#164: Preserving Grace
Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.”
II Kings 8:1 NKJV
Several years ago my wife and I watched a movie where one of the characters decided to be baptized at a random time in his life without any saving knowledge of Christ or His Word. Through the balance of the movie, this man would refer to himself as being saved because he was baptized. Sometimes Christianity is thought of as a religion where people get baptized, born again, or say a prayer and they are forever changed but without any impact on their lives. Sometimes Christ is thought of as God who delivers us and then leaves us to ourselves. The Christ of the Scripture however, does not only change one’s status before God, unjust to just, but also changes one’s life before God, dying to sin and living for Christ. Christ never leaves those whom he saves but whom He saves He sustains throughout their lives and even through death by His Word and Spirit.
As Chapter 8 opens we are brought back to characters we studied in earlier devotionals. Most notably at the outset we again meet the Shunammite woman. Soon we will again see Gehazi, Ben-Hadad, and Hazael. We spent much time with the Shunammite woman in devotionals 81-100 and will not repeat her life here other than to remind us that she had done much good for the cause of Christ the Messiah, His prophet Elisha, and saw the glory of the Lord in many ways most notably when the Lord raised her son from the dead.
The Lord did not forget the Shunammite after raising her son but remembered her and continued to send His prophet Elisha to her family. Through all the interactions with kings, rulers, and generals, God’s prophets always had occasion to minister to the poor, needy, and widows. There is no respecter of persons with God or with His ministers. The message Elisha had for the Shunammite woman was one of gracious warning and instruction. Worse than the three year famine in the days of Ahab and Elijah, a seven year famine was coming. It was the same length of time as the famine in Egypt for which Joseph had seven years of plenty in which to prepare. We do not read of any good years before the famine in Israel set in. It would be a time of great misery and death in Israel. With the warning of the famine, Elisha instructed the Shunammite, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can.”
The Lord does not leave His children after He saves them. He abides with them forever, always warning, teaching, nourishing, instructing, and comforting them from His Word. Trust in the Lord dear saint for, “The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore” (Psalm 121:8).
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