Major Malfunctions (Part B)

Sin is the sole cause of malfunctions in life. The sole cause of a malfunction in others and ourselves. And these malfunctions affect every area of physical creation. Humans have to deal with these malfunctions.

Animals, insects, trees, the weather. To not function as designed because of sin. And now here's Pastor Rick in the book of 2 Kings chapter 3, as he continues his message, Major Malfunctions.

I dwell among my own people. So the prophet wants to help. It's confusing how this is worded. Because in verse 13, Gehazi's, this seems to be Gehazi's instructions from him to her. Because the pronouns move around.

It's like, wait a minute, who's talking here? It doesn't take away any of the truths. It's just a little difficult for us to figure out.

But I don't think impossible. So the prophet wants to bless her in return. What can I do for you? So initially, Gehazi, the best I can work it out, he initially enters into dialogue with her based on Elijah telling him what to say. Then she departs in verse 14 and is recalled in verse 15. Also, I should mention, this room that the prophet has is large enough for Gehazi too.

He's sharing in the meals also. And that is brought out, look, you have been concerned for us, it says here in verse 13, with all this care. So there's not a little cubby hole that the prophet is in.

He's in a desk, a lamp, and I'm sure they've looked out for his servant also. Where he says he makes the offer to speak to the king on her behalf, it shows that he has this influence, the prophet does, with Jehoram. And that was the king, one of the three stooges, that went out to the desert with their armies and no water. And Elijah, Elijah is the one that asked for the musician to come and told them to dig trenches in the pools, the water filled, made pools with water for the animals and the men. So Jehoram, that king in this area, this territory, he likes, he has this respect for Elisha.

And that will come out in later chapters as we go through this. Elijah, he's not going to ask anything from the king for himself, but he will ask on her behalf. She is a subject of the king.

It is very appropriate. When she says, I dwell among my own people, she's saying, I want nothing to do with Jehoram. I'm fine without him here amongst, in this little village. Likely, she held Jehoram in contempt because of his idolatry, because we know she is attracted to Yahweh, and that's why she's looking to bless this prophet. He's just, you know, she's enamored with the holiness that he brings into the northern kingdom and into her world. This will change. By the time chapter 8 comes, she will be stripped of her property.

And guess who is going to be the one to get it back for her? Gehazi, after he's smitten with leprosy. That's why you got to kind of pack off some of this stuff and not have these hard opinions. I mean, unlike Judas Iscariot, you know he's a bad guy. The Bible calls him the son of hell.

So, there's no, the jury is not out on him. There are no redeeming features about him. You can say, well, he was a good thief about that. So, there are some characters in scripture that there's no guessing. Their sins, Amnon, one of the most despicable people in the Bible, for example, Saul. What good thing was there about Saul? Anyway, Gehazi's got some good qualities. Verse 14, so he said, what then is to be done for her?

So, you see, it switches again. He's, you know, he's talking to, say now to her up in verse 13, she answers back, and then Elijah now in verse 14 says, what then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, actually, she has no son, and her husband is old. You know, 20 years ago, a verse like that would not have meant much to me.

He's old. I mean, after a while, you start getting sensitive. I got feelings, too. Anyway, coming back, that's it, I know, it's been a hard day's work for you. I'm me on the other end, just been sitting here reading the Bible all day. Anyway, so, anyway, glance down at verse 15, so he said, call her. So, see, she leaves, he's back again, and that's why it kind of gets a little confusing, but I don't think it's too difficult to figure out that the gaps are easy to fill in. So, back to verse 14, so he said, that's Elijah, what then is to be done for her? Since she doesn't want me to do anything with the king, she said she's fine, then Gehazi answered, actually, she has no son, and her husband is old. Now, Gehazi's going to prove to be a guy who knows what's going on. He's an excellent assistant. He has the details. The prophet has the essentials. He has the things that make the essentials work better, and he's going to do this with the king. Evidently, he works, after he gets smitten with the leprosy, he ends up working with the king. A man of means, and not a pattern to follow, but still admirable. So, he's up to date on the life of this woman.

