Now, Naaman was the captain of the hosts
of Syria.
He was a great man with his master.
He was honorable because the Lord had actually
helped him to subdue many nations.
He was a mighty man and very brave,
but he was a leper.
And the Syrians had gone out by companies
and brought away captives out of the land
of Israel.
And a little maid happened to be the
servant of his wife.
And she said, it's too bad your husband
isn't with a prophet there in Israel because
he could heal him of his leprosy.
And so it was told to Naaman and
he told the king that there was a
prophet in Israel that could cure him of
his leprosy.
And so the king of Syria, Ben-Hadad,
sent a formal letter to the king of
Israel and sent Naaman down.
And in the letter it said, I want
you to heal my general of this leprosy.
So when the king of Israel saw Naaman
come in, knew who he was, this captain
of the Syrian hosts and all, and when
he gets this note, I want you to
heal this guy of his leprosy, the king
just became excited and concerned.
He said, look how this guy's trying to
pick a fight.
Am I God that I can heal him
of his leprosy?
You know, the guy's just looking for trouble.
He's trying to start a fight.
And so the king had torn his clothes
and was all upset.
And word came to Elisha of how the
king was so upset because of this demand.
And he said, send him down to me
and he will know that there is a
God in Israel.
And so Naaman came to Elisha's house.
And Elisha didn't even go out to meet
him, but sent his servant Gehazi out with
the orders, go down to the Jordan River
and just dip in the Jordan River seven
times.
And after you've dipped seven times, you'll be
cleansed of your leprosy.
So Naaman became enraged.
He said, that guy didn't even have the
graciousness to come out and meet me himself.
Sent a servant out to me.
And then tells me to duck in that
Jordan River.
We've got better rivers up in Damascus.
And he headed home in a rage, just
mad.
And as they were going along, one of
his servants said to him, you know, had
that prophet told you to do some great
deed, you know, go out and slay the
dragon and get the seven golden apples.
Had he given you some great deed to
do, you would be glad to do it
because it's just such a simple thing.
Why don't you try it?
What's it going to hurt?
And so they came to the Jordan River
and Naaman dipped himself in the Jordan River.
And when he came up the seventh time,
his flesh was pink like a baby's flesh.
The leprosy was gone.
He was so excited.
He headed back to the prophet's house because
he was loaded down with all kinds of
gifts that the king of Syria had sent.
And he came to Elisha and he sought
to give to Elisha some of these gifts
that he had brought from Syria.
And Elisha said, no, I don't want your
gifts.
Keep them.
Now, in coming back, he acknowledged that there
was no God in all the earth, but
in Israel.
I know that, he said.
I pray that you'll take this blessing.
But Elisha said, as the Lord lives before
whom I stand, I will receive nothing.
And Naaman urged him to take it, but
he refused.
Now, I told you that a fellow that
would have this kind of a gift would
have problems.
And unfortunately, some people who have had a
ministry of healing or whatever have been guilty
of using that to enrich themselves.
People become very excited when they see God
work.
They want to lavish the servant of God
with gifts.
But here is Elisha refusing the gift.
Rightfully so.
He didn't heal Naaman.
The Lord healed Naaman.
Why should Elisha receive a gift for it?
And the guy urged him, but still he
refused.
In the healing of Naaman, we find some
interesting things.
And one of them is that typically, we
all of us really have difficulty with just
accepting the grace of God.
We would all of us like to do
some great, wonderful thing for the Lord.
You know, I would like to go out
and conquer a thousand giants or something.
I want to do some great thing for
God, just to receive from God the simplicity
with which God gives to me.
And the fact that He gives to me
so freely and in such a simple way
that I can't get any credit for it.
Somehow I would like to deserve or earn
God's blessings, but I can't.
I can only receive by grace the goodness
of God.
And salvation is such a simple thing.
The Lord says, just believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Oh, how simple it is.
But we rebel against that simplicity.
