Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 242
230
IMMERSE
•
KINGDOMS
2K
| 4:35–5:5
on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the
child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to
grow warm again! Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room
once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy
sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. “Call the child’s mother!” he said. And
when she came in, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!” She fell at his feet
and bowed before him, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she took her
son in her arms and carried him downstairs.
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 said 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
into the pot without realizing they were poisonous. Some of the stew was
served to the men. But after they had eaten a bite or two they cried out,
“Man of God, there’s poison in this stew!” So they would 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.
One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought the man of 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 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.
The king of Aram had 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 send a letter of
introduction for you to take to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out,
carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of