2 Kings 5 - 8 (3rd July) - Sylvia

2 Kings 5
Naaman wants to be cured of his leprosy and looks for Elisha. Initially, he expected some kind of big hoo-ha, waving of hands etc and he would be cured instantly thus he was angry when Elisha told him to wash himself seven times in the Jordan river. His arrogance almost cost him. Thank God for His grace and mercy, that his servant pleaded with him to at least give it a try.

Lesson learnt: 100% Man, 100% God. It takes effort on our part and our belief that we will be healed. We can't expect God to do everything when we do nothing.

Gehazi, Elisha's servant gets greedy and tries to cheat Naaman of the reward that he has tried to give Elisha. Thus, he gets cursed with Naaman's leprosy.

Let's not be greedy. We bless others and serve not for rewards but to show others what God's love, grace and mercy is all about. Earthly riches pale in comparison to the treasure God has stored for us in heaven.

2 Kings 6
Arameans tries to attack Israel. Again, God's hand is always upon Israel. When Arameansa tries to capture Elisha to stop him from warning the King of Israel about his attacks, his plans backfires. God struck the enemy blind and they get captured by the king of Israel. v8-20

Elisha shows mercy for those who had been instructed to kill him, sparing thier lives and even giving orders for food and drink to be served to them. This amplifies the love of God and even the enemy is overcomed- they stopped attacking Israel.

Ben-Hadad laid a seige on Samaria again which caused severe famine and inflation. It got so bad to the point when people started eating other people's children. The king was certain that the seige was a disaster brought upon by God that he refused to trust in Him any longer and wanted to kill Elisha

2 Kings 7
Elisha prophecises that the famine will be over and inflation reversed. True enough, when four lepers went to the camp of Arameans, they found it abandoned. (God has caused them to heard the sound of chariors and horses and a great army, so they fled thinking that the Hittite and Egyptian kings had been hired to attack them.) The king did not believe it initially and sent servants to check it out. But because the officer whom the king had put i charge of the gate laughed at Elisha's prophecy, he did not live to eat and enjoy the plunder.

2 Kings 8
Ben-Hadad sends Hazael to consult Elisha about the king's illness. Elisha prophesises that the king will not survive, and Hazael will become the new king and slaughter the Israelites. Hazael is shocked, and questions how he could become king (despite Elijah already having anointed him as the next king of Aram, some while ago), but when he returns, he lies to Ben-hadad and says that Elisha had prophesied a recovery. The next day, Hazael smothers the king to death with a water soaked cloth, and becomes king in his place.