Far Reaching Ministry (Part A)

He is a leper at this point, and yet he is still useful. He's useful to the king, and he's useful to the king of kings. I think this is encouraging.

This is very encouraging. You may have failed in ministry, labeled a leper, and God can still use you. Do you tell me if that's not grace? Where else are you going to find that kind of love? Because a lot of times, you know, churches shoot their wounded.

They don't use them again. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of 2 Kings.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the Book of 2 Kings 8 as he begins his message, Far Reaching Ministry. 2 Kings 8. This chapter we have another famine, lepers or a leper.

We have a sick king and his murderer. Incidentally, the leper is a defrocked leper. He was once in ministry.

He was put out. And then we have the devils-in-law, so we'll see what we get. The Far Reaching Ministry is called that because Elijah's miracles, almost a decade later, one of them is still doing work for the Lord. And so is, again, the servant that he had to dismiss.

He even goes into Damascus and does work for the Lord. So let's look at verse 1. Then Elijah spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can, for Yahweh has called for a famine, and furthermore it will come upon the land for seven years.

The land for seven years. Well, in most translations, verse 1 starts off then Elijah. In the Hebrew, it's not there. It does not start off then. It just starts off Elijah, the idea being now Elijah.

And that is kind of important because if you insert the then, then Elijah, then you are connecting it with the previous events. And that's not what is happening here. And it's very difficult. The translators have just an enormous task, and they don't always give us the ideal translation or presentation. It doesn't corrupt anything. There's no truth lost.

Just dig a little bit. It's there. But what is going on here with this siege is not connected to the episode that we just completed in chapters 6 and 7. So, now that we got that clear, God told Elijah about this other famine, this seven-year famine that's coming. The famine before this was caused by the Syrian army besieging the city of Samaria. This one is not the same thing.

And he goes to the widow and he alerts her. God told me there's a famine coming, and I'm telling you there's a famine coming, and you need to take evasive actions to avoid this famine. And it was not uncommon in the Old Testament for people to migrate away from where the famine is. We read it in Genesis at least twice. We get it in the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth starts off with that family getting away from the famine. There are different levels of famine. The siege, of course, is, you know, towards the end of the siege. You're not going to have anything.

It doesn't matter what the land is doing. And here she is. She had made life easier for the prophet, and he is making life easier for her.

I'll come back to that in a moment. The fact that her husband is not mentioned suggests that she is now a widow. Looking back in chapter 4 in verse 14, we read that he said, what then is to be done for her when the prophet wanted to bless this woman for blessing him?

And Gehazi answered, actually she has no son and her husband is old. So the mention of the husband being old sets up the events in this section concerning her. It magnifies her plight.

We get to see that it's bigger than what we may have thought. The fact that when she goes to reclaim her land at the gate, her husband is not with her. He could have been ill, but he's likely, she's likely a widow now. And this woman is the recipient of special care from God through the prophet. She received the child through miraculous circumstances. She received the child back when he died. She is receiving direction to avoid the famine that is coming, the approaching famine. And she will receive her land back when she returns with proceeds.

She's going to get a land back that's confiscated and a check. Grace, because of her grace to serve God by caring for her prophet. That if you had to track it, if you say, well where, what did this woman do to get so much attention from the prophet Elijah? Well it's really God, but the prophet is the vessel. And it was her grace. Mark chapter 9 verse 41, for whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ, assuredly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. God pays attention to this kind of grace. John's gospel chapter 1 verse 6, speaking of the Christ, John writes, and of his fullness we have all received grace for grace.

And that's what was happening here. She showed the prophet grace and she is receiving grace. But there's still this thing called a curse upon the earth. And that means there are struggles, there are fears, there are setbacks, heartbreaks, disappointments.

There's still victory in the midst of all of it. In verse 2, so the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years. So she heads to the west coast of Israel and, or at least she goes west at the very least, but likely all the way to the coast. She is believing the prophet without fussing.

She's not giving him a hard time. Seven years is a long time to be away from home. But it's worse. It would be a harder seven years to remain where food was not readily available. And so she follows the directions, which is applaudable. Again, I mentioned there were degrees of famine, ranging from food being scarce to food being completely absent, gone, because of circumstances such as a siege. And this this famine is not as severe as the one in chapter 6. We're informed later that her land did produce some food, and thus the proceeds that she will be in reimbursed for. Also this famine is not widespread, or else going west to the to the land of the Philistines would not have given her any relief.

So this is a judgment, and it is again not widespread, but local to the northern kingdom, possibly some other places, but we know it's the northern kingdom. And what would determine how severe a famine is? Well, there's a couple of many factors. It could have been locusts, could have been weather, just you know no rain with where this area was, vermin, insect infestation, plant disease. There are other factors that could keep a famine local to an area. They could certainly import food, but that would be a struggle too without interstate.

I won't be grateful for interstates. Anyway, here in verse 2 she returns from the land of the Philistines. That's where she went. She may have gone to other places initially, but now she's back, and she makes an appeal to the king for her house and for her land.

