Monday: Two Old Testament Cases
Read 1 Kings 17:8-24 and 2 Kings 4:18-37. What similarities and differences do you see in these two resurrections?
In Hebrews 11:1-40, we read that by faith “women received back their dead by resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35, NASB). This was the case in the two resurrections depicted in the texts for today.
Image © Kim Justinen at Goodsalt.com
The first one (see 1 Kings 17:8-24) occurred during the great apostasy in Israel, which happened under the influence of king Ahab and his pagan wife Jezebel. As a severe drought was ravaging the land, God commanded Elijah to go to Zarephath, a town outside of Israel. There he met a poor Phoenician widow who was about to cook a last paltry meal for herself and her son, and then die. But their lives were spared through the miracle of the flour and the oil, which didn’t run out until the drought was over. Sometime later her son became sick and died. In despair, the mother pled with Elijah, who cried out to the Lord. “The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of the boy returned to him and he revived” (1 Kings 17:22, NASB).
The second resurrection (see 2 Kings 4:18-37) took place in Shunem, a small village south of Mount Gilboa. Elisha had helped a poor widow to pay her debts through the miracle of filling many vessels with oil (2 Kings 4:1-7). Later, in Shunem, he met a prominent married woman who had no children. The prophet told her that she would have a son, and it happened as predicted. The child grew and was healthy, but one day got sick and died. The Shunammite woman went to Mount Carmel and asked Elisha to come with her to see her son. Elisha prayed persistently to the Lord, and finally the child was alive again.
These women had different backgrounds but the same saving faith. The Phoenician widow hosted the prophet Elijah in an extremely difficult time when there was no safe place for him in Israel. The Shunammite woman and her husband built a special room where the prophet Elisha could stay while passing through their region. When the two children died, their faithful mothers appealed to those prophets of God and had the joy of seeing their children come to life again.
| These are great stories, but for each one of these two accounts, how many untold others didn’t have something so miraculous happen? What should this sad fact teach us about just how central to our faith is the promised resurrection at the end of time? |
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The question at the end of today's lesson is a pertinent one. I think I have told the story before of a church service I was involved in where someone gave a testimony about how they had been miraculously cured. There was someone in the congregation at the time who was fighting terminal cancer. I had to take the prayer that day and as you probably expect I had a special prayer for myself that I would choose the right words to say.
I don't know the answer to why some people are healed and others aren't. My prayer is that both those who are healed and those who are not, feel God's love through our interactions with them. I say this because so many times I have seen some bear the miracle of healing poorly.
Miracles in themselves are not surefire faith-affirming events. We need to ensure that our relationship with God is based on something more than just events.
We've been talking about death for a while. What comes after death, according to the Bible, is the resurrection. The term, by the Cambridge Dictionary, means "the act of bringing something that had disappeared or ended back into use or existence, restoring and reviving." Somehow God has brought us back to life when His Son died for us. He reconciled mankind with the original nature! For those who believe in Jesus will have life, abundantly! Death may be a sad thing but is not the end. God is able to turn a meaningless life to a great blessing for many! This can be achieved by anyone who believes, and dying to self may resurrect joy and happiness even in the present!
Many years ago when I worked as a nurse on the Navajo reservation on the pediatric unit, I had the rare opportunity to observe a healing ceremony by a "medicine man." One of my patients was very ill, and the parents were hopeful she would be healed that day, but she was not. She soon passed away, and she was about 7 years old. After my patient died I told the mother she would be able to see her daughter again. The parents left the hospital to mourn and bury their young child, but unbeknownst to me, a seed of hope was planted in the heart of that young mother. Several weeks after the child's death, the mother found me, and I was able to share with her God's plan of salvation, and Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life. She left hopeful. I have never seen her again, and I pray she surrendered her life to Jesus and is waiting for his second coming.
As I mentioned in my Sabbath School, this last Sabbath, that even though the Old Testament does not have clear evidence, there were the stories of a few resurrections to build their hope. Even though there were few, there is the the resurrection at Christ's coming to look forward to. Though it's very sad that some among us in early or mid life lay down our lives, we have this hope that we will be resurrected to eternal life when Christ comes with His angelic host to take us into eternal life. If we happen to be standing, we are changed, while standing; then our guardian angel whisks us off to meet Christ in the air and takes us with all the multitude back to heaven; so be it. One way or the other we will be caught up together in the air for a intercelestial journey, for the beginning of eternity for us. Hallelujah, praise God!
The message shows God was not just the God of the Jews (that was in a covenant relationship with him) but also a God of the gentiles that had some motivation to goodness (to be perfected)
Romans 2:6-16
Hebrews 11:31
I agree with Maurice that “we need to ensure that our relationship with God is based on something more than just events.” Our entire relationship with Him is based on that we believe Him.
I do not think that God just ‘somehow brought us back to life’, given us a chance of the true life. His Son revealed to us true Life by teaching us to seek to love God with all our heart and to know His Will. Knowing God’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in our heart by faith, we live, reunited by the Spirit of Truth, in Him.
By faith we have given up the old self to die in order to be able to become reborn in Christ Jesus; we now choose to follow the Path of Truth and Light; the true Life revealed by His Spirit of Truth.
The Creator is God of all living, of all humanity not only the Jews and the Gentiles. People living in the remotest areas of the world are touched by the Spirit of God just as He touched the women in our lesson today, because God’s spirit resides in the heart. God prepares and touches the heart in the hope that it is willing to hear His voice and follow Him.
God is God of all, meeting the ones who have opened their heart to hear His voice where ever or under whichever circumstances this might be. He never leaves His human children, His spirit always draws us to Him, we just do not recognize this until our eyes are opened. Then, with our eyes opened, we happily follow His leading through the journey of true life until we come home.
We praise Him always and are forever grateful for His Love and Grace!