2nd Kings chapter 9. Be Obedient!
1. Elisha was obedient to God when he was instructed what to say to the young prophet.
2. The young prophet was obedient to God and spoke and did what God instructed him to say and do to Jehu, the commander of the army. The young prophet anointed Jehu King of Israel and told him God would use him to destroy evil.
3. Jehu was obedient to the Lord and became the new king of Israel and was obedient in killing and destroying evil.
Each man was obedient to God's calling. What about me? Am I considered one of God's obedient servants? Am I striving to destroy evil in my life? Am I promoting righteousness in the lives of others? Do I want to see the righteousness of Jesus exalted and evil destroyed? Am I willing to do whatever God calls me to do? Am I willing to go wherever God calls me to go?
I don't know God's total will for my life, but this I know:
1. I am willing to be obedient to God's call on my life. I'm willing to DO and Go wherever he calls me.
2. Wherever I am I must promote RIGHTEOUSNESS and abhor and hate Evil.
3. Wherever I am I must reach LOST SOULS and MAKE DISCIPLES as spoken in Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:18-20.
If this chapter was rated as movies are rated, I’m thinking that it would NOT be rated G for general audiences. It ends with Jezebel’s body being splattered and her flesh eaten by dogs. What happened certainly wasn’t a pretty picture just as the results of sin are never pretty. The truth is that sin leads to death. There’s no escaping it. We are all sinners and we will all die someday, but God offers us a gift so death doesn’t have to be the end for us. Jesus came to take our place. He took our punishment for sin. He shed His blood and died on a cross for us. Jesus conquered death and we can be united with Him in a resurrection like His!
We read more about this in Romans 6:5-14.
“For if we have been united with Him (Jesus) in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
May we remember to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
I’m reminded today of 2 Corinthians 5:17.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”