BOM-BITES Episode #591 – 2 Kings 4 – powered by Happy Scribe
Hey, my friends. Derek from BOMSocks with more BOMBites, where we feast upon the words of Christ, one bite at a time.
I want to rewind back a little bit to what we talked about on Monday, how this passing of the mantle from Elijah to Elisha.
During that process, Elisha was just like like he didn’t want him to leave. He’s like, Can I just hang with you? Can I just be with you? And he ledges like, Sorry, pal, I got to go. And so he asked for a double portion of blessings. I think what that really means is he gets that opportunity to be able to do the very things that Elijah did. And so you see, for example, what he does is we talked about how he parted the River Jordan back in chapter two. Elijah did that as he was going through, smack down the mantle, parts the water, heads up on his little adventure in the Chariots of Fire. And then Elijah is like, Oh, boy, what do I do? Takes Elijah’s mantle, smacks the water, goes through there, and he’s like, all right, we’re good. This is only the beginning of miracles that Elisha is able to do.
In fact, I started making a list of Elisha’s double portion miracles, and one of the things that actually says in the come follow me, is to do that as I go through here, these chapters two through six or so and start counting all the miracles. So I would invite you to do that. I also did it. So what I’ve got here is this list where Elisha’s double portion miracles, everything from parting the Jordan River, he heals unstable waters of Jericho, he curses the mocking youth with a Shebar. That’s really kind of a miracle, if you want to look at it that way. It causes the water ditches to appear with blood. Kind of crazy. You get into chapter four. Chapter four is filled with miracles. In fact, all you got to do is just go to the chapter heading, and you see five of them listed right there. Elisha multiplies the Widow’s Oil, very similar to what Elijah did with the widow of Zarifath in a different kind of way. He promises his son to a Shunaite woman. We’ve seen this happen numerous times where a woman is barren, she can’t give birth, and an angel comes along, or prophet comes along and promises, and she conceives.
She has that child. The next part, it says the child dies and is raised to life by Elisha. We saw that as well with Elijah. He makes poisonous food harmless. It’s kind of a crazy story. There’s a poisonous gourd that is put into some soup, and there’s like, we can’t have this. And so he heals the soup, basically. And then you’ve got another cool one here, which I love. This one. It says, bread and grain are multiplied for people to eat. All you got to do is go down to Jesus, 42 to 44, and it says, there came a man from Bael shalica, kind of a fun place, and brought the man of God, meaning Elisha, bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley and full ears of corn of the husk there are. And he said, Give to the people that they may eat. And his servitor said, what shall I set this before 100 men? He’s like, what? You gave me 20 loaves, and you think this is going to feed 100 guys? And he said again, Give the people that they may eat, for thus saith the Lord, they shall eat and leave thereof, or meaning there shall be leftovers.
So he said it before him, and they did eat and left thereof, meaning they had leftovers according to the will of the Lord. Many of you are like, Wait a minute, this story sounds so familiar. All you do is click on the footnote left in verse 44, and it takes you over to Matthew, chapter 14, where we talk about the five loaves and fishes. And so you see these miracles take place. There’s so many of them. We’re going to talk about a couple of others, one tomorrow and then one on Friday as well. So I want to focus for a second on miracles, because we see them going on all through here. Why does the Lord allow us to participate in miracles? When is the time that God allowed you to participate in a miracle? Now, what was required of you? And then what did the Lord do? Because when you’re working in tandem with the Lord, you can see amazing miracles happen. And come follow me. It actually says, miracles often help us overcome the difficulties of mortality. In Elijah’s time, a barren land needed pure water and a lost axe needed to be recovered.
That was kind of a fun story there. It’s in chapter six where they’re chopping down some wood and a guy loses an axe in the water and he’s like, can we find this? It’s not mine, it’s borrowed. And it says, the iron did swim. Just things like that. But miracles also turn our hearts to the Lord and teach us spiritual lessons. As you read and this is what I mentioned before, as you read two kings, two through six, consider making a list of the miracles you find. Ponder the spiritual lessons you learn from each one. What do these miracles teach you about the Lord and what he can do in your life? May I remind you that in our last general conference, our beloved prophet President Nelson talked about seeking and expecting miracles. Just a little clip here to remind you about. So watch this.
Suggestion number four, seek and expect miracles. Mary and I assured us that God has not ceased to be a God of miracles. Every book of scripture demonstrates how willing the Lord is to intervene in the lives of those who believe in him. He parted the Red Sea for Moses, helped Nephi retrieve the brass plates, and restored the church through the prophet Joseph Smith. Each of these miracles took time and may not have been exactly what those individuals originally requested from the Lord. In the same way, the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him. Doubting nothing. Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully. Ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith. I promise that you can experience for yourself that Jesus Christ giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Few things will accelerate your spiritual momentum more, and realizing the Lord is helping you to move a mountain in your.
Life, well, I’m grateful that the Lord allows miracles to happen, and they continue to happen. And if we look for them, as always, if we look for them, I believe we are going to find them. And the Lord’s going to allow us to be able to participate in some amazing things as we exercise that faith and seek and expect miracles. They happen in Old Testament times and they happen today as well. Thanks for watching. Thanks for subscribing.
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