By John Stallings
Luke 13:31-35 contains one of my favorite stories about Jesus & some of my favorite words that He spoke.
We often think of Him as a mild mannered man preaching on how to be more “mild- mannered.” Some see Him as a man who just wants to be loved & accepted & will bend over backwards to please as many people as He can. Obviously nothing could be further from the truth.
Jesus wasn’t --as some seem to see Him-- a young man with His head in the clouds floating around trying to enlist people into His imaginary kingdom.
In this passage some Pharisees come to Him saying Herod was making death threats against him. They must have thought it would be an interesting “news flash” for Jesus. They probably thought He’d be spooked by hearing Herod wanted to kill him. They may have even thought He would tell them to tell Herod He’d be happy to do anything he suggested; that He’d rush to Jerusalem & maybe make things easier for Himself. The motives of these Pharisees are suspect because in truth they’ve been the ones responsible for pumping Herod full of suspicion concerning Jesus. What they told Herod about Jesus being a threat to his earthly power was nothing but a pack of lies.
Hell would have frozen over before Jesus would have been afraid of anyone, certainly not a wicked heathen like Herod. Jesus responds with these words; “go tell that fox that today & tomorrow I’m healing the sick & casting out demons & on the third day I’ll finish up.” The word fox isn’t a complimentary term nor was it meant to be unnecessarily harsh. I think we see the real Jesus here. A little later we see Him heading toward Jerusalem & lamenting that they had rejected Him. So we know that we don’t have a case-hardened Jesus. But when it came to His work, He didn’t play around. Jesus was saying; & I’m paraphrasing here,
Go tell that fox that ---I will drive out devils & heal people today & tomorrow & on the third day I will reach my goal. Luke 13:32--NIV
Go tell that fox I’m working on my schedule not his.
Go tell that fox there’s no chance I’m going to restructure my life out of fear of him.
Go tell that fox I’m taking no detours in my plans because of him.
Go tell that fox (& I’m still paraphrasing) I’m fully aware of what awaits me in Jerusalem, after all isn’t that the city where all the prophets have been slain?
Go tell that fox there are some things I MUST DO before my earthly ministry is complete. Vr.33
Go tell that fox (in essence) that I’m not naïve of the dangers I face. I can read the future, but he can’t, & I can say with total authority when I’ll be in Jerusalem.
There are five things I see in this short story that are very powerful to me;
1. Jesus is still running on schedule.
You & I, much like Herod, don’t know what’s going to happen five minutes from now but Jesus was well able to tell Herod without fear of failure, exactly what would transpire in His life for the next three days. Jesus was right on schedule & arrived in Jerusalem to face Herod.
We don’t have to wonder if we’ll see Jesus again or if He’ll return for His Bride because when the time is right He’ll appear just as He appeared in Herod’s court.
2. Nothing Jesus starts is ever left unfinished.
He had a goal He strived for on earth & He also has a goal in each of our lives. If we cooperate with Him He’ll complete the work He has begun in us.
3. Jesus feared no man or woman & neither should we.
Herod wasn’t able to shake Him because He never allowed fear to influence Him. His admonition was always “Fear not” & he lived by that creed. Fear is powerful because it’s a form of faith. When we fear, we don’t really doubt a good outcome, we believe in a negative outcome.
4. This story tells us that nothing Jesus says will fail.
Jesus’ words were infallible & so is every word that God was spoken.
Not one jot nor tittle will ever pass away from God’s Word & His promises.-Matt.5:18
5. Many have opposed Jesus but their names are in the dustbin of history & Jesus lives on.
Jesus did finally meet Herod in Luke chapter 23. The Bible says Herod was thrilled to see Jesus because he’d heard so much about Him & wanted to see Him perform a miracle. Of course Jesus never used His miraculous power in that way & He refused to speak a word to Herod. Herod became so angry he told His soldiers to put a beautiful robe on Jesus & they mocked Him.
