Today, I have posted the first lesson in a series on the Life of Elisha. This is a series being taught on Wednesday nights at Kiokee Baptist Church.
Elisha is a fascinating person in scripture, because everything in his life is so far removed from anything in our lives. His relationship to God is not like anyone else's relationship. He performs miracles as large as raising the dead and as small as eliminating poison from a pot of soup or making a axe-head float. He gives help to those in need and declares the condemnation of those who doubt him.
Elisha lived in a different world than we live in. In the days of the prophets, God dealt with a physical nation in physical ways. He provided powerful, physical reminders of His greatness and His authority, both to good and evil. His men stood apart from all other men in the culture.
We have people today who will claim to be prophets in some sense, but they are never prophets in the sense that Elisha was a prophet. We often use the term "prophet" to mean someone who is smart or who speaks well or who manifests wisdom, but we do not use it to mean people like Elisha because there are no such people.
The coming of the New Covenant has presented us with a new work of God, as He indwells all His people and changes them from the inside. He works in us to grow us, to cause us to "will and to do" of His good pleasure. We no longer need or want the ways of the Old Testament world.
But, we need to understand them. We need to know what God was teaching all those years ago, in the words, the life, and the miracles of Elisha. What is past, after all, is prologue, and who can understand a play if he misses the prologue?
Elisha is a fascinating person in scripture, because everything in his life is so far removed from anything in our lives. His relationship to God is not like anyone else's relationship. He performs miracles as large as raising the dead and as small as eliminating poison from a pot of soup or making a axe-head float. He gives help to those in need and declares the condemnation of those who doubt him.
Elisha lived in a different world than we live in. In the days of the prophets, God dealt with a physical nation in physical ways. He provided powerful, physical reminders of His greatness and His authority, both to good and evil. His men stood apart from all other men in the culture.
We have people today who will claim to be prophets in some sense, but they are never prophets in the sense that Elisha was a prophet. We often use the term "prophet" to mean someone who is smart or who speaks well or who manifests wisdom, but we do not use it to mean people like Elisha because there are no such people.
The coming of the New Covenant has presented us with a new work of God, as He indwells all His people and changes them from the inside. He works in us to grow us, to cause us to "will and to do" of His good pleasure. We no longer need or want the ways of the Old Testament world.
But, we need to understand them. We need to know what God was teaching all those years ago, in the words, the life, and the miracles of Elisha. What is past, after all, is prologue, and who can understand a play if he misses the prologue?