One Year Bible, Thursday, June 23rd "Elisha Does Miracles that Later Jesus Did!" "Paul and Barnabas Keep The Pharisees From Requiring the Gentiles Males to Be Circumcised!"
Today we continue to hear stories about the dynamic and supernatural ministry of Elisha, the Prophet. When you read the stories you will see a resemblance to some of the things Jesus did during his public ministry.
For example:
1. After the widow from Shunem had a child miraculously as Elijah had predicted, the child got sick and died. Then we read of how though Gehazi his servant could not heal the boy with Elijah's staff, so Elijah did this ...
When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. 33 He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again! 35 Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!36 Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. “Call the child’s mother!” he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!” 37 She fell at his feet and bowed before him, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she took her son in her arms and carried him downstairs. 2 Kings 4:32-37
What does this story remind you of? When Lazarus was deathly ill, his sisters Mary and Martha begged Jesus to come to their home to heal Lazarus, he came but Lazarus had already died. The sisters were upset. But Jesus raised him from the dead.
2. One day there was a famine in Gilgal. The young men put some wild gourds in a stew that poisoned it, so they called on the Man of God, Elijah. Elijah asked for some flour and put it in the stew and sure enough it was good to eat.
On another date someone brought some grain and twenty loaves of barley for the people to eat. But his servant said, "This will only feed 100 people." But Elijah said, "Give this to the people to so they can eat. Everyone will eat and there will also be some left over."
What does this story remind of you of? Jesus feeding the 5,000 with only a few fish and loaves. And yes, there were leftovers too.
3. Then, there is the story of Naaman, the commander in the Army of the king of Aram. He had leprosy, but a young Israelite girl told him to go see Elisha the prophte. Naaman brought a bunch of money and gave it to Elisha, which he did not accept. Then Elisha told Naaman to wash in the seven times in the Jordan.
Naaman was offended as this seemed too simple for him, but his servant convinced him to at least give it a try. Sure enough when Naaman did this, his skin was completely restored to condition like that of a baby's skin. When Naaman realized it was God who had done this for him through Naaman he said,
"Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant. From now on I will never again offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord." 2 Kings 5:15,17
What does this story remind you of?
In John 9, Jesus met a man who was blind since birth and begged at the temple constantly. So Jesus put some mud in his eyes, spit on it, and then told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Sure enough when he did this, he was completely healed.
Clearly the prophets and their miracles were a type of what was to come. And the same Holy Spirit, who worked in Jesus, worked in the prophets of the Old Testament, at particular times, and in particular places.
One of the greatest dangers in the church is to go from the gospel of grace back to the law. I mean it just makes sense that we would have to do something to earn God's love. As the Gentiles starting coming to faith in Jesus, the Law reared its ugly head through some Pharisees, who wanted to have the newly converted adult male Gentiles be circumcised. Ouch!
Paul and Barnabas realized right away that this was the slippery slope back to legalism, so they argued persuasively against imposing this on the new Gentile believers. Fortunately Peter had been a part of the ministry of the Gentiles and spoke about how the Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit just like the Jews had. Then, James issued the statement for the Council of the early Church in Jerusalem saying that the church should not impose adult circumcision on these new believers, but only restrict them from sexual immorailty and eating meat offered to idols in the marketplace.
Fortunately the crisis was averted and everyone saw the wisdom of this decision despite some opposition.
And there was great joy throughout the church that day as they read this encouraging message. Acts 15:31
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