Then Jesus was sent to Pilate to be judged. I think we could safely say that Herod the old fox was “out-foxed” that day in his own court but the meeting is tinged with sadness. Sadness because Herod met Jesus, the one who was sent to die for him & all of mankind, & he never knew whom he met.
He missed the hour of his visitation.
Blessings,
John
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Friday, November 25, 2016
"Show Me The Money "
By John Stallings
In the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays a character on a professional football team & Tom Cruise plays a high-powered pro sports agent.
The movie is about transformation; two men who learn how to value something more important than money & two women who always knew.
In the most memorable scene in the movie, the two men get into a heated argument over their contract & end up shouting the mantra, “Show me the money! Show me the money! Show me the money!”
I always think of that scene when I read the words of Jesus when the Pharisees & Herodians tried to trip him up about whether taxes should be paid to the emperor. It was a trap to set Him at variance with the entrenched powers of the day.
Jesus avoided their trap by saying—Show me the money! Or more literally, --Show me the coin used for tax.—Matthew 22:19.
This is when Jesus uttered the famous statement, after examining the coin-- Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesars, and unto God the things that are God’s.
In the last year, money, even the sound of the word, especially when we hear billion & trillion so much, has taken on an extraordinarily different meaning. Many of us never thought we’d see the day when our government would throw money around & encourage people to spend. The concept that you can’t spend your way to prosperity has gone the way of the Dinosaurs & now it seems the idea is--we can borrow our way out of this or if necessary we’ll run the money printing presses 24/7 until we fix it.
GREED
It’s apparent that greed on the part of some in the world of high finance has gotten us into our present state of economic crisis. The Bible has a lot to say about greed, & contrary to insidious tycoon Gordon Gekko’s wrong-headed statements in the film Wall Street, “greed aint good.”
We well remember the story in 2 Kings Chapter 5 of Naaman, a military captain from Syria dipping seven times in the dirty little river Jordan & being cleansed of his leprosy. Elisha the prophet who sent Namaan to the river to dip wasn’t willing to take anything from him in the way of payment but his greedy servant Gehazi was.
Namaan had come to Elisha’s house prepared to pay handsomely but it was just too much for Gehazi to stand by & watch all that beautiful money disappearing. His attitude was- “My master’s crazy. I’ll never have a pair of Gucci shoes on these old tired feet of mine or wear an Armani suit if I don’t look out for myself. Why not make a quick buck while I can?”
Gehazi ran to catch up to Naaman as he was leaving Israel to go back home to Syria, & he was prepared to lie to get what he wanted.He wanted payola!
THE STORY OF GEHAZI IS, TO SAY THE LEAST, A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR ALL INVOLVED IN MINISTRY.
Before I get into more detail about Gehazi however, I want to mention some very positive things that have taken place ministry- wise around the nation & the world that we’ve witnessed personally. It’s too bad that these things get little or no press coverage. I won’t use names or places, just suffice to say it’s something we rejoiced in seeing & hearing. If I’m going to make constructively critical comments about ministry, I feel it’s incumbent on me to speak loudly & clearly of the things I see of a positive nature.
Some time ago Juda & I were ministering in a small country outside the U.S. The pastors there told us of one of the “big American evangelists,” [a man I’ve known personally for years] who’d recently held a crusade there & never took an offering for himself or his ministry. It was a huge campaign & many were saved & healed. As a matter of fact, some the local pastors were disappointed that the evangelist didn’t give the people an opportunity to contribute. They were grateful for the great move of God in their midst, & were willing to give.
Some onlookers were unhappy that the minister wouldn’t take a dime for his work in their country [it seems that sometimes a preacher can’t win no matter what he does] but this man obviously felt the same way Elisha did in the case of Naaman; he didn’t want to receive money for his ministry on that occasion.
I’ve recently heard of other ministries who’ve done the same thing this evangelist did in other parts of the world. I feel it behooves us to see the good & magnify it, especially in areas where ministry is being watched with a jaundiced eye.
