Elijah and Elisha 21

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The Gospel: Jesus took on flesh, is God, died on the cross. Salvation.

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Elijah and Elisha 21.
“Elisha” – the name means: “my God is salvation”, “God saves”. יהוה is a mighty deliverer! Hallelujah! A Saviour! Salvation belongs to the LORD! [P] The name “Jesus” means יהוה saves! So, I have contended, Elisha is a picture of Jesus. So, today, I want to tell three stories of [P] salvation from the life of Elisha. Too ambitious?, probably; but they are short. When you examine it, possibly all the stories about Elisha, have salvation in them. The first is in 2 Kings 4:38-41 [P]. You may recall the story of the Shunamite woman, to whom God miraculously gave a son, who died but was raised to life; this story follows straight after that. Elijah returned from the Shunem to Gilgal. [2 Kings 4:38–41 When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. (remember last time, in chapter 8; Elisha warned the Shunamite that there was going to be a 7-year famine in the land; and she left her land for Philistia. Elisha, however, remained in Israel. He had commitments there. There was a number of men who followed him, disciples, men he trained: a school of prophets, known as “the sons of the prophets”) As the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” Then one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they did not know what they were. (Here were men who had probably left their employment/their land to join the sons of the prophets. They were possibly financially disadvantaged, furthermore there was a famine on the land. You get the impression that they were hard up – the had to glean and hunt around just to get enough food to eat. They didn’t go to market to buy, they were gathering stuff growing wild. One of them found a wild vine bearing gourds. He may have seen it as God’s provision. So, he eagerly gathered up a load of them and they put them in the stew. He was doing as the man of God instructed; but it turned sour. They did not make a botanical identification, they were just grateful for some substance to fill their belly. However, not all that grows is edible.) So they poured it out for the men to eat. And as they were eating of the stew, they cried out and said, “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” (he had inadvertently picked poisonous gourds! They were bitter and tainted the whole stew) And they were unable to eat. But he said, (that, of course, is Elisha) “Now bring meal.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people that they may eat.” Then there was no harm ( רָ֖ע or evil/bad) in the pot.] Here they were poisoned, “death was in the pot”; but they were saved from death and were fed. You may recall that earlier on there was a similar situation; the water supply at Jericho was poisoned. What did Elisha do then?: [2 Kings 2:20–22 He said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.” So, they brought it to him. He went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says יהוה, ‘I have purified these waters; there shall not be from there death or unfruitfulness any longer.’” So, the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.] Elisha put salt in and pronounced in the Name of יהוה. It worked then; but now, he did something different. Sometimes God does something dramatic some place; we think: “It worked then, it worked there; that’s what we should do now.” We reduce God to a formula. They did this at Coral Ridge, or Pensecola or wherever; so we run seminars so that we can have the same success here. But this time it was different. You have to be listening to God, be directed by Him for each situation. This time Elisha threw some “meal” in the pot – the word is “flour”, the same stuff the widow of Zarephath used to make Elijah a cake and which יהוה miraculously sustained through a 3-year drought. Just ordinary flour. This is no magic trick, flour has no poison reversing properties – it is just the ordinary stuff that you make bread out of. There was fine flour, stuff used for offerings; but this was just the ordinary stuff of the common people. What is going on here? Why is the incident recorded? Well it was an amazing miracle. They thought that they were all going to die, had been poisoned, but their lives were saved. But it does not record Elisha praying, or God telling him to take flour. That may well have happened, but it is not mentioned. Elisha just took ordinary common flour, threw it in the pot. He made no special proclamation stating that the stew was now wholesome, he just said: “Pour it out for the people that they may eat.” And eat they did. They did not die of hunger nor of poison. God preserved their life. They were saved. But you will notice that God is not even mentioned (except in calling Elisha “man of God”). The simple message is the same as last week where the Shunamites land was restored: [P] God looks after His own. He acts to save them. Rhoda and I listened to a great message by John Piper based on this verse: [P] [Isaiah 64:4 For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.] God acts! Acts on behalf of His own, those who depend upon Him. He acts to save! That is what He did when He sent His Son, Jesus, to