Category: Scripture

The king of Aram had a great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him, the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.

At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.

So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. “Go and visit the prophet, the king of Aram told him. I will sent a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel. (vv. 1-5a,NLT)

But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes in dismay, he sent this message to him: “Why are you so upset” Send Naaham to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel.” (v.8, NLT)

Elisha now returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. One day as the group of prophets was seated before him, he to his servant, “Put a large pot on the fire, and make some stew for the rest of the group.”

One of the young men went out into the field to gather herbs and came back with a pocketful of wild gourds. He shredded them and put them in to the pot without realizing they were poisonous. Some of the stew was served to the men. But after they had eaten a bite of two, they cried out,” Man of God, there’s poison in this stew!” So they could not eat it.

Elisha said, “Bring me some flour.” Then he threw it into the pot and said, “Now it’s all right; go ahead and eat. And then it did not harm them.

Ond day a man from Baal-shalishah brought the man do God a sack of fresh grain and twenty loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat.”

“What?” his servant exclaimed.” Feed a hundred people with only this?”

But Elisha repeated, “Give it to the people so they can eat, for this is what the Lord says: Everyone will eat, and there will even be some more left over!” And when they gave it to the people, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the Lord had promised. (vv. 38-44, NLT)

One day when the child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters. Suddenly he cried out, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”

His father said to one of his servants, “Carry him home to his mother.”

So the servant took him home, and his mother held him in her lap. But around noontime, he died. She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there. She sent a message to her husband: “Send of of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.”

“Why go today?” he asked. “It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath.”

But she said, “It will be all right.”

So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, “Hurry! Don’t slow down unless I tel you to.”

As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her at a distance. He said to Gehazi, “Look, the woman fronm Shunem is coming. Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Is everything all right with you, your husband, and your child.”

“Yes,” the woman told Gehazi, “everything is fine.”

But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is deeply troubled, but the Lord has not told me what is is.”

Then she said, “Did I ask your for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up?'”

Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child[s face.”

But the boy’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I won’t go home unless you go with me.” So Elisha went with her. (vv. 18-30, NLT)

One day Elisha went t the town of Shumem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that whenever he passed by that way, he would stop there for something to ear.

She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.”

One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to this upper room to rest. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Tell the woman from Shumen I want to speak to her.” When she appeared, Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘We appreciate the kind concern you have shone us. What can we do for you? Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?”

“No, she replied, “my family takes good care of me.”

Later Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?”

Gehazi replied, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.”

“Call her back again,”Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her, as she stood in the doorway, “Next year as this time you will be holding a son in your arms!”

“No, my lord,” she cried, “O man of God don’t deceive me and get my hops up like that.”

But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elishas had said. (vv. 8-17, NLT)

One day a the widow of a member of the group of prophets cam to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”

“What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.

And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as your can from your friends and neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when filled.”

So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bring jars to her, and she filled one after another. Soon every jar was filled to the brim!

“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.

“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stoped flowing.

When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her,”Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you an your sons can live on what is left over.”
(vv. 1-7, NLT)

One day the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elijah. “We have a problem, my lord,” they told him. “This town is located in pleasant surroundings , as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive.”

Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, “This is what the Lord says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility” And the water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said.

Elisha left Jericho and went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, a gropu of boys from the town began mocking and making fun of him. “Go away, baldy!” they chanted. “Go away, baldy!” Elisha turned around and looked at them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them. (vv. 19-24, NLT)

Fifty men from the group of prophets also went and watched them from a distance as Elijah and Elisha stopped beside the Jordan River. Then Elijah folded his cloak together and struck the water with it. The river divided and the two of them went across on dry ground!

When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.”

And Elisha replied, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor.”

“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah replied. “If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, you won’t.”

As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, dray by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father!I see the chariots and the charioteers of Israel!” As they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress.

Elisha picked up Elijah’t cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan Rover. He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak and cried, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then the river divided, and Elisha went across. (vv. 7-14, NLT)

When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Bethel.”

But Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, and you yourself live, I will never leave you!” So they went down together to Bethel. The group of prophets from Bethel cam to Elisha and asked him, “Did you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

“Of course I know, Elisha answered. “But be quiet about it.”

Then Elijah said to Elisha, ” Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Jericho.”

But Elisha replied again, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you.” So they went to Jericho together.

Then the group of prophets from Jericho came to Elisha and asked him, “Did you know the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”

“Of course I know,” Elisha answered. “But be quiet about it.”

Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to the Jordan River.”

But again Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you.” So they went on together. (vv. 1-6, NLT)

“So, my enemy, you have found me!” Ahab exclaimed to Elijah.

“Yes,” Elijah answered, “I have come to you because you have sold yourself to what is evil in the Lord’s sight. So now the Lord says, ‘I will bring disaster on you and consume you. I will destroy every one of your male descendants, slave and free alike, anywhere in Israel! I am going to destroy Jeroboam son of Nebat and the family of Baasha son of Ahijah, for you have made me very angry and have let Israel to sin.’ ”

“And regarding Jezebel, the lord says ‘Dogs will eat Jezebel’s body at the plot of land in Jezreel.'”

“‘The members of Ahab’s family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by vultures.'”

(No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the Lord’s sight as Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel. His worst outrage was worshiping idols just as the Amorite had done-the people whom the Lord had driven out from Israel ahead of the Israelites.”)

But when Ahab heard this message, he tore his clothing, dressed in burlap, and fasted. He even slept in burlap and went about in deep mourning.

Then another message from the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has done this, I will not do what I promised during his lifetime. I t will happen to his sons: I will destroy his dynasty.” (vv. 20-29, NLT)

So she [Jezebel] wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and other leaders of the town where Naboth live. In her letters, she commanded: “Call the citizens together for fasting and prayer, and give Natboth a place of honor. And then seat two scoundrels across from him who will accuse him of cursing God and the king. Then take him out an stone him to death.” (vv. 8-10, NLT)

So he [Naboth] was dragged outside the town and stoned to death. The town leaders then sent word to Jezebel, “Naboth has been stoned to death.”

When Jezebel heard the news, she said to Ahab, “You know the vineyard Naboth wouldn’t sell to you? Well, you can have it now. He’s dead!” So Ahab immediately went down to the vineyard of Naboth to claim it.

But the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He will be a Naboth’s vineyard in Jezrell, claiming it for himself. Give him this message: ‘This is what the Lord says,: Wasn’t it enough that you killed Naboth? Must you rob him, too? Because you have done this , dogs will lick your blood at the very place where they licked the blood of Naboth!'” (vv. 15-19, NLT)