Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is God Still Working? | Historical Books | 2 Kings 4:18-37

Starting point is 00:00:05 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Do your circumstances impact the way that you see God? Maybe have you ever thought, I don't know if I want to follow a God who can allow so much suffering. I've been hurt by the church enough to know that God can't really be good. If God was here, this wouldn't have happened. If God cared, he would have stopped him from hurting.

Starting point is 00:00:34 me. If God really loved me, I wouldn't be sick, alone, divorced, hurting, dying. See, in a world full of pain, of hurt, violence, evil, and injustice, chances are that you haven't escaped the reaches of devastating circumstances in your life, the early death of a friend, parent, child, or grandparent, an illness that keeps coming back, relationships ripped apart, wars destroying homes, childhoods being stolen by sexual violence, natural disasters, devastating cities. Our circumstances are constantly changing. It can feel like nothing is certain, nothing is steady in this life, nothing is promised. Oftentimes, the changing tide of our circumstances can shape the way that we see God. Like when things are good, God is good. He is present,

Starting point is 00:01:32 He is faithful. He's blessing you. But when circumstances change for the worse, we begin to question, was the world right? Is he real? Does he even care? I've been there many times before, wondering if I've imagined the goodness. But as I read today's passage, I was encouraged by the example I saw in the Shunamite woman and Elisha. See, we're jumping into a story that's already developing. This woman has been providing food and a place of refuge for Elisha whenever he comes through her town. And Elisha, wanting to thank her for her generosity and kindness, prophesies that she will have a son, though she has had difficulty conceiving. Now, when she hears his words, she begs him not to deceive her,

Starting point is 00:02:21 to tempt her to believe that it could be true if he couldn't really deliver. But God is all-powerful, and he does give her a son. So today's passage continues her story, just years later when the boy has grown. You see, the boy is out in the field with his father and he begins complaining about a pain in his head. So he's brought into his mother who holds him and cares for him. But the little boy does not recover and he dies in her arms. Now passages like this one used to be easier to read before I had children, now when I hear about the loss of a child, the pain of even the thought,

Starting point is 00:03:00 thought of holding my child as they die brings me to genuine tears. I can't imagine the grief that is consuming this woman as she holds her lifeless son, the son that God had given her, that she had feared would never come and now here she is. Facing her worst fear, her son has been taken away from her. No one would blame her if she questioned God, if she buried herself in grief, if she began to believe that God had not been present. But that isn't what we see her doing. Instead, she lays the boy on Elisha's bed and rushes as quickly as she possibly can all the way to Elisha, who's at Mount Carmel. When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gahazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, leave her alone. She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it

Starting point is 00:03:55 from me and has not told me why. Did I ask? ask you for a son, my lord, she said. Didn't I tell you, don't raise my hopes? Elisha said to Gahazi, tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run, don't greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy's face. But the child's mother said, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So he got up and followed her. So this woman, she runs directly to a prophet of the one true God. She knows that the only one with the power to save her is God, and she is insistent that Elisha come, even when he suggests that he raise her son from afar. So as they travel to the woman's

Starting point is 00:04:41 home, Elisha sends Gahazi ahead, and he lays the staff on the boy's face, but nothing happens. So he returns and tells Elisha the news. Upon hearing this that the miracle hadn't worked, Elisha could have questioned God, could have wondered if God wasn't powerful. But instead, he hurries to the boy. When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy's body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. See, Elisha doesn't give in to doubt.

Starting point is 00:05:37 He doesn't question God's power because his circumstances are pointing in a certain direction. Instead, he sticks to what he knows is true. He seeks God, he prays. Now, his actions may seem odd, but there's imagery and imagery. actions. As a man of God, at times, Elisha is filled with the Spirit of God. And so as he lays on the boy, Elisha breathes the Spirit of God into him. The Spirit of God is giving his eyesight and his hand strength. The Spirit of God is bringing warmth, life back into his body. And he lives. The power of the Spirit of God is limitless. Here, years before Jesus ever comes on the scene, years before God's

Starting point is 00:06:23 and dwells believers he was at work through men like Elisha. Elisha knew the power of the spirit. The Shunamite woman knew it as well. They had both seen and experienced the power of God, and so in their time of need, in the hours when their circumstances could have clouded their vision, marred their view of God, they stood firm in their faith,

Starting point is 00:06:45 firm in their belief and knowledge of what God was capable of. And that understanding of God, it urged them to pursue him desperately in their hour of devastating circumstances. She ran to God. He drew near to God's presence and prayer. He relied on the spirit of God. And God brought forth life in the midst of devastating circumstances. I was so encouraged by this passage, but not because reading this passage made me believe that if I pursue God, if I ask him to intervene, that I'll experience the exact same miraculous intervention of complete reversal of my devastating circumstances. It shouldn't lead us to believe that if we have enough faith, then God

Starting point is 00:07:31 will change our circumstances, will deliver us from the evil, the injustice, will write the wrong, will restore health, will reverse death today in the way that I want him to. But I was still encouraged, because this passage does leave me to believe that the same sense, that the same spirit that worked through Elisha, to restore life where there was death, is the same spirit that lives inside of me. It is the same spirit that Paul speaks of in Romans 8 when he writes, and if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit, who lives in you. This means that when my circumstances threatened to overwhelm me, I can be encouraged that the

Starting point is 00:08:19 the Holy Spirit dwells within me, that Scripture promises the same reversal of death for me, that He will change circumstances, he will deliver me from evil, he will bring justice, he will restore health, he will write every wrong, and he will bring life forth from where there was only death. When Christ returns, when he calls believers into his kingdom, when he reverses the curse of the fall, when he restores creation, my mortal body, that may have been long in the grave, will rise again, because the power of his spirit is sure. Now, until that day, he will sustain me. He is present, his spirit lives in me. No one can take that away. No circumstance can change that truth. When devastation comes, I can rest securely in the

Starting point is 00:09:12 promises of Scripture. New life is coming. His spirit never leaves me, never abas, abandons me, no circumstances can change the truth that I know. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus, if you're faithfully following Him, if the Spirit of God indwells in you, then you have the same assurance, that same hope. Don't let the circumstances in front of you cause you to doubt the reality of who God is, of what he's capable of, of what He has promised you. Instead, run to him. Hide yourself in his presence. Cast your fears at his feet and never let go.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is God Still Working? | Historical Books | 2 Kings 4:18-37

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