Kings chapter 8. I want to read the first two verses. Then spake Elisha unto the woman
whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou
in thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn. For the Lord hath called for
famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years. And
the woman arose and did after the saying of the man of God.
And she went with her household and sojourned in the land of
the Philistines seven years." Think with me. What have we just
read? What have we just read in those
two verses? We've read that Elisha, told
a woman to leave her home, to leave her country, and go and
live wherever you can find, wherever you may sojourn, and she did
it. She did it. She packed up her
household goods and her family, everything that she could take
with her, and she left. She left her home. She left her
country. She left her kinfolk, if she
had any there, and went to sojourn in the land of the Philistines. Why would she do that? Why would
a woman do that? Because she believed the word
of the man of God. Right? She did that because she believed. She did that because she believed
the word of Elisha. That's amazing when you stop
and think about it. A man just comes up to you and
says, leave your country and go and live wherever you can
because God has called for a famine. in this land for seven years. And she did it. She did it. I want us to think some tonight
about both of these individuals, first about Elisha, and then
about this woman. I trust the Lord will bless the
thoughts that I have for us. First, Elisha. Now the first
time he's mentioned, let's turn in our scriptures, if you will,
to 1 Kings chapter 19. The first time that we read of
Elisha in the word of God here is in 1 Kings chapter 19 and
beginning with verse 19. So he, that is Elijah, departed
thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing
with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he with the 12th. And Elijah
passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen
and ran after Elijah and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss my
father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said
unto him, go back again, for what have I done to thee? And
he returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slew
them and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and
gave unto the people and they did eat. Then he arose and went
after Elijah and ministered unto him. First thing I point out
to us is, Elisha was working. He was working. This reminded
me of the first two disciples that the Lord Jesus Christ called,
that is, Andrew and Simon. When he called them and commanded
them, come, follow me, and I will make thee to become fishers of
men, what were they doing? They were working. They were
casting their net into the sea. Elisha was plowing. And just
from reading the fact that it says he was plowing with 12 yoke
of oxen, this tells us something. It tells us, tells me at least,
first of all, this is probably a large area that he's plowing. You don't need 12 yoke of oxen
to plow a small portion of ground. So there was 12 plows. He was leading the oxen, a team
of oxen, but there were 11 other teams of oxen. And obviously,
he or his family owned this place. They owned this place, I'm sure,
because he felt the liberty, as we'll see in just a minute,
to slay two of the oxen. If they had not been his and
his family, surely he wouldn't have done that. So here's a man
who was working when God found him, when God called him to be
a servant of his, a minister. a prophet of God, and Elijah
just passes by. I don't know if he had ever met
Elijah before or not, but Elijah passes by and takes his mantle
and puts it on Elisha. And Elisha, the scripture says,
Elijah kept on going. And Elisha ran and followed. When I read that he went back,
he asked Elijah's permission to go back and say his farewells
to his father and his mother, that he kills the team of oxen
that he was plowing with and takes the instruments of the
plow to burn to cook the oxen. And what I see there is, here's
a man that God calls and he burns the bridges behind him. Do you
see that? He's not planning on coming back. God's called him and he's going
to follow that call, cost it what it might. He's determined. This is so important when we
think about man that God calls into the ministry. You burn your bridges, so to
speak. If God's called you, then this
becomes all important to you. Everything else becomes secondary
when God calls someone into the ministry. And I want you to notice
especially the last words in verse 21 in this passage. It tells us that he ministered
unto him. Elisha, as I said, it appears
to me, I can't prove this of course, but that he was a man
we would say was well off, from a family that owned a great property,
had many animals, and yet when he runs and follows Elijah, he
ministers unto him. He ministers unto him. You know,
in the New Testament, the apostle Paul warned Timothy, warned the
churches against a novice being put into the office of a pastor.
