Scripture:
“Years before, Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought to life, ‘Leave here and go, you and your family, and live someplace else. God has ordered a famine in the land; it will last for seven years.’ The woman did what the Holy Man told her and left. She and her family lived as aliens in the country of Philistia for seven years. Then, when the seven years were up, the woman and her family came back. She went directly to the king and asked for her home and farm.
The king was talking with Gehazi, servant to the Holy Man, saying, ‘Tell me some stories of the great things Elisha did.’ It so happened that as he was telling the king the story of the dead person brought back to life, the woman whose son was brought to life showed up asking for her home and farm.
Gehazi said, ‘My master the king, this is the woman! And this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!’
The king wanted to know all about it, and so she told him the story. The king assigned an officer to take care of her, saying, ‘Make sure she gets everything back that’s hers, plus all profits from the farm from the time she left until now’.” 2 Kings 8:1-6 (MSG)
Perspective:
Elisha went to this woman and her family and delivered news of an impending famine. When she heard of this news, she started moving in obedience to God’s directions. Why did she believe Elisha and his instructions? When she had faced a desperate situation and her son had died, God worked through Elisha to bring about a miracle by reviving her son. This woman trusted Elisha’s wisdom and was obedient to God’s Word delivered through him. As she left her home for seven years, she probably had some questions. Would they be able to return to their home when they moved back? They moved to a foreign land with people they did not know with no guarantee that they would have anything when they returned. She was holding on to the hope and promise that God’s Word was true. When they returned, this woman went to the king to ask for her home back. This would have been a bold request. Yet, as this woman was making the journey to visit the king, God was already working to prepare the way. Simultaneously, the king was speaking with Gehazi, who had served Elisha, about the great stories of Elisha. Out of all the great things Elisha did, the one story that Gehazi could think of was about a woman whose son was brought back to life. When the woman arrived to ask the king for her farm, they were already speaking about her, and she had no idea. What seemed like an accident or coincidence was really God orchestrating events to bring blessing into this woman’s life. God was working behind the scenes to give this woman favor and blessing. He was bringing the right person at the right time into the right conversation with the influence to make the right decision. In the moment of asking for her home to be returned, she got more than she asked for.
God is working behind the scenes in your life to bring about blessing. From the surface, it might seem like nothing is working out. It might seem that in an anonymous season of your life that God is not working. It feels like you have found yourself in a foreign land and can’t see how God could possibly work. Yet, as you begin to see some things come together, it can be easy to assume that it just happened. However, God does nothing by accident. Psalm 37:23 (NLT) says, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” As you walk with the Lord, He is setting you up to experience even greater blessing in your life. He is orchestrating the details of your life to bring you into the right place at the right time. This woman in 2 Kings 8 lived in a foreign country for seven years. Time probably seemed like it was stretching out before them with no sight of the end. Yet, she and her family had to leave what they had to receive an even greater blessing. The king returned their home, farm, and profits from the land for every year they were gone. They didn’t have to toil to receive the profits from the land; the blessing was from work they had not done over those seven years. Imagine the previous years of toil and difficulty working on the farm; they were planting seeds of blessing that they would later reap a harvest. This woman was witnessing miracle after miracle that some might have seen as accidental or by coincidence. The bottom line is that God was working on her behalf. Although we can’t always anticipate how God’s going to work, settle it in your heart that God wants to be good to you. He will work through the details of your life to bring blessing.
Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
