DAY 128

THE PROMISE

2 Kings 4, 5& 6 and Luke 24:36 – 53

These three chapters of Second Kings, chapters 4, 5 and 6 have Elisha bursting onto the scene. I mentioned yesterday that we might have missed how great a prophet Elijah was and so I want to make sure that I mention this about Elisha. If you have read the stories:

·         Multiplying oil for a widow’s son

·         An elderly barren woman conceiving

·         A son who die, resuscitated back to life

·         A famine, and a deadly pot of stew purified

·         A man healed of Leprosy

·         The lie of a servant exposed

·         An axe head made to float

·         The revealing of the heavenly host ready to enter battle

·         An evil king seeks the prophets death

The power of God is certainly flowing through Elisha, not only has he done marvelous deeds, but he has apparently spoken against the King of Israel to the point that the king feels he is responsible for the famine. Prophets, more than predicting the future, speak God’s truth to the powers of the day. We will see this more and more as we study them.

Turning to the New Testament we come to Jesus’ Ascension. One of the things I worry about is that I will start repeating myself. I don’t think I have shared “The Promise of the Father.” Look at Jesus’ words. He tells the disciples, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.”

So what is it that God promised? The short answer is the Holy Spirit, but I want to try and share the depth of this moment. When Jesus says the phrase, “the promise of the Father” it would trigger in the minds of his disciples a classic Jewish teaching called “The Promise of the Father.”

Jesus is not sharing some “new fangled notion.” He is claiming that an ancient prophecy is about to come true. It is a prophecy found in Jeremiah 31:31-34 (http://www.esvbible.org/Jeremiah+31%3A31-34/ ) and picked up on in Ezekiel and in Joel. We will unpack those a bit more in the coming days, but for right now I want to plant the seed that the Third Person of the Trinity (who we may not have perceived to be in the middle of the action thus far) has been there since the beginning. Further, the Holy Spirit is a key part of God’s Plan after Jesus’ Ascension. It is why Jesus must Ascend. In the coming days we will talk more about it, but I wanted to make sure that in the middle of everything you picked up on this phrase and began to think about a how faithful God is, especially with His Promises.