Having said that; - there’s no doubt in my mind that many of the financial excesses these days in the Church have no other explanation than greed;
OLD FASHIONED GEHAZI GREED!
We’re quick to acknowledge problems that crop up in the lives of ministers. Who among us hasn’t been shocked & saddened upon hearing of some of the ugly sins ministry gets caught up in; such as adultery, sexual perversion, jealousy, envy, drug abuse & drunkenness, lying, debauchery, angry outbursts, & the list goes on. Ministers are only human beings who must lean hard on God’s mercy & grace like everyone else. And of course they are prime targets of Satan.
We often hear requests to pray for this or that man or woman of God, or a church or Christian University that’s besieged with problems. This can & does happen in just about any denomination you can name. Tragically, we’ve come to almost expect to hear now & then about something going terribly wrong in the life of a well known servant of God.
Why is it then that we can quickly wrap our minds around the aforementioned sins befalling those in high places of spiritual leadership when the one sin we can’t seem to diagnose is greed-- when we see it as plain as the nose on a face? It’s difficult for us to “call a spade a spade” when it comes to what is obviously –GREED & SELFISH AMBITION. We hesitate to speak our mind when we see someone operating as a “spiritual father” but they are standing up saying- in actuality or in essence—“Show me the money. I’m a highly favored & anointed prophet of God & if you expect me to manifest my gifts, - “cough up the dough.”
In my view, unnecessary buildings are built, unnecessary airplanes are bought, lavish homes are acquired, more T.V or radio time is purchased, & much of it is done because of –Selfish Ambition. Read Galatians 5: 16-21 & you’ll see narcissistic self-ambition listed & God makes it clear—those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Here’s the truth; any ambitious effort outside the leading of the Holy Spirit is sin for me, for you or anyone else called of God.
Someone might ask—“What does this man have against prosperity, especially for servants of God?” I have nothing at all against God’s workers prospering & being well compensated.
I remember the story of a pastor who was at the alter praying, “Oh Lord, please keep me poor & humble.” Over & over he repeated the same prayer, “Oh Lord, please keep me poor & humble.” When the preacher rose from his knees, one of the church deacons who’d been listening to his pastor pray, came up to him & patted his shoulder & said, “Pastor, you don’t have to worry, if the Lord will keep you humble we’ll keep you poor.”
This kind of attitude toward ministers is tragic. The Bible makes it clear—Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn.-1 Cor.9:9
I have discovered in my own life that God blesses our giving &
I’m sure you & I can point out many times in our lives when we gave to God & were greatly blessed for doing so. That has been my experience over & over in my life. I also must confess that I have made the mistake of being unduly influenced by a high-pressure-“show me the money” ministry. I’ve said before that when this kind of tactic is used it’s tantamount to emotional rape.
When I was just getting started in the ministry, my father advised me that if I went to a big convention, & was going to be in several services a day for a week or so, to get a twenty dollar bill broken into ones-—now days that might be a fifty or one-hundred dollar bill—so that I could put something in every offering.
I remember one time when I was at a convention, & had to call my parents & ask them to wire me ten dollars. I didn’t have enough money to buy gas to get to my next preaching engagement.
I can look back over my life & see times when I was so spiritually immature that it breaks my heart. God is a loving Father but He isn’t obligated to bless our carnality or our lack of good judgment.
I believe God not only owns 10% of our money, He owns 100% of it & once we realize that, our attitude about stewardship will take on new meaning. He owns it all; hence He is certainly well able & willing to tell us what to do with the finances that pass through our hands.
LET’S GET BACK TO GEHAZI
When Gehazi caught up with Naaman, he told him, -My master sent me to say “Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver & two sets of clothing.”--2 Kings 5:21-23.
In other words— “show me the money!”
