Image: Winter sunset, February 2020, North Garden, Virginia
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 7.
Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of
God and said, Behold, if the LORD make windows in heaven might this thing be?
(2 Kings 7:2a).
Israel was besieged and starving. What meager food remained was
astronomical in price. A donkey’s head sold for 80 pieces of silver and a handful
of dove dung for five pieces of silver (2 Kings 6:25).
Elisha, however, prophesied that by the next day, fine flour
and barley would sell for a mere shekel in the gates of Samaria (2 Kings 7:1).
The king’s counselor was incredulous. How could this be, even
if the Lord opened “windows in heaven” (v. 2a)?
Think about this reference to windows in heaven. What does it
mean? Clearly it is figurative language. It is a way of expressing the
providential blessings of God, that which falls from above. In Malachi 3:10 the
Lord challenges Israel to bring the whole tithe into storehouse to see if he
would not open “the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there
shall not be room enough to receive it.”
This counselor’s protest was not only a challenge
to Elisha as God’s prophet, but also to the character and goodness of God, as
well as the sovereignty of God. He’s not good enough to want to do this. He’s
not powerful enough to do it.
We might consider our own state at times to be
like that of Samaria in those days. Perhaps we feel we are beset, besieged,
beleaguered. And God’s Word promises a tomorrow that seems out of reach.
He promises that he will supply all our needs. “The
LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).
He promises to satisfy our deepest longings. “I
am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that
believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
He promises to work all things for your good (Rom
8:28).
He promises that present distresses are not
worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us (Rom 8:18).
He promises that those who trust in him will one
day experience the resurrection to life (1 Cor 15:51-53) and that there is land
fairer than day where there will be no more tears (Rev 21:4).
The challenge: Will we believe the promises of
God? Will we believe that he is all-good and all-powerful, and he can open the
windows in heaven to pour out such blessings on us that there is not room
enough to receive it?
Elisha’s word was fulfilled, and the unbelieving
counselor was trampled in the gate and died (2 Kings 7:20). Let us be warned,
fear, and believe.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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