Elisha Series

We're gonna read the scriptures. 2 kings. 2 kings chapter 2. And after our break over the Christmas period, we're back in 2 kings. We've looked at Elijah, the prophet Elijah, and now we're moving on to the prophet Elijah.

Now you'll have to forgive all preachers and speak because those 2 names are very similar, and it's very easy to slip into ill and say Elijah when you mean Elijah. So we're gonna read from 2 kings, and we're going to start at verse 11. So here is Elijah and Elijah sure walking along in Elijah is about to be taken up to heaven. As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the 2 of them. And Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

Elijah saw this and cried out my father, my father, the chariots, and horsemen of Israel. And Elijah saw him no more. Then, he took hold of his garment and tore it in 2. Elisha then picked up Elijah's cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank's bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it, where now is the lord, The God of Elijah, he asked.

When he struck the water, it divided into into the right and to the left, and he crossed over. The company of the prophets from Gerico, who were watching, said, the spirit of Elijah is resting on Elijah. And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. Look, they said, we, your servants, have 50 able men. Let them go and look for your master.

Perhaps the spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley. No, Elijah replied. Do not send them. But they persisted until he was too embarrassed to refuse. So he said send them.

And they sent 50 men who searched for 3 days but did not find him. When they returned to Elijah, who were staying in Jericho, he said to them, didn't I tell you not to go? The people of the city said to Elijah, look, our lord. This town is well situated as you can see, but the water is bad. And the land is unproductive.

Bring me a new bowl, he said, and put salt in it so they brought it to him. That he went out to the spring and threw the salt in it, saying, this is what the Lord says. I have healed this water. Never again, will it cause death or make the land unproductive? And the water has remained pure to this day according to the word Elisha spoke.

I do please turn back to 2 Kings, Chapter 2. And my name is Tom Sweetman, if you're watching at home, I'm the assistant pastor at the church. And we are thankful to the lord that for now, at least, we are able to have a group here in the hub. And to be seeing 1 another and encouraging 1 another to keep looking to Jesus in these difficult times. So welcome to all who are here.

And for our members and guests who are joining online, it's great that you're able to do so. And if you could turn back to 2 Kings chapter 2 as well, that would be good. As Pete said, we're back in our Elijah Elijah series. And in the last episode, which we looked at at the end of last year, Ben was showing us that moment when Elijah, the great prophet was taken back into heaven and his successor, Elijah, saw him go but has been left behind to carry on the work. And as we see in the reading, he took up the cloak of Elijah, and that was symbolic of him going on with the Ministry of the Lord.

It's where the phrase take up the mantle originally comes from. When you take up the mantle, you continue the work. It's because the old translation of coat is mental. And so Elijah takes up the mantle and his will be the prophetic ministry of the lord now. So let's pray.

As we launch out into Elijah's prophetic ministry. Father, we thank you that we can open your words, and we can talk to you, and we can know because of what you have revealed to us that you are a speaking god, and that that is just who you are. It is your nature, your essence. You are a god who reveals himself. And you love to make yourself known and to show your character and your glory and your goodness.

And we thank you that we can be here together, those of us who are in the name of Jesus, to look at your word together, and to know that you will speak to us, thank you that we can talk to you in prayer. Thank you for all those joining in at home as well. And we pray that you would help them to listen, and help them to learn, and to grow, and that we might all love you more as we begin on this begin on this campaign together, looking at Elijah's wonderful ministry and the things that you did through him in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. And I was thinking about this series this week, and I was contrasting it with our previous lockdown series that we've been doing in Philippians and Hag Guy.

And it occurred to me this week, though that this is in fact a wonderful book for us to be looking at together. Because although it belongs to a distant part of history and it might take a while to become familiar with the characters and what exactly is going on. What it shows us very plainly is that into difficult times that are that are both spiritually hard and physically hard, God is doing miraculous things to confirm the truth of his word. And he's showing us that when times are tough, God is not absent. His words goes out in power, and he does things incredible thing, unexpected things to testify to his own character and his own goodness.