And the reason is, he said, lest he fall into the condemnation
of the devil, that is being lifted up with pride. God has no use for a preacher
who is not a minister. And I'm not talking, that word
is used now like pastors or ministers, but I'm talking about a person
who has the heart of a servant. A person who has the heart of
a minister. This man ministered. Because
when God calls a man to preach, puts him into the ministry, he's
going to be ministering unto God's sheep. And he needs the
heart of a minister. You know, this prepared him. We don't read of him doing any
prophecy, any work, performing any miracles as long as Elijah
is alive. He's Elijah's minister. He's
waiting on Elijah. And as he's waiting, he's learning. And this is the way, years ago,
before Various denominations came up with universities and
seminaries. This is the way men usually prepared
for the ministry. They would sit under a pastor
and they would learn from him. They would learn the gospel.
They would learn the truth from the word of God. But not only
that, they would learn to minister to God's people. I think about
John Mark in the New Testament. You remember when Paul and Barnabas
went out on their first missionary journey, and we've been studying
through the book of Acts and Sunday morning for Bible study,
what a blessing it is to go through these passages again and see
how the Lord has worked. From just a very small beginning,
my son David told me just recently he was watching a documentary
And the man who was speaking, he said, it's still amazing how
from just a small group of people, the Christian faith has spread
all over the world. Well, with God, all things are
possible. It could not have done what it
has done apart from the power and the agency of God the Holy
Spirit. Our Lord said, you shall be witnesses
of me both in Jerusalem and Samaria and Judea and to the uttermost
parts of the world. But John Mark was evidently a
young man who Paul and Barnabas, yes, they took with them, but
somewhere along the road, and maybe it was just this, John
Mark He got tired of ministry. He thought the ministry, the
going with these missionaries was going to be much different
than what it turned out to be, and he went home. And you know
the story. The next time that Paul would
go on a missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with
him again, and Paul said, no, no. And so Paul took Silas and
they went in one direction. Barnabas took John Mark and they
went in another direction. But you know the wonderful thing
about that history is that our God, and thank the Lord for this,
our God is a God of new beginnings. And I say this because in the
last letter the apostle Paul wrote, inspired letter, Second
Timothy. What does he now write about
John Mark? John Mark evidently had disappointed
him at first, so much so he wouldn't let him go on their next journey. But in the last letter that he
wrote, he said, take Mark, that's John Mark, take Mark and bring
him with you. For he is profitable to me in
the ministry. All of us have fallen at one
time or the other, haven't we, in some way or the other? But
the Lord picks us up, lifts us up, gives us strength to get
up. And that's the case with John
Mark. But I want you to turn to another
scripture in 2 Kings 3, thinking about Elisha now. He's left everything
and followed Elijah. We have an interesting comment
here in 2 Kings 3. There were three kings, the king
of Israel, the king of Judah, the king of Edom, The country
of Moab had rebelled from under the nation or the rule of Israel. So the king of Israel, he got
these other two kings to go with him, and they're going to bring
the country of Moab into subjection again. And the way they thought
about doing it sounds like they're going to ambush them. They're
going to go around and come behind. They get out into a place and
there's no water. They have no water. And they're
soon going to fail, health-wise. They're going to fail. And one
of these kings, King Jehoshaphat of Judah, of course, he was a
godly man. Why in the world he ever got
mixed up with this king of Israel? That's another message, right? But anyway, look in verse 11. But Jehoshaphat said, when they
see their plight, I mean, they're in a condition, they're going
to die out here without any water. Jehoshaphat said, is there not
here a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire of the Lord by
him? Now watch this, listen to what
he's told. And one of the kings of Israel's
servants answered and said, here is Elisha, the son of Shaphat,