No, Lord, I'm going to serve you and
I'm going to go out and witness and
I'm going to pray and I'm going to
do this.
And I'm telling God all of the things
that I'm going to do for Him because
of what He's done for me.
It's awfully hard to accept grace gracefully, isn't
it?
Just to accept the fact that God loves
me and to receive His gifts gracefully.
Now, the servant Gehazi, when he saw Elisha
turning down these gifts, he began to think,
Wow, what I could do with just a
little bit of that loot.
I could buy an olive orchard, a vineyard.
I could hire me some servants.
Man, I could be set up if I
just had a little bit of that loot.
And he started thinking of what he could
do with some of that reward that Naaman
was offering.
And so, he went chasing after Naaman.
And they said, hey, it looks like the
servant of the prophet's coming.
And so he said, let's wait, maybe something's
gone wrong.
And when Gehazi came up, they said, is
everything fine?
And Naaman said, yeah, everything's fine, except that
my master had a couple of young prophets
come in and they didn't have much.
And so, he'd like a couple of changes
of apparel for them and a talent of
silver.
And Naaman said, oh, here, take a couple
of talents of silver.
And he was happy to give it to
him.
And in fact, they sent a fellow back
carrying it back.
But when they got to the gate of
the city, Gehazi said, that's great, I'll take
it from here.
And he took it and put it in
his house.
And came whistling in.
Elisha said, where have you been?
He said, I didn't go anywhere.
And he said, did not my spirit go
with me?
When you received, when you went out to
their chariot and stopped them, and you received
the money, and you received the garments, and
the olive yards, and the vineyards, and the
sheep, and the oxen, and the men's servants,
and the maidservants.
Now, you see, he starts to read his
mind at this point.
Or he starts to discern what was on
his heart.
These are the things he thought he would
buy with the money.
The olive yards, and vineyards.
He's going to have servants of his own.
He was going to buy some oxen, and
he was going to buy some sheep.
He was going to set himself up.
And the prophet starts laying out the things
that he had in mind to do with
this money.
And he said, the leprosy that was upon
Naaman is going to be upon you and
your family.
And so Gehazi went out from his presence,
a leper.
Now, the sons of the prophet said, hey,
we have a hard time living, you man,
you live too straight.
We need to build us a house to
live in down by Jericho.
And so he said, fine, go down to
Jericho and build you a house.
They said, well, come down and help us.
And so he went down to Jericho with
them.
And they were felling some trees by the
Jordan River.
And one fellow's axe head flew off and
went in the water.
And he said, oh, no, I borrowed that
axe head.
Elisha said, well, where did it fall in?
He said, over in there.
So Elisha took a stick and cast it
into the river, and the iron floated.
And he said, grab it.
And so he grabbed the axe head.
Now, the king of Syria was warring against
Israel.
And he had a meeting of his generals.
Now he said, in such and such a
place, we will set up camp and we
will ambush the king of Israel when he
comes by.
So Elisha sent to the king and warned
him of the ambush that Ben-Hadad had
sent.
And he saved Ben-Hadad from the ambush.
I mean, he warned the king of Israel.
And he saved the king of Israel from
the traps that Ben-Hadad had sent more
than once, more than twice.
And so Ben-Hadad figured that someone of
his upper council had to be leaking the
secrets.
There was a security leak somewhere.
And so he called his generals and he
said, okay, which of you guys is for
my enemy?
And they said, none of us.
But there's a prophet over there in Israel.
You can't talk to your wife in your
bedroom, but he knows what you're saying to
her.
And he said, go and bring him back
a captive.
So they said, well, he's in Dothan.
And so the Syrian army came to the
city of Dothan and circled the city of
Dothan with their horses, chariots, and a great
company of men.
And they came by night and circled the
city.
So in the morning when Gehazi, the servant
of Elisha, got up and went out, he
looked and he saw the Syrian army had
circled the city of Dothan.