So I hope we will see this morning that this is just as relevant, just as useful as the other lockdown series that that we've been doing. Let me begin with this. Many of you will know about smart search, smart search that lots of online search engines employ, and it's basically a tool which predicts what you want to look for based on what you've already typed in. And although there is a sinister side to that, because there is a lot of evidence that that predictive search is manipulated to push you down particular lines. It can be a useful and entertaining thing.

And this week, I was typing in how to spot an authentic Just to see how Google would direct me from then on, how to spot an authentic, and then I did how to spot a fake and just to see how Google would finish my sentence for me, and here are the results, how to spot an authentic LV bag, which I had to look up. Apparently, that's Louis Vuitton. How to spot a spot an authentic Louis Vuitton bag. How to spot an authentic coach bag? Gucci bag, Chanel bag, Hermy's birkin, another y s o is Eve Sayla Rand, I think.

Fendi, and then lastly person, right at the bottom of the list. You know, once you've clarified how to spot an a handbag. Knowing an authentic person comes about tenth in that list. And then, I reversed the search and did how to spot a fake Rolex 50 pound note, Pokemon card was an interesting 1, Gucci bag, 20 pound note, Louis Vuitton bag, sick note, how to spot a fake sick note, which I thought was a wonderful search. And how to spot a fake mulberry Mulbury bag or Mulbury, I don't know if I'm even saying it right.

But that's fake signal. Yeah. Lucas is keen to research that. You know? To make sure his sick notes are accurate, you know, in future.

And, you know, I looked at that and I don't I don't think that that is based on my own search history. You know, I I can't remember searching long and hard for these handbags. But if you are in the market for these things, It is good to know, isn't it? That you're getting the real thing. If you're willing to shell out that kind of money, on on bags, then I guess it is quite important to know what the authentic signs are before you part with your money.

And that is true beyond handbags. It's true in lots of areas. When when buying something expensive or when getting to know someone, we want to know that we are seeing an authentic thing. We want to know what the signs are of authenticity. So we know that when we part with our money and get to know a person, that we're doing we're doing the right thing.

And in a world like ancient Israel, a world like today, with many messages and lots of people claiming to have the truth about who we are in our world, then we have the same kind of problem, don't we? If there were no fake prophets, if there were no counterfeit messages in the world, it wouldn't be a problem, but there are. And so the question is, how do we spot the real thing. Or if you want to put it this way, if ancient Israel had Google and they were to type in how to spot an authentic prophet, how to spot a teller of the truth, how would the lord finish that sentence for them. What would be the end of their smart search according to Yahweh.

And that is actually a very important question to ask as we come to 2 kings 2 and to the beginning of the Ministry of Elijah. How are we going to spot him as an authentic prophet? What will be the signs? Well, have a look at verse 13. We've already had some of them some of them red.

Elijah then picked up Elijah's cloak or his mantle that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah, and he struck the water with it. Where now is the Lord? The God of Elijah, he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left and he crossed over And the company of the prophets from Gerico, who were watching said, ah, the spirit of Elijah, is resting on Elijah.

Now, generally speaking, miracles and signs and wonders don't happen all the time in the bible. They tend to cluster around key people at key moments. So you might think of Moses and his time in Egypt, and then his time with the Lord's people in the wilderness. Most memorably Jesus, and the apostles who followed him, and Elijah and Elijah. These are the kind of areas in the bible where miracles really cluster.

And God sends them through his prophets to authenticate them as the real spokesman of the Lord. Now, there's more to say on that topic, but that that is 1 of the big reasons that we see them. God steps in to to confirm his word at key moments in history. And this is 1 of those moments, the House of Israel, is very far from God, false prophets are all around. And so, as he did with Elijah, Now the Lord will do for Elijah, he will confirm him with signs and wonders.

