marlton presents Hope From the Word, featuring Pastor Bill Luebkemann. Today on the program, we'll bring you the second half of Bill's message based on chapter four of Second Kings. In this chapter, we see a couple of miracles performed by the prophet Elisha.

Much like his predecessor, Elijah, Elisha is called upon to bring a dead child back to life. It's yet another example for you and me of the power of God working through the people who faithfully serve him. Turn to Second Kings, chapter four, for today's edition of Hope From the Word. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: See, if she had said, "I want to go see the man of God, the kid died, I'm hoping he can help," he would not have said to her this question, "Why are you going now? It's not the new moon or the Sabbath." I don't think she let on to her husband what was going on. Maybe she didn't think he had enough faith. Maybe she didn't think her faith was enough to have to comfort him as well as herself.

Maybe she was just clinging to that bit of faith and thinking, "I've got enough faith for myself here and that's it." Maybe she didn't have enough faith to talk about it. Maybe she couldn't bring herself to say the words, "Honey, our son is dead." Maybe just saying the words scared her to death. She just says to her husband, "It's all right." And her husband is apparently a trusting guy.

Apparently he's trusting enough to let her invite this guy over for dinner. He's trusting enough to let her set up a room where this guy can stay. And he's trusting and trusts his wife enough. Okay, if you want to go, go ahead. He didn't need to have an explanation for what he's doing. You can take a servant, you can take the donkey, and head off. And she did.

And she told the servant, "Lead on and don't slow down unless I tell you to. Don't stop for any red lights. You see a reason we're not stopping at any rest stops, cross streets, red lights. We're not stopping for anyone else. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. We're going to keep on going." So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel straight away, headed there without delay.

When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, there's the Shunammite. Run to meet her and ask her, are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?" "Everything is all right," she said. He sends the servant out to meet her. Run to meet her, ask her, "Are you okay?"

He was surprised to see her. It wasn't the Sabbath, wasn't the new moon. He didn't usually see her come by herself. What's the problem? Why are you coming? Is everybody okay? Sent his servant out. She doesn't want to tell the servant what the problem is. She wants to deal with the boss man himself. She doesn't want to communicate through the servant. She doesn't want to have to tell the servant the problem and have him repeat it to Elisha. She wants to tell Elisha the problem.

She lies. She says, "Everything is all right." Maybe she's not lying. Maybe everything is all right because she knows that the child is going to be resurrected. I think she's lying because you'll see she's really in bitter distress here in the next few verses. I don't know how she can claim everything is all right.

When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone. She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why." So when she finally got up to the mountain where Elisha was, Gehazi has told Elisha she says everything's okay. But when she gets up there, she grabs hold of his feet, Elisha's feet.

And that annoys Gehazi. He doesn't like that. He's the protector of Elisha. He's the servant, he's the protector. He goes to push her away, sort of like the way the apostles and disciples were trying to push the little children away from Jesus. And Elisha says, "Leave her be. She's clearly, clearly she's in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why."

He seems surprised that the Lord has not revealed it to him. He was so used to hearing from God on so many things. The Lord revealed so much to him that he was surprised that he hadn't heard what the problem was. A lot of times nowadays, we're happy when we do hear from God. God shows us something, we get all excited. "Ooh, God showed me something! I can't believe God showed me something! I really know it's God. I'm so excited! I'm going to tell all my friends."

"Look what God showed me. I know this was God because he showed me in the scriptures, and then I put the radio on and I heard the same thing there. And then I got to work and someone told me the same thing there. And then I went to church and the first person I saw told me the same thing there. And then the preacher preached about the same thing there, and I know this was God. God really must be telling me something. I'm so excited."

Here's a guy that hears from God all the time. He's just amazed he didn't hear from God. He's surprised. He can't believe it. He said, "Something's going on here. I don't know what it is. The Lord has hidden it from me, hasn't revealed it to me." "Did I ask you for a son, my Lord?" she said. "Didn't I tell you don't raise my hopes?" she says. "You know, this wasn't my idea. I told you that in the beginning."

"Why did you give me a son only to see him get taken away? Why'd you let this happen? Why are you doing this to me?" Maybe this was a faith-building exercise for her that God was allowing her to go through, perhaps. Maybe she didn't know it at the time. Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy's face."

But the child's mother said, "As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her. So the first thing Elisha says to his servant Gehazi is, "Tuck in your cloak." Okay. Now, why would he have him do that? Well, because if you don't tuck it in, you're going to trip while you're running. Very simple instructions here.

You're going to run fast here. So you're going to tuck in your cloak, you're going to take the staff, and you're going to run. And you're not going to stop. You're not going to stop at the rest stop. You're not going to get a bite to eat. Okay? If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. He's not saying that because he wants him to be rude. He's just saying that because he wants him to hurry up and get there. Just no delay. Just no dilly-dallying.

