All right, shall we turn in our bibles to II Kings, chapter one. When king Ahab died, his son Ahaziah began to reign in his stead. Ahaziah was as bad as his father, if not worse. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, he walked in the way of his father, and the way of his mother, who was worse than his father. And in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, for he served Baal, and worshiped him, and provoked to anger, Jehovah the God of Israel, according to all that his father had done. It was at this time, coming in now into II Kings…
That Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab (1:1).
When David was king over Israel, he subdued Moab, and Moab became a tributary to the nation of Israel. Later on Moab, sort of rebelled, but under Omri, the king of the north, who was a powerful leader, Moab again was brought into subjection to the northern kingdom of Israel, and they paid taxes, they became tributaries to the northern kingdom. This remained through the reign of Ahab, for Ahab also was a very powerful king, and so this business of Moab being a tributary continued on until the death of Ahab.
Now, as a rule, when a nation was a tributary to another nation, when the king would die, they, especially a powerful king, they would always try to rebel, to see if they couldn’t throw off that yoke, uh that had been placed upon them. So, with the death of Ahab, came the rebellion of Moab, which was successful.
There was discovered by the archeologists back at the turn of the century, in the late 1800’s, what was called the Moabite stone. A stone that was, it had inscriptions upon it concerning this particular period of history. Mishna, the king of Moab who rebelled against Ahaziah, told of the victories, and of the delivering of the Moabite cities, from the hands of Israel, and even moving in and taking some of the cities of Israel. So this Moabite stone was an extremely important archeological discovery because it uh, actually dealt with facts that we already knew that were in the bible, and the bible confirms the accuracy of the history that is recorded on the Moabite stone, rather than the other way around.
So many times say, “Well this, this confirms the Bible”. Nothing confirms the Bible, it doesn’t need confirmation. The Bible is the word of God, it stands as such. These other things that they find don’t confirm the Bible. The Bible confirms them! You can test the accuracy of these other records, according to the Bible, and, rather than the other way around. So, never look upon these archeological discoveries as confirming the Bible. They are confirmed by the Bible. We know what they are, because of what the Bible says.
So, this Moabite stone, dealing with this period of history in which Moab rebelled against Israel, after the death of Ahab. A successful rebellion.
And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and he was injured: and so he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease (1:2).
Ekron was one of the major Philistine cities. Baalzebub, the word means, “The Lord of the flies”, and they worshiped the flies, of all things. And they have found the little flies that these people used to carry around in their pockets, that were cut out pieces of stone or whatever, that they had cut in the shape of a fly, and they would keep them in their pockets, and they would kiss them, and uh, tragic what people who have rejected God, will choose for objects of worship.
You know, I mean, it, it’s really sad indeed to uh, see how, how weird people can become if they reject the truth of God. I, it’s, it’s, it’s old but it’s modern, it’s today. You see a lot of these weird things that people do who’ve rejected the truth of God. The Washinish, who was up in Oregon, if, if you would see the pictures of what he had these people doing, as far as screaming the releasing, and the writing on the floors, they screamed, and all of this far out, weird stuff. If you just walked in on it, you’d say, “There’s a bunch of loonies!”, I mean it was horrible, the things that they do once they reject the truth of God, they’re open, they’re preys to any and every kind of crazy thing.
So, he sent messengers to Ekron, this Philistine city, to inquire, no doubt of a oracle there, as to whether or not he was going to survive this injury when he fell off the roof.
But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, and go and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that you inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? Nor wherefore thus saith Jehovah, You shall not come down from the bed on which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. And Elijah departed (1:3-4).
So, these messengers on the way, the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Hey you’re going down to inquire, go tell him that he’s gonna die”. So, Elijah caught hold of these messengers, and he said, “Why would the king send to Ekron? Is it because there’s no God in Israel?”. They didn’t worship Jehovah any more in Israel. He was rejected. “Is that why they have to send to Baalzebub, to find out what’s gonna happen? You go back and tell him that Jehovah declares that he’s not gonna get off the bed, he’s gonna die.”
