1 and 2 Kings - Lesson 14

Dr. John Oswalt
1 & 2 Kings
th630-14
Life From Death
Lesson Transcript

We saw in the previous lecture how these apparently miscellaneous accounts of Elijah's ministry are all woven together by the theme of Yahweh's ability to bring life out of death, to bring abundance out of scarcity. That continues as we move into chapter five with a story that is justifiably very, very famous, very well known. We've talked before about the conflict between Syria and Israel, two nations, proximal equal size, proximally equal wealth. Both of them astride the great international highway coming down from the Euphrates River down toward Egypt, and the competition between them. This account here in chapter five is part of that.

Again, there is a very important though somewhat subtle contrast between the two characters that show up at the beginning of the chapter. The first character is the commander of the army of Syria called Aram. That's Syria is called Aram. The man is called Naaman. We, in English, usually say Naaman, but he is a man of great power, a man of, in some sense, unlimited power. He is the general of the army. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. Now, again, that's just a passing phrase there, but it's so significant.

Well, the Syrians wouldn't have given credit to the Lord, but the biblical writers understand there is no other God than Yahweh. So if the Syrians are victorious over Israel, it's Yahweh that did this. They're going to expand that in coming days. If Assyria, the mightiest empire in the world, is victorious, it's the Lord who did it. Assyria thinks they did it. They think their gods helped them do it. But no, Assyria is simply an ax in the hand of Yahweh. So here, again, in this just passing phrase is the incredible faith of the biblical writers. If it happened, it happened because our God permitted it. It happened because our God brought it to pass.

So, here's a great man. He's victorious. He's honored. He's respected. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. This statement is even more powerful in Hebrew, because it's just two words. We've described this man at length, his abilities, his power, his respect, his honor, but he had leprosy. Now, bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman's wife, powerless, a victim, helpless, worthless. She said to her mistress, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy." I hope to meet that girl one day, a nobody, but Naaman is powerless before death. This apparently helpless, worthless girl has all the power of Yahweh in her faith. What a contrast.

Forgive me, again, the power of the narrator. In just a few words, he has painted this picture of these two contrasting individuals. So, Naaman went to his master, and told him what the girl from Israel had said, "By all means, go," the King of Arum replied. "I'll send a letter to the king of Israel." Now, I think it's pretty clear that the Syrian king assumes that the king of Israel has some court prophet in his stable of prophets who can do miracles. So, I'll send him a letter. When the letter arrives, it terrifies the king of Israel. "Good grief. He's looking for some sort of an opportunity to trap us." When I say, "Well, I can't do that. I don't have any king, any prophet that can do that, he's then going to come back and do bad things to us."

Now, again, this is as best we know Joram, the son of Ahab. He doesn't know that he has Elijah. No. No. He's fixed on this world. Therefore, that man who represents the other world is really not on his radar screen as we say. When Elisha, the man of God... I've mentioned this before. Let me say it again. Most of the time, Elijah and Elisha are not referred to as prophets. They're referred to as men of God. A prophet is a professional term. Man of God is a character term. Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes. He sent him this message. "Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me, and he will know there is a prophet, a prophet in Israel."

Well, you remember the story. Elisha doesn't even do him the honor of going out to meet him. That's pretty rude, isn't it? Pride, the church has said across the centuries, is the most deadly of the sins. So, it is. We often quote the passage from 2 Chronicles seven, "If my people who are called by my name will pray..." I misquoted the scripture, didn't I? Will humble themselves and pray. If Naaman was indeed to be healed, one thing that was going to have to happen to him was humiliation. His pride was going to have to be hurt. So, Elijah is getting on with the process. He sends his servant out. Naaman was very angry, and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand and call in the name of the Lord, his God, wave his hand over me, and cure me in my leprosy."

The sermon says, "Go dip in the Jordan." Never forget my dad going with me on a trip to Israel, and looking at the Jordan, and saying in his Ohio vernacular, "That's nothing but a creek, not the mighty Jordan rolls. It's just a little, little creek." Naaman says, "If it's a matter of jumping in a river, we've got rivers in Damascus that make Jordan look like nothing. Humiliation. Humiliation." His servant said, "Sir, you've come all his way. Shouldn't you at least try it?" Again, the picture here is so, in my mind, powerful. "Okay, all right, dive in." "What'd I tell you?" "Sir, he said seven times." "Two, three, four, this is crazy. Five, six, seven, I'm clean. I'm clean. I'm clean."

