Gooding, David: 6 - The Miracles of Elisha

This is now our sixth study of the first and second books of Kings, and you are, as usual, very welcome to join in with us. We have not been attempting to study every detail in these two books. We have treated them rather shamefully, picking bits here that are easier and leaving bits that are not so easy to see. That is a trick that many preachers have learned to use. We are in particular, uh, uh, concentrating on these books of Kings as they record the provision God made for the maintenance of his people, and for their recovery, if ever they should go astray. In the long prayer that Solomon prayed at the dedication of the house, he mentioned at least a half a dozen or more situations that could arise with the people of God in the course of the decades, and prayed, however far they got, whatever mistakes they made, that if only they looked towards this house, God in his mercy would visit them, recover them, and restore them to their true spirituality. We found the provision that God made was in fact the building of the house of God in Jerusalem. And there is one particular, uh, reconstruction of that house. We cannot guarantee all its details are correct. It is one serious, uh, uh, uh, attempt at reconstructing a building from the directions given in the First Book of Kings. Here were the two pillars, of course. They were freestanding, as far as we are aware, and their purpose was to carry a delightfully beautiful and impressive capitals upon each one. They were so significant as to be given each a name. This is the front door in, and inside it was just like the tabernacle that Moses built. It was divided in two. There was, first of all, the holy place, and then there was the most holy, in which stood the Ark of God. These protrusions by the side, here and here, were side rooms. They were for, presumably for the priests and Levites in their various tasks, whether it was making of incense or guarding the money collections, the treasury, or seeing after the priest's robes or preparing sacrifices, they would need an a a, a, a number of side rooms, and they were particularly careful as to how they were architecturally related to the main building. We needn't stop with that at this moment. Then we noticed that there were, uh, a number of paragraphs to the plans, if we could have, uh, the summary of the plans. There they are. The plans, uh, are the one house to start with, and the many side chambers forming the one house. That is followed by a special plea for obedience from God to his people. Then at the third set, there was the internal organization and decoration inside the building divided, as I have said, into two parts, the Holy Place and the Most Holy. And it is chiefly remarkable for the fact that in the Most Holy Place, not only was there the ark with a cherubim coming from the mercy seat, but there were two great olive wood cherubim standing on four legs, presumably with their wings outstretched, uh, just behind and over the ark. And of course, the walls all the way round were covered with wood and then covered with gold and carved. And the motifs in the carving were cherubim, palm trees, and rosettes. For the fourth set of plans, we are, uh, have a description of the king's royal apartments. Whereas the, uh, house of gods stood up high, down, uh, at the, uh, on the same hill, but a bit lower, and at the side was the king's house, with its many apartments for the king himself, for his public receptions, for his throne room, for his private apartments, and similarly for his wife or wives, as the case might be, uh, their apartments as well. Then we come out into the court, uh, and uh, we have the sea and the lavers. The sea is the very large, uh, laver, so large that, uh, the water inside it looked like a sea, and so it was called the sea. And then ten subsidiary lavers on wheels that could take the water wherever the water was required. And then there were the two pillars that we have already noted standing in the front, freestanding, but with the glorious capitals on top of them. They were then the plans, and this was to be the house that Israel were, was to respect, and uh, uh, whenever they got into trouble or on the high days and their holidays and their religious uh, expressions, they would come and use or look towards or pray towards that house. On this side, we have recorded the history. And how that in the course of the history, Israel went foul across the provisions and the instructions that God had made. His instructions were that there was to be just one house, many side rooms, but one house. Very soon there arose a Jeroboam in Israel. He made other houses on top of high places, and they fell to superstition and idolatry. As a result, God allowed that he was assassinated, or his son was assassinated, and there came, uh, on the throne of Israel a certain Baasha. Though he was allowed in place because of Jeroboam's sin, he made no attempt to repent of Jeroboam's sin, but persisted