Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

II Kings 3:13

My family and I recently watched the movie Amazing Grace,* which follows the historical account of William Wilberforce’s fight in the British Parliament to end the slave trade and features several highly successful actors. While Wilberforce became a Christian in the early years of adulthood, his friend and eventual prime minister of England, William Pitt (the younger), did not. The movie portrays Pitt as a confident statesman all his life but on his death bed, Pitt is scared and sorrowful, wishing he had the faith of Wilberforce. Hollywood manages to give a poignant example of the fate of all apart from Christ. Regardless of position, power, or wealth, the hour of death comes upon all, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. For the Christian, the moment of death brings peace to the soul, for it is the entrance into the presence of his Savior. For the unbeliever, it brings fear, for it is the entrance into terrible torment for all eternity.

Jehoram thought the hour of his death was near and, like Pitt, he was in great fear, for he did not have faith in Jesus Christ. He did not hate and forsake his sin and rest in Christ alone for salvation but was fatalistic and fearful. Even though the Lord showed Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom great kindness in the presence of Elisha with the armies, still Jehoram had no hope and saw the Lord only coming to destroy him, “for the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

Elisha and Elijah had been preaching to Israel and Ahab’s family for years only to be threatened, pursued, and mocked. Though its idols had never offered help, Israel was still wholly given over to idolatry. So when Elisha saw Jehoram, he called out the foolish inconsistency. “What do I have to do with you, Jehoram? Go to the prophets of your parents, go to your false gods, let them help you.”

Elisha was presenting to Jehoram the greatest punishment of the Lord: giving over the wicked to their wickedness.** There would be no help coming from the worthless idols of wood and stone. God had been telling Israel this for generations. Elisha now, under the inspiration of the Lord, told Jehoram to go to those idols. Plead with them for help. This giving over was to show Jehoram and us the utter worthlessness of the false gods of the day. They cannot help us.***

When the day of death comes upon you (and it will, for it is appointed once for men to die, then afterwards the judgment Heb. 9:27), will you be looking to the Lord for help or to the LGBTQ+ and allies community to give you comfort? Will bodily autonomy sustain you through the valley of the shadow of death that you did not autonomously choose to walk through? You do not need to wait to find that the answer is no. But there is a remedy: it is the Lord of Elisha, Jesus Christ Himself. He says, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live… Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteousness man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:1-7 NKJV).

Do not go to your deathbed in fear and agony like Jehoram and Pitt, but go with hope and rejoicing that the LORD is with you.

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*Amazing Grace does not follow the present narrative of revenge, anarchy, and mob rule but rather promotes the truth of God’s Word that all men and women regardless of nation, language, or skin color are made in the image of God and equal in His eyes as image bearers. (Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”) If equal in value in God’s eyes, what about our eyes?

**Romans 1:24, 26, 28

***See Isaiah 46:1-7

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