He will authenticate him with miracles. And not just not just any miracles. I mean, it's quite interesting what sort of miracles they are. The 1 in verse 13 is almost an exact or an exact copy of the 1 Elijah just did in the chapter. And that is a very important note.

And it's something again we see with Jesus and with the apostles. Their miracles are very similar And the point being that this is the same God working in the same ways to do the same things for the same purpose. And so here, at the end of the chapter, chapter 2 of 2 kings, We have these 2 amazing stories, which do belong together, and we'll we'll we'll see probably more of that next week. But we can take them both individually, and both of them are really continuing that that theme. Elijah is not touring with Elijah anymore.

He's on his solo career. So you might remember that very helpful analogy, Ben Drew, in his sermon, between the farewell tour of the the band traveling to the key venues. Well, Elijah has got an Elijah is an embarking on a solo career, and he's gonna be returning to some of the key venues, Jordan and Gerico and Bethel And in every place, this is the thing, in every place, God will be saying, this is my man. This is my man. Listen to him.

And look to me. And so the first story we're looking at is the 1 we've had read. And the first point this morning is is this. Death in the water. Death in the water.

And that's what we see right at the beginning in verse 19. And in verse 19, we're now moving away from the Jordan we're moving away from the key venue, Jordan, and we're going back to the other key venues. And the first 1 we're stopping off at is Gerico. And we are told in verse 14 that the people of the city, the city in question is Gerico. And as you can see in verse 19, the people are glad to see him.

Glad to see Elijah. The people of the city said to Elijah, look our lord, This town is well situated as you can see, but the water is bad, and the land is unproductive. So, The first thing that Elijah is presented with on his solo career is this this problem. And, it's a confusing problem. Because the people are saying, well, Elijah, this town is very well situated.

And like most major towns, it is located near fresh water. That is so important for life and for agriculture, and for a million other reasons. So we're we're in a good place. We're well situated. There's nothing obviously wrong with the land that we can see.

And so, to the human eye, this ought to be a fruitful place. There's nothing wrong with where we are, but there's no fruit coming. There's a problem. With the land. The situation is good.

For some reason, the water is bad. And this is causing really big problems. Not only are they without clean water, but the land is miscarrying. That is actually the word for unproductive that is used in verse 19. And it's quite a it's quite a distressing image, isn't it?

They're in a place where there's the hope of life and the promise of life and the expectation of life, but no life. The land is delivering delivering death. And because Elijah says in verse 21, never again will it cause death. It looks like this water wasn't just affecting the land, but it was killing it was killing the people. There was something poisonous about this water that was affecting every aspect of the city.

So something is very very wrong. It's not just that it doesn't taste good or the mineral balance is off. There is death in this water And the thing that is wrong with it is not practical. It's actually a symbol of a spiritual problem. So in deuteronomy 28, we read this, and it's just interesting you go through both Elijah and Elijah's Ministry, you see how the law of God is such a backdrop to everything everything that happens.

And in deuteronomy 28, we begin to get an explanation for what's happening in in Jericho. The Lord says, if you do not obey, The Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees that I am giving you today, all of these curses will come on you and overtake you. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herbs, and the lambs of your flocks.

You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. So in Jericho, the the water and this this distressing, miscarrying land is the presenting issue, but the the explanation for it is in part here. These are the curses that have fallen on a disobedient people. But there is more going on here than that. Remember, these people are from Gerico.

And way back at the beginning of our series in Elijah, we were thinking about Gerico before we even got to his ministry. So this is a this is a long time ago now. But have a look at this from 1 king 16 and verse 34. In Ahab's time. Now, that sentence, we've learned a lot about Ahab together, haven't we?

In Ahab's time, We know that what comes next is wickedness. So, those 3 words, in Ahab's time, introduce wicked wicked times. And what is the first thing that we read? Heal, or Hyle, however you say, of Bethel, and that's interesting, rebuilt Gerico. He laid its foundations at the cost of his first born son, abiram.