And so when the messengers came back to him, he said unto them, [“How come you’re back so soon?”] Why are you returned back? And they said unto him, There came up a man to meet us, and he said to us, Go, and turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that you have sent to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which you have gone up, but you shall surely die (1:5-6).
The implication is, if he had sought the Lord, he could’ve perhaps been healed, but because he didn’t seek after the Lord, he was going to die.
And he said unto them, [The king said to the messengers.] What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words? [“What did he look like?”] And they answered him, He was a hairy man, and he was girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. [Just a rugged looking character! Beard, long hair.] And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. [The king recognized the description.] And so the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. And he went up to him: and, behold, he was sitting on the top of a hill. And the captain spoke to him, and he said, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of the fifty, If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume you and your fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty (1:7-10).
You remember Jesus called the brothers James and John, the sons of thunder, because at one time, and they probably remembering this, wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans who had treated Jesus in a corrupt way. When they wouldn’t allow Jesus, they wouldn’t allow Him to come into town. They just met Him and said, “You know we don’t want you in our town”. So as they were going on, James and John said, “Lord, shall we call down fire from heaven and consume them?”. And Jesus said, “Fellows you don’t understand the spirit that you are of.”.
That was Elijah, but that was for his time, but you know the law came by Moses, grace and truth by Jesus Christ. For Elijah’s day it was a thing that was acceptable and proper, but not for us today. We’re not to go around crisping (Ha, ha!) people because we don’t like the way they talk to us or look at us!
Now, the interesting thing though, though the day of grace is now upon us, the day of grace will be closing. It is my opinion that it’ll be closing very soon. Once the day of grace is over, then God is going to deal again in fiery judgement. The book of Revelation tells us that there will be two witnesses upon the earth, during the period of the great tribulation. They have power to call down fire from heaven on any who seek to arrest them, just like Elijah did here.
Of course Elijah was no doubt, one of the two witnesses. So this hairy guy will come back, and again when they seek to arrest him, and this is exactly what the king was seeking to do, he’s seeking to arrest Elijah. This captain was sent out to arrest him. And he came out, and he said, “The king has said, ‘Come on down’, thou man of God”. He used the wrong term I guess, because Elijah said, “If I’m a man of God, then let that happen”.
So the king sent out another captain with fifty more fellows. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. [The king’s getting tougher! Adding the word quickly.] Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume you and your fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. So he sent again a third captain of fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and he came and he fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, and he said to him, O man of God, I pray thee, let me live, and let these fifty men who are your servants, also live, let their lives be precious in your sight. [“You know I’m a family man, and my family needs me, and you know I’m here on orders.”] For behold, there came down fire from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. [“Have mercy upon me!”] And the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, Go down with him: don’t be afraid of him. And so he arose, and went down with him unto the king (1:11-15).
So, the angel is guiding Elijah. The angel was the one that sent him to meet the messengers who were heading for Ekron. Now, with this captain, the angel says, “Go on down with him, don’t be afraid, because, I, uh the Lord, will be with you”. So, when Elijah came to the king, he said…
Thus saith Jehovah, Forasmuch as you have sent messengers to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; [Now we’ve got a confusing sort of situation because we have a Jehoram reigning in the north, and a Jehoram reigning in the south.] Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel (1:16-18)?
Now dealing with Jehoram for a moment. He was not the son of Ahaziah. Ahaziah did not have any children yet, he was still a young man. He was cut off. So, Jehoram was his younger brother who began to reign then over Israel, at the same time as Jehoram was reigning in Judah.

Chapter 2
And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal (2:1).