Naaman was generous with Gehazi urging him to accept the gifts even tying them up in special bags-two talents of silver with two sets of clothing. Naaman is understandably happy to pay for his healing. When Naaman’s helpers were asked how much Naaman paid for his healing, they would say, “Two talents of silver,” --which was a lot of money, as a matter of fact in that day you could have bought a house with that amount of money. People no doubt heard about this & thought the prophet had charged that for God’s gift. That was exactly what Elisha had wanted to avoid.
Gehazi compounds his sin by lying. He trumps up a story about two needy servants of God from the back country & plays on Naaman’s generosity. This sometimes happens today. It’s not exactly unknown for missionaries to exaggerate the need so they can get more money for their mission. Sad to say sometimes the whole thing is a scam all made up to raise more money.
I knew a missionary evangelist years ago who ran a “bicycle scam.” He would get up & tell the people that he needed—“to buy a dozen or so bicycles to put under little native boys in a foreign country so they could distribute Bibles or gospel tracks in the hard to reach villages.” One night when a pastor gave the missionary the money the folk had given, he asked, -- “How many bicycles do you feel you can buy with the money raised tonight?” The missionary looked him squarely in the eye & said, “Oh this offering tonight will go for my personal expenses.” Of course the missionary was entitled to living & traveling expenses, but the way he went about raising the money was an outright lie. He took up money under false pretences. And that’s just exactly what Gehazi was doing.
Certainly things like this are the exception not the rule, but how such scams dishonor God.
We see here the danger of a man trying to catch the overflow of another mans gifts & ministry. Up to now Gehazi, as far as we know had been an exemplary servant but it’s clear that his heart is not right with God. We often hear that God has no grandchildren & that’s so true isn’t it? We also see here the danger of depending on someone else’s spirituality. It very obviously doesn’t work. You can grow up in a godly household, be a member of a church, or even a church officer or minister & still not be a child of God.
CURSED
Now Gehazi has got to keep telling lies to prop up the other lies. “Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.” When Gehazi stood in front of Elisha, he forgot two things; Elisha was no fool, & he also had the gift of knowledge. He knew what the servant had been up to & pronounced judgment on him & his descendants forever. Then Gehazi left Elisha’s presence a leper as white as snow.
Gehazi was carnally minded & Paul writes---to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life & peace.-Romans 8:6. Sin will make a person think they’re wiser than the spiritual person but in the end it will be the spiritually minded individual who’ll inherit eternal life.
CURSE REVERSED??
Gehazi went out from Elisha’s presence being cursed along with his seed forever. Right? Right!
But if you’ll read chapters 5-8 of 2 Kings, you’ll find something you may have overlooked. In chapter 5 we have all the Gehazi mess, the graft, the deception & the lies. Gehazi’s doom is sealed; he’ll be a leper along with his offspring for the rest of his days. Right? Right!
If you skip over to the eight chapter verses 1-4, you’ll find a man talking to the king. Here’s what the Bible says-
And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying tell me I pray thee all the great things that Elisha hath done.
Gehazi, the man we would think was dead or dying was standing there talking to the king. He wasn’t being treated as an unclean person as he’d been treated before. What has happened?
FOUR LEPERS AT THE GATE OF SAMARIA
In chapter 7, we have the story of the 4 lepers. Do you remember that story? Well there was a famine in Samaria, & these 4 lepers were sitting outside the gate of the city starving.
We’re a country of fast food restaurants. We have such an overabundance of food. It’s a shame to see how food is wasted when millions of people all over the world are starving. Imagine if you will a food shortage where you & all your friends were hungry. Your supply of groceries was completely shut off.
Imagine if you can the hunger & desperation being so great people were paying $50 for the head of a donkey to eat & $3 for a pint of dove droppings. You & I think in our minds, how gross, how disgusting but to the people of Samaria it was all very real. People were even boiling their children & eating them.