And he set it up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Seggab, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua, the son of nun. Now, if we were to read Joshua chapter 6, we would find that very word. When God's people came into the promised land, 1 of the first things that Joshua did was to destroy Gerico. And after that, he commanded it not to be rebuilt. Jerica was not to be rebuilt.

It was to stay there as a reminder for the people. They were to treat it like a museum where they might take their friends and family and children, and they would look at the ruins and they would remember together that our God judges our enemies and saves his people. It was to be a museum. To point them to God. But in Ahab's time, it was rebuilt.

And straightaway, the curse of Joshua falls on heel. He built it up at the cost of his son. He built it up at the cost. Of his son. He finished it at the cost of his son.

In other words, he suffered great loss. Because he disobeyed the commands of God. In other words, what we're dealing with here is not a just a 2 dimensional problem. It's bad, water, bad land, good situation. What's the problem?

And this is not It's not a magical, strange thing, like the curse of the black pearl. You know, if you if you find yourself in possession of the buried treasure, you and your family will be cursed forever. You know, that sort of thing. This this is a this is a spiritual symbol of a spiritual reality. And in many ways, it's a picture of Israel in general, isn't it?

Israel was a good land. It was well situated. It was watered by the Lord. It was meant to be fruitful vine, but the spiritual water was poisoned by their sin, and the fruit did not come. So Gerico is a little picture of the nation in many ways that has turned away from God.

So that's this bad water is all about. Now how does Elisha respond? Well, if there's death in the water, he's gonna put salt in the bowl. And that's the second point. Death in the water, salt in the bowl.

Look what he does in verse 20 of 2 kings 2. Bring me a new bowl, he said, and put salt in it. So they brought it to him, and then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into the spring, saying, this is what the Lord says, I have healed this water. And remember, this miracle is all about Elijah being God's man. And as we saw with Elijah, we now see with Elijah, God is wanting to connect him to the tradition of the great prophets.

He's wanting to show the people that this man is in the line of Moses, the other great prophets. And this miracle is very like 1 that we find in Exodus 15. We can't We won't turn there now. But in exodus 15, there is a similar problem. The water was bitter, And so what does Moses do, he throws not salt, but wood into the water, and what happens to the water, the water becomes pure.

In other words, for those who knew their history, they would be seeing the Elijah like Elijah, is in the line of Moses, proclaiming the law of God and the character of God. This connecting connecting the dots all the time. There's lots of details here in this miracle, isn't there? So in verse 20, we're told it must be a new bowl and not 1 that you've just got lying around the house. So if you've got a, you know, a fine tea set at home, that you only bring out on special occasions or you've got some cut glass cups or something.

That's probably not the sort of thing you have your orange juice in every morning. You know, it's it's reserved, isn't it? For a special purpose? It's for the special times. And this bowl is to be like that.

It's to be like the stuff that was used in the temple. You know, it's not to be just a common bowl that you've got lying around. That you use for all kinds of things. It's to be new. It's to be uncommon.

It's to be different. It's to be a bowl set apart. For the Lord's work. An Internet bowl must go salt, which is really strange because normally, when you put salt into water, it doesn't improve its drinkability. In fact, it becomes quite sickening.

So if, you know, Levi or Lucas was to put salt, a teaspoon of salt into their dad's cup of water, he would quickly discover that it wasn't as nice as it should be. You know, it has a sickening effect salt, doesn't it on water? And as far as I know, you know, salty water is also bad news for the land. If you've got brackish water all over your crops, it's not gonna be good for them. Now, of course, Elisha isn't, you know, reversing dump trucks of the stuff.

And dumping it into the spring on mass. But the symbol is strange, isn't it? Surely adding salt to the water is gonna have the opposite effect. But again, this is not a 2 d solution to a 2 d problem. This is spiritual.

Have a look at these verses from the old testament, which shed a bit of light on this salt. Numbers 18 verse 19. Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings, the Israelites present to the Lord, I give to you and your sons and daughters as your perpetual share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord, for both you and your offspring. And then 2 chronicles 13, don't you know that the Lord the God of Israel has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt.

