Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Applying logic to understanding God's will doesn't always work. And yet, that's just fine. Here's Pastor Bill Luebkemann to explain.

Bill Luebkemann: You can't use the principles of engineering or science or logic to understand what God's will is. Sometimes, it just doesn't work that way. Maybe sometimes it does, but not all the time.

And when God's going to work in your life in a powerful way, sometimes it's a natural way. You may be sick, you may go to a doctor, he may give you some pills, and you may get better. But some other time, he may work in a miraculous way that cannot be understood.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Hope From the Word, the daily radio outreach from Calvary Chapel of Marlton. Today, our teacher, Pastor Bill Luebkemann, will bring us part one of a study in 2 Kings Chapter 6.

In recent years, we have seen many motion pictures come out with the title "blockbuster" attached to it. Well, if you tried to make a movie out of what we see occurring in this section of God's Word, it would definitely be called a blockbuster. Wars, cannibalism, a miracle here and there—it's all here. And here is Pastor Bill to bring us the inside story on 2 Kings Chapter 6.

Bill Luebkemann: Last week, we looked at Naaman and his leprosy and how he came to Israel to be cured of leprosy. The King threw up his hands in disgust and said, "What is this guy trying to pick a fight with me? He thinks I'm God that I could heal his leprosy?"

But Elisha, coming to hear about it and telling the King, "Send that guy over to me and he'll know that there's a prophet in Israel." Well, if there's a prophet, there's got to be a God also, right? We saw how the Lord healed the guy. He wanted to give a contribution to Elisha's building fund here, the Elisha housing fund. But Elisha wouldn't take it. We saw how his greedy servant Gehazi went and tried to get some and he wound up getting the leprosy.

So, we're continuing along in the next few chapters here, still with Elisha the prophet. And there's apparently a whole group of prophets here. They're referred to as the "company of the prophets" in the NIV. But it's a group of prophets that hangs out together. Maybe it might be thought of to be like a school or a fraternity or a brotherhood. Like a bunch of pastors getting together and having a pastor's conference, maybe. The company of the prophets. It's not a profit-making company. This is not the same kind of company that pays taxes now. This is a group of prophets.

The company of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole and let us build a place there for us to live." And he said, "Go." Then one of them said, "Won't you please come with your servants?" "I will," Elisha replied. And he went with them.

So, this group of prophets here were outgrowing their place. To use a modern analogy here, they needed a new church. They outgrew their existing accommodations. They weren't big enough. The school, you kind of get the idea that they lived together here and they outgrew it. So there were too many prophets for the space that they had available there, which must tell you that God was working there in their midst.

God must have been blessing them. They were hearing from God. There were more prophets maybe than there had been previously, and they didn't all have a place to stay, maybe, or a bed or room to stretch out or what have you. And so somebody suggested here, "It's just too small here. Let's go down to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole."

The NIV says pole, but some translations say beam. The idea here is that they had a lot of trees down by the Jordan and they could get plenty of timber for building a place. So really, saying a pole is kind of dumb. That doesn't really convey the idea here. And we're going to see in a little while here that that's what this passage is all about. They're going to go down, they're going to chop down some trees, they're going to get some timber, they're going to put it together and make a place for them to meet in.

Elisha gives the whole endeavor his blessing. One of them says, "Well, you're coming too, aren't you?" And Elisha said, "Sure, I'm going to come too." So, they went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water. "Oh, my lord!" he cried out. "It was borrowed."

The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there and made the iron float. "Lift it out," he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it. So they had iron at this point. But I think it's safe to say they didn't just run on down to Home Depot to pick up an ax. The iron was hard to come by. There was not a lot of it.

They went through a great deal of trouble to have an ax head and to have an ax, and it was worth a lot of money. And they were cutting down trees, and this one guy there is working with an ax that he borrowed from someone else. And you're given the impression here that he begged and prayed and did whatever else he could do to get this thing. And the ax head came off of the ax and fell into the water. And now he's in terrible, terrible distress because it's not his. He borrowed it.