What is it that makes us unclean in the presence of God? Our pride, our arrogance. I am the most important thing in the universe. I am God in my life. How will we ever be clean by coming to that place where we die to our rights, our place, our power, and allow God to be the source of our life? Cling to our pride and death. Death is the only option. Allow God to be God in our life. Allow the only one in the universe who is in himself clean to touch us, and we too will be clean. Now then, Elisha goes out to talk to him, and he says, "Now, I know there is no God in all the world except in Israel." Wow.

We've seen this line at various places. We saw it in those two episodes where God gave Ahab victory over the Syrians, and God said, "Then you will know that I'm God, and there is no other." Ahab did not learn the lesson in either of those two events, but this Syrian has learned the lesson. So, he says, "Would you please give me some earth from Israel?" He's still thinking as a pagan. "Oh my, there's something sacred about this space." It's like Moses trying to take a wheelbarrow of dirt from in front of the burning bush. We do that. Again, we've talked before about spirit and matter. Yes, places are important, places where we can fix our spirits, where we can be reminded of what God did at that place for us. That's not wrong, but it is wrong if we think like Naaman that somehow God and that dirt are connected, but Elijah is willing to bend, and he says, "Okay, it's all right."

The man says, "Now, the king, my king is going to want me to go with him into his temple. Would you please give me absolution beforehand if I do that? In my heart, I won't be worshiping him." Again, Elisha says, "Go in peace. I think that's important. What does it take to be saved? If you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that he's been resurrected, welcome home. Now, is there more to it than that? Yes, there is. I've said to you before, and I'll say it again, I'm sure the Christian life is a walk. The Christian life is a lifelong progress where we walk with God, and walking with Him become more and more and more conformed to Him. But God doesn't say, "Well, you have to begin at the end." No, you can begin at the beginning.

For the thief on the cross, it was, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." He believed that this naked man dying beside him was indeed going to come into his kingdom. Jesus said, "That's good enough. Today, you'll be with me in paradise." So, I see something of that same sort going on here. Did Naaman need to grow beyond the understanding that somehow Yahweh was part of the dirt of Israel? Yes. Did he need to come to the place where he was willing to stand and say, "No, those things are not gods?" Yes, he did, but he didn't need to start there, and that's our God's grace. So, the story's over. No, it isn't.

We have the wonderful picture of Gehazi in whom we too easily see ourselves. Man, Elisha would not take anything from that Syrian. That's crazy. I mean, that Syrian would've given him a king's ransom and gold and silver for what he had done. He would've given him one of those really nice Syrian suits and clothes. Have you been there? What has God done for me lately? What can I do to aggrandize myself through the Lord's work? Have mercy upon us. Death is in that pot. God has turned Naaman's death into life, and now, Gehazi is about to turn his life into death. Naaman found release through humiliation. Gehazi is about to find slavery through his attempt to take care of himself.

Oh, there are incredible subtleties here. Does God want us to experience material physical blessing? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. He delights as a father in giving good gifts to his children, but the question is here we are at that watershed thing again, "Am I receiving God's gifts with gratitude and humility, or am I in fact gracing myself at the expense of God?" One way leads to life. The other way leads to death. So again, the story is so wonderful. Gehazi comes home. Elisha says, "Where you been?" "Oh, well, I've been out and around. I didn't go anywhere." For pity's sake, you're talking to a prophet. It's like a little child with her head under the pillow. "You can't see me. I'm hiding."

Naaman's leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever. Then Gehazi went from Elisha's presence, and his skin was leprous. It had become as white as snow. Now, we should say here, "This is not what we know today as leprosy, Hansen's disease." We don't know of any occurrences of Hansen's disease where the nerve endings die, and the result is the extremities begin to be injured and die. That's Hansen's disease, which we know is leprosy. That's almost certain not what the Bible is talking about, but it is talking about a contagious skin disease that if left undealt with will eventually end up in death. So, simply, we need to be clear on that that this is not a guy who next week is going to have no nose, or his ears are going to fall off. It's not that, but it is.