Just get there right away. Lay my staff on the boy's hand. Now, everybody has their own opinion on why he told it this way. Some people say he was a little confused, he was into some far-eastern practice that his staff had some magical powers. I don't think the guy was confused at all. I reject that. This guy clearly heard from the Lord on a regular basis. I don't think he was confused at all.

You can get everybody's opinion for why he did this. But it does seem that Elisha oftentimes had people who came to him and needed healing do other things to make them trust in the Lord more, rather than do them himself. We're going to read about in the next chapter, Naaman, who came and was healed of leprosy. And Elisha didn't even come out of his house.

He sent the servant Gehazi out of the house, and he said, "Go down to the river and dip yourself in the Jordan River seven times and you'll be clean." And Naaman threw off in a rage. Said, "Well, the rivers where I come from are better than any river here in your country. I could've done it there." And Naaman's servant says, "Hey, you know, if he had done some magical, mystical, fanciful thing, chanted some incantation, brought out some magic potion, put a big pot on, poured all kinds of things in, stirred it up, and said, drink this, you would have done that."

So why not just do something simple when he asks you to do something simple? And it's been suggested that maybe Elisha just liked to encourage people to trust in God and not in him. So if he wasn't there personally, they couldn't say, "Hey, Elisha did this." They would more likely say, "God did this." And I think that might be a more satisfying explanation in my mind. You can make your own choice and whatever you decide will be fine with me.

But he sends Gehazi along. The child's mother says, "Look, I ain't leaving you at all. I will not leave you." So they get up and go back, I guess at a slower pace, the mother and Elisha. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened." So Gehazi did what he was told. Didn't work.

Why didn't it work? Well, again, you have all different opinions there. But clearly God wanted to work in the way he wanted to work. Some people say Elisha thought it was going to be simpler than it was. This was really a big request, and it was going to take a lot more praying than that. I don't think Elisha is the one that was confused here. I think if anyone's confused, it's the commentators who write these commentaries.

But obviously God wanted to do it the way he wanted to do it here. And I can't offer you a really satisfying explanation for why this didn't work except to say that the Lord chose to do the miracle through Elisha himself personally. When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.

Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy's body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room, and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite," and he did.

When she came, he said, "Take your son." She came in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out. Now, here's what happened. Elisha got there, the boy was dead. He went in and closed the door behind him. He wasn't looking for publicity. He didn't call in a crowd, put up a sign, put up a banner, set up a trumpet, say, "Look what I'm about to do. Aren't I something special?" He sought the Lord here in private.

And he lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, almost like he's giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation here. Almost like you get the idea he's going to breathe life into the boy and eyes to eyes and hands to hands. What's the significance of all of that? I don't know. Again, there's lots of ideas on what the significance of it is. I'm not sure that anybody really knows. Maybe he knows.

But he stretched himself out. And this was not one of those instantaneous miracles. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus was able to give an order. "Lazarus, come out!" And I wish when I told my kids in the morning to get up from bed, they got up that fast. "It's time to get up now! You're going to be late for school!" Ten minutes later, they're still sleeping.

Jesus could give the order to Lazarus. Elisha here isn't giving any orders. He's praying to God and asking God to bring this kid back to life. Somebody suggested that his staff was long enough to reach up to heaven and pry open the gates of heaven. I thought that was a very picturesque way of describing it. But the boy's body grew warm. This was a miracle that happened in degrees.

It seemed to happen a little bit at a time. His body grew warm. Elisha turned away, walked back and forth in the room. He was obviously praying during that time. Then he got back on the bed, stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times. Somebody said his head hurt, remember? So he had something wrong with his head. He sneezed to get it out of there.

If you take the commentaries that people write about the Bible and delete all the speculation, there wouldn't be very many pages left in them. Here's the bottom line here: God brought this kid back to life through the ministry of Elisha, which was a miracle. But it was a miracle that this kid was even born to begin with because the parents were in their old age.

And God progressively brought more faith to this family. I think he brought a certain amount of faith there when they were able to have a child in their old age, and I think he brought more faith to their family when they went through this episode here. They had to believe God for a certain amount, and now they're believing God for even a greater amount.

And as you go through life, God has you believing him for more and greater and bigger things. And the challenges get a little bit harder and a little bit harder. And here, this was a great challenge, but they believed the Lord for it. And this boy opened up his eyes. And they summoned the mother, Elisha telling Gehazi. If that was me, I wouldn't have asked Gehazi to call the mother. I would have gone and called the mother.

Said, "Hey, guess what I did? Come in here, let me show you what I did." But here we have Elisha here, who also has a lot of modesty, just letting his servant do that. She came in, "Take your son." She came in, fell at his feet, bowed to the ground, and she took her son and went out. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite," and he did. When she came in, he said, "Take your son." She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground, and then she took her son and went out.