He's Elijah's assistant, and an excellent assistant, I think, at this point. It will hurt to see him fall. I'm sure it hurt the prophet also, but what he did was, it was just, it was a deal breaker, we would say. It happens in pastoral ministry. You know, you give someone an opportunity to serve when you know the other people won't be so quick to give them an opportunity. And many times it works out wonderfully, but sometimes you get someone that I think they really don't appreciate. The significance of what assignment God has entrusted them with, though he's used the pastor to set it up, it is still, it's God, it's the Holy Spirit doing it.

Some recover, some don't. Gehazi, he could have been the next Elijah. I mean, he's doing for Elijah what Elijah did for Elijah. Put greed and covenantedness, they work their way in.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. So, here he says she has no son. Why not she has no child? Why a son? Well, in those days, sons and guns, that's what they wanted, because the boys were workers. They grew up to be young men, and they worked in agrarian society.

Males meant work on the farm at a faster rate, and that's what was the first desire, the first choice. In verse 15, so he said, Elijah speaking, called her. When he called her, she stood in the doorway. This goes back to the earlier, where she appeared, she could have just appeared before Gehazi initially, this gets a little confusing, but here she comes to the room. It's a room too reverent for her to enter. This is, it's her home. It has a private entrance, but it's the prophet's room, and she does not feel that she has the right to just go into his room.

Verse 16, then he said, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son. Now the prophet's talking directly to her, that's clear. And she said, no my lord, man of God, do not lie to your servants. She said, oh don't play with me.

This is just, this is what she wanted so much in life, and she just does not want to be toyed with. He uses an idiom about this time next year, it's literally as the time of life, and the natural processes, the usual time, you will be giving birth. Verse 17, but the woman conceived and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elijah had told her. So the prophecy is fulfilled, but there are war drums in the distance, troubles on the horizon.

This is going to malfunction, and it is going to be a very tough experience for everyone. Verse 18, and the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father to the reapers.

I'm not going to stop halfway because there's just a lot of stuff happening here. Here's a touching picture of home life 700 years before Christ. The boy is very comfortable, he's a small boy evidently, just small enough to be carried still. And he's very, the story makes it seem he's very comfortable with his dad out in the fields with the workers.

His life has been an interesting story. By the time he's a grown man, he said, let me tell you what happened to me one day. It's like the other two boys that were filling the oil.

We were sitting there, it was just so much fun with mom. Anyhow, the field that the father is working in, clearly large enough to require reapers, as was Boaz, and so that indicates his wealth. Verse 19, and he said to his father, my head, my head. So he said to a servant, carry him to his mother. So the boy, perhaps heat-stroke, we're not told.

Evidently never far from his parents. He says, dad, I'm not feeling well. He said, take him to his mom.

Verse 20, when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, then died. I tell you, whenever I come across these kind of stories, even in scripture, I don't like them, but this life. This is the malfunction of life is death is suffering.

Job said, you know, that which I feared has happened to me. And so you can't pretend it's not there. You have to face it. But this life is not what it was intended to be by God. But there was no other way, because if there was, I'm sure God would have used it. There was no other way to bring about a people who would trust and love him by faith. See, the angels can see God. We can by faith.

They can by sight. And you know, the just shall live by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. This is a big deal with God. And the prophet is about to go through it. And we need to get there, because I think they're just real lessons for us all.

We have no chance in this life of defaulting to factory settings, like Adam. Sin has ruined that. That next step for us is to be glorified into the image of the Son of God and the likeness of Christ, because of this great defect that we are stuck with. From God's position, God says it's going to be worth it. To say that he instilled that in his followers, his martyrs, it's going to be worth it.

Stephen, it was worth it. Forgive them. They know not what they do. God, how could you let me down? He never said that. He never said, God, how could you let me down?