Now, there were in those days, sort of theological seminaries which were called the schools of the prophets. These were begun by Samuel, and it was training young men in the scriptures, in order that they might be a spiritual guide to the nation. The priesthood at this time did not have a powerful spiritual influence. This was maintained more by the prophets, they were God’s spokesmen to the people. Early on the priesthood became corrupted. So, God began to speak to the people through these prophets. They had these schools of the prophets, where the fellows would study the word of God, learn the word of God, and learn to listen to the voice of God. The major school of the prophets was in Gilgal, and Elijah of course, was the head over these schools during this period of time. Later, Elisha became the head over these schools. There was also one in Bethel, and there was one in Jericho. “So it came to pass, when the Lord would take Elijah into heaven by the whirlwind.” Elijah went with Elisha, from Gilgal.
And Elijah said to Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel (2:2).
If you look at your bible map, you’ll find that Gilgal is on the upper plains, and as they moved towards Bethel, they are moving down towards the area of Jericho. Coming down the valley that leads into Jericho, and to the Jordan River.
Now the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and they said unto him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from your head today? And he said, Yes, I know it; hold your peace (2:3).
So, Elijah no doubt, at this point had a premonition of his death. He knew he was going to die. He was probably sort of seeking solitude. Well, actually he wasn’t going to die, and it doesn’t actually say that, and I’m wrong in saying that. Elijah was going to be caught up into heaven. He didn’t die, he was caught up into heaven. But the time had come, when he was to be caught up. That’s what the scripture says, not that he was gonna die. So Elijah said, “Stay here son, I’m gonna go on down to Bethel; for the Lord’s called me down there”. And he said, “As the Lord lives, I’ll go with you”. So they came to Bethel. The Lord had spoken to the prophets there of Elijah’s pending departure. “Don’t you know your master’s gonna be taken from you today?” Elisha knew it. “I know it”, he said, “Hold your peace. It’s alright, I know these things”. Sometimes people get a premonition of death.
Sometimes through circumstances you know that your time is short. Paul the apostle, writing his second epistle to Timothy, knew from the circumstances, having been rearrested by Nero, brought back to Rome, he knew that he wasn’t going to escape this time. He wrote to Timothy, and he said, “The time of my departure is at hand”. Notice, he didn’t say, “My death”. Ha, ha. Because he who lives, and believes in Jesus, doesn’t die, but we depart from these bodies, and we move into the new bodies. “The buildings of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” So, “The time of my departure’s at hand, I have fought a good fight. I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, our righteous Judge shall give, but not to me only, but to all of those that do love His appearing. Peter, when he wrote his second epistle, said, “I write unto you these things, not that you don’t know them, but to bring you again into remembrance of them. And knowing, that I’m soon going to be moving out of this tent, I thought that I would write them, so that you would have them even after I have gone”.
Now there are certain truths that we need to be constantly reminded about. It’s not that we don’t know these things, it seems that we sort of neglect truth, or we drift away from it. The bible says, “Let us take the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, lest at any time we should drift away from them”. It’s possible for a person to sort of drift away from truths that we know. Because of that, Peter said, “You know I’ve told you these things before, but now I’m writing them to you, that even after I’ve departed, you still have them in remembrance. Because, I’m going be leaving this tent pretty soon”. Talking about moving out of his body. Elijah knew that the time had come. Elisha knew it. These prophets also knew it.
We had an interesting case here in the church a few years ago. A little five year old girl who said to her mommy, “Mommy, what would you do if I died?”, and her mother said, “Oh sweetheart that’s a terrible thought! I would just cry, and cry!”. She said, “Well mother you shouldn’t cry, because I will be with Jesus if I died. I would be very happy! And it would be wrong mommy for you to cry, if I would die, and you shouldn’t cry, because I would be happy with Jesus”. And, for two days, this little girl talked to her mother like this. The second night, the little girl passed away in the night, and the mother suddenly realized that she evidently had some kind of a premonition, and was seeking to just prepare her mother for her departure. A very special thing. Elijah knew that, “The time of departure is at hand”.