Rather than sit & starve, the lepers decide to infiltrate the enemy’s camp at twilight in search of food. But what a surprise they got when they got inside the city. There was no one there. Their camp was deserted. God had arranged it so that the Syrian army thought the Egyptians & the Hittites were on their way the help the city so they abandoned the camp leaving everything behind. God allowed the sound of the 4 leprous men dragging their feet to sound thunderous.
The four lepers hit pay dirt. There was food everywhere. There were clothes & there were riches. They went into one tent & found food, & they ate their fill. Think about what it must have been like for these lepers.
It pays to read the Bible & read it thoroughly. We have no actual proof for what I’m about to say but it’s very possible that these 4 lepers were Gehazi & his three sons.
Have you ever heard that God will test you & if you fail the test He’ll keep testing you until you pass the test? Well it’s true. Gehazi failed the test of greed the first time with Naaman, but here he is again, confronted with more abundance of material things than he could ever dream.
But what did Gehazi do this time? He & the other lepers have a different attitude about the spoils they found. They knew in their hearts they must share it with the starving people of the city or something dreadful would happen to them. You may say, “yes but Gehazi was cursed, how could God deliver him from leprosy after that?”
Naaman got a deliverance from his curse of leprosy didn’t he? Why not a healing for a repentant Gehazi? If it’s true, it’s just like God. By sharing the good news with the people of Samaria, the disgraced man himself, the man who shamed Israel by taking money from the gentile Naaman, was the person who saved the entire population of Samaria from death through the siege & famine.
Also if it's true that Gehazi was cleansed as Naaman was, it only cost Naaman seven dips in a muddy river while it cost Gehazi seven years.
Yes, we have a changed Gehazi; old “messed-up-/show- me- the money-Gehazi,” who even though he was punished, made up his mind not to sit & die. He said, “I must get up from here, things can’t get any worse & I have nothing left to lose.”
Did God heal Gehazi of his leprosy, allow him & his sons to be vessels used to perform a miracle to save a people & a city, & then restore him to serventhood? The story has all the earmarks of our, loving, forgiving restoration God, doesn’t it?
Read it for yourself & I have a feeling it will cause you to exclaim;
“What a mighty God we serve!”
Every Blessing,
John
In the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays a character on a professional football team & Tom Cruise plays a high-powered pro sports agent.
The movie is about transformation; two men who learn how to value something more important than money & two women who always knew.
In the most memorable scene in the movie, the two men get into a heated argument over their contract & end up shouting the mantra, “Show me the money! Show me the money! Show me the money!”
I always think of that scene when I read the words of Jesus when the Pharisees & Herodians tried to trip him up about whether taxes should be paid to the emperor. It was a trap to set Him at variance with the entrenched powers of the day.
Jesus avoided their trap by saying—Show me the money! Or more literally, --Show me the coin used for tax.—Matthew 22:19.
This is when Jesus uttered the famous statement, after examining the coin-- Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesars, and unto God the things that are God’s.
In the last year, money, even the sound of the word, especially when we hear billion & trillion so much, has taken on an extraordinarily different meaning. Many of us never thought we’d see the day when our government would throw money around & encourage people to spend. The concept that you can’t spend your way to prosperity has gone the way of the Dinosaurs & now it seems the idea is--we can borrow our way out of this or if necessary we’ll run the money printing presses 24/7 until we fix it.
GREED
It’s apparent that greed on the part of some in the world of high finance has gotten us into our present state of economic crisis. The Bible has a lot to say about greed, & contrary to insidious tycoon Gordon Gekko’s wrong-headed statements in the film Wall Street, “greed aint good.”
We well remember the story in 2 Kings Chapter 5 of Naaman, a military captain from Syria dipping seven times in the dirty little river Jordan & being cleansed of his leprosy. Elisha the prophet who sent Namaan to the river to dip wasn’t willing to take anything from him in the way of payment but his greedy servant Gehazi was.