And he went running back in, woke up
Elisha and said, we've had it.
We're surrounded by the Syrian army.
And Elisha said, don't be afraid.
There are more with us than are with
them.
And then he prayed, O Lord, open up
his eyes that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of Gehazi,
the servant of Elisha, and he saw the
chariots of fire round about Elijah and about
the Syrian army.
Spiritual insight, it sure makes a difference on
our whole outlook in life.
Lord, open our eyes that we might see
the truth, that we might not just see
the obvious physical things, but that we might
see the spiritual realities.
For many times in the physical realm it
looks like sure, certain defeat, unless you can
see it in the spiritual realm and you
know there is a sure, certain victory.
If we look only at the flesh and
at the physical, we are prone many times
to be filled with fear and with despair,
hopelessness, because it looks like things are hopeless.
That's only because we're looking at the things
which are seen.
But Paul said, we look at the things
which are not seen.
They are the eternal things.
Now it speaks of the men of the
Old Testament in the 11th chapter of Hebrews,
as it talks about these great men of
faith.
And in referring to the deeds and the
exploits of these great men of faith, it
says, and they endured as seeing the invisible.
What was the secret of their endurance?
What was the secret of their power?
What was the secret of their ability to
go through all of the things that they
had to go through and all the things
they endured?
Because they could see beyond just the obvious
physical things.
Because they could see the realm of the
Spirit, they endured as seeing the invisible.
Men who have spiritual insight actually see so
much more.
And that is why their lives are so
stable and so secure.
Even though the world around them may be
shaking, yet because they can see spiritually, they
are not shaken.
Then Elijah prayed to the Lord and he
said, Smite these people, I pray thee, with
blindness.
And the Syrian army was smitten with blindness.
And Elisha said, This isn't the place you
fellows wanted, I'll lead you to the place
you want to go.
And he led them to the city of
Samaria, into the gates of the city, and
to the king of Samaria.
And he said, Now Lord, open up their
eyes.
And when they opened their eyes, they found
they were in the center of Samaria and
they were surrounded by the Samaritan army.
And the king of Samaria was all excited.
He didn't know what to do.
Shall I smite them?
And Elisha said, No.
He said, If you'd taken them as prisoners
of war, you'd feed them.
He said, So feed them and send them
home.
So he prepared a great feast for them,
fed them, sent them home.
And they didn't come for Elisha again.
Now it came to pass after this, though,
that Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, gathered
together his host and brought them up to
Samaria and he set up a siege, cutting
off Samaria.
And there was a great famine in Samaria.
So bad that a donkey's head was sold
for 80 pieces of silver and a pint
of dove's dung sold for five pieces of
silver.
And as the king of Israel was walking
along the wall, a woman cried unto him,
saying, Help, my lord, O king.
And he said, What do you want me
to do?
Sweep up the barn floor for you or
get the culls out of the winepress?
What ails you?
And she said, This woman yesterday said, Give
me your son that we may eat him
today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.
And so yesterday we ate my son, and
now she's hid her son.
Make her produce him so we can eat
him.
And when the king heard this, he tore
his clothes and he said, God help me,
if I don't have the head of Elisha
the prophet by tomorrow.
Now it is interesting.
It is because of the fact that this
king was leading the people into idolatry that
they were having these problems.
And yet he wants to blame God and
the servant of God for the problems.
How irrational can a person be?
But it is interesting how many times when
a person has problems, they want to strike
out at a servant of God.
They want to blame you.
They think you've been praying for them or
something.
And, you know, they really get angry with
you because of the problems that have come
into their lives.
When the problems are there because they have
forsaken the Lord.
But that's just a part of the irrationality
of people.
And so he was blaming the prophet of
God.
God help me, tomorrow I'm going to have
that guy's head.
And so Elisha was sitting in his house
and some of his friends with him.
And as they were sitting there talking, he
said, How about that?