Now, you could imagine Elisha was welcome at this household. And they built a room for him, and then he was even more welcome. And they enjoyed seeing him, and he was like a part of the family. And then when he said, "You're going to have a son," and they had the son, now he was even more welcome than before, if that could even be possible. He was just like a part of their family. He was like their favorite uncle.

He had a special love for this family. They did for him. He loved this kid. He was Uncle Elisha and the kid loved it when Uncle Elisha came by for a visit. I can only imagine. Now, after the kid died and comes back again, I can just imagine Elisha's got an even better relationship with this family. If you can just imagine the relationship that he has there, but it was really thanks to the Lord that this happened.

Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in that region. Now, if you read ahead a few chapters, there was a famine that lasted for something like seven years, and this may have been the same one. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, "Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these men." So there was a famine going on. The prophets were meeting there.

They were having a retreat. And they were having some kind of get-together, and he decided he'd like to feed these prophets there. So he told his servant, "Cook up a big pot of stew." Now, one of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He gathered some of its gourds and filled the fold of his cloak. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

Sounds like a salad you get at certain restaurants I can think of. The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, "Oh man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it. So they whipped up some stew here. He said, "I want to feed these guys." He's treating them well. They're studying under him, they're having some kind of a meeting there, maybe he's teaching them the scriptures, they're listening to the word of God.

They're hungry. He says, "Let's make some stew." And somebody goes out and very unwisely gathers in some unknown gourds. They don't know what they are. Now, there are some commentators that suggest what kind of gourd this was. I forget what they suggested. One of them says it possibly was a certain type of gourd, another one says it probably was this kind of gourd. I just don't know how you can say it probably was this kind of gourd 3,000 years later.

When there are so many different kinds of gourds in the world that nobody could possibly know what was there. Here's what we know: it was a gourd, it was wild, and they did not know what it was. And it was poisonous to some degree. So they mixed it up, put it out, they began to eat it. Well, thankfully, they could taste that it was bad.

And it wasn't one of those things like nerve gas that kills you immediately. It was one of those things where they tasted it and like, "Whoa, we can't eat this! Oh man of God, there's death in this pot! We can't eat this stew. It's bad, bad stuff." Elisha said, "Get some flour." He put it into the pot and said, "Serve it to the people to eat," and there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Now look, this was not a case where the flour was the antidote to the poison. This was not some medical case where Elisha knew the chemical compound that makes up the flour and he knew that that would neutralize the acidic response of the whatever was in the gourd. This was simply God working a miracle. Look, there was probably flour in the stew already. And he put some more in.

By itself, it would not have fixed anything. It was that God worked a miracle out here through him. Here he's got all these people he's got to feed. God worked out a miracle. The flour was just the outward sign of that, just reflected what he did, that God has done something here, and the flour was more of a symbolic outworking of that. A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God 20 loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain.

"Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said. "How can I set this before a hundred men?" his servant asked. But Elisha answered, "Give it to the people to eat, for this is what the Lord says: They will eat and have some left over." Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over according to the word of the Lord. So this guy shows up and he's got 20 loaves of bread from the first ripe grain.

He wants to make an offering to the Lord, it seems. And normally you'd bring your offering down to Jerusalem, but they're in Samaria here. And so they're too far away, and there's no one else in Samaria that's really interested in his offering. So it seems like the guy is bringing his offering to the man of God saying, "I want to make an offering to God and well, you're a man of God, so can I make you this offering?"

And it seems like that's the spirit in which it's given. Elisha says, "That's great. We'll feed it to the people that are here." But Elisha's servant's saying, "Well, we got way too many people for this." You see, you thought Jesus multiplying the loaves was the first time it happened, but it happened back here also. And you thought Jesus saying, "Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward."

You thought that that promise just began in the day of Jesus, but apparently it was in effect long before Jesus just let us all know about it. Jesus may have fed 5,000 with the loaves and another time he fed 4,000 with the loaves, but here, the same exact thing, lesser number of people, but just a few small loaves of bread, 20 loaves of bread feeding 100 people.

These loaves of bread were not as big as the supersize family-pack Wonder loaf thing that you buy in the supermarket nowadays. And Elisha said, "This is what the Lord says: they will eat and have some left over." They're going to have plenty. When God feeds you, there will be an abundance. And they put the food before them, and they ate it and had some left over according to the word of the Lord.

Again, we see God blessing them abundantly, feeding them food, multiplying the loaves, giving them stew, making the stew healthy when it was unhealthy to begin with. And we see this guy Elisha being used by the Lord as he goes around the land performing one miracle after another, which just is encouraging and uplifting to the people as he shares the word of God and calls them to faith in the Lord. And then they see the Lord work in these various types of miracles.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann's study of Second Kings. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org, download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find your podcasts.

If you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton, where Bill serves as pastor, we'd love to have you. Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10:00. We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You can also livestream from home whenever you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon.

Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you. Share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us from our website, ccmarlton.org, or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come from Bill's study of Second Kings, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.