So, he said unto Elisha, [verse four] Tarry here I pray thee; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I’ll not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. [The same thing.] The sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and they said unto him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from your head today? And he said, I know it; hold your peace. And so Elijah said unto him, Tarry I pray thee, here; for the Lord has sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I’ll not leave you. And so the two of them went on. The fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view from afar off: and they two stood by the Jordan (2:4-7).
These prophets sort of followed them from a distance, and they watched them as they came to the Jordan river.
And Elijah took his mantle, and he wrapped it together, [Sort of a leather cloak that he hung over his shoulders, and he wrapped it together, rolled it up.] and he smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that the two of them went over on dry ground. [God stopped the flow of the Jordan, much as He did at the time that Joshua came into the promised land, with the children. God stopping the Jordan river.] And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken away from you. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. Elijah said unto him, You’ve asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so unto you; but if not, it shall not be so (2:8-10).
Many commentators believe that what he was actually asking was, for the first born son’s inheritance. For the first born son received a double portion over the other brothers, of the father’s inheritance. So he was asking for the inheritance of the first born. “A double portion of your spirit to be upon me.” Well, when you look at Elijah, and all that he had accomplished, it was quite a request at that! He said, “If you see me when I’m taken up, it will happen. If you don’t, it won’t”.
So it came to pass, as they were still going on, and they were talking, that, behold, a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a storm into heaven (2:11).
Whirlwind is a poor translation of the Hebrew word there, which just really means a storm. I don’t picture a whirlwind, cyclone, or something, or a tornado. It was just a storm that came, and he went on up into heaven, in this storm. Three people. Enoch, “Walked with God, and was not, for God took him”. Translated, without seeing death. Elijah, taken up into heaven in the sight of Elisha. Of course Jesus Christ, taken up into heaven, in the sight of His disciples.
When Elisha saw it, he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw Elijah no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and tore them in two pieces. And he took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and he went back, and stood by the bank of the Jordan (2:12);
So he watched Elijah till he went out of sight, as the Lord took him up into heaven. Then taking the mantle that fell, as Elijah ascended, came back to the Jordan River.
And he took the mantle of Elijah and he smote the waters, and said, Where is Jehovah the God of Elijah? and when he had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over (2:14).
This was God’s affirmation upon his life and upon his ministry, that he was the one to take the place of Elijah, as the prophet to the nation of Israel. This was the beginning now, of his ministry. God was confirming. These young prophets were sitting over there, still watching. They saw Elisha come back. They saw him smite the waters. They saw the waters part, even as they saw it happen for Elijah, and they realized, “Hey, the anointing is resting upon this man, to be the prophet to Israel”. The question, “Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God who demonstrates Himself in power, before the people?” The God who stopped the heavens that it did not rain. The God who sent the fire from heaven. The God who fed the prophet, the God who raised the dead! “Where is the God of Elijah?”
Today, as we look at the conditions of the church, the conditions of the world, we’re prone to ask the same question. “Where is the God of Elijah?” Where is the power, where are the dynamics of the Spirit? There’s a lot of hyped up kind of emotionalism today, that I really have no desire to be involved in at all. I cannot, in the wildest of my imaginations, picture Jesus doing some of the things that I see done by some of these healing evangelists. Whipping people into frenzies. There’s a lot of phoniness today, going on in the name of Jesus, by some of these supposed healing evangelists. A lot of fakery. A lot of these guys are nothing but charlatans, preying upon people’s problems.
It’s a sad, and unfortunate thing when a person is terminally ill. The desire to live is so strong, that they’ll become a prey to almost any charlatan, who promises them hope. You see, when the doctors say, “Well we’re sorry, there’s no hope”, that’s a tragic thing, because that person then is going to follow anybody who will hold out hope. They seem to, at this point of desperation, set their good judgement and reason on the shelf, and they become victims, and preys, of these people who go about preying upon the illness, and the tragedies of their life.
