00:00 Introduction and Overview

00:16 The End of Elijah's Reign

02:18 Elijah's Ascension to Heaven

05:59 Elisha's Early Miracles

08:25 Jehoshaphat and the Campaign Against Moab

12:06 Elisha's Miracles and Foreshadowing of Christ

15:01 Conclusion and Encouragement

July 2nd, 2024.

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And we're back for another edition

of the daily Bible podcast.

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Today, we're going to look at second

Kings chapters, one through four,

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even though the book is called Kings.

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We're going to look at some profits today,

starting with second Kings chapter one,

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We're going to look at

the end of Elijah's rain.

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All right.

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Second Kings chapter one, after the death

of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel.

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Okay, so we're going to get into that

soon, but Notice that falls through the

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lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria..

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Ky sick.

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and injured.

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And so he sends one of his servants.

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to go inquire of the God Beelzebub.

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Now you probably heard

this name before BLS above.

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This is the God of Ekron.

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That's the Philistines.

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And so he wants to know whether

he's going to get better.

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Alijah stops him and says, hold on.

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I know what the answer is to this.

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Why not ask the God yo way?

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And so he sends him back,

says you're going to die.

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That's basically what happens here.

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Once the messenger returns

with that bad news.

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ASI says please go and bring Elijah here.

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So he sends a group of 50 men,

three separate times and each time.

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Elijah says something like this.

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If I am a man of God, then may

fire come and consume you guys?

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This happens twice.

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The third time, the captain of the

50 is wise enough to fall on his

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knees before Elijah and say, please.

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Let's not do this the same way

it happened for the other guys.

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The spirit of God.

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Through the angel of the

Lord says, go with him.

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Don't be afraid.

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And so we see that some of.

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Elijah's apprehension was because of fear.

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He didn't know what was going

to happen to him, how these

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guys were going to treat him.

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And what ASI would do.

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And so God alleviates his fears

and says, you can go with him.

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And then Elijah delivers the same

news and that's exactly what happens.

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A Zion dies.

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Now what's interesting

is that ASI has no sons.

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And so he doesn't pass on the

lineage to the next king in line.

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He passes it on instead to his brother,

Joe Horam, we'll come back to him in a few

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moments, but let's just keep in mind here.

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Jessebelle and Ahab.

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Have at least three kids.

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We have a Hosea who just died.

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Joe Horam or Joran.

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Jose has eyes, brother.

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And then after Elia.

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At the lies important because she marries

Joe Horam in the Southern kingdom.

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Okay.

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We'll come back to them in a few moments.

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Second Kings chapter two.

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Elijah is taken to heaven here.

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And elijah and Elisha are made privy.

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I don't know how we don't

know how they find this out,

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but the Lord reveals to them.

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That Alijah is going to have in soon.

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Now he's interesting because he's

the only guy besides Enoch who were

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transported to heaven without having

to go through the gateway of death.

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This is interesting because I wonder.

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What.

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Their bodies look like if they

don't physically die, that

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means that their bodies are

transported into heaven with God.

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Well, the only kind of transportation

from here to heaven with God that I

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know of is Christ himself, who is the

first fruits of the new resurrection.

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So he has his glorified body.

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What were the bodies of Enoch and Elijah?

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Like, I don't know if there's

an answer to that, but it is an

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interesting question on the less.

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and in any case in chapter two, Elijah

goes from Gill gal to Bethel, to Jericho.

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And he's trying to have a life

to stay behind, to stay here.

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It's going to be more comfortable for

you, but Elijah says not a chance.

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I'm staying with you.

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And perhaps Elisha knew that as

someone prepared to die, that's

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typically when they offer the blessing.

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And so Alicia stays

close, like white on rice.

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I get to the Jordan.

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And then Alijah parts, the waters.

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And so you see some of

the wonder working power.

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That's an operation through Alijah.

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And then finally he says to

Alicia, What do you want?

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You let me know what you want.

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And he says, I want a double

portion of your spirit on me.

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I love that because he's not content

with what his forefathers has done.

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He wants some more, he's

ambitious for God's glory.

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And I think that's really the case or

because he doesn't want it for his power.