Namaan had come to Elisha’s house prepared to pay handsomely but it was just too much for Gehazi to stand by & watch all that beautiful money disappearing. His attitude was- “My master’s crazy. I’ll never have a pair of Gucci shoes on these old tired feet of mine or wear an Armani suit if I don’t look out for myself. Why not make a quick buck while I can?”
Gehazi ran to catch up to Naaman as he was leaving Israel to go back home to Syria, & he was prepared to lie to get what he wanted.He wanted payola!
THE STORY OF GEHAZI IS, TO SAY THE LEAST, A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR ALL INVOLVED IN MINISTRY.
Before I get into more detail about Gehazi however, I want to mention some very positive things that have taken place ministry- wise around the nation & the world that we’ve witnessed personally. It’s too bad that these things get little or no press coverage. I won’t use names or places, just suffice to say it’s something we rejoiced in seeing & hearing. If I’m going to make constructively critical comments about ministry, I feel it’s incumbent on me to speak loudly & clearly of the things I see of a positive nature.
Some time ago Juda & I were ministering in a small country outside the U.S. The pastors there told us of one of the “big American evangelists,” [a man I’ve known personally for years] who’d recently held a crusade there & never took an offering for himself or his ministry. It was a huge campaign & many were saved & healed. As a matter of fact, some the local pastors were disappointed that the evangelist didn’t give the people an opportunity to contribute. They were grateful for the great move of God in their midst, & were willing to give.
Some onlookers were unhappy that the minister wouldn’t take a dime for his work in their country [it seems that sometimes a preacher can’t win no matter what he does] but this man obviously felt the same way Elisha did in the case of Naaman; he didn’t want to receive money for his ministry on that occasion.
I’ve recently heard of other ministries who’ve done the same thing this evangelist did in other parts of the world. I feel it behooves us to see the good & magnify it, especially in areas where ministry is being watched with a jaundiced eye.
Having said that; - there’s no doubt in my mind that many of the financial excesses these days in the Church have no other explanation than greed;
OLD FASHIONED GEHAZI GREED!
We’re quick to acknowledge problems that crop up in the lives of ministers. Who among us hasn’t been shocked & saddened upon hearing of some of the ugly sins ministry gets caught up in; such as adultery, sexual perversion, jealousy, envy, drug abuse & drunkenness, lying, debauchery, angry outbursts, & the list goes on. Ministers are only human beings who must lean hard on God’s mercy & grace like everyone else. And of course they are prime targets of Satan.
We often hear requests to pray for this or that man or woman of God, or a church or Christian University that’s besieged with problems. This can & does happen in just about any denomination you can name. Tragically, we’ve come to almost expect to hear now & then about something going terribly wrong in the life of a well known servant of God.
Why is it then that we can quickly wrap our minds around the aforementioned sins befalling those in high places of spiritual leadership when the one sin we can’t seem to diagnose is greed-- when we see it as plain as the nose on a face? It’s difficult for us to “call a spade a spade” when it comes to what is obviously –GREED & SELFISH AMBITION. We hesitate to speak our mind when we see someone operating as a “spiritual father” but they are standing up saying- in actuality or in essence—“Show me the money. I’m a highly favored & anointed prophet of God & if you expect me to manifest my gifts, - “cough up the dough.”
In my view, unnecessary buildings are built, unnecessary airplanes are bought, lavish homes are acquired, more T.V or radio time is purchased, & much of it is done because of –Selfish Ambition. Read Galatians 5: 16-21 & you’ll see narcissistic self-ambition listed & God makes it clear—those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Here’s the truth; any ambitious effort outside the leading of the Holy Spirit is sin for me, for you or anyone else called of God.
Someone might ask—“What does this man have against prosperity, especially for servants of God?” I have nothing at all against God’s workers prospering & being well compensated.
