Start Time:	06:19AM
End Time:	07:36AM
Date:	July 4, 2014

 

TITLE: Shunamite’s Land Restored

Scripture: 2 Kings 8:1 – 29  

God’s Message / God’s Commands / God’s Promises:

→Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years. At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.  The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and 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 until now.”

NOTES:

Ø  For everything we lost in obedience to the Man of God, God restores back to us and more!  The Shunamite woman is the woman who showed kindness to Elisha.  She is the woman who prepared a room for Elisha at her roof without being asked to do so.  She was the one who insisted that Elisha eat meals at her house.  But the time came when there’s trouble in the land, so Elisha remembered her and told her to flee the land.  For 7 years she lived in the Philistines’ territory but after 7 years, after the king of Israel took over Aram because of the 4 lepers who found it empty coz the Lord drove all the Arameans away with the help of the 4 lepers, the Shunamite woman came back to plead before the king to get her land back.  The moment she arrived, it was also the moment that Gehazi (who became a leper because he disobeyed what Elisha said) was talking about them to the king.  The woman and her son, the one that Elisha healed, came to ask for their land back.  The King appointed an official to ensure that her case is settled and that all her land will be returned back to her including all the income from her land the day she left the country until that day – this is what you call, reaping without sowing.  The woman was away from the country, but her land was still producing and others may have planted and taken care of it for her but whatever earned from her land was given back to her.  Hallelujah!  This is how our God repays every thing we give up for Him!  Amen!  Note that the woman may have also suffered a little when she went to the Philistine, she could have been well take care of there too – the bible didn’t say her condition during that time but all that is written is the time when she was in her land with Elisha still eating and staying with her, she was well provided and even given a miracle (her son).  When she returned after 7 years, she was again well provided and given more than what she expected in return.  Amazing!  This is how God works!  Thank You Lord!

→  Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,” ⁸ he said to Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’” Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’” Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’ Nevertheless,^[a] theLord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.” He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed. Then the man of God began to weep.  “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.”  Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?” “The Lord has shown me that you will become king of Aram,” answered Elisha. Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.

NOTES:

Ø  God is recognized as the powerful God that He is even by Israel’s enemies and He extends His help to them when needed.  Ben-hadad told Hazael to go to Elisha to consult of his condition.  This clearly shows that God is known and recognize by all people including the people that fight against Him or His people.  All the more confidence we should have to our God because despite of the things our enemies do against us or the Lord, in the end, they always come to God for something when they are in need.  And God’s hands are never too short to reach out to them always!

Ø  God shows the future to His chosen and though this future is out of our control, we can be assured that God is! Elisha spoke to Hazael when he came to meet him but Elisha saw something else that God showed him.  Elisha could have grabbed Hazael and kill him right there and then, knowing the afflictions he will do to Israel in the future, but it is not in Elisha’s hands.  God showed it to Elisha for a purpose and not to take matters into his own hands.  Sometimes, there are things that are shown to us so we can prepare for it and not to eliminate or avoid it from happening.  We are to always seek God’s guidance.  Not everything bad that God shows us means we have to act against it – meaning if God shows us something bad in the future, it was revealed to us for a purpose and not to stop it but to prepare for it.

→ In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord.  Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.  In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king. So Jehoram^[b] went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night; his army, however, fled back home. To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah. Libnahrevolted at the same time.  As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.

NOTES:

Ø  God’s favor and grace is abundant and extends to our descendants!  God does not based His grace and favor to what we do because we will surely find no mercy.  Thank God His grace and favor is based on His love for us! 

→ In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family. Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram; so King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth^[c] in his battle with Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.

NOTES:

Ø  God is clearly warning us to be careful of who we choose to marry or spend the rest of our lives.  The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, was doing right with God and there was peace in Judah, but when his son Jehoram, decided to marry a daughter of ahab, he did evil in the eyes of God and so the Edomites rebelled against them.  The same with his son, Ahaziah, who was the grandson of Athaliah.  The key in these last verses is verse 27, when it says there in the end…”…for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.”  This clearly shows that everything Ahaziah did, the evil things he did was because he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.