That's what it tells us here in verse 3. Well, we've heard of people with sticky fingers. These are sticky farmers. They have laid hold of her land.

It could be the government. We'll get to that. Elijah didn't warn her about this, did he? He said, a famine is coming. It's going to be seven years.

You need to get out of here. But he doesn't tell her, when you come back, someone's going to take over your home and your land. Well, maybe God didn't show him.

That's very likely. I don't think he suppressed that information at all. He gave her the initial prophecy, and she acted on it. But God's not out of the picture at all. And here, we see her making this direct appeal to the king. Absent of a third party, there's no one to object, in other words. There's not a counter party to say, well, you left the land, and the law says it's just her and the king. And then that part suggests that the governments may have seized her land. Verse 4, then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done. So in verse 3, we're told that she returned to the land, and she's going to the gate where the king's business was conducted, the courthouse, you could say.

She's going there. But then the writer gives us a little information of what happens leading up to her speaking to the king. That's what verse 4 is telling us what's going on. And the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done. Well, Gehazi, the deposed servant of the great prophet, he's still being used by God on behalf of others. Elisha, in his past ministry, is still present through his former servant.

This is a far reach of ministry, the title. Yes, as a leper, he was unapproachable. But there was no sin in talking to him. You could still dialogue with him. He just had to keep his social distance. But he could certainly be close to the king and close enough to talk with him.

I bring this up because quite a few commentators really struggled, and these are good commentators, too. They struggle with the story because of his leprosy. Well, he had the leprosy, it would have been this, it would have been that, and they think this upsets the story. Well, maybe this was before he was smitten with Naaman's leprosy. I think they overlooked the fact that he can still function. It's a simple solution, as did Naaman. Naaman was a general, as a leper in the Syrian army, probably general over all the Syrian army, and yet he still functioned. Gehazi could also. So I don't think there's any problem with the chronology that he is a leper at this point, and yet he is still useful. He's useful to the king, and he's useful to the king of kings. I think this is encouraging.

This is very encouraging. You may have failed in ministry, labeled a leper, and God can still use you. Do you tell me if that's not grace? Where else you're going to find that kind of love? Because a lot of times, churches shoot their wounded.

They don't use them again. That's not the case here. I like Gehazi. I don't like the fact that God had to make an example out of him, because his crime was severe. He put a big stain on the ministry of Elisha, and if Elisha did not deal with that, that stain would have remained there. Anyway, he's not quarantined. There are rules, and they would have followed them, and he's functioning, and he says, the king says, tell me please all the great things Elisha has done.

We get in a lot already. We're getting the fact that the prophet blesses her because she's so gracious, but he leaves out an important part. You're going to come back.

There's going to be a lot of anxiety. You're going to have to go to court and get this straight, and then we get this fact that God is still using the servant Gehazi who was defrocked, and now we're getting this king. And there are other things in here, but there's just the highlights of just these four verses. Joram is the king. He's fascinated with the ministry of Elisha, having witnessed Elisha in action. Remember that whole three kings in the desert?

I've been bringing it up almost every time since, because it's a big part of reality. He knew that Elisha was God's man. He also witnessed Gehazi's leprosy and knew the story. Gehazi was a walking sermon. For the rest of his life, he preached what God did through Elisha.

Now here's the big part of this. People like Joram, this king, love hearing about God, what he does, his miracles, until it reaches their conscience. He probably even prided himself as he was amused by the stories and taking credit for having an open mind, telling his friends, well, you know, I like to hear about the other religions, too. I like to hear about the prophet Elijah, but I'm not one of those Bible thumbers, don't get me wrong. I just have an open mind.

I want to expand my knowledge. We see this type today. Again, people like this king, Joram, love hearing about God so long as it doesn't touch their conscience. Where else do we see this in the Bible? We see it in the New Testament. Such was the case with Herod, with John the baptizer. Mark chapter 6, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly.

And then he had his head cut off. So these type of people still exist. They want to be entertained by the scripture. They just don't want to be convicted and therefore they don't get saved and they can do a lot of damage. Joram, don't lose sight of this, he was an evil king till his death.

His father and mother, Ahab and Jezebel. And how sad it is to be fascinated by what one of God's servants does without becoming one of God's servants. That's big to me.

I don't want to stay on it too long. I hope I've made the points that, some of the points at least, that come from just this section. Here's the king sitting at the gate.

They're kind of bored. He says to Gehazi, you used to serve Elijah, tell me a story about him. Because I saw him at work in the desert, but I know there's a lot more.

I mean, look at you. You smote you with name as leprosy. Verse 5, now what happened while he was telling the king how he, that is Elisha, had restored the dead to life, that there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, my lord, oh king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. This is, talk of serendipity, this is amazing.

I had a similar thing happen. I went on a hospital visit locally, and I'm coming down the steps into the lobby. Our sister's not here tonight. I told her that I'm going to tell this story as many times as I can from the pulpit, because it's funny. As I'm walking down the stairs, I see her at a distance in the lobby talking with another lady. And she looks up, and she sees me, and she goes, speak of the devil. There's no way to address your pastor. Speak of the devil?