God will deal with those charlatans in a very powerful way, but usually there’s just a lot of emotion, circus tent kind of an environment, where everybody is just brought to a peak of emotions, and then the supposed healings take place in the midst of this emotional frenzy.
Now some people are healed, and that I don’t deny. Their faith somehow takes hold in that kind of an environment, and God touches, and heals them. And, I praise God for that, I thank God for His mercy, and for His grace, and for His love. But, there are far many people go away not healed, than those that are healed.
If you take an average of those that are going there to be healed, and those that actually come away truly healed, you’ll find that we have a better average on Saturday night prayer meetings, when the elders just gathered in the back room, and they handle the people according to the scriptures, and pray for the sick. There are more people being healed back there than in these big (bally-hoo) kind of meetings. But there are not as many being healed as I would like to see.
I long to see the power of God, I long to see God demonstrate His power. My heart cries with Elisha, “O where is the God of Elijah?”. I do not believe that God is faulted, or can be faulted in the weakness of the church. I don’t believe that God has changed. I don’t believe that God doesn’t heal anymore, that God isn’t concerned with our physical needs any longer. I believe that healing is for us, and healing is for today, and that God is able.
I believe that there has to be somewhere in us a lack, and I think that, that probably stems from the whole culture in which we live, which is a materialistic culture. It is extremely difficult in this culture and society, to really be as spiritual as God would have us to be. I think that all of us are more deeply involved in the material things of this world, than God would have us to be. And, I think that, that is the cause for the weakness of the church, as far as the demonstration of spiritual power. God is the same. “His hand is not short that He cannot save, neither is His ear heavy, that He cannot hear.” But, we’ve allowed the material things to come between God, and our commitment to Him.
So when some of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. [They saw the waters part, they saw the power of God was upon this man Elisha, and they came and did obeisance.] And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek your master: lest peradventure the spirit of the Lord has taken him up, and has cast him on some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, [“Don’t go.”] You’re not to send (2:15-16).
Now it is interesting, you remember when Elijah came to Obadiah, the chief servant of Ahab, and he said, “Go tell your master that I will meet him today”, and Obadiah says, “Hey why would you ask me to do that? Don’t you know what a honorable man I am? Haven’t you heard that when they ordered all the prophets killed, I hid some of the prophets in a cave, and fed them, and cared for them? You know, why would you ask me to go tell the king to meet you? Because, as soon as I’m gone from you, the Spirit of the Lord will catch you away someplace. And when the king gets back here, and you’re not here, then he’s gonna kill me. So, why would you do that to an honest god fearing man, like I am?” And, Elijah says, “I’ll be here, I guarantee it. I’ll be here. Go tell the king I want to meet him”. So, but even Obadiah felt that the Lord would perhaps catch Elijah away.
Now in the New Testament, we remember the story of Philip, who was preaching in Samaria, tremendous revival, and the Spirit said, “Go down to Gaza”, that desert area. He went down there, and he saw this chariot heading for Ethiopia. So the Lord said, “Join yourself to the chariot”, which he did. As he came near, he saw the man sitting in the chariot, reading the scriptures. He said, “Hey fellow! Do you understand what you’re reading?”, and he said, “How can I unless someone shows me, teaches me? Come on up!”. So Philip got up in the chariot with him, and the fellow happened to be reading in Isaiah, prophecy concerning Christ. He said, “Who is the prophet talking about, himself, or someone else?”, and Philip began at that verse, and began to preach unto him, Jesus.
As Philip witnessed to this Ethiopian eunuch, finally the fellow said, “Hey, here’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”, and Philip said, “If you believe that Jesus is the Lord, you can!”. He says, “I believe!”. So they got off the chariot, and Philip baptized him, and when the came up out of the water, the Spirit of God caught Philip away, and he ended up in Azotus, he landed in Azotus.
