Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 244
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
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| 5:21–6:9
master should not have let this Aramean get away without accepting any
of his gifts. As surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after him and get something from him.” So Gehazi set off after Naaman.
When Naaman saw Gehazi running after him, he climbed down from
his chariot and went to meet him. “Is everything all right?” Naaman asked.
“Yes,” Gehazi said, “but my master has sent me to tell you that two young
prophets from the hill country of Ephraim have just arrived. He would like
75 pounds of silver and two sets of clothing to give to them.”
“By all means, take twice as much silver,” Naaman insisted. He gave him
two sets of clothing, tied up the money in two bags, and sent two of his
servants to carry the gifts for Gehazi. But when they arrived at the citadel,
Gehazi took the gifts from the servants and sent the men back. Then he
went and hid the gifts inside the house.
When he went in to his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you
been, Gehazi?”
“I haven’t been anywhere,” he replied.
But Elisha asked him, “Don’t you realize that I was there in spirit when
Naaman stepped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to
receive money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and cattle,
and male and female servants? Because you have done this, you and your
descendants will suffer from Naaman’s leprosy forever.” When Gehazi left
the room, he was covered with leprosy; his skin was white as snow.
One day the group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, “As you can
see, this place where we meet with you is too small. Let’s go down to the
Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new
place for us to meet.”
“All right,” he told them, “go ahead.”
“Please come with us,” someone suggested.
“I will,” he said. So he went with them.
When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. But as
one of them was cutting a tree, his ax head fell into the river. “Oh, sir!” he
cried. “It was a borrowed ax!”
“Where did it fall?” the man of God asked. When he showed him the
place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at that spot. Then the
ax head floated to the surface. “Grab it,” Elisha said. And the man reached
out and grabbed it.
When the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his
officers and say, “We will mobilize our forces at such and such a place.”
But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel,