THRU THE BIBLE
EXPOSITION
The Books Of
Kings: The Kings Of Israel And Judah From Solomon To The Babylonian Captivity
III. The Latter
Era Of The Divided Kingdom, 2 Kings 2:1-27:41
D. God's Use Of
Unsettling Crises To Grow Our Faith
(2 Kings 4:1-7)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )
Last Sunday, two believers told me of
their longing for the rapture. The growth
of intrigue, Marxism and ecumenism in the government-media-business-religious
complex as epitomized in the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the spiritual decline
in evangelicalism concerned them as it does many. Indeed, Paul Hutchinson wrote, "We are
witnessing a model execution by Senate Democrats of Saul Alinsky's 'Rules For
Radicals'" in the Bret Kavanaugh "confirmation hearing" (Paul Hutchinson,
"Opinion: The Kavanaugh Hearings - Ruled By Radicals," 9/24/2018;
dailycaller.com) and Saul "Alinsky was a radical Marxist strategist."
(Wayne Allyn Root, "'Russian Collusion' by Saul Alinsky," 7/20/2018;
townhall.com) When I told these believers
that Christ in Revelation predicted this mini-Great-Tribulation-type-period for
our era of Church History and how we are to live in it, they expressed great
interest!
Some newcomers were not with us when
we last taught on Christ's prophecy for our era, so a brief overview of that passage
could really help them. Also, studying 2
Kings 4:1-7 on Elisha's ministry to a widow who faced unsettling crises led me
to realize its application aligns with Christ's word for our era. I will thus preach from 2 Kings 4:1-7 in the
sermon body and in the conclusion, combine its application with Christ's
Revelation prophecy for our era.
Need: So we ask, "Why does God let us believers
face unsettling crises today, and how should we respond?!"
I.
A deceased prophet's widow who faced unsettling
trials cried out unto Elisha for help, 2 Kings 4:1:
A.
The grieving
widow of a prophet in the school of the prophets faced the additional trial of
a creditor who was about to take her two sons from her as his slaves to resolve
the family's debt, 2 Kings 4:1a,b,d!
B.
The
widow told God's prophet that he knew her late husband had revered the Lord, so
she cried unto Elisha for help in view of her belief that her husband deserved
to see Elisha help her and her sons, 2 Kings 4:1c.
II.
In reality, Scripture reveals that the widow's own
words indicate that she was spiritually blind and that she and her husband had lacked
a good spiritual standing before the Lord, 2 Kings 4:1b, d et al.:
A.
The early
death of the widow's husband under the Law seen in his leaving two minor sons
at home meant that he had seriously sinned, for the Law taught that obeying the
Law led to a long life, 2 Kings 4:1b,d; Deut 6:2.
B.
Since a
creditor was about to take the widow's sons as slaves to resolve a debt, God
was punishing her for sin, for Deuteronomy 28:12b, 44a taught that under the
Law, God would reward one's obedience to Him by not having him borrow but lend but
that he would suffer indebtedness in discipline if he disobeyed Scripture!
C.
The widow's
husband was part of the school of the prophets, known for its spiritual laxness,
2 Kings 4:1a:
1.
2 Kings
2:1-18 reports these prophets failed to believe God's message to them that He
would take Elijah to heaven so that they nagged Elisha into unsuccessfully letting
them look for Elijah's body!
2.
The
widow's husband as a part of this group thus likely lacked in reverence for and
faith in God!
D.
Besides,
the fact that the widow would expect Elisha to help her because she claimed her
husband revered the Lord exposed her spiritual blindness to the defective
nature of her deceased husband's spiritual walk!
III.
Elisha then asked how he could help the widow. He wanted to help, but not in a way that
would enable her to stay in spiritual blindness and a lack of reverence for and
a lack of faith in God. However, neither
could he tell her of her spiritual problems, for that along with her crisis might
destroy her, 2 Kings 4:2a!
IV.
The Lord then led Elisha to answer his own
question: God had His prophet help the widow in a WAY that would TEACH her to GROW
in her REVERENCE FOR and TRUST IN God, 2 Kings 4:2b-7:
A.
Upon
asking the widow what she still had left in her house, Elisha was told that she
had nothing left in her home but a little olive oil (shemen) in a small, cosmetic flask ('asuk), 2 Kings 4:2b; Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 561; B.
D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. to the O. T., p. 1032, 692.
B.
Olive
oil in the Ancient Near East was valuable for various reasons: it was used as a
cosmetic, for cooking, for food, for lamp oil, etc. (Zon. Pict. Ency. Bib.,
v. Four, p. 513-515), so Elisha told her to borrow from her neighbors LOTS
of various kinds of vessels of all sizes (keli, Ibid., Kittel; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 479-480; Ibid., Zon.
Pict. Ency. Bib., v. Five, p. 878), what would include bottles, buckets,
basins, pitchers, cups, and flasks. She was to close the door of her house behind
her, her sons and all of the borrowed vessels and pour the oil out of her small,
cosmetic flask into each vessel in order to fill it, 2 Kings 4:3-4.
C.
Elisha's
directive thus implied that the oil would MULTIPLY, that it would
be in the widow's best interests to borrow as many and as large a
group of vessels as she could for the miracle that was about to occur!
D.
When she
heeded Elisha's word, she began to fill up the vessels with the oil, what
proved to be increasingly exciting, for when she had filled up the last vessel,
she told her son to bring her another empty vessel to keep the flow going, but
he had to say there were no more! (2 Kings 4:6a). At that moment, the oil stopped multiplying,
and the miracle ceased to occur, 2 Kings 4:6b.
E.
When the
widow told Elisha what had happened, he had her sell what she needed to pay the
debt and use the rest for her family's livelihood needs, 2 Kings 4:7. The widow then wished that she had trusted
God MORE to have acquired MORE, LARGE vessels to enhance
the future livelihood welfare of her and her sons!
Lesson: God used the needy widow's unsettling
crises to teach her to trust Him and heed His Word FAR MORE than she had, that
she might GROW in her walk with the Lord for GREATER blessing!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for
salvation from sin, John 3:16. (2) If
God lets us face unsettling trials, may we realize that He wants us (a) to pay
closer attention to Scripture that we (b) rely on the power of the Holy Spirit
(Galatians 5:16) to (c) revere, trust and obey the Lord more for greater
blessing.
Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )
We noted in our
introduction that 2 Kings 4:1-7 we viewed in this sermon has affinity with the message
God has for our era in Christ's Revelation 3:14-22 prophecy. [The URL for our sermon about that prophecy
on our Church web site is www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/SundaySermon20171126.pdf] We explain (as follows):
(1) As we learned in studying
Revelation 3:14-22, today's evangelicals as a whole, akin to
the 2 Kings 4:1 widow, function in their sin natures
("wretched"), are worldly ("miserable"), lack faith in God
("poor"), are blind to their needy state ("blind") and fail
to stay faithful to godly works, becoming ecumenical ("naked"), Rev.
3:17b KJV.
(2) These five descriptive words in their wide
Scripture contexts critique BOTH Calvinism AND Arminianism!
[Calvinism is corrupted with Augustine's
pagan Neo-platonism and Arminianism is corrupted with
Pelagius' pagan Stoicism.] Christ's
Revelation 3:17b five words in their contexts ALSO expose the false
spiritualities of today's evangelicals that have been produced because of the influence
of these two errant theologies!
(3) Christ thus calls individual evangelicals to
ask Him to arrange that they face trials [akin to the 2 Kings 4:1 widow]
of being slandered by fellow evangelicals into (a) trusting God [akin to the
widow] versus relying on other evangelicals ("gold tried in the
fire"), into (b) staying true to God's calling versus turning ecumenical
with other evangelicals ("clothed") and into (c) discerning evangelical
errors and discerning Bible truth ("see"), Revelation 3:18.
(4) Charismatics are
experienced-based and less-disposed to Bible study, so Christ used clearly
Charismatic terms in Revelation 3:19 to get Charismatics to see
their need to repent of errant Arminian theology and spirituality!
(5) Revelation 3:20
addresses needs for believers to overcome the sin nature by trusting Christ to
meet their financial needs instead of trying to meet them in their own efforts
(versus "miserable") [akin to the widow], and Revelation 3:21
addresses needs for believers [especially pastors] to overcome the world (versus
"miserable") by not loving it, but by loving the Lord [and feeding
His flock (John 21:15-19)] that Christ might enhance their influence.
(6) Revelation 3:21 also
implies that those who expound Scripture, Christ's words (Rev. 19:11-16), will
see Christ through their ministries administer edifying balm to those who come
out an oppressive evangelicalism and world system. This is noted in observing that Christ
promises to seat such an expositor "in" His earthly Davidic throne, wording
that points to Revelation 7:17 where Christ "in" the Father's throne
"feeds" saints who come out of the future Great Tribulation. Applied to our era, believers will be
oppressed by fellow carnal evangelicals and a godless world in a pre-rapture,
mini-Great-Tribulation-type-era of deception, intrigue and oppression so as to withdraw
from such mistreatment and head for churches
that expound Scripture by which Christ nurtures them.
(7) As a Church, we
have already seen this start to occur: we have seen believers withdraw from the
oppressive government-media-business-religious complex and/or oppressively godless
evangelicalism and head to churches where Scripture is expounded, that is, where
Christ Himself by His Word "feeds" them, where He nurtures them from past
mini-Great Tribulation-type-era afflictions, Revelation 7:17 with Revelation 3:21.
(8) Newcomers
can thus understand why we do what we do at Nepaug Church: if holy men of God wrote
Scripture as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21), then we
believe we should preach and teach the Bible the way the Holy Spirit initially
meant it to be understood -- verse-by-verse in its literal, grammatical and
historical contexts -- that Christ's nurturing "feeding" from His
Word might occur!
May we trust in Christ for
salvation. May we sit at Jesus' feet and
see Him nurture us by His Word!