Now, to be honest, it is quite hard to know. Exactly what this reference is all about, but you can see how salt is connected both to God's covenant and to God's king. There's something about salt, which reminds the people that God is faithful to his promises, and that God rules through his king. The salt is connected to the everlasting faithfulness and the everlasting rule of God. And so again, it's a symbol.

If the water being bad was a sign of their disobedience, The salt into the water is a sign of God's faithfulness of his desire to redeem and to rule his people again and to restore them. And so what we're seeing here just in this strange miracle is a little pointer to the faithful mercy of God that even in the face of their sin, He is willing to come and to restore and to rule them again. And so Elijah goes up to the spring, which you can still go to today, apparently, and he he gets this new bowl of salt and he throws the salt of the covenant into the bad water. He throws the salt of the everlasting king into the water. And then we see the results.

So firstly, death in the water, secondly, salt in the bowl. Thirdly, lastly, life for the lands. Life for the land. And the key to this miracle is in that verse that we've just read. 2 kings 2 verse 21, then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it saying, this is what the Lord says.

I have healed this water. Never again, will it cause death or make the land unproductive? And so again, this salt and this bowl and this water, it's not a it's not a magic formula. We take our cauldron, and we put hair of unicorn, and we put powdered nute, and we put eyeball of Raven, and we stir it all together and we put it in the water and it makes it whole. It's not a strange thing like that.

According to Elijah, the Lord has done this. You see how he points to the Lord. Yahweh has healed this water God has saved these people. It's interesting when Moses died, and Joshua went through the Jordan and into Gerico, his first act was to destroy Gerico. When Elijah was taken, Elijah went through the Jordan and his first act was to save Gerico.

The name Elijah means my God saves. And that is The wonderful truth that we see in this very simple miracle, into a land of disobedience, God shows up with a bowl of blessing. He comes and he wants to take away the curse and replace it with grace. He wants to take away the defilement and replace it with purity. He wants to take that which is unwholesome, and he wants to make it whole again.

He wants to take that dangerous poisonous, living water, this this water that you have been drinking and that instead of giving life, it's actually been killing you, It's been killing you what you've been drinking, this poisonous water, and he wants to change it for living living water. God meets these people in their sin, and he takes away the curse and he replaces it with blessing. And I think that is such good news, isn't it, for the person who started off this year with plans to turn over a new leaf and to grow with the lord, but has already within a couple of weeks fallen back into old habits. This miracle is really good news. For the person who is battling sexual sin, and impurity, and unwholesome content.

It's really good news for the person who is prone to losing their temper, and becoming irritable and proud and bristly. It's good news for the gossip and the flatterer and the lazy person and the over worker and the liar and the cheat. The Lord meets our disobedience with kindness and with salvation. So it might be that today, as I and you, look at the landscape of your life, that we do see a lack of fruit. We see a land that is unproductive We see a spiritual life that is in some way miscarrying.

You know, we're hearing the right things. We're well situated We're listening to the word. We're tuning in, but there's something unproductive. There's something ineffective. It's not producing.

As it ought to produce. It might be that we look at our lives and we sense that there's death in the water somewhere. And that the land of the heart is not yielding the fruit that it should. This passage says that God is ready to meet us with grace. He's ready to meet our disobedience with grace.

He's ready to come because he is faithful. And because he wants to rule and to make us make us new again. In the old testament, the covenant of salt was an everlasting covenant, which meant it never failed. And for us, in the new testament, when we come to that last supper, and we hear Jesus, who is the king in David's line. Remember the promise from 2 chronicles, he is that king in David's line.

And we hear Jesus talking about a new covenant in his blood. We know that he speaks of an eternal promise. A covenant with forgiveness at its heart, a promise which makes us clean forever. He is the king that rules us. With grace.

And as we see in this story, right at the end, the waters which God makes clean, What happens to them? The water remained pure to this day. What God makes pure, He makes pure forever. If God has cleaned our hearts through the grace of His son, they are clean. Forever.

