Thursday Reading: 2 Kings 2 23-24
Key Verse: 2 Kings 2 24
24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
Devotion:
When I first heard these verses in the bible I was amazed that a prophet would do such a thing; but the more that you read through God’s word the more that you realise that God is the one who did not put up with people abusing His name. The prophet was a man whom God appointed to give the people His Word and to make sure that the people would listen to Him. If the prophet did not do what God wanted then what use would he be? Each of us has a purpose of God and each of us needs to find out what that purpose is.
In this case it could be said that it was the children and their parents who were at fault because they should have known better than to cross swords with God’s chosen prophet. They must have all known of the things that Elijah had done in God’s name by now and yet they still continued to ignore God’s awesome power – something that too many people are guilty of today. Just because we do not see prophets doing miracles in God’s name does not mean that God has not appointed people to work in His name. Jesus Christ came to earth and we still ignored Him – what good would a prophet do in His stead?
Not only do we need to obey God’s word ourselves but we need to try and encourage our families to do the same so that they do not get caught up in what seems to be horrible things. These children (the word children is used to describe people of up to thirty or forty years old – but they were children in God’s sight) were caught up in what seems to be a horrible natural disaster but what they had just done was to turn their backs on God. If we turn our backs on God then we have to be prepared to defend ourselves against the natural world instead of having God protect us...
Points to Ponder:
Have you noticed how awesome nature is?
Do you want to trust nature or the God who created it?
Key Verse: 2 Kings 2 24
24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
Devotion:
When I first heard these verses in the bible I was amazed that a prophet would do such a thing; but the more that you read through God’s word the more that you realise that God is the one who did not put up with people abusing His name. The prophet was a man whom God appointed to give the people His Word and to make sure that the people would listen to Him. If the prophet did not do what God wanted then what use would he be? Each of us has a purpose of God and each of us needs to find out what that purpose is.
In this case it could be said that it was the children and their parents who were at fault because they should have known better than to cross swords with God’s chosen prophet. They must have all known of the things that Elijah had done in God’s name by now and yet they still continued to ignore God’s awesome power – something that too many people are guilty of today. Just because we do not see prophets doing miracles in God’s name does not mean that God has not appointed people to work in His name. Jesus Christ came to earth and we still ignored Him – what good would a prophet do in His stead?
Not only do we need to obey God’s word ourselves but we need to try and encourage our families to do the same so that they do not get caught up in what seems to be horrible things. These children (the word children is used to describe people of up to thirty or forty years old – but they were children in God’s sight) were caught up in what seems to be a horrible natural disaster but what they had just done was to turn their backs on God. If we turn our backs on God then we have to be prepared to defend ourselves against the natural world instead of having God protect us...
Points to Ponder:
Have you noticed how awesome nature is?
Do you want to trust nature or the God who created it?