Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria” (2 Kings 7:1).
Heavenly Father, those who know Your name trust in You... (Psalm 9:10). Not only is Your name power and might, but Your name is truth and faithfulness.
The Scriptures speak of the reliability of Your word, the surety of Your promises: "Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled" (Joshua 21:45). Your promises in the past have never failed, they do not fail now, and they will never fail.
Father, help us to guard our hearts against unbelief. May we immediately listen when You call us to attention, when You ask us to "hear the word of the Lord." Even when You speak of things far outside our understanding, our expectations or our calculations, help us to "hear the word of the Lord." Help us to believe and trust.
We see in Your word how patient You are, how kindly You respond to hearts that truly search, and minds that genuinely inquire. But not so to hearts that elevate human understanding above the working of God; minds that scoff and rebel in arrogant unbelief. O deliver us from those evils.
Help us to learn from the account of this high-ranking official who scoffed at Your promise, Your blessed assurance of deliverance from siege and famine. Through the prophet Elisha You had promised that flour and barley would be available and affordable by the next day (2 Kings 7:1). In arrogance, this military official mocked Your ability to make this happen:
The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen” (2 Kings 7:2)?
It did not end well for the scoffer—"The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died (2 Kings 7:19-20).
Lord, to some this seems a difficult lesson, but even in human interactions we understand the cost of brutishness, and offensive hubris. So help us not to default to objections, but to understand the wisdom and the warnings in Your word.
Keep us from the brutish arrogance and intentional defiance that would trample on Your grace, lest we end up being trampled by our own folly. Help us not to miss out on Your grace because of stubborn unbelief.
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