So, uh these prophets thought that the Lord is probably caught him up, but maybe He’s dumped him someplace. On a mountain top, or in a valley or something. “Maybe he’s fallen.” They probably could see him from a distance, going up. But figured that he may have fallen again to the earth. So they said, you know, “Let fifty of us go out and search for him”, and Elisha says, “No. No need fellas, you know you won’t find him”. But they kept insisting.
They urged him till he was ashamed, [He, he thought well, you know, he was embarrassed.] he said, [“Okay”] Send. So they sent fifty men; and for three days, they searched, but they could not find him. And when they came again to Elisha, (for he stayed there at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not tell you, Don’t go? And so the men of the city said to Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord sees: but the water is terrible, and thus the ground is barren (2:17-19).
Down in the Jordan valley, of course it is around 1,200 feet below sea level, there at Jericho. There are many springs of water that come out of the ground, but most of them are brackish. You can’t really drink them, nor can you irrigate with them, because of the high salt content. So there was this one spring there at Jericho, and the water was brackish, and uh, so they came to Elisha and they said, “Man you know, great place to live. Everything will grow here, but this water is rotten. It’s brackish”.
And so he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt in it. And so they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of waters, and he cast the salt there, [Now salt is a symbol of purifying. They offered uh, the, there was, no, there was a covenant of salt. Jesus said to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth”, talking about the purifying effect. Because salt, in an area where there was no refrigeration, was used to preserve the meat. You cut your meat, and the bacteria immediately sets in on the warm meat, and so they would take and salt it down real good, and that kills the surface bacteria, keeps the meat from spoiling. So he said, “Bring me this cruse of salt, and he went forth unto the spring of waters, he cast the salt in there”,] and said, Thus saith Jehovah, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha that he spoke (2:20-22).
Today, right across the street from the Tel of Jericho, you can go to Elisha’s spring. Still a very healthy spring. Good flow of water comes out, and I’ve drunk the water, and it is good, even till this day. That spring was healed, the water is not brackish, it’s very palatable, and of course the area below where the water flows, is just verdant garden area. Beautiful! And so, during the time of Elisha, that spring was healed, and it remains so to the present day.
So he went up from there to Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth [And the word, little children, is a bad translation. Better translated, young lads. You think little children, you see a bunch of little five, six year old kindergartners. Not so, you’re talking more about teenage boys. You go over to those cities today, and there’s still a lot of bratty little teenage boys around. Ha, ha! But, not all of them like tourists, and they will yell at you. And uh, “So there came forth”,] these young boys out of the city, and they mocked him, [Taunting him.] and they said to him, GO on up, [For he was heading up the hill towards Bethel.] you old bald head; [Ha, ha!] go on up you bald head. And so he turned back, and looked on them, and he cursed them in the name of Jehovah. And there came forth two she bears out of the woods, and tore up forty two of these young fellows. And he went up from there to mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria (2:23-25).
So again, uh you’re dealing with the Old Testament period of time, and they, they were mocking this fellow, bringing to attention his bald head. And, he took care of them! Ha, ha! So, let me just warn you, be careful what you say! Ha, ha! Enough said. Ha, ha!
Father, how we thank you for this age of grace in which we live. Your love that is shed abroad upon our hearts, through Jesus Christ. We thank You Lord for these men who walked in power. Whose lives were a demonstration of the power of Your Spirit. Lord even as You revealed yourself to that apostate generation, reveal yourself Lord, to this apostate generation. Come Lord in the power of your Spirit. Walk in the midst of your people. Work, O God, in meeting the needs. Let our hearts, O Lord, be open, and let our hearts be sensitive, to receive that work of Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
May the Lord be with you through this week, and as we seek the Lord together, making our commitment to walk with Him, may you experience the power of God working in your life. May we see God demonstrate to the world around us, the truth of the resurrection, through the love that we have for each other, and the love that we have for Him. May God make your life a very powerful witness for His truth. In Jesus’ name.