What the Bible is talking about is a whole series of contagious skin diseases related to mold and fungus, decay, death. Our God can turn death into life. Whereas left to ourselves, we'll turn life into death. In the next chapters, chapters six, seven, and eight, we see four displays of Yahweh's power and character, again, continuing this life-giving, death dealing contrast. Now, we've been looking at an international incident, if you will, with the general of the Syrian army coming and terrifying the king of Israel, and being healed. Now, we suddenly, in chapter six, go right down to something very, very intimate and, if you will, insignificant.

The company of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let's go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole, and let us build a place there for us to meet." Now, this whole thing of the company of the prophets is interesting. It only appears in the context of Elijah and Elisha. It's literally in Hebrew the school of the prophets. Who are these people? Well, the immediate answer is we don't know. We're not going to see them again after Elisha's death, but it does appear that Elijah and Elisha attracted to themselves groups of people who wanted to experience what they were experiencing in terms of the infilling of the spirit of God. So, that's who we're talking about here.

There are a bunch of them on the shores of the Jordan, perhaps at Gilgal as we talked yesterday. Gilgal is in the Jordan as we talked in the previous lecture. Gilgal is on the Jordan River in the Jordan Valley north of Jericho. Perhaps that's where we are here. They say, "How about we go out into the jungle that was along the Jordan in those days, and cut down some poles, and enlarge the place where we're living?" Elijah says, "Go." They say, "Master, come along with us," and he says, "All right, I will." They went to the Jordan, and began to cut down trees. As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axed fell into the water. "Oh no, my Lord," he cried out. "It was borrowed."

Well, what's the big deal? Here's this prophet who has international connections, international impact, who is shortly to bring this dynasty to an end about axes. I think, it is precisely here for this very point that God's interest is not only in the world. It is in our individual griefs. That's our God. I've said it before. Let me say it again. Paganism is interested in the great recurring cycles of being. You, as a human, are only significant to the extent that you partake in the ideal humanity. You, as a person, are simply a bubble on the face of the ocean, here today, gone tomorrow. That's not biblical. That's not biblical. God cares about every one of us. He knows us by name.

Is he the master of all the powers of the cosmos? Yes, He is, and He is the person who caress for every person. Jesus, of course, says that so beautifully. He knows the fall of every sparrow, and the hairs on your head are numbered. For some of us, his job is getting easier, but the point is God cares. God cares. So, I think this is here precisely. It's not an accident. I think it's here precisely. Now, it was a major issue. Iron, at this point, is priceless. It's like gold, and he has borrowed this. He's going to be in serious trouble. Does God care when I'm in trouble? Yes. Yes.

Where did it fall? When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float, lifted out, he said. Then the man reached out his hand, and took it. Again, it's interesting to look at some commentators who bend over backwards to try to find some way to explain this miracle, not the point at all. This man, Elisha, had access to the power of God, and God can do the impossible. Now, let me say a word about miracle here. Oftentimes, the Bible is dismissed because, well, we all know miracles don't happen. So, obviously, they made this up. Thomas Jefferson is famous for this, his New Testament in which he cut out all the miracles of Jesus. That can't happen. We know that.

Well, number one, and I owe this as I owe so much to C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis observes there are seasons of miracles. This narrative, the Elijah-Elisha narrative is overflowing with miracles, but in much of the rest of kings, there's hardly a miracle mentioned. In much of the rest of the Old Testament, there's hardly a miracle mentioned. In the Epistles or the Book of Acts even, how many miracles are mentioned? Oh, there are some, but nothing like what we find in the gospels. C.S. Lewis observes there are seasons of miracles. The way he describes it is this, "It is when the steel of God's revelation strikes the turning wheel of time. Sparks fly up." This is a critical moment in Israel's history. This is a critical moment in the world's history.