I remember the story of a pastor who was at the alter praying, “Oh Lord, please keep me poor & humble.” Over & over he repeated the same prayer, “Oh Lord, please keep me poor & humble.” When the preacher rose from his knees, one of the church deacons who’d been listening to his pastor pray, came up to him & patted his shoulder & said, “Pastor, you don’t have to worry, if the Lord will keep you humble we’ll keep you poor.”
This kind of attitude toward ministers is tragic. The Bible makes it clear—Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn.-1 Cor.9:9
I have discovered in my own life that God blesses our giving &
I’m sure you & I can point out many times in our lives when we gave to God & were greatly blessed for doing so. That has been my experience over & over in my life. I also must confess that I have made the mistake of being unduly influenced by a high-pressure-“show me the money” ministry. I’ve said before that when this kind of tactic is used it’s tantamount to emotional rape.
When I was just getting started in the ministry, my father advised me that if I went to a big convention, & was going to be in several services a day for a week or so, to get a twenty dollar bill broken into ones-—now days that might be a fifty or one-hundred dollar bill—so that I could put something in every offering.
I remember one time when I was at a convention, & had to call my parents & ask them to wire me ten dollars. I didn’t have enough money to buy gas to get to my next preaching engagement.
I can look back over my life & see times when I was so spiritually immature that it breaks my heart. God is a loving Father but He isn’t obligated to bless our carnality or our lack of good judgment.
I believe God not only owns 10% of our money, He owns 100% of it & once we realize that, our attitude about stewardship will take on new meaning. He owns it all; hence He is certainly well able & willing to tell us what to do with the finances that pass through our hands.
LET’S GET BACK TO GEHAZI
When Gehazi caught up with Naaman, he told him, -My master sent me to say “Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver & two sets of clothing.”--2 Kings 5:21-23.
In other words— “show me the money!”
Naaman was generous with Gehazi urging him to accept the gifts even tying them up in special bags-two talents of silver with two sets of clothing. Naaman is understandably happy to pay for his healing. When Naaman’s helpers were asked how much Naaman paid for his healing, they would say, “Two talents of silver,” --which was a lot of money, as a matter of fact in that day you could have bought a house with that amount of money. People no doubt heard about this & thought the prophet had charged that for God’s gift. That was exactly what Elisha had wanted to avoid.
Gehazi compounds his sin by lying. He trumps up a story about two needy servants of God from the back country & plays on Naaman’s generosity. This sometimes happens today. It’s not exactly unknown for missionaries to exaggerate the need so they can get more money for their mission. Sad to say sometimes the whole thing is a scam all made up to raise more money.
I knew a missionary evangelist years ago who ran a “bicycle scam.” He would get up & tell the people that he needed—“to buy a dozen or so bicycles to put under little native boys in a foreign country so they could distribute Bibles or gospel tracks in the hard to reach villages.” One night when a pastor gave the missionary the money the folk had given, he asked, -- “How many bicycles do you feel you can buy with the money raised tonight?” The missionary looked him squarely in the eye & said, “Oh this offering tonight will go for my personal expenses.” Of course the missionary was entitled to living & traveling expenses, but the way he went about raising the money was an outright lie. He took up money under false pretences. And that’s just exactly what Gehazi was doing.
Certainly things like this are the exception not the rule, but how such scams dishonor God.
We see here the danger of a man trying to catch the overflow of another mans gifts & ministry. Up to now Gehazi, as far as we know had been an exemplary servant but it’s clear that his heart is not right with God. We often hear that God has no grandchildren & that’s so true isn’t it? We also see here the danger of depending on someone else’s spirituality. It very obviously doesn’t work. You can grow up in a godly household, be a member of a church, or even a church officer or minister & still not be a child of God.
CURSED
Now Gehazi has got to keep telling lies to prop up the other lies. “Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.” When Gehazi stood in front of Elisha, he forgot two things; Elisha was no fool, & he also had the gift of knowledge. He knew what the servant had been up to & pronounced judgment on him & his descendants forever. Then Gehazi left Elisha’s presence a leper as white as snow.