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Does it want it for his glory and

honor, he's ambitious to see greater

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things done for the glory of God.

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And I think that's really instructive

for you and for me, I don't want

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to be content with yesteryear's

fruit yesteryears harvest.

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I want to see more.

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I want better.

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I want greater.

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Not that I long for my

own glory and honor.

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And he said, I hope not.

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As best I can read my own heart.

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That's not the desire.

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I want to see God's glory in honor.

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And I hope you feel the same way.

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Be ambitious.

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For God's glory and ask for great things

from God much like Alicia does here.

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As.

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God would have it.

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Alicia sees his father transported.

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Bye chariots of fire and horses of fire.

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And it takes Alijah and

takes him into heaven.

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Now, another question I

have is this is fascinating.

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If this happened in 2024, it

would be, see the same imagery,

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chariots and horses, or would we

see modern day weapons of warfare?

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Would we see the Lord's army

is coming down in a jet?

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Or, I don't know.

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What a drone drop down and pick up Elijah.

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I don't know the answers

to these questions.

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I just know that this is interesting.

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This is cultural.

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Context happening.

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And so God is speaking to them in a

cultural way that they would understand.

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I think we sometimes forget that.

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Not to say that.

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That maybe there aren't courses

in Chariton heaven either are.

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I don't know, but I think what's happening

here is God is communicating to them.

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In a way that they understand,

according to their time in a place.

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So what ends up happening here?

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Elijah mourns he's

saddened by the situation.

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He tears his clothes and then he

makes his way back to Jericho.

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Here.

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Here's something interesting happens.

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They ask him.

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Where did Elijah go?

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Should we go look for him?

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And he says, Hey, you don't need to send

anybody to do this, but they insist.

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Please, let us go find him.

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Now let's put the best construction on

this for the profits that are there,

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perhaps they weren't sure that Elijah

was transported elsewhere and perhaps

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he died and he's exposed right now.

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And, you know, That in the ancient,

near east, it is proper and good

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and honorable to have a burial.

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And so perhaps they want to bury

him and be sure that if he is around

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somewhere physically, they can bury him.

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And so finally, Elijah is embarrassed and

says, okay, go ahead, go do the thing.

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They find him not, they come back

and he says, didn't I tell you.

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So I told you I saw him

transported into heaven.

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What else do you want from me?

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You have one of the first

miracles that he commits?

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You have one of the first miracles

that he demonstrates by partying the

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Jordan river to get back to these guys.

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And the second one here is turning

bad water into clean water.

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This is interesting.

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But I think it points forward, however,

faintly to the future of the living water.

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In fact, a lot of what Alicia

does here, I think are interesting

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connections to Christ ministry.

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I'll point them out as I see them here.

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In the final section of chapter two.

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You have a story that

you probably know about.

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Uh, it says here, verse 23,

he went up there to Bethel.

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Now remember Bethel Northern kingdom.

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This is probably one of

the centers of idolatry.

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So this is not a good place.

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While he was going up on the way

some small boys came out of the

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city and jeered at him saying,

go up, you bald head, go up.

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You bald head.

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This is, there's some debate about

this, whether they actually were

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small boys and I'm using air quotes

here, whether they were just kids.

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And I think for a lot of people, it's

like, oh, the kids are just having fun.

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They're just, you know,

they're just playing.

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Well, let's back up here a

second and recognize what

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kind of point God is making.

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I don't know what the age of these

young men were, but they likely were

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older than what you might imagine

when you hear the term small boys.

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And so let's just take

that at face value here.

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These people, his little gang of young

men, instead of working, instead of

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finding themselves doing the right

thing, they're mocking a prophet of

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God and clearly they know who he is.

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They say, go up, perhaps they're

saying go away or they're saying

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something like, why don't you go get

transported to when that'd be great.

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If you guys take taken away to heaven,

Elijah, we'd love to be done with you.

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Go away.

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So God puts an end to this immediately.

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Now, granted, this is Alicia acting, but

this is God acting through the prophet.

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So this is not just a light show,

having a bad day saying, oh, I

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wish I had a full head of hair.

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You're making me feel embarrassed.

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No, this has God's judgment on disrespect

and dishonor for God's prophet.