If indeed Baal replaces Yahweh in Israel, he will replace Yahweh in Jerusalem as well. We're going to see that. If he is victorious here, he will be victorious everywhere, and the world will be lost. So, these are critical moments. This is not just, "Oh yeah, you walk down the road in the Bible," and somebody's doing a miracle. No, there are seasons, and this is part of the season. So, the ax head floats. Now, once again, the focus goes wide again, and we're talking about an international situation. Again, such a lovely story. The king of Syria says to his advisors, "Now, wait a minute. One of you guys is an Israelite spy. Every time I send out a raiding group, there is an Israelite group waiting for them. Which one of you is a spy?"

They say, "No. No. No. No. No. No. None of us are spies. They have a prophet, and that prophet knows what you are thinking in your bedroom." "Oh, really? Well, okay, let's go capture him." "Huh? Huh? If he knows what you are thinking in his bedroom, then he knows that you are sending out a bunch to capture him." Sin makes a person stupid. We see it over and over again in the Bible. It somehow restricts our capacity to think, and so it is here. So, he sends out a whole army to go capture Elisha. So, our dear friend, Gehazi, gets out of bed in the morning from that prophet's chamber on the roof of somebody's house, walks out on the roof, "Master, master, we're surrounded." "Oh Lord, open his eyes so that he may see." What a prayer. What a prayer.

Open my eyes that I may see. Now, again, this is a very subtle and important point. Let me see beyond this reality to the greater reality. Paganism says, "This world is not real. This world is only a dim reflection of the realities that are out there." The most famous expression of this is in the great Greek philosopher, Plato. Perhaps you remember the story of the cave. These people are fastened in their chairs, and they are looking at reality. Well, actually, they're looking at the wall of the cave, and they're seeing these figures passing and various things, and that's reality. Actually, one of them finds his chains loosened, and he gets up and turns around.

There's a big fire back there, and people are carrying silhouettes in front of the fire. What's being projected on that wall are reflections of silhouettes. Well, he goes behind the fire, and sees a little light. There's an opening to the cave, and he goes out of the cave, and he's blinded by the light. He falls on his face, and when he opens his eyes, he's looking at a mud puddle. He doesn't know that. In the mud puddle is reflected a tree. Oh my, that's reality. Then he gets up and sees the tree. There's reality. So, he is saying that we humans are living about four places removed from reality. No. No. This is reality. God has made a real world, a world that is marred, yes, but still good.

This is reality, but it's not all of reality. There's more to reality. So, I want to hammer that if I may for a moment. It's not that the world Gehazi is looking at is unreal, insignificant, unimportant, and that, "Oh my, the armies of the Lord arrayed on the hills around. The Syrians have surrounded Elisha and Gehazi, but the Lord has surrounded..." Oh, oh, that's reality. Yes, it is. It is, but it's the greater reality of which this reality is a part. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say there. Open my eyes that I may see beyond this reality to the greater reality, which invests this reality with its meaning.

So, the Syrian army is blinded, and Elisha leads this blinded army to the king of Israel. Israel says, the king says, "Oh my, oh my. Shall I kill him? Shall I kill him?" Elisha says, "Don't kill them. You don't kill prisoners of war. In fact, set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master." Humiliation. He prepared a great feast. Again, this is our God. They intend to death. God gives them life. The story continues, and in the remainder of chapter six and chapter seven is another of these great, great stories that are so full of interest and of power, once again, scarcity and abundance, life and death, abundance and scarcity. Who is it? Who produces life? Who is it who gives abundance?

It is Yahweh, not Baal. It is the God who stands beyond the cosmos, not the cosmos itself. So, sometime later, this is verse 24 of chapter six, "Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, mobilized his entire army, and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. There was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for 80 shekels of silver and a quarter of a cab." Now, this version says seed pods. The text says dove's dung. People have said nobody would eat dove's dung, so that must be a term for this says seed pods. I don't think so. I think we're talking about a terrible crisis, and in a terrible crisis, it's amazing what people will eat.

So, here it is, famine, incredible scarcity. This story comes to him of two women. "We ate her baby yesterday, and now she won't let us eat her baby today." The king tears his robes, and underneath, he's wearing burlap, mourning, grieving. He says something very odd. Verse 31, "May God deal with me be it ever so severely if the head of Elisha, son of Shaphat, remains on his shoulders today." Huh? What I think is going on is I think Elisha must have predicted this famine if Joram did not repent. Joram didn't repent, and the famine came. So, it's Elisha's fault. We're good at that, aren't we? It's not my fault. It's somebody else's fault.