He just took the stoning and preached while he was dying. Sin is the sole cause of malfunctions in life. The sole cause of a malfunction in others and ourselves. And these malfunctions affect every area of physical creation. Humans have to deal with these malfunctions.

Animals, insects, trees, the weather, everything is subject to not function as designed because of sin. And this whole chapter is about everything going wrong. The first woman loses her husband with two small children and debt. The second woman, yes, she loves this prophet because she loves God. And he gives her this child and the child dies.

Are you kidding me? That's what's happening. So now the situation is desperate. And it will be desperate for this great holy man of God. He is not going to dodge this.

He's got to go through it. Verse 21, and she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out. And there is another time the door is shut. If the father learned this, they didn't embalm. They might have taken steps to just bury the child. So she's being very discreet about this, very careful. Elijah is her 911. She is her emergency phone call. Verse 22, then she called to her husband and said, please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come back. Again, the man of God was who to contact in case of emergency. How she concealed her terror and not become unraveled is an indication that she trusted God that this wasn't over. She was in a state of divine focus on God.

That's what I believe. Some of you have been there. She knew she had to get to Elijah and she just knew it. Verse 23, so he said, the husband speaking to her, why are you going to him today? This is a work day.

I'm going to need, you know, the food and stuff when I get home. You know, what are you doing? He says, why are you going to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. And she said, Shalom. That's what the Hebrew word is there. Translated, it's well. Of course, the oddity of it all is alarmed him.

Well, why? It's not Sunday. Why is she going to church? This is an interesting, when Amos comes along, he's going to point out that the Jewish people were complaining about the burden of missing a sale on the Sabbath and the new moon.

The new moon was the beginning of the month. And he's going to point out, you people are just now so greedy for money. You don't care anything about righteousness. The dollar is more important than the devotion. And you get that in Amos 8, chapter 8, verse 5. So the two suitable days for assembling, of course, was the Sabbath, the Saturday, the weekly Sabbath, and the monthly new moon. We'll pick that up and Ezekiel, they come to him on the Sabbaths and new moons and he, they sit before Ezekiel. Ezekiel, none of his sermons were seeker friendly.

What we would call seeker friendly. All sermons that speak the truth are seeker friendly. Sermons that withhold the truth are not. Satan twisted that around pretty good a few years back, the whole emergent church and all that other junk. This, you know, in the scripture, the names are not changed to convict the guilty. It's unlike Dragnet, you know, those of you who don't know what Dragnet is, you might not be able to sit through an episode.

You won't be able to take it. Anyway, coming back to this, and she said, she's going to use this shalom in response five times in this chapter. In other words, I'm fine. Yeah, I need to get your in the way kind of a thing.

She's trying to get to the next step and she's got to go through these social, you know, checkpoints. It's idiomatic. That's no time to dialogue. It's fine. It's fine. Shalom. Shalom.

It's okay. And she lost her son. She didn't lose her faith. And like Abraham, she knew this son of promise was going to live. It's not always this way.

It is in this story. But there's no time to waste. She's not trying to deceive her husband. She's trying to get something done.

And so I'm going to shield him at the same time because of the hope. Verse 24. Then she saddled a donkey and said to her servant, drive and go forward. Do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you. So she says, step on it. And don't slow down unless I tell you. She's a smart woman because a donkey ride can be pretty rough at a fast pace.

Bumpy, bumpy. Anyway, she's got about 15, 20 miles. It's not likely the prophet's on the mountain. It's in the Carmel region.

It's just not practical. He probably goes up every now and then, but he's in that region. So the ETA, an hour, hour and a half.

A round trip, two, three hours. Verse 25. So she departed and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. So it was when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to his servant Gehazi, look the Shunammite woman. Please run now to meet her and say to her, is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, Shalom.

It's fine, it's fine. She says, she answered Gehazi. So the prophet, as he sees her, it is not church day, he knows there's a problem and he's getting scared. He knows what the husband and child mean to this woman and that's why, is it well with your husband?