1 writer says in a old language, I don't think I put the don't think I put the quote up, actually. No. It didn't. It says, if God casteth into our hearts, but 1 crucible, which is I had to look it up like a jar or a pot But 1 cruise full of the salt of his spirit, we are whole. We are whole.

The waters that God cleans. He cleans forever. And if you are here or you're watching online and you have experienced that cleansing, then we ought to then follow the example of Elijah. It's interesting when you trace salt through the new testament, you see that it's often described as a flavoring or a preservative. You know, when Jesus says to the disciples, you are the salt of the earth.

He means that in the way that you live you are to be wholesome, to be like a preservative on the earth, and you are to cast the salt of the kingdom into the world with your speech. When Paul says, let your conversation be full of grace seasoned with salt. He means that you are to speak in such a way, Christian, as to bring out the best in every conversation, to season conversations with the salt of the gospel, to bring a purifying wholesome quality to your speech, which points people to Christ. And so this salt is a picture of what we are to be. We are to be like Elijah.

Who are casting bowls of gospel salt out into the world and letting Christ purify people. Through his through his mercy. And that as a nation is what we so desperately need, isn't it? You know? Because although we're not the covenant people in the same way, our nation you think about our nation.

Our nation could be described as a well situated place. Couldn't it? You know, given the resources and the education and the wealth that we have. We ought to be a fruitful nation, shouldn't we? But all of our plans, miscarry.

We're promised freedom if we will accept this new truth about who we are and about our identity, but it it miscarries. Doesn't deliver freedom. We've promised salvation in science, that science is gonna come to our rescue and alleviate all our problems and return us to normal if we would just believe in it enough, then it will. But the hope miscarries. And as a nation, we can sort of see that.

Can't we? We sort of see it happening. But we're in a worse place than Gerico. Because at least Gerico goes to the profit and says, can you help my Lord? At least Gerico looks to the Word of God and says, will you do something to help us?

We're worse than Jericho. And so we need to pray for our nation that we would have this sense to look to the voice of God so that this salt can do its purifying work in our land. As people like us experience God's grace and then cast out these cruisefuls of salt. And see Christ save through His Word. Let's bow our heads and pray about those things together.

Father, we do thank you for how these ancient stories reveal so much about who you are. Lord, we recognize that like the people of Gerico, we have we have sinned against you, and that we have disobeyed the laws and the commandments of the Lord. And not just generally, we have we have broken specific promises. We have we have specifically done what you ask us not to do, and we've left undone the things that you tell us to do. We don't just sin in general, but in concrete specific ways against your word.

And lord, we know that we deserve to have this poisonous water delivering death to us. We don't deserve anything but the hand of judgement. And yet we thank you that you arrive with grace. And we thank you that you are faithful to your covenant, and you love It is your very nature to exchange curse for blessing, and to take that which is unclean and to make it whole and pure. And lord for those of us who know you, we can just say, amen to that.

We know that you have cast the salt of your spirit into us and you have made us pure people. And we thank you that whenever we fail, we can always come back to that spring and to drink again from the waters of Jesus. And lord we pray that you would help us like Elijah to take the salt of the gospel and to cast it far and wide in our nation. Even at the moment when it feels really difficult to even think of an opportunity to do that. Lord, we pray that you would provide us just with little windows of opportunity just to say and do something.

That is salty and wholesome and points people to Christ. And father, we pray as well for our nation. And we do ask you, lord, that you would bring about a a humbling and that you would cause us to look to you, to recognize that all of our plans, however well laid they are, in the end, miscarry, because they are disconnected from you and disconnected from truth. And so we pray for an awakening in our land where people do generally think, I wonder if there is a profit of God I can consult. I wonder if there is a word of truth that will explain me.

I wonder if there is a church near me that will tell me something that I need to hear something true. There would be an interest in you, lord, in your word. And we pray that you would bring a great blessing this year to our nation through the gospel in Jesus' name, amen.