Like his father and
his older brother, Jehoram did evil in God’s eyes.
The witch queen
Jezebel, continued to pull the strings of power behind the scenes. However, it
would not last long. God had already anointed Jehu to prosecute the house of Ahab.
That said, Jehoram
would reign for 12 years. The wheels of justice can move rather slowly. He did at least put
away the image of Baal, but followed in the traditions of Jeroboam.
Even so he too turned
to Jehoshaphat, who had the lingering desire to reunite what God had forever
set apart. Their time had passed, but rather than preempt their fall he let
things run their course.
Jehoshaphat agreed to
fight with him against Moab. Rightly so too, for Jehoshaphat had already
witnessed God’s judgment on Moab and knew that the residue had to be uprooted.
So The two, including
the king of Edom, walked a 7 day circuitous journey to counter-flank Moab.
However, they ran out of water and turned to Elisha.
The prophet said: “Dig ditches in the valley and they will fill
with water”. And so it happened.
However, in the rising
sun, the water flowing in those ditches looked to Moab like blood. They assumed
that the three kings and their armies had fallen, and closed in for the spoils.
Then the three kings
wiped out what was left of Moab. They were obliterated.
Elisha performed a string of miracles (2 Kings 4-6)
He ensured a sustainable cruse of oil. He did something similar to what Elijah once did,
by ensuring a sustainable reservoir of oil for the widow to one of the
prophets.
He blessed another with child. After passing
Shunem a few times on the Lord’s business, a faithful woman and her husband
made room for him in their home, with its own furniture.
He was so moved by it
that he told his own servant Gehazi to call her and then, despite an aged
husband, he promised her a child. Nine months later the child was born and
grew.
Then the boy fell sick
and died on her knees, so she hastened to find the prophet on Mount Carmel.
He
was moved enough to send Gehazi with his staff, but the child would not stir. So he went to the boy,
locked himself in his room with the dead child and lay on the child until his
body heat transferred to the boy. He revived and was restored to his mother.
He sweetened a pot of stew and multiplied bread. He returned to
Gilgal where there was a drought and ordered that a pot be cooked with pottage
(stew), to which they added herbs and a wild vine.
The vine was toxic, but Elisha had meal poured into the pot and
the food was healed.
Then a man came from
Baalshalisa with bread and barley. It wasn’t enough to feed the many souls with
Elisha, yet he blessed the food and they all ate.
He healed Naaman of leprosy. The
captain of Syria’s army had leprosy and the king of Syria sent him to Israel,
so that the Lord might heal him.
The king of Israel was
nonplussed, but Elisha heard about it and sent a messenger to tell Naaman to
wash seven times in the Jordan.
He was deeply
offended, partly because Elisha did not come out to meet him and because he
felt his rivers were nicer. How naïve. He wanted God to heal on his own terms.
Anyway, he relented
and did as he was told. He was fully healed, but Elisha refused any payment.
Sadly Gehazi ran after him and took payment surreptitiously.
Elisha discerned what
had happened and so Naaman’s leprosy then fell to Gehazi and all his
descendants.
He made an axehead float. All the prophets
felt that their current living space was too restrictive and so Elisha let them
go ahead and build a new place on the banks of the Jordan.
One day a new axe-head
fell into the River, which was concerning as it was new and borrowed, but
Elisha made it float so they could recover it.
Truly the spirit on
him was mighty and he was as mighty a prophet as Elijah had been.
He blinded the Syrians. The enemy moved into a valley, with plans to war against Israel, but Elisha
warned the king. It irked the Syrians so they went in force against Elisha.
Elisha's servant
fretted when he saw them coming, but the prophet told Gehazi that there was
more for them than those against them, which was revealed to him as God
unveiled his eyes.
Continuing the theme Elisha
caused the Syrians to be blinded, then led them to Samaria.
As he restored their sight, the king of Israel
thought of attacking them, but Elisha made it very clear they should
be fed and then allowed to go free. Rightly so, for they were effectively
unarmed.
Thanks to that gesture,
the Syrians stop plaguing Israel.
He delivered Samaria. A great famine
hit the city, evidently invoked by Elisha. To make matters worse the
Syrians besieged the city.
Then the king of
Israel heard a woman complain of how she had given her son to be boiled for
food. It so incensed him that he demanded Elisha's head.
Well the next day
Elisha said, “a measure of fine flour for a shekel, two measures of barley for
a shekel”. It was an exchange rate unheard of in recent times.
Yet, four desperate
lepers took their chances and walked into the Syrian camp to find that Elisha
was right. The camp was deserted and a king’s ransom of goods was theirs for the taking.
They wanted to keep it
to themselves but relented and shared the news with their desperate town. And
thus the siege of Samaria was broken and the town was restored.
Sadly for the king’s
counsel, who scoffed at Elisha’s words, he died in the city gates.
(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com