Gehazi was carnally minded & Paul writes---to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life & peace.-Romans 8:6. Sin will make a person think they’re wiser than the spiritual person but in the end it will be the spiritually minded individual who’ll inherit eternal life.
CURSE REVERSED??
Gehazi went out from Elisha’s presence being cursed along with his seed forever. Right? Right!
But if you’ll read chapters 5-8 of 2 Kings, you’ll find something you may have overlooked. In chapter 5 we have all the Gehazi mess, the graft, the deception & the lies. Gehazi’s doom is sealed; he’ll be a leper along with his offspring for the rest of his days. Right? Right!
If you skip over to the eight chapter verses 1-4, you’ll find a man talking to the king. Here’s what the Bible says-
And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying tell me I pray thee all the great things that Elisha hath done.
Gehazi, the man we would think was dead or dying was standing there talking to the king. He wasn’t being treated as an unclean person as he’d been treated before. What has happened?
FOUR LEPERS AT THE GATE OF SAMARIA
In chapter 7, we have the story of the 4 lepers. Do you remember that story? Well there was a famine in Samaria, & these 4 lepers were sitting outside the gate of the city starving.
We’re a country of fast food restaurants. We have such an overabundance of food. It’s a shame to see how food is wasted when millions of people all over the world are starving. Imagine if you will a food shortage where you & all your friends were hungry. Your supply of groceries was completely shut off.
Imagine if you can the hunger & desperation being so great people were paying $50 for the head of a donkey to eat & $3 for a pint of dove droppings. You & I think in our minds, how gross, how disgusting but to the people of Samaria it was all very real. People were even boiling their children & eating them.
Rather than sit & starve, the lepers decide to infiltrate the enemy’s camp at twilight in search of food. But what a surprise they got when they got inside the city. There was no one there. Their camp was deserted. God had arranged it so that the Syrian army thought the Egyptians & the Hittites were on their way the help the city so they abandoned the camp leaving everything behind. God allowed the sound of the 4 leprous men dragging their feet to sound thunderous.
The four lepers hit pay dirt. There was food everywhere. There were clothes & there were riches. They went into one tent & found food, & they ate their fill. Think about what it must have been like for these lepers.
It pays to read the Bible & read it thoroughly. We have no actual proof for what I’m about to say but it’s very possible that these 4 lepers were Gehazi & his three sons.
Have you ever heard that God will test you & if you fail the test He’ll keep testing you until you pass the test? Well it’s true. Gehazi failed the test of greed the first time with Naaman, but here he is again, confronted with more abundance of material things than he could ever dream.
But what did Gehazi do this time? He & the other lepers have a different attitude about the spoils they found. They knew in their hearts they must share it with the starving people of the city or something dreadful would happen to them. You may say, “yes but Gehazi was cursed, how could God deliver him from leprosy after that?”
Naaman got a deliverance from his curse of leprosy didn’t he? Why not a healing for a repentant Gehazi? If it’s true, it’s just like God. By sharing the good news with the people of Samaria, the disgraced man himself, the man who shamed Israel by taking money from the gentile Naaman, was the person who saved the entire population of Samaria from death through the siege & famine.
Also if it's true that Gehazi was cleansed as Naaman was, it only cost Naaman seven dips in a muddy river while it cost Gehazi seven years.
Yes, we have a changed Gehazi; old “messed-up-/show- me- the money-Gehazi,” who even though he was punished, made up his mind not to sit & die. He said, “I must get up from here, things can’t get any worse & I have nothing left to lose.”
Did God heal Gehazi of his leprosy, allow him & his sons to be vessels used to perform a miracle to save a people & a city, & then restore him to serventhood? The story has all the earmarks of our, loving, forgiving restoration God, doesn’t it?
Read it for yourself & I have a feeling it will cause you to exclaim;
“What a mighty God we serve!”
Every Blessing,
John
Monday, November 14, 2016
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