in it. In this, the Ark of the Covenant, the first phrase of the covenant was, thou shalt have no other gods but me. Here, in uh, uh, um, uh, Israel, there was a certain Ahab who married a Phoenician, Jezebel, and to please her, he built a special house for Baal, if you please, and encouraged the people to go there and join in the worship of Baal and to forsake Jehovah. As far as the king's house is concerned, of course, we are aware that the term the king's house refers not merely to the buildings of stone, but refers to the royal members of that house. And here in this part of the history, God allowed Jehu, in fact commissioned Jehu of Israel. He destroyed the royal house of Ahab completely. Blotted it out. Athaliah, dear lady, daughter of Ahab, who had married a certain Jehoshaphat's son. She was therefore in Judah. She proceeded to destroy all the royal house of Judah, managed to do it completely except for one little boy. And when we think that our blessed Lord was destined to come of the house of David, the house of Judah, of the line that sprang from David, then the, uh, antics of Athaliah in destroying all the seed royal of the house of David would make one's hair stand up on end, if one had any. And, uh, uh, uh, uh, thank God for the one little boy that was taken and hidden and allowed to grow up and then take the place of Athaliah. When we come to the end chapters of second Kings, we find this a- a certain King Ahaz of Judah, much talked of and to by Isaiah the prophet. He cut off the side panels of the subsidiary lavers. I don't know, he didn't like the shape or something, or the design, I don't know what it was. He just cut them off anyway. He took down the sea off the backs of the oxen. The great sea was on the backs of oxen. Do you see? Very impressive they were, surely. He just took it down and put it on the pavement. Well, that made a change, didn't it? Doesn't matter that God Almighty designed it. Ahaz felt he knew better. Didn't please him. In the end, of course, God allowed Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to come up, sack the city, smash the sea and the pillars, and took the copper of which they were made to Babylon. From that point of view, this is a sorry story. Though we in Christendom, as we survey the history that has gone on through the Middle Ages and to the present, haven't a lot we could boast of compared with ancient Israel. But there became revivals. And some of them we've begun to study. God willing, we shall find others. There was the first big revival by Elijah on Mount Carmel, bringing the people back from the worship of Baal to the worship of Jehovah. The issue at stake, who is the true God, Baal or Jehovah? And of course, under that you would also include his successor, Elisha. Second revival led by Jehoiada the high priest. The issue at stake, who is the true king, Athaliah or Joseph. Third revival led by King Hezekiah at the time of the siege of Jerusalem by the forces of the king of Assyria. The issue at stake, is the Lord God just one more God among the many gods of the Gentile nations? Or is he the unique, transcendent Lord God. And with Isaiah's support and encouragement and constant exhortation, Hezekiah managed to stand against the mass might of the Assyrians. The final revival led by King Josiah. When he came to the throne, he set about having the temple cleansed, and in the process thereof, they found a book. Didn't know what it was. Took it to the king. He got a good lady prophet to come and tell them what it was. Part of the Bible, actually. Didn't know it was there. And I would boast how superior Christians are if I didn't have a sneaking suspicion that some Christians couldn't tell you all the books of the Bible. When they opened it and read it, they found they were in a plain disobedience to many of its commands, that they confessed their sin and set about reviving. Here was a revival led by scripture. So God is the God of revival still. And these things are written for our encouragement. But tonight we're to look at some of the ministry of Elisha the prophet. And for that purpose, we shall start in, uh, uh, uh, two Kings and chapter four. But now let me, if I, uh, uh, if I may, just steal a minute or two to put Elisha in his context. Uh, we are told, First Kings, chapter twenty one, Of how Ahab misbehaved himself as usual and submitted to Jezebel's tactics to have Naboth judicially murdered. And Elijah went down to meet Ahab to denounce him. But God said to Elijah, verses twenty eight and twenty nine, Seest thou Ahab, how Ahab humbleth himself before me? Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days I will bring the evil upon his house. This is because of the outrageous sin of the house of Ahab. But now he is repentant. I would have questioned the sincerity of his repentance, never mind. God is more merciful than I am. And, uh, God laid it down that God wouldn't destroy Ahab, Ahab forthwith, but in his son's day, the house of Ahab would be eliminated. It was eliminated by Jehu. Elisha lived in that in-between period. That was a period, what you might call, of grace, was it not? The house of Israel, and El- Elisha, of course, lived and worked up in Israel among the ten tribes. The house of Israel in the person of its kings had so seriously tr- uh, offended that God had already, uh, uh, uh, uh, given his command. The house would be destroyed. That is, all the reigning princes and princesses in the house of Ahab would be destroyed. But not immediately, and not in Ahab's day. There was to be an interval between the giving of the sentence and its execution. And it's a good thing to bear that in mind when we come to the ministry of Elisha, that, uh, it was an interval of grace. It wouldn't last forever. It would come to its end in the terrible judgments of God. And then there is a very nice thing. Can we have a slide that we had last week, showing us the insides of the house of God. Here's the way in. This is the holy place. There is the altar of incense. Here is the most holy place, with the two cherubim standing there, very large. Extra cherubim with their wings outstretched, in addition to the cherubim on the mercy seat. These, we saw last week, were God's executives, cherubim. As they stood looking out, so to speak, I know they were only images, but but they were symbols of realities. As they stood looking out, lo and behold, what did they see? All around the walls, cherubim galore. I don't know whether cherubim enjoy ruling over other cherubim. I've never met one, so I haven't asked them, do you see? I imagine they do. And the things that, uh, the thing that, uh, uh, uh, appeals to me about cherubim is, as Ezekiel tells us in one of his chapters. He saw the cherubim carrying the very glory of God and the throne of God. And he said of those cherubim, living creatures are one and the same thing. You will be more familiar, of course, and could recite it off in your dreams of Revelation chapter 4 and the vision of the throne of God. And the throne of God in all its majesty is the throne of the Almighty Creator rests upon the backs of four living creatures. The authorized says four beasts, well, that's an unpleasant word to use. Four living creatures it should be. One had the the form of a a an ox, one had the form of a man, one had the form of a lion, and one had the form of an eagle. I like it, you know. Uh, childish enough mind to enjoy such things. Forms of life, living things. What a magnificent thing life is. Even at my age, I can hold on to it. Do you see? How, how, what glorious, uh, uh, expressions of life you find in, in this world. I think of those living creatures under the throne of God. And there's a lion. Oh. I have a postcard with a lion on it, on my dresser, you see. I look at it some mornings just to find encouragement, do you see? What a noble beast they are. Well, I used to be majestic like that. Well, look, I don't know about, my mother said so, you see, but I got old, you see, and that's gone, you see. But what majestic things they are, aren't they? And then there was an ox. Well, I wish I were an ox sometimes, I don't know about you, when I've got a lot of work to do, because oxen were the work, uh, animals. The Israelis didn't go- pull their plows by horses, they pulled them by oxen. Do you see? They were the, uh, beasts of burden and work. Cor, they had a lot of work to do. And there are moments when I wish I were an ox, you see, and had the energy of an ox. I don't have. And then one had the face of a man. That's meant to be intelligence. Well, I had intelligence once, but um, now I've got old and I don't know what to do with it. And I noticed that some young folks have a lot of uh uh of uh energy to use, and they don't seem to have the intelligence to use it sensibly. Well, that's another thing, that's a private opinion, you'll see. And then there were eagles. Phew, what that must be to be able to take off and leave Belfast for just a few minutes and go up into the, uh, atmosphere, do you see, with their keen sight. Life! This is the house of the living God. Uh. Yeah. And if you watch how God rules, for instance, apple trees. How does God get apple trees to bear apples? Say he sends down a message every summertime to apple trees. All apple trees are to bear apples. No, he doesn't. How does he do it then? Well, he gives certain trees apple tree life. That's how he governs. And it's no secret, at least they who read the New Testament are aware of it, that to be a believer and to lead a truly Christian life, we first of all need to receive a new life from God, to be born again, as our Lord puts it, that we might know the reality of the divine life within us. Isn't that true? So let's look at some of the miracles that, um, Elisha did. And we start in two Kings four. And I'm going to read the passage, just to remind us all of the story. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two children, my two sons, to be slaves. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what have you in your house? And she said, Your handmaid has not anything in the house except a pot of oil. Then he said, Go borrow vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels. Borrow not a few, and thou shalt go in and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons. They brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet another vessel. And he said unto her, There is not any vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the oil and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons of the rest. Now, this is inspired and holy scripture, of course, but what lesson, if any, does it teach us? Now, I tread on hot coals here. Because, you see, I was brought up in a tradition that ta- faced with a story like this would have used it as a type, as a picture, yes? And people used to argue to me, you see, she had oil in her house, being a believer, and so have you, but oil is a type of the Holy Spirit. And, uh, if only we re- relied more upon the Holy Spirit, then we should find our work for the Lord successful. But modern commentators don't like that idea, do they? They said that, they say that's very arbitrary, and uh, they say just look at the end. If the oil represents the Holy Spirit, the dear woman is told to go out and sell the oil. You're not supposed to sell the Holy Spirit, are you? So, what shall we do? So I shan't attempt to to, uh, interpret it as a type, as a picture type. Instead, I'm going to use another device completely. And I'm going to use what is called, uh, uh, do you see, an analogy. You say, what on earth is an analogy on a Thursday night at ten to nine? Well, let me tell you a little story. Brother, uh, uh, persuaded me one day to spend a week's holiday with him on the Norfolk Broads. So down we went to the Broads, and we chose a nice old motorboat that went puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, do you see, and got on it, and you could sleep on the boat and wander around the broads wherever you liked, you see. The difficult thing, you know, was when you came into land, because you had to have enough power on the old boat to get to the jetty, but then if you've got enough power to get to the jetty, how on earth did you get it to stop without smashing into the jetty? It was a bit of a job, do you see? Mm. Now, if only the thing had brakes on, but we, as far as I can see, it had no wheels on it, so it didn't have any brakes. You say, you say, has it got anything analogous to brake? Well, yes, it had. Yes, in a car you have got brakes to slow down the speed, yes, and to stop it if you need be. On a boat like that, you don't have brakes. What you do was, uh, is to turn an old switch or something, and the propeller goes the other way round. And that has the effect of making you go slower and slower and slower and slower through the water. You'll come to a stop, and if you're not careful, you'll go backwards to sea. So if I were to say the old boat had brakes, well, not actual brakes like a car, but analogous brakes. There's an analogy between the car brakes and the methods used in the boat. Yes? I'm not saying that the boat is a picture type of a car. They're two quite different things. But there is a story from the Old Testament, and you will be already familiar with it, that uses analogy to get across its message, and that is the message given us in the Epistle to the Romans and chapter uh four. Do you see? We are told that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now, please, Abraham wasn't a type. Not a picture type. He was an actual man. He didn't wear trousers. He wore those funny things that m- Middle Easterners wear, uh, do you see, but he was an actual man with two legs and two arms and a head. And that actual man was literally justified. Abraham, how was he justified? He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. And so Abram becomes what we call nowadays in legal lo- terms a case law. How can you be justified? Well, the man Abram was justified by faith. That means that everybody else can be justified by faith, if God is fair. And everybody must be justified by faith. God has set down this man as the prominent example of how anybody gets justified. Yes? Happy about that, yes? Good stuff. Now comes the difficulty. When Abraham believed God, what did he believe God about? Oh, the answer, of course, is God said to Abram, I'm going to give you a son. Well, there was still some hope, though he was still already very old, and his wife was very old. God said, I'm going to give you a son. And then he left Abram. Until Abram was body was as good as dead. And Sarah was long past having any hope of bearing a child. Abram believed God. And Abram argued this, okay. God has promised I'm going to have a son. Sarah is now old. My body is old, decrepit. But God can't lie. If he said he's going to give me a son, he will give me a son. So Abraham carried on believing, even though it meant putting faith in a God who could bring life out of