Look what that son of a murderer is
going to do now.
He's sending a guy down here to get
my head.
He said, when he gets to the door,
pin him, hold him fast.
For behold, the feet of his master are
right behind him.
And so this guy came running up on
the porch and the guys opened the door
and held him, pinned him.
And the king came up.
And Elisha said, hear the word of the
Lord.
Thus saith the Lord, tomorrow about this time,
they will be selling a bushel of fine
flour for 65 cents.
And two bushels of barley for 65 cents
right in the gates of Samaria.
Now the prime minister, the guy upon whom
the king leaned, said to the prophet of
God, If God would open up windows in
heaven, could such a thing be?
Now it is interesting that so often we
try to figure out how God can do
His work.
God gives us a glorious promise, but I
want to know, how is He going to
do it?
I've got to be able to somehow figure
it out in my mind.
Now the Bible says, My God shall supply
all your needs according to His riches in
glory by Christ Jesus our Lord.
Oh, that's great.
But how is He going to supply?
You know, I've got the bills coming.
How is He going to meet the bills
this way?
How is He going to do it?
As though I need to know the methods.
Now, I'm always trying to figure out how
God can meet my needs.
I'm always trying to figure out a way
by which God might answer my prayers.
And when I figure out a way by
which God might answer them, then my prayers
are usually direction prayers rather than direct prayers.
My prayer turns into my solution.
Oh Lord, I've got it worked out.
If you'll just do this and this and
this Lord, then it's going to come.
You know, it'll happen.
But God doesn't always follow my directions.
And that's where we have problems.
Because if He isn't following my directions, then
I get upset with Him.
I don't think He wants to help me.
I don't think He wants to answer my
prayer, you know.
Why?
Because He's not following my directions.
I've got it all worked out the way
God's going to do it.
Rather than just direct prayers, I'm telling God
how to do His business.
And so, this guy tried to figure out,
rationalize how in the world, when they're selling
a donkey skull for 80 pieces of silver,
how in the world they're going to be
selling fine flour for 65 cents tomorrow.
God could go around and open up windows
in heaven and dump flour all over the
place.
And so, mocking the promise of God.
Now, this is through unbelief.
He mocked the promise of God because of
his unbelief.
Because he could not figure out in his
mind a way by which God might do
what God said He was going to do.
Now, I often cannot figure out how God
is going to do things.
And that's when I really panic.
As long as I can figure out a
way by which God might do it, I'm
usually in good shape.
But when they've made the Reader's Digest drawing
and my number wasn't drawn in the Grand
Suisse, now how God going to do it?
He's failed me.
I had it all worked out.
All He had to do is pull my
number out of the box.
He couldn't see.
Now, I want you to know that God
has resources that you know nothing about, and
God has ways of working of which you
have not even thought.
God says, My ways are not your ways.
My ways are beyond your finding out.
My thoughts are not your thoughts.
My ways are beyond your finding out.
It isn't up to me to discover or
to know or to figure out how God
is going to do His work.
It's only to believe that God is going
to work, because He said He would.
And if God said He's going to do
it, He's going to do it.
But this fellow, through unbelief, mocked the promise
of God, and the Prophet said unto him,
Fellow, let me tell you something.
You'll see it, but you won't eat it.
God's going to work in spite of your
unbelief, but you're not going to partake.
And that's one tragic thing about unbelief.
So often, it keeps you from partaking even
after God has done His work.
Now, God has done a glorious work of
salvation for you, but many people have not
partaken of that glorious work of God through
unbelief.
Unbelief keeps you from God's work in your
life.
And you can see the work of God,
but not partake of it.
You can see what God has done.
He did what He promised He'd do, but
you yourself cannot partake because of unbelief.
So, how unbelief can rob you of the
things of God and the blessings of God.
You're going to see it, but you won't
eat it.
Now, that night, outside of the wall of
Samaria, there were four leprous men living in
the garbage dump.
