Dearest e-votees-
Day twenty-seven of our cover to cover voyage through the Bible. If you want to see the readings for our trip through the Bible you can follow this link:
Peace,
Karl
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Day 27 Readings: 2 Kings 4:38-15:26
The start of today's lessons show Elisha performing all sorts of wonders. The variety of wonders is akin to the range of what Jesus does--feeding many with little, curing someone of leprosy, power over the laws of nature, etc., etc. Where Jesus and Elisha are alike in type they are so very different in scope or magnitude: feeding 100 with 20 loaves vs. feeding 5,000 (more like 20,000 with women and children counted) with 5 loaves and 2 fish, curing one leper (although a socially important one) vs. curing 10 lepers (plus others), making iron float vs. making oneself float on top of a sea and at another time calming the turbulent storm.
We don't exactly know the intent or motivation of Elisha doing the things, with God's help, that he did but it certainly served to set the stage for a much greater Jesus who was on the way. God takes the long view.
Once we get past those accounts we are back into the turbulent, sinful, violence-stained kingdoms of the divided kingdom. It seems that there is much heat but no light. In preaching one of the main tasks is to find the good news and lay it out clearly. It is rather difficult in many of these reigns to find anything worthy of hope or emulation. There are a whole lot of lessons by counter-example: if you don't want this to happen to you, don't do what this one did. But that is so much more in keeping with the law than with the gospel.
Lord, help us to live lives that trust you and that others can experience your good news. Help us do better than tragic roadkill to be avoided. Amen.
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