which poured water on the hands of Elijah. Isn't there a prophet
of God here? Well, Elisha's over here, but
he poured water on the hands of Elijah. I assume that if that
man is telling the truth, that reminds us Elijah was a servant. He served Elijah. He poured water
on his hands so he could wash his hands. Yes, that's many times
in the scriptures what a servant did, wasn't it? To wash with
water. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he washed
his disciples' feet with water, remember. Now see here that Elisha was
a servant. If this man was telling the truth
here, well, Elisha's here, and we know he poured water on the
hands of Elijah, then he was a servant. And I think of what
our Lord said, for weather is greater He that setteth at meat,
or he that serveth? Is not he that setteth at meat? Isn't it? The man who sets at
the table, the man who serves him. Is not he that setteth at
meat? But, here's the words of our
Lord, but I am among you as he that serveth. Now, if this man
spoke these words in derision of Elisha, he's not much. He poured water on the hands
of Elisha. Not much to him, you know. Well,
if he said that just to belittle Elisha, what I see here is God's
servants must not expect the recognition of this world, the
men of this world. You know, we, we talk a lot and
quote Charles Spurgeon a lot. And rightly so. God used him
greatly. He pastored a very large, large
church in the end, a church that he ministered to and over his
ministry, it became a large church. But do you know Charles Spurgeon
was ridiculed by the hierarchy, by the religious people of his
day? I've seen some of these cartoons
they put in the paper, you know, the political cartoons, I guess
you'd say, to make fun of some figure. They did that quite often
to Charles Spurgeon and the newspapers in London. God's men, like their
Lord, have never been recognized by this world and never will
be. You know, I'd be afraid, wouldn't
you? If you were a pastor, wouldn't
you be afraid if everyone spoke well of you? I mean, this world doesn't love
Christ. This world doesn't love the gospel.
We know that. Well, Elisha. Let me just remind
us, before I move on to the woman, but of Elisha. These three things
about Elisha, we won't turn because you're familiar with this. First
of all, Elisha would not leave Elijah. the day that he knew
somehow that God was going to take Elijah up in a whirlwind
to heaven. He would not leave him, even
though it seems that Elijah tried to discourage him. Elijah said,
I'm going to Gilgal. Elisha said, I'm going with you.
He tried to discourage him. They get to Gilgal and he said,
I'm going to Bethel. He tried to discourage him. Elisha
continues to Bethel. They get to Bethel. I'm going
to the River Jordan. He tries to discourage him again. No, I'm going with you. He could not be put off, could
he? He was going to be with Elijah. Second thing that I mentioned
about Elisha is he opened his mouth wide. You say, what do
you mean by that? Well, doesn't the scripture tell
us, open your mouth wide and I will fill it. In other words,
expect great things from God, attempt great things from God,
ask great things of God. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. You parents,
you pray for your children. Open your mouth wide. Pray for
him. Yes. Pray for him. God's promise. This man, he opened
his mouth wide. What do I mean he opened his
mouth wide? Well, Elijah said, you've asked
a hard thing. You've asked a hard thing. You've
opened your mouth wide. What was it? That I might have
a double portion. of your spirit upon me. Someone over the years has looked
at the various miracles which are recorded of Elijah and Elisha
and have come up with this that the miracles recorded that Elisha
was used of God in performing are just twice as many as Elijah. I've never checked that out,
but I've read that. And the third thing, he believed
God. This man believed God. That mantle,
when Elijah was parted from him and taken up in that chariot
of fire, that mantle of Elijah fell upon Elisha. And you remember, he went back
to the river Jordan to cross it. He had crossed it before
with Elijah and Elijah had smoked the waters and they parted and
Elijah and Elisha walked through. Now he believed God when he came
back to that same river, he smoked the river. He trusted God, he
believed God. God hadn't changed. He was Elijah's
God. He had opened up that way through
the river for Elijah. And Elisha trusted he'll do the
same for me. He hasn't changed. Well, let's
take a few minutes now. I want us to look at the woman.