So, he made that prediction, and now it's come true, and I'm going to kill him for it. So, they go to the house to kill them. In chapter seven, Elisha replies, "Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says, about this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flower will sell for a shekel." A donkey's head is being sold for 80 shekels, a rotting donkey's head. A little cup of dove manure is selling for a fortune. Tomorrow, a seah of the finest flower will sell for a shekel. The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of heaven, could that happen?" Rhetorical question. Of course, it couldn't happen. You're crazy. Scarcity. Abundance.

Now, the story picks up. There were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here till we die? If we say, we'll go into the city, the famine is there, and we'll die. If we stay here, we'll die. So, let's go over to the camp of the Arameans, and surrender. If they spare us, we'll live. If they kill us, we'll die there." Probably they are in the gatehouse. The cities at this time had gate houses with a series of wooden gates. So, this is a four-chambered gate. You've got the outer gates here, wooden doors with bars. Well, if the enemy broke through that outer one, then you had soldiers in here who are defending the next gate.

If they broke through that one, more soldiers. They broke through that one, more soldiers. Of course, if they broke through the final one then they're in, and things are going to get ugly. But these gate houses, during peace time, the wooden doors would be open. This is the place where the elders, the old men met here. This was covered over. It had a roof. So, it was a cool place sheltered from the sun. It was the place where all the traffic of the city passed through. This is where the old men sat. This is the equivalent in the country today of the country store. There they sat. So, I think that these four are in the gate.

"If we stay here, and the doors are closed, so forth. If we stay here, we're going to die. If we go in the city, we're going to die. Well, if we open one of the sets of doors, and go out to the Syrian camp, maybe we'll live. We might die. But hey, we're going to die anyhow." What a wonderful story. So, they go, and they find the Syrian camp abandoned. Oh my goodness. So, they start to, in the vernacular, pig out. They decide to eat up, have a good time. As they're doing that, their consciences strike them, and they say, "Oh my goodness, this isn't right. Here we are enjoying ourselves, and those people back in the city are starving. We better go back and tell them."

Well, they had a hard time convincing anybody of this amazing situation, but finally they do, and there is a stampede out through the gate. That officer who mocked Elisha is detailed to try to control the mob, and he's trampled to death. Elisha said, "You'll see this with your own eyes, but you won't eat any of it." Here's the issue again, pride. I know better than God, and pride will kill you every time. The next issue then is the last in our series, these four events, the axehead, the blinded Syrian army, the deliverance from famine, and now we return again to the personal and the individual. In 8:1-6, we find Gehazi. Now, again, has he been cured from leprosy, or what's happening? We don't know. Gehazi is talking to Joram, the king, and he is telling Joram some of the amazing feats of Elisha.

Joram is very interested. Again, I think we see a man who is truly double-minded. Remember, he was the one that got rid of the Baal stone that his father had set up, presumably in the square in Samaria. He's the one who is going to Moab in the name of Yahweh, but when trouble comes, thinks Yahweh is trying to kill him. So, one side of him is interested in Yahweh. Another side is no. So, here he is wanting to hear about these amazing things that Elisha has done, and Gehazi is telling him what? He's telling him about the fact, verse five, that Elisha had restored the dead to life. Wow. Wow. At that moment, the Shunammite woman shows up, because Elisha had told her there was going to be a famine in the land, and she probably better go to Philistia to survive it.

Now, she's come back. Her land has been foreclosed on, and she's asking the king to give it back. Here she is, death to life. Gehazi said, "This is the woman, my Lord the king. This is her son whom Elisha restored to life." The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her case, and said to him, "Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country till now." Scarcity. Get out of the land. There's going to be a famine. Abundance. So, we wrap up this portion of Elisha's ministry, the character and the nature of God. He delights to give life. He delights to give abundance. That's his nature and his character. He has the power to do what he wants to do. Why would you worship Baal? It's Yahweh who is indeed God.