Today’s Reading, 2 Kings 12-14
Focal Scripture: 2 Kings 13:21 “Once, as the Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a raiding party, so they threw the man into Elisha’s tomb. When he touched Elisha’s bones, the man revived and stood up!”
How we live our lives spiritually has more of an impact on our lives than we realize. Our spiritual condition affects our health, our mental well being, and it even plays a significant role in our attitudes. We try to say that we are having a bad moment or even that life is difficult when our lives are out of synch. When it reality it is our spiritual health that is suffering.
In today’s reading we get to see the opposite of a spiritual issue. We get to see what happens when a person has their spiritual life right. Elisha has died and been buried. He is in a tomb away from the world. A group of men see a raiding party coming their way as they are burying a man. In an effort to hide from the raiding party they throw the dead man’s body into the tomb with Elisha’s bones. Once his body touched the bones the dead man comes back to life instantly. Elisha’s bones had spiritual power.
Think about how mighty Elisha’s spiritual life must have been to soak down not just into his presence but his bones. His relationship with God had to be something that was unlike what we see on a day to day basis. Elisha performed miracles while he was alive. However, his greatest miracle came from his bones. His leftovers had enough spiritual power to raise a dead man back to life.
The implications for this are massive in the life of a believer. It should challenge us in how we live and in how we spend time with the Lord. It means that nothing is wasted when we are in his presence. It means that the more our spirit is in tune with the Lord the more it affects our physical condition. It also means that we can gauge someone’s relationship with God based off of how they treat others. Based off of how one acts and reacts.
The challenge we must all take away from today’s reading is simple but difficult. If we were to be judged by our leftovers would we have a spiritual impact on others? Or we can ask it this way, does our spiritual life change us so radically that it impacts the very core of who we are?
I hope you feel challenged to live a life like Elisha. Live a life that is so consumed with God it changes the future of others. The choice is yours. The choice is mine. Live a life that is on fire for God.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading 2 Kings 15-17
