2 Kings 1 – 5
King Ahaziah of Israel is about to consult “Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron” on his illness. Elijah meets his men and turns them back with a message from God. Verse 1:10 has Ahaziah sending men and the result:
But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
Interestingly the king sends two more “captain of fifty” to get Elijah. It wasn’t until the third that they learned their lesion and repented before Elijah. Unfortunately for the king hearing the news directly didn’t change his fate. For some reason I guess the king expected God to change his mind when he talked to Elijah face to face. I wonder if he had taken the approach that the third “captain of fifty” took if he would have lived.
Verse 2:8 has something interesting happen:
Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.
Elisha is following Elijah during this time before Elijah’s death with he parted the Jordan and crossed on dry ground. We often think God parted the waters through Moses and then sometimes remember Joshua parting the Jordan, but rarely do we remember Elijah. In verse 14 Elisha does it again! Even people who have read through the bible, me included, often forget these two instances of God using others to part the waters.
One of my favorite stories comes from chapter 4 where Elisha helps a poor widow out. She has creditors knocking at the door and two children to feed. All she had left was a jar of oil. Elisha tells them to collect jars and then pour the oil into them. Verse 4:4 is the start of this process:
Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.”
The end result is a bunch of full jars that they use to pay off the creditors. I think I like this story because it is something in this day we can all hope for. Think about it, God directly took care of this woman’s debts through a miracle. How often do we hope our bank account keeps filling like this woman’s jar of oil only to find it just as empty as before? I know I have over the years and just find a steady trickle keeping us afloat and getting out of debt.
In verse 4:35 Elisha also raised the dead:
Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
Notice the 7 times he sneezed. Now look at the story of the healing of the leper and verse 5:14:
So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Again we see a miracle where the number 7 comes up in healing the person. I often wonder if this is critical to life. How many times do we see this happen where 7 is significant to an event in the Bible? I have no idea the answer, but I wonder why this number is significant. Interestingly the number 7 the easiest number to appear in dice. So the term “Lucky 7” arose because of it. Although in craps, 7 after the “come out roll” is a loser!! I wonder if there is a connection or coincidence?