this world. Now, I don’t want to read too much into this, and symbolism ain’t my strong point. But, Elisha took common flour, the stuff you make bread out of and threw it in the pot. Jesus said: [P] [John 6:48 I am the bread of life!] In fact, to make sure we got the point He said it three times: [John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.] The bread is Jesus’ flesh. [P] [John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.] [1 Timothy 3:16 By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh.] Jesus, as “the bread of life” is Jesus in a human body – made of common flour. Not of noble birth, a common, ordinary man – like you and me! He humbled Himself, emptied Himself, just common flour. What a humbling for Jesus to lay aside His glory and be confined to pathetic human form, mere dust! [Philippians 2:6–8 although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, (not just man, but the lowest form of men) and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.] God threw Him in the pot – sent Him into this mess of a stew that is the world. [John 6:32–33 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”] They were going to die, poisoned, but the flour, the bread, gave them life: [John 6:57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.] In Jesus is salvation from death! We are all going to die! Poisoned with sin. But God sent Jesus into this world that by eating of Him, taking His life, being one with Him in His death; we have life. Share His resurrection life. What is necessary for salvation is that Jesus come in the flesh, live as one of us. The second story has the same context: there was a famine in the land, and it concerned the sons of the prophets. How these men lived, we are not precisely told; but it seems that they were reliant on charity, other people supplying their needs. That is all well and good when there is plenty to go around; but, in a famine there is not enough for your own family, let alone a surplus to give to others. So, they were in dire straits; when, praise the LORD, someone brought them a gift: [P] [2 Kings 4:42–44 Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. (barley was the poor man’s grain) And he said, (that is Elisha)Give them to the people that they may eat.” His attendant said, “What, will I set this before a hundred men?” (the response is incredulity! 20 loaves for 100 people sounds O.K. to me; but it is not big loaves like we have – think of something more the size of a hamburger bun. It is evident by the attendant’s response that it was woefully inadequate) But he said, (that is Elisha again)Give them to the people that they may eat, for thus says יהוה, (this time Elisha does make a pronouncement from יהוה)They shall eat and have some left over.’” So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of יהוה.] As יהוה had said, so it came to be. His word is truth! What He says, happens! Praise His Name! Once again, there were the sons of the prophet hungry, without food. They would starve; but, they were saved [P] from starvation by the supernatural multiplication of food. Now what we read in John 6, about Jesus being the “Bread of Life”; all arose because people came to Jesus wanting bread from heaven; and this was because they had had a free feed – in John 6:1-14, Jesus feeds 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. The feeding of the 5,000 was the context for the teaching on the Bread of Life. Now the present incident immediately brings to mind the feeding of the 5,000 or the 4,000 – they are so similar. Look in [John 6:9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”] – there was a supply, but it was woefully inadequate, way below what was required for the number needing to be fed. I have seen that at church lunches; the guy leading up the front says, “You are welcome to stay, even if you haven’t come prepared; there’s always plenty.” But sometimes, those more connected with setting things out, are well aware that things are a bit lean out there today. But he is right! There always is plenty. We have never lacked yet. In the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus said to His disciples: [Luke 9:13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.”] – Jesus told His disciples to “give them to eat” – that is exactly what Elisha said in (v.42). Jesus [Luke 9:16–17 Then took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them, and broke them, and kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people. And they all ate and were satisfied; and the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve baskets full.] Exactly like in this incident; everyone not only ate and was satisfied; but there was a surplus left over. The parallels are too obvious to miss. This is a miraculous expansion of food to meet the needs of the people. What is the message, the meaning of this incident? In the feeding of the 5,000; those that were fed did not get the right message. They took the lesson: here is a way to a free-feed! They followed Jesus, sought Him out: [John 6:26–27 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. (they sought Jesus because they ate, because their bellies were filled. They were seeking material things. What they did not perceive was “signs”) “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”] They witnessed a signs but all they saw was bread and fish. But it was not just a feed: IT WAS A SIGN! [P] A sign of what? Even Jesus’ disciples didn’t get it; see that there was significance. It wasn’t just a supernatural phenomenon, something spectacular: it was a sign! Right after the feeding of the 5,000: [Mark 6:45–52 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.” Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.] The disciples saw Jesus walking on the water – they were terrified! It was a ghost! The wind stopped. They were utterly astonished! Why?! Well those are pretty amazing things! Aren’t they? Well for you and me, yes. But for God, the Creator of all, the Controller of all; pretty easy. They were only astonished and terrified because they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves. Jesus could walk on water, had control over the weather, He multiplied food – what did that tell you?! It’s not hard! It tells you that He is GOD! [P] If they had picked up the SIGN from the multiplying of the loaves; they would have known that Jesus was God, then they would not have been astonished. So, the sign of the multiplying of the food is that Jesus is GOD. He is DIVINE! This is what Jesus went on to say in John 6. Not only was the bread His flesh; but, that bread came down from heaven! He was Divine! [John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (sent from God, from heaven) John 6:32–33 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, John 6:50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. John 6:51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; John 6:57–58 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, (the life of God is in Him, He is one with the Father, He is God!) so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” John 6:62 “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?] Over and over, Jesus said that He came from heaven – He is God! This is the sign of the multiplication of the bread. Jesus is God! Salvation of man does not only depends on Jesus being a man like them, being one of them; it also depends on Him being God! Divine! Man is sinful! All descended from Adam have failed – they are unable to save. Look, if someone is in the quicksand of sin he cannot rescue is fellow who is also in the quicksand. No, you need someone outside standing on the rock to rescue those in the quagmire of sin. Jesus had to be Divine, had to be God, because He had to be sinless, that is the only way that He can save – and only God is sinless. Jesus had to be both man and God, at the same time. Nearly all heresies have sprung from here: either they deny that Jesus is God, or they deny that He became fully man. Jesus can save because He is God and because He became man: BREAD (flesh) that came from HEAVEN (God). But how does He save? [P] Let us look at the next story; again, it involves the “sons of the prophets”: [2 Kings 6:1–7 Now the sons of the prophets [P] said to Elisha, “Behold now, the place before you where we are living is too limited for us. “Please let us go to the Jordan [P] and each of us take from there a beam, and let us make a place there for ourselves where we may live.” So he said, “Go.” Then one said, “Please be willing to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I shall go.” So he went with them; and when they came to the Jordan, [P] they cut down trees. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water; [P] and he cried out and said, “Alas, my master! For it was borrowed.” Then the man of God said, [P] “Where did it fall?” And when he showed him the place, he cut off a stick [P] and threw it in there, and made the iron float. [P] He said, “Take it up for yourself.” [P] So he put out his hand and took it.] It reminds me of an incident back along. I relate it just to show that these were not just miracles that happened back in Bible days. I was not walking with the LORD at the time and was still living at home. We lived in Burnside, far from the sea; so, on hot days, we would go swimming in the Waimak, out behind the airport. Well, it was a superhot day, and we went down along the stop-banks and there was this lovely deep pool. It was so hot, the water so inviting that I just jumped in. The thing is that if you wear glasses all the time, you tend to forget that you have them on. I dove in and the glasses went straight to the bottom. You know the Waimak – it has that suspended colloidal clay in it that makes it blue-green, the bottom was muddy, you couldn’t see a thing. I surfaced and told of the calamity. Dad said, let’s pray; which he did. I dove straight back in, put my hands straight on my glasses and resurfaced, rejoicing! There was zero visibility. What chance was there of finding those glasses again?!; but my hand went straight to them. As I say I was not walking with the LORD at the time; but I recognized it as a miracle; the incident made an impact on me. I guess I saw beyond the provision, to the sign – part of the pathway of God drawing me back to Himself. Anyway! Back to the story. They were felling trees by the river and an axe-head flew off and fell in the river. What’s the problem? – pop down to Bunnings and buy another one! Well, firstly, as I have pointed out, these