a virtually dead bodies. Now cast your mind back to the day or night you got justified. Can you remember it? Um. Um. Hmm. Did God make you a promise that you were going to have a son in your old age? Don't be silly. Of course not. Well, then how is that Abram's case anything to do with you whatsoever? You say, I believe God like Abraham did. Oh, yes, yes. Abraham believed God, that God would give him a son. You believe God, and... How is your faith like Abraham's faith? Oh, here comes my big word. Let me use it as best I can. By analogy, your faith corresponds to his, because he believed that God would give life, bring life out of those dead bodies. You are required to believe God, who delivered Christ up for your justification. He who died and was buried, and God raised him the third day. If Christ isn't raised, you're not justified, you know. That's the plain fact. But you believe in God actually raised the dead body of Jesus Christ. That is the basis of your justification. I say again that Abraham isn't a picture type, he's an actual man. If he walked in the door, you would invite him to join Absalom's assembly, that would improve it a lot, and uh, uh, and uh, you'd admit him to the Lord's Supper and so forth, wouldn't you? Actual man. But he, in him, God sets out the principles of justification by faith. There's an analogy between our faith and Abraham's faith. In that Abram believed God could bring life out of her dead bodies. You believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, the very one who died for your sins. Mm-hmm. Um. Um. So, what's that got to do with our story? Well, I'm going to say it has everything to do with us, because of the analogy with our situation. Said the dear lady, you'll see, to to Elisha the prophet. You know my husband died. I'm a widow. And your servant, my husband, feared the Lord. Now he's dead. And the creditor is come to take unto him my two children to be. And the ancient world, that was a, a constant possibility. If you couldn't pay, your creditor could, could take you over as a slave for a certain time until you had done the work that was equivalent to the amount of money that you had owed him. He's come to take my two sons as slaves, and how long that would last, who knows? As you hear that, are you in any danger of being a slave? Mm-hmm. Well, the immediate answer to it, of course, as you'll know, you'll cite me Romans chapter eight, will you not? Romans chapter eight. Runs like this. For you received not the spirit of slavery, again unto fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father. Now, this is true at various levels, is it not? The letter to the Galatians was written because people were telling the believers that in order to be justified in the initial sense, to be justified, they had to be circumcised and keep the food laws. And Paul argues that this would be a kind of a slavery, and not to be accepted. We are justified by faith and not by the works of the law. So we're free, yes? Ah, but then there's the whole business of life, isn't there? And preachers for everlasting tell us we ought to serve the Lord. And so we should. Did you ever get round to feeling it was a bit of a burden? And you didn't want to do it? And that having to do it made a slave of you? There are some believers that would confess it to, to you straight. I know what it feels like. Notice what the scripture says, we have not received the spirit of slavery again to fear. A slave, you see, of a, a, of an unprincipled master would know that if he would set to a job and he didn't do it, he'd be lashed across the back. And it was fear that drove him to the work. We're not expected to live under that condition, are we? You're not living in fear of the lake of fire and eternal damnation if you don't work for the Lord, are you? No, indeed not. But, um, in general, and the principle that makes us work for the Lord. We have not received the spirit of slavery again to fear, but the spirit of adoption set as a son of God. And if, said our Lord, the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Lovely, isn't it? At least I think it's lovely. And then there was this other dear lady. And she made a, a, a, and a, and her husband, she and her husband made a special room in their house for the man of God, Elisha, as he ever came by that way, so he could put up for the night, and there was a bed and a table, uh, do you see, and so forth. But he noticed that she had no child. And I suspect she was like a Hannah, wasn't she? Wanted a child. Very natural, isn't it? But she had no child. And Elisha challenged her and said, ask of me something, what can I do for you? And she said, oh, no, don't talk to to the the the prince about me, I I can stay with my own people. Elisha said, you have no child, have you? This time next year you'll come and you'll have a child. Well, it happened. But how did it happen? Well, listen to what the woman says to Elisha when he said, you're going to have a child, my dear, this time