Elisha is a man who told this woman, pack up and leave your
country and go and live wherever you can. And she believed and
left. Let's see some things about this
woman. Look in chapter 4 of 2 Kings. First thing I want to point out
to us is that she was a great woman. Verse 8. And it fell on
a day that Elisha passed to Shunem where was a great woman. A great
woman. The apostle Paul And 1 Corinthians
1, remember, he said, for you see your calling, brethren, that
not many, not many mighty. But he didn't say not any, did
he? He didn't say not any are called. Here's a great woman
who God did call. And I have eight things I'll
mention about her hurriedly. One of the first things we see
about her is that she shared, verse 8, again, a great woman
and she constrained him to eat bread. The Lord had blessed her
and she shared. She shared. When Elisha passed
by, she constrained him, it says, to eat bread. been blessed of
the Lord, and she shared those blessings with this man. Now,
she didn't know him at this point. She didn't know anything about
him. But she was a woman who shared. She wasn't stingy. She wasn't tight-fisted. You
know covetousness. It can be easily hidden. That's
true. But it's still a wicked sin. In fact, it is idolatry according
to the Apostle Paul. And she was a woman who shared
what she had, what God had blessed her with. God's people are that
way, aren't they? It's amazing when we have someone
in our church family that has a need and I mention it to you,
it's always just so amazing how you respond and give. And sometimes the person that
needed something says, stop, stop. I don't need anymore. You're so liberal. This woman
was liberal. She shared. You know, there's
a proverb which says, There is that scattereth and yet increaseth. Is that possible? Is that possible? You take your
seed corn out there and you just scatter it, take it out of your
bag and scatter it, and yet it increases. It increases. And there is that withholdeth
more than his meat, and attendeth to poverty. How is that possible? That's just God. You can't explain
it. That's just God, how he can bless
his people. A second thing about this woman
that I noticed is she had discernment. She had discernment. Notice in
verse nine, she said unto her husband, behold now, I perceive,
I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by
continually. She had discernment. Somehow
she discerned, and I don't believe that Elisha wore his collar around
backwards. I don't believe that's the way
she realized or discerned this is a man of God that's coming
by here. I don't know how she did it,
as I said, but maybe she noticed that when he sat down to eat
the food that she gave him, he gave thanks unto the Lord. He
thanked the Lord for the food. I don't know, but somehow she
discerned Elisha's a man of God. The third thing, she recognized
that a man of God would need some time alone. I see that in
verse 10, she said to her husband, let us make a little chamber.
I pray thee on the wall. And let us set it for him, let
us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick. And it shall be when he turneth
to us that he shall turn in thither. She realized that a man, he was
a man of God and a man of God needed time alone with God. Now,
the fact that we were told at the very beginning that she was
a great woman has led the expositors to say that probably the land
she had inherited, it was her land. But notice throughout this
history how she takes the place of an obedient wife. She always
recognizes her husband is the head of the home, the head of
the family, and she will not do anything without speaking
to him. Let's do this, verse 10. Let
us, she says that obviously to her husband. She wouldn't just
do it on her own. Even though, as I said, most
people believe that she was a great woman. She's the one that owned
everything and married this man. But the point I'm making is she
was an obedient wife. You know, that's God's order.
And I don't expect the world to accept that. Do you? I don't. It doesn't surprise me that people
and especially the Women's Liberation Group and all of those people
like that, that they make fun of what we know. I don't expect
them to believe this or to practice it. But I'm just here to say
that if you want a home where there's peace and God's blessing,
follow God's order. The head of the woman is a husband.
Now, that's just from the word of God. That doesn't mean a husband
runs roughshod over his wife. He's not a dictator. In fact,
he's to love her even as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. Now, that's a pretty big order,
isn't it? The fourth thing, she was content.
Content. You know, you can have everything
in the world if you're not, if you have no contentment. And
a lot of people today, and it's always been this way, but they
think they'll find contentment with fame. And you hear in the
news all the time, some of these people, famous artists of one
kind or another, they can find no peace. Everywhere they go,
they're recognized and hounded and And many of them turned to
drugs and things like that to somehow exist. No, contentment,
as the scripture says, godliness with contentment is great gain. You say, well, how do you say
that this woman was content? Well, if you read, let's read
verses 11 through 13. And it fell on the day that he
came thither, and he turned into the chamber and lay there. And he said to Gehasi his servant,
call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she
stood before him. And he said unto him, say now
unto her." It seemed like Elisha was somewhat eccentric, doesn't
he? He always had someone else speak
for him through an intermediary. He said unto him, that is God,
say now unto her. She's standing right there in
front of him. Behold, thou hast been careful
for us with all this care. What is to be done for thee?
