But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD by him?” So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, “Elisha the son of Shaphat ishere, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” (2 Kings 3:11) Three kings gathered in war against the…
Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, “Where is the LORD God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over. (2 Kings 2:14) Elijah was the older prophet, the mentor to Elisha….
And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.” (2 Kings 2:9) At this point in 2 Kings, the time soon approached when…
Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria, and was injured; so he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.” (2 Kings 1:1-2) The book of 2 Kings begins in the reign of Ahaziah, king of Israel. In…
And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. (Leviticus 2:13) Under the Old Covenant, not every sacrifice was of an animal and with blood….
He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his strength he struggled with God. Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; he wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke to us. (Hosea 12:3-4) Through the Prophet Hosea, God spoke to Israel by…
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3) The…
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” (Revelation 21:5) This wonderful proclamation comes at the end of the Book of Revelation. It comes after God’s people have been gathered to heaven, after the Great Tribulation, after the…
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. (Colossians 1:19) We like the Christmas season and we like to put our thoughts on the baby Jesus. So many aspects of the story appeal to us. We think of two relatively young people out among strangers and in great need. We think…
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) John 3:16 has long been celebrated as a powerful, succinct, declaration of the gospel. Of the 31,373 verses in the Bible, it may be the most popular single…
And [Elijah] said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.” Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of…
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision. (Psalm 2:4) We don’t often think of God as laughing, but Psalm 2 tells of a special reason why God laughs. Here, God laughs because man thinks he can plot and work against the Almighty with any hope of success. It…