And you know, if you borrow someone's car, the last thing you want to do is get into an accident with it. If you borrow someone's home appliance, the last thing you want it to do is break while you have it. The refrigerator or anything else. Whatever you borrow, you borrow someone's hammer, you don't want the end to come off the hammer while you're using it. That's relatively easy to fix, of course.

You borrow someone's animal, you don't want the thing to die while it's in your possession. And that's what happened here. This ax head fell in the water, and this guy's like, "Holy cow, I'm in trouble now. I borrowed this thing. What am I going to do?" It fell in the water. The Jordan River at this area was deep and it flowed quickly. It wasn't like they could just hop in, walk around, feel it with their toes and lift it out. If it was that easy, they would not need a miracle of God.

And he cries out, "Oh, my lord, it was borrowed." And the man of God, that's Elisha, said, "Well, where did it fall?" And the guy showed him the place. And here's Elisha cutting out a stick and throwing it in there. Now there was nothing magical about this stick. This was not a fishing pole with a line on it and a hook at the end, and he did not troll for this ax head here. This was a miracle of God where he threw the stick in and the iron floated.

It doesn't say he pulled it up. There was no trickery here. It says it floated. It made the iron float. Was there some magical quality about the stick that made the iron float? No, it was a miracle of God. Some people who always have to have a physical explanation for it would say now, "That must have been—I wonder what was in that stick?" They would say now, "You know, there's special minerals in the land there. And that land is known to be rich in a certain kind of mineral. And no doubt that stick had a lot of these minerals in it, which raised the specific gravity of the stick to a certain level above the 3.9."

And when the stick was put in the water, that obviously displaced a certain number of cubic centimeters of water, which caused the flow rate to decrease and therefore acting like a lever, the stick pried up the—you could go on and on with the possible explanations here. Or you could just simply accept this as a miracle of God. That he threw a stick in, which indicated in some way his participation.

Why did it have to be a stick and not something else? Who knows. Why did Jesus put the mud on the guy's eyes and tell him to go wash it off? Because that's the way he did it. Because he felt like it. Because he wanted to do it that way. Because he wanted to do every one a different way, so no one could say he always works the same way. So that there could be eliminated any possibility from the discussion of God doing it by rote.

So that we won't 100 years later or 1,000 years later or 3,000 years later look at this and say, "Oh, we drop something in the river, let's quick, let's put a stick in and see if we can make it float." It was God that made this float because of the prayer of Elisha. And you know, if God was going to do a miracle, he could have just put the ax head out of the water and back on the guy's handle, back in the guy's hand.

He could have thrown it in and the ax head could have rematerialized back on the end of the stick. I mean, they can do that on Star Trek, so if they can do it there, it'd be a very simple thing for God to do, right? He could have made the ax head appear back in the guy's hand, but that's not what God did. He made it float, therefore requiring the man there to reach out and grab it. See, which is what God often did. He did miracles and he did the miracle, he did the part that mankind couldn't do, allowing man to do the part that he could do.

If you want to learn how to play the piano, chances are not good that you're going to go to sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow morning having God put into your mind how to play the piano like Liberace. Chances are that's probably not going to happen. Could God do that? Yes, but that's usually not what he does. Maybe he did that once or twice, maybe not. But normally God requires your participation with him in some way, in some amount of faith.

It was some amount of faith for this guy to reach out and grab this thing. God did the part that was uniquely God's, and the man reached out his hand and took it, and he had his ax back and he was able to resume chopping down trees. And this guy Elisha, always willing to trust God. And we should be willing to trust God. I'm not saying we're all going to be prophets or we're going to be able to be workers of miracles like this guy was. But I think we should all be willing to trust God for whatever comes our way.

And you don't see Elisha really getting worked up too often, if ever. Kind of just goes along with the flow. "This what happened? Okay, we'll deal with it." Here's what God's going to have us do. And he deals with this situation in the next part here with the Arameans as well. Those were the people from Syria, the land to the north. Now, the King of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring—now, you want to know who that is? That's Ben-Hadad. We're going to see that later on in the chapter. If you don't believe me, you can look in Verse 24.