I want to repay you. I want to do something for you.
You've been so kind to us and supplied our needs. And you know,
I know the king. I can go to the king's palace
and I can say, I want to see the king and I have no problem. They'll usher me right in to
see the king. Elisha was known as a prophet. Would you want me to speak to
the king for you? You could be invited to all the
fancy balls and all the goings on at the palace. Would you,
would you like that? I can do that for you. No, I'm happy here. Isn't that what she said, really?
And she answered, I dwell among mine own people. I'm content
right here. I don't need you to speak to
the king for me, to do anything for me. I have everything I need. Food and raiment, let us therewith
be content. Well, the fifth thing we see,
she was promised and given a son. Verses 14, when she said she
was among her own people, had no need, then Gehasi said, told
Elisha, said, well, you know, her husband's old and she doesn't
have any children. Now, in Israel, for a woman not
to have a child was a very Very difficult thing. But she was content. God had
kept her from having children, obviously. Children are a blessing
of the Lord. But you know the story. Elisha told her about this time
next year, you're going to have a son. And sure enough, sure
enough, She would be made to keep house. I put this down. She was given
to hospitality. We've seen that. And now she
will be made to keep house. She's going to have children.
No one can out give God. Did you hear what I said? No one can out give God. She had given to this man. And now, through him, God gives
her a son. But the next point, number six,
she suffered a hard providence. Her son died. Her son died. That's a hard providence,
isn't it? It is. We know it is. Look with me in verse 18. When
the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to
his father, to the reapers. And he said unto his father,
my head, my head. And he said to a lad, carry him
to his mother. And when he had taken him and
brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and
died. And she went up and laid him
on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and
went out. A hard providence. Now when the
scripture here says when the child was grown, how grown was
he? Well, he was not so much grown
that a lad could not pick him up and carry him back to his
mother. And he was not so much grown
that he couldn't sit on his mother's lap. And he was not so much grown
that she couldn't pick his body up and carry him upstairs and
lay him on the bed of Elisha. So I would think he was a rather
small child. Weaned, maybe, is what that means
when he was grown. He was weaned, maybe five or
six, seven, eight years old. A hard providence. God took her son. But I see a seventh thing. She
persevered in praying. She persevered in praying. When
she came to Elisha, she grabbed hold of his feet. Now, Gehazi
would have pulled her off. He would have, Elisha's servant. But Elisha said, no, no. I don't understand. He said,
I don't know what's happened here, but no. She persevered
in praying. She would not let Elisha go unless
Elisha would come with her. Elisha sent his servant first
with his staff. He said, that's not going to
do it. I need you to go with me. She persevered. She believed God. That's my last
thing. She believed God. You know, she's
mentioned in the New Testament. Did you know that? In Hebrews
chapter 11, that great chapter that speaks to us of by faith,
by faith, women. This is a woman. Women received
their dead raised to life again. Maybe she'd heard of Elijah.
He too raised that widow woman's son to life, didn't he? Maybe
she had heard about that. I don't know. But I do know this. She believed that God could raise
her son. And he did. He did. Now, now we can see when, where
we started a few minutes ago, we can see why it was when Elisha
told her You need to leave your home and go live wherever you
can." And she did it. Why? Because she believed the
word of God, the word which was spoken through Elisha. And I would just say what the
Apostle Paul said to that Philippian jailer, believe. on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Thou shalt be saved. How does a person show that he
believes? How did this woman show that
she believed the word of Elisha? She packed up and left for seven
years. How does a person show that he
believes in Christ? confesses Christ, confesses his
faith in Christ publicly. And the way we do that, of course,
is in baptism, especially. In baptism, we identify and we
profess our faith and trust in Christ. Well, I pray the Lord
bless his word to all of us here tonight.