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April 22                      Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 2-4

“Here is Elisha.”

2 Kings 3:11

 

2nd Kings 2 tells us of Elijah’s marvellous translation to heaven. Surely, we cannot fail to see in that a type of Elijah’s God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. After suffering and dying as our Substitute at Calvary, he arose from the dead. Then, in the presence of his disciples, he was taken up to heaven. So it shall be with all God’s elect. Yes, many will lay down the tabernacle of clay, before the Lord Jesus appears the second time without sin unto salvation. But God’s elect shall never die! That is the promise of our Savior (John 11:25-26). We shall all (that is all who trust Christ), like Elijah, be translated into heaven, some when the body dies and all when the Lord Jesus comes again.

            The 4th chapter is full of good instruction; but for the present, let us remember that it gives us a vivid picture of the tender care God’s servants have for his people, and the tender care God’s people have for his servants. For our souls’ meditation today, I call your attention particularly to 2nd Kings 3.

 

Where Needed

God’s prophet Elisha was found in a very strange place. Elisha was in the camp with the army. That would be strange indeed, but for one thing. — That was where he was needed. That is precisely where we should expect to see God’s preachers. Wherever the Lord God is about to work wonders of grace, there he sends his preachers.

The fact that Elisha was in the camp with the army tells us that the Lord was about to bestow some great mercy upon his people. The Lord God graciously sends his holy Word, by the mouths of his servants, to the people he has chosen to bless with his saving operations of grace. In all ages, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God!” Blessed are those people in this world to whom God sends his servant with his Word in the power of his Spirit!

 

Poor Servant

Though God’s prophet was in their midst, the king did not know it. None of the mighty or influential were aware of his presence. But there was a poor, despised, insignificant servant who knew God and his prophet. How commonly that is the case! While Christ and his gospel are hid from the wise and prudent, they are revealed to babes.

Elisha was sent of God into the camp of the army specifically for the salvation of Jehoshaphat, his army, and the people; and he chose to make himself and his prophet known to the king by an unnamed servant. So it is in every age and in every place (2 Corinthians 4:7).

 

The Time

The time when all that is written here of Elisha’s prophecy transpired was “in the morning when the meat-offering was offered.” Surely, we are informed of this specific time by these specific words because God the Holy Spirit would point our hearts to our great sin-atoning sin-offering, the Lord Jesus Christ. The daily offering of the two lambs, one in the morning and the other in the evening, with this meat-offering, points us to our Redeemer’s precious sacrifice of himself for us, which he offered to God for a sweet smelling savor. The morning and evening lamb offered daily was a perpetual type of the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, who in time laid down his life for us at Calvary. The continual presentation of this sacrifice sets forth the perpetual and unfailing efficacy of Christ's precious blood shed for us. — “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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