The story of Elisha and the Shunemite woman is similar to
the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath.
The woman here provides for the prophet and along the way he decides
that he needs to bless her for her consideration of him. She asks for nothing but his servant, Gehazi,
of whom we shall learn more a bit later in our readings, suggests that since
her husband is old and she has no child that would perhaps be a comfort to
her. She is incredulous at the prospect
yet the prophet agrees that this would be a boon idea. When the child is sufficiently grown to
accompany his father into the fields (apparently the father was in somewhat
better health than Gehazi surmised), he fell ill and died. The woman refuses to share her grief with
anyone, even her husband, much less Gehazi, not even telling them the boy had
died. She makes straight for Elisha even
though he is far away at Mt Carmel. For
some reason Elisha trusts Gehazi with the assignment of raising the child to
life and he fails, the prophet is the instrument through which the child was
born and now he must also be the means of raising him. We can't always send someone else to do the
work we have been given to do.
John is clear that baptism won't save you, repentance is
necessary for baptism to have any effect.
The leaders are coming out not because they desire to repent but because
they don't want the people to reject them in favor of John. He calls them out for what they are,
hypocrites and vipers who kill and destroy the people. John's discernment seems to be a bit better
than Elisha's. When the people ask what
they must do, John gives specific and practical advice on what it means to
repent to each in turn. Everyone's
situation is different and therefore application of the truth is personal. John's promise is that his baptism is
preparation for the greater baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit in
fire. He sees Messiah coming in
judgment, beginning at the household of God and in some ways he was right, but
not in the way he foresaw.
Ananais is given an extraordinary task and a great blessing,
he will always be the man God used to anoint Paul as an apostle. We know nothing at all of this man except his
willingness to be used for whatever purpose God had for him, no matter what he
thought he knew about the situation. His
initial reaction to the call to go to Paul was fear for what he had heard of
Paul and his murderous intentions regarding those who were of The Way. Paul, however, was God's chosen instrument to
reach kings, Gentiles and the children of Israel, the man who would truly show
the world how to be a missionary. Paul
immediately takes to his task and faces opposition but there is no quit in this
man, he perseveres always in the task he was given, he knows how amazing is the
grace that saved him and never forgets.
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