next year. She said, now look here, you man of God, don't you tell me lies. She wanted to make sure this was the serious word of God through his prophet. If it was that, she could rest on it. That is how it is still. We have to take God's word, full of promises, is it not? But then God sudden- sometimes gives them to us personally. And if it's God's word, we can rest on it. Marvelous woman of faith. The boy at length went out as he grew up and went out with the reapers and got sunstroke or something, and they laid him on the bed and he appeared to die. And, uh, she, not content with that, said, now if God meant to give me a son, he wouldn't disappoint me like this. So she, she, um, um, told the, um, uh, coachman to get the horses out and the car, and the car, and the carriage, you see, and they were to drive. And when they met, uh, uh, Elisha's servant, he said, is everything well? She said, in her famous words, it is well. It is well. Dear old lady, I, I, I could kiss her, you know, in a way, in some sense. Uh, because you see, because her words lie behind the hymn, isn't it? When peace like a river attendeth my way, my way, when sea billows roll, thou hast taught me to say, it is well with my soul. It is well. All the triumph of faith in God's word and God's promise. Mm-hmm. And so, uh, El- Elisha said to his, his servant, Gehazi, well, take my scepter, he said. That was his staff of office as a prophet, and go and lay it on the face of the boy. Oh, imagine Gehazi, don't you? He went up the road. You know what this is? See, I, I got the prophet's insignia. Yeah. So he got to the house where the dead boy was on the bed, and he laid the rod of office on the boy's face. No response. Hey, look here, he said, now this is, this is the prophet's, the prophet's authority. Now, my, my boy, take notice of this. No response. There are times when officialdom doesn't work. Elisha came. He lay on the man, eyes to eyes, nose to nose, mouth to mouth, and the very warmth of his body warmed and got the man's heart going as it should. Yes. Being a prophet is not merely you have the authority. It is sharing your very life. What's all that about the life of living cherubims, the living ones? I'm grateful when my car breaks down if somebody knows about cars and can, um, put it right. But that's one mere mechanical thing. I need men who have come alongside me and warmed me with their own vital life in Christ. And so there was another story. According to our passage. There was a dinner party, apparently. And as the sons of the prophets, they were junior prophets, some kind of a Bible school, I suppose. Eh, and uh, there went out one of them, and thinking to contribute to the common pot, he gathered a lot of goods. They were poisonous, or if not poisonous, very severely laxative, and he put them in the pot. And then someone ate them and said, there's poison in the pot. And Elisha told them to add meal and counteracted the effect of the goods. You know, without being unduly critical, it happens sometimes. Young men and women with very good intention take Bible courses of this, that, and other, and sometimes can get ideas into their head that would destroy the very gospel itself. You see examples in the New Testament. In the co- church at Corinth, people had there some superior knowledge. They knew a thing or two. They knew there was no such thing as the resurrection. If they had been true, it would have destroyed Christianity, root and branch. I was given to read a paper by a, a dear such student recently. Love wins, it said. God doesn't, uh, judge anybody. He loves everybody. And if you go, uh, die without, uh, being, uh, reconciled to God, well, you'll have to su- suffer some, but in the end, you will not perish. Because God loves everybody. That is absolutely false. Uh-huh. And needs to be counteracted. Sometimes the best way to do it is not to enter into an argument about it, but to get handfuls of meal carefully chosen to deal with the topic and positively expound what Holy Scripture says. And then there came a man, one of the guests, and he brought some supplies, do you see? And somebody said, what good are they? How can you put that little amount of stuff in front of such a big number of people as we have here. And Elisha said, carry on, put it before them. And in actual fact, they all ate and were filled. Now, I don't know whether I have now transgressed into typology or not, and it's too late at night for me to care. Do you see? I have sometimes wondered, how does God take the meager stuff that I can put on a spiritual table and use it to bless a hundred people. How does God do that? You will remember what happened, will you not? At the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, Our Lord has told them to set the people down. They needed to be fed. And then he said to them, you give them to eat. Well, they said, Lord, um, now let's see, five thousand, and, and each, even if it's a Marks and Spencer's lunch that will cost this and that and