In those days, leprosy was such a loathsome
disease that the people were ostracized from the
community, and they were forced to live apart
from the community.
When people approached them, they had to start
crying out, unclean, unclean, so people wouldn't get
too near.
Now, these people usually lived outside of the
city wall, outside of the area of the
wall where the people would dump their garbage.
And they would survive off of the garbage
that was dumped over the wall.
But the famine was so bad in Samaria,
they weren't dumping garbage, they were selling it.
Nothing coming over the wall, and these guys
are really getting hungry.
Of course, you can imagine what it is
if they're eating babies in the city, what
it would be trying to survive off of
what's thrown over the wall.
These four guys sitting there starving to death,
one of them looked at the others and
he said, Why just sit here till we
die?
That's a good question.
Why just sit here till we die?
In other words, if I don't do anything,
I'm going to die.
Just sitting here, I'm going to die.
Why just sit here till I die?
Now, there's no sense going into Samaria, for
they're starving in Samaria, so they can't give
us any food in there anyhow.
Let's go over to the camp of the
Syrians, and if they kill us, we haven't
lost a thing, because we're going to die
anyhow.
But it's possible that they'll have mercy on
us and give us a crust of bread.
So, these four fellows were taking a venture
sort of in faith.
But it's on that philosophy, you've got nothing
to lose and everything to gain.
I mean, if they kill us, what have
we lost?
We're going to die here anyhow.
We're starving to death.
So, if they kill us, we haven't lost
a thing.
But they might feed us, you don't know.
And so, they headed toward the camp of
the Syrians.
Four leprous men.
Now, God worked a miracle.
As these four leprous men were clanging down
the road to the camp of the Syrians,
in that evening darkness, the Syrians thought they
heard the sound of chariots and horses and
a multitude of men.
And they said, Oh, the king of Samaria
has hired the Egyptians and they're coming up
against us.
Let's get out of here.
And they started running.
And the guy said, Hey, where are you
going?
The Egyptians are coming.
Oh, you know, and they started off.
And pandemonium broke out in the camp of
Syria as the guys all took off, running
back towards the Jordan River and across up
into the Golan into Syria.
So, by the time these four leprous men
got to the first tent, there was nobody
around.
So, one guy opened up the tent flap
and he said, Wow, look at that.
Table set with food.
And man, these guys pounced on it and
began to scarf it up.
And some of the treasures that were lying
around in the tent, the guys dug a
hole and began to bury it.
Someone ran to another tent and said, Come
on over here, another tent.
And they ran over there and started grabbing
things and burying them.
And one of the fellows suddenly stopped and
said, Wait a minute.
We're doing wrong.
If we keep this up, mischief is going
to come on us.
For just right over close by in the
city of Samaria, people are starving to death
tonight.
And if we are out here and we
just keep this to ourselves and we just
gorge ourselves but don't let them know, then
mischief is going to happen to us.
We better go back and tell them that
there's plenty of food for everybody.
So, they came back to the wall of
Samaria and the guard was up there pacing
back and forth looking for the Syrians, pulling
his belt tight, feeling the hunger pangs.
These guys called up and they said, Hey
man, the Syrian camp is empty and there's
plenty of food for everybody enough to feed
the whole city.
And so the guard ran to the king
and he said, I've just received a report.
The Syrian camp is empty and there's plenty
of food for everybody.
And the king said, It's a trap.
Don't let anybody go out.
Lock the gates.
Those Syrians, they're sly people.
They know how hungry we are so they've
just pulled back into the bushes and they're
hiding back in the bushes and they're waiting
for us to open the gates to the
city and come flooding out.
And as soon as we open the gates,
then they'll come pouring in and they're going
to wipe us out.
Don't let anybody go.
Look again at the tragedy of unbelief.
Here God has provided just like He promised
He would, but unbelief keeps them from even
partaking of God's glorious provisions.
