Day 173: Confidence in God
2 Kings 4:1-44 Apparently Elisha was more powerful than his predecessor; his works extended beyond the people of Israel; in this way, Elisha is a type of Christ (TYPOLOGY!!) since his mission is universal in scope. The miracles of bringing the dead boy back to life and the continuous replenishment of oil prefigure Christ’s miracles of raising the dead to life and the multiplication of loaves and fishes to feed thousands. These Gospel events, in turn prefigure Christ’s own Resurrection from the dead and the institution of the Eucharist. (CCC 1335)
2 Chronicles 28:1-27 On account of his sins, the unfaithful King Ahaz suffered major military defeats; instead of repenting of his sin, he worshiped the Syrian idols and died completely separated from God.
Psalm 127 We are powerless and doomed to fail without God’s intervention. Abandonment to his will and loving care is an integral part of being a good instrument of God. Part of his blessing to those who entrust themselves to him includes the gift of children; as it was the case in the past, the family forms the foundation of a well ordered society. This appreciation for children-coupled with a vibrant family life-needs to be recovered in order to make society morally healthy. (Cf. Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, August 31, 2005)
Unless the Lord builds the house: St. Hilary of Poitiers applied these opening verses to the soul of the human person: “You are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells within you. This, then, is the temple of God, filled with his doctrine and his power, able to provide the Lord with room in the sanctuary of the heart...If it were built by the hands of men, it would not stand; strengthened only by worldly knowledge, it would not hold firm; supported only by our ineffective watchfulness and useless works, it would not be secure. This house must be built and guarded in a very different way:...established on its proper base, the prophets and the apostles...until it becomes the perfect man and is made perfect as the body of Christ'' (Tractatus Super Psalmos, 126, 7-8)
(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)
Our last day of 2 Chronicles!! (YAY!!) Then we get to come back to it after 8 days or so (GROAN!!)
We start tomorrow with the WRITTEN PROPHETS who have a WORD OF WARNING, calling the Kingdom of Israel back to the Kingdom of God
They may or may not listen
They don’t
Hosea
Amos
Jonah
Micah
Although Jonah went to Nineveh, not the Northern Kingdom so that will be fun
So let’s go back in reverse
2 Chronicles Ch 28 we have Ahaz who is not a good king
If you want to rank all the bad kings, Ahaz is maybe the worst King of Judah (SOUTHERN KINGDOM)
Ahaz turns away from the Lord
He goes even further
He makes MOLTEN IMAGES for the Baals
He burns incense in the valley of the sons of Hinnom
He burned his sons as an offering to FALSE GODS
CHILD SACRIFICE!!
In turning away from the Lord, he gave to FALSE GODS the lives of HIS OWN CHILDREN
AND YET…
Ahaz needs to continue to lead the people
He doesn’t
He goes to war with Syria and Israel and LOSES
Syria and Israel inflict such a devastating blow to Judah that Pekah, the son of Remaliah slew 120,000 men of Judah IN ONE DAY
All of them were BRAVE MEN OF VALOR
Even the king’s SON, Maaseiah
Even the commander of the Palace, Azrikam
God is STILL fighting for His people
WHY?
The men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their kinsfolk and took them back to Samaria
A prophet of God, Oded, intercedes on their behalf
“You are NOT going to enslave your kinsfolk”
Certain chiefs of the Men of Ephraim (another word for Israel) including Azariah, Berechiah, Jehizkiah, and Amasa
They stood up and said that there will be no CAPTIVES FROM JUDAH
They even CARED for them and sent them back home to Judah (SOUTHERN KINGDOM)
That’s a good sign from the people of Israel
BUT…
They were STILL FAITHLESS
There are a lot of battles against Ahaz (King of Judah)
Remember the pattern
Distress…..turn to the Lord….REPENT….Mess up again
Verse 22: “In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord-this same King Ahaz.”
These stories are repeated and we will get more details on the life of Ahaz
We will learn about who will try to speak into his life, try to speak into his world and call him BACK to faithfulness to the Lord
But we know at the end, Ahaz dies FAITHLESS to the Lord
Elisha in 2 Kings CH 4 performs miracles
ELIJAH met a widow of Zerephath who had a son
They ran out of oil and flour and were going to die
So Elijah multiplied the oil and flour so that they survived
So ELISHA meets a widow with TWO SONS
Elisha replenishes the oil and flour so the widow didn’t need to sell her sons AS SLAVES
Elisha gave her a miraculous vessel that poured out all this oil
There is an element here when WE know the end of the story, you would think “Yo, get as many vessels as possible to get all the oil!”
But the widow didn’t know the end of the story yet
The key is WALKING IN FAITH
But the woman thinks she has one little bit of oil left and doesn’t need all the containers
When we WALK WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in God, we wish we would have the same faith we have at the END as we did in the BEGINNING
Does that make sense?