so on. Impossible, he said. Somebody, as a joke, I suppose, said it. Well, there's a lad here, and he's got five little loaves and two fish. Our Lord said, don't be rid- uh, our Lord didn't say, don't be so ridiculous, don't. He took it. And in his hand, one little boy's lunch satisfied five thousand. Could use you, couldn't he? You speak the gospel. You preach the gospel, did the best you could. God could use it, couldn't he? To eternal effect. That is the wonder, life answering to life. And it's a living word and a living God. And then finally, there was Naaman. He was a splendid type, wasn't he? He would have played rugby if they had been invented in those days, and he was in general in command, officer in command of the whole Syrian army anyway, do you see? But he was a leper. And he came with his chariot and his supplies, and first of all he went to the king, and the king got ratty a bit and thought the man was pulling his leg and seeking a cause of war, and then told him to go to the prophet. So he went to the prophet. And as he subsequently confessed, aha, he thought the prophet would come out, put his holy hand on the spot of the leprosy, and in much ceremony, and all the TV lights would be there, and the papers next day would say, the great Naaman gets religion. So he knocked on the door, made his request, and the answer came back. Elisha didn't budge off his seat and said, you'll go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and you'll be, uh, cured. Was he angry? Wow. Never felt so insulted in all his life. Bad enough to come to this evangelical prophet, but to be insulted like that. And he went home in a rage, or he started to go home in a rage. Mercifully, he had some sensible servants, and they said, uh, sir, you know, if the prophet had told you to do some very big thing, you'd have done it, wouldn't you? Why don't you do this little thing? And sir, you refused to be baptized in the Jordan. That hasn't cured your leprosy, has it? You are a leper still. And the end... is death. Why do people fiddle with salvation? The fact is, as we began our studies, the fact is God's judgment was soon to descend on Israel. And for Naaman, the leprosy was already there. There was only one end to that. He needed to be saved, dear man. But if only he would humble himself and baptize himself in Jordan seven times over, he would be cured. And he saw sense and was cured. Now, finally, I must ask you to look at this, um, picture again. You can't see it from there, I can scarce see it, but here is the golden altar of incense, and it's got a priest standing by it. And of course, at the time of incense, he's addressing himself to God, who sat enthroned on the cherubim. Now, scripture gives us directions. The inner sanctuary, the floor was overlaid with gold, if you please. That's marvelous, but suitable to the majesty of God. Here, where the priests stood offering their incense, the floor was overlaid with... Actually, it was overlaid with gold, just like the presence of God. Now, I wouldn't have done it that way if I'd been God. I would have said, well, yes, my, my, my division must be floor overlaid with gold. But where that priest said, oh, lin- linoleum would do good enough for him, or, or tiles or something. I, I wouldn't spend any money. But God gets this man standing on the same glorious foundation as God himself stands on. Do you believe it? Bankrupt sinners. Who left to ourselves would go on to eternal perdition. Now justified through faith in Christ and raised and seated. Is Christ seated on the very throne of God? And my brother, my sister, so are you. And when Naaman went back to his country, he asked one petition. Please, could he have two or three pannier loads of Israelite earth, so that when he got to his pagan country and stood to worship God, he could stand at least on Israelite soil. That's as hard as his faith went. It was good for a Syrian ger- ge- general, wasn't it? Aware of Israel's special position, and now he raised to share that same position. But I have a great story to tell you, that in all our bankruptcy, God has not only given us life, and made us sons and daughters, and made us free, but has raised us to glory in Christ, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's a job to get over it, isn't it? Let's bow ourselves in prayer. Lord, thy grace is so extensive and so limitless that we are dumbfounded by it and know not what to say. But we bow down and worship thee from our hearts, for bringing us to Christ, and through Christ to reconcile us to thyself. Already in spirit, Lord, we sit with him in heavenly places, and we thank thee for thy grace in using us to feed one or two or multitudes of our contemporaries. Help us in this topic, we pray, that we may do it by thy gracious spirit's influence and power, and not treat it as a slavery to which we must come for fear of punishment. Hear us now, we pray, and bless the food that we partake of through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.