One fellow said, King, there are five horses
left in town that haven't been eaten.
Why don't you let five of us guys
go out and we will scout around and
see if we can find any of the
Syrians.
So the king says, Alright, go.
And so these guys got on the five
remaining horses in town and they went riding
down toward the Jordan River and they came
back in the morning and said, It's true,
King, there's not a Syrian around on this
side of the Jordan River.
All the way to the Jordan River we
found sandals and coats and stuff that they
threw off so they could run faster.
They're gone.
And so the king said to this guy
that he leaned upon, sort of his prime
minister, who the day before had said to
the prophet of God, If God would open
windows in heaven, could such a thing be?
The king says, You go down and you
watch the gate as the people go in
and out.
So this guy went down to watch the
gate and the people in their hurry and
in their desire to get out trampled him
to death.
So the word of the prophet came to
pass.
He saw it, but he didn't eat it.
The tragic price of unbelief.
Now, Elisha's speaking to the woman whose son
had been restored to life and he said,
You better get out of here because there's
going to be a seven-year famine in
this area.
And so she left and she moved down
to the area of the Philistines and stayed
there for seven years.
Now, after the seven years, she came back
from the land of the Philistines and she
found that people had moved into her house
and onto her property and taken over her
land.
Now, it so happened that the king at
this time was talking with Gehazi, the servant
of Elisha, and Gehazi was telling him all
of the miracles that Elisha had performed.
And the woman was coming to the king
and going to seek that he give her
her land back and all.
And so Gehazi was telling her about this
woman that had this son and how the
son died and was healed and all.
And at the same time, she came up
to the king to see if she could
get her land back.
And Gehazi said, as the Lord liveth, this
is the woman.
This is her.
This is the one I was telling you
about.
And so the king inquired, this is the
boy.
This is the boy that was healed and
all.
It was dead and is healed.
And so, the king had her land restored
to her plus all of the fruits from
the field from the time that she had
left.
Now, Elisha came to Damascus.
Now, up into the area of Ben-Hadad,
the king of Syria who was very sick.
And they told Ben-Hadad that Elisha has
come on up.
So, he sent Haziel.
Now, you'll remember that last week as we
were studying Elijah's flight down to Mount Horeb
when he was hiding in the cave and
the Lord said, what are you doing here,
Elijah?
Elijah said, I've been jealous for God and
they have broken your covenant and they've broken
down your alders and they've killed your prophets
and I'm the only one left.
The Lord said, no, what are you doing
here?
He's doing nothing.
And God says, now look, get out of
here.
Go up to Damascus and anoint Haziel to
be king over Syria.
Now, this is some time later.
Elisha is up in Syria and the king,
Ben-Hadad, is sick.
And he sends Haziel, the one that Elijah
had anointed to be the king over Syria,
he sent him to Elisha to inquire whether
or not the king was going to recover
from this illness.
And so, Haziel came to Elisha and he
said, the king wants to know if he's
going to recover from the illness.
And Elisha just stood staring at him.
And he said, well, what's wrong?
And he said, well, he said, the king
will surely recover from the illness, but he's
going to die.
And he kept staring at him.
And he began to weep.
And Haziel was very uncomfortable.
So, he said, why are you weeping, my
Lord?
And he answered because he said, I know
the evil that you will do to the
children of Israel.
You're going to set their strongholds on fire.
Their young men will you slay with a
sword and you will dash their children and
rip up the pregnant women.
And Haziel said, am I a dog?
That I should do these horrible things?
And Elisha answered, the Lord hath showed me
that you're going to be the king over
Syria.
Now, again, here is that marvelous spiritual insight
as Elisha could see what the future held,
what this man, Haziel, was going to be
doing to the children of Israel.
This is much like when Jesus was on
the Mount of Olives and He was looking
at Jerusalem on the day of His triumphant
entry.
And as He began to weep, He said,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you'd only known what belonged
to your peace in this day.