sons of the prophets seemed to be living at subsistence level – they were hard up. Secondly, though we regard an axe as a fairly basic tool, this had an iron head. That was cutting edge technology for the time. Forging iron requires higher temperatures than bronze, it was specialized trade and only a limited number had the ability to craft iron. You paid a premium for iron tools and even to have them maintained. This was not some old axe. This was valuable and beyond the means of the sons of the prophets to replace. Which leads to the third thing – it was borrowed. If it was your own, you’d be upset at the loss, but you would bear it; but when it was borrowed you were responsible to the owner for it. You had to replace it – and this man could not do that! He was in schtuck! The Law laid down stipulations for when you borrowed something and then it suffered loss or damage: [Exodus 22:14 “If a man borrows anything from his neighbour, and it is injured or dies while its owner is not with it, he shall make full restitution.] This man could not do that! He was in trouble – he could not possibly replace an iron axe. It was a crisis! He could see no way out, it was an impossible situation There was nothing that he could do; he needed to be saved out of this debt that he was incapable of meeting. So, he cried out to his master, his lord: “he cried out and said, “Alas, my master! For it was borrowed.””. A good thing to do in the time of crisis: cry out to the LORD. It is written in [P] [Joel 2:32 And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of יהוה will be saved!] He cried out to Elisha; and what did he do? He cut a stick and threw it in the Jordan. The Hebrew for stick is: “עֵץ֙” – the general word for “wood”, be it growing or cut; it is a stick, a tree, wood. It is not the word for “beam” or “log” used earlier. It is the same word as the “tree’ that was thrown in the bitter water at Marah in (Exodus 15:25) that made the water sweet. It speaks of the cross, the “tree” on which Jesus was crucified. [P] John gave me this Hebrew New Testament; in Galatians where it says: [Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— ] and in Peter where it says: [1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we may die to sins and live to righteousness, by whose wounds you were healed.] the word “tree” is this word: “עֵץ֙”. Here was heavy iron, like the heavy load of sin; at the cross the burden of sin was lifted – the iron floated. This is what an ancient commentary (about 500 AD) says: “What does it mean to cast the piece of wood and bring the iron to light, except to ascend the gibbet of the cross, to lift up the human race from the depth of hell and to free it from the mud of all sins by the mystery of the cross?”. In fact, most early commentators seem agreed on this interpretation. Justin Martyr, only about 100 years after the church was born, said regarding this passage: “just as our Christ, by being crucified on the wood of the cross and by sanctifying us by water raised up us who had been immersed in the mire of our mortal sins.” They saw in the Jordan a picture of baptism: being crucified with Christ, buried and raised to newness of life. Salvation is through the cross, through Jesus dying in our place. So, we have three stories of Elisha, of “my God is Saviour”: the first tells us that Jesus came in the flesh, was fully man; the second tells us that Jesus is God, He is Divine; the third tells us that salvation is through the cross, this God-man dying in our place. That is the Gospel! Look, I feel like I am trying to teach grandma to suck eggs! This is nothing new, it is stuff that you all know. We go out to the prison and John says to them that we are repeating the same message – it may be different verses, different approaches, but the message is exactly the same. There is no other message! There is no other way of salvation [P] [Acts 4:12 “And there is [P] salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be [P] saved.”] Why don’t I tell you something new, something fresh? Move on to deeper things? Because this is of first importance! [1 Corinthians 15:1–4 Now I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.] I make no apology for repeating this same old message. [Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.] You know, we can presume that everyone knows, that everyone here believes. But, I remember my Dad helped plant a new church up in Tauranga along with some others. Among them was a couple, long-standing members of the Baptist church. Many years after the church was planted, the wife of this couple was near death – she had motor neuron disease. She asked to see Dad – she wanted to give her life to the LORD! Here she was, a leading founder of the church; yet she had never come to believe the simple Gospel. Everyone thought that she was a fine Christian, but she needed to be saved. You can come along here to church, make all the right noises; but have never put your utter reliance solely in Jesus, the God who became flesh and died in your place. Tragically, there are still people who are trying to do it themselves, instead of simply believing this simple message: Jesus is God, He became man and He died on the cross in your place.
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