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This goes back to one of the

things that we, as a church like to

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highlight, we want a high view of God.

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Which means that we have a high view of

his people and they have a high view of

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his leaders, high view of his church.

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We have a high view of God and that's

going to affect everything else about us.

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And we have to teach our kids that

I don't know how old these young

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men were, but however old they

were, they should have known better.

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And consequently got teachers then.

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And so in verse 24, Elijah turns

around and when he saw them, he

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cursed them in the name of the Lord.

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And two, she bears came out

of the woods and tour 42 of

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the boys is not a small group.

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This is a gang.

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Tore them to pieces.

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From there.

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He went on to Mount Carmel.

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And from there he returned to some area.

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Second Kings chapter three.

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Brings us into a scene

that we haven't seen yet.

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Jehoshaphat king of Judah.

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Is cooperating with Jehovah

from the son of a Ahab.

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Now, remember we just saw a Hosea.

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Die.

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And a Habs other son, Joe Horn

is now ruling in his place.

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And it says here that

he rules for 12 years.

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So he's functioning in the background.

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And these next several chapters

in second Kings, we'll see

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a little more of his reign.

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I think in chapter eight,

we'll see the end of his reign.

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But he reigns for 12 years

and he's not a good king.

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He's.

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You should be getting used to this

by now for the Northern kingdom.

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They're not good Kings.

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And so this is what's happening.

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He invites.

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Jehoshaphat to be part of

a campaign against Moab.

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and Yehoshua fat.

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Man, I don't get it.

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I just don't get it.

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It doesn't seem to learn.

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In any case Jehoshaphat's says, yes,

I'm in, count me in, what do we do?

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Where are we going?

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And so Moab now is facing up against the

Northern kingdom, Southern kingdom and

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eat him, eat him is playing a role here.

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This is an ungodly Alliance.

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Unwise.

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You've heard this before.

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Mind, mind your alliances,

mind your friendships, but

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here Jehoshaphat's included.

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And so now they're suffering because

they're wandering in the wilderness here.

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There.

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They are lacking water and

Jehoshaphat's says, Hey, can

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we ask a prophet of the Lord?

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And then.

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Joe Horam says, Hey, let's call a

Alicia says I would not even look at

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you if it were not for Jehoshaphat's.

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So he gives him.

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It gives them some counsel and

advice after listening to some music.

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That was interesting to me, by the way.

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Oh, you saw that.

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Okay.

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Bring out the musicians I need to

get in the spirit, get in the mood.

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I don't understand how that

works, but that's what he used.

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And God used that.

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And then God said, I'm

going to give you water.

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So standby the next morning

for the, during the morning,

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sacrifice water flows in there.

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The Moabites see the

water from a distance.

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And in their mind they see it as

red, whether this was an optical

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illusion or God caused them to

see it as red, whatever it was.

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They think, oh, these Kings turn on each

other and they've slaughtered one another.

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Let's go get the bounty.

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Let's go get the spoils.

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So they rush over only to fall

right into the hand of the Northern

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Southern kingdom and eat them.

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And they're struck with a great blow.

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And so after this, then, When the king

of Moab solid, the battle was against

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him and that he was losing you have

something interesting and a bit confusing.

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Take place.

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Look at verse 27, it says here,

then he took his oldest son

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who was to reign in his place.

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This is the king of Moab.

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And offered.

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Him for a burnt offering on the wall.

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And there came great wrath against

Israel and they withdrew from him

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and returned to their own land.

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Now there's questions here.

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Who's who's angry.

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Who's who's who's wrath

is being talked about.

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And what took place.

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Why did they return?

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What's what's happening here?

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Uh, and there are.

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Uh, several options

here about who's upset.

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Some might say, well, this is God's wrath.

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That doesn't make sense.

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God's wrath is not against Israel

because they don't, they weren't

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the ones who committed this.

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It seems like the best

way to look at this.

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Is that the Moabites, their

wrath was incited because

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of what they had witnessed.

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And consequently, they get intense

and fierce against the Israelites

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and the Israelites lose hope

Israelites are thinking, oh no,

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the God chemo is against us.