Now, the King of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, "I will set up my camp in such and such a place." So, he had a high-level secret meeting with his officers. And I know for a fact he did this in a copper-shielded room, shielded from electromagnetic pulse and protected from any kind of—no. He did this with the highest degree of secrecy that they had back in those days.

The King of Aram was at war, and he conferred with his officers, and he told his officers, "We're going to set up our camp here. This is where we're going to be camping out." And his officers knew this. His top men. Now, the man of God sent word to the King of Israel: "Beware of passing that place because the Arameans are going down there." So the King of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God.

So, this guy told his officers, "We're going to camp here." Meanwhile, Elisha tells the King of Israel, "Be careful about that place because the Arameans are going to be camping there." How did Elisha know? Because God showed him. God spoke to him. Did he have a dream? Did he have a vision? Did he get a phone call from God? Who knows. But God told him this, and he passed the information on to the King of Israel.

This time it was Joram, who was a good deal more sensible than Ahab. Not sensible enough, by the way, but still more sensible. And he checked on the place indicated by the man of God. And if the King of Israel checked on the place, then that must mean he found out that that's where they were. So he avoided them, and the plan of the King of Aram, Ben-Hadad—Ben-Hadad's plan was frustrated.

He couldn't accomplish his plan because the Israelites avoided that place. Time and again, Elisha warned the King so that he was on his guard in such places. This didn't just happen one time. This happened repeatedly. Time and again. Over and over and over again, Elisha warned the King. "They're going to be over there. Watch out. They're going to be over there. Watch out. Aram's going to be over there with the King. Watch out. Don't go that way. Don't go this way." And the King of Aram—this guy Ben-Hadad, he was not a happy camper.

And his thought was, "Somebody's got a wireless microphone in my headquarters here. Somebody is spying on me." This enraged the King of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, "Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the King of Israel? Who's ratting me out? Who's telling the other guy where I'm at? Which one of you is doing it?" If the guy's not going to admit it himself, somebody else will tell me.

"Do you know who it is? Do you know who it is? Do you know who it is? Do you know who it is? Will you not tell me who is ratting us out? Who's on the side of the King of Israel? How is it the King of Israel always finds out where we're going to be? We make our plans in secret; he finds out. What's going on there?" He was enraged.

But he gets his answer here in Verse 12. "None of us, my lord the King," said one of his officers. "But Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the King of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom." The very words you speak in secret, this prophet in Israel tells the King. You can't keep a secret from this guy because he's a prophet. And the implication there is he's serving that God that they have down there in Israel.

And it seems like that God is pretty powerful. And one of the things that God can do is he can hear what you're saying when you're in private. He can almost read your mind, maybe they're thinking. Well, he can read your mind, we know that today, of course. And this guy tells the King, "Look, none of us are turning you in. We're not on the other guy's side. We're not abandoning you to them. It's not us at all. We're keeping your secret, oh King. It's that prophet down there in Israel and that God of his. And he always figures out where you're going to be. Whatever words you say, he's able to pass on to the King of Israel. Ain't fair."

"Go, find out where he is," the King ordered, "so I can send men and capture him." The report came back: "He is in Dothan." Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. So he said, "Look, where's he at? Let's find out." And he sent out some scouts and they came back and said, "The man of God is in the town of Dothan."

So he sends out a strong force to completely surround the town at night. So when the people wake up in the morning, this whole town is surrounded with Ben-Hadad's troops from Aram. And they're going to get this guy Elisha, and they're going to bring him back. I guess it never occurred to them that if Elisha always knows where they're going to be, that he would know they were coming. I guess they never really thought of that—that if Elisha knew all this stuff, Elisha would have a better idea.

They're fighting a battle with human weapons, worldly weapons. And Elisha was fighting with faith in God. And faith can conquer whatever comes against it. Human weapons, the world, the things we have in the world here that we think make us so great. Armies and possessions, material goods, physical things. The things we have that make us feel good about ourselves and that we think are going to make other people like us or look up to us, they're worthless compared to faith in the one who created us and the one who has a plan for every day of our lives and has our footsteps ordered.