What are you doing? So she was telling the lady about the church and her pastor, and here I come walking down the stairs. I don't think the lady ever came to the church.

Why should she? Her pastor was called a devil. So it's just one of those things. You all probably have such stories of God setting up things that only he could have done, as it is here. Gehazi said, let me tell you about the time he raised his boy from the dead, because I ran.

I put the staff on him, and nothing happened. Elisha gets there. This was a battle. Oh, there she is. That's the woman. It was her son. Now, that was at least seven years. It was more than seven. The kid is probably 10, 14 years old at this point. And it's happening at the city gate where the kings conducted business. There were markets there and shops and beggars.

A lot of activity here. And so the hand of God has her arrive just at the time Gehazi is telling the story to the king. Gehazi, does he know what he's doing? Does he know that God is using him? I think he's not a stupid man.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that the ancients were idiots, because they were not. He's got to reason when he sees this woman blessed by the king, because of his story. He's got to say, God used me. Verse six, and when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now. Well, years ago, her son died.

Of course, the prophet brings him back to life. Little did she realize that one day that bitter experience would save the day for them. It's just she's just being a faithful servant. We have no reason to think that her gracious heart stopped because of hardship. She was no longer great. She became bitter. It's not the impression the scripture leaves us with about her. Gehazi, part of this whole thing, God using that bitter experience to restore to her her lost property with a check.

Well, amazing. She didn't see this coming. She's probably on her way to the king's gate worrying. What's the king going to say? Will I get my land back? What happens if I don't? I don't have a husband anymore.

I'm on my own. How am I going to survive if they don't give me my land back? She doesn't know the outcome. Now the communists, if they heard her, she got her land back from the government or from whoever, they would protest because all land is the government's land according to communism.

The individual is secondary to the state. The socialists would insist that she share the proceeds and the land and whatever comes out of it with everybody no matter how lazy and good for nothing they are. What form of government is best? There certainly isn't communism or socialism. The Bible preaches neither one of those. The kingdom of God is the best.

That's the best. That's why Jesus said, you know, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Not some regime of man, it's the kingdom of God.

And we serve. There's this meta verse that everybody talks about, like the internet world. Well, that's a man-made Tower of Babel.

For us, we serve a kingdom that's another dimension that has something to do with this one. Well, again, verse five, well, verse six now. We did verse six, didn't we? Verse seven. Well, so that's that part. But verse seven says, then Elisha went down to Damascus and Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, was sick, and it was told him, saying, the man of God has come here. Again, with the then. This time, it's the new King James, not other translations, too.

And it's misleading because it looks like it's connecting it or following right after it. However, the fact that Elisha is going to Damascus may suggest this is at the beginning or sometime at that famine. She went to the area of the Philistines, maybe, though we're not told explicitly, maybe the prophet says, well, I'll go into Damascus because, you know, why else is he going outside of the Promised Land? This Syrian ruler might be the same one that besieged Samaria, and of course, you know, the lepers, they're desperate. What do we have to lose?

Let's venture out. I mean, if he kills us, he kills us better than dying of starvation. And they get to the camp, and everybody's gone, and they gorge themselves. And you could just see them stuffed, yet still running around with the loot. And then, of course, their conscience comes to life.

That was last session. Anyway, the king, when he heard Elisha had come to Damascus, into Syria, he knew Elisha was a walking army of God. This was, to him, ministry coming his way.

Verse 8, And the king said to Hazael, Take a present in your hand, and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying, Shall I recover from this disease? Now, remember, he's not submitted to God. They believed in the local, you know, our God is the God of Damascus, or Syria, the Jewish God is Yahweh. He excels in this area, but our gods, you know, do well here.

The Greeks took it to another level. You had the God of War, the God of Love, the God of Theater, the overruling God, you know, the Zeus, and then the Romans just absorbed all of that, and changed Zeus to Jupiter, and so this is nothing new. This misconception about a deity, and we're supposed to help people with the truth from the word when they will allow us. So anyway, it wasn't uncommon for someone to consult a prophet. Ballot consulted Balaam, and Naaman, of course, came to Israel to be healed by Elijah.

So none of this is consistent with scripture and human behavior. Elijah's miracles had this effect. It caused people to take note of who he was and greatly respect him, and so they regarded him, this king regards him as a true prophet of Yahweh. It does not mean that he regards him as a true prophet of Yahweh, and Baal and all the other gods are false. He believes they're still gods. This was common, and the prophets had to deal with this and with the Jewish people throughout the Bible. They're just constantly trying to get people, God's people, to stop mingling in or leavening the lump.

And to this day, you will find Christians trying to justify prohibited practices into Christianity. Horoscopes, I don't, you know, not too bad. I haven't come across anyone like this in a long time, but years ago I did. There were Christians, I love the Lord, and I can't wait to read my horoscope.

Are you crazy? So anyhow, this is not uncommon. 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 2nd 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 2nd 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.