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He's angered because of the

Kings sacrifice of his son.

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And so we better, we better back up.

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That seems like the most likely

situation, although there's a few

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different ways to approach them,

but I think that's the easiest.

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I think that's the Mo that does the

most justice to the context here.

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And so they did part.

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Moab.

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Doesn't quite lose the battle.

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They don't win, but they're not done yet.

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They'll return in a little bit.

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Second Kings chapter four.

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You have three different stories of

Alicia's miracle working power here.

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And I remember he asked for a

double portion from the Lord

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and you're going to see that.

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So Alicia, first of all, uh,

shows compassion to a wife of

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one of the sons of the prophets.

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Who says your servant?

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My husband is dead.

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Now this group of people, the,

uh, the sons of the prophets.

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This is fascinating to me

because this group apparently

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are being trained to prophesize.

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They're being taught on how to do this.

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And I don't think this is something

God does today, but this is

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what was happening back then.

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There were groups of people that.

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We're being taught and trained

to function in that office.

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Well, in any case, Elijah, Alicia, excuse

me, provides for her provides food.

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He goes above and beyond with oil and

supplies to take care of this people.

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And, and part of the, part of the

interesting thing here is that.

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Their faith is on display by bringing

in as many vessels as they did.

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They brought every vessel they

could possibly bring to receive

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the blessing that Elisha promised.

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And she, consequently

was blessed from that.

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The Shulamite woman is generous.

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She's wealthy and generous to Alicia.

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Elisha and his servant Are the

recipients of her generosity.

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And then Alicia says, Hey, what

do you want me to do for you?

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And she says, well, we don't have any

kids and you know, otherwise we're fine.

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And he says, all right,

you're going to have a kid.

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She does have a kid.

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But that kid does die.

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And so she calls Elijah back and

says, please come and see my son.

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The haze eye goes first

or got HASI goes first.

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And he's ineffective.

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He does nothing.

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He's unable to do anything

for the young lad.

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Now that's important because I think

that shows us and it's hinting toward.

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eventual apostasy, which you'll

see in a few chapters, I think.

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Well, Alicia goes.

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And he does something very similar to what

you saw Elijah do in first Kings chapter

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17, he lays himself out over the boy.

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He prays multiple times

and then God responds.

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Favorably, brings a child back to life.

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She, he gives him to her, to his mom.

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She's happy.

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Everyone's happy.

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We were celebrate.

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God's working in Elijah's life.

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The last story in second Kings chapter

four is Alicia purifying, the deadly stew.

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So the stew someone

accidentally brought poison.

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He cleans it.

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And then he's able to, uh, he's

able to cleanse it, but then

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this is also really cool here.

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Uh, in verses 42 through the end of the

chapter here says a man came from bale.

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Shalisha bringing the man of God

bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves.

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Okay.

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There's only 20 there.

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And Alicia said, give to the men

that they may eat, but his servant.

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Has he said.

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How can we set this before a hundred men?

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And so he repeated give them to

the men that they may eat for

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thus, as the Lord they shall eat

and they shall have some left.

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Does this sound like anyone to you?

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There you go.

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I think that there's a parallel

here, a faint looking forward of

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what Christ would eventually do.

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He multiplies the bread,

multiplies the fish.

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And you see some of this here,

foreshadowed in Elijah's ministry.

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Jesus is the true in better profit.

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And that's why I think the stories

here in why so interesting.

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Well that second Kings

at one through four.

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Great job reading way to

keep up on your Bible time.

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This is so valuable and so useful.

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You may not discern the way

that God's working on you.

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Every time you open your Bible, but

rest assured he is so great job.

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I look forward to seeing you all

tomorrow for the next edition

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of the daily Bible podcast.

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And you know why it's special.

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Cause tomorrow.

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That's RPGs back.

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All right guys.

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Thanks again for joining me, not

only today, but these past two weeks.

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And I look forward to seeing you back.

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Where everything's normal again.

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And everything goes back

to the way they used to be.

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Uh, with the, with the dynamic duo,

Batman and Robin peanut butter and jelly.

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Salt and pepper back at you.

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Okay.

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Have a great day.

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I'll see you tomorrow.