So they sent out these horses and these chariots and this strong force, and they have the city completely surrounded. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. The next morning, early, his servant here—who I assume is still Gehazi, the guy who became leprous.

It doesn't say he's not the servant anymore, and he is referred to by name in later chapters. So I would assume that it's him here. At least one later chapter refers to him. So the next morning early, his servant gets up early in the morning, goes out to milk the cows or whatever he's doing there, and he sees the whole city surrounded by horses and chariots. "Holy cow, we're in trouble! These are bad guys. I recognize their uniform." How do you recognize their uniform? Saw them on the Discovery Channel.

I know they're Arameans. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" his servant asked. "Our goat is cooked. We're in trouble now. How are you going to get us out of this one? You made the ax head float. You raised the poor woman's son from the dead. You helped take the leprosy away from somebody and gave it to somebody else. Can you get us out of this one?"

"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Well, how's that, Elisha? I don't exactly see anybody here. Let's see. Me and you. One, two. That's two. Now maybe they had a few other people in their group, I don't know. "One, two, three, four. I see a lot of horses out there and a lot of chariots and a lot of army. What do you mean, those that are with us are more than those who are with them? What are you talking about? What are you chewing, smoking? What are you eating, drinking, sniffing, or snorting?"

And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. And Elisha prayed and asked God, "Open this guy's eyes." And when he did, when the Lord opened his eyes, the servant looked and saw there were horses and chariots of fire all around the place. Remember what he said: "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

We got more on our side than he's got on his side. These are not pretend. These are not fictitious people on our side. These are real spiritual help on our side in the form of angels, I guess, with chariots of fire on Elisha's side, far outnumbering them. And even if they didn't outnumber them, we know that in one case in the Old Testament, one angel killed 185,000 people. So you wouldn't need too many angels to be on your side. In fact, just one would have been enough.

But he said they had even more on their side than were on the other side. It's just that Elisha couldn't see it. And you know, when you can't see what God's plan is in your life, no amount of reason, logic, or common sense will help you to understand it. You can't use the principles of engineering or science or logic to understand what God's will is. Sometimes, it just doesn't work that way. Maybe sometimes it does, but not all the time.

And when God's going to work in your life in a powerful way, sometimes it's a natural way. You may be sick, you may go to a doctor, he may give you some pills, and you may get better. But some other time, he may work in a miraculous way that cannot be understood by anything on this earth. And here God was working in a spiritual way, and Elisha could have never convinced his servant of this, probably, if he hadn't shown him.

"Yes, there's more people here than they have." "Well, I don't see any." "Well, take my word for it, they're here." "Well, well, where are they then?" "Well, they're here. They're just all around us. They're in this room right now with us. They're here. They're protecting us, looking after us." "Well, I don't see them. I don't believe that. How do I know that to be true? You're just making that up."

Look, having your eyes opened by God to the spiritual reality of things is the best way to see what's happening. I think the best proof for angels there is is that on the New Jersey Turnpike, there's 12 lanes of cars and there aren't more accidents than there are. You see all those cars zipping around, weaving in between, and yeah, there's an occasional accident, but not very often.

And I think there must be angels here keeping them in their lanes because all the kooks and crackpots out there that don't know how to drive, there should be an accident every 10 minutes on the New Jersey Turnpike, and there isn't. I don't need to look any further than that to say there's got to be—God has to have angels on the dividing lines between the lanes here, just kind of keeping the cars in their lanes. He must have one riding with me, you know, keeping everybody else out of my lane.

And the way that your eyes are opened to spiritual things, you can see that here also. It's through prayer and through a work of God. You're not going to see spiritual things by going out and getting some degree and then learning how to do it and practicing or chanting or chanting a mantra or contemplating your belly button or anything like that. It's by God revealing it to you.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in a study of 2 Kings. You can hear this message and more hope from the word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. Or if you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope From the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10 a.m. and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org.

And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in 2 Kings next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.