Is it well with your child? He knew this ain't good. The animal incidentally had to be exhausted.

You assume there was a swap out to get back home, maybe not said. Again, the pressure is heavy on the prophet and it's going to only intensify. You know, he had been through this, not directly, but he knows the story of Elijah with the widow. He knows this life malfunctions. He knows what can happen and now it's happening. And it was developed in verse 27, and when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, let her alone for her soul is in deep distress and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me. I'm trying to not get ahead of the comments.

It's so rich with real life. She managed to hold it together, to take the child up to his room, close the door. She managed to tell her husband she's got to get to the prophet, I need a servant. She managed to go through this long trip where she gets to the prophet and she falls apart at the point of contact. She collapses and lets it all out as she reaches Elisha. She's been holding it in.

But Gehazi came near to push her away. Well, that was his job. I mean, Jesus had the disciples for crowd control. That's why when Jesus said, who touched me? Peter said, are you kidding me?

You can't hear these people pushing on you and shoving us and pushing us around, you know, who touched me? So, this was the job. It was one of his roles. I don't think he was being malicious. Both men don't know what is going on, but Elijah knows it's big and it's bad. But the man of God said, let her alone for her soul is in deep distress. His adrenaline now is pumping.

It's got to be. Because listen to what he says. The Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. God tells me everything. He tells me there's a famine coming. He tells me this. He tells me to bring oil in the jars.

Why is he telling me anything about this? Why is there this blackout? Amos chapter 3 verse 7, surely the Lord Yahweh does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. Yahweh, sometimes it's a time release. It's not all at once.

It just kind of seeps out. And in time you finally get it. Well, God told things directly to Elijah. That's the gift of knowledge, to tell, to gain information that you could only get through divine revelation, the gift of knowledge. If a person gets up in the pulpit and they know the Bible, that's not the gift of knowledge.

That's hard work. That's the gift of hard work, the fruit of their labor. Knowledge, the gift of knowledge means you know something spiritual. You know, you see someone, you say, this person is lying to me, just from a pastor's perspective, because God is telling me they're lying to me, not because I don't like them or I just think it's that way, but I don't have it happen every single time, but it has happened clearly.

The Lord has shown me, and he is not showing his man at this point. The Christians should want every gift they could get hold of that God will give to them. Why? Why the gifts? Because we need them. It's hard enough to get along with each other without them.

It's very nice to have the gifts. Anyway, God wanted him to hear it directly from the woman. I believe one reason why the Lord is not telling him is because the Lord is bracing him for the fight, the faith fight that's coming. It's like, Elijah, it's all not just about, you know, increasing the oil. It's all not about just, okay, you'll have a child.

There are some knockdown, dirty fights in this life, and you've got to face it like the rest of us. Verse 28, so she said, did I ask a son of my Lord? I think she's still being very respectful, but she is still just, you know, tears are all flying, I would imagine.

Did I not say, do not deceive me? She's holding it to that. She'd been thinking about this the whole trip.

She knew it instantly, of course. I did not ask for trouble, but trouble asks for me. I am dead to the flesh, but the flesh is not dead to me. This is reality, and to look at it any other way, I think, is to ruin your theology. To start, you know, creating little pockets of make believe, because you want to feel good about your faith. I prefer trying to deal with it head on, not being a stoic, but just in, we're supposed to, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, not the lie.

Of course, she wanted a son, but not so she could lose him. Verse 49, and this is registering with the prophet. He's not taking this lightly. He's not, oh, come on, you know, trust the Lord, where's your faith?

Something sick like that. Thanks for joining us for today's edition on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 2 Kings has been something to remember. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series, go to crossreferenceradio.com. Once more, that's crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. Our time is about up, but we hope you'll tune in again next time as we continue on in the book of 2 Kings. We look forward to that time with you, so make a note in your calendar to join Pastor Rick as he teaches from the Bible right here on Cross-Reference Radio.