So Elisha is a man of God, I’m desperate, so I’ll make an effort
BUT…
If I had known that I could take this oil, sell it, pay off my debts, and then live off the rest it would be NONSTOP looking for containers to pour oil into that I could sell later
So often when it comes to life, we don’t know the end of the story until it is ended
AND YET…
If I walk with the FAITH that is ASKED of me, I would walk a little more JOYFULLY
I would walk a little more BOLDLY
I would walk a little more CONFIDENTLY
I would walk a little more COURAGEOUSLY
So on to the Shunammite Couple
ELIJAH did GREAT things
ELISHA did INCREDIBLE things
Jesus does EVEN MORE THAN THEM
This Shunammite woman gives Elisha a meal and offers a place to stay on the roof
Super hospitable
But at one point Elisha asks the question, “What then is to be done for her?”
She has no son and her husband is old
So Elisha says by this time next year, she will have a son
She says don’t deceive her and let her get her hopes up
She is in a place where this is all she will ever have
So she DOES have a son and her heart gets big and abounds in JOY
The child she longs for has been given
Then what happens?
The son is out with his father working the fields and has a headache
The father takes him home and he dies in his mother’s arms
So the Shunammite woman asked, “Why did you have to bring me this son of mine for me to give my heart to him, ONLY to have him die?”
Isn’t this the cry of so many of our hearts when that happens to us?
“God, why in the world would you give me these people in my life only to have them walk away, only to have them be taken away, only to have this thing end?”
“Why would you give me these great, incredible blessings only to have it come to an end at some point?”
Just like this Shunammite woman
For all the moms and dads out there who have lost a child
This is YOUR story
“God, why would you give us this child only to have this child be taken away from us?”
“God, why would you let us get pregnant to only have us lose the pregnancy?”
“God, why would you get our hopes up only to dash those hopes?”
Remember…
If only we had faith in the BEGINNING of the story that we have at the END of the story
If only we had the TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in God at the BEGINNING of the story that we will have one day when we know how the story ENDS
Because we know…
Our God is the God of the LIVING and the DEAD
All of those people we have loved and all those wounds we have experienced are NOT FOR NOTHING
NONE OF THEM ARE FOR NOTHING
The Shunammite woman’s son is restored to her
Remember Elisha has a DOUBLE PORTION of Elijah’s spirit
Elijah could raise the dead
Elisha could raise the dead even after he was dead for a LONG TIME
Jesus will raise a little girl from the dead after a short time
Jesus will also raise Lazarus, who was dead for 4 days and in a TOMB
Jesus blows them all out of the water
What does this mean?
Jesus reveals to us that DEATH IS NOT THE END
AND YET…
Death does BREAK OUR HEARTS
So today, all of us who have hearts that can pray
All of us that have hearts that have been broken, wounded, or torn apart because of loss
As this community, we are going to pray THIS DAY for all of those whose hearts have been BROKEN
Whose hearts have been TORN APART because of LOSS
Whose hearts have NOT YET RECOVERED
Whose hearts have not been able to yet say, “Ok Lord I can see the end of the story.”
“I can see your goodness.”
“I can see your providence.”
“I can see how you’re going to use this ultimately for GOOD.”
“I don’t know how.”
That’s where THE REST OF US come in
You may be in a place where you are TOO WEAK to pray like that
You may be TOO BROKEN to pray like that
You may be TOO GRIEVED to pray like that
So WE are going to PRAY FOR YOU
WE are going to LIFT YOU UP
If only we knew the END of the story
How we lived the MIDDLE of the story would be DRAMATICALLY CHANGED
If only we knew the END of the story how we live TODAY might be DRAMATICALLY CHANGED
We DO know the END
IN THE END, CHRIST WILL MAKE ALL THINGS RIGHT
Jesus is the One who could RAISE THE DEAD and will raise what is DEAD in YOU and in ME and RESTORE ALL THINGS
HE WILL MAKE ALL THINGS NEW
Brothers and Sisters, those of us who have been through loss and have been through pain, and trust the Lord, WE ARE PRAYING NOW
We are PRAYING now for our Brothers and Sisters who are in the midst of loss, in the midst of pain, in the midst of trial
PRAY FOR THEM NOW
PRAY FOR FR. MIKE
PRAY FOR EACH OTHER
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we praise you and we give you glory. We know that you are the one who accomplishes all that we do. In fact, we remember your words, the words of Jesus Christ, the only Beloved Son of God. The words of Jesus that are, ‘Without me, you can do nothing.’ So we ask that you please help us. Help us to remain as branches on the vine. Help us to remain not far from you, but rooted so closely to you that we get all of our life, all of our power, all of our strength, all of our wisdom, all of our everything from you, that we can bear fruit and fruit that will last, fruit that is for your Glory and for the salvation of this world that you love and died for. So, God, please help us to never be separated from you. Help us to never be alienated from you. Help us to always be faithful. And when we are faithless, bring us back to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”