It's hid from your eyes.
And now, desolation is going to come.
Your children are going to be slain in
the streets.
And He was weeping as He could see
what lay in store for this city that
was before Him as He was there on
the Mount of Olives overlooking the city.
He could see the devastation that was coming.
And He wept over it.
So here the prophet Elisha could see what
this man was going to do.
The horrible devastation.
The atrocities.
And He began to weep.
And of course, the guy was embarrassed.
He said, am I a dog that I
would do these kind of things?
He said, the Lord has shown me you
are going to be the king over Syria.
Well, he went back to Ben Hadad and
he said, what did the prophet say?
And he said, the prophet said, you would
surely recover from this illness.
But he took a wet blanket and he
smothered Ben Hadad.
And Haziel became the king over Syria.
Now in the fifth year of Joram, the
son of Ahab, Jehoshaphat, then being the king
of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, the
king of Judah began to reign.
So here's where you've got these two Jehorams
reigning.
One is the son of Ahab.
The other is the son of Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat and Ahab were sort of co-conspirators.
They were friends and perhaps they decided to
name their sons the same names.
He was 32 years old when he began
to reign and he reigned for eight years
in Jerusalem.
But he walked in the way of the
kings of Israel because he actually married the
daughter of Ahab.
And thus the idolatries in all of the
northern kingdom were now introduced into Judah, the
southern kingdom through Jehoram.
He was a wicked, evil king and he
did evil in the sight of the Lord.
But the Lord would not destroy Judah for
David's sake.
Now in his days the Edomites revolted against
Judah.
And he came down to smite them but
he himself was put to flight by the
Edomites.
And then Libna joined in the revolt against
Judah.
And Jehoram slept with his fathers and was
buried in the city of David.
And Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.
Now Ahaziah would be then a relationship to
Ahab and Jezebel.
He's sort of the grandson.
And in the twelfth year of Jehoram, the
son of Ahab, king of Israel, did Ahaziah,
the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, begin
to reign.
He was 22 years old.
When he began to reign, he reigned only
for one year.
His mother's name was Athaliah.
She was a wicked woman.
She was the daughter of Omri, the king
of Israel.
And he walked in the way of the
house of Ahab, did evil in the sight
of the Lord, as did the house of
Ahab, for he was the son-in-law
of the house of Ahab.
And he went with Jehoram, the son of
Ahab, to the war against Hazael, the king
of Syria, and Ramoth Gilead and the Syrians
wounded Jehoram.
And king Jehoram went back to be healed
in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians
had given to him when he fought against
Hazael, the king of Syria.
And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, the king
of Judah, went down to see Jehoram, the
son of Ahab, in Jezreel because he was
sick.
And so, Azahiah went up to see the
king to sort of comfort him in his
sickness.
Now, next week we will pick up at
chapter 9 and we will move on as
these two kings are assassinated as they are
visiting there.
And so, Jehu becomes the king over Israel
and a new king over Judah.
So, we stand.
David said, Thy word have I hid in
my heart, O Lord, that I might not
sin against Thee.
Also, the entrance of Thy word giveth light.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
a light unto my path.
And may God enrich Your knowledge of Himself
through the study of His word.
And may we learn the value of commitment
to God.
And may we learn the dangers of unbelief.
May God teach us through the word how
to walk with Him in faith.
And may God grant to us spiritual insights.
In these days to come especially, in which
evil days are going to wax worse and
worse, if you don't have spiritual insight, you're
going to be going under.
May God grant to you that spiritual insight
that you can see behind the scenes.
You can see what the others aren't seeing.
That you can see that God is working
and that His hand is actually in these
things that are transpiring and God is bringing
to pass His will and His purposes for
Jesus is coming very soon.
And may God grant to you great spiritual
insight as we move into this dark period
of the history of the United States.
May you be sustained by the power of
the Spirit and by the hope that is
ours through the word of God.